Tempted Cyborg by Nellie C. Lind Page A

program also couldn't afford a cyborg of their own, and Avril was one of them. Working as a waitress would never give her enough money to apply for a cyborg.
    She had waited for this day ever since she had been approved. It had been two years since that day. She had signed up when she had learned that Hunter had survived and had become one of the Fighters. She didn't know how he had joined them, but it didn't matter right now. She had signed up in hopes that he would one day be found. The chance had been slim, but here he was. Miracles did happen and Avril promised herself that she would not screw this up.
    She hugged herself and tried to calm her rushing heart as she listened to the conversation in the interrogation room.
    “You haven't eaten for almost two days, Hunter,” Jade said.
    He flashed his teeth and growled. “Let me go and you won't have to watch me starve to death.”
    “I wish you would see reason. We are not going to hurt you, and you know that. There is no need to torment yourself. Starvation only puts more pressure on your already stressed body.”
    He snorted. “I am not stressed.”
    Jade gave him a look that said that she didn't believe him. “Your heart rate is up. You barely sleep, and now, you refuse to eat. Your body is growing weaker by the minute so don't lie to me.”
    He glared at her but didn't say anything.
    Jade sighed. “I will make sure something is brought to you, and you won't leave this room until you have finished your plate.”
    Avril didn't like the hate she saw in his eyes. Would he look at her the same way? Would he even recognize her? She had no idea, but she knew that this would not be easy. There was no guarantee that she would be able to make him look at her the way she wished that he would look at her.
    Hunter leaned forward in his chair. “Then we are going to be here for a long time.”
    Jade snickered. “I doubt it. I will bring in everything I know you love to eat. You can then either torture yourself by staring at the food as it gets cold, or eat it and enjoy it before you are brought back to your room.”
    The other doctor wrote down something in his papers before he turned to Jade. “I'll go and inform the kitchen.”
    Jade nodded. “Check his files for what he likes to eat.”
    The doctor left the room. Avril took a deep breath as she watched him go. It would soon be her turn. She was growing more and more nervous by the minute, but she had a plan.
    She knew cyborgs had an amazing memory, but there was no guarantee that he would remember her. She had changed over the twenty years that had passed. She wasn't the child he used to babysit anymore. She was a grown woman now, and he had never left her mind. He had always been there with her, every day of her life. Taking part in everything that she did whether she wanted to or not. She had never been able to let him go, and now when she was here, it was the best day of her life. But at the same time, the most nervous one as well.
    “Please,” she whispered to herself. “Don't let him hate me.”
    She lowered her head and looked at the red rose she held in her hand. She hoped it would help him remember her. The day before Sarah had died, she had given him a red rose. She remembered how nervous she had been, but he had accepted the rose with a smile. It had been a silly, little way for her to show him that she liked him. In her twelve-year-old and naive mind, she had hoped that he would see her crush for him, but he never had. Today, she knew why. Today, she knew how the bond worked.
    She raised her head again and kept watching Hunter.
    “I will not touch your poisoned food,” he growled.
    Jade raised an eyebrow. “Do you seriously believe we poison your food?”
    His eyes darkened. “How else do you manage to keep me drugged? I can barely think straight.”
    “You are drugged in your sleep. That way no harm comes to you or any of us.”
    “So, you just enter my room when I sleep and drug me?”
    “No, not me.