Cover Reveal: Weapons Master

He turned, checking another screen where he was monitoring the engines of all the flyers. The drakking sand. He hated the stuff. It always got in places where it shouldn’t, and now it was drakking damaging his flyers. The temperatures in the flyers’ engines were spiking.

“Take those bots out,” Magnus roared.

Their imperator flew past on his flyer, Jax flying close behind him.

Off to the left, Mace and Acton were flying side-by-side, taking aim at the bots. Zaden and Seren were on the right. Seren flew in wild, dizzying circles around the Edull bots, while Zaden’s maneuvers were more measured.

As they continued to take down the last of the bots, he saw Acton’s flyer pull away. Maxon frowned, then realized the cyborg was flying toward a fallen figure on the neighboring dune.

Drak. It looked like Simone.

An Edull bot edged back, hovering in the sky. A thin trail of smoke was snaking from it.

Maxon flew in close and he spotted Toren on the sand below. The cyborg had some ugly monstrosity on his shoulder—definitely not one of Maxon’s creations. There was another person with him. A short, compact blonde with colored ink on her arms.

As he watched, the woman leaped onto a smoking bot, jamming a laser cutter into it.

Maxon grunted. A dumb, heroic maneuver like that meant she was definitely an Earth woman.

Suddenly, the Edull bot she was sitting on shot straight up into the air. The woman almost fell off, but managed to clamp her arms and legs around the bot.

Drak.

Maxon aimed his flyer upward and chased after them. They went higher and higher, the ground racing away from them.

The woman was still hacking at the bot. Then, it died, and started to plummet.

The woman dropped as well.

Maxon flew in close and grabbed her hand. He swung her through the air and up behind him on the flyer.

“Nice catch.” She was breathless as she slid in behind him. She tucked her body close and plastered herself against him.

He scowled. He hated people in his space. “Dumb idea to kill the bot holding you airborne.”

“Only dumb if you crash into the ground and die. I didn’t.”

Her voice was surprisingly deep and gritty for a female. It echoed right in his ear. He liked it much better than the high-pitched, breathy voices of the women who usually approached him.

“Hey, Mr. Brooding, watch out!”

He looked up to see an Edull bot flying straight at them.

“Weapons?” she yelled.

He snorted. He always had weapons.

He touched the controls on the side compartment of the flyer. It flicked open to display his MaxStorm blaster. She yanked it out.

“Nice.” She lifted it and fired it one-handed. The bot dodged to the side.

“That’s not how you use it,” he growled. “Show some respect.”

“Bit busy right now.” She kept firing. “I’ll shoot, you fly.”

He jerked the controls of the flyer, pulling them to the side. He dodged the bot and wheeled around.

The woman stood up behind him, one hand on his shoulder to keep her balance.

She was either crazy or fearless, or both.

She fired on the bot and scored a direct hit. The bot exploded and slammed to the ground below.

“Woo hoo!” the woman shouted.

“Sit your ass down,” he said.

“Since you asked so nicely.” She leaned down and bit his ear.

Maxon growled again and flew lower. They whizzed past the final bot and she fired on it. It exploded.

He flew in and landed near the others. They were all clustered around Simone.

The woman leaped off the flyer.

“Gorgeous weapon.” She handed the blaster out to him.

He took her in—the tattoos up her arm, the strong face, the green eyes. Her platinum-colored hair was cut short against her head.

“That’s because I designed it.” He took the weapon.

“Well, you’re good at weapon design, not bad at flying, either. Shame about the grumpiness.”

He grunted and she grinned.

Then she cupped his cheeks, leaned forward, and kissed him.

Drak. The touch of her lips on his was like a punch in his gut. An electric shock ran through his body.

She pulled back, looking a bit shocked herself. But then an unrepentant grin reappeared, and she saluted him. Drakking Earth women.