Complete Control

by L. V. Lane

  A third body fell, and this one screamed and flailed. I braced myself for the death spike. It didn’t help.

  Hudson gave the order, and the team stormed up the spiral stairs and straight into hell. I didn’t know how many people had lived here, but the bodies kept falling as the team fought their way through. The first level yielded two of our enemy soldiers and the bodies of residents they had used as human shields.

  Friend and foe merged, and it was impossible to pick out individuals.

  “Fuck me, how many people do they have up there?” Dano muttered as we regrouped on the first-floor landing. All the hostages on this floor were dead.

  Two men had been injured and were sat propped against a wall in one of the busted-up apartments. Kneeling beside them, I placed my hands to their foreheads. The bullets had gone straight through, and there was no taint of corruption left within their flesh. They calmed immediately, the healing hormones and chemicals replacing those of stress. Warmth fed into the coldness of injury. Their furrowed brows softened, their heavy breaths lightened as the bleeding slowed and then stopped.

  “It never ceases to amaze me,” Hudson said as the men regained their feet.

  Kissing was a much more effective way of receiving and transferring the hormones if they were severely injured. Not everyone was comfortable with it, but if their injuries were severe, I wouldn’t hesitate. At such times people rarely noticed what you were doing. Their suffering was abhorrent to me, and my body instinctively knew what it must do.

  Hudson left me with two Betas, deeming the rear of the group to be safe enough, and he went in ahead.

  No more bodies fell down the stair shaft but screams now echoed off the walls instead. Pain formed a writhing mass above me. Taking the first floor had been horrific; the second floor was worse.

  This wasn’t the front-line medical tents where injured were brought in, and you could immediately seek those who suffered most, and where you could feel some semblance of order and discipline. Here the torment was raw and chaotic, and it ripped me to pieces as much as my impotence to soothe it. Some Healers could identify their Controllers, but I was not skilled in the ways of identification, and the moment Hudson left my sight his injury merged into the rest.

  By the time the Clear message came, and I was allowed up, tears were streaming down my face, and I was shaking uncontrollably.

  The team had gathered to regroup in a once beautiful, high-ceilinged apartment that continued the lobby’s vintage theme. Soaring windows had somehow survived, but the ornate fireplace was riddled with bullet holes and the crimson couch, and walnut coffee table had been overturned and decimated by the ensuing firefight. Other chairs, lamps, and incidental furnishings lay whole, smashed and everywhere in between.

  Two of the enemy were alive, hands bound and bodies battered, bloody.

  “Get them out of here,” Hudson said. He had come up behind me, and the sound of his voice and nearness brought instant calm.

  His fingers closed around my neck as the door shut, sealing us off from the two enemy soldiers. “They are going to die,” I said.

  “I know,” he replied, “and sooner than their injuries might suggest.”

  I dragged a breath in. They would question the soldiers, perhaps beat them to uncover anything they could of their plans. The Omega part of me hated that this was happening. Then I remembered the bodies dropping and smashing onto that tiled floor below and found it hard to remain objective. No one could be objective in war and certainly not this endless one that had engulfed even the darkest, most distant corners of the empire.

  My focus turned to those in need. Hudson was injured. Blood trickling down his arm where a bullet had torn through it. He was far from the worst. I turned to the rescued prisoners huddled against the far wall.

  As my eyes settled on a young girl, I hurried to her side. Here I fell to my knees, ripped off my helmet, and rested my forehead against hers.

  Then I kissed her gently.

  Her mother, I presumed, hung on to the little girl who had a knife wound. What monster could do this to a child?

  Tears dampened my cheeks, but I felt her energy rise. I had heard children responded well to healing, but this was my first time treating one. Feeling that turn, as health surged through her tiny body, was the most elating experience of my life.

  Her mother sobbed, knowing instinctively that her child would survive. I treated the mother next. Blood dripped from her split lip, and vivid bruising covered her face and arm where her clothing had been ripped. I kissed her forehead, and that was all it needed. Her physical pain eased, although, her mental anguish remained. It would require a different kind of Omega to help with that.

  Hudson had left by the time I had finished tending to them. Two Beta soldiers had taken up a protective stance at the door, and I worked my way through the seven civilians, feeling the occasional bursts of distant pain as his team reached a pocket of resistance. Satisfied that the residents had been treated, I rose from cramped knees just as the door burst open and a soldier was dragged in. A rough suture had been applied to his right shoulder, but blood still flooded like a river, and I didn’t need my Healer skills to recognize that the loss needed to be stemmed quickly.

  I kissed him, and he opened to it, his fingers closing on my hair with surprising strength as his tongue plundered my mouth.

  Unlike civilians who tended to be much more reserved, soldiers were familiar with Healers, and they didn’t hesitate to take what they needed.

  I was vaguely aware of movement behind me, but I did not register what it was until I heard Hudson curse. “The bleeding has stopped, dickhead. Paws off or I’ll give you a reason to ram your tongue down my Healer’s throat.”

  The hold on my hair loosened and he pulled back. “Thank you,” he whispered. He grinned as he let go before sending a sheepish look Hudson’s way. “Sorry, sir.”

  As I eased back on my knees and rose to my feet, I noticed how young he was; I doubted he had seen many operations.

  “First time with a Healer?” Hudson asked. A glance back found his lips tugged up in a semblance of a smile. Blood dripped sluggishly from his right fingertips. How could I have forgotten my Controller’s injury? He gave no outward indication that he suffered, but I instinctively hurried to his side.

  “Yes, sir.” The young soldier replied, another soldier helping him to his feet.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Hudson said, his fingers clamping around my waist, pinning me to his side when I tried to inspect the wound. “They pack quite a punch.” He studied me with hooded eyes a second before his mouth lowered over mine.

  Heat streaked through me like someone had just attached a set of electrodes and cranked them up to the max. His tongue drove into my mouth, and he fisted a handful of hair, pumping his tongue in and out as he crushed me into the hard wall of his body.

  I had no idea which of us instigated it, but I had both my legs wrapped around his waist, and he had anchored me to him with an arm under my bottom while he feasted on my mouth.

  I whimpered when he dragged me off by my hair, and we were both breathing hard.

  “What an eager little kitten,” he said, and patted my bottom. I let my legs slide down and tried to get control of myself. I had never reacted like that before, not since I revealed as Omega, and wasn’t sure I liked the complete lack of inhibitions I’d just displayed. There were civilians in the room; I couldn’t imagine what they were thinking about that little display.

  I tried to step away, but he kept a firm hold on my waist. “You can stay there,” he said softly. “I’m still fighting the urge to go and thump the prick.”

  “There’s a team coming in for the civilians,” he said for the benefit of the room. “Should be here in ten.”

  The soldiers began helping the residents to their feet and guiding them out. It saddened me when I realized they would need to pass through the lobby where they would see what had happened to their fellow residents. “What are our orders?”
I asked.

  “We are to stay here, for now,” Hudson replied. “The street is secure, and the extraction team has gone in. Our doctor has moved. She's either been captured or is running. So, we hold.”

  I nodded. Feeling the sickness coming from below and knowing the residents had reached the lobby.

  He tapped my chin, and I looked up into those indigo eyes, instantly losing myself there and feeling a return of calm. “You did a good job today, but this is not over. Why don’t you get some rest?”

  I nodded, praying for that poor doctor, and for Eloise and Logan. This was going to be a terribly long night.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Anna

  I HAD NOT believed sleep possible, but nevertheless, I did. The healing had exhausted me, and with Hudson’s presence glowing beside me as he propped his back against the nearby wall, I felt safe to let my body take the necessary rest.

  I was woken sometime later when a hand clamped over my mouth. A tight arm clinched my waist, pulling me into a hard, unyielding body. Panic consumed me for a split second before I realized it was Hudson.

  “We’ve got company,” he whispered in my ear, and the terror rushed back in.

  Blinking through the gloom, I tried to find the threat. It wasn’t in this room, but two of the team had taken up positions at the open doorway, while another watched at the edges of the window.

  I could not see the rest.

  With slow, silent movements he pulled me farther into the shadows behind an overturned cabinet.

  “Stay here,” he said, his fingers still clamped tightly over my mouth. “Whatever happens, and whatever you feel or see or hear. You stay here. Understood, kitten?”

  At my nod, he released me.

  I missed his warmth immediately, and I peered around the side of the cabinet, despite his warning, to watch him walk into the darkness until he merged with the shadows.

  Outside the open apartment doorway, a light flickered, then a flash. Pain and death followed a heavy thud. Heavier scuffling came from beyond the door. Shadows that I knew to be soldiers left the room through that open doorway.

  Was I now alone? No, I could still make out the shape of two people just beyond the open door.

  More pain, sharp and unwholesome as a life was snubbed out. The distant buzz of automatic weapons was unbearably loud and I sunk lower, eyes stretched so wide they hurt. My fingers bit into the edge of the cabinet, ears and eyes straining as I tried to assimilate what might be happening. Yet more pain, more fighting, on other floors and in the street outside.

  The apartment windows shattered in a sudden violent rush of air and booming sound. I ducked, hands and arms over my head as glass rained down.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Hudson

  IT HAD STAYED nice and quiet since we took the sector, but enemy troops had just begun poking around the perimeter, so I guessed Ethan and or Ryker had been stirring shit up.

  Probably Ethan Black, I decided—Sasquatch really was the master of chaos sometimes.

  The building we occupied was strategically placed on the intersection of the street. We’d hooked mobile cameras at key points outside and inside, and we watched them at first; monitoring their movements.

  Then they entered the building.

  I left Anna in the room with two Betas. I didn’t like it one bit.

  One of the reasons I had complained about the allocation to start with was that Team Leaders couldn’t sit out a skirmish. But you didn’t take Healers into a firefight so I didn’t have much choice. I would return for her once we’d cleared the building and it was safe.

  My feet didn’t make a sound as I skirted the edges of the room. The Beta at the window fell in behind, and we both passed through the open door to slip out into the corridor. My visor showed the team positions, with Dano and the main group closing in from the opposite side.

  Outside the room was a square, open landing surrounding a sweeping spiral staircase, from which four apartments led off like points on a compass. Dano waited to the north, and I approached from the south, and the stairs emerged east. I heard the faint whirr of exoskeletons before the flicker of flashlight beams pierced the gloom.

  Usually, about twenty percent of their troops wore exoskeletons, and we always targeted them first—Betas didn’t even try to take them on.

  I let them keep coming, watched as two soldiers emerged at the top of the stairs, separating from the bigger pack on the floor below. I had support incoming, and I wanted the fuckers here distracted, until I had them in place.

  Clearing the top step, their flashlights panned out. Then came the flash of a silenced weapon and a thud. I slipped farther along the corridor, one Beta following behind, while the last two remained at the door.

  On my visor, I could see the camera feed. The rest of the enemy team were approaching the bottom of the stairs.

  Then they stopped.

  They weren’t always as stupid as you might hope for.

  To my left, a dark shape morphed into hands sliding over the banister—sometimes they are downright sneaky fuckers.

  I signaled to Dano—he nodded.

  As the hands on the railing pulled higher, a second set appeared.

  I doubled back, passing the room where Anna was hiding. The first man dropped onto the landing as I reached him, the exoskeleton hum confirming the worst. I dived, taking him down onto the landing floor. He landed face first. I fell on top, managing to clamp a hand over his mouth and get him in a headlock as we wrestled.

  The team behind me took the second man, grappling him to the floor—a gurgling hiss and his body went limp.

  I’d wanted to keep this quiet so the team below didn’t come rushing up, but the bastard beneath me wasn’t making it easy.

  He tried ripping my hand from his mouth. I clamped my hand tighter. Despite the headlock, he managed to get a fist in my face hard enough to rattle my helmet and bloody my nose. Which really pissed me off! I tightened my arm, and his legs started scraping and kicking. No one else could get a clean hold with all his thrashing.

  We rolled, and I landed on my back with this heavy-assed enemy soldier in his exoskeleton on top, which was bad enough—then Dano’s weight dropped down on top of both of us, driving the last of the air from my lungs. I noticed the gun with the silencer just in time to turn my head to the side.

  The soldier’s head popped like a cracked egg, and the blood spilled out over me.

  My ears rang, and I grunted, feeling my ribs protest as Dano stood up and dragged the dead weight off me.

  Holding out a hand, Dano helped me to my feet, his white teeth flashing me a grin. Dick!

  Finally, I got the message to say the team below were in position. I nodded to Dano and signaled to the rest.

  From beneath us came the buzz of automatics.

  We hit the stairs.

  As we reached the first floor, bullets flew in every direction. Even with the advantage of surprise, the fight turned scrappy. One of the Betas had been cornered, and an enemy with an exoskeleton had him by the throat.

  Dano ripped the power cabling for the exoskeleton out—not an easy thing to do by anyone's standards, and the enemy collapsed to the floor where another from our team opened up an automatic over the flailing man.

  Silence fell for a split second, and I was about to call in for an update when an explosion rocked the building. Glass shattered, and air rushed in.

  A jabber of updates rattled through my communicator, and we took the stairs down at a run, boots drumming against the polished wood. We continued out, past that grim foyer, where the bodies had splattered against the black and white tiled floor, and on to the streets where more explosions rocked the earth.

  A rag-tag civilian mass surged in from the north-east, and enemy troops from the west. The neighboring sector had fallen, and like dominos, everything else followed. Enemy troops had gotten trapped behind our lines, and we were caught in the cross-fire.

  The night became a blur of actions and react
ions. People falling, rising and dying.

  We couldn’t retreat. We didn't have enough numbers to force them out. We were completely boxed in.

  Then we lost communications.

  I was on one side of the street, and Anna was on the other with nothing but two Beta guards for protection. In between, was a war zone.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Anna

  TIME STRETCHED AS I cowered behind the cabinet, muscles cramping from holding myself so still for so long. Communications had ceased a lifetime ago, and it was only the comforting shadow of the two Beta guards at the door that kept my sanity in check.

  The misery of killing and the killed became a great undulating blanket that fell over my shoulders and the surrounding city block. Gunfire, both close and distant, came from beyond the shattered windows where curtains billowed around a sharp, smoke-saturated breeze.

  Hudson had told me to stay here, so I must stay here, but it had been so long. What if he lay hurt? What if he was close and I needed only to check around the corner to save him?

  Dread consumed me, a growing compulsion that he was near and that he needed me.

  A creak of old floorboards sent my stretched nerves screaming.

  I huddled down, back against the cabinet as a scuffle ensued. A vicious grunt, a sharp hiss, the slap of things connecting, and a mighty crash as furnishings gave up the fight to remain whole. A sickening squeal sent my pulse rocketing, and then torchlight flooded the room as weapons fire opened up.

  Agony, there was so much agony. It came from everywhere, crept under my skin until I felt infected with it.

  The two Betas who had stood guard disappeared under this seething mass of pain.

  The rage stopped as abruptly as it had started. Murmured words and footsteps faded away. More voices and snapped orders followed, but too distant for me to hear details. Silence swallowed the room, but in the distance, elsewhere within this once stylish apartment building, I could hear and feel more fighting.