by Paige Tyler
“Good thing I’m not single then,” Ivy called out from up front, her eyes never leaving the jungle ahead of them. “Or I might get us lost out here.”
The sergeant first class stumbled, almost losing his footing. He gave Angelo a chagrined look. “Oh, shit. She’s one of those things, isn’t she?”
Angelo laughed. “Yeah, she’s a shifter. And when things get bad, you’ll be glad she’s with us.”
Carter frowned and glanced at his lieutenant.
“Don’t look at me,” Butler said. “You opened your piehole and put your foot in. Deal with it.”
Carter swore again and moved faster to catch up to the group ahead. Angelo chuckled again. No doubt it was so he could talk to Ivy and make sure they were good. Smart guy. You didn’t want to go into a firefight with things left unsaid.
Up front, Ivy and Landon were breaking trail and making sure they didn’t walk into an ambush. Tate, Brent, and Gavin followed in a loose cluster behind them, doing their best to try and push the pace as hard as they could. That explained why Landon hadn’t let Tate take the lead. The guy was so worried about Declan and Kendra, he wasn’t exactly thinking straight. Angelo couldn’t fault the guy. If he were in Tate’s place, he probably wouldn’t be firing on all cylinders right now either.
Angelo glanced over his shoulder, checking on Derek and Butler off to either side, then back at Tanner and Clayne, pulling trail position about twenty yards behind them. Even as he watched, Tanner disappeared into the jungle, moving so quickly it was hard to track him. He and Clayne had been disappearing on and off like that for the last hour, constantly checking along their flanks to make sure they didn’t get caught by surprise from that direction.
Angelo swore as the gathering gloom started to darken the jungle. The light would be completely gone in thirty minutes. It had taken them a hell of a lot longer than expected to get to the original landing zone that Tate and the others had been evacuated from.
Last night, Landon had fought to get them military air support, but even with John and the DCO’s considerable pull, they hadn’t been able to swing it. The political powers that be—both in Costa Rica and the United States—had every military and federal asset in the country on full lockdown until somebody could figure out exactly what had happened in the jungle. The fact that there was a good chance there were still more than half a dozen Americans and Costa Ricans out there somewhere in need of rescue didn’t appear to be on anyone’s list of concerns. Angelo ground his jaw. Typical politicians.
It had been well past midday before John had finally come through and secured them helicopter transport to where they needed to be, in the form of three old tourist choppers that looked as if their best days were long since passed. Even though John had already paid a king’s ransom for a quick one-way trip to the landing zone coordinates, they’d still had to pass a hat around to collect money to pay the pilots. After hearing rumors around the camp about monsters in the jungle with fangs and claws and glowing red eyes, the pilots had given the money to the helicopter mechanics with instructions to make sure their families got it if they didn’t come back. Angelo suspected the mechanics would probably pocket the money if that happened, but he didn’t say anything. Not that he had the chance. When they’d reached the landing zone, the pilots had practically torn the rotors off their birds trying to get off the ground and back home. Catching sight of the smoldering remains of the U.S. military chopper out in the jungle as they’d come in probably had something to do with that.
“We’re here,” Landon called from ahead, jerking Angelo out of his thoughts and bringing all of them up short.
This was the part Angelo had been dreading—checking the helicopter for remains. He wanted to believe Declan and Kendra were still alive, but one look at the smashed Seahawk told him otherwise. The bird had come down hard, then partially burned. Not many people could survive that.
The three bodies on the ground only confirmed his worst fears. Angelo was too far away to make out who they were, but beside him, Derek went pale.
“It might not be them,” Angelo told him. “There were other people on that chopper with Kendra and Declan.”
Derek nodded but didn’t say anything. He made no move to check, though.
Giving Derek a nod, Angelo walked over to the bodies. Tate fell into step beside him while Landon climbed into the helicopter. Two of the dead men wore marine uniforms, so it was obvious who they were. A rain slicker had been draped over the third, and Angelo held his breath as he crouched down and moved it aside.
“He was DEA,” Tate said, his face a mix a relief and sorrow as he gazed down at the dead man.
Angelo knew how he felt. Covering the man with the slicker again, he stood up. A few feet away, Derek breathed a sigh of relief.
Landon came out of the helicopter shaking his head. “No one in there.”
“That’s good,” Tate said. “That means two other people made it out with Declan and Kendra, along with the crew from the chopper.”
Clayne jogged up. “Cut the list of possible survivors by two. I found the pilot and copilot…they didn’t make it through the crash.”
Tate swore. Angelo couldn’t blame him. They’d come out here looking for survivors and so far they’d already found five bodies.
“I know it looks bad, but at least we know that Kendra, Declan, and at least three of the others made it out,” Angelo reminded him. “We’re going to find them.”
Clayne disappeared into the jungle with Ivy and Tanner without a word. Probably searching for some sign or scent of which way Kendra and Declan had gone. Even though the shifters were circling the site a mere fifty feet away, Angelo could barely see them.
“Damn it gets dark fast out here,” Derek said, as if reading his mind.
“You guys from the 5th spend too much time in the desert,” Carter said as he pulled out his NVGs. “You forget what it’s like in the jungle. The sun probably won’t go completely down for another thirty minutes, but under this canopy it might as well be midnight.”
Angelo rummaged in his pack for his own goggles. As soon as Ivy and the other shifters found a trail, they’d be on the move, and he wanted to be ready. Now that they knew Declan and Kendra were alive, there was no time to waste.
“What are they doing out there?” Butler asked as he attached his goggles to the Ops-Core Ballistic helmet he’d pulled out of his rucksack.
“They’re tracing all the different scents around here.” Landon quickly put on his own gear. “They’ll be able to tell how many of our people left this site, which way they went, if any of them were injured, and most importantly, if they were followed.”
Carter let out a low whistle. “They can do all that?”
Angelo flicked on his goggles and adjusted his helmet straps just in time to see Landon nod. “They can do all that. And they can do it damn fast. So let’s make sure we’re ready to go when they are.”
While they waited, Angelo pulled out his poncho, then glanced at Derek. “Give me a hand, would you?”
Derek didn’t ask what he needed a hand with, but he quickly figured it out when Angelo crouched down beside one of the dead marines and wrapped the poncho around the body. When they were finished, Derek took out his poncho and covered the other marine. Carter did the same to the DEA agent. It wouldn’t protect the remains as well as burying them, but it was all they had time to do and it might keep animals away for a time. They’d barely finished when Ivy, Clayne, and Tanner came back. Their eyes glowed in the darkness.
“What’s the situation?” Landon asked.
“Four people walked out of here,” Ivy said. “Declan and Kendra, and two others. Locals probably.”
Tate let out a breath. “What about the third crewman?”
Clayne shrugged. “No sign of him.”
“Kendra and Declan were okay after the crash, right?” Derek asked.
“Looks like it,” Clayne said. “They didn’t hang around here for long, though.”
&nb
sp; “Declan would know the smoke from the wreckage would draw the hybrids like flies. He would have gotten everyone away from it as fast as he could,” Tate said. “Do you know which way they went?”
Ivy exchanged looks with Clayne. “Declan and Kendra headed out going due west, directly away from the landing zone.”
Landon frowned. “Kendra and Declan? Not the others?”
Clayne shared another look with Ivy. “The other two headed out on their own, going almost due south.”
“Why didn’t they all stay together?” Butler asked.
Tate swore softly. “Because they saw Declan shift during the ambush. From their point of view, there isn’t much difference between him and the hybrids.”
“So what do we do?” Carter asked. “I know you brought us in primarily to rescue your friends, Captain, but we aren’t just going to abandon the other two, are we?”
Everyone turned to Landon, and Angelo was once again struck by how people naturally turned to him for leadership. Always had, always would.
“No,” Landon said. “A couple of us will track down the locals while the rest of us focus on finding Declan and Kendra.” He looked at Ivy, then Clayne. “But any team I send out will need a shifter to help track them.”
Angelo knew Landon well enough to know he didn’t want Ivy running around the jungle without him, but the alternative was pointing at Clayne and saying, “Tag, you’re it.” Landon wouldn’t do that, if for no other reason than Ivy wouldn’t put up with it.
“I’ll do it.”
Angelo turned to see Tanner standing there with his eyes glowing in the green light of the NVGs.
Landon hesitated. “Can you use your nose well enough to track them?”
Tanner nodded. “My nose isn’t as good as Ivy’s or Clayne’s, but now that I have a good bead on their scents, I can find them.”
“I’ll go with him,” Carter said.
Tanner shook his head. “I can travel faster alone.”
“I’m sure you can,” Carter agreed. “But what are you going to do once you find them? Club them senseless and force them to do as you tell them? I speak the language, remember? I can get them to come with us willingly.”
“I’ll go, too,” Gavin said quietly.
Tate’s mouth tightened. “Like hell. We’re out here to find Declan and Kendra.”
“I know that. But there are two locals out there who are as good as dead if they run into those damn hybrids,” Gavin said. “Someone has to go after them. If Declan were here, he’d say the same thing.”
“For all we know, the two locals could already be dead,” Tate ground out. “And as far as Declan agreeing with you, he was the one who let them go off on their own.”
“Because you told him to get Kendra out of here safely,” Gavin shot back.
In the green glow of the NVGs, Angelo could see Tate’s jaw clench. For a minute, Angelo thought he might have to get between the two men.
“Dammit, don’t you think I know that?” Tate finally said. Cursing, he turned and stormed off.
In the silence, Angelo let his gaze follow the man, half-afraid Tate would be stupid enough to go out looking for his missing teammate on his own. But the DCO operative stopped on the edge of the clearing to stare off into the jungle. Tate might not have come out and said it, but it was obvious that he felt responsible for what happened to Declan and Kendra. If they died, Tate would carry the weight of that with him for the rest of his life, and nothing anyone said would ease the pain or the memory. Unfortunately, Angelo had some experience with that.
Angelo gave himself a mental shake and turned his attention back to Landon, listening in as they hammered out what Tanner’s team would do if they found the locals, as well as if they didn’t. The details took a while to work out, but they finally decided that if they found the locals, they’d head in whichever direction seemed the safest. If they didn’t, Tanner and the other men would backtrack and link up with them again. A few minutes later, Tanner and his group went south while Angelo and the others headed west.
“Do you really think it was okay to let Tanner lead the other team?” Ivy asked Landon as they walked.
Angelo had been wondering that, too. He didn’t know much about Tanner, but if half the stuff Landon told him was true, they’d just let a ticking time bomb take charge of a three-person rescue team.
“We didn’t have any other choice,” Landon answered.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, Angelo thought.
Ivy gave Landon’s hand a squeeze; then she and Clayne ran ahead, tracking Declan’s and Kendra’s scents. They set a fast pace, which forced the rest of the team to commit almost all their attention to keeping up. But Angelo trusted the shifters to alert them if any hybrids got close enough to be a threat.
Clayne came back fifteen minutes later to report that Declan and Kendra had been moving fast, running whenever the terrain would allow it. A few minutes later, Ivy materialized out of the darkened jungle to tell them why they’d been in such a hurry—there’d been a lot of hybrids on their trail.
Angelo swore. He hated thinking of Kendra running through the jungle while a pack of bloodthirsty hybrids nipped at her heels. He’d liked her from the moment they’d met in Washington State and couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to her. She was smart, resourceful, and loyal to her friends. But she wasn’t a soldier, and she wasn’t used to the stress of being hunted like an animal. Angelo prayed Declan could keep her safe long enough for the rescue party to catch up to them. At the pace Ivy and Clayne were setting, that shouldn’t be too long.
But two hours later, their pace slowed considerably until finally the two shifters up front came to a complete stop. Clayne disappeared into the jungle while Ivy doubled back to let them know what the hell was going on.
“We’ve lost Declan’s and Kendra’s scents.”
Derek frowned. “What do you mean, lost them? Like they were captured?”
Ivy shook her head. “No. It just disappeared. I think Declan is using something to cover their scent, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. Clayne is trying to follow them using their physical tracks instead, but that’s hard to do in the jungle at night. It’s going to slow us way down.”
“If you two are having problems tracking them, maybe the hybrids will, too,” Angelo said.
As they waited for Clayne to return, Angelo grabbed a quick bite to eat. He was just putting away a half-eaten energy bar when Ivy’s head snapped up.
Six weapons swung in the direction she was looking as if they had a mind of their own.
“What’s wrong?” Landon whispered.
“Clayne’s headed back, and he’s not alone,” she said softly.
“Declan and Kendra?” Derek asked hopefully.
“Hybrids—a lot of them.”
Angelo’s hands tightened around his weapon. Shit.
Landon quickly positioned them for a hasty ambush, spreading everyone out in a loose line. He put Angelo on security, along with Brent and Butler. Their job would be to not only lay fire into the kill zone, but also to act as a reaction force in the event that any of the hybrids tried to slip around their flanks.
“Wait for Clayne to come through here before you open fire,” Landon ordered. “Initiate on my signal unless compromised.”
Thirty seconds later, Clayne came running so fast he was almost a blur, a pack of snarling hybrids on his heels.
Landon put a three-round burst through the chest of the first. Angelo took that as his signal and started shooting. Everyone else around him did, too, and the jungle came alive with the sound of gunfire and the glowing zip of tracer rounds.
One big-ass hybrid with blood pouring out of at least four holes in his chest and stomach charged Angelo. He switched to full auto, hoping it would bring the damn thing down, but it didn’t even seem to faze the creature. Then Clayne was beside them, his .45 blasting into the hybrid at point-blank range. The beast reached for Butler even as it fell. The lieutenant
pulled his sidearm and put one more round through the thing’s head for insurance’s sake.
“What the fuck are these things?” Butler took aim at another hybrid inches before it reached Brent, who was in the middle of reloading. “Zombies would go down easier.”
Angelo was too busy burning through clip after clip of ammo to answer. He had to say one thing about the hybrids—they didn’t lack for balls. They attacked like nothing he’d ever seen.
If there was any saving grace to the hybrids’ aggressive style, it was that they did it without any finesse or thought. They threw themselves at whoever was shooting at them without flanking the ambush, retreating, or any other option Angelo would have considered had he been in the same situation. When the hybrids ran out of ammo, they didn’t even try to reload. They simply tossed their weapons aside and attacked with fangs and claws.
It seemed to take forever to finish them off. Landon moved among them, checking for injuries and the status of ammo. The smell of smokeless powder and hot metal warred with the near-overwhelming stench of blood. Angelo breathed through his mouth, trying to avoid the worst of it, but it didn’t help much. All around him, the jungle was deathly still, as if every animal within a mile was waiting to see what happened next.
Butler shook his head at the dead hybrids scattered throughout the kill zone. “Holy shit. There are only ten of these damn things. I thought there were at least twice that.”
“Ten’s enough.” Clayne bent down to take a closer look at one of the hybrids. “Damn, look at the fangs on this one. They’re as long as my fingers.”
Landon took out his flashlight. “Turn off your NVGs.”
When they’d done as he ordered, he turned on the flashlight and swept it over the dead bodies. Angelo flipped up his goggles and joined his former captain as Landon leaned down to look at one body, then the next.
“What’s up?” Angelo asked.
“These hybrids are different than the ones we fought in Washington.” He shined the flashlight straight into the hybrid’s mouth. “Damn. Is that a second row of teeth coming in? Ivy, take a look at this.”
