Johan was next. He followed Tesia and Jezar. She wasn’t leaving the opening until her mate was there with her. And Celeste. Shit. How were they going to do this?
Celeste’s bloody face appeared and Alex grabbed her hand to pull her up. Apparently, she and Tory had gotten the door blocked, but Alex could hear them pounding on it.
“Hold my feet, Celeste.”
Her sister nodded and gripped Alex’s calves as she leaned down to pull her mate up. He faced the door, resigned to his death. “Tory! Damn it! Grab my hand.”
“Go, Alex. I can’t make it.”
“Don’t you fucking leave me!” she screamed at him. “Grab it! Now!” I’ll jump down there with you, Tory. I’d rather die with you than live without you. Grab my hand!
Tory reached up and she gripped his wrist as he clutched hers. Her muscles strained, her heart pounded and she reached her other hand to grab his other wrist. Entirely dependent on Celeste’s strength to hold her, she caught Tory’s other hand. “Pull!” she shouted to Celeste.
Slowly, Celeste yanked her backward, Alex’s skin scraping off as the ducts bloodied her. The pain didn’t matter. All that mattered was Tory. She kept her gaze on him, her arms feeling like they were going to tear out of the socket.
The edge of the duct was in his reach and Tory grabbed it. He pulled. She pulled. Celeste pulled. And then, he was there. In the duct. She threw her arms around him and kissed him brutally. “Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again!”
Tory grinned and slid the cover over the duct just as the mindless hoard burst into the room in a scream of frustration.
The three of them scrambled through the duct.
Celeste let them lead since she and Tory remembered the blueprints of the underground tunnels that Johan had shown them. Up and north.
The sounds of screaming and fighting seemed to be everywhere. Tears pricked Alex’s eyes. She’d failed. Her planet was going to be ripped apart.
You think you failed, but you didn’t. Kyler’s plan did not succeed. He was only able to infect some of the population. What he wanted was the location of the vials Darius stole from him. Jezar’s mental contact reached her.
How bad is it? Can you tell?
Saladen is infected.
She didn’t want to know how Jezar could tell. She wanted to know which way to go for safety. Where do we go?
The shuttle bay. The immune humans have barricaded themselves there.
“The shuttle bay,” she told Tory.
“I heard. Okay, it’s this way. Be careful. Too much noise and we may alert them we’re here.”
Stealthily, quietly, they moved along the duct. Sunlight streamed through the covers and she heard weapons and fighting above them.
They reached street level. Ahead, Jezar, Tesia and Johan waited. Jezar put a finger to his lips. The duct ends here. We will have to go on the street.
How will we get into the shuttle bay? Johan asked the question, but Alex heard it as if he’d spoken it. She blinked and met Tory’s gaze. He shrugged.
Whatever happened in that room underground when she’d pushed back at Kyler had changed things a bit.
We will have to fight our way there. Jezar glanced at each of them.
There was no argument from any of them. Even Celeste, who seemed to also hear Jezar, said nothing. They all knew what could happen.
Jezar moved the cover away from the opening and crawled out. Tory followed, then Johan, then Alex. She helped Tesia and Celeste out. The street was completely deserted.
Fire had broken out in several of the buildings. Blood and torn flesh strewn across the streets. There was no sign of anyone or anything, including those infected. The sound of laser fire seemed distant. Smoke and blood filled Alex’s nostrils. An acrid taste of death made her mouth dry.
“This way.” Alex knew this city like the back of her hand. She could take them over side streets to the shuttle bay. Once there, she had no idea how they would get in, but they’d have to.
Then, a thought rolled through her mind and she stopped dead. Of course. Why didn’t she think of it? “Wait,” she whispered.
Quickly, she touched Tory’s mind with hers. It was quicker. She showed him her idea and he nodded vigorously. “Why didn’t I think of it?”
“Fill us in?” Celeste said impatiently.
“There’s an armory near the shuttle bay.”
“Shit! You’re right.” Celeste slapped her hand to her forehead.
“There’s some big stuff there. The one I’m thinking of will clear any crowd gathered at the shuttle Bay and save the ones barricaded there.” She wasn’t waiting. She started moving toward the location.
They needed a hovertank. With its big disintegrator, it would turn all those infected to dust.
They had uniforms there too. Maybe she could get some fucking clothes on. The trick was to get there without getting killed.
I hear you on that one. Her mate agreed. She shot him a grin. Now was probably not the time to tell him she liked him naked. Back at you, dear heart.
They had two disintegrators and about a kilometer of streets to negotiate. They snuck quietly until they ran out of side streets and reached a major boulevard. On either side of the street, shuffling and grunting, were mindless killers who were once human. In a mass of twisted humanity, they moved toward the shuttle bay, their backs to the small, hidden group. But one move, one slight noise and the hordes would come after them, overwhelm them.
“There are about a hundred of them,” Tory calculated.
“Shit. The gate is right there.” Alex stared at the metal gate. Across the street, maybe a hundred yards. The code was in her head. All she had to do was get inside that compound.
Celeste gripped her sister’s arm. “Go. I’ll cover you,” she whispered. Her mouth set in a determined line, her blue eyes older than they should be, Celeste didn’t look at all like the girl Alex had left weeks ago.
Alex nodded. She tossed the blanket aside and sprinted completely naked across the road. Behind her, Celeste fired at the oncoming horde. Shit! They were faster than Alex had expected. Less time. Hurry!
Her fingers fumbled, but she put the code in. The locks clicked open just as her sister went down.
Alex turned and kicked the man who had Celeste in the throat. Someone grabbed her from behind and she threw an elbow back connecting to a nose. She followed with a deadly headshot.
Several of the attackers turned on their own wounded. Alex tried not to hurl.
Tory, wielding the Dav to make a hole in the crowd of killers, fought to get to her. His fear, his rage, slammed into her mind, but she focused on surviving. Johan kicked and fought toward them, but Jezar reached them first. Jezar tossed a body into the surging enemy and gripped Celeste’s hand to yank her to her feet.
Two other zombies disintegrated as her sister rose and fired. With Tory and Jezar firing, they managed to throw the crowd back and the five of them slipped inside the compound.
Alex shut the gate and locked it.
* * * * *
Tory’s chest hurt. No mission could prepare him for the carnage he’d seen out there. He glanced at his mate. She was gulping for air, her hand on her chest.
He came near but didn’t touch her. Those monsters outside had grabbed her, scared her. She slid down the wall, shaking, white. She shook her head and met his gaze.
Finally, she took a deep breath and nodded as if they’d had a conversation. The connection between them was so strong, they basically had. She calmed and he straightened.
He wanted to yell at her, shake her. But this was Commander Alexander Zeerah. She wasn’t going to sit back. Ever. He wondered if his heart rate was ever going to beat the same. When he watched her sprint toward the gate and those bastards lunge for her…his insides shook. It wasn’t going to be easy being her mate. Provided they lived through the next twenty-four hours.
Three hovertanks were in the yard, ready for deployment. Probably all of the military contingent h
ad been killed, either infected themselves or killed by those who were. During Shoshani, the armory was empty.
And there were uniforms.
They all put on the gear and armed themselves with disintegrators, chargers, and laser guns.
“Johan, can you operate a hovertank?” Tory asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Alexandra, I want you with me.” Tory insisted and hoped she didn’t argue with him. Surprisingly, she didn’t. “Jezar?”
Jezar nodded. “I can.”
Celeste asked, “What’s the plan?”
“We clear the shuttle bay and contact the military installation in Zeerah.” He glanced at Alex. “They still have one there, don’t they?”
She nodded. “And it’s the closest.”
“Right. Let’s move. Jezar, you’re with Tesia. Johan, you’re with Celeste. Alex and I will take this one. Move out.”
The hovertanks started with a roar and the three of them started through the streets, disintegrating anyone who attacked them.
He and Alex reached the shuttle bay entrance first. The sight through the scope scared the shit out of him. Thousands of mindless human bodies hurled themselves at the makeshift barricade. They were making progress, too.
Together, he and his mate began the fight to save the people who were barricaded in that shuttle bay. The hordes continued to pummel the barrier. Did they have weapons in there? Tory fought to get the tank in front of the barricade.
Someone got on top of the tank and Alex fired as one of them tried to get in. Then she used the laser gun to weld the fucking thing shut. He and Alex would have to blow their way out of the can.
If they survived.
Those things weren’t weaponless. Some of them had resonators that shook the tank.
The other two tanks rode in and began to clear the way, moving in unison toward their goal. Finally, Tory managed to get the tank in front of the entrance to the shuttle bay.
But the attackers just kept coming.
They were going to run out of charges in the tank before these fuckers died. No point thinking about that now. They might die, but they’d go down fighting.
Suddenly, a fleet figure running past his tank and over the barrier caught his attention.
Celeste.
She catapulted over the barrier and rolled into the shuttle bay, weapon drawn. Tory covered her.
What the fuck was she doing? Luckily, someone on the inside recognized Celeste when she charged the barricade and she disappeared into the shuttle bay. Then he didn’t have time to worry about it. He kept firing, ignoring the fact that the energy level on his weapon was low. Alex kept firing the laser on the sides of the tank.
Just when he thought they were dead meat, a fighter appeared in the sky above. It fired, cutting a swath through the crowd.
He sent Jezar a quick mental thought. Use the turtle armor. Celeste can blow this whole fucking street up.
Tory hoped Jezar would send the same message to Johan and slammed the button on the tank to fold up like a turtle in its shell.
Only moments later, Celeste dropped a laserbomb. The impact tossed the tank like a fucking rag doll. They rolled over and over, his head slammed into the ceiling. Blood spurted from his nose and he didn’t have time to register it before he was thrown into Alex.
Then, it stopped and the metal groaned to a stop.
He was just able to lift his head to see Alex, bleeding, unconscious, before darkness edged around his mind and he dropped away into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Hurry! Cut them out!” A voice penetrated the dark screen that had fallen over Tory’s mind.
Alex’s face swam in front of him, lit by the dim glow of the greenish lights of the tank’s console. She was alive. A little bloody, but alive. Thank God.
“Thank God, you’re alive. I thought—”
“Me too.”
“Celeste is getting them to cut us out.”
“I heard. She’s bossy isn’t she?” He hurt everywhere and winced when he tried to sit up to hold his mate.
Alex grinned. “In this instance, I’m glad she is.”
“How long have we been out?”
“Long enough for Celeste to land her fighter and the reinforcements she called for to arrive.” Alex ran her hands over him.
He brushed them away. “I’m fine. I just want you.” He grabbed her and held her against him. It shook him. How many times had he been close to losing her? He was going to lock her up and throw away the key.
As long as you’re in there with me. She brushed his lips with hers.
Light burst into the interior and he blinked. Celeste’s face peered through a hole made by a laser. “Thank God! Can you move?”
They crawled out of the tank. Standing around the three tanks were about five hundred stricken-looking souls. All of them clapped and shouted when he and Alex came into view.
“Apparently, we’re heroes,” Celeste murmured.
“Jezar and the others?” he asked.
“Almost free. Enough to know they are okay. The military is eliminating the last of the infected.” Celeste’s gaze met his. “It was a good thing Kyler never got that other shipment.”
“What happened, Celeste?” Alex asked. “We heard—”
Her sister’s glance slid away from them and down to the ground. “You heard I was looking forward to mating with Pulzer and Ena.” She took a deep breath. “Ena saved my life. When your ship was taken, Gregor tried to arrest me. Two men in my command were arrested and killed. Ena rescued me.” She shrugged. “Let’s just say I wasn’t too bright about her.”
“It’s understandable,” Alex said. He caught some of Alex’s surprise at her sister’s sexual preference.
“I was attracted to them both, but dependent on Ena. When Pulzer…changed, I confronted Ena.” She pursed her lips. “Ena admitted she and Pulzer had been exposed to the plague, that all of us had. I was terrified.” Celeste’s shoulders rolled. She’d be feeling guilty for a long time.
“You couldn’t have known about Kyler’s agenda,” he pointed out.
“No, but I shouldn’t have been blinded by Ena and Pulzer. Neither of them gave a shit about me. It was all about winning Teran One for themselves,” she said bitterly.
“They had help. Kyler manipulated everything,” Alex added.
“They ripped Ena to shreds.” Tears were in Celeste’s voice, though her eyes were dry. Tory’s stomach clenched and he felt Alex’s sympathy. Her sister’s voice was thick. “When Kyler sent the kill order to Pulzer, I guess he sent it to everyone in his vicinity. Which included everyone around us.” Celeste bit her lip for a moment. “One minute, we were standing side by side with our friends, our fellow rebels. The next minute, they tore her throat out.”
They were silent for a moment. From Alex, he could feel her relief that Celeste hadn’t died. He asked the hard question. “How did you make it to Kyler?”
The agony in those blue eyes tore him up inside. No one that young should have a look like that, he thought. She spoke in a low voice. “I almost didn’t.” One of her eyes twitched and a muscle in her cheek throbbed. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
He nodded. “What now?”
Celeste glanced around her. “Now, we clean up and salvage what we can. King Darius is on his way home, but I don’t think things will go on as they were.”
“How could they?” Alex said.
Celeste stared at her sister for a moment. “I thought you’d—”
“Abandoned you?” Alex finished for her. “No. But I don’t hold it against you for thinking I had.”
“You never had before,” she admitted.
“No, but someone tried to kill you, Celeste. It isn’t easy to know who to trust.” She placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “I know about that.”
Celeste started to cry, awkwardly at first and, when Alex wrapped her in her arms, then with loud sobs.
Tory nodded at Alex. It was
all going to be okay.
* * * * *
Where the hell was he? Alex paced the quarters at her home on Zeerah Island. She hated being apart from her mate. He’d gone on a shuttle a month earlier to meet up with The Pinnacle and he was supposed to come back yesterday.
The aftermath of the plague on Teran One had been complicated and annoying. First of all, Darius didn’t want to run the damn planet anymore. Of course, he’d never wanted to be king. Pontoon Gregor and most of the Gregor family had died in the laserbomb blast. In fact, few of the first families had survived.
All their usual customs were gone. Even the Saria contracts seemed unnecessary since many families were decimated. There was no place now for isolation or for vengeance against other bloodlines. Survival demanded cooperation. The other island populations hadn’t been infected by the plague, but their representatives, the heads of their families, had died in the sweeping destruction of Saladen.
Which left her in charge.
Totally unacceptable. She was not a queen of anything. She was a commander, a soldier, a woman who wanted to disappear with her man.
Keeping the fucking politicians at bay was a challenge. Luckily, Darius was willing to stay and help clean up the mess. Celeste also stepped in. Jezar stayed behind to provide much-needed intel for her.
But Tory wasn’t there and that pissed her off.
The new government had begun to function well. After centuries of an aristocracy, a representative government seemed odd to most. Family politics were in the past and a new era had dawned. Luckily, many of the survivors were from other areas of the Teran system, so they were accepting of a government elected by the people.
There weren’t many dissenters. The horror of Saladen had changed everything.
Her planet had adjusted, survived, and she couldn’t wait to get off the rock. She wanted to be in space, on The Pinnacle. Let the rest of them build a new Teran One. She was part of the old guard. They had begged her to stay, but she was firm. She represented the thing that began the whole mess in the first place.
And Tory wasn’t here.
Wherever he was, it was too distant for a mental touch. She’d tried until her fucking head hurt. When he didn’t show up the day before, she excused it, thinking he was wrapping up business or something. But now? She paced.
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