by M. R. Forbes
“Don’t shoot me,” Hayden said, reaching up, removing his hat and placing it on her head.
“Pozz,” she replied, smiling beneath it, raising the rifle and taking aim.
“And don’t let any more of them in.”
“You do know how much I weigh, right?”
They were banging on the door behind her, trying to enter. So far she was able to keep them from overpowering her, but there was no telling how long that would last.
Hayden returned his attention to the demons. They were moving cautiously, spreading out from the center, using the servers as cover for their approach.
Casey fired, single rounds that hit individual trife, one after another. Three of them fell dead before they could get behind the servers.
It forced the rest of them to move faster, parting from the open space and vanishing into the shadows, hissing to one another in preparation for their attack.
Hayden watched them part, spreading like a curtain in front of him, their exodus quickly revealing something at their center.
A body.
A human body.
A woman.
Hayden’s heart stopped. His breath caught in his throat. His hands and teeth clenched.
He could see her face.
He would know it anywhere.
Natalia.
She wasn’t moving.
He cried out, a sudden rage overtaking him, freeing his body and soul from the otherwise paralyzing panic that threatened to bring him to his knees. He roared in anger, turning his attention to the trife as they launched their assault.
A bullet hit the first one in the head, knocking it away from him. He grabbed the arm of the second with his human hand, pushing the claws aside and punching it in the chest with the claws of the replacement, lifting and throwing it into another, which fell to a bullet a split second later.
He turned to a fourth, ducking low beneath its strike, coming up hard with the claws and ripping it from sternum to throat.
A hard swipe hit him on the side, the claws digging through his armor and reaching the flesh. He ignored the burn, slamming the metal hand down on the arm and breaking it before backhanding the trife in the face, the force breaking its neck.
A heavy round of gunfire followed, a burst of twenty slugs that cut down four more of the creatures trying to attack him from his flank. He turned the other direction, catching a set of claws on his replacement hand, deflecting them before kicking the creature in the leg. The movement brought it off balance, and he grabbed Ghost’s knife from his belt with his human hand, using it to stab the demon in the eye.
His adrenaline was pumping full speed, his heart racing, his eyes threatening to cloud over with tears he couldn’t allow to come. His fury and his agony were one and the same, and he charged deeper into the trife, ignoring Casey’s cries that he was blocking her line of fire.
He didn’t hear her, and he wouldn’t have cared if he did. He wanted to be the one to kill them. All of them. He owed them for his wife.
He cut through them, a raging berserker, the knife in his human hand matching the claws on his replacement, tearing through trife flesh and muscle, dropping them around him and casting them away. He felt their claws striking him, skipping off the hard plates and reaching through the softer fibers, slicing his flesh beneath. Every burn increased his anger more. Every fire in his body fueled the fire in his soul.
And then, suddenly and impossibly, it was over.
The last trife fell three meters away, gunned down by Casey. Hayden charged forward, falling beside Natalia, his body shaking so hard he could hardly see straight.
“Nat. Nat, I’m here,” he said, the tears finally coming, streaming from his eyes and burning the cuts beneath them. He leaned over her, putting his hand on her face. “I’m here. I found you. It’s okay. You don’t have to die alone. I’m here.”
He looked up when he heard a crash behind him. Casey had her foot planted against the door and was using the rifle and her chains to lash it closed.
When he looked back at Natalia, she was looking back at him.
She was smiling.
She was alive.
48
“HAYDEN,” she said, looking up at him. “Oh, Hayden. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you’re here. You look like hell. Your poor face.”
She stared up at him. She had to be hallucinating. She had to be dead. There was no way he could have found her down here. No way he could have come. It was impossible. Completely impossible.
But how could it not be real? He was beaten to hell, his face bruised and bloody, a long, deep cut below his eye. He was bleeding from both sides of his body, where claws had pierced a long coat and the armor he was wearing beneath it. Why would anyone dream of someone in such lousy shape?
He leaned down as she pushed herself up. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. She could hear his heart pounding. She could feel the warmth of his body and the moisture of his blood and sweat and tears against her cheek. It all felt real enough.
“I knew I would find you,” he said. “I knew it. I was never going to give up. Not ever. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She clung to him, afraid to let him go. Afraid the dream would end, and the truth of her nightmare would start.
He pushed back, getting his face in line with hers, leaning forward again and pressing his lips to hers. She met them eagerly, melting into his kiss.
“No offense, Sheriff,” a voice said nearby. “I’m happy you found your wife, and that she’s still alive. But we aren’t out of the shit yet.”
Hayden’s lips moved away. Natalia watched his head turn. She shifted her gaze, finding a small woman standing nearby. She was the strangest looking girl Natalia had ever seen, with a large, wide-brimmed black hat on her head and chains draping her arms. She smiled when she saw she was being stared at.
“Hi,” Casey said. “I’m Chains. Well, my friends call me Casey.”
“Am I dead?” Natalia said.
“I hope not,” Hayden replied, looking back at her. “If you’re dead, that means I’m dead, too. And if this is what dead is like, I’m not happy about it, at all.”
He reached out to her, helping her to her feet, holding her arm tight, as though he were afraid he would lose her again if he didn’t.
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Hayden said. “I didn’t give up. I didn’t lose hope. But I still didn’t think you would be here. I didn’t think I would find you.”
“I thought you were dead,” Natalia said. “I saw those monsters, the goliaths. I saw them attacking the compound, where you were. How did you survive?”
“A good horse, and a lot of luck,” Hayden said. “What about you?”
Natalia’s mind flashed to the gas station, to her night with Ghost. A sudden chill overtook her. That didn’t matter now. It was over. Hayden was here. She would tell him later, and when she did, she knew he would understand.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I thought I was going to die. The trife came in. They surrounded me. I gave myself up to them. I was afraid, and I think I passed out. I shouldn’t be alive.”
“If they didn’t kill you, it means you’re either preggers, or you’re barren,” the girl, Casey, said.
“What?” Hayden and Natalia replied together.
“Weird, right? They don’t bother killing women who can’t have babies because they can’t add to the human population anyway. And they don’t kill women who are carrying babies; I guess because they have some weird sense of morality. I mean, they don’t like when we kill their offspring, either.”
Natalia and Hayden looked at one another. Which one was it, and what did it mean? There was no time to worry about that right now.
‘Hayden,” Natalia said. “The mainframe. Ghost. The one who brought me here. I gave him access. He did things to me.” She stopped, not able to deal with that at the moment. “I let him in. I’m sorry. Oh, Hayden, I’m sorry.”
“The mainframe. He got data from it. Coordinates to Space Force weapons caches, I think. He also got the code. The Space Force master code.”
“Master code?”
“Yes. The password that unlocks everything, everywhere. The scientists who worked here, they must have left it for whoever managed to get in. I got in, and I gave it to him.”
“Everything?” Hayden said, his pained expression turning to worry. “Including the Pilgrim?”
“Yes,” Natalia said, her voice trembling from the extent of her failure. “He has the master code. He can get Inside.”
Hayden stared at her. She wasn’t sure how to read the fresh look that covered his face. He was angry, afraid, determined, strong.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It isn’t your fault. Do you hear me, Nat? It’s not your fault. We’ll figure it out.”
She nodded, even if she wasn’t ready to believe that.
“We might need the codes, and the coordinates,” Hayden said, looking at her. “I know your memory is second to none. Can you capture them? As many as you can?”
“Yes,” she said.
He took her hand in his, squeezing it, and then letting it go. “Do it.”
She walked over to the terminal. She could hear Hayden speaking as she did.
“Casey, we need to figure out how to get back out of here. Maybe the shaft?”
She sat in the chair, trying to calm herself as she looked at the display. She read the master code multiple times, looking away and speaking it back to herself out loud. She repeated the process six times until she was sure she had it.
“Shaft’s no good, Sheriff,” the girl said. “The bastards cut the lines.”
“Then we’ll have to find a way through them,” Hayden said. “Good thing I’ve still got this.”
Natalia didn’t know what he was referring to. She kept her eyes focused on the terminal, memorizing the coordinates from the bottom up. They didn’t mean anything to her in terms of geographic location, but they could worry about that later.
If they managed to get back out of here.
She closed her eyes, repeating the master code and the bottom five coordinates on the screen out loud.
When she opened them, the display was clear.
“What the?” she said, thinking the power had gone out. Where the hell had the text gone?
Then Hayden was behind her, looking at the screen.
“Nat? What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “The list was there two seconds ago.”
“Did you get the code?”
“I got it, but-”
She stopped speaking, watching in fascination as a new line of text appeared on the screen:
DATALINK BUNKER PORTLAND, ARE YOU OPERATIONAL?
A few more seconds passed, all three of them staring at the screen in shock while another line of text appeared.
THIS IS WESTERN COMMAND LEWIS-MCCHORD.
IS ANYONE THERE?
UNFORGIVEN IS COMING SOON!
* * *
Join a reunited Hayden and Natalia, along with Casey, as they learn the fate of the USSF on Earth, discover the origin of the goliaths, and work to stop King from pillaging the Pilgrim. Get notified when it’s released.
* * *
THANK YOU FOR READING FORSAKEN!
I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating - if you enjoyed this book and want to support this series, please, please, please consider leaving a review and letting me and others know how much you enjoyed it. A star rating and a sentence is all it takes.
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Thank you for your support.
Cheers,
Michael.
OTHER BOOKS BY M.R FORBES
Browse my backlist:
mrforbes.com/books
Starship Eternal (War Eternal)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
* * *
Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)
mrforbes.com/hellsrejects
The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.
Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected soldiers in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.
Not for long.
The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.
The only problem? There's a new threat in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very, long time. And they want Abbey, too.
Be careful what you wish for.
They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They have no idea.
* * *
Man of War (Rebellion)
mrforbes.com/manofwar
In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.
Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.
Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.
Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.
Earth was lost.
It was never forgotten.
Fifty-two years have passed.
A message from home has been received.
The time to fight for what is ours has come.
Welcome to the rebellion.
Or maybe something completely different?
Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)
mrforbes.com/deadofnight
For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:
Finish the job, or be finished himself.
Balance (The Divine)
mrforbes.com
/balance
My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.
Now, I’m dead.
Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...
I met Dante Alighieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.
I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.
Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.
Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.
Wait. It is.
Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)
mrforbes.com/tearsofblood
One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.
The power of magic.
Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his soldiers come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.
Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.
