by Anna Hackett
Santha burst out of the park and raced along the sidewalk. She rounded a corner and a huge wave of dizziness hit her.
No. No. The bracer was wearing off.
She staggered and hit a fence. Winded, she found her balance and kept moving. But her pace was slower now, her injured leg dragging behind her.
A huge explosion tore through the growing darkness.
The gas station.
Santha managed a small, satisfied smile. Take that, you bastards.
Pain filtered in. She gritted her teeth. Have…to keep moving. She looked down and saw her trouser leg was completely soaked in blood.
Santha forced herself to keep moving. One foot in front of the other. She was panting and sweat poured into her eyes. Sobbing, she pulled herself into an alley.
She couldn’t go any farther.
Fumbling, she pulled a canister off her belt. It was a repellent she’d made that the canids hated. She opened it and dumped the contents on the ground. It wouldn’t deter them for long, but it was better than nothing.
She moved farther into the alley, then dropped down behind a dumpster and dragged herself so her back was against the wall. She wasn’t sure where she was exactly. How far to the top floor apartment with a view of the harbor that had become her home since the attack?
Her vision wavered and she closed her eyes.
Then she heard them.
The canids were coming.
She dropped her head back against the wall and released a shuddering breath. “I’m so sorry, Kareena.” Santha fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a photo. It was a shot of her and her sister, their arms around each other, laughing for the camera. Kareena was shorter and curvier than Santha—she took after their mother—and had a sunnier personality. She’d been the best of them, a nurse who’d loved caring for others. “Not going…to be able to take them all down for you, sis.”
The canid snarls were much louder now.
Santha grabbed the last object on her belt. Another grenade.
Fighting off dizziness, she pulled the grenade close to her chest, her finger on the pin. She’d have to wait until the canids got really close. That way, she could take out as many as possible.
As she waited in the dark to die, her fuzzy thoughts turned to a handsome face and deep-brown eyes, and the regrets of what would never be.
Chapter Three
Cruz crept through the night, his night-vision lens showing everything around him in varying shades of green.
The team was moving behind him, everyone on alert for signs of the raptors.
Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the night. A ball of flames rose above the rooftops, flaring through his night vision. Behind him, he heard the others mutter curses.
Santha. Cruz waited for his eyes to adjust. It had to be.
He’d studied her movements on their drones over the last few weeks. She was a master at sneaking in, setting charges, and blowing raptors to hell.
Marcus moved up beside him. “Think it’s her?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s check it out.” Marcus waved the team on.
They moved fast now, sticking to the shadows. As they reached the explosion site, they crouched behind some abandoned cars and watched the chaos as raptors milled around a burning gas station. Two raptor armored personnel carriers were parked nearby—damned ugly, squat-looking things. There were plenty of raptor bodies lying on the ground as well, some burned beyond recognition.
Cruz smiled to himself. Muy bien. She was the queen of destruction.
Then he spied a few raptors through the flames who looked like they were arguing. Some were gesturing. Cruz grabbed his binocs. He waited for the view to zoom in and saw what they were pointing at. A small pack of canids were loping away.
Shit. “Canids are on the trail of something.”
“Okay, Hell Squad,” Marcus murmured. “Let’s circle around these guys and see what’s got the canids so excited.”
They gave the raptors a wide berth, even though Cruz’s fingers itched to take a few out. But first, he needed to find Santha.
The team moved away from the gas station and followed the canids. It was easy. The ugly beasts made a hell of a noise. He picked up a darker stain on the ground. Crouching, he pressed a finger to it and lifted.
Blood. “She’s injured.” Cruz broke into a lope. “We need to move faster.”
Without comment, the team followed.
They moved through an overgrown park and back onto the street. Ahead, the canids gave some excited yips, heading for the mouth of an alley. They stopped there for a second and looked agitated.
Fuck. Cruz lifted his carbine, sighting the first creature in his sights. He opened fire.
The canid went down. Seconds later, a barrage of laser fire tore into the rest of them as the squad did what they did best. Shaw managed to take down two with one shot. The sniper was magic with his rifle.
Soon a pile of canid bodies lay at the alley entrance.
Cruz moved forward, weapon aimed in case any of the canids were playing dead. Nothing moved. He smelled the faintest scent of green trees. He knew that smell—Santha’s canid deterrent spray.
He stepped into the narrow space between two buildings. It was dark. A dumpster loomed in the shadows. He kept his steps slow, checking for any sign of movement. His heartbeat was loud in his ears.
Then he saw her slumped against the building. Her dark hair was a tangled mess covering her bent head.
Madre de dios. He hurried to her, dropping to his knees. “Santha?”
She lifted head, her eyelids fluttering open. “Cruz?” Her unfocused gaze hit his face. “Must…be dead.”
“Not yet, mi reina.” He went to touch her and realized she was clutching a frag grenade to her chest. “Can I have this?”
Her fingers tightened on the pin. “Canids.” A hoarse whisper.
“We took care of them. They’re dead.”
She blinked again, like she was trying to process the information. He didn’t think she even realized he was there. “Need to take out as many as I can.”
His heart simply stopped.
She’d been planning to fucking blow herself up like a frigging sacrifice.
Anger was like a molten river storming through Cruz. He worked his jaw while he tried not to yell loud enough to bring raptors down on them.
Then he saw her thigh. He sucked in a breath. It was a mess. And the dark shadow beneath her wasn’t muck or dirt…it was blood.
“She’s hurt bad. Someone bring a med kit.” He pressed a palm to her cheek. “Santha, the canids are dead. Give me the grenade and we’ll get you out of here.”
“Couldn’t save Kareena. Regret…not getting revenge for her.” Santha’s eyelids drooped. “Regretted not kissing you.”
Her last words were so quiet he barely heard them, but his heart kicked in his chest. He brushed the sweat-dampened hair off her head and pressed his lips to her ear. “You hold the fuck on, mi reina, and you’ll get that kiss.”
Now her eyes popped wide open. “Cruz? You’re really here?”
“Yeah.” He took the grenade from her loosened fingers, checked it, then stuck it through a loop on his belt.
“Thought you were a hallucination.”
“Nope.” He gently probed the wound on her thigh.
“Raptor poison,” she said.
Cruz’s jaw tightened. It had to hurt like hell. Gabe crouched beside him holding out an open med kit. Cruz nodded his thanks and snatched up a med-patch dressing. It would cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding for now. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Want the nano-meds?” the other man asked.
It was a risk. The microscopic medical machines could heal her in only a few hours…but they had to be monitored by a medical professional, otherwise they could get out of control and kill the patient. The squad only used them when they had no other options.
Cruz finally shook his head. “They might kill her.” He
cupped her cheeks and forced her head up. “Think you can hold on until we get you somewhere safe?”
She managed a nod.
A muttered curse sounded in the darkness. Shaw called out from the roof above. “We have company incoming. Twenty raptors.”
A second later, Elle’s tense voice came through all their earpieces. “Actually, twenty-two.”
Marcus stepped closer. “We can’t take them on and protect Santha. Elle, you got a way out for us?”
“The raptors are between you and the Hawk. I’m working to find a safe route…but you’ll have to go around.”
Cruz slammed a fist into the ground. “She can’t make it that long. We need somewhere to hole up and take care of her wound.”
“Apartment.” Santha grimaced. “Not far. Near the harbor.”
Cruz caught Marcus’ gaze. “We can tend her there and wait out the raptors until it’s safe to move.”
Marcus pondered for a second, then nodded. “Okay, let’s go. Elle, got that?”
“Got it. Be careful.”
Marcus’ teeth flashed white in the darkness. “Always.”
Cruz crouched and slipped an arm around Santha’s back. “I’m your ride, mi reina.”
A faint smile flickered on her lips. “Not how I imagined riding you.”
Cruz’s cock went hard instantly, surging up against his body armor. “Hell, honey, stop that or I’m going to be in a world of pain.” He lifted her into his arms. “I’ve got you now.”
With a nod, she nestled her head against his shoulder, and for the first time since he’d met her, he felt her relax against him. “Sorry, I’m too tall to be light.”
“I could tell you all about my manly strength, but my armor has an exoskeleton. You’re as light as a feather.”
That small smile appeared again.
Hell Squad moved steadily through the night. Santha hadn’t lost consciousness but her lethargy and pale face had a tight feeling growing in his gut. She whispered directions through dry lips.
“More raptors incoming,” Gabe said, staring through the scope on his carbine. “Streets are crawling with them.”
Cruz cursed. “They’re hunting us.”
Elle’s voice broke through. “You’re right. And I see two more patrols heading to your area. You need to hide. Now!”
“We have to get to Santha’s place, people. Go!” Marcus said.
A few times they had to take cover and wait for raptor patrols to pass. Because she didn’t make a single noise, the only way Cruz knew Santha was hurting was by the way her hand gripped his armor.
Finally, she pointed to a half-destroyed apartment building, maybe twenty stories high. It was on the water, and would have cost a small fortune in the days before the invasion. He suspected back in the day, it had a magnificent view of the harbor.
“Seventeenth floor,” she said. “Take the stairs on the southern side.”
Cruz got a better view of the building and ground his teeth together. Half the fucking building was gone. Who knew if it was stable? It could come crashing down around her any second.
She wasn’t staying here any longer. Even if he had to drag her out of here fighting and screaming, he was taking her back to base with him.
They reached the outer door leading to the stairwell. It was blocked, covered by debris and a trailer piled with old furniture.
“Give the trailer a push,” she said.
Gabe did and the trailer moved easily so they could open the door.
“Clever,” Cruz said.
“There are some booby traps in the stairs, too. Didn’t want anyone sneaking up on me.”
The stairwell was pitch-black, but with their night-vision gear, they made quick work of moving upward and dodging the ingenious booby traps she’d rigged. She pointed out the steps she’d rigged to fall away under body weight, empty soda cans that hid grenades and the tripwires that doused the stairs with buckets of the substance she’d developed that repelled the canids.
Shaw slid past a small pile of disguised grenades. “Hell. You are bloodthirsty, woman.”
Santha shot him a cool look. “Smart.”
Cruz swallowed a smile, shifted her higher in his arms and stepped carefully over the grenades.
On the seventeenth floor, she pointed to a door half-way along the hallway. But Cruz was too busy staring at the end of the hall, where walls no longer existed, and he could see out into open space. Dammit to hell.
Santha handed over a set of keys and Cruz passed them to Marcus. There were three heavy locks and Marcus opened each one.
Marcus and Claudia went first to clear the apartment. At Marcus’ nod, Cruz moved inside. The apartment had probably been luxurious once. Now Santha had boarded up the windows, but in a way not to draw any attention from the outside. She’d shoved furniture aside and had stockpiled what looked like canned food, weapons, ammunition and medical supplies against the wall. One couch faced the spacious kitchen and Cruz set her down on it.
“Let’s take a look at that wound.”
Shaw kneeled beside Cruz with a med kit. The rest of the squad were patrolling the space, checking exits, weapons still up and on alert.
Cruz tore the blood-soaked fabric away from her thigh. The wound made him wince. The raptor poison had made a damned mess. But what worried him most was that it was still bleeding.
He grabbed some sterile wipes from Shaw and set to work cleaning it. “Don’t know how you’re still conscious. The pain or paralysis should have taken you out.”
She leaned her head back against the cushions. “Took a bracer to get away from the canids.”
Cruz froze, Shaw and Marcus cursed and Claudia hissed in a breath.
“How long ago, Santha?” Cruz asked.
Her head lolled against the couch. “It wore off before you found me.”
Fuck. Too long. “It’s numbed your pain and kept you functioning.” And masked just how badly injured she was. He checked her pulse the old-fashioned way, fingers to wrist. Weak and erratic. He snatched up a pen light and shined it in her eyes.
Her pupils didn’t respond.
“Fuck. It’s bad, and she’s lost too much blood.”
“Nano-meds,” Marcus said.
They could kill her but they had no choice. Cruz nodded to Shaw, who fished in the med kit. “She’ll still need blood.”
“You know we don’t carry any,” Shaw said.
“But we have a field transfusion kit, right?”
Shaw frowned. “Yeah.”
Cruz held out his arm. “Hook me up. Give her my blood.”
Shaw glanced at Marcus. Cruz didn’t bother to look at his friend.
“Do it,” Marcus said.
Shaw nodded and snapped on some thin gloves. First, he pulled out a large syringe filled with a glittering, silver fluid that shifted and moved. Cruz gripped Santha’s shoulders and held her down. He knew from experience that the nano-meds hurt like hell.
Shaw slid the needle into her vein and injected the nanos.
For a second, nothing happened, then Santha’s body bowed up and a strangled sound ripped from her throat.
“It’s okay, mi reina, I know it hurts. Only for a little while.”
She pressed against him. “Burns.”
“Yeah, those little bugs are burrowing in, spreading through your blood stream. They’re gonna fix you up.”
Shaw pressed a tiny sensor to the side of her neck. A light on it blinked crazily. He lifted a small tablet. “I’ll monitor her vitals here and check the nanos’ progress.”
He could pull them back if they got too aggressive or speed them up. What they couldn’t do was turn them off. Now they were in, they had to run their course. And nano-meds, not properly monitored, could kill quicker than a raptor mortar.
Santha finally relaxed against the cushions, her body drenched in sweat. Cruz brushed her hair off her face. Was shocked to see his hand wasn’t entirely steady.
He settled on the floor beside her and took
off his upper-body armor. He held out his arm. “Ready?”
Shaw nodded and wrapped a rubber tourniquet around Cruz’s bicep. As Shaw sank the needle into the crook of Cruz’s arm, Cruz didn’t wince, he just kept his gaze on Santha’s still face. Shaw finished connecting the thin tube between Cruz, the tiny, high-tech field transfusion machine, and Santha. Bright-red blood flowed, filling the tube. It passed through the trans machine and into Santha.
It took some time. Cruz watched her face, studying her high cheekbones, bronze skin and her long, dark lashes. He saw a scar on the side of her neck slowly losing the pink freshness of a recent wound. She’d been hurt some time in the last few months. His fingers curled into a fist. He imagined her lying here, in pain, bleeding, alone.
“Cruz?”
Her voice snapped him out of his angry contemplation. Her face had more color and her eyes were focused on his face.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes.” She eyed the blood flowing into her. “Your blood must pack a punch.” She stirred. “Can you help me sit up?”
He slid onto the couch next to her and helped her sit.
With a shaky hand, she brushed her hair back. “Dammit. I hate feeling like this.”
Yeah, feeling weak sucked. “You’ll be back on your feet soon.”
She eyed her neatly dressed thigh. “Nano-meds, right? I’ve only healed this quickly once before.”
“We carry a dose. Emergencies only.” Cruz nodded to Shaw. “Shaw here is monitoring them so they don’t decide to eat your insides.”
Shaw leaned forward. “Right now they’re mending the sources of your bleeding. They’ve already eradicated the raptor poison from your system. Won’t have enough oomph to fix the exterior and close the wound, but Doc Emerson will solve that.”
“Doc Emerson?”
Cruz nodded. “Dr. Emerson Green. She’s in charge of the medical teams at Blue Mountain Base.”
Santha tried to straighten. “I’m not leaving—”
“Yes, you are.” Cruz pressed his palms to the couch back on either side of her head. “I’m not taking no for an answer this time, Santha. You were hurt, nearly died, and you live in a fucking ruin that could tumble down any second. You are coming back to base.”
