The Life After War Collection

by Angela White

  “The Maker’s Call,” Donner breathed.

  There was a second of light pressure, of a wistful hand running over Adrian’s brow with so much love that tears burst from his eyes. A voice came, perfect and masterful, with kindness on a level that Adrian had never felt.

  “You were to lead them gently into my awareness. You were to be idolized by entire civilizations. Love would have been your mate, love of the world. But it wasn’t enough.”

  Then the true voice came, thundering down with unequaled rage that terrorized them both into huddling on the floor.

  “You are the serpent in the garden! Banished! Banished!”

  Angela cried out at the harsh pain, Adrian’s pain, and then her own emotions slammed into her, stealing the last bit of resistance.

  It wasn’t our fault! she cried, tears coursing down her cheeks. You made us this way! You let me love him! I didn’t know!

  There was only silence now, that powerhouse gone from their souls, but the truth had come out. She and Adrian had loved each other throughout the centuries, and it was wrong.

  “I’m sorry,” Adrian cried, rising to put his hand over hers. “Please forgive us!”

  Finally bonded, their power merged, creating a blast of energy that shot out from their bodies and traveled the globe. The call was one that had never been used in the world before.

  Angela arched. Adrian’s grip became iron as the power sent out a second blast, then rebounded, sucked back into its hosts.

  Angela jerked her hands away, needing to gain control of her widely thumping heart.

  Adrian held his throbbing chest, not speaking.

  “They’ve done it!” Donner exclaimed in awe. “They’ve called for the Maker.” Donner turned toward his office. “Separate those two.”

  Angela went to Adrian as the door opened, aware of the protocol because of Adrian running through it in his head.

  Angela leaned down to place a soft kiss to his cheek. “I loathe you.”

  Adrian felt her trying to sever their new bonds, but he didn’t offer any resistance. It couldn’t be done.

  Angela went to her cell without resisting or being restrained, further proof that her keeping her word to behave. She also took their drugs, swallowing them in relief. Maybe she could sleep for the next 72-hours and pretend it was Marc in here with her.

  Adrian slumped to the floor as soon as Angela was out of sight, clutching his chest. Unless he wanted to continue the traditions of Elliot, he would never be with her now. She would never be able to get over this and love him. The truth hadn’t set them free. It had caged him.

  3

  Marc shifted restlessly in his bedroll. The others had insisted that he rest until daylight. He’d forced himself into it, knowing he needed to remain strong, but the dreams were haunting. In them, he wasn’t himself anymore. He’d become greater than he had been, larger somehow. He floated over land that didn’t appear to be the country he lived in. The earth below was perfect. From the birds and trees, to the waterfalls and fish leaping from the crystal waves. The only thing he could compare it to was paradise. As he flew over the mountain, Marc saw mountains and jungles, and then a crisp shoreline that invited him to come closer.

  Can I? he wondered.

  To his delight, he immediately flew down and skimmed the waves until he reached the sandy beach. It was too narrow for a large boat, but perfect for someone who wanted to be hidden away and forgotten about. Before he could explore further, his demon pulled him back to the edge of alertness.

  They’ve bonded.

  Marc knew. He’d felt the power, the forbidden call that he’d read about in Adrian’s notebooks. The only way to do that was when two matched Alphas made the promise, the vow, of forever.

  Will we sleep now?

  Marc wasn’t sure what would come from this, but the idea of putting his demon to sleep and taking off into the wilderness wasn’t one he could stomach. He would die fighting, as he had in every other life his demon had shown him.

  Perhaps it has been too much?

  Marc disagreed. He knew more about his origins now than he’d ever suspected. He was a leader of men, of all men, and he would continue to be, even after this war was finally over.

  Marc forced himself to wake, not wanting to stay in that heaven much longer. The temptation to take the easy way out was one that every person in hard times struggled with, but he was made of sterner stuff.

  Marc’s eyes opened to show him darkness and a host of people on the ground around him. His magic was stronger now. The bubble he’d placed over their small camp was still standing. Outside that clear dome, snow was falling. That had been the only thing to get him to call it a night. Traveling through the snow would make it easy to miss any tracks.

  “I know where the call came from,” Kendle stated on his right. “I found it in Ivan’s thoughts before you sent him to camp.”

  Her tone was rebellious and Marc quickly leaned over, face blazing. “I was never promised to you!”

  Kendle flinched, wounded. “She’s at Mercer Bio Labs. It’s the only place near here that could house a government facility.”

  “Really?” His anger rushed out in thick waves. “I already know where she is, but you should have told me that as soon as you figured it out!”

  Marc shoved to his feet. “Stay away from me. You smell like death.”

  Five minutes later, Marc dropped his shield and strode down the steep mountainside into Dalton. Very few people knew about the bio lab, but Marc had been there before, doing security work. The high security complex wouldn’t keep him out.

  4

  “We’re leaving now.”

  Cynthia nodded, busy with the paperwork that Kevin kept handing her. “Check-ins, okay?”

  Neil and Jeremy motioned to their team and the van rolled over to pick them up. The five vehicles slid from Safe Haven’s rear gate, where few of the camp members were awake to witness it. Inside these vans were only a few people, but they were angry and it would make up for their numbers. These men and women had been told this war was over, but they didn’t have their leaders. It was time to remind everyone that Safe Haven wasn’t powerless.

  Cynthia heard the gates shut, but didn’t watch the van fade from view. She had her hands full, even though most of the camp was still in their tents and campers. There were schedules for the next day to write and deliver, meals and caregivers to be arranged, guards shifts and posts to be checked on and rotated, and of course, questions to be answered.

  “Are we on full rations?”

  Cynthia wasn’t sure how much they had now and shook her head. “Not yet. I need to know where we are on food and water before I lift it.”

  Kevin wrote that down and continued on to the next of his ten items. “How many shower campers open?”

  “Three.”

  “Is that enough?”

  “We have to be careful with our water,” she answered. “And I don’t have the totals yet, remember?”

  Kevin flushed, trying hard to act as if she was Angela so it wouldn’t be as awkward. “Right. Um, what about the animals? No one can find the vet.”

  Cynthia sighed. “Draft some people for feeding and watering. Maybe the kids can do some of it, or the older people.”

  “Good idea. Okay, the last harvest gave us seeds that we’re drying. Should we restart the garden or wait for spring?”

  “Restart it now,” she instructed.

  “Can I ask why? We’ll still be finding stashes of can goods for a while.”

  “Because the winter may not let up by spring,” she told him, handing over the last schedule, his.

  Kevin didn’t let himself read it yet. Camp business came first. “We have questions from the camps around ours about leaving. Many of them have people of their own to prepare for the season change.”

  “They can go,” Cynthia stated. That, at least, was one area she didn’t have to worry over. The Eagles and other fighters in Safe Haven were no longer afraid of magic an
d the descendants were tired of hiding it. If they were ever attacked again, there wouldn’t be any hesitating. The problem in camp was how the pieces of Angela’s plan were coming out, showing her to be so totally ruthless. It had shocked and amazed all of them to discover that Angela had planned to be captured all along.

  “Cynthia?”

  She glanced up to see they had more men standing around, waiting for her last answer. She shook her head to clear the thoughts that were suddenly flying at her faster than she could examine. Had Angela done all of this on purpose?

  “Repeat that, please.”

  “Is it okay to get a mass grave going or should we stick to individuals?”

  That was an ugly thing to consider.

  Cynthia held up a hand, turning to view the camp. These people would want to pay their respects, but with more than two dozen funerals, it would run into dreaded monotony and not be given the honor that each life deserved. “Mass. And I’m sorry for that.”

  The men understood and were glad of the choice for more reasons than the work that could be done quickly with some heavy equipment. They hadn’t wanted to spend the next four days saying farewell to the deceased. They wanted to be sure they were still alive, to celebrate their impossible victory.

  Kevin motioned the others to go on and handed her the paper with his final three questions on it. “They’re a bit personal.”

  Cynthia read them without a change in expression.

  Can you find a replacement for me? I can’t do this job anymore.

  If so, can I leave come dawn? You don’t need me.

  Please forgive me?

  Cynthia felt the weariness, and the guilt, but the relief was greater. She hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”

  Kevin understood she wanted him to go. That was the final push he needed. He started to remove his Eagle jacket.

  Cynthia shook her head. “You’re always one of us, Kevin. Come back when you can live here. We’ll still need you.”

  He smiled at that, glad to know it wasn’t banishment that would follow him. He headed for the gate, where he already had a truck waiting. There was another person in that vehicle who’d had enough of Safe Haven as well.

  Jeff held out the joint as Kevin slid into the passenger seat. “Hit this, turn up the music, and we’ll forget about them.”

  Kevin did as he was bid, but he knew forgetting was impossible. He was walking away from the greatest thing he’d ever done. The rest of his life would be wasted trying to figure out why he hadn’t been able to make it work here.

  Fate watched the truck roll quickly into the night and be swallowed by the darkness, but instead of sadness, there was hard, cruel amusement. Just because someone left Safe Haven behind, it didn’t mean that Safe Haven would leave them. Magic like that couldn’t be erased by time or grief, no matter how deep.

  5

  “The Maker’s Call has been made.”

  The voice was unfamiliar to most of the soldiers it controlled from the private complex inside the Utah Bunker. There was no reason to be friendly with subordinates. That philosophy ran these tunnels.

  “We’ve tracked it. Donner has them at the Mercer labs in Dalton. We’ve prepared a team to intercept them.”

  “Good. Keep me posted,” Benjamin ordered.

  The leader of the bunker hadn’t been more than a Secretary before the war, but Benjamin had outlasted all those above him to claim this position during the chaos.

  The room emptied as the man in charge opened a thick, laminated book. In it were symbols of the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, and other mysterious designs that had haunted them throughout history. The truth of it all was in this book.

  Benjamin glanced at the orders he’d removed from the safe, as he had been instructed to do upon confirming that one of the forbidden calls had been made. He lifted the orders and the book together, then slowly slid them into the fireplace that the Presidential suite had come with.

  In minutes, all paper proof of the conspiracy was only a charred frame that couldn’t be used against any of the Masons who had survived. And there were quite a few still. Across the world, bunkers like this one held remnants of the elite who had perpetrated this evil on the world. If anything came from the Call, there would be no evidence.

  It was a bit like shutting the stall door after the horse ran away, but Benjamin didn’t refuse the orders that had been written decades ago, when the scientists had started trying to determine what combinations of descendants could bring the Maker. He wiped the computer files reluctantly.

  Sad in ways he couldn’t express–he’d enjoyed gazing at the images and stories before bedtime–Benjamin pulled up the latest figures for his bunker. He sat stewing over them, as he did every day at this time.

  It wasn’t good. There was less than four months of food and water to sustain the two thousand people still here. Half of those were in cells, draftees that he’d refused to release because of needing their skills, but that would change. Once he let them lose, those men would overrun every town they came to. Benjamin had to be prepared for them to try to do the same to this bunker.

  “It’s time for us to relocate,” he chose, reaching for the files that explained in detail how to move people onto the rail system and get them settled in the next shelter. It would use a lot of fuel and time, nearly three of the four months they had left here, but there was no other choice. And if there were no other bunkers in reach, the order would have to be made to reclaim the topside. He could send his little ants scurrying from their holes to reestablish the government’s hold over this country. He’d kept enough men in each bunker to do so. All he needed was a bit of time, a little luck for a smooth ride to the next site…and maybe a descendant to guide the way.

  Benjamin pushed the personal files button to stare at reproductive stats for this bunker in the nine months since the war.

  Live Births: 14

  Stillborn: 19

  Current viable breeding population: 178

  Sterile population: 69%

  The next stats weren’t more encouraging.

  Ragonidusin Infection levels: 27%. Increasing by .3% daily.

  Deaths: 9,432.

  Daily Deaths: 25.841

  Current terminal population: 142

  Current Healthy Population: 2342

  Extinction odds would rise with every month that passed, until people finally began to notice and panic. He had to get them topside before that happened.

  Benjamin hit a last button and leaned back with his drink in hand. The image on the screen was of the Maker’s Call, the energy sent out. It was blinding even for a fictional representation, with no one able to determine what was behind the light.

  Benjamin didn’t like surprises. Donner going rogue on them had come as one and now, the major had accomplished his life’s goal and sent out a successful call. What would come of it?

  The scientists had assured Benjamin that it would amount to nothing, but he’d felt the power of the call even while buried a mile beneath the ground. That sort of force was bound to draw attention from someone. Or something.

  Donner’s obsessions had been tolerated because of his exemplary record of getting their jobs done. To lose him now, when he was needed the most, was an intentional blow that Benjamin intended to see the Major hung for. The descendants who’d made the forbidden call would also have to be handled. Two matched alpha’s running around the country was worse than a camp of oddball powerhouses. Alphas were a real threat.

  Benjamin knew what to do about those. Once he was sure there wasn’t going to be an answer to the call, he intended to destroy Safe Haven and all of the magic users there. Two large warheads would remove all traces of that rebellious camp and Donner right along with them.

  “One more day,” Benjamin promised. “Make it count.”

  6

  “It’s the Ghost!”

  Those words were said with same fear as the other moments in this war, but it wasn’t enough to make these soldiers flee i
n terror. They had survived all five rings of Angela’s plan. They had come here to make sure Donner kept his word. He’d promised them Safe Haven and failed to deliver that, but the woman in his custody was worth more. As long as Donner had her under control, they would all be safe and fed. Many of Angela’s gifts were known. These soldiers now had a bloodhound to track food and gear. In this apocalyptic hell, that advantage would keep them all alive.

  “Move in!” Marc roared. He was first in the wave of fighters that burst from the buildings and trees nearby to attack the men on guard around the lab.

  The demon wanted to help, but Marc didn’t need it. His fury lashed out through his Colts and then his knife when there wasn’t time to reload. He sliced through the men and leapt over their useless barricades to charge toward the only door.

  Kenn followed Marc, their places now switched except for Tonya being here. She kept pace with them, firing steadily as they ran. When she had to reload, Kenn took up the slack, clearing the soldiers closest to her. These men hasn’t expected a full-on frontal assault after all the sneaking tactics that Angela had employed. They’d clearly forgotten or refused to believe who her mate was.

  Kendle wasn’t using her gifts either, preferring to feel the blood spilling around her fingers, but Becky quickly used her power to hit the soldier running up on them while Kendle was distracted.

  Angry that the brunette was so careless, Becky ran toward Neil and partnered with him as they followed Kenn and Tonya into the main driveway.

  Kendle barely noticed being left, too busy causing crimson to shoot from the screaming man’s eyes with her thumbs.

  The soldiers weren’t helpless. As the alarms on the facility began to blare, they grouped together, firing rapid shots that forced Eagles behind whatever cover they could find. A wise man among these fighters grabbed at his grenades and the sound of thunder lit the area.

  Marc was almost to the door, uncaring of the explosions, the shrapnel, the flames. All he could see was the sentry on the door, who would have the code.