The Rebel and the Rogue: Interstellar Brides® Program - 19

by Goodwin, Grace

  Cerberus, the leader, was going down. Cerberus, the legion, was going to change. I didn’t know Jillela well, but I had to believe she was not as evil as her boss.

  Before I settled on the rooftop, I’d gathered information from a male whose arm I’d twisted from his socket before I knocked him out. He’d shared that there truly was an underground lab as I’d thought and that Cerberus himself was there now.

  I repacked my gear, careful of the explosives I carried, and made my way down and out of the building. Circling around a few blocks, I moved from shadow to shadow until I was at the rear of the building. There was no door, no windows, not on any of the levels. But I didn’t need one. I was going to make my own.

  Placing the first sticky grenade against the base of the wall, I set the timer for twenty seconds, ran and took cover.

  Boom!

  The sound ricocheted up and down the empty streets, and I knew I would have company soon. Lots of company.

  “Bring it, assholes.” Smiling from ear to ear when I saw the explosive had done its job, I stepped through the crumbling hole in the wall and ran for the next barrier. An elevator shaft. Sealed doors. Locked. The security was good, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to crack the coding, even with my Hived-Up enhancements. Screw it. I had enough explosives to take down three buildings this size.

  I set another charge, ran around the corner.

  Boom!

  I peeked around the edge of the wall. Yep. I’d made a nice big hole in the now non-functioning elevator doors. Perfect.

  I pulled another explosive from my pack and tossed it down the elevator shaft.

  When the explosion rumbled beneath my boots and a blast of flame and heat rushed past me, I tossed another one. The last probably took care of the elevator’s ceiling and this one would fall inside the box and take care of the door.

  One more blast and I knew it was time. It was like a video game. I had the weapons, I had the powers. It was time to seek out the enemy and finish them.

  Pulling my blasters free from their holsters, I walked to the blown-to-bits elevator doors and looked down the smoke-filled elevator shaft. I had a moment to think that it was weird elevators were here on Rogue 5, just like on Earth. Similar primitive technology in so many ways. The only difference was the explosion part. I’d never had reason to blow up an elevator shaft on Earth. Here… I had plenty of reason.

  It was time to finish this, once and for all.

  Thanking God for the Hived-Up parts and pieces that made me more than human, I jumped down into the flames and faced the enemy.

  * * *

  Zenos, Astra Legion

  “What the fuck do you mean, Rhord is dead?” That wasn’t possible. I’d just seen him a few hours ago. That, and he was a Forsian hybrid. Big. Tough. Hard to kill.

  I was so angry at Ivy, using the stun setting to immobilize me. To get away. I’d only just recovered from it, my muscles and nerves reviving again from the powerful blocker. Before I could go after her, I’d heard of Rhord but had to learn the truth, so I’d come here.

  Nev paced Astra’s private quarters, his fangs fully extended in a killing rage. “Cerberus left his body at the tunnel entrance.”

  It was true.

  Astra stood at the window of her tenth-story balcony. From here she could see all her territory and half of Cerberus Legion’s streets as well. “You did say Cerberus wanted to rule all of Rogue 5.”

  I had. Fuck. “I didn’t think he was stupid enough to challenge you, Astra.”

  She didn’t turn from the window, her gaze pensive as the city’s lights spread out like a sea of stars under the black dome that kept us safe. “Not only me. Styx and Kronos. They will not approve of this attack. Killing while a guest in another legion. This will destroy the balance of power on Rogue 5. It’s bad for business.”

  Bad for business? It was worse than that. A blatant attack. He’d wanted Ivy, but this much? Enough to start a fucking war?

  Nev growled, still moving as Barek approached our leader slowly, with more caution than I’d ever seen from him when standing close to her. “My lady—”

  She stiffened but didn’t look his way. “I told you not to call me that.”

  He stopped, bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Astra. Please, send us to avenge our fallen brother. Cerberus had no right.”

  She sighed and finally looked at him, her expression not unkind but filled with regret. “Agreed. He came into my territory wearing Cerberus colors. He was escorted under the guise of peace to a meeting, where he offered us a gift. This is unacceptable. Killing Rhord under these circumstances is an act of war.”

  My fists clenched at my sides as I agreed. With Ivy driving me mad with frustration, it would feel good to kill a few more Cerberus scum. “We will handle it for you, Astra. Send me, Barek and Nev. We’ll gather a few Enforcers and hunt him down.”

  She didn’t move, her gaze fixated once again on something in the distance. “Jillela will replace him. She is cunning but not cruel. Do not kill her. We need her alive.”

  “Agreed,” Barek stated. He understood her strategy, her thinking about more than just Cerberus dead. That was why she was leader, considering the repercussions as part of the actual plan. Risk had to match the reward.

  “Good. Let’s fucking get out there and burn their house to the ground.” Nev was the youngest of us, primed to fight, his instincts still difficult for him to control.

  Astra tilted her head to the side as if puzzled, and an orange-hued light flashed over her skin.

  “What was that?” Barek pulled the sheer fabric covering the window nearest him aside to look at the source of the unusual light.

  Astra was smiling now. “It would appear that someone has beaten us to the task.” She pointed out the window.

  Dread dropped like a stone in my gut, cold and hard and immovable. No. Not Ivy. She’d stunned me to go after Cerberus. To finish her mission.

  But even as I denied the thought, I knew I was wrong. I strode to the window. Ivy was out there. Alone. Not just out there, in Cerberus Legion.

  “By the gods.” Barek’s reverent tone lured me to look at what I did not want to see.

  Flames shot into the air on the roof of one of the buildings in Cerberus Legion. It was far in the distance, but that only meant it was more intense up close. Looking down over the city, I did some quick calculations and guessed that the building on fire had to be the canteen Ivy and I had visited yesterday.

  “Why didn’t you stop her?” Astra asked. “You should be with her.”

  I nodded, swallowed. “I should, but as you probably understand, a female has a strong mind and will let nothing get in her way.”

  “You mean no one.”

  I didn’t reply because there was no argument. Ivy had fucking stunned me to get away.

  A loud pounding sounded from Astra’s door, the culprit shoving it open wide without waiting for a response from anyone within. “Astra, there has been a break-in.”

  “Where? What was taken?” She didn’t turn away from the vision before her, apparently hypnotized by a piece of Cerberus’s empire burning to the ground. I knew the biofilters would take care of the smoke under the dome, keep the rest of Rogue 5 from breathing too much of the toxic fumes, but I still didn’t understand how Ivy could be responsible… even though my instincts screamed at me that it was so.

  The messenger took a deep breath. “Weapons and explosives, Astra. Two ion blasters, top grade, the new ones. Ten ion grenades and a few other things.”

  Air trapped in my lungs, I stepped closer to the window, stared at the flames through the glass, knew they were reflected in my own eyes. A small army could use that much firepower. Or one Earth female with a death wish. “Ivy.”

  At last Astra turned to me, to Barek, to Nev, who had finally stopped pacing to join us at the window, forming a circle of giants around our leader.

  Astra looked up at me. “What are you waiting for? Go get your mate, bring her back safe. I want her.�
�

  That made me pause. What was Astra saying? “We have not mated,” I said, ensuring she did not misunderstand.

  She shrugged. “She’s yours.”

  I paused, considered. She’d been mine since I first saw her on Zenith. “You would offer her a place among the legion?”

  Astra nodded. “I would. She’s a beautiful, powerful weapon, Zenos. And she’s a protector. While she’s focused on revenge, she’s gone off alone, ensuring no one from Astra is with her, to keep all of us safe. She has strength and power beyond anything we can imagine. We can’t fight beside her because we’re not skilled enough. No one is. If blood is going to flow, it will only be hers.”

  I didn’t like what she was saying one fucking bit.

  “She’s also good with the children. Even Nero liked her. She’s yours. She’s ours, Zenos. We need her. I want her to stay.”

  “So do I,” I admitted. I did. So fucking bad my insides felt like they were being ripped out as I watched a black plume of smoke grow in the distance.

  I looked to Barek to gauge his reaction, but his gaze was carefully blank.

  “Barek? Nev?”

  Nev pumped his fist in the air. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  Ivy, Cerberus Legion

  The room filled with smoke, the air so thick with it that I had to rely on the uniform’s helmet visor system to navigate around the basement. Of the few bodies I’d seen moving around down here, they all lay motionless now… all but one. Him. My enemy.

  “Cerberus, where are you?” I shouted.

  A melting piece of air duct fell from the ceiling with a large crash, crushing what looked like a steel workstation beneath its weight. It wasn’t safe down here, but I didn’t care. I was too close to avenging my true family to stop now.

  “Cerberus? I know you’re here. I followed you, you know. I’ve been watching you all day.” It wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t need to know that. Once I’d learned he’d entered this building, I’d watched his heat signature. I’d met him face-to-face, knew his size, his speed, the way he moved.

  The others strewn about were dead already. But Cerberus? Somehow he’d survived the blasts and the smoke.

  I intended to change that.

  “So, Ivy, you’ve been watching me?” Cerberus stepped into view, barely. Smoke swirled between us, but I could see the outline of his form and I was sure he could see mine.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve been expecting you. Tell me, what did you think when I slit that pretty-boy Forsian hybrid’s throat and left him for dead? You were particularly fond of him, I believe. Pity.”

  I staggered, the hit to my gut like a blowtorch, so much worse than anything I had been prepared for. More painful even than watching my foolish, pill-popping friends crash and die behind enemy lines. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  His laughter was mocking. Cruel. “I’m everywhere, Earth human. You think you’re the only one with extra abilities? I am Cerberus.” He shouted the last, pounded his chest with his fist. “One down, three to go. Then Astra’s territory is mine.”

  I’d underestimated him. Or I’d overestimated myself. I had the Hive tech. I was practically invincible, except for one way I’d never expected. There were no integrations to fortify your heart.

  He’d killed Zenos? Slit his throat? Bile rose in my throat, and it felt as if one of those explosives had detonated in my chest. Blown up my heart.

  “No.”

  He grinned. Jesus, he fucking grinned. “Yes, Ivy. Just like last time, you’re too little, too late. You can’t save him because all that’s keeping his head attached to his body is his spine. No ReGen pod will save your hybrid. You didn’t protect him. You can’t protect any of them.”

  Something in me snapped as pain. Heartbreak. Loss. I’d felt all of that when my teammates had died, but this was different. Zenos was different. I’d wanted it all from him, even his bite. My heart longed for his bossy ways. The arguments. That was all gone now. I hadn’t even had a chance to argue with him about the bite, to fight with him. To tell him to fucking get over it already. But no, I couldn’t do that now.

  I pulled both blasters and fired. Direct hits to his chest.

  He laughed. He fucking laughed. The weapons had no effect. He had to have some kind of internal armor. Hive tech. Something I’d never seen before.

  I was Hived-Up, but even I couldn’t take direct fire at this close proximity. He was something more. And I didn’t care.

  Throwing my blasters to the side, I met his gaze. Held it. “I’m going to kill you with my bare hands.”

  He held up his, showing me he had no weapons. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  My own words, thrown back in my face. I’d uttered those same words moments before I’d killed his people, members of his legion, people under his control and protection.

  Cerberus launched himself at me, his body slamming mine with a staggering amount of weight. Too much, even for a male of his size. He knocked me back and I stumbled. I summoned every ounce of strength, calling on my Hived-Up enhancements to come to my aid. But it wouldn’t. Not with a body blow like that. It was impossible to fight inertia, and I went down. I rolled, coming up to my knees, but he was right there.

  His right arm swung wide, a boxer’s haymaker punch, and I dodged it. The follow-up left hook hit me beneath the arm, cracking my ribs. I groaned, the air knocked from me.

  I rolled, spun and lashed out, arcing a kick to his head. I heard the crack, felt it in my heel. It knocked him back, blood spurting from a wound at his temple.

  He paused, blinked, and I took advantage, pulling out my knife, ready to slice his throat.

  He growled, lunged, grabbed my wrist, knocked me back again. This time I fell to the floor, Cerberus pinning me. His grip was sure. Powerful and the knife clattered to the ground. He grabbed it, ready to slice out.

  I pushed off, knocked him back so he was no longer upon me. We stared at each other, him with my knife. He was strong. Really strong. I was breathing hard, my ribs screaming. I’d fought dozens of males the night before without even blinking, but Cerberus? I now understood why he ruled the legion.

  “You,” I panted, eyeing him. “You didn’t need to know who did my enhancements. You’re already Hived-Up.” The accusation burst from my lips as I realized I couldn’t beat him. Not like this. He wasn’t holding me down, but I might as well be pinned, at his mercy. He was going to kill me.

  This wasn’t an even fight. Cerberus had been humoring me all along, ever since he’d stood before me earlier in that meeting room. He didn’t want me for his own—well, maybe he did if I’d have sworn allegiance—but instead wanted me dead.

  “No, I don’t need his help. But I do intend to kill him.”

  More blood on my hands. “Why?”

  He laughed and the sound made my blood run cold. “There are already too many of us. And that idiot ruler of Prillon Prime is allowing the others on The Colony to return to their home planets. Stronger. Bigger. Faster. Better.”

  He thought the fighters who’d been taken and tortured by the Hive were better? He was so evil.

  “You don’t want the competition,” I said, trying to understand.

  “I am a king, not a gladiator. I take what should be mine.”

  “You’re insane.” That was the truth, and I didn’t care to hold my tongue. I was going to die down here in this fiery shithole anyway.

  “Perhaps.” He launched then, knocking me back once more. I groaned at the smack of my body against the hard ground, the weight and energy of Cerberus knocking the air from my lungs. Again. He held my hands pinned above my head, his body atop mine, holding me down on my back so I was helpless to do anything but stare up into his crazy eyes and hope for a miracle.

  It had all come to this. Every waking moment—and my nightmares during sleep—were to avenge my teammates. Now I would be dead like them. Cerberus getting away with it all. They would have died for nothing. Their l
ives, for nothing. They mattered.

  Me? I didn’t matter. No one would remember me. Not on Earth. Not in the Coalition. Not on Rogue 5. One slice with the knife and it would be over.

  “Go ahead and do it,” I told him. “Kill me.”

  “My pleasure, Ivy.” He pressed the business end of the knife to my throat.

  I closed my eyes and squeezed the lids closed. Hard. Waited for the sharp point of the blade to slice and rend. To tear my flesh, my arteries and end me.

  And then he was gone, ripped away from me as if a tornado had lifted him and tossed him across the room. An animal took his place, fangs extended, a roar like none I’d ever heard filling the space like the blast of a shotgun. He loomed, wild and untamed. Vicious.

  “Zenos,” I whispered. My heart soared. “You’re alive.”

  The male I’d fallen in love with looked down at me, and I’d never been so happy, so insanely, out of my fucking mind happy to see anyone in my life. Yes, I loved him. God, did I. I’d thought my life was over, not because I hadn’t been able to avenge my unit, but because I’d thought Zenos was dead. Why live when my heart was gone?

  But he was here. Alive. And he’d just saved my life.

  I sat up, watched as Zenos stalked to Cerberus. He plunged a fist into Cerberus’s chest and I heard bones crack. Break. The leader fell to his knees. I saw Barek and Nev in the doorway. Watching. Waiting.

  “You laid a hand on my female,” Zenos said. He struck again. “Mine. I vowed to protect her.” And again. “Don’t fuck with what’s mine.”

  And once more.

  Cerberus was dead. Sprawled on the ground in a basement with his chest caved in like a broken eggshell. No righteous ending.

  It was over. My mission. My rage. My personal battle. It was all over.

  When Zenos turned to me, helped me to my feet and looked me over for injuries, I realized I was staring at my life. My heart. It belonged to Zenos.