by Angela White
Barely able to see, Shannon raised the barrel and fired again.
Bang!
Hudson took the opportunity to back out of the room through the Major’s private door as gunshots echoed.
Hudson ran through their fleeing, chaotic compound, thinking he was on the wrong side. Mitchel’s men were loyal to him because he cared about their lives. Garret’s men stayed from fear or greed, and Hudson recognized the moment. He’d had enough.
Hudson was dry, devoid of humor and imagination, the Major would have said. Just a crew girl, Lenore had inspired strange feelings in Hudson, ones he’d been careful to hide. And he had been extremely patient waiting for his turn.
Unable to love, Garret had underestimated Hudson’s emotional stability, continuing to laugh as Lenore bled out. In that moment, his bond with the Major had snapped.
“Hudson!”
He ignored the call for help. The days of coming when summoned were over.
Hudson stepped over the bodies he was certain had come from Lenore–she’d certainly tried to wipe Garret out–and continued toward the dam. He would set things off early, and go out with a bang.
The furious explosives man headed back to the place he’d been happiest, before Lenore was shot and the future began to appear so grim. Let the Major and his quarry fight it out. What did he care? There was only one thing that would comfort him now, and Hudson moved that way with freedom ringing in his heart.
He wasn’t bound to the Major anymore! It was a dangerous, powerful feeling, and he was sorry he wouldn’t get a chance to grow bored of it. Where he was headed, he wouldn’t return from.
3
Daryl fired at the pair of bounty hunters coming up the stairs and ducked behind the wall as they responded in kind.
Another group of men had them pinned down across the hall from Adrian. They were keeping the Major’s guards from reaching him, but they couldn’t help their leader, either.
“I hate you!”
The voice came from a dim hall that was alive with gunfire.
It’s almost over, Daryl concluded, firing again as an unlucky hunter popped his head around the corner. We’re almost finished.
“Look out!” Billy yelled.
Daryl threw himself to the floor as the wall exploded.
Grenade, he thought dizzily, ears ringing.
“Come on!” Billy shouted, grabbing his arm.
Daryl helped push himself along, everything distorted and painful to his burning ears.
“Stay down until it wears off!”
Daryl crouched at Billy’s feet, clumsily reloading as blood trickled down his neck.
The room they were in was stacked with metal barrels of ammunition that the Eagles dug into without grins at the find. There wasn’t time for it.
Ping! Pop!
Booomm!
The wall across from them exploded, sending shrapnel through the air.
Daryl grunted as Billy shoved him down, and felt something slam into the brick above him.
“Die, damn you! Die!” a woman screamed.
Kenn directed the Eagles toward the door. “Let’s clean house while Adrian does the same.”
Savage agreement came as the team reloaded, getting into formation. They would roll through the Major’s compound as if they owned it. When it was over, they would.
Kenn raised a hand, waiting for Daryl to give a shaky nod.
“Go! Go! Go!”
4
“Die, damn you! Die!” Shannon screamed at the coward who’d hurt her so much.
Adrian let her pull the trigger. He’d already counted and knew what would happen.
Click!
Shannon flung the empty gun at Garret. “Ahh!”
The Major stood up, remembering to breathe. “You’ll be hunted animals as soon as I call the bunker!”
“You won’t be alive to see it!” Shannon sneered.
Adrian placed a light hand on her arm. “Would you like me to carry the load?”
Shannon’s face tightened. “I’ve got the new sickness, the one they let out during the war. Knowing I killed him will make my last weeks tolerable.”
Adrian’s heart broke as he slid his knife into her hand.
Trapped, Garret once again became dangerous. “Don’t count on so long, Shan!”
“Just as long as you die, pig!” Shannon threw the knife as Garret tossed his hidden weapon.
“No!” Adrian lunged for her, but it was too late.
The homemade disc sent a dozen bullets plunging though the room.
Three of them hit Shannon in the chest and knocked her back against the wall.
Adrian ran to her. This time, there were no bugs or flesh charring into lighters. There was only blood pouring from the first woman he’d ever loved.
“Conner!” Shannon shouted.
Adrian leaned close. “He’s alive.”
Shannon’s face relaxed into the semblance of a smile. “Stay with you?”
Adrian clasped her hand. “Always.”
Shannon’s body arched, death hovering...then it ruthlessly snatched what Adrian couldn’t replace.
He clutched her close, a part of his soul smoldering in his chest. Three of his females in as many months!
Angela would be next.
“You okay in there, Boss?”
Adrian motioned to the Eagles when Kenn slowly opened the door. “Find out where his personal guard and perimeter patrols are. Then, set up a welcoming party.”
The Eagles took in the scene and the grief on Adrian’s face, and quietly went to do as he’d bidden.
5
Cara followed Hudson from a distance. She had slid into Garret’s residence to observe through the open door when Lenore was shot. The Major had obviously underestimated his targets.
Cara wasn’t sure why she was following Hudson, only that if Garret’s main man thought it a good idea to leave, then she should, too. Cara had lost her leadership over the snake women. The Major would provide no protection, even if he was lucky enough to survive, which she doubted the new people would allow. Cara didn’t know what to do. She had also underestimated them and lost it all.
Ahead of her, Hudson stopped, stiffening in the unmistakable stance of discovery.
Cara hurriedly moved closer, feet silent as she half-ran, half-slithered over the debris. What had Garret’s XO found?
Hudson stared in hatred. He lied!
Hudson narrowed in on Conner’s injury, hoping it hurt.
Adrian had goaded Shannon into attacking the Major. She never would have done it without that final push, and Mitchel had known it. He’d forced her to betray her husband. Adrian was just as much an evil genius as Garret.
Hudson slid behind a falling-down greenhouse and waited for the trio to go by, plans spitting themselves out rapidly. Maybe this run didn’t have to be a complete failure.
Hudson felt that heavy sense of the end lift from his shoulders. The bunker would be perfectly happy to accept the bodies from him instead of the Major. They would rather have them all dead than roaming free, and there would still be a reward.
Hudson spun suddenly, raising his gun. “Come out.”
Cara revealed herself reluctantly, eyeing the man with dislike, but no real hatred. Hudson had tolerated her while she was Garret’s woman, and she’d done the same for him. There was no reason they couldn’t work together.
Hudson slowly lowered the gun, aware of Cara staring toward the trio that had missed them in their hurry to reach the compound. Hudson, like Garret, thought the snake mutations were an improvement over females of the past. In this new world, snakes were all that existed in both male and female populations, and that was easier to remember with Cara’s girls.
“What do you want?”
“Conner,” Cara replied promptly.
Hudson stared at her, thinking it would be easier with two sets of hands. “Only until we reach the bunker. Then he goes inside for the reward.”
“Agreed.”
&
nbsp; If she couldn’t kill Hudson by then, she would do what she had with the Major–become the bunker commander’s woman so she could wait nearby for an opportunity to grab the gifted teenager. With Conner at her side, her people would survive.
Hudson motioned toward the trio that was almost out of sight. “The drugs should keep them from using their powers for at least another twelve hours. Go be friendly and take them to the Major’s sealed room, huh?”
Cara went without a word, already liking the bravado of Hudson’s plan. Hopefully the new people would make the mistake this time.
Watching her slither along the debris, Hudson pulled the radio from his belt and began clicking the mike.
When he finished, there was an immediate set of clicks in answer. Without knowing Garret’s code or having their mental gifts to rely on, Mitchel and his men would be blind.
6
“They’ve taken over the compound.”
Nuna stopped their march, wanting to see for herself.
The binoculars revealed it to be true, and the snake leader battled with herself over the choice she’d made. I could have had him!
“We missed out on a good moment there,” one of the other women stated. “We might have gotten the supplies and escortsss.”
Nuna wasn’t listening to the mutters and complaints. She was making a new plan.
“It’s not over, isss it?” Nuna questioned, drawing their attention even though it was clear she was talking to herself. “We saw the other group. We know there’s more fighting to come.”
The leader waved her girls back into line. “Get usss to a better vantage point, and we’ll make a group choice on where we go from here.”
That satisfied the others, and the line of snake women began sliding through the moldy trees, hating the way nature felt. They would miss those dank sewers and brutally cold nights underground. Topside was hell.
7
“Let’s go. We have loose hunters to round up before burials.”
The team of Eagles left the room behind Adrian, and the others in the hall followed. Shannon had taken the Major’s life and sacrificed her own. She’d known her life was over anyway if Garret won.
Shannon had suffered from night sweats, and they’d gotten to know each other while he calmed her down. Adrian had planned to marry her. At that point, he hadn’t been a hunted animal, but a valued tool to be rewarded.
Adrian stood up, not letting himself dwell on the signs of abuse. Her trials were over now. She could rest in triumph.
Adrian moved outside and through the alley with a bleeding heart. He had to tell Conner he’d failed.
The Eagles couldn’t have been happier. They were back with Adrian. Being away caused a sense of desolation that each man hated, but also depended on. If the time ever came that they didn’t feel this way, it would be time to get out of his army.
Adrian expected to see Conner, on Kyle’s back, with Angela leading them. They should be stumbling over debris... Adrian stiffened. I made a mistake.
“Which way, Boss?” Kenn didn’t like the hesitation or panic he was picking up.
“They should have already been here.” Adrian was running through all the places they’d been, the people they’d had contact with.
Kenn was only a step behind Adrian, but unlike the leader, he skipped the things he didn’t think mattered and managed to arrive at the same conclusion, at the same time. “Another trap.”
Adrian didn’t answer, instead waving tired Eagles into a tight perimeter. Even without contact, it felt detached, impersonal.
“Should we start searching?”
Adrian shook his head, cursing Garret. The sound of Shannon screaming had upset Conner so much that there had been no choice but to come quickly and try to save her life. His mistake had been doing it alone.
“Boss?”
“No. The drugs didn’t stop Angela’s gifts in the cell. She’ll contact us.”
8
Hudson hurried through the dank sewer, mentally counting as his alarm did the same. They had to be on the way out of here when it went off, just in case he’d miscalculated the fuse. For the first time in his career, Hudson couldn’t be sure.
He hurried by the stack of water and food barrels that the Major had been storing down here as they were found, knocking over a smaller tub of rice. Various forms of life immediately began flying toward the unexpected food.
The noises echoed through the tunnel and he jogged quicker. He hated underland! When he handed over the bodies, he planned to ask for an assignment in the west, where underground was so toxic that it was forbidden to go there.
Hudson shoved the next creaking door open and moved into the dankness with a grimace. Thanks to the snakes, it always smelled like heavily decaying copper.
“Fresher today,” he muttered, finally reaching the main intersection of the Major’s storage bunker. Except for the water and snakes, it was perfect.
“Cara?”
Hudson pushed the automatic open button on the heavy steel door with an uneasy feeling. Maybe she hadn’t been able to get them to come down.
He pushed the thick door open with both hands, peering uneasily into the black room.
Thwap!
Hudson clutched at the knife hilt, gasping for air that couldn’t get through. He slid to his knees, suffocating and drowning in his own blood.
“Catch the door!”
Conner hurtled his hurting body into the closing gap before the door could lock them in darkness again.
Angela shoved Cara’s heavy body off her and gave Kyle an approving grin. “Nice throw.”
“You did the dirty work,” Kyle stated. “Best catfight I’ve ever heard.”
Angela chuckled, glad of the eyes that had let her find Cara in the chaos. They’d been expecting trouble when she tried to close them inside, and Conner had been the one to pull her inside, too. The snake clerk had immediately started fighting from there.
Angela grabbed the blowgun and a few darts from Cara’s belt, then jerked her knife from the woman’s chest. She did it without a wave of nausea, showing another level of progress.
Kyle did the same, and then slid an arm around Conner’s waist. “Let’s get the–”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The alarm was incredibly loud, and the trio stared at it. The face of the watch on Hudson’s bloody wrist flashed in brilliant red warning.
Beep! Beep!
Angela and Kyle tried to decide if it mattered, but Conner knew.
“It’s an alarm. He runs that damn thing on every explosive he sets.”
“Let’s go!” Kyle ordered.
The trio fled, going as quickly as Conner’s injury would allow.
Angela grabbed Kyle’s belt and let herself be hauled along as she concentrated. It had been an effort to use her gifts in the cells. The drugs made everything blurry, and it was hard to find the edges of reality. She grunted, straining, “Get outside! Be ready!”
Angela sagged, temples throbbing with sharp pains that made her moan when they only very slowly eased. The dim light from above them was almost too little to see by, and the trio stayed close together. Their feet crunched through unseen debris the entire time.
Pain sank into Angela’s head, causing her to trip.
Kyle slung her up onto his tired shoulder. “Go faster if you can, Conner. We have to get to your dad–now!”
“Stop right there!”
The trio froze as a hunter stepped into view, gun trained on Kyle as he supported both burdens.
“The Major only needs one of you,” the lucky finder stated coldly. “No job for you, killer!”
Kyle recognized him as one of the men he’d embarrassed in the tunnels for hurting Conner and shifted Angela’s weight onto her own feet.
Conner was barely conscious and slid to the ground as Kyle let go of his waist.
“He wants all of us,” Angela protested weakly, moving a little closer. Once again, she got to be bait.
“I’d nev
er make it back alive,” the hunter correctly assumed. “You can tie each other up or I’ll shoot you both.”
Kyle motioned Angela to do what the man wanted.
Starving, the demon inside lunged forward before either of them could react.
Blinding red light shot out, striking the hunter in the chest. His gun went flying into the mucky debris, and Angela stepped closer as he staggered back.
How much do you want? the demon asked.
All of it, Angela answered greedily.
Kyle watched in horror as the hunter screamed in agony, seeming to shrink up before his eyes.
“No! Stop!”
Angela drew harder.
The hunter went sagged, groaning, and Angela stepped back, color rising in her skin.
The man slid to his knees and Angela lunged forward again, jerking brutally at his life force.
Kyle stepped forward, and Conner grabbed his arm. “You don’t want to do that.”
Angela inhaled, swallowed, absorbed, and the hunter’s body faded to a bluish color that Kyle looked away from.
Snap!
Angela felt the last of his life give and arched in ecstasy as it impaled her.
“Don’t move,” Conner warned lowly. “That’s our bloodlust. It’s hard to fight.”
Kyle saw the red eyes, the pulsing body, and stored it. He and Adrian had a lot to talk about.
Angela came down slowly from the pleasure, terrified to feel no guilt. What am I becoming?
Angela pulled the man’s backup weapon from his holster and slowly turned toward her people, hair blown back, face sated–erotic with a double timbre of woman and witch. “We’ll take point.”
Neither of them moved as she stepped by, and Angela was glad Conner had known to warn Kyle. One touch was all it would take for her to let the witch do it again. She’d never felt anything like that. All she could compare it to was Adrian’s light, and both were forbidden.
9
Adrian and the Eagles were already outside the overtaken compound, and it gave none of them any comfort to see Kyle carrying Angela. When he swung her to her feet, there was relief and men ran to help.
Adrian knew instantly what she’d done, and said nothing. If not for the drugs, Angela could have destroyed Garret’s compound by herself. Her gifts were still growing, but to be able to physically manifest fire only hours after being darted showed incredible strength. Adrian had never known of anyone who could access their powers for at least a full day, and that took Angela from a powerful defensive tool and placed her directly at the top of their protection. Her taking a life force wasn’t a disappointment for Adrian. Once she learned to store and ration the energy that he planned to insist she draw daily, she would reach a new level of awareness, and so would his camp. She would also be strong enough to resist the temptation of doing it again.
