Kain and Mary-Anne flanked Caitlin as hope faded.
The remaining Weres formed a circle around the group, prepared to die protecting the humans.
Without warning, the ground ahead of them imploded, spraying dirt and body parts in all directions. Another kinetic hit, and another, carving a path through the Mad.
Olaf looked up, seeing the Enora swoop overhead.
“Air support!” Mary-Anne whooped with joy. “Quick! Go!”
They charged into the space left by the bombardment, putting everything they had into racing for safety. The Mad had recovered and resumed their pursuit.
The Weres continued to put the lives of the unenhanced above their own. Many of the wolves were pulled into the horde alongside the humans.
Olaf and Kain fell back, rescuing everyone they could reach while Mary-Anne, Mika, and Caitlin cut down the Mad who gained on them.
The desperate scramble for survival continued as they hit the slope.
However, they were in range of the magic users now.
Lightning and fire razed the ground around them as they climbed to the unnatural cliff the rock mages had pulled out of the mountainside.
The Mad were driven back by a hail of rock shards, giving the group the breathing space they needed to make the final ascent.
The rock wall parted to allow them through and the warriors streamed through without slowing, followed by the UnknownWorlders.
Last through was Olaf. He was limping and bleeding from a multitude of bites. Kain was in a similar state, but unlike Olaf, he hadn’t had the benefit of Pod-doc treatment.
As the others collapsed on the plateau behind the wall, he felt the Madness rising within. He turned and ran for the rapidly-closing gap in the wall, slipping through just before the rock clapped shut.
Caitlin was on her feet in an instant. She ran for the wall and began hitting it with her already bloodied fists. “Kain! NO!” She beat on the rock, screaming, “Let me out there! Let me OUT!”
Chapter Eighteen
Sarah Jennifer let up on the kinetics as her people made it through the wall. “Bring us around, Enora.”
“Major, Ezekiel’s Were friend is not inside with the others,” Enora informed her.
Sarah Jennifer had seen Kain limp in at Olaf’s side. “Who? You mean Kain?”
“Yes,” Enora clarified. “He went back out before the wall was closed.”
“Give me a visual,” Sarah Jennifer instructed.
Enora focused the external camera on the Pricolici tearing through the Mad massing at the wall. Sarah Jennifer zoomed in on him and saw his eyes flash red. “Shit. He’s Mad.” She reached for the internal comm. “Esme, can we send out the patches yet? One of our own is trapped on the wrong side of the wall, and he’s been infected.”
She didn’t question the surge of protective emotion that drove her urge to save him. Kain might not have formally agreed to join the pack, but that meant nothing to her.
All Weres on Earth were hers to protect, hers to rule.
He belonged to her.
“Should be,” Esme’s reply came.
“Then deploy them,” Sarah Jennifer commanded, her voice dropping to a growl. She rose from her chair and headed for the armory. “Enora, take us in. I’m going down there to pull him out.”
“Major, he is Mad,” Enora cautioned.
“And we have a Pod-doc in the mountain,” Sarah Jennifer shot back. “Call Ezekiel and tell him to get it ready for him.”
She paused in the armory to grab the Jean Dukes Specials Bethany Anne had sent her. This would be the first time she’d used them off the practice range. She dialed them to five, unsure whether she’d be able to handle the recoil on the higher settings and unwilling to find out. The grips warmed to her touch as if they were absorbing the heat of her rage.
She ran for the drop bay, calling for Enora to open the doors.
Esme was waiting with a G-rig and a knowing smile. She held it out as Sarah Jennifer burst through the door. “Go get your man,” was all she said.
Sarah Jennifer shrugged into the harness without a word and cinched the straps tight as she strode to the open drop doors.
She stepped through, activating the gravity rig as she plummeted toward the Earth. The wind whipped, enveloping her as she hurtled toward the ground. She barely felt the rush, her body already flooded with adrenaline.
Her usual cool was nowhere to be found. She was beyond angry. Beyond any emotions she could name. Being airborne while her people fought and died had her wound up to the point of exploding. Kain’s attempt to sacrifice himself pushed her past the point of restraint.
She spotted Kain and altered her freefall to take her to his position. The G-rig arrested her descent smoothly, preventing her from smashing into the side of the mountain.
Sarah Jennifer was almost there. She hit the release on the G-rig, dropping the final ten feet. She landed hard, transferring the shock that traveled up her legs into a forward roll.
Kain was too far gone to realize help had arrived. He was losing his hold on his form, his body shrinking as his ability to shift was corrupted by the Madness. Still, he retained enough of his mind to turn his urge to kill on the Mad and not the people watching from the top of the wall.
Sarah Jennifer flowed to her feet, her fingers stroking the triggers. Her Jean Dukes Specials kicked back as she fired on the Mad swarming Kain, then opened her comm. “Those patches would come in handy right about now, Esme.”
“Thirty seconds,” Esme promised.
“Enora, find a landing space,” Sarah Jennifer instructed. “This won’t take long.”
Thirty seconds was a long time when every living thing around her wanted to eat her. Sarah Jennifer was still loath to kill the Mad. She kept her aim low as she took them out, reasoning that they would heal from the injuries she caused them once their nanocytes began repairing their bodies instead of corrupting them.
At last, she caught a break. The Mad began to fall as the patch took effect.
Taking the heat off Kain drew his attention to her. He wasn’t fully turned; he was half-Mad, half-driven by his Pricolici instinct to wreak complete and utter destruction on everything around him, which was still in the ascendancy.
“Easy, Kain,” Sarah Jennifer called as his dull red eyes fixed on her.
He shook his head, fighting the drowsiness that stole over him as the patch took effect. Sarah Jennifer stared him down, willing him to fall asleep like the rest of the Mad. She didn’t have any experience with Pricolici, but her instincts told her he wouldn’t go down easily. She wished she had a tranquilizer in her Jean Dukes Specials to help him past his blockheadedness.
Kain growled low in his throat and took a step toward her, panting as saliva dripped from his open jaws.
Sarah Jennifer recognized the look. She stood her ground, her Jean Dukes raised. “Listen to my voice. I am your Alpha. I am safety. I am home. Stand down, Kain. Don’t make me shoot you.”
His head moved from side to side as he fought the instinct to hunt. He howled, a miserable sound full of pain and regret. His head dipped, his muscles tensing.
Sarah Jennifer read the intent in his posture before he leapt. She fired twice without hesitation. Her aim was true.
Kain was knocked back by the force of the rounds that hit him in his shoulder and hip. He roared in fury as agony ripped through him, stumbling as his body fought to return to full Pricolici form in defense.
Sarah Jennifer didn’t wait to see if she’d done enough to stop him. Unaware she was drawing from the Etheric, her eyes blazed brilliant red as she covered the ground between them in a flash and coldcocked him, breaking every bone in her hand along with his jaw as she pounded him on the night-night button.
Kain collapsed instantly. His body shrank and his fur receded, leaving him naked and human in a pool of his own blood.
Sarah Jennifer bent and scooped him up, ignoring the pain radiating from her hand. “Enora, where are you?” she sent
over the comm.
“On the ridge behind the wall,” the AI replied.
“I’m on my way. Have the airship ready for takeoff.” Kain was almost twice Sarah Jennifer’s size. Without her enhanced strength, she wouldn’t have been able to lift him. As it was, she held him in her arms, cradled like the world’s largest baby and just as precious to her.
She was in no state of mind to question why this particular Were was so important to her when so many of her people lay dead or comatose on the plain. All she had was her instinct, and for once in her long life, she didn’t suppress it.
She tightened her hold on Kain’s body and ran for the wall.
Caitlin dashed out as the wall parted to give Sarah Jennifer access. “What did you do to him?” she demanded, her face streaked with dirt and angry tears.
“I saved his damned life,” Sarah Jennifer retorted. “Now move.”
Mary-Anne eased Caitlin back as Sarah Jennifer shouldered her way through. Caitlin made to argue, but Mary-Anne shook her head. “They are Weres. They operate differently from the rest of us. She’ll rip your throat out before she lets him go now that she’s claimed him.”
Caitlin’s gaze shifted to Sarah Jennifer. “Claimed him?”
Mary-Anne’s nose twitched. “Be glad you can’t smell pheromones.”
“Does Kain get a say in this?” Caitlin murmured.
“I don’t think either of them does,” Mary-Anne replied.
They followed Sarah Jennifer as she strode through the walking wounded with Kain in her arms, heading for the airship as those who were able to be of use began streaming out to sort the comatose Mad from the dead.
The rest of the day passed in a blur for Sarah Jennifer. She barely remembered getting Kain onboard the Enora or the short journey to Lilith’s mountain with Caitlin and Mary-Anne accompanying them.
Exhaustion stole over her once Kain was inside the Pod-doc. She fell on the cot she’d woken up on what seemed like a year ago but was only yesterday.
When Sarah Jennifer awoke, Kain was on a cot across from her.
His eyes snapped to her as she struggled to a sitting position. Sarah Jennifer groaned as the bandage around her hand brought back the events that had led to her being back in the med bay.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Kain’s voice was low and hoarse.
Sarah Jennifer flushed red, embarrassed by her actions on the battlefield. She didn’t even know this man and she’d risked her life to save him. Why? “And you’re not Mad,” she replied eventually.
Kain just stared at her.
Sarah Jennifer squirmed under his gaze. “Do I have a target on my head?”
Kain grinned. “No. It’s just…”
“Just what?” she snapped a little more harshly than she intended.
“I remember you coming at me, eyes blazing, yelling like a goddamn banshee. You were magnificent.” Kain’s face reddened, and he looked away at last.
Sarah Jennifer closed her mouth. She didn’t know what to do with the compliment. “You’re pack. I’m the Alpha. That makes you my responsibility, Pricolici or not.”
Not strictly the truth, but she wasn’t about to admit she’d abandoned all sense at the thought of him in danger.
The door opened, saving her from her muddled thoughts. Esme walked in, followed by Ezekiel and Caitlin.
Caitlin went to Kain’s bed and sat on the edge, her voice low as she spoke to him.
“What’s going on out there?” Sarah Jennifer asked Esme, easing herself out of bed.
“Everything is going just fine,” the witch told her. “Back in that bed, Duckie. You need rest.”
Sarah Jennifer ignored the order. She looked around and saw her jacket—the one that had once belonged to TH—hanging on a hook on the wall. She limped over to get it, her knee giving her more grief than ever. “I need to be there. I can’t hide in here while everyone else is working.”
She slipped her jacket on and bent to rub her knee. “This isn’t helping.”
“You can’t heal it?” Kain asked. “I thought you had magic.”
Sarah Jennifer sighed. “Not the healing kind. I wish my mother was here. She could fix it for good.”
“What’s wrong with your knee?” Caitlin asked.
“It’s a holdover from the days when I had more pride than sense,” Sarah Jennifer answered ruefully. “Esme, can you…”
Esme’s hands glowed with golden light as she laid them on Sarah Jennifer’s knee. “One of these days, you’re going to have to stop blocking yourself and do something about this.”
Sarah Jennifer glanced at the others, her voice low as she spoke. “One of these days, yeah. Not today. I should put myself on Team Dumbass for what I did. No one life is worth more than the rest.”
Esme clucked in that motherly way she had. “You did what your heart dictated. It’s not an everyday occurrence for you.”
Sarah Jennifer stole another glance at Kain, who was deep in conversation with Caitlin, and frowned. “My heart had nothing to do with it.”
“If you say so, Duckie.” Esme extended a hand toward the door. “If you’re set on getting out there, Amelie had her people set up a field hospital in the valley. We’ve been moving the Mad there for the last ten hours.”
“I slept ten hours?” Sarah Jennifer went ahead of Esme. “I want a rundown of everything I missed while I was out,” she told the witch as they made their way to the upper levels.
“Not much to say,” Esme told her. “The rift has been quiet. The radio has not. Whatever Ezekiel did to Laughter must have hurt her. She hasn’t sent any more Skrima through. Everyone who wasn’t infected has been moving the worst affected to the caverns the rock mages created after the battle.”
“How many?” Sarah Jennifer asked.
“Too many to count,” Esme admitted. “It’s going to take a while to clear the valley. Mary-Anne hasn’t taken a break. Good thing she’s here since we’re short on Weres until those who were injured are back in the game.”
Sarah Jennifer was glad for the vampire’s strength. “I’m up and about now. You and I can relieve her.”
Esme shook her head. “I need to stay here and keep on top of the calls coming in from around the world. Izzy is doing her part, but she needs some help.”
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “I need to get out there.”
“Understood,” Esme agreed.
“How are you doing, Lilith?” Sarah Jennifer asked as they entered the main cavern.
“I am recovering,” the Kurtherian replied.
Sarah Jennifer glanced at the makeshift bed Ezekiel was sleeping on. “Kid tired himself out, huh?”
“He has been feeding me energy to replenish my stores,” Lilith informed her.
“Laughter burned through her reserves,” Esme explained.
Sarah Jennifer nodded in understanding.
Ezekiel stirred as they walked by. He peered at Sarah Jennifer groggily. “Wait. Don’t go just yet.”
Sarah Jennifer paused. “Want to walk over to the valley with me?”
He scrambled to his feet. “Okay.”
“I’ll have food and beds ready for those coming in,” Esme told them. “I want to keep an eye on that Were of yours anyway.”
Sarah Jennifer ignored the comment about Kain. “Call if there’s any change with Lilith, and we’ll come straight back.”
The two of them left the mountain, emerging into the chilly fog that shrouded the mountain.
Ezekiel was quiet as they left the road.
Sarah Jennifer had a thousand things she wanted to say, but every one of them was going to reopen the wounds they’d caused one another. Eventually, she settled on, “How did you end up in Indiana?”
“Almost by accident,” Ezekiel told her, seizing the opening. “We were in Chicago when Helena was infected. She wanted to get as far away from people as we could after that. We found the house while we were heading away from the cities.”
Sarah Jennifer put a hand on his shoulder.
“You did the honorable thing.”
Ezekiel swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yeah, well, it was about time. I’m so sorry, Sarah Jennifer. I shouldn’t have run away like that.”
Sarah Jennifer’s eyes stung with emotion. “I should have been there for you. You were grieving and angry. I should have shared my experiences with those things instead of letting you stew on them.”
Ezekiel flung his arms around her, pulling them both to a stop. “I wish I could say we won’t be separated again, but I know the time is coming. Lilith told me about Mars. I’m not going with you when you leave.”
Sarah Jennifer returned his embrace, holding him tightly. “I know, kiddo. I know. You are needed here. You have to teach people how to access their magic.”
They let go. Ezekiel sniffled as they continued walking. “What’s the deal with you and Kain?” he asked tentatively.
“No deal,” Sarah Jennifer told him.
“You seemed to be pretty upset he was hurt,” Ezekiel commented.
“I was the one who hurt him,” Sarah Jennifer pointed out.
“Yeah, to save him.” Ezekiel smiled. “Do you like him?”
“I don’t know him,” Sarah Jennifer told him. “What’s with the interrogation?”
Ezekiel shrugged. “I dunno. He’s a good guy. You could do worse.”
“I don’t intend to find out,” Sarah Jennifer stated. “I had one husband. It didn’t work out so well. I’d rather be alone.”
“You were married?” Ezekiel couldn’t hide his shock. “You never told me that.”
“There’s a lot I never told you,” Sarah Jennifer replied. The silence stretched out between them. “Jeremiah. He worked on my ranch.”
“You had a ranch?”
Sarah Jennifer nodded. “After I walked out on the FDG and my family. I settled.”
“He was a Were?” Ezekiel asked.
Sarah Jennifer shook her head. “He was unenhanced.”
Ezekiel didn’t need to be a genius to figure the rest. “I’m sorry. That must have hurt a lot.”
“So much that I’m not inclined to go through it again,” she admitted.
End of the Line Page 17