Arden pulled in a steadying breath. Her squad never hesitated to go out there. To help and risk their lives for others. People were dying, and they needed to know everything they could about this bomb.
Or every single person in the Enclave could be next.
Noah met them in the corridor. He held the large drone in one hand. “You sure you want to do this?”
Arden nodded. “I’m sure.”
He activated the drone and it rose up in the air. It moved to Arden, hovering above her, lights blinking.
“That is so awesome,” Mac murmured.
“Good luck.” Noah gripped Arden’s shoulder. “See you when you get back.”
She walked to the Hawk hangar with Squad Nine, the drone moving behind her. She saw the berserkers were already prepped and standing beside their Hawk, checking their weapons.
When Dom lifted his head and saw her, his brows drew together.
“What is she doing here?” He stabbed a finger at Arden.
She stepped forward, and the drone above her shoulder, followed her. “She is going on this mission.”
Dom swiveled to Roth. “And you’re on board with this?”
“Not entirely,” Roth said. “But Arden is linked to the new combat drone, and—”
“This is a fucked up idea,” Dom snapped.
“Dom,” Tane said in a warning tone.
“This has nothing to do with you, Dominic Santora.” Arden swiveled and stomped toward her squad’s Hawk. Without looking back at him, she climbed aboard.
* * *
Dom was beyond pissed.
Rage coiled in his belly, and the worst Italian curses he could think of filled his head. He gripped a handhold above his head as the Hawk took off.
Bubbly pilot Maddy was in the cockpit today. The woman was young but she could fly.
As soon as they were up in the sky, Dom glanced out the side window and saw the other Hawk beside them. Arden was on there. Cazzo.
“Not like you to lose your cool like that, Santora,” Tane noted.
Dom stayed silent. Arden was heading into the field, into enemy territory.
“You got something going on with the pretty comms officer from Nine?” Hemi asked.
Dom turned his head and found his squad all watching him. Griff’s gaze was on him like a laser beam.
“No,” Dom answered. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea to send an untrained civilian into this cluster fuck. We don’t even know what we’re facing down there.”
Tane didn’t reply, but the others nodded. Most of them had been forced to take their women into the field at some stage. Indy and Selena had both played a part during the fucked-up mission in Katoomba.
“Well, did you see that combat drone?” Hemi said. “It looked badass.”
“That’s not the goddamned point, Hemi,” Dom said with a growl.
“Dom,” Tane said.
Dom held up a hand. “I’m fine. I just haven’t forgotten carrying a blood-splattered Arden inside after we saved her from that stealth raptor.” Or the way he’d hurt her. Used words to dig at her old wounds.
Levi grunted. “She was freaked.”
Dom dragged in a breath. “I’m focused on the mission.”
And he’d keep one eye on Arden’s slim ass while he was doing it.
“Approaching Mount Wilson,” Maddy called back. “Ready to do your thing, bad boys?”
“We’re ready, baby,” Hemi called back.
They landed in a clearing, just outside the town.
As Dom’s boots hit the dirt, he saw Squad Nine was already out of their quadcopter, and moving into formation. Arden stood beside Taylor, the combat drone hovering in the air nearby.
Roth pointed and Tane nodded. Both squads moved forward.
Arden stared straight ahead, not looking at Dom.
Dom focused on putting one boot in front of the other. He’d done the right thing, pushing her away. He hated that he’d used her grief to do it, but the woman was quickly burrowing under his skin. He had to save her from getting in too deep with him.
As soon as they moved into the main street of the town, the smell of smoke and burning filled his nostrils. Moans reached his ears.
“Stay sharp,” Roth murmured.
They all had their carbines up, their bodies tense.
Arden’s drone swiveled, scanning the street.
“Help…us.”
Dom turned. Two people were dragging themselves along the ground, toward the squads.
One, a woman, reached out a hand. Pain was etched on her face, but her eyes glowed a deep, hungry red.
“Hold,” Roth said.
Dom stopped, as did everyone else. But he could see that it was costing them all. Each one of them wanted to run over and help.
Suddenly, the people on the ground hissed, their faces twisting. The door of a nearby house slammed open, and two more hybrid humans rushed out.
They came in fast, their faces half skin, half scales, and they both had glowing, red eyes. As the pair raised their hands, he saw their fingers were now claws.
The pair let out guttural roars and attacked.
One was close to Arden. She staggered back, throwing her hands up.
Dom swiveled and fired.
Carbine fire erupted, both squads opening fire. The two contaminated hybrids collapsed.
“Fuck.” Tane moved closer to look. “Don’t get too close to the others.”
The two on the ground started snarling, their eyes flashing.
“Can we save them?” Arden asked, horror in her voice.
Dom swallowed against the lump in his throat. They’d seen this before, people infected with Gizzida DNA. But those humans had been trapped in the aliens’ labs and were being experimented on.
He knew once a human was infected, and the Gizzida DNA took hold, there was no way back. Doc Emerson and her team had been trying, but hadn’t found a way to reverse the transformation.
Ash shook his head, a muscle in his jaw ticking. “There’s nothing we can do for them.”
Arden’s drone darted forward. Laser fire shot out, and the two people on the ground stopped moving.
Dom glanced at her. She stood nearby, her face pale and set.
“Come on.” Tane stepped forward.
The two squads moved quietly down the street, encountering more twisted, mutated dead bodies.
A lot of them.
Two more Gizzida hybrids attacked, and Levi and Ash turned to deal with them.
The teams approached the remnants of the test bomb.
“We need pictures,” Roth ordered.
“My drone is recording,” Arden said.
Mac pulled out a small camera. “I’ll take a few extra, as well.”
Tane touched his ear. “Indy, I can confirm that the test bomb was detonated. It looks like it’s spread Gizzida DNA everywhere. Everyone in the town is already well into the change to a hybrid.”
“Fuck.” Indy’s tone was shaky.
Dom stared at the black metal remnants of the bomb. This one was small, but he knew that somewhere out there, the raptors had a much larger version. One designed to do exactly this, but on an immense scale.
It made him feel sick.
This was the aliens’ final weapon. One to rid the Earth of the last of the pesky human survivors. One that would turn every single one of them into Gizzida.
Dom ground his teeth together. Fuck that.
Arden’s drone moved fluidly through the air, scanning and taking pictures. He saw her step away from the group, moving toward a house that looked mostly intact.
Out on the front lawn, he watched her drop to her knees.
Driven by a need he couldn’t fight, he moved toward her. As he got closer, his gut twisted.
Two smaller bodies lay on the overgrown grass. Both were fully covered in thick, gray scales, their faces twisted and deformed.
Kids. They’d just been kids. Probably pre-teens.
Arden knelt there,
staring at them. Unmoving.
Dom reached out and touched her shoulder.
She didn’t look up at him, but she lifted a hand and grabbed his. He tightened his fingers on hers.
Pain and rage vibrated off her.
Suddenly, the front door of the house burst open, and a woman staggered out. She saw the bodies and dropped to her knees.
“My babies,” she wailed.
Arden trembled, then pushed to her feet. She approached the woman.
“Arden,” he warned.
She ignored him. “I’m sorry.”
The woman lifted her face. She looked like she was a few years older than Arden. Life had lined her face, and her dark hair, threaded with gray, was tangled.
“My babies.” A harsh, broken exclamation.
The woman had a tiny patch of scales on her cheek, but otherwise appeared untouched.
“My partner hid us when the aliens came.” The woman looked around wildly. “I fell in the basement and hit my head. When I woke up, Annie and Mickey were gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Arden whispered.
The woman’s face collapsed. “They’re gone.” As she broke into sobs, Arden wrapped her arms around the woman, and shared her grief.
“They aren’t hurting anymore,” Arden whispered.
Dom looked at Tane. “Survivor. Only a small touch of scales.”
Tane nodded. “We’ll take her in.”
Dom nodded, his gaze moving back to Arden’s pale-brown hair. She held the woman, tears tracking down her cheeks. He didn’t look at the smaller bodies again, but Dom vowed that he would make the Gizzida pay.
Chapter Seven
Arden felt icy cold as she sat on the Hawk. She was wedged in between Taylor and Sienna, but she couldn’t feel any warmth.
Around her, the squad was talking, but the mood was somber.
The survivor, Alyssa, sat silently at the back of the Hawk with Mac, a blanket wrapped around her hunched shoulders. Arden understood the grief she saw etched on the woman’s face. Every single bit of it.
Arden looked away. She’d powered down the drone, and it sat on an empty seat behind her. She couldn’t believe the devastation she’d seen at Mount Wilson. That any species could be so callous. Those poor people, twisted and deformed.
Those small bodies…
She squeezed her eyes closed. She sat there in silence, the icy grip tightening, deepening.
It was only when she felt the Hawk start to lower that she realized they were back at the Enclave. Staring woodenly out the window, she saw the rock walls blur past.
“We’re home.” Sienna rubbed Arden’s back, her gaze flicking up to her man, Theron, who was standing nearby.
As soon as Roth pushed the door open, Arden spotted Indy standing outside the Hawk. Her friend looked worried.
Arden reached the door and climbed off the Hawk.
“Hey,” Indy said.
Arden nodded.
Noah appeared. “Good work out there with the drone.”
Arden cleared her throat. “The drone’s in the Hawk—”
He nodded. “I’ll get it and start downloading the data you collected.”
She nodded again, watching as he climbed into the Hawk. When he reappeared, he was holding the drone in one hand.
The alarms sounded again, and she knew the berserkers’ Hawk was incoming.
Indy wrapped an arm around Arden’s shoulders. “Come on.”
“Alyssa—”
“Will be taken care of,” Indy said.
Without saying another word, Arden let her friend whisk her away. She wasn’t even sure what route they took, but soon Indy was leading Arden into her quarters.
Indy nudged her toward the bathroom. “Go and have a hot shower. Your skin feels like ice.”
Like an automaton, Arden stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. She stripped her armor off, then her clothes. She turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray, lifting her face up to the water.
Then the tears fell.
She didn’t make a sound, just let the tears flow quietly down her face. She stayed there until she felt the water start to cool.
She finally shut off the shower, dried herself, and wrapped the towel around her body. She saw Indy had snuck in and left some clean clothes resting on the edge of the bath tub. A long, flowing skirt in a deep navy blue, and a simple white top.
Too tired and heartsick to care what she wore, Arden slipped the clothes on. When she entered her main quarters, Indy was making toast and tea in the kitchenette.
“Here.” Indy set a plate and mug down on the table.
Arden sat in a chair and stared at the food. She wasn’t hungry.
“You okay?” Indy asked.
Arden tried to fight off the despair eating at her insides. She grabbed her friend’s hand. “There were dead children, Indy.”
“I know.” A soft whisper.
“That woman, Alyssa…she’s me.”
“She’s not you, but you understand what she’s going through.”
“I’m not all right.” Arden blew out a breath. “But I will be, eventually.”
Indy squeezed her hand. “You are one of the strongest people I know.”
Arden gave a choked laugh. “Me?”
“You. You survived the worst of circumstances, but now, you’ve found your way to honor those you loved. To remember them, and remember that you’re still alive.”
“Thanks, Indy.”
“Of course.” Her friend’s gorgeous eyes flashed. “Friends take care of friends.”
“Not just for that.” Arden tucked a strand of damp hair back. “For being my friend. For pushing closer when I tried to hold you back.”
Indy tilted her head. “You’re quieter in general, and you were grieving, I knew that. I liked you anyway.”
And Indy was bold, a force of nature. She’d kept pushing until Arden had no choice but to let go of the gray and embrace Indy’s color.
“I love you,” Arden said.
Indy hugged her. “Right back at you, babe.”
Arden sat up straighter. “Now, go be with your guy.” Griff would be champing at the bit to get his hands on his woman.
Indy hesitated.
With another squeeze, Arden released Indy’s fingers and curled her hands around her tea. She wasn’t hungry or thirsty—in fact, she was pretty sure her stomach would rebel—but she forced herself to take a sip. Gah. As always, Indy had piled the sugar in. But Arden wanted to reassure Indy that she was doing okay.
“Go.”
Her friend let out a breath. “Fine. By the way, I found your sketchbook slipped under the door.” She pointed to the table. “I put it over there for you.”
Arden felt a flash of something in her chest. The sketchbook she’d left in Dom’s quarters. “Thanks.”
After another hug, Indy left. In silence, Arden finished the tea and managed a couple bites of the toast. Her gaze moved back to her sketchbook. He’d returned it. Probably known she’d feel the need to draw, to release the horrors she’d seen. Damn him for seeing her so clearly.
She wanted to be okay. She wanted to be like her squad mates and shake off what she’d seen. God, the squad soldiers went out there every day and saw horrible things. Terrible, nightmarish things. And they had to fight and kill.
Her stomach turned over. She felt like the walls were closing in on her.
She needed air.
She needed to get out of there.
Arden jumped to her feet, then snatched up her sketchbook and pencil case, and a soft black blanket off the back of her armchair. She slipped on some shoes and rushed out of her quarters. She started off down one corridor, then realized abruptly she was heading to one of the concealed exits to outdoors. No. She made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. She’d made that mistake once and she wouldn’t do it again.
Not only had she risked her own life, she’d risked Dom and Levi’s. Forced Dom—a man who’d already killed too much
—to take a life again.
She charged through corridors, avoiding anyone who wanted to talk. Eventually, she found herself in the corridor leading to the Garden. After a short ride on the automatic train, she stepped through the doorway into the big, open bowl that had been cut into the top of the escarpment above the Enclave.
As she breathed in the lush scent of flowers and green grass, her racing pulse calmed. It was dark, but the retractable roof was open, and above her, stars twinkled in the vast expanse of space. She caught a glimpse of the round orb of the rising moon.
Looking up, she pulled in some deep, calming breaths. She kicked her shoes off and walked onto the grass, feeling her toes sink into it. Right here, right now, it was easy to imagine that the invasion had never happened. That adults and children had never died.
That her family hadn’t been lost.
Arden wandered deeper into the trees. On one side of the Garden were the neat rows of thriving vegetable plants that helped feed the Enclave. The other side was for recreation, and a safe place for the residents to get some sunshine during the day. Trees were scattered through the thick grass, and there was a large children’s play area, and several picnic tables.
A strange noise caught her ear and she frowned. Thwap. Thwap. Darn, she’d wanted the place to herself.
She circled a tree and her steps faltered.
Dom. He’d showered and was wearing dark pants, and a white, button-down shirt that glowed like a beacon in the darkness. The other berserkers usually dressed like bikers—jeans and T-shirts. But Dom always wore pants and crisp shirts. She liked it. A lot.
She watched him lift an arm and throw something. The moonlight glinted off the knife as it flew through the air, embedding itself firmly in the trunk of a tree.
He lifted his arm and took aim again.
Arden drank him in. The fluid way his body moved as he tossed the knife. His skills were evident.
She didn’t think she’d made a sound, but suddenly, his head whipped around. His gaze moved to her face.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Me, neither.”
She tilted her head. “But you told me you’d seen this all before. You told me that it’s all you know. Death, dying, killing…”
He strode over to the tree that was his target, and this time, his movements were jerky. He yanked the knives out.
Dom: Hell Squad #18 Page 6