by D. Laine
Sadie’s pleading eyes never wavered from mine. “I won’t let them.”
Glancing over her shoulder, I wondered, “Do you really have that kind of pull?”
“I’ll do whatever—”
“Sadie.” One of the Preppers stepped forward. Matt Ewing. My teeth ground together when his hand curled around my sister’s arm. “Calvin won’t let them go. He wants them brought in. Alive, but restrained.”
“I told you,” Maria gritted.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Marcus stated.
“Matt, he’s my brother,” Sadie pleaded. “I just got him back. I’m not going to lose him again.”
“I know. That’s why we’re here.” Matt held his hands up as he stepped closer to our group. The second Prepper, who I could now see was Robbie, followed with her weapon lowered in a nonthreatening position. Meeting my dubious stare, Matt added, “We need to get out of here. Now.”
“I’m sorry. We?”
“I go where she goes, and I’m assuming that’s going to be with you, so . . .” Matt swallowed hard, his eyes settling on Sadie. “I think it’s best if we do this together.”
If it had been any other words that came out of his mouth, I probably would have shot him. Any other words. But those—the exact fucking words that had become our group’s mantra—gave me pause.
I wasn’t exactly ready to run off into the desert with him either. “You expect us to trust you?”
Sadie lurched forward to take my hands in hers. “You can trust him. Please, Dylan. We need to stay together.” Her gaze flicked over my shoulder. “And Thea is going to need our help. Soon.”
I hadn’t forgotten what Calvin had told us. Thea was like the others—like Sadie. Though I didn’t fully understand what that meant, I knew she would need the Preppers’ assistance with whatever was going to happen next. That realization, coupled with my sister’s pleading eyes, swayed me.
“Fine.” I lowered my weapon with a scowl directed at Matt. “But I’ll be watching you.”
“Likewise,” he gritted between clenched teeth.
“First, we need to get around the other Preppers,” Maria pointed out with her usual flare of impatience. “Anyone have any suggestions?”
“We’re going to need a vehicle,” Jake concluded. “Otherwise, we won’t get far on foot.”
“We can double back to the highway,” Marcus suggested. “Take two cars and sabotage the rest.”
“There are too many of them,” Matt responded. “You’ll hit resistance if you go that way.”
“I might have a better idea.” Turning to Jake, I asked, “Do you think the agency kept all those new vehicles charged and ready?”
He nodded, knowing what I was suggesting. “There’s only one way to find out.”
I had a hard time letting go of Sadie when we moved. Her fingers slipping from mine caused me an actual physical pain. But I could still see her. She was still close—just holding hands with a guy I didn’t like.
We ducked. We dodged. We evaded. It wasn’t easy for eight people to dart from building to building without being seen by the Preppers who searched the grounds, but we made it to hangar five without anyone raising an alarm.
An agent—what was left him—lay near the opening. A clipboard splattered with blood rested at his fingertips. I slowed long enough to swipe it up and take a glance. As suspected, he had a list of which vehicles were in for maintenance, which needed to be stocked and loaded, and which were fully charged. Considering there were eight of us, we needed two vehicles.
“We’re in luck,” I announced, tapping the clip board. “Cars eleven and twelve were charged yesterday, according to this.”
“Eleven and twelve?” Jake repeated while he scanned the pegboard holding rows and rows of keys. He snatched the ones we needed, and nodded toward the assembly of flashy black cars. “Are they marked?”
“The rear bumper,” Marcus announced. Waving his hand across the first row of cars, he added, “They seem to be parked in order.”
We took a collective step toward the back of the hangar. Marcus and Maria ran ahead, checking bumpers for numbers. Finally, Maria announced, “Found them!”
Jake stopped to study the supplies piled in the corner—everything from spare weapons to bottles of water. “Everyone grab something. We’ll ration it out later.”
I snatched an armful of MREs and stuffed them into vehicle twelve alongside the weapons already taking up space in the trunk. Once both cars were loaded with as much as we could fit, I snagged Sadie’s elbow. “You’re riding with me.”
She followed me to the passenger side door with a nod. “Matt, too. Please?”
“Fine. Just get in.” I turned to usher Thea into the car after Sadie when voices near the hangar’s entrance forced us all to the floor like a herd of spooked deer.
I couldn’t make out their words, but it was clear that they had no idea where we had gone.
“Go, get in,” I told Thea urgently. “Stay low.”
She slipped into the back seat beside Sadie. Matt followed her, and I climbed into the front. Jake was already behind the wheel, ready to crank the engine. Beside us, Marcus gave the all-ready signal.
Problem was we had four rows of vehicles lined up in front of us. It wasn’t going to be a dramatic, punchy exit—not when we had to slowly reverse to avoid hitting the supply shelf behind us and cut around a few cars before taking a shot at the open.
At least the vehicles were quiet. Jake and Marcus each managed to back the cars out of their parking spots without causing a stir. The scraping of metal on metal when Marcus cut a little too close to the supply shelf did it. A beam of light swept over us, partially blinding me to the group of Preppers blocking the exit. What I could see was a lot of firepower—all pointed at us.
“You think these things are really bulletproof?” Jake wondered as he thrust the car into drive.
“God, I hope so.”
I sank into my seat when he punched the gas. Rows of parked vehicles passed by me in a blur. Over the roar of the engine, I heard the tink-tink-tink of bullets ricocheting off the windshield. So far, the car lived up to its hype. Sneaking a peek through the mirror, I confirmed that Marcus, Maria, and Robbie were on our ass in the other car.
Preppers dove out of our way as we raced by them. The tires skated across the ash before gripping the ground. Jake cut the wheel hard, kicking up dirt and ash, before zipping through the narrow roadway between buildings. The Preppers we met wisely scattered. Only one obstacle stood between us and the wide-open desert now.
I gripped the door when we cleared the last building and the imposing fence that circled the base came into view. It was built to withstand vehicular assault. These cars were built to withstand Lucifer and his army—assuming Spence hadn’t lied about that too. Only one could win this showdown, and I wasn’t convinced it would be us.
“Uh, Jake . . .” I tightened my hold on my gun, as if that could help.
He didn’t slow. “Everybody hold on to something.”
I confirmed my seatbelt was in place before resuming my death grip on the door. My teeth snapped together at the moment of impact, and I thanked God my tongue was nowhere in the way. Metal clashed and twisted—and the fence gave way. The engine of our small tank rumbled as Jake pushed its tires over the bumpy terrain. Spinning in my seat, I saw Marcus clear the mangled mess behind us.
In the distance, Preppers scrambled. They would never catch us.
We were free.
“So now what?” I threw the question out to no one in particular.
Three pairs of hesitant eyes stared at me from the back seat.
Beside me, Jake’s jaw clenched. “We run,” he finally stated.
“And if the Watchers come for us?”
Jake stared at the road, nodding his head, for a long time before he turned to me with a grin. “Then we do what we do best.”
We fight.
EPILOGUE
Dylan
; The moon was visible from the desert. Not bright, but brighter than it had appeared in weeks. Ash still fell, though not as heavy as it had once been. I could now see some stars. I counted eight of the tiny dots in the black sky.
I found that fitting. Eight stars for the eight of us. I only hoped that, with time, both would strengthen in numbers. Each star that found its way through the ash cover represented another life on Earth to fight for.
We would win this war. Even if a few stars faded in the process.
Slender arms wrapped around me from behind and crisscrossed my chest. I leaned into Thea’s embrace as she planted a kiss on my shoulder.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked me.
“Just thinking.”
“The food is almost ready. You need to eat something.”
“I will.”
We had driven all day, and well into the night, before stopping. None of us had eaten. I should be famished by now, but I wasn’t. Not for food anyway.
I clasped her hands in mine and turned at the waist, searching for her lips. After the long day we’d had, it wasn’t enough. I turned the rest of the way around, digging my fingers into her waist as I kissed her long and hard. It still wasn’t enough.
I broke away with a tortured groan and cast a glance over her head toward the makeshift camp, where the rest of our group mingled. Thea and I were somewhat hidden by one of the cars . . . but we were still too close for what I wanted to do. Not with the way sounds carried out here in the desert.
Almost as if he heard the thoughts in my head, Jake looked directly at me. The slight shake of his head finalized it. I wasn’t going to get lucky now, or likely anytime soon.
“I think you ratted us out to your brother,” I told Thea before pressing my lips to her temple.
She buried her head in my shoulder with a groan. “I keep forgetting about that damn connection.”
I chuckled as Jake strolled up beside us with a contrite smile on his face. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he didn’t look at us, but at the few stars dotting the sky.
“They’re coming back,” he noted.
Thea turned to follow the direction of his gaze, and a small gasp flew out of her mouth when she saw them. Still only eight, but they looked incredible.
The three of us stood shoulder to shoulder and stared up at the sky. For the first time in a long time, I felt at peace. I realized I shouldn’t yet—not with everything I had learned in the past thirty-six hours—but having Thea and Jake beside me soothed the turmoil raging inside of me.
Having my sister back certainly helped. But Jake and Thea?
We had started this together. And we would finish it together.
“I feel like we own them,” Thea whispered. “Like they’re our stars, because we’re seeing them for the first time.”
“You realize there are eight of them,” I pointed out.
Jake chuckled lightly. “We each have our own star.”
We watched as another speck slowly materialized, fainter than the others. But there.
Beside me, Thea looped an arm around Jake’s elbow, then leaned her head against my shoulder with a contented sigh.
“I like that,” Jake mused softly, apparently tuned into what she was feeling.
“That’s not fair,” I pointed out, unable to take my eyes off the faint twinkling light in the sky.
“It’s David’s star,” Thea explained. “It’s like he’s still with us.”
My throat tightened as I peered into the night. Although I didn’t dare say it out loud, I feared that more members of our group would have a star named after them before this was over.
My voice, when I finally spoke, was thick with emotion. “It’s David’s star, then.”
ENDURED
APOCALYPSE ASSASSINS BOOK 3
PROLOGUE
Dylan
I had always been the hunter, the one who struck fear into the hearts of my enemies. I never knew any different. Until them.
The tides had shifted. I was now the hunted.
The sensation of being watched crawled across my skin and seeped into my bones, filling me with an unpleasant sense of awareness. They were out there. Watching. Waiting.
I knew what had to be done. I had long known that, in doing so, one of us would have to die.
I glanced up at the dark sky, immediately spotting the twinkling stars that had followed me for weeks. They each had a name, given by those of us who survived, and shone down on me with their newly minted strength. They gave me the confidence I needed to take the first step toward my own destiny.
This would end tonight.
No more stars would be named after our fallen.
Save for one.
1
DYLAN
Three weeks earlier
Lucifer had a wicked sense of humor. The actual demon—not the vessel. We still had no idea who the vessel was, or where he was hiding. His master certainly wasn’t making the task of finding him easy. No doubt Lucifer was chilling in his cage, laughing his ass off, because he had to know what he was doing. There was no way this shit could be considered a coincidence.
A particularly strong gust of wind whipped around my legs, nearly bowling me over, as I staggered over to the rest of the group. Hunkered down in a cold, dark corner on the bottom level of a random parking garage somewhere in northeastern Nevada, they were spared from the worst of the wind and the blowing sand and ash.
Until the asshole who controlled the elements these days decided to switch it up on us again. Nothing about this windstorm was natural. Like the flash flood we had barely avoided being swept away by two days ago, this wind was created with the sole purpose of making our already difficult lives exceptionally heinous.
I tossed an armful of protein bars, MREs, and bottles of water on the ground in the center of the group, and my comrades sprang like a pack of rabid dogs after a bone. We were only slightly better off than a bunch of animals. We still shared. We made sure everyone in our group ate and drank and got their fair share of rest. We were smart enough to know we were only as strong as our weakest link. For that reason alone, we had each other’s backs.
Despite the perception of comradery spurred by our need for survival, there were two in the group I would not turn my back to. It didn’t matter what my sister said, or how many times she said it. I didn’t entirely trust the two newest additions to our group.
Matt Ewing and Robbie Winston were untested as far as I was concerned. Sure Robbie was on okay girl, and Sadie was in love with Ewing, and he displayed all the signs of a lovesick fool, but they were still Preppers—members of the group who had deemed us assassins as threats because we weren’t tagged with a dose of demon blood.
We were vessels capable of hosting Watchers—God’s missionaries who were created to guide humans on their path to greatness. Over time the Watchers had grown jealous of humans for their freedom, and were now intent on taking over what remained of Earth and forcing the human survivors of the apocalypse into slavery. Since that technically included the Preppers, they wanted to rid the Earth of all Watchers.
The only way to ensure that was to see every last vessel killed. Or shot up with demon blood—if that actually worked. I wasn’t entirely convinced. Because that would require me to take the word of the Prepper’s group leader, Calvin. I trusted him even less than I trusted Ewing.
Only Ewing’s devotion to my sister had kept him from turning us over to Calvin when we fled the agency’s base a few days ago. We weren’t sure what exactly the Preppers had planned to do with us when they caught us, nor did we know if they were still tracking us, but we weren’t waiting around to find out. I would ride out everything Lucifer threw at us with a smile on my face before I allowed myself to be dragged away in chains. Or worse.
“You know he’s doing this, right?” I faced the group and jabbed a thumb over my shoulder to indicate the wind swirling between the thick concrete pillars behind me.
“Who?” my partner and best fri
end, Jake Walker, questioned.
“Lucifer.” I knelt down to snatch a bottle of water before it rolled away, twisted off the cap, and took a hearty gulp. “He’s fucking with us.”
“You don’t think he has better things to do than to play games with us?” Ewing asked around a mouthful of food.
I ignored him. “It’s like he’s trying to weaken us, to force us to go crawling back to the Preppers or something.”
“Why would he want that?” The skepticism in Ewing’s tone rang clear.
I turned at the waist to glare at him while I mentally tallied up the long list of snarky and condescending comments he had made in the past few days. I had a limit to what I could tolerate. He was quickly approaching it.
“Not the Preppers. He wants you to go to the Watchers,” Sadie said, forcing me to drop my visual standoff with her boyfriend. “He wants to fight them. He wants the big battle. He’s confident he will win, to the point of arrogance.”
“He’s doing a good job of it so far,” Ewing muttered.
“Who are you?” I snapped. “The manager of his fan club?”
He glared at me for a second. Two. Then he widened his arms in a sweeping gesture. “Just stating the obvious. Unless you consider this winning.”
I ground my molars until my jaw throbbed, then cracked the cartilage in my neck while imagining it to be Ewing’s bones snapping instead. A hand curled around my arm, silently encouraging me to keep my cool. I didn’t need to look to know it was Thea’s hand, and I promptly slipped my fingers between hers.
Thea was Jake’s twin sister, and the only girl to have ever convinced me to reconsider my unsavory views on commitment. Despite an entire adolescence swearing off the concept of limiting myself to only one woman, taking the plunge into boyfriend-dom had not been as difficult as I always assumed it would be.
I wasn’t so sure it was monogamy I was impressed with as much as it was Thea. I would do anything for her. That included playing nice with Ewing.