Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops #4)

by Paige Tyler

  Ivy easily avoided the hybrid’s clumsy counterstrikes, tearing into the creature with calm precision. Ivy’s claws found the hybrid’s throat so fast even Minka’s enhanced vision could barely see the blur of motion. Once that hybrid was down, Ivy dealt with the one Minka had hamstrung just as quickly.

  Minka turned, looking for the doctors. As much as the big hybrid concerned her, it was the doctors the beast inside her wanted. A movement over by the double doors that led outside caught her attention. She snapped her head around just in time to see Klaus and Renard flee into the darkness. The big hybrid raced after them. The sight of the men who had tortured her escaping was too much for the beast. With a growl, the beast took over, and she ran full speed toward the doors.

  Minka knew she should stay and make sure Angelo was okay. But she couldn’t. No matter how much she tried to fight the beast and lock in on Angelo’s scent and the image of him in her head, it did no good. The beast wanted the two men who had tortured her, and now that Minka had set it free, there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop it.

  Chapter 15

  Landon and Diaz had just finished clearing out the remaining guards from the barracks and were hauling ass over to the other building to help Trevor and Watson when the whole freaking world exploded.

  The resounding boom was like a punch in the chest, sending him and Diaz flying. Fireballs and metal fragments flew through the air, smacking into the buildings and ground around them. All Landon could do was hug the dirt and pray nothing landed on top of them as munitions from the ammo dump kept cooking off and throwing crap everywhere.

  The worst of it was just starting to slow when something else blew up on the far side of the compound. From where he was lying on the ground, Landon could feel the blast wave sweep over him. He lifted his head in time to see a big, flaming fuel drum smash into the side of the building Ivy and Angelo had gone into. Oh God. Whatever had blown up the ammo holding area must have gotten to the fuel area, too.

  Before he could radio either of them to check in, more fuel drums started raining down, splashing liquid fire around like some kind of pissed-off medieval dragon. The whole damn compound was going to go up.

  “Get to the admin building!” Landon shouted at Diaz.

  He and Diaz had just scrambled to their feet when another fuel drum hit the ground where he’d been lying just seconds before and burst into flames. Shit.

  Landon heard a thud somewhere overhead and turned to see another fuel drum hit the admin building. Fuck. They needed to get those guys out of there.

  He and Diaz rushed into the building to find the place was already on fire. Even through the haze, Landon could see that while this place may have started as an office, it wasn’t one now. It was more like a cross between an emergency room and a prison cell block. A handful of cells closed off by steel bars lined the wall on the far side of the big room, while the entire center section was filled with carts of medical equipment, computer stations, and metal gurneys.

  Right now, though, it looked more like something out of a madhouse. Flames raced and licked along the ceiling and far wall, and heavy smoke was already curling around the ceiling, making his eyes water.

  Landon blinked and looked around for his guys. Trevor was crouched behind a table, ripping a big computer apart with his bare hands. A moment later, he yanked out the hard drive and dropped it into his rucksack.

  A couple feet away, Watson was keeping two enraged hybrids busy by popping off shots at them every time they poked their heads out of their cells. The bodies of three dead hybrids lay on the floor halfway between the cells and where Trevor and Watson had barricaded themselves. The creatures had obviously died trying their best to get to his guys and rip out their throats. Landon and Diaz raced over to help.

  Watson glanced at him. “Man, nice of you to finally show up. These things are frigging insane.”

  Landon opened his mouth to answer when Derek’s voice came over the radio.

  “Captain, if you’re out there, I’m in deep shit and could really use that help about now. And if you have any explosives, I could use some of those, too.”

  * * *

  Angelo had known he and Ivy were screwed the moment their M4s had run out of ammo. The one saving grace to the whole fucked-up situation was that he couldn’t imagine how it could get any worse.

  Then Minka had skidded into the room. That was when Angelo decided his imagination sucked because things had definitely gotten worse.

  Time had stopped as Minka stood there frozen in the doorway and the red glow in her eyes dimmed. The beast had picked a shitty time to bail on Minka. He’d shouted at her to run before the hybrids—or worse, the doctors—could get to her.

  But she’d stayed, and the next few minutes had been the longest of his life as he’d watched her fight the hybrids.

  Angelo was still trying to finish off the hybrid trying to kill him when an explosion rocked the building, knocking him to the floor. He crawled to his feet, tossing away the broken remnants of his M4 and reaching for the knife on his belt. He would have to get a lot closer to the hybrid than he liked to use it, but he didn’t have a choice.

  On the far side of the room, Klaus and Renard ran for the doors, the big-ass hybrid right behind them. Angelo swore as Minka raced after them.

  Fuck.

  “Minka, stop!” he shouted.

  She ignored him.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Ivy hesitate, her gaze darting from him to the doors.

  “I’ll deal with the hybrid,” he told her. “You stay with Minka.”

  Ivy nodded and took off running.

  Angelo moved to block the doors in case the hybrid tried to follow Minka and Ivy. He needn’t have bothered. The thing charged him like a deranged bull, going from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.

  Angelo had just enough time to get his knife up before the enraged monster slammed into him like a freight train. Angelo wasn’t a small guy, but the force of the impact still knocked him off his feet and slammed him to the ground. The hybrid crashed down on top of him, crushing him to the floor and knocking the air out of his lungs.

  Son of a bitch.

  With stars dancing in his vision, Angelo fought to get the knife up from in between them, but the damn thing was stuck. He knew he had to do something fast—before the hybrid started tearing into him—but the knife wouldn’t move.

  The hybrid didn’t tear into him, though. In fact, the creature simply collapsed on him, knocking what little air had made it back into Angelo’s lungs right out again. He shoved the creature off his chest and crawled out from under it. That was when he discovered his knife was shoved right through the hybrid’s heart.

  Angelo didn’t waste time trying to figure out how he’d gotten so lucky. He jerked the knife out and scrambled to his feet, then sprinted out the doors after Minka and Ivy. He knew Ivy would try to take care of Minka, but there was still a lot that could go wrong. He had to find Minka and get her back under control before she got hurt.

  Outside, he headed toward the rear of the compound where the vehicles were, sure that had to be where Klaus, Renard, and that big-ass hybrid guard had gone. And if they were going that way, so was Minka.

  All around him, the compound looked like a scene from Dante’s Inferno. Random explosions were still occurring within the wreck of the building that used to house the compound’s ammo, throwing chunks of metal and wood all over the place. The smoke was so thick from the multiple fires burning, he could barely see more than ten feet in front of him. He had to trust he was heading the right way as he moved toward the motor pool.

  He tried to contact Landon on the radio as he moved slowly through the thick smoke. But other than a few broken words here and there, he couldn’t reach him. Shit, for all he knew, his radio had been busted during the fight…or worse.

  Then from somewhere just ahead of him, he heard pistol shots ring out, quickly followed by feline growls that he was sure were Minka’s.

/>   He took off running in that direction, dodging the falling debris and raging fires, praying he reached Minka in time—and that she wouldn’t be so far gone when he got there that he couldn’t get her back.

  * * *

  By the time Landon reached the doors leading into the research facility and darted inside, the fire on the roof was already blazing at least twenty feet high. He hadn’t been able to reach anybody on the radio on the way over, so he had no idea what the hell was going on with Ivy, Angelo, or Derek. All he could say for sure was that there was no way a person could last much longer in that building—not in that fire. If it hadn’t been for the short call from Derek, he would never have come in here to look for him in the first place.

  Landon slipped into the big, open space, covering his face with his arm as he looked around for Ivy, Angelo, or Derek. It was hot as hell and the smoke was getting thicker by the second, but at least he could breathe. There was no sign of his people, though. All he saw were dead hybrids and a lot of blood. He ran through another set of double doors, then down a long hall. He shouted Derek’s name, but there was no answer. That didn’t mean anything. He doubted anyone could hear him over the roar of the flames.

  Landon skidded to a stop when he reached a room full of cells and saw Derek pounding on one of the door locks with a steel bar. Though the medic was hitting the lock mechanism as hard as he could, it was obvious he wasn’t going to get through the heavy-duty lock.

  Landon wasn’t sure if it mattered. There were six cells in the room, and all of them held hybrids, but the creatures in four of the cells, including the one Derek was working on, weren’t moving at all.

  The other two hybrids—a bare-chested man and a woman with a wild mane of dark blond hair—were going absolutely nuts. They were yanking at the chains around their ankles so hard Landon was worried they’d tear off their own feet. He swore when he caught sight of the American flag tattooed on the male hybrid’s shoulder. Shit, that guy was almost certainly a soldier.

  Derek dropped the steel bar when he saw Landon. “Thank God you’re here. I found a single set of keys that I think opens the manacles around their ankles, but nothing for the cell doors. Some guard probably has it on his fucking belt.” He motioned to the cells. “We need to get the others out fast. They won’t last long in this smoke. Please tell me you brought some bang with you.”

  Landon was about to point out that they were probably wasting their time with the four hybrids who weren’t moving, but then he stopped himself. Derek wouldn’t care. He was a Special Forces medic. He never gave up on anyone who was injured, no matter how bad it looked.

  So Landon nodded and yanked off his rucksack, dropping it to the floor. “I got explosives. Where are Ivy and Angelo?”

  “They went after Klaus and Renard,” Derek said.

  That’s what Landon figured. If he had a minute, he would have tried to get them on the radio to make sure they were okay, but with the fire spreading, he wasn’t sure he and Derek were going to have enough time to blow the cell doors, much less anything else.

  “We don’t have time to mess around,” he told Derek. “We’ll rig all the doors to blow at once, then figure out how to deal with the two conscious hybrids after that.”

  Derek focused on cutting and molding the plastic explosives into charges while Landon strung out the detonation cord and crimped on the blasting caps. The det cord would explosively transmit the shock wave from one charge to the next, while the blasting caps would boost it enough to set off the C4.

  “Keep the charges as small as possible,” Landon told Derek. “We want to blow through the locks, not rip them apart and frag the hell out of the hybrids.”

  Around them, the flames and smoke were getting worse by the second. It was already difficult to breathe. Another few minutes, and the superheated air in the space would start searing their lungs.

  Derek attached the explosive charges to the door locks, then tried his best to motion the two conscious hybrids toward the back of the cell. It didn’t look like it was working. They were still yanking on the chains holding them to the floor like they were insane.

  “I’m pulling the shot now,” Landon shouted as he attached the firing device on the end of the last piece of det cord. “We’ll just have to pray they’ll be okay.”

  Derek looked torn as he stared at the female hybrid standing a few steps from the cell door. But finally he nodded and ran past Landon, ducking around the nearest corner.

  Landon punched in the shortest delay on the countdown timer—five seconds—then pressed the green button and raced after Derek.

  He’d barely made it to the corner when he heard the sharp, distinctive crack of C4 plastic explosive going off. He immediately turned around to head back and almost got run over by the male hybrid with the slashed chest hauling ass past them toward the exit, the manacle and chain dragging behind him. Landon didn’t even reach for his weapon. Not that it would have done much good. The hybrid was out of sight in the blink of an eye. Landon couldn’t have brought himself to shoot the man anyway. He was a soldier just trying to get away.

  “What the hell happened with him?” Derek asked as they ran back to the cells.

  “The explosion must have freaked him out so much he ripped his manacle right out of the wall.”

  “Well, we wanted to get him out—he’s out,” Derek said. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t go after any of our people.”

  Derek checked for a pulse on each of the four unconscious hybrids before unlocking the manacles around their ankles.

  “They’re alive, but just barely. Get them out of here, and I’ll try to figure out how I’m going to get the woman to let me in there with her.”

  Landon carried each of them outside, one after another, praying that getting them into the open air might help. He was just coming back inside after he’d taken the last out when he realized they’d run out of time. The ceiling was completely engulfed by fire now, with heavy pieces starting to fall to the floor and flames running down the walls so fast it looked like a burning waterfall. Unfortunately, Derek was still having problems with the last hybrid, the totally freaked-out female.

  “Why haven’t you gotten her unlocked yet?” he shouted.

  “I’m fucking trying,” Derek said, “but I can’t get close enough to unlock the chain around her ankle.”

  Landon hurried over to help, but that only seemed to make the hybrid more agitated. She snarled, reaching out to try to claw Derek.

  Shit.

  How the hell could they save her if she wanted to kill them?

  * * *

  The beast was so eager to go after the doctors, it almost got Minka killed. She’d just entered the fenced-in area where the vehicles were parked when Renard stepped out from behind a dirt-covered Land Rover and started shooting at her.

  She leaped to the side and rolled across the ground toward the protection offered by another vehicle. As fast as she moved, she still felt the hot sting as a bullet creased a line along her back, from her right shoulder to her left hip.

  Scrambling to her feet, she ran around the vehicle, hoping to catch Renard from behind. She came out from behind the truck low and fast but didn’t see him. She could smell his stench, though. Then she heard footsteps farther down the line of vehicles. She immediately changed direction, leaping on top of the Land Rover and bounding from one vehicle to the next.

  She’d just landed on a big military truck when she felt that familiar tingle along the back of her neck. She’d been tricked. In the beast’s desire to get to Renard, it had completely forgotten about the other hybrid…until now. Renard had been luring her into a trap. And she had fallen for it.

  Minka twisted in midair, trying to change course, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the bullet coming at her. It hit her left hip, and she crashed to the ground with a yowl of pain. She tried to spring to her feet, but her left leg responded sluggishly, and she ended up tumbling to the ground again.

  She shoved herself up wi
th her hands, intending to crawl away if she had to, but by then it was too late. Gravel crunched on the ground in front of her, and she looked up to see Renard standing there, the big hybrid at his side. The creature held a large pistol in its hands, and it was pointed straight at her head. It seemed strange that a hybrid as big and terrifying as this one would prefer a gun over its natural weapons.

  “You’re one fast, vicious animal, I’ll give you that, girl,” Renard sneered. “But you’re still just a dumb animal. I knew that all I had to do was get you separated from that feline shifter bitch and you would be easy to take down.”

  Trapped under the control of the beast, Minka flinched at the fact that she hadn’t even thought about Ivy following her. What had they done to her?

  Renard smiled and took a step closer. The beast inside Minka gave a soft growl. Renard had always liked to get as close as he could when he was going to hurt her, so he could see the pain in her eyes. He would stand within inches of her chains’ limits, knowing she could not hurt him.

  Well, there were no chains stopping her now. This time, there was nothing to keep the beast from making Renard pay for every single horrible thing he’d done to her and all the other people he’d tortured and killed. This time, he would be the one screaming in pain.

  But then, just as she started to tense her good leg for a lunge, Renard motioned the hybrid forward. “Shoot her but don’t kill her. We’ll throw her in the back of the truck, and I’ll deal with her later. Be quick about it. We need to help Johan before that shifter bitch gets him.”

  The beast inside Minka growled low and deep, preparing to go for the big hybrid instead of Renard. But the hybrid wasn’t as stupid as the doctor. He moved to the side, out of Minka’s attack range, and lifted the pistol, pointing it right at the base of her spine. Minka’s blood went cold. The hybrid was going to paralyze her so Renard could do whatever he wanted to her when he got around to it.