by Anna Hackett
Taylor felt a flush touch her cheeks. They stared at each other for a beat. She cleared her throat. “Where are the other veloxes?”
“Combing the tunnels would be my guess. It’s a maze down here and there’s no telling how far they extend. Let’s keep moving and hope we don’t run into them.” He held something out to her.
It was her makeshift knife.
She took it, and then together, they headed back down the tunnel.
“So, if you didn’t dream of being a soldier, what did you want to be?” he asked her, out of the blue.
She laughed quietly. He wanted to chat, like they were just out for a stroll. Like they hadn’t just killed a vicious alien and were being hunted by more. “A writer. I was always writing stories.” God, she hadn’t told anyone about that in years.
“Oh? What kind?”
“Action-packed ones. Stories where my super girl sleuth always got the bad guys and solved the crime.”
“You don’t write anymore?”
A sour feeling developed in her stomach. “No—”
Suddenly, he grabbed her and jerked her to a stop. He pulled her against the wall and stared ahead into the tunnel.
Taylor cocked her head, trying to hear what it was that had spooked him.
He kept staring, his body taut.
Then she heard it. Voices.
Raptor and human.
Chapter Five
Devlin could hear confused, panicked human voices echoing in the tunnels ahead.
“Where are we?” A man’s sharp voice.
“Oh, my God.” A woman sobbing.
Then there was the distinct sound of raptor grunts. Golden light flared brightly, then the voices cut off abruptly.
“You inferior species. So easily manipulated.” A raptor speaking in English.
Devlin crept to the tunnel’s edge. Taylor moved with him, staying right behind him. They peered around the edge.
In the adjoining tunnel, he saw a group of about twenty humans. They were huddled together, several raptors standing in front of them. One raptor was holding a large, glowing, yellow globe the size of a basketball. All the humans were staring at the light, enraptured.
Devlin frowned, taking in the wide, vacant eyes and the still bodies. What was going on?
The raptor began to walk and the people followed. Moving with their arms still by their sides, feet shuffling, like automatons.
Taylor gave a quiet gasp. “What the hell is that thing?”
“Some sort of mind-control device.” It was Devlin’s best guess. And the implications were bad. “We need to be careful not to look directly at it.”
The raptor with the globe had what passed for a smile on his face, as he spoke with the other raptors, leading the humans into another tunnel.
“We need more intel on this globe.” Taylor gripped Devlin’s shoulder. “They have a way to control us. We have to find a way to stop it.”
Damn, she was incredible. They were hurt, they needed to get out of here, but she was willing to risk herself to help others.
He nodded. “Let’s follow them.”
They moved stealthily through the tunnel after the others, careful not to make any sound.
Devlin glanced down at Taylor’s bare feet and could see they were dirty and bloody. If she felt any pain, she wasn’t showing it.
He heard the raptors talking again. They’d stopped. Taylor and Devlin paused at the end of the tunnel and ahead, he saw a large cavern.
There were cages. Lots of cages. And even more humans behind the bars. Devlin’s jaw tightened. Imprisoned like cattle.
He pressed his hand against the wall, his fingers digging into the rock. Using this globe, the raptors could lure people out of hiding and lock more of them away. Or worse.
He and Taylor watched as the people were herded into cages. He spotted one woman, with long, tangled, auburn hair, wearing a ragged skirt. She appeared to be less under the influence than the others, and was starting to struggle.
A raptor moved closer and hit the woman.
Beside him, Devlin felt Taylor take a step forward. He slammed an arm out and held her back.
He saw the raptor land another blow on the defenseless woman, and Devlin struggled himself, not to help her.
But they couldn’t take on all these raptors by themselves, and they couldn’t rescue these people right now. It made his gut burn, but there were other people—at the Enclave and other human outposts around the world—that also needed to be protected from whatever the hell the raptors were doing here.
“We can’t rescue them now,” he murmured. “But we’ll come back.” He vowed that he’d be back for them, one way or another.
Suddenly, the alien holding the globe swung around, the orb glowing brightly and shining in their direction. Devlin automatically closed his eyes, but beside him, he felt Taylor’s body go lax.
She took a step away from their cover.
“No.” He kept his whisper quiet. He wrapped his arms around her middle, tugging her back into the shadows.
She struggled woodenly against him, trying to get free, but she didn’t make a sound. Her eyes were eerily blank. All the life he’d seen burning in her subdued.
“Taylor. Snap out of it.”
A milky-white film seemed to be covering her eyes. She was just…gone.
She pushed feebly against him, and he tightened his arms.
Then, he heard raptor shouts, and his head snapped up.
Goddammit. The aliens had spotted them.
Devlin sucked in a deep breath. Seven raptors were heading their way. He shoved Taylor back against the wall, and lifted his raptor weapon.
Battle calm settled over him. He’d been outnumbered plenty of times before. Devlin preferred to get in and out without getting seen, but when you made a career of spying in enemy territory, sometimes your luck didn’t always hold.
And this time, he had extra incentive standing behind him. He had to protect Taylor.
He widened his stance, aimed the weapon, and fired. The gun bucked in his hands, but he’d learned to compensate for the strange feel of it. He took down two raptors before the other two leaped over their fallen comrades and got close to him.
Devlin ducked, then kicked out. With no shoes, he couldn’t do much damage unless he did this right. He hit the raptor’s knee at just the right angle, and the raptor toppled. Devlin leaped up—his emotions were stone-cold now, and he was completely in the zone. He was focused on nothing but what he had to do to take the enemy down.
He slammed an elbow into the neck of the nearest raptor, gripped the leather straps crossing the raptor’s scaly chest, then spun him. He pushed the raptor into another oncoming one. He jumped over the fallen bodies, and jammed his stiffened fingers into the eyes of the next raptor. The alien roared.
Devlin turned, lifted his weapon, and fired. He didn’t make a sound as he took them all down.
Only one raptor was left.
The one holding the globe.
Without looking directly at the light, Devlin strode toward the final raptor. He appeared frozen, staring at his downed friends.
Devlin kicked out, and the globe fell from the alien’s hands. It hit the ground, smashing into pieces, and plunging them into murky darkness. Another swift kick, and the shocked raptor fell backward. As the alien scuttled backward, Devlin crouched and scooped up a shard of yellow glass. Two more long steps over the broken pieces, and he reached the raptor. The alien snarled, but Devlin rammed the glass into his scaly neck. The raptor fell back, gurgling.
Devlin straightened. The humans locked in the cages were starting to cry and yell.
He pivoted and moved back to Taylor. She was still huddled against the wall, blinking.
“Taylor?” That white film still hid her beautiful eyes.
She blinked again, but didn’t respond to him. His heart kicked in his chest. He cupped her cheeks, desperate to see the life back in her eyes. Without thinking, he pressed his mouth to
hers.
After two seconds, she made a throaty sound, and her mouth opened. The next thing he knew, her tongue was thrusting inside his mouth, tangling with his. He groaned, pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. Her arms slid around his neck and she moaned against his lips.
He lost all sense of time, lost in the taste of her. He was damned reluctant to give up her mouth, but he forced himself to lift his head. “You back now?”
She nodded her head. “Yeah. Thanks.”
Her eyes were once again warm cognac and it eased the tightness in his chest.
Taylor looked over his shoulder, and saw the sobbing humans in the cages. “We have to help them.”
As Taylor hurried over to the cells, Devlin paused to snatch up a piece of yellow glass. He shoved it in his pocket. The geek squad back at base would need it.
At the cells, people reached their hands through the bars, most of them clearly dazed and confused.
One young boy stood close to the bars, large, dark eyes staring at them. He couldn’t be older than five. When he saw they were looking at him, he smiled.
“God,” Taylor murmured. “Hey there, sweetie. We’re going to get you out, okay?”
The boy nodded.
Devlin studied the locks on the cages. He felt a muscle tick in his jaw. They were heavy-duty, and he couldn’t see a way to pick them open. Damn.
“Maybe if we fire the raptor weapon on the locks, the poison will start eating through the metal,” Taylor suggested.
Devlin nodded and lifted his weapon. “Move back,” he warned the prisoners inside. He fired.
The poison hit the lock…and not much happened. The poison did sizzle faintly, but the damage was minimal.
“The locks must be reinforced,” he said grimly.
“Keep firing,” she said, her face set.
He nodded and fired again.
The sounds of raptor shouts and grunts echoing down the tunnels caught his ear.
Reinforcements were coming.
Despair washed through him, and he glanced at the boy watching them. Devlin closed his eyes for a second. It wouldn’t be the first time he hadn’t been able to save someone. He suspected it wouldn’t be the last, either.
He looked at Taylor. “We can’t stay.”
She bit her lip, looking like she wanted to hit something. She sucked in a few breaths.
Finally, she nodded. She turned to face the cages, crouching down near the boy. “What’s your name?”
“Max,” he whispered.
“Hey, Max, I’m Taylor.” Devlin saw her pull something from her pocket. The small heart charm. She handed it to the boy. “We’ll be back for you. A very brave woman gave this to me, so you take care of it for me now, okay? It’s a lucky charm.”
The boy’s fingers closed around it. “You’ll really come back?”
“I promise,” Taylor said.
Devlin caught Max’s eyes. “Be strong.” He looked at the others standing by the bars.
The sounds of the raptors were getting louder. “Come on, Taylor.”
They hurried away from the cages, and he saw the pain ravaging her face. They stopped by the raptors he’d downed, and both grabbed a gun and knife. Then, he pointed to a tunnel away from the sounds of the incoming raptors. They broke into a run.
They followed the twists and turns, but he could still hear the sounds of pursuit.
As they neared a junction, Devlin felt a rush of air on his skin. He turned his head and spotted a circular hole in the wall. “Wait…”
He moved over to it and stuck his head inside. A warm breeze brushed his face. It was a perfectly circular space, not even wide enough for him to stand in with his arms outstretched.
Faint light filtered in from above.
He turned his head and looked up.
His heart kicked in his chest. He could see a patch of blue sky far above. It was a shaft. It was a way out.
“Quick, Taylor. Get in here.”
He climbed in, and she did too, both of them pressed together.
“It’s a ventilation shaft,” she said.
“If we press our feet to the wall on either side, we can climb up to the surface.”
She nodded. “Let’s do it.”
She pressed one foot to the rock wall. He gripped her waist and helped boost her up. Keeping her legs spread across the shaft, she started inching upward.
He waited for her to move up a few meters. It would be slow going, but finally they had a way out.
Devlin thought once more of the people they were leaving behind, took a deep breath, and followed Taylor.
***
Every muscle in Taylor’s body was burning.
Sweat poured off her face, despite the air rushing down the ventilation shaft. Not that the air was cool. It felt like the cooler weather they’d been having had given way to a summer heatwave. Just her luck.
Her tank top was soaked, and the muscles in her back and legs were aching. She hauled herself up, her palms and soles of her feet sliding against the rough rock. She left a smear of blood behind with each move. The raptor weapon she’d hung over her shoulder bumped her side with every move.
“You’re doing great, Taylor.” Dev’s deep voice came from below her.
“Shouldn’t we have reached the surface by now?” She felt like that patch of blue above was taunting her, never getting any bigger.
“I’m guessing this shaft goes up into some sort of chimney. It must rise above ground level.”
“Great,” she muttered.
“We’re almost there. Keep going.”
Right. She could make it. She stared upward as she climbed, and finally could make out some white clouds in the sky.
She was just glad to see regular sunlight, and not that yellow globe light. She remembered the feeling of wanting to follow the light. It had blanked out everything else in her head. She’d felt hollow, just with a driving need to follow.
The taste of acid filled her mouth. The thought of having her free will stripped away left her sick. It was her worst nightmare.
“Speed it up, Cates.”
She glanced down at Devlin with a frown. “Bite me.”
She heard a laugh, and then he quietly muttered something. It sounded suspiciously like, “It would be my pleasure.”
Taylor continued to inch her way upward. “Are you looking at my ass?”
“I’m in a prime position to. And it is a great one.”
Now she laughed, the sound echoing in the shaft. “You sure know when and how to charm a gal, super spy.”
His laugh this time was deep and honest. Taylor liked the sound of it, and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever heard Devlin laugh before. They kept moving, and soon the shaft was filled with the sounds of their harsh breathing. Her arms and legs felt like noodles. Floppy noodles dipped in fiery lava.
“Almost…there,” Dev panted.
Thank God, or Taylor thought she might start to cry. She focused on getting to the top, and suddenly, she was there.
With a stifled sob, she gripped the edge and pulled herself up.
She rested there for a second, her hips pressed to the lip and her legs still dangling in the shaft. She looked out, and all the air left her lungs.
Dimly, she was aware of Devlin pulling himself up beside her. Without saying a word, they both swung their legs over and sat on the edge of the chimney.
They were at the top of a giant stack that offered a dizzying view. The alien factory spread out below them like an ugly, black city. Black smoke pumped out of other stacks, and far below, raptor patrols moved like tiny ants.
An overgrown, ruined town lay in the distance, and, beyond that, a strip of golden beach and the ocean. For the first time, she wondered how Finn and Lia had fared on their mission. Hell Squad had dropped Dev and Taylor off, then taken Finn and Lia in to steal an old plane. The pilots were then tasked to fly over the Pacific Ocean and drop a comms device that could reestablish communications with other human outposts. Tay
lor looked toward the ocean. Had the pilots made it?
Taylor’s fingers pressed into the ledge below her. The chimney was made of a slick, black substance, and curved away from them to form a wider base. How the hell were they going to get down? What she wouldn’t give for a good, solid rope about now.
Dev peered down. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“No.”
“What about slides?”
Her brows drew together. “Slides?”
Suddenly, he grabbed her hand and pushed off, dragging her with him.
Chapter Six
As they slid down the slick surface of the chimney, Taylor swallowed a scream. They gathered speed, the wind rushing into their faces. She held tightly onto Dev’s hand, and leaned into him.
They flew down the chimney, faster and faster. Oh, God. They were going to kill themselves at the bottom.
But as they hit the curving base, the chimney flattened out and their speed decreased.
Still, the ground rushed toward them, too fast for comfort.
Taylor braced herself. Her feet hit the ground, and she was flung forward. She ran several steps, arms flung out, trying to keep her balance. Rocks and sticks dug into the soles of her feet.
Finally, arms windmilling, she came to a stop.
She turned to grin at Dev. He stood, bent over, a few steps behind her, his hands pressed to his knees. He smiled back.
Then, she heard raptor shouts.
Dev’s smile evaporated. “They’ve spotted us.” He looked around. “Run for the trees.”
Taylor spun, heading toward the tree line beyond the factory area. It was how they’d snuck in originally, but the trees were still a long way off. Raptors didn’t like the trees. Something about the vegetation gave the raptors a bad reaction.
Off to the left, she saw raptors charging out from behind some buildings. She pumped her arms, trying to go faster. But dammit, it only took her a second to see that the raptors would cut them off well before she and Dev reached the trees.
She swung her weapon around. Just behind her, she heard Dev start firing and she joined him.
The raptors reached them. One huge raptor swung out and knocked Taylor’s gun to the ground. As Devlin kept firing, Taylor yanked out the raptor knife she’d appropriated and leaped into the air.