by Angela White
Waiting until the camp was settled, Kyle and Neil made a short visit to the mess, where one off-duty Eagle was enjoying a too-private moment...with his boyfriend.
“Oh, man,” Neil complained as they caught sight of the cozy scene. “Do we really have to do this?”
“It’s what any other Eagle here would get.”
“But he’s not an Eagle, he’s–”
“Worthy and you know it. If not for him, Adrian would be dead. The only reason Ray isn’t, is because he weighs less and the branch he landed on held up. It’s time to let him in.”
Neil pushed his hat up. “Surprised to hear you say it.”
Kyle sighed, letting his own weakness and strength out in the same sentence. “I feel the same way, but I can admit I was wrong.”
Neil didn’t like the images that brought and nodded in resignation. “You lead and I’ll follow.”
Ray and Dale broke apart guiltily as the senior Eagles came around the corner of the mess, putting space between their bodies. Instantly expecting trouble, the two men were tense as Neil and Kyle got mugs and came toward the table they were sitting at.
“How’s it going?” Kyle asked, sliding onto the bench across from them, Neil at his side.
“Fine,” Dale stated defiantly. “What do you want with him?”
“How do you know it’s him and not you?” Neil quipped sharply, still hating how he felt when he was around these two. He swept Ray’s scrapes and bruises, the casted arm, and stitches. Why was he even on duty yet?
Dale’s beady eyes narrowed. “It’s always him. You ran me out, and now you’re trying to get rid of him, too.”
“No, they aren’t,” Ray spoke up. “Not these two.”
“You’re still having trouble with the others?” Kyle asked.
“One of them came by to thank him last night. They threw a pile of dogshit in his tent,” Dale informed them angrily.
Kyle’s mind flew straight to Allan, he’d been on dog duty last night, and Dale read the anger.
“You’ll only make it worse. Leave it alone,” Dale demanded.
“Don’t tell him what to do. He gives the orders,” Ray scolded Dale, not wanting his friend to get in trouble, but also feeling it like any of the others. He wouldn’t have stayed so long where he wasn’t wanted, but this pull!
“Fine!” Flushing, Dale pushed to his feet. “I’ll leave. Enjoy your talk.”
Neil and Kyle studied Ray as he stared at Dale, noting how familiar, how caring his gaze was. It made them uncomfortable, but for Kyle, who was in the process of changing his own thoughts, it was painful. The herd and Eagles had denied these two and others like them happiness. And for what? Because they were gay? Out of all the things they could be in this new world, how was liking men a threat?
“Is he okay?” Neil asked.
Ray flushed a bit, but didn’t censor his words. “He’s jealous.”
Neil opened his mouth to defend his manhood, and was shocked by Kyle’s chuckle.
“He’s got little to worry about,” Kyle joked.
Neil stared at Kyle as Ray snorted bitterly.
“I wouldn’t exactly say that.”
Again, Neil wanted to make it clear that he had no such urges and Kyle was fast to cut him off.
“Because of the time you spend with us, not because you’re hot for Neil, right?”
Ray blushed a dark red that had Neil snapping his mouth shut. Damn Kyle for changing my mind!
“He knows it’s more than that.”
“Because you’d go straight to keep your place now,” Kyle guessed and hit his mark.
“Yes!” Ray let his own emotions out. “I would have died for Adrian and that feeling was more than I can stand to lose.”
His voice dropped in shame. “There isn’t anything I won’t do.”
Kyle didn’t answer, making Neil feel the devotion. Sexuality was another of those things that Adrian would have to handle in time, but of all his men, Kyle was the only one already starting to sense how it might happen.
“It starts with you,” Kyle stated, sure Ray understood. “You’re the first, like she was. Everything that happens after, is on you.”
Ray was very aware and allowed a small smile to come to his lips. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Kyle refuted. “Tell me you’re sorry for all the heads I’ll be knockin’ over this.”
“I can’t do that. Some of those heads need to be knocked.”
“Like Zack and Allan,” Kyle offered and saw by the tightening of the man’s face that he was right.
“I won’t tell,” Ray swore. “Ever.”
“If they’ve done something wrong–” Neil started to protest, unable to deny that he was being influenced by Kyle’s choice.
“It won’t work that way,” Kyle cut him off.
“How then?”
Kyle studied Ray, noting the set jaw and the calm pound of his pulse under the bruised skin. “You tell him.”
Ray flushed again, but spoke the truth. “You have to let me do it on my own as much as you can.”
“We have been,” Neil stated, thinking of all the times he’d ignored Kenn’s extra hits and nasty words.
“Yeah, but I’m still alive and I’m not pretending with the Eagles anymore, like she said.” Ray slowly stood up. “I’m in love with Dale. You guys should know that. It’ll kill me to give him up…but I will.”
He entered his tent for another lonely night and there was an odd silence between Neil and Kyle. Before the war, homosexuality was a hot-button topic. After, it only mattered once they’d come here. Now, it was in their faces again, running drills with them and eating mess under the same canvas.
“I’ll support it because he saved Adrian,” Neil said. “But I don’t want to talk about… specifics, okay?”
Kyle grunted, thinking they would probably learn more about it than either of them wanted to before it was all said and done. Getting gays accepted in the Eagles would make Angie’s trials seem like nothing more than a bad dream and it would take much, much longer. Gays in Safe Haven had to be handled like the proverbial frog in the pot. They couldn’t let the water come to a boil too fast or they would lose the chance that Ray was trying to turn into a future for those who came after him. They would all step carefully and hope.
Chapter Nineteen
Adrift in Hell
April 2nd
The Kraft Cave
1
Kendle knew she didn’t want to wake up, but the nightmares drove her to it.
She’d started out with the shark pulling her down, and then corpses with holes in them held her while glowing green teeth bit her repeatedly. Struggling to make sense of it, she also fought to remain asleep, instinctively knowing that some parts of it were really happening.
It was the sound of her own screams that jerked her into brutal consciousness.
“Aahhh….”
Kendle snapped her mouth shut as Ethan drew back, her blood dripping from his chin. Violent pain assaulted her body and she let the tears roll down her cheeks. She was still alive.
Slap!
His blow rocked her into the stone wall, drawing blood from a rare place he hadn’t damaged yet and Kendle’s bladder let go. She cowered in fear as he charged forward to deliver her punishment and she welcomed the grayness that swam over her vision. One or two more of those and she could be with the shark.
Ethan’s teeth sank into her naked thigh and scraped a layer of skin, taking her scream and turning it into a piercing shriek that had him delivering the two required hits and more. She was at his mercy now and he had none.
Kendle had lost all sense of time. Unlike her ordeal on the ocean, when she’d been able to mark the passing days, this time her world consisted of the tormenting nightmares in the darkness and excruciating brightness of the pain when she was awake. During those moments, she struggled to get to the soupy grayness that lie between both worlds, but always missed it.
Ethan’s entire
face was bloodshot. He hadn’t slept much in the entire time he’d had her, too worried about extracting his pound of flesh, literally, before Luke found them. The gunshots had continued for two days and that meant only one thing. Her soldier had escaped and Ethan was determined that when he found the body, it would be unrecognizable.
He jabbed her harder, trying to jerk her awake again. Like with the others, it was getting harder and harder to do, even though he’d stopped spilling so much blood at one time, right after he dragged her from the tunnel. She was weakening.
If Luke doesn’t hurry, he won’t find me alive, Kendle thought, careful to keep Ethan from knowing his last jab into her cheek had pulled her from the watery blackness. She knew he was scared of Luke, but–
“AAAhhhh!”
Ethan’s teeth sank deeper than he meant them to and her blood, sweet and warm, flew down his throat. Moaning in ecstasy, he let her bash her own head against the wall and black out again.
2
He isn’t coming.
I know.
Kendle had accepted it.
Luke had given her up for dead. She would stay here until Ethan finally bit too far and hit a vein or she pushed him into accidentally killing her. That last one gave her a small measure of hope that it would all be over soon and she swam through the darkness more determinedly. The shark in here with her no longer held any power, and when it snagged her wrist, she let it pull her under the comforting water where Ethan couldn’t follow.
Did you know they think you can’t die?
Kendle followed the salty voice as it spoke, not spotting its owner and not wanting to.
The townspeople thought it was a miracle you survived, at first. When they found out about the rest, the stories started.
Kendle saw the outline of a humanlike creature under the deepest rock on the ocean floor, but her mind couldn’t wrap around its size. How could a person fit under a rock?
We came to view you ourselves, the form under the stone told her. And we have found the rumors to be true!
“He’s killing me even as I dream this.”
Do you wish to die, child? the form asked in thick curiosity.
Kendle hesitated. “I want the pain to end.”
Then you do wish to die, for all life is about pain.
“But he’s eating me!” she shouted. “How can I survive that?”
There was no choice for the others. They had to let the blood spill. A creature such as you does not.
Kendle didn’t trust the form under the rock but asked, “How?”
A trade.
The voice was greedy now and Kendle sensed right then that the father of all lies, in whom she previously hadn’t believed, might be the miniscule shadow under the stone.
“My soul is useless,” she haggled. “Impure.”
But your blood is not.
The rock shifted.
Share with us willingly and we will rise to slay your tormentor. You shall be freed!
Kendle cringed at the open evil in that tone and was horrified to find her mind wanting to say yes. Instead, she forced herself to wake up by doing the one thing she knew was guaranteed to make Ethan keep going until she was. She screamed for Luke.
It became a pattern of new agony, enduring as much of Ethan’s torment as she could and then sinking down into the depths to be tempted with powers she had never dreamed of. Real or not, she was sure she would die as soon as the choice was made and the part of her soul that had kept her alive so far, stubbornly refused to give up.
3
Ethan’s illness was getting worse. Even with the workouts that he was giving Kendle, the rage was overwhelming. He hadn’t left the hiding place since bringing her here and his state of deterioration wasn’t much better than hers. In seven days, he’d become weak enough to feel dizzy when enjoying his treasure and he’d come to the conclusion that he needed to go out for supplies. He was trying to keep her alive, make her last, and he was hungry all the time because of it. The others had gone fast, but with Kendle, he’d gotten his money’s worth.
Ethan didn’t want to leave her, but besides the supplies, he needed to know what had happened. If Luke was dead, like he should be by now, then Ethan would be free to go home and stock up before rejoining her in a final session of blood and death. If he wasn’t, then leaving her unguarded was likely to lose him custody of the spoils. So he made sure that if the soldier showed up in his absence, he wouldn’t be able to take her away.
Kendle scowled at the shark as it pulled her upward this time, making her return. The voice under the stone had been telling her of a group of survivors in her homeland and of how much they needed her. It had been offering to help her get there and Kendle had been close to agreeing.
“AAaaaaaahhhhhh!”
The pain was so severe that she hit the grayness head-on and floated there in limbo until she could breathe again. He had her chained, complete with a padlock. He’d left her here to die this way. Will collapsing, when the voice under the stone called to her, she took a quick fin down into the blackness and began fighting her own greedy nature as the devil tempted her.
4
Satisfied she wasn’t going anywhere; Ethan spent an hour observing the jungle around the door and saw nothing but normal island life. Swaying–Luke hadn’t even found this cave!–Ethan hit the button and let himself out.
The second the door opened, Luke was there.
Ethan flew into the small cave and Luke followed him inside with the certainty that the blood the sick playboy was covered in was Kendle’s.
Luke didn’t ask where she was, didn’t speak at all as he slid his knife out and he moved toward the rotting monster trying to pick himself up off the floor. After so long, and Ethan about to skulk away, Luke was sure she was dead and he was determined that her killer would soon follow…after he’d been caused some pain.
Ethan grunted in agony at the knife, but didn’t fight as Luke sliced him deeply behind the ankles. It was over now, and the pilot had lost. There was no way she would live through everything he had done to her.
Stopping any chance Ethan had of fleeing with the injury, Luke got set. He was going to enjoy th–
“Ugg!”
A gurgling moan from the rear of the cave froze him in his tracks.
“Kendle?”
Ethan’s horrible laughter cackled out. ”You waited! You waited and she was alive the whole time!”
Awful guilt flooded Luke and he punched Ethan with a powerful swipe that knocked him out. Luke kicked him in the ribs, nodded at the crack against his boot and then he rushed toward that awful choking sound.
“Kendle?”
The noise grew louder, more desperate, and he rushed into the darkness with his knife tightly in his grip.
Kendle tried to scream at the sight of the bloody knife coming toward her, turning purple, and Luke dropped the weapon in horror. He hit his knees beside her an instant later, already searching for the key.
Kendle’s blackened eyes had long since swollen shut, allowing only small glimpses of her cell. She cowered away as far as she could, choking on the chain that was cutting into her neck.
Luke ran to Ethan’s crumpled body, sure that’s where the key was. He found it on a rope around the bloody man’s throat and ripped it free. He delivered another harsh blow to Ethan’s ribs and felt another crack. Bastard!
Kendle was gasping from her place in the corner, wild, and Luke didn’t try to calm her down, not sure she would last through it with the tiny bit of air she was getting. He grabbed her under one arm, holding her bleeding body tightly while plunging the key into the lock.
“GGgrraaaaaaaaaaa!”
Kendle’s scream seemed to echo in the cave forever as the collar fell off.
Luke held her while she thrashed in pain and panic. “Jenna!”
The crazy woman stopped behind him. “My God!”
“Tie him up!”
Jenna stomped angrily toward Ethan’s unconscious form as Luke stag
gered to his feet.
Afraid to let go, Luke swung Kendle into his arms and carried her fighting, bloody body out into the sun.
Too busy struggling to keep them upright, he didn’t detect Ethan’s glowing green eyes pop open with a jerk as Jenna finished and followed.
Do we have a deal?
Kendle was drifting along the bottom of the murky floor, held to the stone by a single finger of the shadowy form.
I have offered everything you want.
“But not what I need.” Kendle’s heart was bleeding with the losses she had suffered. “Let me die.”
Finally tiring of her determination, the form let loose of her, but followed as she rose to the surface, once again guided by the shark. The form was a snake, and a man, and a beast with three faces that continued to tempt her.
I will remake your beauty until you are beyond compare. I will lay cities at your feet and men will weep in longing at the mere mention of your name.
Kendle let herself float to the top, weakening under the onslaught. She wanted that and this devil knew.
I will let your lover’s life continue past its due time.
Kendle winced, but kept going. Not even for Luke. The thing she wanted most, no one and no thing, could give her. Dawn was dead. Her twin could never be returned.
5
Kendle’s body shivered uncontrollably as she slid deeper into shock and Luke found his hands being shoved away.
“Get me a fire goin’.”
Jenna knew he needed to be kept busy and gave him easy instructions that took his stare off the gruesome scene, but she knew it was a moment he would never forget, even if the woman lived, which Jenna doubted. She’d never treated someone with so many wounds.
Kendle thrashed under her hands, crying out, and Luke forced himself to hold her down so Jenna could clean and then smear gel over the bites. She came to abruptly as they were cleaning her wounds and she immediately scrambled to get away.
“Stop!”
Jenna’s harshly female voice got through to Kendle where Luke’s manly tones wouldn’t have and she stared at them in shock.
“Kendle?”