Viper (Second Wave Book 1)

by Mikayla Lane

  Viper reached out quickly and grabbed blindly for her, luckily he grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him so fast she lost her footing and fell into his lap. Using her momentary lack of stability in his favor, Viper hurriedly put his arms around her to keep her from getting up and walking away from him.

  “Let go of me!” Lara hissed angrily as she tried to break free of his hold.

  “Please, give me a moment. I’m not lying to you; I swear! Please, just listen. I can prove what I am saying. We have an hour, maybe less, until they get here. I’m only asking you to listen.” Viper pleaded with the angry woman who was just about spitting fire at him. Even without his vision working correctly, there was no mistaking the pissed-off look on her face.

  “I’m supposed to believe you when you start off telling me you’re an alien? Really? How stupid do I look? Never mind, don’t answer that… obviously dumb enough to try to save your insane ass! Damn and I thought I was crazy! At least, I don’t think I’m from another fucking planet!” Lara said through gritted teeth as she tried again to get off his lap without his arms hurting her shoulder.

  Viper let go of her rather than have her harm herself trying to get away from him. He even helped to steady her when she scrambled out of his lap too fast and almost tripped.

  “I would not lie to you Lara. It is why I have avoided telling you anything. You asked if there were others like me and yes, there are. The assholes hunting us, the ones, I’m assuming you met overseas, are a species called the Relian’s. Earth is one of a thousand planets that they have attempted to destroy, and so far it’s the one that has resisted them the longest.”

  Viper paused and looked at Lara, who was angrily shoving bullets into a clip. He took the fact that she hadn’t left the room yet as a good sign and continued.

  “You’re a very smart woman, Lara, listen to me. Haven’t you wondered why they look so much alike? All of them? Why the ones over there in Afghanistan look so much like the ones hunting us right now? They are clones, genetically made and altered at will.”

  Even though Lara never said a word, Viper noted that she had slowed down in her movements, and he could feel the curious energy emanating from her.

  “They came here over a thousand years ago, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. The only thing that stopped them here, was the Valendrans had already come and embedded themselves in your society. They have worked behind the scenes for hundreds of years, trying to stop the Relian’s.”

  “My people, the Tezarian’s came to help the Valendrans. It will be a mix of Valendran’s and Tezarian’s that will come for me. That are already on their way to us. My brother Dread, Niklosi, Jax, Reven and probably the annoying man-child Traze. He can take a lot of getting used to, but he’s got a huge heart.” Viper couldn’t help the smile that came to his face at the thought of the overly energetic young man.

  Viper looked over at Lara and noticed at some point, while he was speaking, she had stopped loading bullets and just sat there. Staring at him. He couldn’t see the look on her face clearly, but he could feel the heat of her stare.

  It was too late for him to stop now, so he continued. “The most important thing you need to know, before they get here, is about the dark ones. Humans have no ability to see them. They exist in a light spectrum that can’t be seen by human eyes.”

  “The Valendran’s and my people have something known as a Beast inside of our brain that allows us to see more than one light spectrum and enables us to see the dark ones.” Viper paused when the clip Lara had been holding clattered to the table.

  “You’ve seen them?” Viper asked curiously, trying to read her energy.

  “I… of course I can’t see them. You said so yourself, humans can’t see them. Go on. How can these dark ones be killed?” Lara asked, trying to calm her racing thoughts. She picked the clip back up and started loading it again, hoping Viper would answer her question.

  Viper stared at Lara for a moment, trying to sort through the emotions that she was emanating through her energy. Unable to really pinpoint anything, he went on.

  “Surprisingly enough, salt will kill them. Regular salt. The ammunition we use is impregnated with it.”

  “Wait… all we need is salt? Regular table salt? That’s the only way to kill them?” Lara asked in surprise. Even in the science fiction movies there was always another way to kill something. Viper’s story wasn’t much different than any other bad sci-fi movie she had seen.

  Viper shook his head. “No, they can be killed by puncturing their brain. Bullet, knife, even a sharp stick penetrating deeply enough into their brain will kill them.”

  “Oh, that’s just fucking awesome isn’t it! Humans can’t see them, so how the hell am I supposed to puncture a head I can’t see?” Lara complained angrily, smacking her fist on the table.

  “How do you know they are coming?” Viper asked, knowing she had seen something in the forest. Something that scared her. The dark ones were enough to scare even hardened warriors, so he could understand her fear.

  “I told you, I know this forest. I know how many feet it takes to trample the undergrowth. Eight people could not trample the kind of ground they were covering.” Lara said hesitantly, unsure if he would believe her.

  “Damn! How many do you think there were?” Viper asked, afraid to know the answer.

  Lara shook her head, still hesitant to entertain the idea of alien insanity that Viper was pushing on her. “I don’t know. They could have doubled back… a lot. Or maybe camped there…”

  Viper wouldn’t let her finish. “You know that’s not true, they were on the move. After us. How many do you think there were?”

  Lara just stared at Viper’s green eyes and couldn’t help but feel drawn to the man. Crazy or not, it wouldn’t hurt for her to play along with his delusion; she thought.

  “If there were invisible men with them… there would have to be… maybe another eight or ten to leave that kind of trail.” Lara was surprised when Viper cursed.

  “Damn it! You need to go. Anywhere but here. Hide. When this is over, I will find you.” Viper said, reaching across the table to gently hold one of her hands.

  Lara drew back in surprise at the intensity of Viper’s plea. She could have sworn she could feel his fear. Great, she thought to herself, now I’m as bat shit crazy as he is!

  “I’m not going anywhere. This is my forest and my home. This IS the place where I run and hide. I have nowhere else to go. So here is where I stand and fight.” Lara said, getting up from her chair and moving into the kitchen. Viper’s eyes tried to follow her movements, but it was too blurry to know what she was doing.

  “You need to get somewhere safe Lara. My brother will be here soon; I will be fine…” Viper didn’t get to finish before Lara exploded. Viper leaned back in his chair as Lara stormed over to him.

  “Shut the fuck up! Damn! Do you really think some stupid shit like that is going to make me go run and hide? You may be a few bulbs short of a chandelier, but I made a promise, and I damn well will keep it! Now sit there and shut up while I think!” Lara was scared, though she would never admit it. Especially not to the crazy man she was leaning far too close to.

  Lara jerked back from him as if burned and went back to gathering items from the kitchen. Why she was entertaining the man’s craziness was beyond her own comprehension, but here she was, doing just that.

  Then again, there was really nothing left to do but wait, and she hated waiting. This at least gave her something to occupy her time while she waited for the world to erupt around them.

  Dark ones, that no one could see but the special aliens? Lara snorted while she carefully measured items in the biggest pot she had. She had to admit, even if the story was as crazy as the man telling it, she still had questions. Hypothetical ones of course, she thought.

  “What do these…” Lara struggled to remember the name Viper had used. “Relian’s, have to do with Afghanistan?”

  “I think you know the ans
wer to that. It’s why you were coming out here to begin with isn’t it?” Viper knew he was right when Lara flinched. Not wanting her angry again, he continued.

  “We found that they are embedded in every government, every religion, just about every organization on the planet is infested with them. We have a few ex-military among us who have spoken of their encounters with the Relian’s in the military.”

  “I have no personal knowledge of it since my brothers and I have only been here a few months, but Lt. David Jacobs is an ex-Navy Seal, and he could fill you in on what he experienced.” Viper hoped that bringing up a fellow member of the military would lend some credence to what he was telling her.

  Lara sighed in irritation as she checked the consistency of the goop she was making in the pot. Blowing her bangs out of her face, she added more ingredients before responding to Viper’s wild tale.

  “Is this imaginary Seal here now?” Lara asked without turning around. She wasn’t sure she could look at him right now without either laughing at him and his imagination or smacking herself for being a fool.

  “No! He’s a real man, and he’s either with the team coming or back at one of our command centers.” Viper hated that Lara doubted him, but he honestly couldn’t blame her.

  From her point of view, this had to be the craziest thing she had ever heard; he thought. Until a few months ago, even he would have laughed at the thought of something called a dark one. He had hoped that she would recognize something in what he had said, but if she did, she had hidden it very well.

  Lara tested the consistency of the goop in the pot and began ladling it carefully into some large freezer bags she had kept to store her jerky in. Once it was filled, she sealed it, then taped it closed to make sure it didn’t leak before starting on the next bag.

  “What weaknesses do they have?” Lara asked. When Viper just looked at her in confusion, she tried the question again.

  “Is there a sweet spot to hit? Does something besides salt work on the… Relian’s or the dark ones?”

  “As far as we know, only salt and brain penetration will kill the dark ones. The Relian’s can be killed just like any human can. They can bleed to death. Shots to the head and heart will kill them quickly. There are no specific weaknesses that we are aware of, I’m sorry.” Viper explained.

  “Good enough. If they can bleed, they can die. Stay here for a minute, I’ll be right back.” Lara said as she carefully carried several large bags to the door.

  “What are you doing?” Viper asked curiously.

  “Leveling the playing field. Stay here, I’m just going on the roof.” Lara said with a grin as she headed out the door.

  Viper followed her out of the open door and watched as she carefully placed each bag on the low-hanging roof. Moving to the side, she climbed a ladder attached to the side of the house. Viper leaned his head back and watched as she grabbed the large bags and moved them behind the arch in the center of the roof.

  “Can I help?” Viper asked, feeling useless and curious as to what she was doing.

  Lara panted slightly as she jumped down the last few feet from the ladder. She was exhausted, and it was starting to show. Just a few more hours, she thought, and one way or another, this chapter in her book of bad days would be over.

  Lara looked up at Viper and sighed. Walking past him, she said, “Yes, you can be my pack mule. It’ll save me some time.”

  Viper wasn’t sure what a pack mule was, but he knew by the tone of her voice it was going to be something physical. Even though his head hurt like hell, he welcomed the chance to do something, anything to help her.

  He knew he was right when he entered the kitchen area, and she handed him a bunch of light-weight, squishy bags. When his arms were full, she led him outside and placed each bag on the ground at his feet.

  “Now, all I want you to do is hand each bag up here to me, two at a time.” Lara said before climbing the ladder. As Lara leaned down from the roof, Viper handed her the awkward bags.

  Once all the squishy bags were on the back side of the roof, Lara had him carry weapons. He had no idea the woman had so many weapons and clips. There were at least half a dozen rifles on the roof, not including the eight or ten still in the cabin.

  She had full, spare clips for every weapon by the dozens. There were bows, arrows, knives of all sizes and even something Lara had called a baseball bat. Viper had to admit he really liked the swing of it, but the effort had caused his head to swim so fast that he almost hit the floor.

  The not so distant sound of gunfire had both of them jerking their heads to the forest. They listened intently to the sounds around them, desperately trying to judge the distance between the sound and the cabin.

  “Get inside! Now!” Lara said hoarsely, her panic rising before a cold blankness settled over her mind and body.

  Viper headed into the cabin and waited for Lara to come inside with him. Several minutes later, Lara finally came in the door and Viper breathed a sigh of relief that was short lived.

  “I need you to lock this door behind me when I leave. Like this.” Lara took Viper’s hand in hers and showed him how to use the dead bolt on the door and lay the board across it.

  “Where are you going?” Viper asked, scared that she might do something reckless. Keeping hold of her hand, he tried to read her energy. He was surprised when he didn’t feel anything. It was like she had completely shut herself down emotionally.

  “I’m going on the roof. We have a better chance if I’m up there. Now, when I go outside, I’m going to close the shutters on the windows. There will be a small slit in each shutter that is big enough for you to shoot through.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you can see what you’re shooting at, I just need the distraction, so I can pick them off as I can.” Lara said leading Viper to the kitchen.

  Viper looked on in surprise when it looked like she peeled the floor up. All he could make out was a blurry black hole in the floor.

  “This is your emergency escape. I’m going to leave it open so don’t come in the kitchen unless you need to get out. Close this behind you when you get inside. There is a ladder leading down, or it’s a short enough drop for you to jump.”

  “Once you’re inside, then head down the tunnel until you reach the door. It will lead you about twenty yards behind the house. It’s not far, but it may give you the time you need. Especially if they don’t find the tunnel.” Lara said evenly, watching his face to make sure he was listening.

  Viper reached out to Lara and tried to grab her, but she moved out of his reach. He let his arm drop to his side, and wished he could see her face.

  “Lara please, you must stay in here with me. With the gunfire they’ve been shooting off all day, my brother will be close on their trail. We just need to hold them off until Dread gets here. We can do that from in here.” Viper argued, even though he knew that once her mind was made up, she couldn’t be swayed.

  “I know what I’m doing, and I have every intention of making sure that you make it until your brother gets here. You’ve trusted me this far, trust me now.” Lara said staring at Viper’s unfocused gaze. No matter what he said, she was going on the roof anyway, but she was hoping that he would trust her.

  Lara had no idea why it mattered so much to her, but it did. For some reason, she felt as if she should have it and as much as it galled her to admit it, she trusted him. She had no idea why; she thought. It’s not like he’d done anything but tell her crazy stories, but when he touched her… it was like coming home.

  Just being here with him, in her private place, the one no one had ever been to, felt right. As crazy and screwed up as that sounded even to her. She was drawn to him, in a way she’d never felt before, not even with John. Right now, she needed to keep him alive; Lara reminded herself.

  Viper could feel the hesitancy and hope bleeding through her energy to him. He knew why she was asking it of him and he would never lie to her. He never could.

  “I do trust you. It is
them I do not trust, and I worry for you. Please stay inside with me?” Viper asked, trying not to let her see how much he was concerned.

  “I can’t. If we’re going to make it until your friends get here, then I need to be on the roof, and I need to get up there now.” Lara said watching way Viper’s face fell. She didn’t know why he was so concerned for her, but she thought it was nice. There hadn’t been anyone who had cared in a long time.

  Lara could almost feel Viper’s sadness, or at least her mind convinced her that she felt that way. Taking one of his hands in her own, Lara looked up at him.

  “When we get out of here, you owe me a steak dinner. With all the trimmings! You’re not getting away cheap.” Lara grinned for a minute before looking away from his unfocused gaze. She tried to pull away from him, but his hand held tightly to her own. When Lara looked back up, his green gaze held her there.

  “When we get out of here, I will make you a whole cow if you like. More importantly, I would like you to trust me with your secret. We may be able to help.” Viper said, unable to stop himself from using his other hand to brush her falling hair behind her ear.

  Lara chuckled. “A whole cow might not be a bad idea.” Lara looked away from him and slowly pulled her hand from his.

  “Lock the door behind me. Keep firing as long as you can. Use the tunnel if you need to… live to fight another day. Someone has to.” Lara said, then moved to the windows. She opened them from the top down and popped out the screens.

  Viper stood back and watched as she pulled the shutters closed over the windows and barred them from inside. With only the long slit in each shutter to let in light from outside, the small cabin was cast in an eerie glow from the three lanterns that Lara had lit when they had gotten there.

  “Lara…, please be careful. Live to fight another day with me.” Viper said as Lara opened the door to go outside. He could barely make out the small smile on her blurry face before she nodded and closed the door.

  “Now bar this thing so I can get on the roof.” Viper heard Lara say from the other side of the door. Making his way to the door, Viper locked and barred it, like Lara showed him.