From the Ashes

by Angela White

  The homemade disc sent a dozen bullets plunging though the room.

  Three of them hit Shannon in the chest and knocked her back against the wall.

  Adrian ran to her. This time, there were no bugs or flesh charring into lighters. There was only blood pouring from the first woman he’d ever loved.

  “Conner!” Shannon shouted.

  Adrian leaned close. “He’s alive.”

  Shannon’s face relaxed into the semblance of a smile. “Stay with you?”

  Adrian clasped her hand. “Always.”

  Shannon’s body arched, death hovering...then it ruthlessly snatched what Adrian couldn’t replace.

  He clutched her close, a part of his soul smoldering in his chest. Three of his females in as many months!

  Angela would be next.

  “You okay in there, Boss?”

  Adrian motioned to the Eagles when Kenn slowly opened the door. “Find out where his personal guard and perimeter patrols are. Then, set up a welcoming party.”

  The Eagles took in the scene and the grief on Adrian’s face, and quietly went to do as he’d bidden.

  5

  Cara followed Hudson from a distance. She had slid into Garret’s residence to observe through the open door when Lenore was shot. The Major had obviously underestimated his targets.

  Cara wasn’t sure why she was following Hudson, only that if Garret’s main man thought it a good idea to leave, then she should, too. Cara had lost her leadership over the snake women. The Major would provide no protection, even if he was lucky enough to survive, which she doubted the new people would allow. Cara didn’t know what to do. She had also underestimated them and lost it all.

  Ahead of her, Hudson stopped, stiffening in the unmistakable stance of discovery.

  Cara hurriedly moved closer, feet silent as she half-ran, half-slithered over the debris. What had Garret’s XO found?

  Hudson stared in hatred. He lied!

  Hudson narrowed in on Conner’s injury, hoping it hurt.

  Adrian had goaded Shannon into attacking the Major. She never would have done it without that final push, and Mitchel had known it. He’d forced her to betray her husband. Adrian was just as much an evil genius as Garret.

  Hudson slid behind a falling-down greenhouse and waited for the trio to go by, plans spitting themselves out rapidly. Maybe this run didn’t have to be a complete failure.

  Hudson felt that heavy sense of the end lift from his shoulders. The bunker would be perfectly happy to accept the bodies from him instead of the Major. They would rather have them all dead than roaming free, and there would still be a reward.

  Hudson spun suddenly, raising his gun. “Come out.”

  Cara revealed herself reluctantly, eyeing the man with dislike, but no real hatred. Hudson had tolerated her while she was Garret’s woman, and she’d done the same for him. There was no reason they couldn’t work together.

  Hudson slowly lowered the gun, aware of Cara staring toward the trio that had missed them in their hurry to reach the compound. Hudson, like Garret, thought the snake mutations were an improvement over females of the past. In this new world, snakes were all that existed in both male and female populations, and that was easier to remember with Cara’s girls.

  “What do you want?”

  “Conner,” Cara replied promptly.

  Hudson stared at her, thinking it would be easier with two sets of hands. “Only until we reach the bunker. Then he goes inside for the reward.”

  “Agreed.”

  If she couldn’t kill Hudson by then, she would do what she had with the Major–become the bunker commander’s woman so she could wait nearby for an opportunity to grab the gifted teenager. With Conner at her side, her people would survive.

  Hudson motioned toward the trio that was almost out of sight. “The drugs should keep them from using their powers for at least another twelve hours. Go be friendly and take them to the Major’s sealed room, huh?”

  Cara went without a word, already liking the bravado of Hudson’s plan. Hopefully the new people would make the mistake this time.

  Watching her slither along the debris, Hudson pulled the radio from his belt and began clicking the mike.

  When he finished, there was an immediate set of clicks in answer. Without knowing Garret’s code or having their mental gifts to rely on, Mitchel and his men would be blind.

  6

  “They’ve taken over the compound.”

  Nuna stopped their march, wanting to see for herself.

  The binoculars revealed it to be true, and the snake leader battled with herself over the choice she’d made. I could have had him!

  “We missed out on a good moment there,” one of the other women stated. “We might have gotten the supplies and escortsss.”

  Nuna wasn’t listening to the mutters and complaints. She was making a new plan.

  “It’s not over, isss it?” Nuna questioned, drawing their attention even though it was clear she was talking to herself. “We saw the other group. We know there’s more fighting to come.”

  The leader waved her girls back into line. “Get usss to a better vantage point, and we’ll make a group choice on where we go from here.”

  That satisfied the others, and the line of snake women began sliding through the moldy trees, hating the way nature felt. They would miss those dank sewers and brutally cold nights underground. Topside was hell.

  7

  “Let’s go. We have loose hunters to round up before burials.”

  The team of Eagles left the room behind Adrian, and the others in the hall followed. Shannon had taken the Major’s life and sacrificed her own. She’d known her life was over anyway if Garret won.

  Shannon had suffered from night sweats, and they’d gotten to know each other while he calmed her down. Adrian had planned to marry her. At that point, he hadn’t been a hunted animal, but a valued tool to be rewarded.

  Adrian stood up, not letting himself dwell on the signs of abuse. Her trials were over now. She could rest in triumph.

  Adrian moved outside and through the alley with a bleeding heart. He had to tell Conner he’d failed.

  The Eagles couldn’t have been happier. They were back with Adrian. Being away caused a sense of desolation that each man hated, but also depended on. If the time ever came that they didn’t feel this way, it would be time to get out of his army.

  Adrian expected to see Conner, on Kyle’s back, with Angela leading them. They should be stumbling over debris... Adrian stiffened. I made a mistake.

  “Which way, Boss?” Kenn didn’t like the hesitation or panic he was picking up.

  “They should have already been here.” Adrian was running through all the places they’d been, the people they’d had contact with.

  Kenn was only a step behind Adrian, but unlike the leader, he skipped the things he didn’t think mattered and managed to arrive at the same conclusion, at the same time. “Another trap.”

  Adrian didn’t answer, instead waving tired Eagles into a tight perimeter. Even without contact, it felt detached, impersonal.

  “Should we start searching?”

  Adrian shook his head, cursing Garret. The sound of Shannon screaming had upset Conner so much that there had been no choice but to come quickly and try to save her life. His mistake had been doing it alone.

  “Boss?”

  “No. The drugs didn’t stop Angela’s gifts in the cell. She’ll contact us.”

  8

  Hudson hurried through the dank sewer, mentally counting as his alarm did the same. They had to be on the way out of here when it went off, just in case he’d miscalculated the fuse. For the first time in his career, Hudson couldn’t be sure.

  He hurried by the stack of water and food barrels that the Major had been storing down here as they were found, knocking over a smaller tub of rice. Various forms of life immediately began flying toward the unexpected food.

  The noises echoed through the tunnel and he jogged quicker.
He hated underland! When he handed over the bodies, he planned to ask for an assignment in the west, where underground was so toxic that it was forbidden to go there.

  Hudson shoved the next creaking door open and moved into the dankness with a grimace. Thanks to the snakes, it always smelled like heavily decaying copper.

  “Fresher today,” he muttered, finally reaching the main intersection of the Major’s storage bunker. Except for the water and snakes, it was perfect.

  “Cara?”

  Hudson pushed the automatic open button on the heavy steel door with an uneasy feeling. Maybe she hadn’t been able to get them to come down.

  He pushed the thick door open with both hands, peering uneasily into the black room.

  Thwap!

  Hudson clutched at the knife hilt, gasping for air that couldn’t get through. He slid to his knees, suffocating and drowning in his own blood.

  “Catch the door!”

  Conner hurtled his hurting body into the closing gap before the door could lock them in darkness again.

  Angela shoved Cara’s heavy body off her and gave Kyle an approving grin. “Nice throw.”

  “You did the dirty work,” Kyle stated. “Best catfight I’ve ever heard.”

  Angela chuckled, glad of the eyes that had let her find Cara in the chaos. They’d been expecting trouble when she tried to close them inside, and Conner had been the one to pull her inside, too. The snake clerk had immediately started fighting from there.

  Angela grabbed the blowgun and a few darts from Cara’s belt, then jerked her knife from the woman’s chest. She did it without a wave of nausea, showing another level of progress.

  Kyle did the same, and then slid an arm around Conner’s waist. “Let’s get the–”

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  The alarm was incredibly loud, and the trio stared at it. The face of the watch on Hudson’s bloody wrist flashed in brilliant red warning.

  Beep! Beep!

  Angela and Kyle tried to decide if it mattered, but Conner knew.

  “It’s an alarm. He runs that damn thing on every explosive he sets.”

  “Let’s go!” Kyle ordered.

  The trio fled, going as quickly as Conner’s injury would allow.

  Angela grabbed Kyle’s belt and let herself be hauled along as she concentrated. It had been an effort to use her gifts in the cells. The drugs made everything blurry, and it was hard to find the edges of reality. She grunted, straining, “Get outside! Be ready!”

  Angela sagged, temples throbbing with sharp pains that made her moan when they only very slowly eased. The dim light from above them was almost too little to see by, and the trio stayed close together. Their feet crunched through unseen debris the entire time.

  Pain sank into Angela’s head, causing her to trip.

  Kyle slung her up onto his tired shoulder. “Go faster if you can, Conner. We have to get to your dad–now!”

  “Stop right there!”

  The trio froze as a hunter stepped into view, gun trained on Kyle as he supported both burdens.

  “The Major only needs one of you,” the lucky finder stated coldly. “No job for you, killer!”

  Kyle recognized him as one of the men he’d embarrassed in the tunnels for hurting Conner and shifted Angela’s weight onto her own feet.

  Conner was barely conscious and slid to the ground as Kyle let go of his waist.

  “He wants all of us,” Angela protested weakly, moving a little closer. Once again, she got to be bait.

  “I’d never make it back alive,” the hunter correctly assumed. “You can tie each other up or I’ll shoot you both.”

  Kyle motioned Angela to do what the man wanted.

  Starving, the demon inside lunged forward before either of them could react.

  Blinding red light shot out, striking the hunter in the chest. His gun went flying into the mucky debris, and Angela stepped closer as he staggered back.

  How much do you want? the demon asked.

  All of it, Angela answered greedily.

  Kyle watched in horror as the hunter screamed in agony, seeming to shrink up before his eyes.

  “No! Stop!”

  Angela drew harder.

  The hunter went sagged, groaning, and Angela stepped back, color rising in her skin.

  The man slid to his knees and Angela lunged forward again, jerking brutally at his life force.

  Kyle stepped forward, and Conner grabbed his arm. “You don’t want to do that.”

  Angela inhaled, swallowed, absorbed, and the hunter’s body faded to a bluish color that Kyle looked away from.

  Snap!

  Angela felt the last of his life give and arched in ecstasy as it impaled her.

  “Don’t move,” Conner warned lowly. “That’s our bloodlust. It’s hard to fight.”

  Kyle saw the red eyes, the pulsing body, and stored it. He and Adrian had a lot to talk about.

  Angela came down slowly from the pleasure, terrified to feel no guilt. What am I becoming?

  Angela pulled the man’s backup weapon from his holster and slowly turned toward her people, hair blown back, face sated–erotic with a double timbre of woman and witch. “We’ll take point.”

  Neither of them moved as she stepped by, and Angela was glad Conner had known to warn Kyle. One touch was all it would take for her to let the witch do it again. She’d never felt anything like that. All she could compare it to was Adrian’s light, and both were forbidden.

  9

  Adrian and the Eagles were already outside the overtaken compound, and it gave none of them any comfort to see Kyle carrying Angela. When he swung her to her feet, there was relief and men ran to help.

  Adrian knew instantly what she’d done, and said nothing. If not for the drugs, Angela could have destroyed Garret’s compound by herself. Her gifts were still growing, but to be able to physically manifest fire only hours after being darted showed incredible strength. Adrian had never known of anyone who could access their powers for at least a full day, and that took Angela from a powerful defensive tool and placed her directly at the top of their protection. Her taking a life force wasn’t a disappointment for Adrian. Once she learned to store and ration the energy that he planned to insist she draw daily, she would reach a new level of awareness, and so would his camp. She would also be strong enough to resist the temptation of doing it again.

  Fire had been her last evolution, and based on that, Adrian thought the next one would be just as revealing and volatile. His own powers had peaked during the lab tests, but Angela wasn’t being given drugs for control or being used up before the demon inside could evolve. Her gifts would grow unchecked.

  “Something’s wired,” Kyle panted, gratefully taking his Glock from Adrian as the team reached him. “A bomb.”

  “What about the other kids inside the complex?” Kyle asked. “The ones like Conner?”

  Adrian looked to Angela, who shook her head. “Any survivors took off the second we escaped.”

  Neither of them said that would be how the government bunker found out what happened. They didn’t need to.

  Angela motioned toward the Major’s parking area, where bodies were already being consumed by Nature’s tiniest armies. “Can we go home now?”

  Adrian was still staring gratefully at Kyle. “Yes, we–”

  Bam! Pop! boom!

  The ground pulsed under them, and everyone ducked, expecting to be blasted into the afterlife. Instead, wind howled around the city, across the deserted streets and decaying bodies in an eerie chill.

  “Look!”

  A twister of smoke was rising into the sky east of them like a pillar sent from hell.

  “It’s the dam,” Conner said in shock. “That’s miles from here. Why would he–”

  Crraacckkk! Wooossshhhh!

  Adrian understood the danger and their odds of surviving. “Cut the lock. Let’s go!”

  The gates swung open to reveal the Major’s personal protection vehicles.

&
nbsp; Wooosshhh...crunch!

  Adrian took the first UPV, waving Angela into the passenger side. Conner instinctively went toward the rear with the Eagles, and Kyle stayed with his boss.

  Unlike their falsely modified vehicles, Garret’s vehicles were the real deal and fully stocked. Adrian had assumed they would lose their vehicles and only let Marc and Kenn change them enough to keep up appearances. And add the explosives to take out Garret’s compound if they were parked close enough.

  The Major’s transportation even had a working radio that hummed constantly as Kyle flipped through the channels, trying to reach their camp.

  Keys weren’t needed with the automatic start buttons, and Adrian rolled them through the gate seconds later.

  Crunch! Crack! Bam!

  “What is that?” Kyle demanded, but really, he knew. He’d been there the night the tank was washed away. He knew that sound.

  “Hey! And, who is that?” Angela asked wearily.

  “Damn it,” Adrian groaned as he spotted the line of shadows running to get into formation outside the gate. “Garret’s personal guard was on a long patrol. We were waiting out here to greet them when you called.”

  Snap! Woosh!

  The water came flying down the streets and alleys, crushing its own path through the months of debris.

  Angela had no energy left to gather, but wasn’t sure a shield would hold anyway as she stared at the water lunging for them. Death, made visible.

  Adrian pushed the pedal harder, resenting the bulky handling UPV.

  “Down!”

  Angela and Kyle ducked as he came in range of the line of firing bounty hunters.

  Bang! Pop!

  Slugs pinged into the reinforced steel body, but came straight through the thin glass windows.

  Adrian yanked the wheel hard, manhandling the UPV toward a narrow alley. He didn’t slow, just rammed into the side of the crumbling brick as he struggled to make the turn.

  Parts of the wall fell on top of the UPV and then it was back under control.

  Kenn did the same in the UPV on their heels, and they barreled deeper into the alley.

  The hunters followed on foot, firing at the tires with a tunnel-vision focus that missed the danger. They had their prey trapped. It was time to kill and in that instant, nothing else mattered.