From the Ashes

by Angela White

  Marc shook off the eerie thought that followed, We all have, and got back to helping Mitch.

  “He thinks you’ll die out there alone. That’s why no order has come down on you yet. Is it true, Hopkins?”

  The whiskey opened Mitch’s mouth. “I survived before. I will now, too.”

  “That’s what I told him,” Marc stated.

  Mitch stared in sudden suspicion. “You don’t like me.”

  “Like? No. Believe in? That’s different.” Marc leaned forward. “I have a fondness for Matt. I’m going to help Cyn and Angie straighten him out. I can do the same for you.”

  Marc sat back. “Or you’re leaving. Today.”

  Mitch wanted to take the offer, but was certain it would be hard. The man inside was shouting, but the alcohol was burning, calling.

  “Take your time,” Marc encouraged. He swallowed another long drink of his sweaty beer. “Mmm. I have one or two on average a week, but I always want more.”

  Mitch stared, trying to process what that meant.

  Marc sighed regretfully, aware that he had attention now. He dumped the remaining beer onto the ground near the table. “But I’m a man and I make the choices.”

  Mitch got the point, and it wasn’t enough.

  Marc tossed out one of his own secrets with a sense of relief. “I used to be a drinker, too–a heavy one. It got me in trouble.”

  Mitch gaped in surprised. “You’re a alcoholic!”

  Marc gave him an embarrassed shrug. “Like most of us, I hate that word, Mitch.”

  It made Mitch believe. No one else but a fellow addict would know how dirty that word made them feel. “Me, too.”

  Marc stood up, stomach rolling. “Finish that bottle, enjoy it. When it’s gone, either go get a shower and a lot of coffee, or say goodbye to your son and get out of this camp. It’s your choice, but make it today, or I’ll do it for you.”

  Marc quickly got out of sight and hearing distance, and allowed himself a minute to vomit. His CO had given him a much harsher lesson than the one Mitch was receiving, making him drink from dawn to dawn for three days straight. As a result, he loathed any type of alcohol in the mornings. He hadn’t been actually and honestly drunk since becoming a Marine.

  3

  Angela ducked through the flap, nodding to Kyle, who looked as bleary as she felt.

  “Got a minute?” Marc called from nearby.

  “Not really.” Angela kept going. “Walk with me.”

  They had five men in the medical tent with gunshot wounds, one with a high fever of unknown origin, and three with minor bone breaks. It had been a rough mission. Twenty-four confident, well-armed men had come into this city with her. The same number had come out, but none of them was the same.

  Marc fell in step. “What’s the hurry?”

  “Adrian’s awake and calling.”

  “Good.” Marc forced himself to sound as if he liked being in charge of Adrian’s herd. “I need some things from you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Don’t know what to tell people about Conner, for starters.”

  Angela went to Kevin, who was on duty over the first truck. “I need a 24-hour guard put on Matt and Cynthia in here with me. You’ll need to cover the shifts for each person you move around.”

  Kevin’s gaze went straight to the new patch of gray showing from the side of her ponytail and Angela winced. It was noticeable. Damn.

  She gave Kevin a single head shake, and the Eagle understood that she didn’t want her man to know the side effects of using so much magic.

  Wondering if the sharp guy at her side had missed it, Kevin took out the notebook Adrian had given him not long before they’d gone into that cursed city. He wrote as he spoke. “I’ll have it taken care of.”

  She sent him a silent request. How long? I need it before…I need it soon.

  The Eagle immediately vowed to work hard on the mental lessons he was going to be a part of when he reached the next level. “Fifteen minutes.”

  Angela felt his silent despair and refused to offer false comfort. “Good.”

  She went toward the shower camper next.

  “Angie.”

  Hearing Marc’s growing concern, she grunted, “Give me some time to get him settled first. For now, he’s the only survivor from Little Rock that we were able to bring out with us.”

  Angela got a chill at seeing Marc write down her words. Why?

  Because it means he knows that you’re my replacement.

  Angela scowled at Adrian’s weak words in her mind. He sounded bad.

  “Are you okay?” Marc was frowning deeply.

  “No, but at least I’m not dying,” she answered unhappily. “What else do you need from me?”

  “Mostly, to know how he’s going to be able to be in front of the camp, so I can get it ready.”

  “With our help and good, old fashioned drugs,” Angela tried to joke. “I’ve got that much covered.”

  “Why am I still in charge of the camp and not Kenn? Isn’t he the XO? Your new XO?”

  Marc hadn’t meant to ask, but didn’t call it back.

  “Because Kenn’s still in the QZ,” Angela hedged, not wanting to do this now. She couldn’t spare the time to convince Marc. She was still working on herself.

  “Not true,” Marc protested quietly as they neared Doug, the guard on the shower. “He could have been cleared and out of here by now. Adrian didn’t want that. Why?”

  Stalling, Angela looked at Doug and the arm she’d put in a cast and sling last night. “Are you sure you should be working already?”

  “No.” Doug’s demeanor was one of grief. “Just couldn’t stay in there anymore.”

  Angela understood completely. “I need some things, and I need some men to assist me for the next few days. Men I can trust and who can trust me in return. Is that possible?”

  “Yes.” Doug’s tone was satisfied. “All of us.”

  Doug’s gaze flicked to Marc briefly, and Angela gave her approval silently. With care.

  The big man understood. “Adrian told us to follow you, not Kenn, if anything ever happened to him. He said for us to make Kenn fall in line behind you, where he belongs.”

  Angela had suspected what Adrian was doing, but never that he’d taken it this far. “I didn’t know.”

  “He didn’t see the need to upset everyone unless it was needed, but he was adamant that you would protect our lives better because–”

  “Because of my gifts,” she tried to finish, a bit bitterly.

  Doug frowned. “Because you value life the way he does. He even said…” Doug stopped, glance flicking to Marc again. He gave her the rest of it silently, knowing the wolfman wasn’t ready to hear it. He said in another life, you would have been given this duty first, not him, and that he would have been honored to follow you.

  Marc studied them with a feeling of loneliness that he hated. Here it was, that only for the boss’s ears shit. The real boss, his mind whispered.

  Marc walked away from them, drawing Angela’s attention. “Hey? Don’t you still need an answer on Kenn?”

  Marc stopped. “I have it now, don’t I? I’m tending the herd until you’re caught up enough to handle both sides of the tape. Kenn’s not even in the picture anymore and no one knows it, not even him.”

  Marc scowled deeper. “That’s why he set me up in the cage! Adrian needed them all to see that I’m hard enough for this place.”

  “Yes.” Angela stiffened her shoulders, doing what she had to. “Say it, Marc.”

  “I’m your XO.”

  “Yes.”

  Marc marched toward the big camp, slightly shocked at receiving the position without even expecting it. He was also furious at Adrian for giving him this gift when he held such a secret hatred for their blond leader. “Call me if you need anything, princess.”

  Angela didn’t have time for his self-righteous anger. The weight that was settling onto her shoulders was far heavier than any she’d ever
carried. She was in charge of Safe Haven. This was her camp.

  Angela straightened her sore shoulders, stretching them out to balance the awful load. When she thought she could handle it, she met Doug’s gaze. “I will do everything I can to keep these people alive, and that includes Adrian. I don’t want his place.”

  Doug already knew that. “You’re the Boss now.”

  Behind Doug, the senior Eagles began stepping out of the shadows, showing their unity. Team leaders and their XOs appeared, giving her their support, their loyalty. Their thoughts rang in her heart, held her up under the weight of the role she’d been given.

  He was right to choose you.

  We trust you to guard his dreams.

  Angela let a single tear trace her cheek. She’d come a long way from Cincinnati.

  Angela found Neil waiting nearby. She knew what was coming and tried not to let it bother her that the camp was staring at them in small, nervous groups from the tape.

  “Got a few things for you,” Neil said, holding them out.

  Angela blew out a tired breath and started to tell him now wasn’t good for her, but he didn’t pause.

  “You’ll wear this at all times and keep it by your head during sleep.”

  Neil helped her put Adrian’s cleaned radio and belt on over the filthy clothes that she hadn’t taken the time to change yet, and then handed her a small cigarette box with a snap lid.

  “This is an alarm. Open it for a smoke, and we know to come quietly.”

  “I’ve had the course on protecting him,” Angela grunted, heart frozen with pain. “I know what’s it’s for.”

  She shoved the alarm impatiently into her back pocket, adjusted the headset, and then keyed the mike. She let go just as fast. “What god-awful name did you guys pick?”

  Neil’s lips twitched in the barest of smirks. “We stuck with his.”

  Angela snorted without amusement. “Raven to Kyle. Have someone escort Conner to the medical tent.”

  “Copy.”

  She looked at Neil in annoyance. “Next?”

  She reminded him so strongly of Marc on his second day in Safe Haven that he smiled despite the heaviness in his heart. “Questions. You provide the answers.”

  Angela planted her feet firmly, as she’d seen Adrian do so many times, and found the stance almost comfortable.

  “Hit me. I can take it now.”

  End of Book Five

  What would you like to do now?

  (All links below go to places in this book file and nowhere else.)

  Read the Notes from the author.

  Read the deleted scenes.

  Read sample of book six, Where We Stand.

  Explore the Interactive Features.

  Read another free book by Angela White:

  -Bone Dust & Beginnings

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  Notes from Angie

  After that trip, I’m exhausted.

  As I’m sure you noticed, Kendle and Luke didn’t spend time with us in this edition. I tried to write it in and played with the chapters until I was frustrated enough to realize that it just didn’t fit. I hope you’ll pick up a copy of their complete story when it is released. Once you read it all together, I hope you’ll understand why I couldn’t jump back and forth again. After what Kendle went through with Ethan, she deserves no less than an author’s (and reader’s) full attention.

  Did you enjoy our journey this time? I’m rather fried at the moment and can only hope I’ve done it justice. The final choice on that is, as always, up to you. I’ll be watching the reviews and comments, and resting up to bring you the next leg of Safe Haven’s arduous adventure. The Mountains they’ve been hoping for (and dreading) are coming next.

  Will Adrian live? Most of you already know the answer to that by reading the prologue at the start of this series. No worries. Safe Haven still has a need for that troubled leader. So does the new guardian, who can’t wait to return the camp to his capable hands. Only, there’s a problem with that. The camp likes Angela in charge.

  To my Betas: Thank you!

  To my Facebook Crew: I adore you!

  To my readers: You honor me with your time and belief. Thank you!

  Have a wonderful year, world, and please, tell me what you think! I need those words from you more than I can explain. You can reach me directly on FB, where I sometimes shoot the shit with readers and forget about these voices in my mind for long seconds at a time.

  Angela White on Facebook

  Also, there is now a new website for this series, where you’ll be able to find all the things you’re looking for in one EASY to use place. I built it myself, and hope you like it.

  The Life After War website

  Tiredly sweeping the darkness for the rest of my Eagles,

  Angela White

  Teller of Stories

  Deleted Scene#1

  Ignoring the chill, Rick stayed high and still as he spied on the battered brick building. When Marc had spun out of camp with the doctor, Rick had followed in the truck he’d gotten from McCook. That was before the slavers had destroyed it while searching for the radio rigged to lure them there. Cesar’s men had killed everyone they’d found, and Rick hadn’t come down from his water tower vantage point.

  The traitor studied the rest stop and the smoldering carnage through binoculars. Who was in such desperate need of a doctor that Angela’s skills couldn’t handle it? If it was Adrian, there was still hope despite the carnage.

  But it wasn’t.

  Rick had viewed Marc’s expression as he made the walk to the door. The woman was down, and that meant a group of extremely pissed males were in there, eager to kill anything that moved. Still, if Adrian didn’t know there was a new threat, he wouldn’t rush back, would he?

  Rick settled against the slimy tree, being careful not to catch the attention of the Eagles on sniper duty. Once he saw where they were going from here, Rick planned to get busy collecting beans, bags, and, of course, bullets. He was certain Adrian would leave this area as soon as he could. The cicadas were all over the reeking bodies, birds circling below the layers of grit. Even the big ants were carting off gory chunks through the bushes, proving Adrian’s carnivore theory. The thought of that happening to Cesar’s body made Rick want to cackle maniacally. He didn’t, of course. Unlike Cesar, Rick knew how to make himself wait for the right time.

  Movement near the far edge of the ugly scene drew Rick’s attention to shadowy forms that appeared and then vanished in the fog. A minute of studying told him it was scavengers–the human kind. The few survivors from Adrian’s trap were also lurking near the rest stop. To attack?

  Considering their lack of organization in contrast to his careful stillness, they were probably waiting for Adrian’s Eagles to be gone so they could clean up the scraps.

  Plans quickly reshaped in his mind with little effort on his part, and Rick settled in for a snooze. The phone set on vibrate would wake him in a bit, and then he’d get ready to follow the Eagle scouts that were always sent out first. After that, he would come back and talk with the lurking Mexican survivors. He expected to kill at least one of them to prove his point, but they would soon understand that Cesar’s replacement was white.

  It didn’t make the hatred any weaker or change the plans for Safe Haven. Every soul cowering inside its borders would come under slaver control... and there would never be a better time to strike than now, when they thought they’d won.

  2

  Rick was the first one to pick through the remains after the Eagles left, and he did it with one hand on his gun. Thanks to Safe Haven, he was very, very good with it.

  You could have been an Eagle, his demon taunted. You were supposed to be one of them.

  Rick swallowed the bitterness and allowed it to sink into that ball of rage smoldering in his guts. It wasn’t over. Angela’s death wouldn’t be the only price paid.

  Foggy shadows shaped like tall mice dr
ew his attention. The rats were coming.

  Rick waited where he was, settled onto the charred hood of Cesar’s once golden car and smirking openly at them. His days of hiding were over.

  The slavers slowly came toward him. These men had been in the rear of the second convoy, catching up in time to witness the slaughter. Helping hadn’t been an option against the screams and the bugs. They’d hidden until it was over, were forced to, Rick guessed. Cesar had run their tanks dry to chase Adrian.

  These dozen men had waited for Adrian to leave; hoping to strip whatever was left and flee south. They had no intentions of going to Cesar’s camp or even letting anyone know what had happened… except there was a witness to be handled. If the white man met up with the others, they would be hunted down. Shirking your duty was unforgivable, even if it meant your life. Rick held a small advantage…unless he was alone. Then, he was dead.

  Rick knew. It was in their furtive glances and stiff strides. They’d forgotten who they were dealing with. Maybe one reminder wouldn’t be enough.

  The traitor’s calm was disarming. “Guess we all got lucky.”

  Not sure what he wanted, the Mexicans didn’t answer. They still hated Rick as much as they always had, but now, there was also a layer of respect. What Safe Haven had done here was the first defeat they’d encountered, and these men were reluctant to challenge anyone who had survived there undercover as long as Rick had.

  “So…going south from here, I’ll bet.” Rick jerked a thumb toward the rest stop. “Avoid it when you pick through. He’s got it wired. They knew there were survivors.”

  The deserters immediately swept the shadows, as if expecting to see Adrian and his Eagles rushing toward them.

  “Now that they’re rollin’ again, he’ll send half of them to take care of Cesar’s camp.” Rick’s manner grew pointed. “Those who haven’t already deserted, anyway.”