War Machine: Book One in the Destiny In the Shadows Series

by Maggie Lynn Heron-Heidel

  I heard both Michael and Argon mutter curses. Our people were hunkered down behind their bikes as cover. They weren't doing well. There were just too many against them. Tiranshyck had his entire tribe with him, numbering about thirty men. Xorratti had about twenty, all firing while he stood back in the shadows and watched.

  “This is so not good,” Michael murmured. “If we go down there we’ll be in the same position.”

  I studied the whole thing frantically, seeing there was no way for them to come out without surrendering entirely and that was no option considering Tiranshyck’s men never left anyone alive. They didn’t believe in mercy unless it was valuable in the long run. My eyes searched out Cain. His gun seemed to be out of commission. He was doing something to it, but it kept misfiring. It was damaged.

  Rig and Ray were nearby, ducked down over the edge of the bike. Their guns seemed to be out of commission for some reason, too. And if anything was to judge by, Xorratti was not going to stand in the way of any of their deaths.

  “What if we come around and attack them from the back?” Argon suggested, eyes glittering murderously.

  “I don't see any other option,” Michael speculated. “Coming from the front would be suicide.”

  That triggered my mind. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I couldn’t stomach the idea of standing by and doing nothing. And worse, I knew I needed to face my fear. I stooped down and turned on the shield generators in my boots. “You two go. I have better plans.”

  “Care to share?” Argon demanded blocking my way.

  I looked at him calmly. “I go in as a distraction; you sneak attack from behind. It works.”

  His eyes widened so I could see the white going all the way around. “You’re mad!”

  I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Worst comes to worst, it’ll divert the fire away from your buddies.”

  Michael looked very confused. Argon and I stared at each other for a few heartbeats. He stepped back. “On your head be it. I can't stop you. We’ll run with your plan. Come on, Michael.”

  Before Michael could object, I dove down the side of the dune and slid to the bottom. I knew the shield generators on me would block the bullets from hitting me, acting like the ones the sand lions had to block the shots. It would block any attack while I was able to counter-attack unhindered. I stood, getting into my worst mode. I stuck my head up feigning confidence and strode forward. I hoped I looked fearsome considering I felt like I was on the verge of collapse on the inside.

  The gunfire didn’t stop as I strode right into it. It bounced off of the force field, illuminating my face with red light. I heard a few yells and it all petered out. The troops on all sides seemed completely dumbfounded. I heard a few yells and realized Rig was calling out. “What are you doing?! Go back!”

  I ignored the warning. I stopped, glaring out over them all, commanding their attention. I could have heard a pin drop as silence fell. Xorratti’s troops looked astonished still. Tiranshyck’s looked angry. Apparently they still hated women as much as they did when I left. We were okay to screw and bear their children, but bore no respect otherwise. Then the silence broke.

  “What the devil are you all doing?! Shoot her!” Xorratti’s voice screeched out over the plain.

  “Well, well, well,” another terribly familiar voice drawled. “If it isn’t my violet-eyed lass.”

  Tiranshyck stepped out from behind the line of men and raised his arms in a mock welcome. I forced myself not to cringe away. “Dear one, you have finally come home. And look at you. All grown up…”

  His voice trailed off suggestively. I tried to keep the revulsion off my face. He hadn’t changed at all. He still had the same stubby limbs and brutish face. His eyes were all but glowing with greed and lust as he watched me. “Ah, yes. Come to us, lovely. Master has-”

  “I’m the Master,” I snarled, drawing my swords. “As the right of a warrior, I challenge you for your tribe. Trial by arms.”

  He laughed, sending goose bumps up my arms. “You are no warrior. Who did you allow to inflate your head with such silly ideas? You are a woman and a fine one at that. Come now. Come to me and we will spare your life. There is still a place for you amongst us. I daresay the spot I had reserved for you in my bed has been woefully empty without you.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Xorratti bellowed. “I never said to cease your fire!”

  “You do not command me or my men,” Tiranshyck said dismissively, rolling his overly large grey eyes. “I simply followed because you promised me money and told me that she was traveling with that general you keep shooting at. I knew if I cornered these men, she would come.”

  “You backstabbing son of a bitch!” he shrieked back.

  Tiranshyck shrugged and turned back to me with a gleam in his eye, completely unfazed by his tantrum. “Poor remnant for one so fair. You should be treated as a queen.”

  “So says the man who beat me with his bare hands,” I growled.

  “I was trying to teach you respect which you unsurprisingly seem to lack now. Ah, well. That habit can be broken. Bring her to me,” he ordered.

  As a few men came forward, I wondered where Argon and Michael had gone to. I shifted into my prepared stance, unperturbed by their approach. They eyed my swords warily, knowing full well they were going to go down. They did not run, knowing that death at my hand would be less painful than at his if they refused. I feinted to my left and they lifted their guns, falling for it. Their blood splashed on the sand as I whipped around, blades still once more. They dropped to my feet like rag dolls, guns useless against me.

  I tipped the crimson steel up and beckoned the rest forward. Everyone hesitated. No one wanted to be picked to go next. I grinned. And then my grin died. I could feel the wind shift. Trouble was on the horizon. Desert dust storms were horrendous and I could feel the atmosphere changing rapidly. I didn't think anyone else noticed considering the distraction I was causing. Tiranshyck was glaring murderously at me.

  “That was unwise,” he growled. “If you will not come willingly, then I’ll be forced to-”

  “You’re a coward!” I crowed, uneasy with the skies changing patterns. “You won't fight me because you are afraid and you hide behind your men.”

  “Fool! I have no need to accept your challenge. You will come to me, and when you are mine…”

  Lightning cracked over the sky and wet droplets began to pummel the sand, drowning out his threats. Fear hit me. It rarely rained out here, but when it did, the sand erupted into full flood. And when it flooded, there was no escape. Mud turned to quicksand very quickly and anyone out in the open was as good as dead. And here in this shadow of a dune, we’d be sunk.

  I backed toward the motor trikes behind me. Tiranshyck looked equally worried. This storm had come out of nowhere and none of us were prepared.

  “Fall back,” he yelled.

  I abandoned the confrontation and ran back to the line of trikes. Water was splashing around my feet now. I could see the enormous dune starting to slip down next to us. A few minutes more and it would collapse. We would be buried.

  “What?!”Xorratti’s yell carried across the plain. “Open fire!”

  I skidded in the mud and fell as more bullets flew my way from Xorratti’s side. Unfortunately for me, my shield faltered and collapsed. The water had short circuited it. Mud splattered all over me as bullets hit the sludge. I scrambled for cover, dragging myself forward as the water rose. Pretty soon I would be floating.

  I got to the nearest trike and threw myself behind it. Rig peered at me with wide eyes. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Cain muttered from a few feet away behind his bike. “Brave but stupid.”

  “Argon and Michael were supposed to ride up from the rear. I don’t know where they went,” I yelped as a bullet ricocheted off his bike and grazed my cheek. “We have to get out of here!”

  “There’s nowhere to go, sweetheart,” Rig said weakly. “Our e
lectric guns shorted because of the EMP. Xorratti and the others have old gun powder driven weapons, so they’ll just keep shooting-“

  I could have cared less about that. “You don’t understand! Once the sand hits the point of saturation, the dunes will collapse! We’ll all be buried!”

  That got their attention. Both goggled at me. Rig groaned and shook his head as Ray stared at me with wide eyes. I looked over at Cain hoping he’d have a bright idea. He was silent. “You should have stayed away,” he said finally. “Now you’re going to die, too.”

  Ice cold panic gripped me. If he had no ideas, then that really was bad. “There’s got to be something we can do!”

  The words died in my throat as I saw the first dune begin to fall. It turned to quicksand as the wave flew toward us. Rig cried out, stood and attempted to run, dragging Ray behind him. But as he rose, he used the bike as a crutch to lift himself. And in the mud, it slipped on top of me.

  Hot metal scalded my skin. I could smell my flesh burning, but I was so afraid I couldn't feel it. I was trapped under the crushing weight of the thing. All I could do was struggle as the wave came closer and closer with the speed of a cheetah. Time seemed to slow down as it came. I looked over and saw that Cain, too, had gone. I was all alone, abandoned again.

  But then I heard a loud cursing in my ear and the bike began to lift. I looked back to see Cain struggling to lift it off of me. I dragged myself out from under it and he dropped it. He grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. But he was still too late. The sand hit us like a monsoon hits an island in its path. The island gets beat into hell.

  I lost track of which way was up as we tumbled. Submerged under rushing mud, I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw tight to keep the sand out, knowing it wouldn't be of much use. I would have to breathe sometime. Unknown objects struck my side and back, making the job even harder. I think I may have had a cracked rib or two, judging by the pain.

  Eventually I felt myself stop drifting. Curiously enough, a lot of the pressure had dissipated. But two of the pressure points hadn’t disappeared. I tried to move and then I realized what they were. They were hands.

  Cain had held onto me as we had been swept away. He grunted under me when I shifted. I slid my eyes open a crack and saw that we were in an air pocket. Sand still surrounded us, but it wasn't enough to suffocate us. Yet. I wasn’t sure how we had wound up like this, but I sure wasn’t complaining.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, grimacing through the pain. I tried to shift off of him, but he held me tight.

  “What were you thinking?” he said, eyes slowly closing while shaking his head. “It was absolute suicide coming for us.”

  Sharp fear stung me, hearing the word suicide. “Let’s not talk like that. Maybe a miracle will happen.”

  “Then let’s hope Argon comes and digs us out,” he said, patting my back. I shivered and then gasped as my ribs jabbed into my side. His eyes opened a crack. “You’re injured.”

  “Ribs I think.”

  “Not a fatal wound; not that it matters anymore.” He chuckled darkly and shifted underneath me as I cringed, trying not to think about my death. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re afraid of dying. You chose the profession with one of the highest mortality rates to be afraid of that.”

  “Why would I be afraid? Mortality is one hundred percent amongst humans,” I replied, unwilling to admit my fear.

  He grunted. “Because I am and I don't scare easy. Maybe it’s because I saw my father die in front of my eyes so young. As I kid I was afraid to close my eyes at night because I thought I’d slip away in my sleep.”

  My mouth opened and then closed, leaving me completely unsure of what to say. He snorted, almost seeming sorry he said anything at all. “Since we’re just hanging here, won't you tell me who did it? I’ve been searching for that my whole life. It’s not like I can do anything about it now, but I’d still like to know.”

  As I looked into his eyes, all I could see was sincerity. I thought it over for a second. It could do no harm now.

  “It was Antigo,” I replied quietly. “He used to gloat about it. I hated him for it. Kids shouldn't see things like that. All it does is create more soldiers for the wheels of war.”

  He was quiet for what seemed like a few minutes, even though it was mere seconds. “I was just glad my family wasn't there to see it. But they should have. Maybe they would have behaved differently. John turned to underground mixed martial arts fighting to deal with the loss. He didn't want to become me, the model citizen. I found that out when he lost control, killed a man in the ring, and came to me expecting I’d clean it up,” he growled. “He had the audacity to tell me I was a hypocrite because I killed every day for a living.”

  “We don’t take pleasure in it,” I said softly, hearing the pain in his voice.

  He sighed, shaking his head. “Tell me how you came to be a slave, Sierrenna.”

  I noticed his switch of terms. “My name is-”

  “I know. But I only used it because I could see how much you hate it.”

  “It’s okay. It’s just been a long time since...” I cut off, feeling sick to my stomach. I was venturing into forbidden territory. I hadn’t thought about this in years. I bit back my words and then forced myself to continue, thinking of how Cain had opened up to me. I owed him the same. “My parents used to call me Rain.”

  “Were you young when they died?” he asked softly.

  “They’re still alive,” I growled. I ignored him as he inhaled sharply. “My mother had an affair with another man. My father demanded they stay together because of me and she knew it. So when he was called away to war, she got rid of me.”

  He gritted his teeth, hand convulsively tightening on my waist. “She sold you. Is that why you shun human company?”

  Revealing this truth couldn’t hurt now. But before I could, I froze. I could feel the oxygen being expended now. We were starting to run low. Soon it would be gone and us with it. “The air supply is gone.”

  He nodded with a heavy sigh. “I know. I didn’t want to say anything.”

  My eyes swiveled around in a panic, looking around for a last minute escape but I saw none. My breath rattled in my chest, further constricted by fear. Now finding myself at the end of my life, I wasn’t taking it very well. The idea of meeting the God who created me and consequently dictated ‘thou shalt not kill’ was terrifying. I wasn’t a masochist. Hell wasn’t something I wanted to experience.

  I jumped when I felt a gentle hand take mine. I looked down and saw Cain wind his hand around my fingers. Mine twitched in his grip. I almost wanted to pull away, but then I wondered for whose comfort this was. Mine or his?

  But as I looked into his eyes, I saw a deep understanding. And I hated that. I could see every fear of my own echoed in his. That made every barrier I had built up to keep him from coming close to seeming like a friend fall away. It was a connection, one I really didn’t want to have. Even as his request the other night to be friends had been so tempting, I had still rejected it. In my mind I had tried so hard to make him an enemy that now it seemed wrong to think otherwise in the midnight hour.

  But all the same, I still did. And to me that was an even worse fear than dying. Letting someone close to me again, even if it was just for one millisecond, was terrifying. But apparently he could see that.

  “Don’t,” he murmured, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

  Suddenly I felt myself trembling. I let my head fall forward, jamming my eyes closed. I swallowed harshly and tried to take a calming breath to stop the shaking. But I had no breath to take.

  I felt my lungs give out. There was too little oxygen in the air. Fire burned through my veins as my body demanded air. A strangled wheeze escaped my mouth before I could stop it and I twitched into the fetal position. I closed my eyes at the same time Cain jerked his head up to look at me. I didn’t want to see his face as I died. I didn't want to see the pain and knowingness that he would be next.

  “God, no,
” I heard him murmur. A hand soothed up and down my back. “‘Kay. Just let it go. Don't fight it, Rain. I’ll put in a good word for you up there if you do the same for me, okay?”

  Try as I might have to do as he suggested, I couldn’t stop fighting. It wasn't a conscious decision. My body just wasn't ready to let go. His hand squeezed mine again. I felt so sorry I was putting him through this. He hated me and yet he was doing his best to pretend otherwise to ease my passing.

  I decided to return the favor. I squeezed it back and struggled to form the words I thought I would never say. “Friend… I choose… friend.”

  And then all went black.

  Chapter Thirteen 04:16:02:54 to potential nuclear explosion

  If this was death, I was eternally going to be confused. Though if it was hell like I deserved, it would certainly explain the awful taste in my mouth.

  But then I felt something pounding down on my chest and I cried out in pain. What I heard from there certainly couldn’t be hell. Cain wouldn’t be down here, too. Or at least I doubted it. Then again, from the rumors I had heard, with the large amount of women he had slept with maybe God had gotten mad at him, too, and sent him to hell with me.

  “Ah, there we go. You can’t be dead if you’re making noise,” Cain was saying somewhere close to my ear. “You have a heartbeat. Good. I can stop and take a breather. Whew was that close.”

  Somewhere in the time Cain took to go on his little relieved monologue, I received the strength to open my eyes. We were in a dark space, but wonderfully enough there seemed to be sufficient air. I took in a deep breath and winced as my ribs protested. They were definitely broken. But that was the least of my problems. There was an awful flavor in my mouth that seemed to be getting worse by the second.

  It was so bad that I choked and attempted to spit out whatever was causing the taste, but it kept getting worse and worse. Cain chuckled from my other side. “Welcome back, sweet cheeks.”