The Price We Pay (Life After War Book 7)

by Angela White

  “And you’ll kill Donner, I assume?”

  “Of course,” Trey answered confidently, running a hand over Angela’s dirty braid. “Is it her or the child you want?”

  “Both.”

  “Figures,” Trey lamented. He rose and went to stand in front of the screen. “I need it written and sent to me, with your signature. I stay with you. Don’t care what happens to anyone else.”

  Benjamin slowly nodded, noticing a new problem, but not speaking up about it. He hated having to negotiate with the help.

  “I’ll draft it as soon as we’re done here. Anything else?”

  Trey started to answer and felt the cold hand of fate settle onto his brow.

  “I promised you something, Trey.”

  The mercenary spun in surprise to discover Angela standing behind him. He opened his mouth to shout or at least order her to her bed, but she lifted a hand and Trey found himself frozen. I can’t move!

  Angela rotated to look at Benjamin, finally face-to-face with her true enemy. “Hello, Benny.”

  Benjamin felt her tinkering, the presence coming through the screen, and he tried to switch off the communication, but it was too late. Angela sank into his brain as if she’d been born there.

  “Stand up,” Angela ordered. On the screen, his eyes never left hers as he did what he was told.

  “Draw your weapon.”

  Angela could see him trying to fight, to resist what was coming, and she increased the force, draining herself to insist. “Put it in your mouth.”

  His arm slowly raised and Angela grinned at him, voice full of ruthless satisfaction. “You have been found guilty of treason against the people of this country and against the constitution. I sentence you to death.”

  Mentally, Benjamin was panicking, but Angela only laughed as he opened his mouth and shoved the barrel inside, breaking off two of his own teeth that tried to clench shut.

  Tears streamed down his red cheeks and he screamed silently—not begging, but in angry, frustrated disappointment.

  “Pull that trigger!”

  4

  The reaction came quick. The body dropped to the floor, footsteps flooded in to find their leader dead, and Angela’s voice and force stunned them.

  “I find you all guilty!”

  Angela pushed harder than she ever had, and a blast of energy slammed through the bunker room, causing soldiers to flee, many of them drawing their guns in defense against coworkers suddenly going insane and attacking. Shots and screams began and Angela used her gift a last time to capture the nearest female on the screen.

  “Stay a minute… Marcella, is it? Let’s talk, dear.”

  On the screen, the stern woman nodded, eyes wide with terror. “What…Whatever you want.”

  Angela smiled, the first real bit of happiness she’d felt since going into Little Rock. “Excellent answer. You may live another day. Those with you will not.”

  Marcella waited, unable to move and not completely sure she wanted to. The power in her mind didn’t seem evil, just insistent.

  “I want you to do something hard for me. Can you?”

  Marcella nodded, getting the images Angela was sending, the new goal.

  “I require every male life in that bunker and across the country. You’re going see that I get them.”

  Marcella nodded again, in a daze but able to think enough to understand that a coup was taking place and she was in the heart of the conversion zone.

  “Good. Go lock the door and then open the files that control the life support systems.”

  5

  Adrian screamed again as Donner sent flames up his spine. “What do you want from me?!”

  Donner heard the cracking tone he’d been pushing for and relented.

  “Tell me,” Donner invited, sitting down at the table. “Whose baby is she’s carrying?”

  “Mine!” Adrian growled, sagging against his chains, but Donner had been reading descendant faces in the lab for as long as Adrian had been a specimen in one.

  “So, it was the ghost you lost to. No wonder she gave you up so easily.”

  Adrian was trying to block his thoughts of the Call and it left him open to Donner prying at other doors, witnessing his humiliation by Marc.

  Donner chuckled at some of the images, rubbing it in when shots of intimacy flashed, and Adrian slammed that door with a brutal shove.

  Donner took advantage of the moment to yank on the other, suddenly unprotected door and he managed to get it open enough to peer inside before Adrian slammed that one as well.

  “You lying scum!” Donner roared, shoving away from the table. “I’ll kill you both for this!”

  Adrian ducked the swing as best he could and let Donner’s momentum spin them toward the wall where he was able to get his foot on the edge of a shelf and leap up enough to wrap the chains around the Major’s thick neck.

  “You know,” Adrian gasped out, struggling to tighten the grip. “You have been a pain in my fucking ass since the moment you landed.”

  Adrian used his rage and his bitterness to pull out strength he rarely used and his arms locked in place while Donner twisted and jerked violently, trying to free himself.

  “The bunker will make contact whether you’re dead or alive, Major. You’re now expendable.”

  “Never laugh at witch,” Angela commented, staggering against the doorframe as blood dripped from her nose. She’d come to witness this moment for herself, instead of just in the witch’s visions.

  Angela’s weak voice at the door wasn’t a surprise, and Adrian refused to let go of his victim. Donner was realizing he was about to die here, and Adrian could feel him drawing his power to send them both up in flames. Those eyes would be glowing bright green right now if he could see them, Adrian was sure, and that shade was a dangerous warning. It was how Donner had controlled the powers of his team for so long without any true gifts of his own. He could steal.

  Adrian wrenched Donner around, and slammed his face into the window, shattering the glass. He jerked him away a bit.

  Donner felt what was coming next, but had no way to avoid it. “No!”

  Adrian slammed Donner forward again, using the jagged glass as his weapon. The shards punched through Donner’s eye, and then his brain, sending blood and spasms down his body.

  Adrian, furious, grabbed Donner’s head and twisted until he heard that satisfying crunch of a broken neck. Donner had escaped justice too many times. Angela would have to change her plan.

  “That won’t be necessary,” she stated, still leaning against the doorframe. Donner had wanted to gaze on the Master’s face so badly that he’d given his life, but Adrian had taken his sight, hopefully denying him that final reward even upon death.

  The success was on her face, but Adrian didn’t ask for details. If she wanted him to know the outcome, she would tell him.

  Angela didn’t. She motioned at a scared soldier to unlock him. When she’d grabbed the bunker people, it had also snared the two soldiers Donner had placed in the car to guard her. “See that he’s taken care of.”

  She shut her lids and the gently swaying train came to a rough stop.

  Not ready for it, the soldier unlocking Adrian was thrown through the window and impaled on one of the same shards Donner had been.

  “Guess I’ll have to work on that one,” she murmured, going back the way she’d come.

  The train stopping brought the remaining solders toward them and Angela placed Trey at the door, forcing him to do her bidding.

  “She says you can get lost or face the ghost, but if you come in here, she’ll take your souls.”

  Of those three choices, the soldiers still couldn’t make the right one. Well-armed now and fed again, with no slugs or explosives flying by them, their egos refused to believe they couldn’t take her.

  “Kill that witch! Fire it up!”

  The soldiers also rushed toward the other cars, eager to slip in from the rear and the fighting began there, with Adrian bloc
king their way.

  6

  “Are you sure?”

  Jeremy nodded, face buried in the screen as Becky led him forward. She’d gotten tired of him tripping over things instead of paying attention, but she hadn’t scolded. Jeremy was tracking the only moving thing in this area.

  “It’s stopped, half a mile up,” Jeremy stated firmly. He shut the device and stored it in his kit. “We should see it any time.”

  Marc motioned the top men to go, indicating the rookies to take the rear and he moved forward in the darkness without a light or guide. Debris under his feet shifted, sometimes squeaking and scurrying away.

  Marc picked out a large shadow and then gunfire lit up the tunnel in front of them.

  It took a second for Marc to realize they weren’t the target. “Hold your fire!” he called to his team, hoping the fighting ahead would cover his voice.

  As they neared the battle, Marc realized the soldiers were firing on their own train and he broke into a run. There was only one reason for them to do that. “No mercy, Eagles! Kill them all!”

  Marc’s voice coming from the darkness was a nightmare for the soldiers, most of who immediately tried to surrender to the ghost.

  Marc was having none of it, and he sliced and shot his way through to the car that had bloody bodies already outside of it.

  “Angie!”

  Marc leaped into the car and the Eagles behind him followed his example, killing every man who didn’t flee their wrath. They were sick of being haunted by the government and there was no reason to submit to it ever again.

  Marc spotted Adrian in the corner with bodies and gear piled on top of him. His hand moved weakly, threatening to pull the pin, and Marc went by, again disappointed that Adrian hadn’t died.

  Adrian felt Marc step on the train and held up the grenade in his own defense. Now was the perfect time for Brady to be rid of him.

  Marc ignored the thought, sure his chance would come around again or that he would be goaded into it at some point.

  Marc pushed open the door to the front railcar, aware of a crunching sound that sent urgent warning signals to his brain.

  He stepped inside and carefully flipped the light switch up.

  “Ugg!” Trey gasped, pouring blood. “Elp E!”

  Marc didn’t even consider it. Not that he could have helped anyway. The damage had already been done and Marc turned his attention to the true danger in the car.

  The Witch was beautiful and terrifying, and she lunged forward to sink her fangs deep into Trey’s arm as he tried to defend himself. The scream as she tore out the chunk of flesh was awful.

  Free for the first time in centuries, the witch swiped out to rake a fresh layer of blood from Trey’s face. She rubbed it down her cheek, moaning in delight.

  Angela turned away from the gruesome scene. She waited calmly for the witch to be done and the battle outside to finish, mind once again on the future. They’d won this war. Their losses were heavy, but they would go on. Where and why was the next big choice, and she hadn’t forgotten that. The bunkers were about to experience a true survival situation, but she would always worry about them recovering. No damage she did to them would ever be enough.

  7

  Ignoring the panic around her, Marcella locked the door to her tiny room and went to her bed, where she pulled out a small trunk that held all the remaining remnants from her old life. Before the war, Marcella had been an instructor for the Navy. After the war, she had been reduced to coffee girl and pok-ee when Benjamin had needed intimacy that he couldn’t get elsewhere. It had been a sad existence.

  Angela’s words rang through her mind.

  I require the life of every male in the bunker. You’re going to give that to me...

  Marcella had dreamed of cutting loose on the males here, but the idea of dying had stopped it from being more than an amused smile occasionally playing on her lips. Now, thanks to a voice from halfway across the country, she would get to live the dream.

  You may die doing this. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.

  Marcella found that she didn’t care if she died in the next ten minutes. The vision Angela had shown her of the future was worth every life she could give, starting with all of those here.

  Marcella strapped on her breathing apparatus, grinning like a loon under the SCBA. Safe Haven wouldn’t be followed and Angela’s future would be realized.

  Marcella went to the control panel near her door, hearing female and male screams, which indicated that the men were getting the upper hand. They outnumbered the females by four to one and it made Marcella more confident in her choice.

  She hit the sequence of buttons that Benjamin had used once to bluff anther bunker, threatening to suck the oxygen straight out of the rooms. Even with the doors shut tight, only a few people would survive.

  Marcella typed in the reason for the immediate extermination:

  Uncontrolled pattern of behavior, of infection, that results in damage and chaos that can’t be reversed. Infection levels are at 97%. Recommend complete purge.

  The computer flashed a verification request and Marc took the hand from her bag and cackled as she used Benjamin one last time. Before, it had been for safety and extra supplies. This time, it was to activate the failsafe and give life to Angela’s dreams.

  8

  “Angie?”

  Marc stepped in front of her, being careful not to draw the attention of the Witch bathing in Trey’s blood. The mercenary had stopped screaming on the last swipe, throat ripped out. Marc didn’t think he would be alive much longer.

  “She only silenced him for me. She’ll keep him awake enough to feel it,” Angela warned. “Don’t underestimate her hatred.”

  “I won’t.” He stared at her blood-covered body, noticing how the layers of it seemed to be growing. Because the witch was coating herself with it? Maybe. There was still a lot that he didn’t understand about their magic. They’d discover it in time, he assumed, now that they had some of that.

  “I don’t think that’s…”

  The rumble under their feet was unmistakable and Marc cradled Angie close while the quake ripped through the area.

  Unlike the tremors they’d dealt with in the past, this one didn’t stop right away. It kept rumbling, kept rocking and swaying until Marc took them to the ground to wait it out. All around them, men were being flung down.

  A big one, he thought. Only not in the west, but here!

  Angela felt the witch return to protect her and burrowed into Marc’s big arms as the ground slowly stilled. They weren’t meant to die here. Knowing was indeed a comfort in situations like this.

  Marc caught the thought and found himself asking the one thing he’d avoided for the entire time he’d known her. “Angie, how do I die?”

  She immediately began to sob, tears spilling in thick rivulets, and Marc forced himself to be quiet and wait instead of taking it back.

  “Adrian.”

  Marc had already thought of it. He’d only needed confirmation. “Is it a fair fight?”

  Angela ignored the clean clothes he had dug up and held out. “Yes, and you can still change that future, Brady. It doesn’t have to be that way!”

  Marc smiled softly, no longer bitter, only tired. “Yes, it does. There’s only one of you and two of us. How could it ever end any other way?”

  Angela didn’t answer, drained and blurry now that it was truly over, and Marc gently swept her into his arms and carried her from the train.

  Marc leaned her against Neil’s strong side and moved toward the large, ragged band of survivors who would always have a place in Safe Haven and with him. “We won. We did it! There’s just one more thing to handle and then we can begin our new lives.”

  The fighters cheered loudly, happily, as Kendle spoke up. “What’s the one more thing?”

  She had an arm around Adrian, sending in healing without being asked.

  Marc grinned, tossing an arm around Kendle’s gun hand. “This.�
��

  Marc drew and fired into Adrian’s chest five times in rapid succession. The reports echoed, sending men to the ground and fighters to the train doors for cover.

  Marc and Adrian were locked in eye-to-eye combat as the blond slid to his ass in the tunnel, pouring blood. Adrian tried to ask, but the wounds were already affecting his control of his body.

  “She said it was a fair fight, but that I didn’t have to do it that way. She meant make peace, of course.” Marc leered as Adrian coughed out blood and puke. “You can die now.”

  Adrian gathered what strength he could and shoved into Marc’s mind.

  You can’t kill me. Only she can and she won’t! This is why!

  Adrian forced Marc to witness what he and Angela had during the Call.

  “It was always me!”

  Adrian spared Marc nothing, including Elliot making love to Eve and Eve screaming his name in ecstasy.

  “Always mine!”

  “I should have known,” Marc snarled, fury overwhelming. He fired another shot into Adrian’s gut, drawing a scream.

  “Thank you, Lord. I hope you enjoyed it too.”

  Kendle hurried to help Adrian, and Marc spun around. “No! Let him die!”

  Kenn rushed to get between her and Marc, determined to take a beating to buy time. “You don’t get to make that choice!”

  Marc growled in frustration, arm drawing back, and the ground split open under his feet.

  Marc leapt to the side, anger replaced with instant understanding. Angela wasn’t the only one protecting Adrian.

  “Damn you!” Marc swore, staggering over to cover Angela. “Why can’t he just die?!”

  Arching in agony as Kendle healed him, Adrian heard the curse and laughed through the pain. He knew exactly how Marc felt.

  9

  “Get them inside!”

  Samantha’s distorted shout drew enough attention from the guards to get them following and she used their hand codes to remind them of what to do during these moments. It wouldn’t prevent all of the panic, but there were few issues they hadn’t already dealt with, and it wasn’t as chaotic as it could have been.