Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War) (64 page)

Angela sighed, pushing the wound together. “Ready?”

“Stop... warning me,” Seth gasped the joke out. “It’s like training with someone’s nervous grandmother!”

Angela didn’t hold back the tears as she shoved the iron against his leg.

4

“You’ll be taking over Seth’s a.m. post until he’s back on his leg.”

Kyle’s words sent a smile over Angela’s face. They’d only been back in camp for an hour. “No problem.”

“Not for you,” the Mobster muttered, but he moved around her before she could question.

“They don’t like the idea of your life for mine or vice versa.” Adrian had come out of the bathroom as Kyle went in. “How’s Seth?”

Angela looked toward the medical tent. “Better now. John’s got it covered.”

“Lots of antibiotics?”

“You know it.”

They spent a quiet moment, each studying the camp. There were dark skies overhead, but the lights of Safe Haven were hope in the apocalyptic nightmare that surrounded them every minute. Angela felt that golden power next to her stir.

“There isn’t anything I won’t do to keep them alive.”

She shivered at his words. “Even sacrifice yourself.”

“I...” He stopped, the words stuck and Angela felt his terror. Their time was short now. She flinched when their radios sparked.

“New arrivals at the
Qz
. Both doctors report.”

Flanked by Adrian, she moved under the green canopy over the reception area a minute later and John gave her the lead without being told. He lit his pipe and settled nearby.

Angela ran her eyes over the small group of nine, face tightening.
“Stick around. He’s hinky.”

Adrian sent that with a single hand gesture and felt better when the Eagles on duty moved subtly closer.

Angela had stepped to the long table and taken the place beside John. “Welcome to Safe Haven. I’m Angie, one of two doctors you’ll see during quarantine.”

The only man in the group scowled at her. “Doctors, quarantine. You government?”

Her tone was perfectly insulted. “You’re kidding, right? Those bastards are gone. Safe Haven is an American red cross convoy offering shelter to survivors.”

The man’s tone lost some of its edge. “I’m Ernie. Came from Omaha,
travelin
’ merchant, ya know? Picked up my women ‘round there.”

“You heard us in Omaha?” Angela asked, acting like his choice of words hadn’t bothered her and she was glad when the guards around her did the same. She needed another minute to pry in and then she’d know what he was guilty of.

“Sure did. Couldn’t answer ‘o ‘course, but I just went where the signal was strongest.”

Angela studied his folds of extra flesh and then the thin frames of the scared women cowering near the filthy RV. She flicked her glance over the bruises and small wounds on them and then back to the smooth-skinned man before her. Ernie might not be from Cesar’s camp, but he was a Slaver, just the same.

“How’d the girl get the black eye?”

The man flinched. “Not from me!”

Angela hated what had to happen, but she wasn’t about to let this… evil inside their warmth.

“You’ve lied to me twice. We have no room for you here.”

The Eagles were stunned. Kind, forgiving Angela had turned someone away… herself. He had to be bad for her to do that and her protectors moved closer.

“But I didn’t hit her! She fell down…”

“Running from you. You raped her anyway.”

Angela moved toward the now crying women as Adrian, Neil and Doug surrounded the sputtering man. They spun him toward his RV with hard grips and menacing looks.

When Ernie motioned at the females to follow, Angela stepped between them, hand sliding to her holster. “No.”

“But
them’s
my women!”

“Not anymore!” she shouted.

Even the rapist froze at her furious tone and Adrian observed in pride. Her righteous anger, when it came, was a sight to see.

“They are now members of this refugee camp and you are living on borrowed time!”

She motioned Kyle over, sure of which Eagle handled these things when they came up. Her voice rang out in a taunting cruelness very unlike the Angela they all knew. “Tick… tock. It’s all hands on a clock for you now, Ernie from Omaha.”

The doomed man’s face paled and she turned her back to him as the Eagles sent him out of camp. Clouds of dust rolled over the parking area.

When Kyle would have waited until Angela was out of sight, Adrian shook his head in satisfaction. “No more hiding now. None of it.”

The Mobster moved to his nearby jeep with a feeling of satisfaction he was confused by. Why did Angela’s sudden willingness to order someone killed give them pride?

Angela took a minute to calm down and then turned back to the females. She hated the pathetic way they held themselves, as if resigned to taking whatever abuse their newest owners wanted to pass out, and at the same time, she knew them. Each one was her own kind and there was a deep sympathy in her tone when she began welcoming them.

“This is Safe Haven refugee camp, ladies. We offer you aid and protection, and you have my word that the things you’ve suffered through, will
never
happen here.”

Marc listened from the shadows, one of her numerous guards, and it was easy at that moment, for him to understand why she’d been chosen for this. Adrian knew hidden talent, put it to work, and he’d placed Angie perfectly. He’d also made sure they all accepted it. There wasn’t an Eagle who wouldn’t listen to her warnings now, and none of them voiced any protests when she joined their workouts or showed up during one of their lessons for something she’d missed. She’d won them over and the only thing that bothered Marc, was where it would lead. “What’s he got planned for you?” Marc murmured, watching her joke with the new arrivals. Around her for three minutes and even strangers felt her draw, were following…

Marc’s curious demeanor flipped to uneasy in an instant and it was a struggle to keep still. Maybe he was wrong. Angie wouldn’t want her own team of female Eagles… would she?

5

Waiting until the camp was settled, Kyle and Neil made a short visit to the Mess, where one just off-duty Eagle was enjoying a too-private moment... with his boyfriend.

“Oh, man…” Neil complained as they caught sight of the cozy scene. “Do we really have to do this?”

The Mobster gave him a hard look. “It’s what any other Eagle here would get.”

“But he’s not an Eagle, he’s…”

“Worthy and you know it. If not for him, Adrian would be dead. The only reason Ray isn’t, is because he weighs less and the branch he landed on held up. It’s time to let him in.”

Neil frowned, pushing his hat back. “Surprised to hear you say it.”

Kyle sighed, letting his own weakness and strength out in the same sentence. “I feel the same way, but I can admit I was wrong.”

Neil didn’t like the images that brought and nodded in resignation. “You lead and I’ll follow.”

Ray and Dale broke apart guiltily as the Eagles came around the corner of the Mess, putting space between their bodies. Instantly expecting trouble, the two men were tense as Neil and Kyle got mugs and came toward the table they were sitting at.

“How’s it going?” Kyle asked, sliding onto the bench across from them, Neil at his side.

“Fine,” Dale stated defiantly. “What do you want with him?”

“How do you know it’s him and not you?” Neil quipped sharply, still hating how he felt when he was around these two. His eyes went over Ray’s scrapes and bruises, the casted arm, and stitches. Why was he even on duty yet?

Dale’s beady eyes narrowed. “It’s always him. You ran me out, and now you’re trying to get rid of him, too.”

“No, they aren’t,” Ray spoke up. “Not these two.”

“You’re still having trouble with the others?”

“One of them came by to thank him last night. They threw a pile of
dogshit
into his tent,” Dale informed them angrily.

Kyle’s mind went straight to Allan, he’d been on dog duty last night, and Dale read it on his face.

“You’ll only make it worse. Leave it alone.”

“Don’t tell him what to do. He gives the orders,” Ray scolded Dale lightly, not wanting his friend to get in trouble, but also feeling it like any of the others. He wouldn’t have stayed so long where he wasn’t wanted, but this pull!

Flushing, Dale pushed to his feet. “I’ll leave now. Enjoy your talk.”

They watched Ray as he watched Dale, seeing how familiar, how caring his eyes were. It made them uncomfortable, but for Kyle, who was in the process of changing his own thoughts, it was painful. They’d denied these two and others like them happiness. And for what? Because they were gay? Out of all the things they could be in this new world, how was liking men a threat to anyone?

Ray looked back at them, flushing a bit, but not censoring his words. “He’s jealous.”

Neil opened his mouth to defend his own manhood, and was shocked by Kyle’s chuckle.

“He’s got little to worry about.”

Neil turned to stare at the joke as Ray snorted bitterly.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.”

Again, Neil wanted to make it clear he had no such urges and Kyle was fast to head it off.

“Because of the time you spend with us, not because you’re hot for Neil, right?”

Ray flushed a dark red that had Neil snapping his mouth shut. Damn Kyle for changing his mind!

“He knows it’s more than that.”

Kyle guessed and hit his mark. “Because you’d go straight to keep your place now.”

“Yes!” Ray let his own emotions out. “I would have died for him and that feeling was more than I can stand to lose.” His voice dropped in shame. “There isn’t anything I won’t do.”

Kyle didn’t answer, making Neil feel the devotion, too. Sexuality was another of those things that Adrian would have to handle in time, but of all his men, Kyle was the one to sense how it might happen.

“And it starts with you,” Kyle stated, sure Ray understood. “You’re the first. Everything that happens after, is on you.”

Ray was very aware and he nodded, allowing a small smile to come to his lips. “Thank you.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Don’t thank me. Tell me you’re sorry for all the heads I’ll be
knockin
’ over this.”

Ray shook his head. “I can’t do that. Some of those heads need to be knocked.”

“Like Zack and Allan,” Kyle offered and saw by the tightening of the man’s face that he was right.

“I won’t tell. Ever.”

“If they’ve done something wrong…” Neil started to protest, unable to deny that he was being influenced by Kyle’s choice, but Kyle cut him off.

“It won’t work that way.”

“How then?”

Kyle looked at Ray, studying the set jaw and the calm pound of his pulse under the bruised skin. “You tell him.”

Ray flushed again, but spoke the truth. “You have to let me do it on my own as much as you can.”

“We have been,” Neil stated, thinking of all the times he’d overlooked Kenn’s extra hits and nasty words.

“Yeah, but I’m still alive and I’m not pretending with the Eagles anymore, like she said.” Ray slowly stood up. “I’m in love with Dale. You guys should know that. It’ll kill me to give him up… but I will.”

They watched him move toward his tent for another lonely night and there was an odd silence between them. Before the War, homosexuality was a hot-button topic. After the War, it only mattered once they’d come here. Now, it was in their faces, running drills with them and eating Mess under the same canvas.

Neil gave. “All right, I’ll back you up because he saved Adrian, but I don’t want to talk about…anything specific, okay?”

Kyle grunted, thinking they’d probably learn more about it than either of them wanted to before it was all said and done. Getting gays really accepted into the Eagles would make Angie’s trials look like nothing more than a bad dream.

Chapter Twenty

April 2
^nd
, 2013

The Kraft Cave

1

Kendle knew she didn’t want to wake up, but the nightmares drove her to it.

She’d started out with the shark pulling her down, and then corpses with huge holes in them held her while glowing green eyes bit her repeatedly. Struggling to make sense of it, she also fought to remain asleep, instinctively knowing some parts of it were really happening. It was the sound of her own screams that jerked her brutally into consciousness.

“
Aahhh
….”

Kendle snapped her mouth shut as Ethan drew back, her blood dripping from his chin. Violent pain assaulted her body and she let the tears roll down her cheeks. She was still alive.

Slap!

His blow rocked her face into the stone wall, drawing blood from a rare place he hadn’t damaged yet and Kendle’s bladder let go. She cowered back in fear as he charged forward to deliver her punishment and she welcomed the grayness that swam over her vision. One or two more of those and she could be back with the shark.

Ethan’s teeth sank into her naked thigh and scraped a layer of skin, taking her scream and turning it into a piercing shriek that had him delivering the two required hits and more. She was at his mercy now and he had none.

Kendle had lost all sense of time. Unlike her ordeal on the ocean, when she’d been able to mark the passing days, this time her world consisted of the tormenting nightmares in the darkness and excruciating brightness of the pain when she was awake. During those moments, she struggled to get back to the soupy grayness that lie between both worlds, but always seemed to miss it.

Ethan’s entire face was bloodshot. He hadn’t slept much in the entire time he’d had her, too worried about extracting his pound of flesh, literally, before Luke found them. The gunshots had continued for two days and that meant only one thing. Her soldier had escaped and Ethan was determined that when he found the body, it would be unrecognizable.

He jabbed her harder, trying to jerk her awake again. Like with the others, it was getting harder and harder to do, even though he’d stopped spilling so much blood at one time, right after he dragged her from the tunnel. She was weakening.

If Luke doesn’t hurry up, he won’t see me alive again,
Kendle thought, very careful to keep Ethan from knowing his last jab into her cheek had pulled her from the watery blackness. She knew he was scared of Luke, but…”
AAAhhhh
!”

Ethan’s teeth sank deeper than he meant them to and her blood, sweet and warm, flew down his throat. Moaning in ecstasy, he let her bash her own head against the wall and black out again.

2

He wasn’t coming. Kendle had realized it. Luke had given her up for dead. She would stay here until Ethan finally bit too far and hit a vein or she pushed him into accidentally killing her. That last one gave her a small measure of hope that it would all be over soon and she swam through the darkness more determinedly. The shark in here with her no longer held any power, and when it snagged her wrist, she smiled in relief and let it pull her under the comforting water where Ethan couldn’t follow.

“Did you know they think you can’t die?”

Kendle followed the salty voice as it spoke, not seeing its owner and not wanting to.

“T
he townspeople thought it was a miracle you survived, at first. When they found out about the rest, the stories started.”

Kendle could see the outline of a humanlike creature under the deepest rock on the ocean floor, but her mind couldn’t wrap around its size. How could a person fit under a rock?

“We came to look at you ourselves
,” the form under the stone informed her,
“and we have found the rumors to be true!”

Kendle shook her head in denial. “He’s killing me even as I dream this.”

The form’s voice became heavy with curiosity.
“Do you wish to die, child?”

Kendle hesitated. “I want the pain to end.” She could hear the understanding smile
.

”Then you do wish to die, for all life is about pain.”

“But he’s eating me!” she shouted desperately. “How can I survive that?”

“There was no choice for the others. They had to let the blood spill. A creature such as you does not.”

Kendle didn’t trust the form under the rock but asked anyway, “How?”

“A trade.”
The voice was greedy now and Kendle sensed right then that the father of all lies, in whom she previously hadn’t believed, might be the miniscule shadow under the stone.

“My soul is useless,” she haggled. “Impure.”

“But your blood is not.”

She watched the rock shift ever so slightly.

“Share with us willingly and we will rise to slay your tormentor. You shall be freed!”

Kendle cringed back at the open evil in that tone and was horrified to find her mind wanting to say yes. Instead, she forced herself to wake up by doing the one thing she knew was guaranteed to make Ethan keep going until she was. She screamed for Luke.

It became a pattern of new agony, enduring as much of Ethan’s torment as she could and then sinking down into the depths to be tempted with powers she’d never dreamed of. Real or not, she was sure she would die as soon as the choice was made and the part of her soul that had kept her alive so far, stubbornly refused to give up.

Ethan’s illness was getting worse. Even with the workouts he was giving Kendle, the rage was overwhelming. He hadn’t left the hiding place since bringing her here and his state of deterioration wasn’t much above hers. In just seven days, he was weak enough to feel dizzy when enjoying his treasure and he’d come to the conclusion that he needed to go out for supplies. He was trying to keep her alive, make her last, and he was hungry all the time because of it. The others had gone fast, but with Kendle, he’d gotten his money’s worth.

Ethan didn’t want to leave her, but besides the supplies, he needed to know what had happened. If Luke was dead, like he should be by now, then Ethan would be free to go home and stock up before coming back and joining her in a final session of blood and death. If he wasn’t, then leaving her unguarded was likely to lose him custody of the spoils. So he made sure that if the soldier showed up in his absence, he wouldn’t be able to take her away.

Kendle scowled at the shark as it pulled her upward this time, making her go back. The voice under the stone had been telling her of a group of survivors in her homeland and of how much they needed her. It had been offering to help her get there and Kendle had been close to agreeing.

“
AAaaaaaahhhhhh
!”

The pain was so severe that she hit the grayness head-on and floated there in limbo until she could breathe again. He had her chained, complete with a padlock. He’d left her here to die this way. Will collapsing, when the voice under the stone called to her, she took a quick fin down into the blackness and began fighting her own greedy nature as the devil tempted her.

3

Satisfied she wasn’t going anywhere, Ethan spent an hour observing the jungle around the door and seeing nothing, but normal Island life. Grinning - maybe LJ hadn’t even found this cave - Ethan hit the button and let himself out.

The second the door opened, Luke was there.

Ethan flew back into the small cave and LJ followed him inside with the certainty that the blood the sick playboy was covered in was Kendle’s.

Luke didn’t ask where she was, didn’t speak at all as he slid his knife out and he moved toward the rotting monster trying to pick himself up off the floor. After so long, and Ethan about to skulk away, Luke was sure she was dead and he was determined that her killer would soon follow… after he’d been caused some pain.

Ethan grunted in agony at the knife, but didn’t fight back as LJ sliced him deeply behind the ankles. It was over now, and the pilot had lost. There was no way she would live through everything he’d done to her.

Stopping any chance Ethan had of fleeing with the injury, Luke stepped back, getting set. He was going to enjoy
th
…

A gurgling moan from the back of the cave froze him in his tracks. “Kendle?”

Ethan’s horrible laughter cackled out. ”You waited! You waited and she was alive the whole time!”

Awful guilt flooded Luke and he punched Ethan with a powerful swipe that knocked him out. Luke kicked him in the ribs, nodded at the crack against his boot as he moved toward that awful choking sound.

“Kendle?”

The noise grew louder, more desperate and he rushed into the darkness with his knife tightly in his grip.

Kendle tried to scream at the sight of the bloody knife coming toward her, face turning purple, and Luke dropped the weapon in horror. He hit his knees beside her an instant later, already searching for the key.

Kendle’s blackened eyes had long since swollen shut, allowing only small glimpses of her cell. She cowered back as far as she could go, choking on the chain that was cutting into her neck.

Luke ran back to Ethan’s crumpled body, sure that’s where the key was. He found it on a rope around the bloody man’s throat and ripped it free. He delivered a harsh blow to Ethan’s ribs and felt another crack.
Bastard!

Kendle was gasping from her place in the corner, wild, and Luke didn’t try to calm her down, not sure she would last through it with the tiny bit of air she was getting. He grabbed her under one arm, holding her bleeding body tightly while plunging the key into the lock.

“
GGgrraaaaaaaaaaa
!” Kendle’s scream seemed to echo in the cave forever as the collar fell off.

Luke held her close while she thrashed in pain and panic. “Jenna!”

The crazy woman stopped behind him. “My God!”

“Tie him up!”

Jenna smirked angrily and turned back toward Ethan’s unconscious form as Luke staggered to his feet.

Afraid to let go, Luke swung Kendle into his arms and carried her fighting, bloody body out into the sunlight. Too busy struggling to keep them upright, he didn’t see Ethan’s glowing green eyes pop open with a jerk as Jenna finished.

“Do we have a deal?”

Kendle was drifting along the bottom of the murky floor, held to the stone by a single finger of the shadowy form.

“I have offered everything you want.”

Kendle’s heart was bleeding with the losses she’d suffered. “But not what I need. Let me die.”

Finally tiring of her determination, the form let loose of her, but followed as she rose to the surface, once again guided by the shark. The form was a snake, and a man, and a beast with three heads that continued to tempt her.

“I will remake your beauty until you are beyond compare. I will lay cities at your feet and men will weep in longing at the mere mention of your name.”

Kendle let herself float to the top, weakening under the onslaught. She wanted that and this devil knew it well.

“I will let your lover’s life continue past its due time.”

Kendle winced, and kept going. Not even for LJ. The thing she wanted most, no one and no thing, could give her. Dawn was dead. Her twin could never be returned.

Kendle’s body shivered uncontrollably as she slid deeper into shock and Luke found his hands being shoved away.

“Get me a fire
goin
’.”

Jenna knew he needed to be kept busy and gave him easy instructions that took his stare off the gruesome scene, but she knew it was a moment he’d never forget, even if the woman lived, which Jenna doubted. She’d never seen someone with so many wounds.

Kendle thrashed under her hands, crying out, and Luke forced himself to hold her down so Jenna could clean and then smear gel over the bites. She came to abruptly as they were cleaning her head wounds and she immediately began scrambling to get away.

“Stop!”