Bloodlord (Soulguard Book 3) (15 page)

Chapter 28

              "Sir there's something you need to see," Rostov said as he rested his hand on my shoulder.

              I jerked around with fires burning in my eyes. I could feel the bastards and my rage was almost unbearable.

              I beat it back down and shook my head to clear it.

              "What is it, Alexei?"

              "There's a detachment of Marines down below. A force of Kresh has split off and headed toward a small city. Perhaps ten thousand. We'll be overhead in less than ten minutes."

              I clicked my coms for the pilot, "Have we got enough fuel to land and take back off and still reach the gate?"

              "Yes Sir."

              "Good," I said, "Tell the others we're gonna hit that force hard."

              "Yes Sir."

              I got up and headed toward where Prada sat with her squad.

              "We're hittin a force in less than ten," I said, "I want you, Lyr, Trent, and Mattie to hit the ground and protect the marines down there. Your squad will be with me."

              "Got it," she said and headed back toward the opening doors on the back of the plane.

              "Trent!"

              "Boss?" he said from the right.

              "You have one job," I said.

              "Roger."

              "Throw Prada out of the plane and follow her."

              "Yes Sir!" he said with a grin.

              Prada's head jerked around at the order but it was too late. He slammed into her and both went out the door.

              Mattie was laughing as she ran past, "I love this job!"

              "Be careful, Love," Lyrica said as she followed them out the door.

              "All right, boys and girls!" I yelled, "Let's show the bastards what Hell looks like! Rostov! Brighton! You're with me! Combat drop."

***

              "There's a lot of the bastards down there, Sir," Corporal Santos whispered.

              "You got that right, Santos," Sergeant Hicks whispered, "Get on that radio and call in a strike. There's no way we can do anything with that many."

              Hicks was peering over the ridgeline and what he was seeing left a large hollow pit in his stomach. The Kresh poured across the valley below like a swarm of locusts. There were so many, he couldn’t see the ground below them. He also knew that they were moving toward the small town down on the plains below the ridges. It was several miles away but it would be impossible to evacuate in time. These things could run like the wind.

              "Sir, they say we have ordinance incoming already," Corporal Santos slid in beside him.

              "We haven’t lazed the target yet."

              "Different ordinance, Sir."

              Hicks looked upward as he heard the roar of the engines. Three C-130s swept through the sky above them and forms began launching from the rear of the planes. It looked like clusters of men and women floated toward the ground. One of the clusters rocketed toward the ground.

              Hicks winced as he figured whatever these guys use as parachutes must have failed. About five hundred feet up, that cluster seemed to explode. Hicks felt his skin crawl and his teeth seemed to vibrate. It ached all the way to his core. This had been described to him before by some of the men he'd served with. They had served with Soulguard before and this was what it felt like when their Mages did their thing.

              He watched as the whole cluster slowed and slammed into the ground right in the center of that horde. A huge plume of dust shot skyward and fire exploded outward from the impact.

              "He's always doin that," Hicks heard a voice from behind him.

              Hicks spun around to find two women stepping from the shadows of the trees behind them. More forms stepped out as well and Hicks found himself facing a pretty woman with brown hair. She wore black body armor and he could see the hilts of a pair of swords crossed on her back.

              "My, aren’t you a pretty one," she said.

              She moved so fast, he just saw a blur. She was standing right in front of him. Her finger ran along the scar that led from his right cheekbone, down across his jaw.

              "Got a thing for scars, handsome," she said with a smile, "I got a few myself. Maybe I'll show em to you sometime."

              "Damn, Andrea," the other woman interrupted, "Horde of Demons, over the ridge."

              "Yeah, yeah," Andrea said with a wink at Hicks, "Later, big boy."

              The two women walked right past the squad with their two followers right behind them.

              "All right," the second woman said, "Shall we distract them till everyone gets on the ground?"

              "Looks like he already distracted them quite well, Lyrica."

              "Why should he get all the fun?" Lyrica returned, "He always sends me off to the side. I'm getting a little tired of that."

              "Ma'am," Hicks said, "Looks like they've seen you already, they're headed this way."

              Both women looked toward the horde that rolled toward them.

              "Nice," the one named Lyrica said. She clapped her hands and Hicks cringed as he thought of what it looked like.

Friggin cheerleaders, he thought.

"You know," one of their followers said, "She's getting as bad as him."

He was a six foot tall man that looked at home in his armor. The tiny woman beside him looked out of place until Hicks saw her eyes. There was a fire burning inside them that sent chills down his spine.

"Not quite," she said, "She just wants..."

She spied the young woman bouncing and clapping her hands.

"On second thought, you're probably right."

"Oh my God! Did you just say I was right?"

Hicks had seen a lot of things in his career as a soldier, but he was having trouble wrapping his mind around the situation that was unfolding around him. A flood of Kresh were pouring toward them and he was surrounded by kids.

He went to one knee and raised his rifle toward the approaching Kresh and moments before he would pull the trigger they slammed to a stop against an invisible wall. He motioned for his men to hold their fire.

"He said to shield these guys," Lyrica said, "He didn't say we couldn't attack too."

"I think that was sort of unspoken, honey," Andrea answered.

"But I don't see why we can't do both," Lyrica said, "He didn't specifically say not to. And there's no injured people so I don't see the harm in it."

"The plan is for him to draw them to him," the big man said, "If you blast a shitload of em, it may interfere with his game plan."

"Of course, you're gonna take his side," Lyrica said, "Damn these things are loud."

The roars and screams from the Kresh pounding on her shield was getting louder.

Hicks was still a bit dazed as he watched the girl argue with her cohorts. His mouth dropped open when the girl snarled and turned back toward the roaring horde.

"Shut up!" she yelled and he felt something.

It looked like every Kresh within a hundred feet of the shield just fell in pieces. Like a razor blade had ripped through them, they fell in parts with explosions of blood.

"The blade seems to work well," the tiny woman said with one eyebrow raised.

"Thanks Mattie," Lyrica said with a smile, "At least Colin will be glad we tested that."

The center of the horde seemed to explode down in the valley and Hicks felt the ache in his teeth again.

"Looks like they pissed him off," Andrea said, "Bet he melts his swords again."

"He better not!" Lyrica said, "He has the ones I got for him. If he melts those, I'm gonna kick his ass!"

"Oh yeah," Mattie said, "There they go! Sorry, girl, those blades are toast. You see that Trent?"

"Yep, they're slag. Sorry Lyr."

"Son of a..."

"You gotta learn, babe," Andrea said, "You can't give him stuff to fight with and expect him not to break it."

"Next time he's just getting friggin shoes."

"He has no respect for shoes, Lyrica, honey," Mattie said, "The first day I met him he dropped a Demon head on mine."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I had to burn them."

"How could he do that to shoes?" Lyrica asked, "Shoes are, like, sacred."

"Women," Trent turned to Hicks, "She has a hundred pairs of shoes and she's bitchin about one pair. And it was like fifteen years ago. They never just forgive and forget. If I made as many mistakes as our boss does I'd be afraid to even talk to a woman. But I'm just about flawless so I don't have to worry about it like..."

"Flawless!? That's a joke," Mattie interrupted, "The only reason you don't have anyone trying to beat you to death is because you're so pretty and everyone knows you're retarded so they make exceptions."

"You didn't act like I was retarded last night. You seemed pretty hap... ungh!"

The tiny woman had moved so fast Hicks hadn't even seen her move. The big man nearly doubled over.

"I'm about to stop making exceptions, Mister."

The Kresh were back at the shield and roaring. Then something happened down in the valley and every one of them turned away. They roared in unison and charged back into the valley.

"Oh, that got their attention," Andrea said, "You think he'll Alpha?"

"I doubt it," Lyrica said, "He likes to use the hands on approach. But there's always the chance he will."

She paused and cocked her head a little to the side.

"Looks like I was wrong," Lyrica said, "Sereno just shielded them up. He's gonna Alpha."

"Jesus Christ!" Corporal Santos said beside Hicks as the whole world seemed to shake around them.

"Oh! That's gonna leave a mark," Trent said with a chuckle as they watched the whole valley engulfed in flame.

Hicks was awestruck. These Soulguards were amazing. I wish we had a million of em, he thought.

The next instant the woman he'd seen first was standing directly in front of him.

"I'm Andrea Prada, Beautiful," she said and stretched her hand out, "And what I want to know is, do you have any plans for the weekend? I'd say tonight but we have to go stomp on a giant Gate."

Chapter 29

              "She's gonna kill me," I said as we walked toward the group on the hill ahead of us.

"Maybe she doesn't know those were the ones she had made for you," Adaya said.

"You honestly believe that?" I asked.

"Not for a second," she said with a laugh, "You're in trouble."

"I was lookin at em on the plane and forgot to swap em back out before we jumped," I said.

"Don't whine," Reyna said, "It's not befitting of the second in command of the Soulguard."

She laughed.

"What is it with women? You learn to tie a knot in your Soulstream and you get plain vicious."

"The female of the species is much deadlier than the male," Len Yueh said, "Haven't you ever heard that? It is fact."

"I think they're all just crazy," Cristof said, "Did you know I read that twenty five percent of women are on some sort of medication for psychological balancing?"

"Bloody Hell," Stone said, "That means seventy five percent of them are running around untreated!"

"Men," Adaya said, sadly.

"Nothing you can really do with them," Reyna said.

Lyrica, Mattie and Trent were standing in front of the group of Marines but Prada was busy hitting on the Sergeant. Lyrica was giving me the look and I knew it would be trouble later. I winced and walked over to save the Sergeant.

"Sergeant," I said, "I'm Colin Rourke and this is my motley crew. They told me you guys got hung up down here before we left the plane. If you don't mind a little detour, you can hitch a ride back with us."

"We'd love to get a ride, Sir," he said, "What sort of detour did you have in mind?"

"We're goin down to Kenya and close that Gate. Then we're gonna kill everything in the area that walks on two legs and ain't Human."

"I'm gonna say that sounds fun," he said, "My name's Hicks, this is Corporal Santos."

I nodded toward the Corporal with the radio.

"Get em ready, Santos."

"Sir"

Santos turned back toward the squad of Marines, spouting orders.

A moment later a man came from the forest behind the group. He held a huge sniper rifle.

"What took ya so long, Corn?" Hicks asked.

"Had a ring side seat for the show up on that bluff, Sir. Hated to leave the box seats."

"Get ready to move out. We're goin to Kenya."

"Isn't that where the Gate opened?"

"Yep."

"Ooo-rah!"

I love Marines.

Corn turned and joined his fellows.

"Corn?" I said to Hicks.

"That's what we all call him," He said, "You don't even wanna know why. Trust me."

"I don't doubt that for a second," I said.

I turned and went back to see if Lyrica was gonna kill me now or later.

"I'm sorry, Baby," I said, "I didn't even realize those were the swords I had until after I jumped and it was too late."

"Um Hm," she said, "That's why I can't buy you pretty things. And I want to know why you always send me off to the side."

"Everyone needs a reserve force to pull their asses out of the fire if it all goes south."

"It sounds reasonable except for the fact, I can tell you're lying. But I'll let it go this time."

She kissed me and we turned back to find four women spaced behind us.

"Just in case she wanted help when she kicked your ass," Prada said, "Besides, I keep getting thrown out of planes and I think ya get a lot more pleasure out of it than ya should."

"Damn bloodthirsty women," I muttered.

"I think
all
of ours are running around untreated," Stone said, sadly.

"Yes," Rostov said, "We didn't even get our twenty five percent."

"Just for something to think about," Brighton said, "If you count the Mageguards and Mages, both, the women in this Motley crew actually outnumber us. Just a little food for thought before you say anything else on the subject."

He was right. Out of the Three hundred and forty Soulguards that were in the three planes, close to two hundred of them were women.

"So what you are saying is there are two hundred of them running around, untreated, right here?" Rostov asked.

"Well, yeah."

There were a lot of women with that "look" standing around us.

"Ahem," I coughed, "Let's go find our planes."

"Good idea," Rostov said.

"Everybody move out!" I said, "The planes are down on the other side of the town. Small airstrip."

"Grab a Marine and we'll take it at a run."

Mattie grabbed the sniper who yelped as she slung him over her shoulder.

"Your hands go anywhere they shouldn't and you'll be creamed Corn. Got it?"

"Both hands on my rifle, Ma'am!"

I laughed.

Prada, of course, grabbed Hicks.

"Honey, your hands can go anywhere they want," she said.

We took off at high speed across the ridgeline toward town and reached the airstrip in less than fifteen minutes.

The small strip had a fueling station and our pilots had topped off our tanks. The guy at the airstrip said it was free after we had just saved his town.

We were airborne once more in a short time and back on the way toward Kenya. There were a couple of small wounds and Lyrica made her rounds to heal them. Most of the wounds were superficial and Mages heal fast, anyway. But the added help she could give wasn't turned down by any.

"A Medic?" Hicks asked, "She's so young."

"She's been doin hands-on trainin for the last few years at the Hospital in Wichita or the one in Montana," I said.

"We could use a Medic like that. It's like the games I used to play. We always wanted a healer in our groups."

"You're a Gamer?" I asked.

"Before I joined."

"I used to play some in our down time before the Kresh decided they had to kill us all. I always played a tank."

"Me too," he said.

"Come to find out, I ended up as a real tank. I go out into the middle and get their attention and then we can all bring down the fire."

"You seem to do it well enough," he said with a chuckle, "I saw the footage from both First and Second Kansas. They used to call the sort of guy you are a Berserker in the old days."

"There's something inside me," I said, "When it comes out, well, you've seen the footage."

Sergeant Hicks was a perceptive guy. He could see the shame I felt over what I become sometimes.

"A world at peace can be ashamed of the guys like us, Mister Rourke," he said, "A world at war will cherish us. There's no shame in what happened in Kansas. They came here to commit genocide on our race. Our job is to show them it will cost them too much. Our job is to be the meanest sons of bitches on the planet. We'll do what it takes to get the job done. That's all I see you've been doing. There's no shame in that."

"Just doin the job, huh?" I asked.

"Damn right," he said, "and doing it well."