Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 (3 page)

Lorenzo swore and pulled him to a stop. “Are you ready for what we might find out there? If the passengers are dead and the cargo’s gone? If you’re going to lose it, you’d be better off staying here and letting me lead the team.”

A snarl caught in Zel’s throat, and he shook his arm free. “I’m going. And I’m not going to lose it unless you piss me off.”

“Not my goal, but I’ll keep that in mind.”

The sound of men and women gearing up for a fight penetrated the glass doors in front of them. Zel closed his eyes and concentrated on the storm brewing inside him. Angry winds and rumbling thunder—his demonic half hungering for violence.

Every halfblood had another nature, the part of them that stood apart, alien and dangerous. Some welcomed a beast as an ally or battled an inner darkness as a foe. For him, it had always been the storm. Gentle rains in the quiet moments, and the vicious maelstrom he struggled to contain when anger rode him hard and close.

Leashing the fierce wildness drove him half-crazy, but he didn’t have the luxury of charging out into battle just because his skin itched with the need to fight.

Once he could have, when his stepfather had ruled Rochester and he’d been a strong right hand. Not anymore. Now Zel had to consider the good of the settlement, weigh every life risked against the potential gain. Supplies. People. The fact that if he
didn’t
get the warriors outside for a fight soon, the restrained energy would boil over. He had to consider all of that.

He didn’t have to consider the hauler’s gorgeous blue eyes, but that wasn’t stopping him.

Zel cursed and shot his friend a look. “You don’t have to come. Most of the others are going to climb the walls if they don’t see action, but you haven’t got that particular problem.”

“I climb the walls for different reasons,” Lorenzo agreed.

And Zel had dragged him away from his usual diversion. “Straight answer, Lorenzo. Yes or—”

“I’m going,” he interrupted. “Hailey will have to stay here, so you need me to watch your back.”

Hailey would chew his ass for calling Lorenzo before her, but his second had earned a few extra minutes of sleep after a long day of mediating increasingly hostile disputes amongst their people. “Get the soldiers organized. I have to wake her up before I leave.”

Lorenzo apparently couldn’t resist one last jibe as he backed away. “Good luck with that. See you on the surface.”

“Uh-huh.” When Lorenzo had gone, Zel leaned against the wall and dialed Hailey’s extension.

Chapter Three

Back on the road, this time behind the wheel, Devi picked up the radio handset again. “Juliet?”

“Yeah, boss?”

She tapped the monitor set into the truck’s console. “On our programmed route, we’d have to go through one more checkpoint before turning off the main road. I’d like to avoid that. How confident is Shane that the ADS is fully functional?”

A brief pause, then Shane’s voice. “Fifty-fifty at best. The thing’s fritzy as hell, but I need at least an hour to get it running at full capacity. An hour where we’re stopped, I mean.”

It was risky. All the major trade routes were wired with widely spaced emitters, funded by cooperation between territories and cities. They pulsed with low frequency sound, so low humans couldn’t hear it, just feel the intermittent vibrations, and the coverage was sparse. It only worked at all because it was meant to protect fast-moving vehicles equipped with their own ADS systems.

If they took the trucks offroad again, they’d lose the scant protection offered by the highway system. Still, they didn’t stand a chance against another assault from an unmanned checkpoint. “I’m willing to chance it if everyone else is,” Devi said, raising an eyebrow at Tanner.

He looked less than thrilled, his full eyebrows drawing down over eyes the color of dark chocolate. “Did you ask the smartass if he figured out why the last one tried to take us out?”

“Do
you
want to suggest he access official logs while we’re out here on unofficial business?” she shot back.

Silence for one heartbeat. Two. With the third, Tanner sighed. “Into the wild we go.”

“It’s either this, or cross our fingers and hope the problem back there wasn’t ours.”

Juliet came back over the radio. “We’re game if you are, Dev. Gear it up and keep it running, and I’ll be right behind you.”

“Got it.” She tossed the handset to Tanner and rode the accelerator harder. There was a sign, one of the few still standing, signaling the turnoff on the small two-lane road. “Think the truck can handle it?”

“No.” Short, to the point, and eminently cynical. Typical Tanner, which is why his next words surprised Devi. “But we’ve been through worse, and you’ve pulled our asses out in one piece. Which I’m always grateful for, you know, seeing as a fine ass like mine is a rare commodity.”

“Do you need a sign for that ego? Oversize load, maybe?”

“You’re just bitter because your precious rule about fraternization puts me and my hot ass off limits. Ruiz’d do me though. And Cache would too, if she wasn’t too busy knocking virtual boots with Shane. Did you know those two have been uplinking to make with the kinky virtual fucking?”

“I’m going to have to kill you now.” The threat lacked heat, because Devi was too busy brooding. Her precious rules were, indeed, putting some hot ass out of her reach, but the man from the bar topped the list.

Zel,
she reminded herself. At least half-demon, which made him dangerous, but that didn’t deter her libido one bit. The dark hair and quicksilver eyes would have stopped her in her tracks, if only—

If only this wasn’t work.
Except that it was, and there was no getting around it.

Off limits.

Tanner had taken her threat as an invitation to keep talking. “—and when I grabbed her arm, she damn near planted her heel between my legs. Has Ruiz been giving her self-defense lessons on the sly? Because every time I suggest them she uses her special ‘Fuck you, Tanner’ gesture.”

“Uh-huh.” Devi slowed for a rough patch of road. “Try to remember that gesture is an insult, not a suggestion.”

The look Tanner shot her combined disgust and annoyance. “C’mon. I’m a horny bastard, but I’m not an ass. And I’m glad someone’s teaching Cache to kick ass, but if she wants to learn, it should be from me. Ruiz can stick to teaching her about rocket launchers.”

“She says she’s not teaching her to kick ass in general, only
yours
.”

That made him laugh, the rich, warm laughter that attracted female attention wherever they went. “Juliet Ruiz just got a lot hotter.”

“Right.” The last thing she had to worry about was Tanner making a play for another member of her crew. For all his swagger, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen him with a woman.

Juliet’s voice crackled over the radio again. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Dev, but we’ve got another problem.”

Not now. Not here.
She keyed the mic. “Please don’t tell me that.”

“Think my fuel sensor’s hosed. It’s been riding half-mast since we patched the tank, but the gauge just bottomed out into the red all at once. I’m on fumes.”

Devi groaned. “What about the ADS, Shane?”

“It’s sending out bursts now. It might discourage demons while we’re on the move, but if we stop, I wouldn’t make any bets. I can get back under the cab and send Cache up top to see if she can work a little networking magic, maybe boost the signal.”

Devi downshifted and swore. “Pull off after me. We’ll keep both running until we can get everything irreplaceable moved over to this trailer. We can’t stick around. We’ve
got
to get out of here.”

Shane spoke over muffled noises. “Cache and I are getting ready now. We’ll tackle the ADS while you guys shift equipment. Ruiz is pulling off.”

“Five minutes.” She didn’t dare give them longer.

The dust they’d kicked up still hung heavy in the air as Devi jumped down from the cab and rushed back to meet the other truck. Air brakes screeched as it slowed and stopped.

Juliet climbed out, blonde ponytail swinging. “Passengers first?”

“If that’s all we can get, we’ll take it. Rochester will have to deal. But I want you on Shane and Cache.” Devi motioned to Tanner. “You handle the transfer. Guns will be a better bet than fists and feet if trouble shows up.”

The makeshift door carved into the side of the trailer popped open. Cache hopped down, staggering a little under the weight of the heavy pack looped over one shoulder. Her gaze darted around the trio and finally landed on Devi. With her lips pressed into a tight line, she freed a hand and tapped her chest, flashed five fingers and gestured to the top of the truck.

“Five minutes,” Devi confirmed, speaking aloud as she repeated the signal, more out of habit than anything. Cache couldn’t hear her, and that made her trip up to fix the ADS transmitter that much more dangerous. She also wouldn’t hear a yelled warning or last-second instructions.

Devi turned to Juliet, who was busy loading and checking two large pistols. “Get up there and keep your eyes peeled.”

Cache was already scrambling up the side of the truck. Shane hit the ground in a swirl of dust, his dirty blond hair sticking up in so many directions it looked like he’d miswired something and shocked himself. His gaze snagged on Cache, and his eyes held enough worry to make it clear Tanner’s talk might have been more than bullshit.

Devi caught his arm. “Keep your head on straight,” she admonished. “If you can’t do that, you don’t need to be involved.”

Shane bit off a curse and jerked free of her grasp. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” He dropped to the earth and rolled under the truck, dragging his bag with him.

A moment later, raised voices echoed from the half of the trailer outfitted to carry passengers. Tanner’s loudest whistle cut through the noise, and she heard him issuing firm, no-nonsense orders.

Each trailer had a weapons locker installed near the front. Tanner would take care of clearing the stalled truck, even of its guns and flares, so Devi climbed into the trailer of her own truck. She’d stack the arms in her sleeper berth if she had to, but they needed to be able to access them quickly, even with the trailer stuffed with passengers and cargo.

She was elbow-deep in rifles and spare ammunition when she heard the first scream.

She dove out of the locker. Outside was already chaos. Roars echoed amongst the screams, and Devi stumbled out of the trailer. The ADS had failed or the signal hadn’t been strong enough or
something
, and now they were under attack.

She could only see a handful of skins—
so far,
she reminded herself—but it was enough to send a cold shiver through her. Skins were the worst kind, demons who wore human faces and sometimes made you think they might be capable of experiencing human emotions, like mercy and compassion.

And maybe they were, they just never showed it.

Juliet had an arm hooked around the ladder on the side of the trailer, both pistols blazing as she drove away two skins trying to crowd Tanner and the passengers back into the confined space of the trailer. Devi slung up one of her rifles and fired at one, then the other. They disappeared around the edge of the trailer.

Shane rolled out from under the cab and to his feet in one swift movement, a handgun clutched in his hand. “Signal’s too weak! Can’t fix it without—
shit
! Wings!
Cache
!”

But Cache was oblivious, hunched over the open panel on top of the truck, focused on her work. Devi could barely see her over the top edge of the trailer, and then
something
flew overhead, large enough to cast dark shadows on the light-colored metal. “Fuck.” She hurried to the second ladder. “Get up there, Juliet!”

The woman had already turned to scramble up the ladder. Devi had almost made it to the top rung when a strong hand closed around her calf and pulled—hard. She tumbled off the ladder to the ground, and vivid light exploded behind her eyes as her head slammed into the hard-packed earth.

A shot exploded above her. At first, she thought her ears were ringing, but the noise crystallized a moment later into a high, wordless scream.

Cache.
Devi struggled to sit, to find her friend, but a scuffle in the dirt nearby drew her attention. A demon, maybe the one who’d grabbed her, held Shane’s head between his hands, and the man was seizing as the creature tried to force him out of his own body.

She’d dropped her rifle, so she pulled her hunting knife free of her boot and brought it down as hard as she could into the demon’s back.

Blood—or whatever demons had in its place—splashed everywhere. The skin roared in pain and twisted away, taking her knife with him.

Cache screamed again, and bodies tumbled to the ground a dozen feet from Devi, obscured by the cover of enormous, membranous wings. Shane recovered enough to roll to his knees, but he couldn’t seem to get to his feet, not even when the nearby bodies rolled, giving them both a glimpse of purple hair.

The skin she’d stabbed snatched Devi up by the shoulders and slammed her against the side of the trailer. “Breaking you will be a pleasure,” he rasped, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, splashing hot on the flesh bared by her ripped shirt.

She had to get away. She didn’t know where Tanner and Juliet were, and Cache and Shane were both down. Not to mention the passengers—

The demon’s hands slid up to her face, and Devi’s vision swam as heat and blazing whiteness closed in on her. She felt the first stirrings of panic for herself as she realized the bastard was trying to pop her out of her body.

She screamed, clawing at his face, finally gouging her thumbs into his eyes. A shriek rewarded her, and the fingers clutching her face slipped away as another roar, this one of challenge, split the air.

The blurry shapes surrounding her doubled, and with them the sounds of combat. Grunts of pain, gunfire and shouts. When the haze clouding her vision cleared, she saw the man from the Pit Stop standing over Cache with the wing who’d attacked her in his grasp. Devi watched, primal satisfaction burning through her as Zel drew a blade, deep and sure, across the demon’s neck.