Ruptured: The Cantati Chronicles (6 page)

Fuck, he was right, but I couldn’t yet.

“I can’t. Not so soon after Cade …” I explained and glanced down, hoping I convinced him.

“Fine. I understand,” he bit out and turned from me, angrily covering his magnificent form. I did the same, not bothering with modesty as I dressed in the first pants and shirt I found. Screw Cade and his orders that I remain naked at all times. After tonight, he would never have a say in my life.

Did Quinten believe this was a dismissal entirely? Panic spiked my blood pressure. I went to him, his body partly turned away from mine. My hands gently clasped his face and brought his gaze to mine. My eyes searched his for any clue to his feelings.

“Please don’t be angry. We will … consummate the union. I just can’t when I still have that bastard’s stench on me. And I want the Council to approve it first. I don’t know what I would do if the Council ordered your expulsion to the Desert because of me.” I pleaded with him. I meant every word and I watched emotion flicker in his eyes.

His expression softened. His hand cupped my cheek, and he pressed his lips to my forehead. “I understand,” he murmured and circled his arms around me.

I allowed it.
Please, gods, let the Council say yes to this union.
Otherwise, I would opt for the Desert.

Sirens blared anew. What the hell? Two sirens in one night? I wished that I had Luke’s ability to sense demons farther afield. Their numbers must be massive for the sirens to go off a second time. That meant we needed every soldier out there fighting.

“We should be out there in the combat.” I disentangled myself from the comfort his arms granted.

“My orders are to keep you here. And we all know how well your last disobedience went,” he chided, hands on his hips. I had never noticed how well he wore his fatigues. It didn’t matter as the sirens continued. We were necessary in the field. One extra warrior could make all the difference in battle.

“Yes, but I can’t just sit here when our platoons, my platoon is out there fighting for their lives.” He must have seen the sense in my argument. He didn’t want to be on babysitting duty, even if it would get him laid. Then again, who knew the last time he had been with a woman, so who was I to judge?

“But …” He attempted to argue, ever the level-headed man, but I caught him glancing at the door, as though he attempted to surmise if our skills were actually necessary.

“Think. When was the last time the sirens went off twice in a row like this? That means our forces need reinforcements like you and me. We can’t let them get to the Compound, or worse, inside.”

He studied my expression. I witnessed the battle that raged inside him. Consternation settled over his features. He wouldn’t let his newest acquisition near a battlefield.

Using every ounce of skill I had, I rubbed my hands up his chest, moving my body intimately against the hard planes of his.

“Please. I couldn’t live with myself if we had a chance to save our people and didn’t take it. I know I’m not Cantati Forces any-more, but I’m still a soldier and so are you!” I begged, gazing into his eyes, pleading with him to see my point. He stared at my mouth a mere inch from his, and I noticed his eyes fill with unrequited longing. He swallowed, his lips claimed mine for a gentle mating, and I knew I had won.

“Fine. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

“Thank you.” I refrained from dancing a jig at my victory. He could change his mind before we made it out of the Compound. With the sirens continuing their shrill call to arms, I knew this was the right decision. We needed every able-bodied soldier. I had witnessed the difference one person could make on the battlefield.

“We’ll stop by my room for weapons,” he said.

It was more than I’d hoped for. I hugged him close before I raced to my chest and pulled out a jacket. In demoting me and removing me from Cantati Forces, they had also taken my weapons. More than likely because they were afraid that I would use them on Cade or the Council, not that they were very far off in their estimates. I would make Cade pay for how roughly he’d treated me once the Council reversed their decision, make no mistake.

“I’m ready.”

He nodded and gave me a once-over. “Stay close to me, dammit. And don’t do anything stupid.”

Who, me? Do something stupid? That was all I seemed capable of accomplishing here lately. He wanted assurances that I would be good and not race headlong into trouble. Quinten knew me better than that, so I lied.

“I won’t.” Although, we both knew that when push came to shove and a battle was underway, a lot of things could go wrong in the space of a heartbeat. The firm line of his mouth told me he didn’t buy it, but he accepted my word for now.

“Let’s go.” With that, we exited my room and headed into the fray.

Chapter Eight

After a brief
stop by Quinten’s second-floor room, we scurried out of the Compound. He provided me with a hat in an attempt to shield my face from any guards. It worked. Cantati Forces hurried across the Tower Green, ferrying dispatches from the front, uncaring of other soldiers heading to the front lines in the massive attack.

The majority were heading toward the eastern gate. The ground shook from explosions and the distant din of gunfire. Armed to the teeth, with guards more concerned about not letting the enemy breach our defenses, Quinten and I sneaked out through the western gate unmolested.

The silence on the streets was deafening by comparison. Quinten and I moved wordlessly together. Years of training had honed our ability to work seamlessly. We ran in tandem, with Quinten on point.

We covered ground quickly, traveling in the direction of gunshots. Sounds of battle increased with every block we passed. A mile from the wall, we crossed over the threshold of hell. Cade’s platoon and at least half of mine were engaged in ferocious combat.

I didn’t spy my majors. Ben, Nick, and Luke were not part of the melee that I could see. Relief washed through me. I prayed they had been assigned to the Compound with my absence.

Entering the battle, Quinten and I worked together, forming a shield, using the other to protect our backs. My sensors were on high alert.

Three Feronte demons bent on ripping me to shreds crashed through a broken line of defense to reach me. With heads shaped like dragons, they had retractable claws on each of their forearms, but their fireballs were the most deadly. They could shoot those suckers up to twenty-five feet and had near-perfect aim. My blade slashed, and I flayed the first two demons into pieces.

Screeching, the remaining Feronte growled.

I blocked its heavy, clawed fists. Then I danced precipitously out of arm’s reach when two more Ferontes emerged from the hoopla. How many more were there? The number of demons were staggering. My demon-detecting powers were on overdrive, flooded by their energy. I had to block it, shore up my psychic shields, otherwise this many would undermine my ability to defend myself and anyone else.

Quinten had engaged with a group of Hatha, careful of their six-inch retractable claws. Those suckers hurt like hell when they gouged flesh and carried a venom that, if left untreated, wreaked havoc on the human body.

I ducked and swiveled, arcing my blade against a Feronte’s throat.

Two Efrits joined the fight. I hated Efrits. I dropped my blade, switching to my Glock .45. Big bastards like these needed big bullets. My finger relaxed against the trigger.

The Efrits’ bodies coiled, milliseconds from action. My finger depressed the trigger. I emptied a clip into those two. Damn near cut one in half. I dodged a fire blast from another Feronte, dived and rolled, reloading my handgun with a full clip. Gravel skinned my knees. On my side, I aimed, squeezed the trigger. The Feronte crashed to the ground.

I heard a Toth’s heavy footfalls as it charged. Its three heads shaped like a velociraptor’s, and on each head they had a mouth filled with wickedly long fangs. Damn thing openly hissing as it stalked me. These suckers were massive barrel chested brutes. In seconds I had the Glock back in its holster and swiveled my focus. Back on my feet, I whipped the blade in an arc, sliced it through bone and sinew removing all three heads before they could sample my flesh. Sounds of the battle seared my ears. I couldn’t tell who was winning, us or them. Best we could do was keep demons from each other’s backs. Any demon foolish enough to charge Quinten or me was crow fodder.

A machine built for killing, I hacked and slashed at every tentacle, claw, and tusk. Body parts littered the ground. Blood ran in rivulets and stained the street. And through it all, I listened to the sounds of battle around me.

Mammoth hands snatched me from behind, slamming my body against the nearest wall and stealing my breath. My blade clanked at my feet.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Cade snarled mere inches from my face as he restrained my arms, keeping them from my firearm.

“Saving your collective asses, apparently,” I remarked, aching for my gun or blade.

“You are not Cantati Forces any longer.” His warm breath washed over my face and made me gag. We were at war, and he worried more about his prize than his men. Some leader he had become. The general needed to know about his weakness.

“Let go of her,” Quinten demanded.

Damn him, he’d promised he wouldn’t engage Cade. If I had not been seeing stars from the impact with the wall, I would have given him a piece of my mind. It would have been far easier to bash their heads together. They both had forgotten the full-scale battle happening around us.

“Or what?” Cade tossed over his shoulder. The certainty in his smug response sickened me. Like he believed himself to be the top dog, and no one would argue against him. Wouldn’t he be surprised when Quinten and I went before the Council?

“I’ll make you,” Quinten replied, all puffed-up proud, while I struggled to breathe against Cade’s tight grip around on my throat.

“Yeah, you and what army?” Cade smirked. I wanted to wipe the smugness off his face. If I could only reach my gun, I would take care of Cade. Then Quinten and I would have ourselves a little chat.

Quinten yanked Cade’s grasp on my throat. I slumped against the wall rubbing my bruised throat, as Cade rounded on Quinten with his fists.

Horror filled me when Cade rushed Quinten. But he was ready for him. The blows they landed would have made lesser men crumble. It should have made me feel girly and feminine at their chest beating over me. It didn’t. I wanted to jump between them and stop the madness. I pulled my gun and retrieved my blade.

“I’ll see you in the brig for this, Major,” Cade barked, while throwing a punch aimed at Quinten’s jaw. Quinten dodged Cade’s fist.

“She’s mine, Cade. Has been for a while. In fact, she’s likely already carrying my child. The Council will reverse their decision. Touch her again and I’ll kill you.” Quinten had a few devices up his sleeve and countered Cade’s assault with a few solid blows of his own.

Enraged, Cade unleashed the berserker within and pushed Quinten into a defensive attack. Demons swarmed, and I became engaged with the nearest Yathuri.

All around, men and demons fought. Men died. Demons died. The sounds of the battle diminished, and I glanced around after beheading a Hatha. Cade had Quinten in a dead-lock grip around his neck.

Sorrow filled Quinten’s eyes as he fought against Cade’s hold.

“Let him go, Cade,” I shouted. “Enough. You made your point.”

Cade glanced at me, and I was not certain what he saw. Maybe it was my defiance of his orders. Maybe a part of him sensed that he would never get the chance to claim me and that Quinten threatened his possession of me. Quinten’s face turned red from suffocation. He bucked and fought Cade’s unflinching, unyielding grip. The dead forces at work inside Cade shuttered his expression as he grasped Quinten’s head.

With a swiftness that stole my breath, Cade snapped Quinten’s neck, the crack of bone sounding hollow in the lifeless space, and I watched my salvation fall. His sightless eyes, the ones that had glanced at me in adoration and hunger a short while ago, stared lifelessly back at me. His strong body, full of compact muscles, collapsed to the ground.

Dead. Quinten was dead.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed.

I went after Cade. My throat bunched up tight with unshed emotion. I may not have loved Quinten, but I had cared for him, and this monster had taken him from me. The big moments like this stole all rational thought from my body. As a woman who had been dubbed the Ice Maiden, I was all emotions and rage. I was just better at hiding them than most people. I felt things so deeply. My surface might appear to be a calm lake, but my emotions were more bottomless than any ocean, with turbulent currents that dragged the unwary into the abyss.

A vehemence I rarely unleashed took hold and filled my soul with the ice I had been accused of for so long. I lifted my Glock, sighted it, and fired my last bullet into Cade’s chest. Utter shock registered on his features as he glanced at the blood blooming upon his chest. For Quinten, and for me. He would never violate anyone again. Cade toppled backward, dead before his body impacted the ground.

I glanced around the field of battle. There was no one else. They were all dead.

Chapter Nine

I opened my
shields, expanding my energy outward until I sat in the epicenter. Nothing. No life signatures except mine. The Compound was far enough away that the people there did not trigger my sensors.

I knelt next to Quinten. Gently, with as much care as possible, I closed his sightless eyes. I stared at his handsome face. My fingers trailed over his cheeks. Anguish stole my breath as I gazed at his prone form. I may not have been in love with him, but he was my friend. One I had trusted implacably. I clasped his lifeless hand, devoid of all the solid strength I had come to expect. I would miss his warm smile, calm demeanor, and the possibility of an us.

Wetness splashed on my hands and I realized I was crying. The hope his feelings had awakened was crushed under the oppressive weight of his demise. I would carry him back. I owed him that much. He deserved a warrior’s funeral.

Hundreds of bodies lay strewn about me. Demons hugged by the human counterparts who killed them, embracing each other for all eternity in death.

I had to dispose of all the corpses. But first, I spent the next hour filching supplies from the dead. Had to, as morbid as it might seem. We needed the weapons too badly. The pile beside Quinten’s body grew. I’d have to send a detail company back for these with a cart. Once I had remanded all the available weapons into two piles next to Quinten, I began setting the bodies on fire, starting at the far end of the battleground from Quinten’s body. Humans intermixed with demons were easy. Demon bodies did not need a burning agent to ignite, partially due to their sulfuric compound, but hot enough to help incinerate the human bodies amidst them. I memorized the face of every one of my men who had perished. I should be numb to it all, but I wasn’t. How could anyone not feel the senselessness of it all?

How had this attack happened? Why had Drystan caught us so unprepared, as though we continued to forget that he wanted the extinction of the human race, to breed more of his demons and claim Earth as his dominion? This had been the largest skirmish in months. At least a hundred men were dead. Including Quinten. There had to be hundreds of demons. I’d never get an accurate count with all the body parts.

I ventured from body pile to body pile with the flame thrower I’d discovered on one of the deceased. We had been so vastly outnumbered in this fight. I reached Cade’s body, his face forever frozen with the shock of his death. It had been a nicer end than what he had deserved. I did not regret it. The Council would kill me for my actions, if they found out. I ended a man’s life, an offense punishable by death. Regardless of my reasons for doing so, in light of my recent defiance of their missives, the Council could never know. I set the flame to his clothing, watching as the flames licked his body until it engulfed him. There was nothing more I could do for any of them. My tears were empty, and sorrow burned into anger. I would hold to the promise I had made, the one to my mother, that I would rid the Earth of demons. I would. That was why I was here, to end Drystan and all his demon minions until this planet was wiped clean of their foul existence.

The Council would listen to reason with the latest losses. They must. Otherwise, they precipitated our doom. I did not regret ending Cade’s sorry existence. The Council preached that every life was precious and must be protected. But he had lost his objectivity and murdered Quinten without a second thought. How many more men had died at his hands when he deemed them unnecessary?

It was past time I returned to the Compound. Had they breached our walls and entered Command? Or had the Red Squadron beat them back and held our defensive line? I hoisted Quinten’s body over my shoulder, thanking the gods for my powers. If I had merely been human, I would never have been able to carry his two hundred pounds of dead weight. I shot my sensors out, searching for any demon signatures. Satisfied there wasn’t a bleep on my radar, I high-tailed it, as fast as I could with my burden, away from the carnage, leaving behind the weapons, erasing my energy tracers as I went, cleaning up any trail a demon might find. The general had taught me, although all Cantati were trained with the knowledge. The best way to describe it was, we took our energy, expanded it outside ourselves, and used it like a washrag to remove any trace amounts of our energy.

I did not understand the physics behind it, but knew it had something to do with a Cantati’s powers. It was something we were gifted with, like SPD, or Synaptic Pathways Diversion. Part of being one of the enlightened, as the Coven had nicknamed us.

We could move and work with the elements of nature. I thought it was nature’s way of trying to balance the scales, and keep humans from extinction. Granted, we weren’t really human, not entirely anyway, our genetic make-up different from that of our human brethren.

Block by block, I swept the area of my signature and that of any Cantati that could lead the enemy back to the Compound. Sweat dripped, coating my skin, even in the cool brisk temperatures of a London fall night. The extra weight of Quinten’s body made this task much more difficult.

I arrived back at the Compound in a little under an hour. As I strode through the western gate, a group of soldiers took Quinten’s body for me.

“We’ll take him from here, sir.”

“Thank you, Private.” His body would be prepared for its funeral pyre. We used the Tower Bridge and Thames River as our burial ground. The body burned on top of a funeral pyre, then its ashes were scattered into the water below.

I marched toward the Command Center. The general needed to know how many losses we had sustained. Then we must shore up resources and prepare for the next attack. He had to rethink his worldwide assault strategy with the severity of this recent annihilation.

The halls were crowded with refugees and soldiers alike. The whole Compound was suffused in chaos. Women sobbed, children cried, and men wore haggard, shell-shocked expressions. What the hell had happened while I was gone?

I spotted Ben and Luke over the ruckus. I approached them just as they noticed me. They were at my side in a heartbeat. Relief riddled their faces. Ben reached me first and pulled me into a bear hug. He squeezed me tight before releasing me.

“Lieutenant. We thought you were dead,” Ben admonished, and I caught the glimmer of wetness in his eyes.

“Where were you?” Luke asked reproachfully. My golden boy, always so adroit, brought me up short with his question. He knew something. They all would once the patrols spotted the fires.

“Out with the Blue Squad,” I replied, hating myself. Quinten had died because I had convinced him we were needed in the field. Maybe we had been and had beaten back monsters who would have reached the Compound. Or maybe we had caused more deaths, those of our now-fallen brethren, because of our actions.

“Where is the Blue Squad?” Luke inquired.

I brought my glance up to his. His gaze hardened with what he saw there. He knew. But he waited, needing to hear it from my lips.

“Dead,” I answered. Luke cringed away from me, as though I had scalded him with my words and betrayed an unspeakable, invisible bond between us. With a swiftness that stunned me, he severed his kinder feelings toward me, the camaraderie we had always shared. In a millisecond, they evaporated.

“Quinten?” Ben cried. I winced. They had been friends for a long time. His death was the hardest to report.

I shook my head. How would they react when they discovered it was my fault? That my decision, my selfishness, had caused his demise. I had irrevocably altered his fate and my own. All because I could not get with the program and breed with Cade.

Ben hung his head but not before I noticed the sheen of unshed tears.

“Come, the general has been looking for you.” He said with a coldness I had not known he had in him. His golden-boy image had hardened into a disdainful god. He understood, more than Ben, that I had been involved with our friend’s death. He blamed me for it. I did, too. There would be no absolution for this night. There would be no more chances from the Council or from the men I had once called friends, if they ever discovered my horrible secret. I was an abomination to the Cantati way of life, and I would pay for my recklessness.

I followed Luke and Ben into the Command Center. My father saw me the moment I crossed the threshold.

“Put her in my office. Guard the door to make sure she doesn’t leave,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir.” Luke saluted and grabbed my arm. Ben opened the door and Luke dragged me into my father’s dimly lit office.

Guard me? Was I under arrest? Did they know the crimes I’d committed?

“Stay.” He pointed before he and Ben departed.

Exhaustion settled in. I had been living on nothing but anger for what seemed like days, but no more than thirty-six hours had passed since the Council’s initial ruling. How had it all come to this?

I sat in my father’s chair, uncaring of the blood caked on my clothing. Leaning my head back, I started to nod off, until the office door slammed open. My father stood at attention, his glance scathing where there should have been concern and relief.

“What the hell happened, Lieutenant? You were relieved of your duties and expressly ordered to remain in your room. So why is it, when I sent soldiers to retrieve you and bring you into Command, that you were nowhere to be found? Then you appear, hours later, covered in blood. Explain.”

He stood, a soldier stoically at attention, awaiting my response. Had I always been a disappointment to him? Were we forever destined to disagree and butt heads?

“They are all dead.”

“What? Where did you get your intel?”

“I went with Cade and Quinten, to help them, but they all died,” I lied. He didn’t need to know my part in it.

“Cade’s platoon?”

“All dead. I’m surprised the scouts haven’t seen the fires I set. We need to send a small unit to retrieve all the weapons I gathered from the dead in Sector Four.”

“Christ.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “I’ll be right back. Stay here. I’ll have someone bring you some food.”

Dad exited his office. I noticed Ben and Luke were still stationed outside his door. I heard the deep rumble of my dad’s voice as he issued orders for the weapons detail. I collapsed back onto his chair and waited.

I heard movement around outside his office. Time crept by, and voices whispered outside the door. A thousand weights bore down upon my soul. Images of Quinten and the guys laughing together in the mess hall, playing poker in the barracks, and even my first full glimpse of his nude form. Those pictures, the memories, especially the last glimpse, his sorrow when he realized he would lose the fight and we would never be, pummeled me.

Someone brought me food, a Levare woman, whom Ben and Luke allowed into the general’s office. She shuffled over to the desk and laid a tray down with today’s gruel. “Thank you,” I murmured, while Luke glared daggers in my direction. He could piss off. I knew he was angry at all the deaths, but it was his shoddy intel that the general would have looked to when issuing orders. The woman nodded her head and retraced her steps.

Luke slammed the door after she exited the room. I had expected the cold shoulder, the distancing from my father, but I had never expected it from Luke. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel worse, that my soul could not bleed any further, I was proved wrong.

I leaned my head back against the chair. Avoiding the gruel, which smelled like spoiled fish, I closed my eyes.

The door shuddered open on its hinges and slammed into the wall.

“Dammit, girl!” Dad shut the door behind him and stomped into the room. “You were right. Every last bleeding one of those men, gone. What the fuck happened? And why were you with them?”

Exhaustion had dulled the edges some, but I had to lie. No one could know my true crimes against my people.

“We were ambushed by hundreds, General. Your initial reports were wrong about the numbers. I fear Drystan has figured out we have someone who can sense his numbers. When the sirens went off for a second time, Quinten and I joined Cade’s bunch. They were already overrun by the time we joined. We were needed, General, and I believe we prevented them from breaching our walls.”

“Bleeding Christ, this is a mess.”

“You need me back leading the Cantati Forces, not as a Breeder. I think the worldwide attacks need to be changed or postponed until we can figure out Drystan’s next move.”

I glanced at him. I needed to be reinstated, to fight back so that Quinten did not die in vain. The only way I could ensure that was out in the field.

“Agreed. Listen to me.” He leaned in close. “There may be a way around the Council’s orders. They won’t allow it unless you pick another, right this moment, and we tell the Council.”

“Like hell!” No, I wasn’t doing it. I could still smell Quinten. The last thing I wanted was another man in my bed. Or worse, dead because of me.

“It will be a farce. We’ll get one of your men to agree, but he won’t actually bed you. Understand? Then I will petition the Council that until I can find another candidate, you will be leading what is left of the Green Squad until you are pregnant.”

Could I pick another and lie to the Council? At least with Quinten I had been willing to offer him my body so it would not have been a complete lie. Who did I have left to choose from? Luke, Ben, or Nick? Picking another would never assuage my guilt over Quinten. If I had to pick between the remaining candidates, it would have to be Luke. Ben had shit for brains at times, and Nick was far too young.

This did not sit well with me. “But what happens when I don’t end up pregnant?”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Will you do it?” Dad kept glancing at his computer screens, like he was just as worried about committing treason as I was.

Could I do this? I would have my life back, but I would be damning someone else. I had to. The stakes were too high, and we had lost too many good men today. If this was the sure fire way to put me back in field command, so be it.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” There were moments that define someone. Moments when faced with the surety of defeat, we catch a glimmer of hope that one could survive living.