Viper (Second Wave Book 1) (11 page)

Flicking the tip of her new weapon,
Lara made a mental calculation of how much pressure she would need to exert in
order to disable someone with it. Deciding she couldn’t take the risk of being
caught, she didn’t try to see if she could do it first and instead moved as
silently as she could to the man, taking small steps and staying put for a
moment after each step to steady herself.

Taking a deep breath, she took the
last two steps at once and pressed the weapon to the man’s side.

“Where is Viper?” Lara said in a
husky, low voice that surprised her.

Amun registered the pressure in his
kidney about the same time he realized that the patient in suspended animation
was somehow awake.  

“Sgt. Blain?” Amun asked stupidly,
his mind trying to figure out how the hell, she was standing behind him.

“Where is Viper?” Lara asked again,
her voice sounding more normal after clearing her throat.  

When Amun tried to turn around to
look at her, Lara pressed the object more deeply into his kidney stopping him
instantly.

“Hey! It’s all right. I’m not the
enemy here. We were able to fix your shoulder, but you suffered extensive
damage to your spine. I was turning to check on you. You shouldn’t be up; you could
do more damage that I may not be able to repair!” Amun replied, unable to keep
the concern out of his voice.

He needed a damn scanner, and he
didn’t think she was going to let him grab one either. His mind ran through the
possibilities of how the hell she had awakened herself from suspended animation,
and he quickly discarded each one. There was no explanation. Except for the
unusual results he had been looking at before she had surprised him.

“Stop stalling and tell me where
Viper is!” Lara growled, her voice hard and cold this time.

“He’s here with his brother! You
need to calm down. No one here has harmed him, I swear. Let me call him…” Amun
offered before she cut him off.

“So you can warn someone? Take me
to him. Now.” Lara said coldly, her determination rising the more her
adrenaline roared through her body.

Amun sighed and called out through
the Shengari’ for help, trying to ignore the shocked responses and some who
were outright mocking him for being taken hostage by a crippled coma patient.
Damn if it didn’t sting his pride a little too, he thought shaking his head
slightly.

“We need to go slow. Not because
I’m stalling, but because your spine is in a precarious state of healing…” Amun
began before Lara drove the object deeper into his side, causing him to stifle
a gasp.

“Just get your ass up and take me
to him.” Lara said, ignoring his excuses. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew her
back wasn’t doing that great. But, it didn’t matter. She had a promise to keep.

Amun stood up slowly, hoping the
female didn’t fall into him and drive that thing into his back in the process. He
tried to relax as Lara grabbed the back of his shirt and pushed him towards the
door.

The second they stepped through the
door and into a long hallway, Lara knew she was in deep shit.

*****

Viper didn’t bother to hold back
his anger as he shot to his feet and turned on Ratoka. “Kinara and her brother,
Jacordan were lost to us over a hundred years ago. You told us that the death
rite couldn’t be done because there was no proof she had passed.”

“You said that if we did a death
rite without proof of passing we could splinter their souls.” Viper mimicked
Ratoka dramatically before continuing.

“When we finally found the bodies,
you said there was no hope, their souls were already lost. So explain to me how
she is here, on Earth, in the body of Lara Blain?” Viper said, his voice rising
in frustration with each sentence.

Ratoka sighed, “You know the answer
to that Viper. I have explained it, and you know the prophecy. The rest is the
will of the God of Gods. Being angry will not change it but will only make it
harder on your mate, and she is the one who needs you right now.”

Viper drew in a deep breath, as if
to begin arguing with Ratoka again, when Dread stood, grabbed his hand and
leaned in until Viper had to look him in the face.

“Listen to me brother! I know what
you are feeling. Drago and I loved them as family too and that pain still
haunts us.” Dread winced and looked away quickly, his emotions raw. He pulled
himself together quickly and turned back to Viper.

“But this isn’t about us; it's about
her… and Jacordan. You need to get through to her, help her understand. You
can’t do that if you’re angry. Please brother, for Kinara’s sake, you need to
listen to how to help her.” Dread squeezed his brother’s hand, his emotions as
riotous as Viper’s.

Dread hadn’t lied. He and Drago had
mourned both Kinara and Jacordan right along with their brother. Their families
had been neighbors and close friends for hundreds of years before Kinara had
been born.

Her birth had been the fulfillment
of both families’ wishes to formally join them through the marriage of their
children. Dread and his brothers had already been long friends with Jacordan
and when the tiny, beautiful little girl was brought into their world, they had
all taken on the role of brother and protector.

Viper, who had known she was his
mate the moment he saw her, and became her constant companion and protector.
They spent every waking moment together as they grew up, the boys basically
raising Kinara.  

Viper turned such sad eyes to
Dread, that his heart felt like it was bleeding for his brother. His words
crushed him.  

“I’m so scared. I can’t survive
losing her again.” Viper whispered hoarsely before sitting back down heavily
and putting his head in his hands.

Both brothers were surprised when
Ratoka stood angrily and turned to point his finger at them.

“Enough! Enough of this pity for
yourselves and your pain! You! You! What of her? We have no idea what she went
through growing up on a world not her own. Or how much of her mind remembers
the past.”

“And because of you!” Ratoka
pointed an accusing finger at Viper. “We may never know because you didn’t listen,
and you have forced the past on her! Do you even know if she is mentally stable
enough to handle it?” Ratoka snorted in anger when Viper looked away, his guilt-ridden
green eyes spoke volumes.

“How dare you criticize the gift
that you have been given, because you don’t like the way it was wrapped!”
Ratoka spat, stamping his foot in a fit of temper, before continuing.    

“Yes, you are hurt. Yes, the pain
of the past is painful. However, the chance you have been given, the chance to
not only have her back but for her soul to be found… it’s a miracle. So pull
yourself together right now because she just woke up, and as I have feared, her
mind is slipping into the past and skewing her reality.”

Ratoka didn’t wait for the brothers;
he turned and headed toward the road and stood in the middle of it. Viper and
Dread were emerging from the woods when they heard Amun’s message through the
Shengari’.

“The woman has awakened too soon.
She is very frightened and wants Viper here now. I would appreciate you coming
soon since she has a sharp object pointed at my back.” Amun had said the last
so reluctantly that even a sliver of his embarrassment came through as well.

If the situation wasn’t so serious
Viper admitted to himself that even he would have bust out laughing and teased
the hell out of Amun like others were doing right now. However, he needed to
get to his mate.   

“Where’s your vehicle?” Viper
demanded of Ratoka as, he ran from the woods with Dread close on his heels.

The brothers watched with only mild
surprise as a black SUV turned the corner and skidded to a stop right in front
of the robed man, who didn’t even flinch, even though there were mere inches
between his leg and the bumper.

Chapter Ten

The doorway had a mist quality to it,
and Lara could feel her body changing as she went through it. What she thought
would be another room or a hall was a rocky terrain, a light grey mist hanging
thickly in the air.

Even the smell of the air wasn’t
right, Lara thought, feeling her throat become scratchy. Which seemed to
compliment the throbbing pain shooting up and down her spine as she moved. She
couldn’t see very far in front of her either; the mist was too thick to
penetrate. What the hell was this place? She thought; a sliver of fear
skittering up her spine, making her tense up and hurt even more.

“Hey! Stay calm. Don’t hurt him.
He’s the doctor; he healed your shoulder and your spine. Everything is all
right. We’re the good guys.” Niklosi Jevasari said with a calm he definitely
didn’t feel.

The sound of the voice crashed
through the fog in Lara’s mind, and the rocky terrain turned into a long
hallway. Lara held the weapon tightly to Amun’s side, staring around him at the
other men blocking her exits. Lara shook her head to clear it and tried to pull
herself together.

Damn, she thought to herself; this was
a really bad time to lose your fucking mind. Yeah, this was going to be another
great day for her book of bad days; Lara mused. She could cross off tripping
through wonderland from her bucket list too.

She’d deal with her loss of sanity
later though. When she knew Viper was safe, as she had promised. Even though
she had no idea how the hell she’d get either one of them out of this.

Lara looked hard at the man who had
spoken. “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take your word for it. I want to
see Viper, then I’ll let him go.” Lara said, closely watching the four men
blocking both paths down the long hallway she’d stepped into with the doctor.

In the few moments, they had stood there;
more people had filled in at both ends of the hallway, much farther behind the
four men who were already there. Lara watched in surprise at the smiling and
laughing people that were milling around as if this were a spectator sport or reality
show. She knew the mass of her ass wouldn’t garner this much attention.

Where the hell was she? Lara
wondered in confusion. This place didn’t seem any less creepy than the place
with the mist. Trying to clear her head, Lara focused her attention on the four
men who were the closest danger to her.

There were two on each side of her,
and they were all dressed the same, but the one who had spoken and the one next
to him were pretty damn huge. The two on the other side were a lot smaller, but
farther away from her. None of them had drawn the weapons that were prominently
strapped to their thighs; Lara thought with surprise and relief.  

“We’ve notified Viper; he's on his
way here right now. It’s going to be a few minutes. Why don’t you put that down,
and we can talk while we wait for him?” Niklosi asked, hoping the woman would
stand down. He hated the thought of accidentally hurting the brave human after
all she had been through to save his friend Viper.

“Yo forest ninja! We can call him.
Here I’ll dial him for you.” Traze said pulling out his comm and scrolling
through it.

“No! He has to be brought here!”
Lara snapped, scowling at the young man and his too eager face.

He seemed way too happy to be here,
for some reason; she thought. It seemed kind of sick and odd that her world was
falling apart, and people were down the hall laughing and this kid was acting
like this was a comedy play or something. It was all a little more bizarre than
Lara had expected.

“Ok… geez! Try to be helpful and
look what it gets you! See this is where the human women always confuse me!”
Traze grumbled crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. The other three
men, including the doctor groaned.

Lara just stared at Traze for a moment
while her mind tried to remember what Viper had said about the aliens. She
turned narrowed eyes on Traze and asked, “What do you mean humans? What are
you?” Lara unconsciously grabbed tighter to Amun as her mind raced.

“Traze, shut the hell up!” Niklosi
warned the boy through the Shengari’ hoping Lara wouldn’t get frightened, and
the weapon would slip.

“Oh come on! Viper said himself
that he told her about us so why the hell would we have to be so hush-hush
around her? Especially when you know damn well she ain’t going anywhere now.”
Traze argued with Niklosi before realizing he had said everything out loud. Not
privately through the Shengari’.  

“Oops!” Traze actually blushed,
while everyone else growled lowly causing Lara to tighten her grip on Amun and
the weapon even more.

Why the hell were they growling
like that she wondered, it didn’t sound… normal. “Yeah, let’s pretend I fell
down your rabbit hole. Tell me what the fuck you are.” Lara demanded angrily,
wondering what the hell was going on and where she had ended up.

“Hey, we’re the good guys. We were
there in the forest and got you and Viper out of there. Just calm down while we
wait for him to get here.” Niklosi said, trying to de-escalate the tense
situation.

The woman was intelligent, and he
knew she wouldn’t fall for any trick. She had even turned down speaking to
Viper on the phone. It was a smart move; they could easily have been
threatening him on the other line, now she was still in charge, and Niklosi
didn’t like that. Too much could go wrong. And it did.

“I said, what the fuck are you?”
Lara hissed at Traze.

“Oh come on! Let’s be friends
already! Ok, ok… I’ll show you mine, and you show me yours.” Traze said with a
huge grin while Niklosi and Decano yelled “No!”. David grabbed for the stupid
boy, but was too late.  

Lara watched in horror as the young
man, barely more than a boy, transformed into a huge, hulking… she didn’t know
what the fuck it was! The hair on his head had peeled backwards as it had
grown, causing it to become a patch of sorts of the back of his massive neck
and shoulders that had doubled in size.

His whole body had increased dramatically,
and his mouth hung open showing several rows of razor-sharp teeth. Hands that
were tipped with deadly looking talons were rising at her, and it emitted a single,
low roar.

Without thinking, Lara shoved the
doctor at the two closest men. When they went to grab for him, she rolled
behind his back, grabbed the first weapon from the closest man and fired two
shots at the beast. She watched as it went down and quickly held the gun to the
back of the large man she’d taken the weapon from.

Lara’s hands shook as she held the
man’s shirt, her back was on fire, and she struggled to keep her knees from
buckling because of the pain.

“Oh my fucking God! She shot me!”
Traze yelled from the floor, clutching at his stomach.

“You scared the shit out of her you
idiot! What did you expect?” David asked him angrily, before slapping him in
the back of the head. Damn, he thought, now she had a freaking gun. Just
wonderful.

Lara just watched on with horror as
the beast she’d shot had turned back into the young man, he had been moments
earlier. Was she losing her mind, she thought? No! These were the bad aliens
that Viper had been talking about! That’s why they hadn’t brought him to her
yet, she thought. They’d been captured by the enemy!

“Yeah but did you see the look on
her face? Oh my God I am going to have to look at that on the vids later!”
Traze said laughing as the now free Amun slid across the floor to look at his
wound.

“You better be damn glad she
doesn’t know that your center mass in your other form is different when you
shift back, or you’d be dead you fool!” Grai growled at his brother through the
Shengari’ as, he, Viper, Dread, Ratoka and Jax drove recklessly down the
mountain to the port stations at the office.

“Just shut up! All of you, shut up!
I need to think!” Lara yelled, tired of the chatter and whispered voices from
the people milling about down the hall. Had she lost her mind? Had she really
seen that with her own eyes? Was this one of the government’s secret mental
hospitals?

Most people didn’t know they
existed, but where did they think top scientists; agents from the alphabet
agencies and military commanders went when they lost their minds? Willingly or
unwillingly, she thought. They couldn’t let someone with those kinds of secrets
in a regular asylum where they could easily mutter their secrets to staff and
other patients.

No, the government had become much
more secretive and sinister than anyone could have guessed. A place like this
would be perfect for them to make someone disappear. With trained staff on hand
to keep you drugged until they found out what they wanted to know, and you
outlived your usefulness; Lara thought as her panic rose.

“Hey! Hey! Calm down now. I can
feel your fear and panic rising. Just breathe for a minute. No one has hurt you,
and no one will. Just calm down.” Niklosi was pissed as hell. Not only did the
situation go from bad to worse, but now he had his own weapon pointed at his
back.

Niklosi bowed his head in
embarrassment when his best friend, Balduen Skardard, teased him through their
private mental communication path. “Oh hell man, I’m with Traze on this! I want
to watch it on the vids, with popcorn. Over and over and over…”

Niklosi wasn’t sure what was worse,
getting bested by the young human female or the fact that Balduen was on his
way over. Not to help, but to witness his humiliation. This just wasn’t his day;
he thought as he watched more people come into the hallway to see what was
happening.  

“Yeah, no shit! Calm the hell down
before you kill someone! I told you we’re the good… what the fuck man?” Traze
ranted from the floor until David smacked him in the back of the head again.

“Just shut up. Your mouth and your
antics got us into this mess. Now shut the hell up until Viper gets here.”
David said, as he squatted next to the injured man-child.

It was moments like this where
David regretted accepting the responsibility of training the boy. Grai and
Ivint had thought it was a great idea since Traze seemed to respect the human
male. It also had a lot to do with the fact that one smack from him seemed to
bring the outrageous young man to heel. At least temporarily.

Lara just watched the strange
interactions among the group nervously. The additional people filling the
hallways only scared her more, even though they were keeping a healthy distance
between them.

“Well what the fuck, she’s gonna be
the one who’s embarrassed as hell when she finds out, SHE SHOT A GOOD GUY!!!”
Traze yelled the last at Lara as he grunted in pain at Amun’s prodding of the
wound in his stomach.

David not only slapped him in the
back of the head, he gagged Traze with a black bandana he pulled from one of
his pockets. When Traze went to pull it from his mouth, David held up one
finger. Traze stared at it for a second before slumping back down.

“Fuck you.” Traze muttered from
behind the cloth before finally falling silent.

Lara wasn’t sure if she imagined
the collective sigh she heard from those around her or not. She had to admit
that she was relieved the boy was quiet. He had a point, if she was wrong, she
was going to be humiliated over this. More importantly, Viper would be
humiliated that she had treated his people this way.

They had healed her. She knew there
was no way she could have survived those wounds. Hell, even now, her back was
on fire; she couldn’t imagine how bad it would be if they hadn’t done something
to help it.

She’d seen similar damage on the
battle field and knew that back wounds like that were almost impossible to
survive. With the infection she had in her shoulder already weakening her body,
she wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Her nerve was faltering the more
confused she became, and she wasn’t sure what to do anymore. Everything was too
messed up. There was only one thing she was positive about.

“I promised him I would keep him
safe. I have to keep my word. I have to know he is safe, and that you are his
people. I’m tired of the death and the killing. I don’t want to hurt anyone.
Just let me talk to Viper and make sure he’s safe. I can’t… leave another man
behind.” Lara couldn’t help the catch in her voice, memories of John dying
alone on a dirt road thousands of miles from home flashing in her mind along
with memories of Viper. And memories that weren’t really memories. At least not
hers, she thought.

“We can understand that and respect
it. We would do the same for one of our own. If we had known that was what this
was about, I would have handed you a weapon so you’d feel comfortable and left
you alone until Viper came.” Decano said, meaning every word.

Lara looked surprised as there were
murmurs and nods of agreement, even the wounded young man nodded his head. It
rocked her confidence in the fact that these might not be the bad guys even
more.

“Thank you. If I am wrong, I truly
am sorry. But if I’m not and you are the enemy, and you’re holding Viper… I
will kill every single one of you that I can in order to get to him. Just so we
understand each other…” Lara said, the steely tone of her voice ensuring that
they understood her very well. She was surprised that the men chuckled.