Viper (Second Wave Book 1) (7 page)

Med packs were opened all over the ground;
bloody medibands were discarded as multiple hands worked to save the girl’s
life. Dread circled around until he saw an open spot near her feet.  

Kneeling down, he stared at the
unfamiliar face of the female, not understanding why Viper would think he knew
her. Reaching out with his energy, he tried to reach out to the woman, but
either her energy was very weak or the men surrounding her were overwhelming
hers.

Dread took a deep breath, then
reached out his hand and wrapped it around her boot covered ankle. His energy
roared through his body so quickly his spine stiffened, the power holding him
to her until his hand began shaking on her foot.

With a huge push of strength, Dread
yanked his hand away from the woman and stared down at her in amazement. It
wasn’t possible. Turning to Viper, Dread knew his brother was right.

Dread immediately sent a private
message through the Shengari’ to Ratoka, the spiritual leader of the Zendarian
people and most of the beast nations. The fact that Ratoka responded so quickly
and without any surprise told Dread that this unbelievable occurrence was
somehow expected by the man. That pissed him off. Dread didn’t like surprises.

He walked quickly back to Viper and
whispered quietly to him, “Do not speak a word of this. Ratoka is coming to
meet us.”

Viper nodded his head, “How is
she?”

Dread shook his head sadly, “She’s
in pretty bad shape, but the energy she pulled from me should keep her going
until we get her to Amun. How the hell did you find her?”

“She found me. She rescued me from
the assholes and kept me alive. How did this happen? How…” Viper’s voice
trailed off as he thought of what the hell this could all mean.

“I have no idea. Where has she
been? Does she know? Did she say anything?” Dread asked trying hard to
understand what the hell had happened since the transport crashed.  

Viper thought of all the things
that Lara had told him, which wasn’t much. “We need to grab her packs. Inside
the cabin, in the tunnel. I saw her take them down there. There’s something in
them that she is trying to protect. It’s important to her, so it’s important to
me.”

Dread looked over at David, who
nodded and headed into the cabin to go find the tunnel, and the packs that
Viper was talking about.

“What is in the packs?” Dread asked
when Traze followed David into the cabin.

“I don’t know. She was in trouble.
She found me because she had come out here to hide.” Viper explained, trying to
piece it all together.

“Does she know?” Dread asked again.

“No, I don’t think she does. I
don’t understand it, Dread.” Viper said, looking up as the transport hovered
over the cabin.

“I think Ratoka knows something.
We’ll figure it out; I promise. Are you all right, brother?” Dread asked,
concerned about the multitude of raw emotions Viper was feeling and the pain he
was ignoring in his body.

“I don’t know. I can’t lose her,
Dread. Not again.” Viper said, his voice breaking as he watched her being
loaded into the transport. He could hear the medics yelling that they would
take over her care.

He and Dread were silent, wrapped
in their own thoughts as they headed towards the hovering transport. Viper was
oblivious to the slaps on the shoulder and the others who were cleaning up the
dead bodies and closing up the cabin. His emotions were too raw and close to
the surface.

No longer having the adrenaline and
danger to keep his mind occupied, the memories and emotions assailed his
senses. He felt the deep sorrow and pain as if it were yesterday instead of
hundreds of years ago. He flinched slightly when David and Traze came up beside
him.

“Dude, how the hell did you carry
this? It weighs a freaking ton. Ugh!” Traze whined, huffing with exaggeration
to make his point.

Viper turned to make sure that
David and Traze got the right packs and noticed that Traze was carrying the
pack that Lara carried. He stopped suddenly, causing the other three men
walking with him to stop.

“What is it?” Dread asked, looking
around the area to see what caused his brother to pause.

“Give me the pack.” Viper said
hoarsely, holding out his hand to Traze.

“Man I can carry it to the
transport. Just head up.” Traze said, looking to David and Dread in confusion.

“Give me the pack NOW!” Viper
roared into the young man’s face.

“Well fuck dude! You didn’t have to
go all native on me! Damn I can see why you and forest ninja get along. You got
this Tarzan and Jane thing going on now don’t you?” Traze grumbled as he slid
the heavy pack off his shoulder.

“Viper, I know you’re upset. The
boy was just whining like he always does, he meant no offense.” David said,
unable to believe he’d just defended the annoying little turd. The world was
definitely coming to an end; he thought sarcastically.

“Yeah man…” Traze began until the
hard glares of Dread, and David shut him up. Both were grateful that the boy listened
for once.

“Whatever is in this pack was so
important to Lara that she refused to let me carry it for her. She was hiding
out here to protect it. She was willing to die for it. Until she is able to
protect its contents again or share them with us, then they will be my
responsibility.” Viper said grabbing the bag and pulling the surprisingly heavy
bag to his shoulder with a slight
‘oomf’
escaping.

“Viper, we need to know what’s in
the bag. There could be something dangerous…” David started; the glare and
quick shake of Dread’s head silenced him. He sighed, giving up. This was way
above his pay grade; he thought.

“I have no doubt there are probably
half a dozen weapons in here. If not more. But there is something else in here,
and it will remain her secret until she is able and ready to tell us. I… trust
her.” Viper said walking into the transport beam and effectively ending the
conversation.

Within seconds, the beam of energy
acted like an elevator, transporting his cells into the transport. He stumbled
slightly as he regained his bearings, the heavy pack unbalancing him.

“Viper, how long ago did she get
this bullet wound? The damn thing is infected to the bone already.” Viper heard
one of the medics call out.

He followed the voice to the back
of the transport and stared down at the blurry image of Lara laid out on a bed.
He didn’t complain when someone pushed him into a jump seat beside the bed.
Lara had been injured. Probably the whole time, he thought. She’d never said
anything, never complained.

“Let me get this mediband on your
head. Relieving some of the pain may help your vision. We can’t do much more
until Amun can assess the extent of your brain trauma.” Someone told Viper as
they placed a band on his forehead. Normally, he would have complained, but
right now he’d give anything to see her face and hoped that it would work.

“I did not know she was shot.”
Viper said quietly, embarrassed that he’d not asked. He had assumed that since
she was the one pushing them to move that she was fine. Thinking back now he
could see in his mind all the times that she would use only her right hand. Her
left she had rarely used, except to guide him.

“It’s her left arm or shoulder
isn’t it?” Viper asked, ashamed that he’d never noticed that she was hurt. It
seemed he was doomed to keep failing her.

“Yeah it is. Man did you break her
out of a prison camp or something? How did you keep her alive?” Viper heard
from the medic on his left.

“She found me and kept me alive.”
Viper said quietly, grabbing for the hand that had slipped off the bed. He
gently rubbed the back of her hand, giving her some of his energy to help her
body heal.

“Stop doing that. You’re down low enough,
and we’re not sure what it will do to her memories or her mind.” Dread hissed
in his ear as he sat next to him.

Viper jerked his hand away from her.
He kept forgetting that she was human, sharing energy with those that were not
beast bonded could be dangerous. They had no idea if it could disrupt a human’s
brain signals or cause permanent damage.

“We’re ten minutes from the command
center in the caves. She’ll be fine. She’s a fighter, Viper. Remember that.”
Dread said laying a comforting hand on his brother’s shoulder. It pained him
that his brother was so upset.

“Hell yeah she’s tough! Forest
ninja took out the dark ones and the freaking Relian’s with her forest traps
and ninja skills!” Traze said animatedly as he shot his hips to the left and
pointed dramatically in the air to the right.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
David asked, smacking the kid in the back of the head.

“Dude! One of these days I’m going
to kick your ass when you do that!” Traze said flashing a rare show of temper.

David immediately stood toe to toe
with the boy, nose to nose and chested bumped him. “Today will not be that damn
day will it boy? Today you will sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up because
now is not the time for your shit and you know it.”

Traze stared at David for a second
before immediately turning his eyes to the floor and sitting down next to
Dread. David breathed out a slow sigh, grateful that the kid didn’t take him up
on his challenge.

As a full human there was no way in
hell that he could compete with the kid and his beast skills. He could put a
serious hurting on the kid, but that would be about all he’d manage before the
kid pulverized him, he thought.

“How is she?” Viper asked the
medics that were busy all around Lara’s body.

“She’s in really bad shape.” One of
them said, before another one cut him off.

“Three vertebrae were crushed and
the spinal cord severed. Every abdominal organ has been punctured. She lost
half her blood supply before we got the blood booster nanos in her. A severe
infection is ravaging her shoulder, and she’s got some serious older injuries
that were still healing when they were damaged again.”

“Malnutrition, exhaustion… you’re
going to have to wait on Amun for a full rundown. We’re only dealing with the
immediate injuries until we can get her to better facilities. The cave command
center is the closest and Ivint sent Amun there the moment he knew we found
you.”

Dread gave a grateful nod of thanks
to the Tezarian medic who told Viper the truth. His brother didn’t need bullshit;
he needed the reality check to pull him out of the emotional turmoil he was in.

It worked. Dread could feel the
immediate change in Viper’s energy, the determination overtaking the fear and
pain. Sitting back, Dread huffed out a small sigh and enjoyed the relative
peace of the moment. He had a terrible feeling it would be the last time he and
his brother would feel peace for a while to come. He had no idea how right he
would be.

Chapter
Seven

Ivint Torenson, leader of the Alien
Earth Alliance and Grai T’Alq, council member, ran through the portal and
headed straight to the MedLab. They were met outside the room by a dozen
people, all of whom became silent the moment the two men walked up.

Dread walked up to them. “Amun is
struggling with the female. She was apparently in bad shape before the dark
one…” Dread paused and shook his head to clear the image of the dark one
impaling her through the back with his clawed fist.

“Viper will be fine in a few more
days. His brain trauma was the worst of his injuries.” Dread explained.

“Who is she? Is she hybrid or
gifted?” Ivint asked, curious about the woman everyone was reporting not only
saved Viper’s life but wiped out two Relian teams with dark ones.

“She isn’t either. She’s human.”
Dread said evenly.

“How is that possible? She did all
that without some kind of gift to help her? I don’t understand it.” Ivint said,
looking to Grai for an explanation.

David cleared his throat drawing
their attention. “Sgt. Lara Blain, she’s ex-military. She served in a mountain
division in Afghanistan. We probably should speak of this privately sir.” David
said, looking around at the dozen faces hanging on every word.

He shook his head with a grin.
Advanced civilization his ass, they were still addicted to gossip just like humans;
he thought.

“Is she a danger to us?” Grai asked
bluntly. If she was Grai would do whatever he had to do in order to protect his
people. They could easily heal her completely, but keep her drugged and out
until they could put her back in her cabin.   

“Absolutely not. In fact, I believe
she has information that could possibly be of great value to us. My people tell
me that she, and her partner got way too close to some secret shit going on
over there. She’s the only one still alive. I think that’s how she found Viper;
she was out there to hide.” David argued.

He had no doubt that they would
never harm the woman, but he honestly thought that she was one of the good guys
and could be of help to them.

“When can Viper be de-briefed?”
Ivint asked, looking curiously to the MedLab doors.