Chapter Thirteen
“Hemi!”
The shout ripped painfully from Cam’s throat. She dropped down on her knees, and stared down through the grate covering the hole Hemi had fallen into.
She gripped the lattice—it was made of some sort of bone-like substance. Below, Hemi bobbed, chest-deep in fluid.
He reached up, wrapping one hand over hers. “I’m okay.”
Cam squeezed his fingers. “Hold tight. We’ll get you out.” She looked over her shoulder. “A little help here?”
A second later, Tane and Roth dropped down beside her.
“Bro, we’ll get you out in a sec,” Tane said.
Both men, together with Cam, yanked on the bone grate. It didn’t budge. Cam tried to work the end of her carbine in to try and pry it off. No movement.
“There are more of these hidden holes around here,” Mac called out. She was probing the ground with her carbine. “They look like some sort of trap.”
Cam scanned the room. She guessed the creepers chased their prey in here, and trapped them down in these fluid-filled chutes.
Cam yanked her combat knife out and tried to hack away at the bone. She let out a grunt of frustration. It was too damn tough.
“We have more creepers incoming,” Taylor called out. She was standing near a tunnel entrance.
“Buy us some time,” Roth ordered.
As one, Taylor, Theron, and Sienna moved forward to engage the incoming creepers. Carbine fire echoed loudly around them.
With a horrible feeling trickling through her chest, Cam grabbed the bone grate again and heaved with all her strength.
“Shit.”
Hemi’s quiet mutter made her look down at him. Through the grate, their gazes locked.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I can feel suction in the fluid.”
She swallowed. “What?”
His gaze moved over her face. “It’s trying to suck me down.”
Her fingers tightened on the grate. “You hold on.”
Cam watched as Hemi’s body snapped tight, like someone was pulling on his feet. His knuckles turned white.
No. No. No. “Don’t you damn well leave me, Rahia. Hold on.” She couldn’t lose him. She started pulling at the grate like a wild woman. “Move, damn you!”
“Cam.” His quiet tone made her look at him. “I love you.”
She sucked in a quick breath. “No. Don’t say it like that!”
One of his big, blunt fingers moved a centimeter to brush hers. “Baby.”
Cam’s emotions tore at her, shredding her insides. She pressed her hand over his. “I love you, too, Rahia. I’m scared spitless, and I know I’ll screw this up—”
“You aren’t your mom or your dad, Cam. You’re way stronger and way more honorable.”
A tear slid down her cheek. God, now she was crying. “Don’t talk like this is goodbye.”
“You have so much love and passion locked inside you. Use it.” Suddenly, a grimace crossed his face.
Then, his hold on the grate was torn away, and he was sucked downward. Horrified, she saw his dark head disappear down into the goo.
“No! Hemi!” She kept tearing at the bone grid, trying to get it to move. Her hands stung beneath her gloves, layers of skin tearing off her palms.
Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled back.
“No! I have to get to him. No!”
She kept staring at that dark hole where he’d disappeared, terrified that the moment she looked away, he would be gone forever. The truth crept into her throat like a bitter poison. He was gone. She kept struggling. He was gone.
“Cam? Cam?” Hands grasped her arms, and she was spun around. She stared blankly into Roth’s set face. “Concentrate.”
“He’s gone.” A voice filled with pain cracked through the words.
She looked over at Tane. Hemi’s brother was staring at the hole too, the scariest look she’d ever seen on his face.
“We have to find him,” she said.
Tane’s eyes met hers—a terrible look in them. He nodded.
Roth squeezed Cam’s arm. “We don’t leave anyone behind.” He tilted his wrist, looking at the screen. “The mini-drone has been busy mapping the tunnels. I think we can work out where this trap comes out.”
With a plan of attack in place, Cam managed to clear her head and focus. Hemi needed her. She couldn’t fail him. Beside her, Mac leaned in and gave her a brief hug.
Roth’s brow creased. “I need to tell you all that the lower levels of the warren are crawling with creepers. We are seriously outnumbered and the likelihood of mission success is low.”
Cam lifted her chin. She didn’t give a crap about odds. She was going to get Hemi.
She looked around at her squad. They all lifted their weapons.
“We getting this show on the road, or what?” Theron rumbled.
They stood with her and her man. Cam fought back a mass of emotions. Their support meant the world to her, and reminded her that she wasn’t alone. She was surrounded by honorable people. People with grit who never gave up. She looked up and her gaze locked with Tane’s.
They would get him back. She had to find the man she loved.
Love. She swallowed a few times and locked that away for later. When they were safe and she could hyperventilate in peace.
Carbine fire sounded in a nearby tunnel.
“Someone’s coming,” Sienna shouted.
A big body rolled out of a tunnel. Ash leaped to his feet and faced them. “God, I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys.”
“Levi?” Tane asked.
“On the Hawk with Finn. Out cold with a head injury.”
“He’ll be pissed he missed this,” Griff said in a low, gruff voice.
“Hemi got sucked down some creeper trap,” Tane said.
Cam lifted her carbine. “We’re going to find him.”
Ash nodded, swinging his own carbine around. From the shiny, unscratched surface of it, Cam guessed it was a spare he’d grabbed off the Hawk. He also had two bulky backpacks slung on each shoulder. “I brought some extra weapons. Levi will be really pissed he missed the fun.” A sexy smile. “I’ll enjoy rubbing his face in it.”
They all huddled over Roth’s map. “We’re here.” Roth pointed to a glowing point. “Looks like all these tubes are traps. They lead straight down over to this area.” He pointed to another spot in the maze of breeding ground tunnels. “By the size of it, some sort of large cavern below.”
“How do we get down there?” Cam asked.
She tried not to think about Hemi. He’d already been gone too long. Drowning in that horrid gunk. Hold it together. The bad thoughts wouldn’t help him. Besides, this was Hemi they were talking about. The man had nine lives.
“There.” Tane pointed with one long finger to a sloping tunnel behind them. “This seems to be the most direct route down to this larger cavern.”
“Agreed,” Roth said. “Let’s move out.”
Tane took one of the packs from Ash, slipping into the shoulder straps. He tightened it, and then unhooked some sort of hose from the side of the pack. Beside him, Ash was doing the same thing.
“What’s that?” she asked.
Tane gave her a tiny, but very scary, smile. “You’ll see. Ready?”
She nodded, and the rest of her squad nodded as well.
They started toward the tunnel. The opening gaped like some demon’s mouth, waiting to swallow them whole.
Not today. Cam knew that Hemi wouldn’t give up on her. He’d been an unstoppable force, battering at her until she gave in to him. And he was right, she wasn’t her parents. She couldn’t see either one of her parents risking their comfort or safety, let alone their lives, for the other.
Be alive, Hemi. She lifted her carbine and stepped into the sloping tunnel. “Let’s go rescue my man.”
***
Hemi’s lungs burned, his body scraping against rock, as he was sucked down through the tunnel.
Everything in him screamed for him to open his mouth and take a breath. He struggled not to, but as the pressure in his lungs increased, he lost the fight.
His mouth opened and the alien fluid ran down his throat, choking him.
He thrashed around, but before he could think about dying, suddenly he was flying through the air. He smacked into the ground and rolled a few times.
He came to a stop, flopping on his stomach. Fuck. He coughed up goo until his muscles cried from heaving so much.
A noise made him raise his head.
He saw two creepers just a few meters away, watching him. Great. He reached down to the sheath on his thigh and realized his combat knife was gone. He had no weapons.
He studied the creepers again. They weren’t moving. They looked like statues. He glanced around. This cavern was larger, and there were pods dotted around the walls and floor in here, too. He squinted. These pods looked different. They were larger, more circular. In the closest one, he saw something move. A shadow with lots of legs.
He went still. It was a creeper inside. All these pods were growing creepers. So where had these pods come from?
A deep rumble echoed through the cavern. The two creepers that had been watching him turned, and scuttled off into the darkness.
A shadow moved at the far end of the cavern, detaching from the wall.
Fuck me. Hemi’s jaw dropped. A massive creeper, the size of a truck, advanced. The damn thing towered over him, and all the other creepers.
The big motherfucker’s red eyes zeroed in on Hemi. Great, just great. Apparently, it was “don’t give Hemi a break” day.
Not that he was giving up.
“Come on, asshole.” Hemi pushed to his feet. “I finally have the woman I love, who has given me a hell of a run-around, where I’ve been dreaming of having her. So if you think I’m going to stand here and quake in my boots and let you eat me for breakfast, well…fuck you.”
The giant creeper paused and tilted its ugly head, studying Hemi like something strange but tasty.
Then it charged.
Holy fuck. Hemi rushed beneath it, dodging giant legs. Its huge orange belly glowed overhead, well out of reach.
Come on, Hemi, think. He needed a weapon and a plan.
The creeper spun and Hemi ducked through the legs again. Lacking a plan, he was happy to make a run for it. He spotted a tunnel entrance, but it was on the far side of the cavern.
Only a giant alien creeper between him and the exit. No problem.
A giant leg slammed into Hemi, sending him airborne. He hit the ground and rolled. When he looked up, the leg was rushing down at him.
Hemi rolled to the side. Bam. The leg struck the ground where his head had been a second before. The creeper let out a furious screech and drew back, aiming again.
Hemi rolled to the other side. Bam. Rock chips peppered his face.
Damn. He leaped to his feet and ran, his gaze focused on the tunnel.
A giant force slammed into him, lifting him off his feet. The creeper had caught him with a different leg this time. He flew through the air and slammed into the rock wall.
He fell in a heap, the air knocked out of him and pain tearing through him.
Shit, he’d broken a rib or two. He ignored the pain and pushed himself up, his fingers brushing over something hard on the ground. The bone of some animal.
He grabbed it and leaped to his feet, belatedly realizing that there were piles of bones around him. The traps leading down here had to be ways to feed the queen creeper. He hefted the bone, brandishing it in front of him.
The creeper was coming at him again. Its huge sucker mouth was large enough to swallow a car, and it was heading straight for Hemi.
He darted around the side of the creature. He was faster and more nimble than this creeper, so he needed to use that to his advantage.
One huge leg slammed down right in front of him. He stared at the inky-black scales for a second, then grabbed it. Quickly, he shimmied up the leg. As he neared the creature’s back, it tried to shake him off, but Hemi clung to it.
Staying alive, getting back to Cam, depended on him not losing his grip.
He pulled himself onto the back of the creeper. He ran along its back, its body shifting under him, heading for the beast’s head. He lifted the bone high above himself.
Without stopping, he jammed the bone into the creeper’s eyes.
It let out a deep screech—filled with pain and anger. It bucked and spun wildly, and Hemi went flying.
He slammed into a pod, before dropping to the floor. He looked up to see the agitated creature shaking its head, trying to dislodge the bone.
Time to go.
He glanced over and saw that, for once, he’d gotten a break. He was right near the tunnel leading out of here. He headed that way, limping around the pods.
As he neared the tunnel entrance, a creeper appeared, skittering out of the tunnel.
Aw, shit. Hemi paused. After taking on a giant-ass creeper, surely one regular one should be a breeze.
But then another stepped out of the darkness behind the first. And another and another.
Shit. His jaw tightened. One creeper, he could manage, but a whole pack of them…
He backed up a few steps and bumped into a pod. He felt it vibrate, and looked down to see the top of it unfurling, like some monstrous flower.
As he watched, a black, scaly leg poked its way up out of the pod, covered in sticky orange goo.
No fucking break for Hemi. Grimly, he faced the creepers coming out of the tunnel. He thought of Cam.
He didn’t want to leave her, and whatever happened, however many aliens were tossed his way, he’d go down fighting. She’d know he fought to get back to her.
One of the creepers pounced forward, landing right near him. He ran and slid in beneath it, like he was trying to steal a base. He punched up into its belly. It staggered. He gripped one of its back legs and pulled hard. Damn, they were tough. With thoughts of Cam in his head, he heaved, straining with every ounce of his strength.
He heard something snap, and the creature let out a vicious screech.
Hemi backed away from the injured creeper. A rushing sound caught his ear, and he turned to see a second creeper darting toward him. He dodged it, but one of its legs hit him, knocking him down.
He struck the ground, just as a third creeper reared up over him. It brought down one of its legs, and skewered him through his shoulder, pinning him to the ground. Hemi roared in pain.
The creeper lowered its hungry mouth, and in its demonic eyes, Hemi saw wild, raging hunger.
Then it stopped and shrieked. It yanked its leg out of him, and turned around with another wild screech. Hemi groaned, feeling blood pulsing out of the wound. With surprise, he realized one of the other creepers had attacked the one that had been about to devour him. They were fighting over him like he was some kind of juicy bone.
As the two creepers battled, their forelegs snapping against each other, Hemi scooted backward. He pressed a palm to his shoulder, and his hand came away drenched in blood. But he kept his gaze on the creepers. This could be his last chance to sneak out.
As he turned around to make his escape, another creeper was looming over him from behind.
“Come on then, motherfucker,” he shouted.
The creature came closer, opening its giant mouth.
Suddenly, a wave of flames rushed over them. Hemi dived, rolled, and buried his face in his arms. He felt the hot wave sear his back, and the creepers’ high-pitched screeching filled the cavern.
“Take that, assholes.”
Tane’s voice. Hemi raised his head, and spotted Tane and Ash holding flamethrowers.
Both men looked completely relaxed, and hell, Ash was even grinning. They were methodically sweeping the flamethrower hoses back and forth. Fire rushed over the creepers and the pods. Some of the pods burst open, new creepers pouring out.
Behind his squad mates, Hemi saw soldiers rush forward. Carbine fire lit up the room, joining the orange flames.
Cam was leading her squad, firing at anything that moved.
Hemi smiled, pulling himself up to lean against the rock wall. There was his woman—beautiful and deadly.