Cruz: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 2) (5 page)

She stared at Cruz a second more before her gaze flicked to Marcus. “Help?”

“Raptors are keeping human prisoners somewhere in the city, including some pretty valuable scientists,” Marcus said.

Her green gaze moved back to Cruz.

He nodded. “The powers that be want them all out of raptor hands, but we don’t know where they are.”

She released a slow breath. “What do you need?”

“Intel. Raptor locations, numbers, anything you’ve seen that might lead to where these prisoners are being held.”

She gave a slow nod. “I haven’t seen any human prisoners. Everyone I’ve seen caught is usually killed, not taken prisoner. But I have locations and can probably narrow it down to the best possibilities.”

“That would help a lot,” Marcus said.

Shaw leaned forward to detach the transfusion device from Cruz and Santha’s arms. When she struggled to get up off the couch, Cruz slid an arm around her and took most of her weight.

She shot him an unfriendly look but didn’t protest. “Come on. I’ll show you my data.”

Chapter Four

Santha hobbled across the living room, horribly aware that the only thing keeping her upright was Cruz. Without his armor on, the warmth of his hard body blasted through her. The man was so incredibly hot.

In more ways than one.

She pushed that thought aside. He was also an alpha warrior used to getting his own way. She didn’t need that distraction in her life. Right now, they had some prisoners to focus on.

All of the possible reasons the raptors might be keeping human prisoners cascaded through her head. None of them were good.

She opened the door to one of the bedrooms and Cruz reached out an arm to push it open wider. With only a black T-shirt stretched over his chest, his arms were bare and striking black ink in a fascinating tribal design peeked out from beneath the edges of the sleeves. She eyed the way it wrapped around his muscled biceps. Her fingers twitched.
No touching
. But it did make her wonder what other ink he might have on that fascinating body.

She cleared her throat. “There’s a battery-powered lantern on the table. The windows are blacked out.”

He reached past her and flicked it on. It filled the room with a muted, blue light.

The rest of Cruz’s team pushed in behind them.

“Holy hell,” Claudia breathed.

Shaw was blinking, his gaze glued to the wall. “You’re right, you are smart.”

The entire wall was filled with her recon information. Maps, notes, photos. Things were grouped in clusters and she’d drawn lines with dark marker on the wall linking various items. Her gaze fell on one familiar photo, containing a tall, lean raptor with smoother, darker skin.

Marcus approached the wall, fingering a picture showing raptor ships landing in a park. “How long have you been putting this together?”

“Pretty much since the bastards arrived.” Since the day after she’d watched, helpless, as they’d dragged her sister’s dead body away.

“And this?” Gabe had nudged open the adjoining door. The bathroom was packed with lab equipment, glass beakers with tubes running from one to another. A pale-green fluid filled them.

“That’s where I make the cedar oil substance that repels the canids.”

Cruz’s arm tightened on her. She’d given them the recipe for the spray a few weeks back and the geek squad back at base were busy replicating it. “We need you to come to base. We’ll bring all this with us. After the doc gives you the all-clear, we need your help to plan out the recon missions to find the prisoners.”

Santha didn’t hesitate. “Okay.”

He cocked his head. “Just like that? When you were ready to fight me before?”

“They killed my sister. Those prisoners, they’re someone else’s sisters, brothers, lovers. I’ll do whatever I can to help you free them.”

Suddenly, an intense wave of cold washed over her. She shivered and her knees gave way like they were made of wet rope. With a curse, Cruz caught her.

Shaw swore. “Nanos are getting a bit aggressive.” The sniper tapped his tablet screen.

Giant shivers wracked Santha, her teeth chattering so hard she thought they’d shatter. God, it hurt.

Cruz swept her up into his arms. “Shaw?”

“Fuck. Fuck!” Shaw looked up. “Cascade.”

Now, Cruz swore. Gritting her teeth through the pain, she looked up at him. “What…is…it?”

“The nano-meds are out of control. If we don’t get you back to base…they’ll kill you.”

Marcus stepped forward. “You two keep Santha as comfortable as possible. Claudia, you bag Santha’s data. Gabe, contact Elle and call in a Hawk for pick up.”

“There are raptors everywhere,” Gabe said. “It won’t be safe for a Hawk to land.”

“Roof,” Santha forced out.

Cruz nodded, hauling her closer. “Right, have them land on the roof. We’ll need to set some flares to guide them in.”

Gabe nodded and rushed out.

After that, everything seemed to move at double speed. Shaw pumped Santha full of some sort of sedative that left her feeling like she was floating. She still felt the painful cold, she just didn’t give a crap about it. She curled into Cruz’s warmth, enjoying the way he kept stroking her back.

“Got everything.” Claudia came back to the living room, two bulging backpacks slung over each shoulder.

“Hawk’s en route,” Gabe announced. “They want to do a hot extraction. They’ll get close enough for us to jump aboard but won’t land.”

“That’ll do.” Marcus hefted his carbine. “Hell Squad, let’s hit the roof. Ready to go to hell?”

“Hell, yeah!” they all responded. “The devil needs an ass-kicking!”

They headed up the stairs, their boots pounding on the steps. They burst out onto the rooftop.

Gabe and Marcus hurried to set the laser flares on the edge of the roof. Santha just watched in a daze. It was strange to have spent a year alone, with barely any human contact, and now be surrounded by this intense team of soldiers.

Marcus touched his ear. “Elle says the Hawk’s almost here.”

Santha frowned. Illusion systems couldn’t hide lights, and she didn’t see any lights in the sky. They wouldn’t come in with lights blazing for the raptors to see, but it took a damn good pilot with a big set of balls to fly into the city in the dark.

Sure enough, the dark shape of the quadcopter appeared out of the darkness above them, flying silently, as it ran on a tiny thermonuclear engine and the rotors were shrouded to reduce their noise. The men ignited the laser flares and neon-green light speared upward. The Hawk adjusted course and headed straight for them.

She watched the Hawk’s rotors tilt and the Hawk descended. About a meter above the roof, it stopped and hovered. Marcus leaped up onto the skids, yanking the door open.

Cruz handed Santha to Marcus. The rest of the team leaped aboard, moving to positions by the doors, guns raised. Gabe climbed into the seat of a fixed autocannon.

Cruz settled in a seat and Marcus handed Santha back over. She looked up at Cruz.

“Why am I in your lap?”

“I like you there,
mi reina
.”

“When I’m not feeling as high as a supersonic jet, I’ll probably be pissed about this.”

He smiled and damned if that trademark grin of his didn’t make his sexy face even sexier.

“In case you haven’t realized,” he drawled, “I get turned on when you’re pissed at me.”

A laugh burst from her. “You’re crazy.”

Suddenly a shout came from the cockpit and the entire team tensed.

“Incoming raptor ptero,” the pilot yelled. “Everyone hold on!”

***

Cruz had just finished tightening the safety strap around himself and Santha when the Hawk veered sharply to the left.

“Ptero?” Santha asked.

“It’s what we call their ships.”

The Hawk veered again.

Shaw slammed into the wall, Claudia was cursing.

Gabe let loose with the autocannon, sending bursts of green laser fire spitting out into the night.

Cruz tightened his arms around Santha and craned his neck to see through to the cockpit.

Finn—Hawk pilot extraordinaire—sat in the pilot’s seat, his hands doing a frantic dance across the controls. Through the cockpit window, Cruz saw the bright-red lights of two raptor pteros. The ships looked like giant pterosaurs, with two large, fixed wings sharpening to a pointed cockpit at front, and a long, tail-like back end.

Suddenly, Finn threw the Hawk into evasive maneuvers. “Hold on! They’re firing that damn poison. Chews right through metal,” he yelled.

Marcus gripped a bar on the roof to stay upright. “Swing us around so Gabe can get a shot.”

The Hawk turned fast. Gabe fired.

Cruz felt Santha’s fingers digging into his arm. Looking down, he saw the lines bracketing her mouth. She wasn’t doing well. They needed to get back to base…now.

“Don’t worry, Finn here is the best Hawk pilot we have. He’ll get us back to base.”

Raptor fire hit the side of the Hawk, jolting them. The metal hissed and sizzled as the acidic substance ate through it. Sparks flew from a side console and Marcus cursed. He snatched up a fire extinguisher and covered the raptor poison in foam.

“Sorry,” Finn called back.

Cruz watched as the Hawk speared west, dodging the fire from their pursuers.

The two raptor pteros pulled in on either side of the Hawk. Gabe swung the turret and opened fire with another lethal barrage of laser fire.

The ptero lurched to the side, one of its wings pointing straight down. Then it fell into death spiral, plummeting earthward.

“Woo-hoo, great shootin’, Tex,” Shaw called out. “My turn now.”

The sniper stood on the other side of the copter, his laser rifle pointed out a small window. He fired.

Laser fire hit the small window on the ptero cockpit. The alien ship shuddered and fell back. But it wasn’t stopping its pursuit.

Cruz tapped his fingers on the armrest. They had to lose the ptero. They couldn’t risk exposing the location of Blue Mountain Base.

Santha shifted. “Weak spot.”

“What?” Cruz asked.

“I’ve spent a lot of time watching them.” She pulled in a breath like it took a lot of effort. Her face was so pale. “Small intake where the wing meets the body. I’ve experimented shooting a crossbow bolt in there and it brings them down. Every time.”

“Shaw? You hear that?”

“Yep.” Shaw was sighting his rifle again. “How come we didn’t know this?”

“Well, we do now,” Marcus said. “Can you see it?”

“Yep.” Shaw raised his voice. “Hey, fly boy, can you keep this thing still for a second?”

“You come up here and fly it, asshole,” came the reply.

Shaw snorted. “Only if you come back here and shoot this fucker out of the sky.” Then his face changed, evened out, as he focused on his high-tech scope.

“Take the shot,” Marcus said.

Shaw fired.

Cruz saw the ptero explode into flames.

“Yeah, baby!” Shaw yelled.

Claudia was grinning. Gabe clapped Shaw on the back, and Cruz smiled.

Until he heard Santha’s quiet groan. Her shaking was worse. He pulled her closer. “Hold on,
mi reina
, almost there.”

“
Mi reina
. What’s it mean?”

He brushed a thumb over her cheek. “My queen.”

She opened her eyes and he sucked in a breath. Her pale-green irises were gone, replaced by a metallic silver. The bugs were replicating too fast.

Suddenly, her back arched and she started convulsing.

No, no, he couldn’t lose her.

“Finn, hurry!” Cruz unstrapped the harness and laid her on the floor. “Hang in there, Santha.”

Her convulsions continued and, helpless, all he could do was hold her hand.

He leaned down and put his mouth against her ear. “Fight, dammit. You’ve been fighting every day since these bastards came. Don’t you fucking die now.”

***

Santha felt like she was drifting in a fog. Her vision was blurred, but she had impressions of dark shadows and bright lights. Cruz’s deep, accented voice was in the background, talking to her, telling her to hold on. Her body was so cold, she’d lost all sensation.

Then nothing.

When she woke, she stared up at bright track lights running across a smooth, concrete-lined ceiling. Under her, was a bed made up with crisp sheets.

She sat up, the white sheet sliding off her. She was dressed only in a medical gown and panties. Turning her head, she noted the rows of similar, narrow beds. Infirmary.

Lifting the sheet, she quickly pulled up the gown to bare her thigh.

Nothing to see, except smooth, slightly-pink new skin. She rubbed the faint scar and knew in a month or two it wouldn’t even be visible.

“You’re awake.”

A pretty blonde woman in a white coat bustled around the bed. Her hair fell in a neat bob around her face.

“Ah…yes.”

The woman smiled. “I’m Dr. Emerson Green. Everyone calls me Doc, or just Emerson.” She peered at the tablet she carried. “Your vitals are looking good. We weren’t sure you were going to pull through the nano-med cascade. The bugs had gone to town on your insides.” She set the tablet aside and pulled a slim m-scanner from her front pocket. “But being the medical genius I am, you’re now perfectly healthy.”

Santha watched as the woman checked her leg. “Thank you. I actually haven’t felt this good in…well, a long time.”

Emerson smiled. “Glad to hear it. Those nano-meds would have fixed anything they found—injury, malnutrition, exhaustion.” She slipped the m-scanner away. “Now, I’m going to tell Cruz he can come in. I banished him to the hall and he’s been pacing out there impatiently for—” she checked her watch “—three hours.”

Santha settled back on the pillows and watched Cruz stride toward her. He looked…angry.

He stopped beside her bed, looming there like a statue. He’d showered and his dark hair was damp. She’d never seen him in anything other than his battle gear. Cruz Ramos in faded jeans and a black T-shirt was…heart-stoppingly delicious.

“You’re feeling better?” he said with a scowl.

“Good as new, according to the doctor.”

He pressed his hands to the side of the bed. “What the fuck were you doing?”