Holocaust (The Deadwood Hunter Series Book 3) (27 page)

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Lexia sobbed.

There was a moment of peace in the second before the final explosion. A moment when the dust seemed to settle and a light flicked dimly for just a few seconds. Lexia looked down at her daughter who gazed right back. It was a moment of wonder and happiness in a sea of only black.

“Your name is Lola,” she told the beautiful girl in her arms. It was all Lexia could give her. A name after a woman who’d had strength and kindness, a woman who’d fought until her last breath for the children she loved. “My sweet, beautiful Lola,” she whispered, running a finger down her face. She felt no fear, no pain, just the bone-deep love a mother felt for their child.

The final detonator went off, ending the hell, the torture inflicted within the compound walls. Lexia was buried in concrete, fire and ash filling her lungs, peeling her skin, until she felt nothing at all.

Chapter 36

Sound came back to him first. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard an engine rumble becoming louder, a rhythmic
wop-wop
of what must have been helicopter blades. Eyes opening, Lincoln blinked rapidly in an effort to see clearly. Rolling onto his side took great effort and the groan that escaped him sounded pained and breathless.

Head spinning, he blinked his eyes wider, fighting the urge to throw up. Smoke clouded the air, thick and choking; Lincoln attempted to move only managing to drag his body a short distance across the broken earth beneath him. Looking up he shielded his eyes as the helicopter hovered above, the air from the blades clearing the smoke enough for Lincoln to see across the mound of rumble that had once been the hunter compound. Two people descended from the helicopter. One was a woman, who scanned the still corralled hunters franticly, eyes widened as she spotted whom she’d been looking for. Lincoln watched through blurry eyes as she ran, weaving her way through the dead, only to be stopped by who appeared to be the hunter male who’d helped Alice.

Mind too foggy to watch them argue, Lincoln dropped his head back to the ground and contemplated why he was still alive. Pain, heartache, it had been a constant in his life. From the loss of his parents and now Lexia, this pain had no comparison, even though his body was injured, skin burned, cut, and his head rattled enough to make coherent thoughts difficult. It was the pain inside him that was the worst. No amount of physical pain could ever match the grief and heartache he felt. His rage was utterly potent. Its fiery depths had no outlet, and now Lexia was lost, there was no hope of dousing the fire inside of Lincoln.

He wished for death to take him, but knew it wouldn’t. Knew his body even now healed at a rapid rate. The emotional damage left him unable to move, unable to drag enough oxygen into his lungs. He didn’t want to live anymore. The hunters were dead. The man who’d set off the final explosion was dead. There was no one left to kill, no revenge to hold onto, no hope. All Lincoln wanted now was to join his mate in the afterlife.

“Linc, Linc, talk to me. Where are you hurt.”?”

Swiping Caden away with his hand as he knelt down, touching wounds, assessing damage.

“Where are you hurt?” Caden repeated.

Lincoln sucked in a breath, unable to speak as a sudden burst of pain erupted from his heart. Clutching at his chest, he rolled onto his side. Unable to get the much-needed air inside of him, his head began to swim.

“I don’t understand,” Caden muttered, hands pressing down over his chest, down his stomach, “Internal?” he carried on to himself.

Internal…

The pain increased like a hot poker to his heart, searing his insides. Like molten lava, his blood pulsed through him causing wave after wave of pain.

Lexia…

Internal, the pain was internal, not Lincoln’s organs, not his injuries, hers. She was alive.

Blocking the pain coming through the mating bond as best as he could, Lincoln pushed himself up. Hand digging into his friend’s shoulder, he forced Caden to look into his eyes.

“She’s alive,” he rasped out. Voice like gravel, his throat dried and coated in dust.

Lexia was alive, and with each pulse of burning pain, he knew she felt it too. She was alive, trapped beneath them, entombed, buried alive.

“Alive?” Caden whispered, shaking his head at the unbelievable statement.

Lincoln, no longer there to answer Caden, forced his body to shift. The damage by the blast made the change into his animal form a painful process, but at this point, Lincoln wasn’t sure it was possible to feel anymore.

Following an age-old instinct, which was one of the greatest gifts to the shifter race, Lincoln moved unsteadily across the earth. Shifting when the pull became strongest, he dropped to his knees, hands digging through the rubble. He didn’t feel the skin rubbed from his fingers, or the hot earth sizzling his flesh. He dug mindlessly, crazed with the pain he felt and knew she did too.

He heard voices, questions, but none of them mattered, only finding her mattered. Joined by others, he saw no faces, but hands – strong hands willing to burn and break just as his were as they sifted through the debris.

“Quiet,” someone yelled.

Lincoln looked up, blinking to clear the fog in his mind. He focused on the face looking at him – the male hunter.

“Do you hear that?” the male hunter asked Lincoln.

Frowning, Lincoln shut out the buzzing inside his skull to concentrate on the noises around him. “A baby?” he whispered looking at the male. “Is that a baby?”

“Did he just say baby, Marcus?”

“Yes,” Marcus confirmed. Bending, he carried on digging with renewed effort.

Feeling a pressure on his shoulder, Lincoln looked up dazed.
Caden.
“We are going to find her, Linc. She’s strong. We’ll find her.”

What seemed like an eternity, yet in reality bare minutes, Lincoln’s hands touched warm, living skin. The instant his hand made contact, he felt the pull of the bond between them. Reunited at last, he felt it tighten ever stronger, refusing to let her go.

Carefully, they cleared away enough debris to lift Lexia without causing more damage. She was curled tightly into a ball, her arms locked like steel around her middle. Her skin peeled away beneath his fingers. Clothes burnt and torn, they didn’t cover much of her body anymore. The smell of burnt flesh coated his tongue. It was thick and ugly, making him gag on the bile rising in his throat.

As she emerged into the daylight, Lincoln saw the extent of the damage. Her skin burned and charred, thick waxy yellow patches covered the length of her back. Afraid to hurt her further, Lincoln froze with her in his lap, not sure where to put his hands.

“She’s unlikely to feel much pain, Linc. The burn is so deep, her nerves will be damaged,” Caden told him. Reaching out, Caden pulled the sword from her back and helped him to turn her over.

Turned over, cradled in Lincoln’s lap, they attempted to uncurl her when they heard the shrill cry of the baby. There were no words to explain the shock he felt as he pried Lexia’s arms off the baby. Only looking at her briefly before someone reached out for the little pink bundle, he didn’t have time to consider how she’d found a baby.
Or had?
The lingering scent of the child on his hands smelt of Lexia, yet…different.

“She needs immediate medical care – care I can’t even attempt to give her here,” Caden said as he looked up from his assessment.

Lincoln feeling lost, unsure what to do, just stared at the woman in his arms. The underside of her had taken less damage, but her back, shoulders, and top of her head were burned beyond recognition. What little hair she had left was shriveled and limp. The sword she’d worn strapped in a scabbard across her back had become so hot, it had burned its mark into her flesh.

“We need to get her off her back. Find some kind of board to lay her on so she can be carried without causing more damage to the skin. Anyone have a first-aid kit? Fluids. She needs fluids right away. The chopper will be the quickest way to get her out.” Caden barked off his orders to the people stood around them. His ability to think past blinding fear was what made him such a good doctor.

“Belinda, tell Sarah we need the chopper,” Marcus instructed as he climbed out of the hole he’d helped dig Lexia from.

“Wait, Marcus. Derrick, is he down there? He was with her. He would never have left her alone.”

Hesitating, Marcus slipped back into the hole he’d been climbing out of. “Derrick?” he called. “Does anyone have a flashlight?” he asked, looking up.

“I’ll go check” Belinda answered, rushing off.

“You think he’s really down there?” Lincoln asked Marcus, still not sure what to make of the hunter male.

Marcus looked up at Lincoln though his hands never stopped digging. “He refused to leave her alone with Lucy. That’s why he never came out with Alice. He’d have never left her.”

At that instant, someone appeared with a plank of wood, large enough for Lexia to lay on and be moved. As they moved her, she whimpered, the sound broken and pained. Eyes drifting open, she stared but didn’t seem to be there, her expression blank and dazed.

Marcus started to scramble up the sides of the hole they’d made as she mumbled incoherent words. “Boss, where’s Derrick? Was he with you? Boss? Lexia?”

Her eyes opened again. Though focused on nothing, she managed to rasp one word. “Dead.”

A choking, rasping cough escaped her as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“Caden,” Lincoln pleaded, his tone desperate and worried.

“We need to move, now,” Caden snapped, nodding for Lincoln to lift one end of the board as he lifted the front.

Quickly, they moved across the battlefield as billows of smoke still whispered into the sky. The dead lay scattered where they’d fallen. Lincoln saw only the chopper though. His sole focus on getting his mate away from this horror. Reaching the helicopter, they found Belinda pleading with whom Lincoln presumed must be Sarah.

“She’ll die.” Lincoln heard as he neared.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have the authority,” the woman continued, glancing nervously at the man stood nearby. His clean suit indicated he’d done nothing since arriving. “There is help on its way though. As soon as the trucks arrive, we’ll have her taken straight to a secure facility.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Lincoln growled, ready to destroy anyone in his way.

“I’ve got this,” Marcus said, running ahead.

Belinda looked at him as he approached, a silent message being passed between them. She still held the baby Lincoln had pried from Lexia, jiggling her gently in her arms. She’d been wrapped in what looked like a combat coat and appeared to be asleep.

Lincoln and Caden carried on past them, straight into the helicopter. A savage very un-human growl left Lincoln’s throat as the two military men moved to stop them.

“Stop, stop. You are not authorized to use this,” said the pompous man in the suit.

“She needs a hospital,” Sarah implored.

“I’m not waiting in this, this…place. As soon as the others arrive, I’ll be using that chopper to leave,” he snapped.

Marcus appeared, holding a hunter, a knife to his throat. “Lexia warned you what would happen, Sarah.”

“No, no wait. I held up my end. I’m here. I’ve made the cure. Please, not my son, not Zac. He’s all I have left,” Sarah begged, stepping forward.

Marcus tightened his grip, pressing the knife just enough to draw blood. “Her words were ‘don’t let me down.’ I’d think dying would be letting her down.”

“I don’t have the authority,” she answered desperately.

Pulling a gun from his holster, Marcus moved in a blur, shoving the hunter in his hold to the ground. He trained his gun and fired.

“No,” Sarah screamed, falling toward her son.

It wasn’t Zac who Marcus shot though. Slumping to the floor, a bullet clean through his head, the human in the suit met dirt.

“What did you do?” Sarah gasped.

“I got rid of
the authority
. Now make the call and get Lexia the best care available.”

Pulling her cell out of her pocket, she held a shaking hand to her ear and two minutes later, Lincoln took off in the helicopter. The baby asleep in his arms, he sat close to Lexia as he held onto the love between them, willing her to live.