The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) Page 5

  The trio finished gathering their things and then settled onto the platform to wait for the next noise. If none came, they would leave at dawn and try to track down the remains of whomever it had been. Base had said to be certain and they intended to be.

  “Ambush odds?”

  “Low. We’ve been here too long, haven’t made a noise in days.”

  “But the gifts—”

  “She may feel something if she gets close to where we are, but as long as we stay down and still, we’re good. Now shut up. We don’t want to blow this, right?”

  There was silence in response. This would be the biggest job they’d ever pulled off, one to make a person’s career or at least get them bumped to a better environment. No mistakes would be allowed or excused.

  “Over there.”

  Smoke was slowly winding up from a place in the distant corn to the south, and the three men rose. It was time to go.

  4

  Their camp hadn’t been disturbed. The giant had been drawn to the sound of them running toward Alexa, and they all quickly cleaned up. The smell of the giant’s blood was so sickeningly sweet that it was nauseating.

  Once finished, they resumed what they’d been doing before, only this time they all kept track of Paul to make sure he was being quiet. It was necessary. Alexa was sure that their location had already been figured out. Come morning, they’d probably have company.

  “When should we expect them?” Edward asked lowly, stirring a pot of rice and beans.

  “Not tonight,” Alexa answered, pleased with him. “They’ll watch first, maybe wait until tomorrow. It’s the way slow-thinkers are.”

  “What’s a slow-thinker?” Paul asked, earning frowns for missing the obvious answer.

  “You’re kind,” Jacob pointed out. “Those who can’t remember the rules, let alone come up with ideas of their own.”

  “I don’t get it,” Paul complained softer.

  “Slow-thinkers never do anything differently, but still expect a change,” David stated from his post. “They follow the book and die out in the real world.”

  “Not everyone can be a hero,” Paul protested.

  “Yes, they can.” Alexa’s hard tone sent silence through her group and she signaled for the meal to be served.

  Alexa listened to the new sound of paws padding outside their fire-line, but didn’t feel enough hate coming from the predators to worry over it yet. Nature here seemed to be as sparse as people were and she’d shown she would kill. If the vibes changed, so would her actions.

  “We will reach a weigh station tomorrow. There may be other travelers there.” Alexa gestured for Edward to explain so she take a bite.

  “There are groups sometimes. People gather and wait,” he told them. “When there’s enough, they try to cross a dangerous area. It’s called a group defense.”

  “They’ll need our caliber and want to hire us. That is not allowed,” Alexa ordered.

  “We offer, right?” Jacob inquired.

  “Yes, if we feel they deserve such an honor, but we are already on a quest. It would take a lot to detour me from our current mission.”

  “And that is?” Paul asked distractedly, trying to keep up with the conversation as he waited for his share of the food.

  “To survive, of course,” Alexa answered. “Fate has set our path through Nebraska. We will not go around.”

  “Is there another problem here?” Mark asked intuitively. “Beyond the killing fields?”

  “There is more than one,” Alexa told him. “The biggest we’ll face is the house in the corn.”

  The ominous silence after those words told Alexa they’d heard the rumors.

  Edward caught the subtle gestures of his fellow teammates and cleared his throat. “You’d have us challenge the master of the house?”

  Alexa scooped another bite before answering, tone brutal. “No, my pets. I’d have you kill the master of the house and burn that evil residence to the ground.”

  Each man there found an immediate desire to give her both of those things, but Edward was the only one who felt comfortable expressing that emotion to her.

  “Then that’s what you shall have, Lady.”

  “Aye!”

  “Yes.”

  Edward and Mark finished serving the meal that neither of them had trusted Paul to deliver, and then did a quick cleanup before eating themselves. When everyone was done, they would wash the dishes and repack the supplies.

  “Do you feel like telling a story?”

  Alexa was almost shocked that Edward would ask. Her tales came when she chose to tell them, not when her fighters desired one. They were not for entertainment.

  Alexa was set to deliver a punishment, but chose to handle it differently than her man was braced for. He would still pay, only in a different form.

  “Did you have one in mind?”

  Edward knew from her tone that he’d crossed a line, but it didn’t make him back down. If anything, he was now free to push a bit more because he already knew he was going to be punished. “Anything about you. We all crave it.”

  Paul opened his mouth and Mark tossed his entire bedroll, dirt and all, into the man’s face. “Shut up!”

  Paul coughed, scrambling back, and Alexa took another bite of the deer goulash. It was a very good meal for traveling and she knew the sweetness of it had been done to please her. She couldn’t be softened with little luxuries like they could, but it didn’t stop them from trying.

  “So this was planned?”

  “We’re curious,” David said, ready to run or duck.

  “And you tell us so little about yourself,” Daniel added.

  “We only want a little more,” Jacob whined.

  Alexa held up a hand and got quiet. This wasn’t the time or place for this, but then honestly, when would that time ever come? It’s not as if she had any plans on taking a break until the quest was finished.

  “Fine. I’ll tell you a short story about me every night that we spend in this corn.”

  The men tensed, and Edward asked, “The punishment?”

  “I’m going to sleep with Paul each of those nights,” Alexa answered coolly.

  Paul glowed with happiness and her fighters bristled in anger that they couldn’t express. She’d said sleep. If they pushed her, she might actually accept him into her body and then he’d be one of them.

  “That wouldn’t make me one of you,” Paul stated, trying to rub it in that he had gifts like Alexa. “I won’t ever be.”

  “No,” Alexa confirmed. “That’s not your fate, is it?”

  Paul wouldn’t look at her. “No, it’s not, but I still matter as much as they do!”

  Alexa sighed patiently and finished her food. When she was done, she rolled a smoke and kept it to herself, making them use their own supplies if they wanted one. It was another way to let them know she was displeased, but they knew it wasn’t true anger, only annoyance. None of them wanted to find out what she would do if pissed directly at one of them.

  Each man got comfortable, anticipating the story to come.

  “Remember that you asked for this,” she stated tonelessly.

  The fighters were already braced for ugliness. It was Alexa. How could it be pretty and fit her?

  “I was born in captivity. My mother died during my birth, so I was told. Our kind don’t reproduce easily, if it all.”

  “Your kind?” Paul asked. “Don’t you mean our kind?”

  “Female,” Alexa clarified. “Males spread their dna throughout the population at will because it is in their design. Female descendants are fragile in ways. Mixed births take their toll.”

  “Why?” Jacob wanted to know.

  “Perhaps Paul would like to tell us what Corbin suspected in those areas?”

  Flushing a bit, Paul kept his voice down. “It’s because the magic side fights constantly with the human side. There can’t be peace like that, no health.”

  “Do you believe that?” she asked.
<
br />   “No,” Paul confided. “I think a descendant child requires more power, more energy from the mother. Simple.”

  Alexa nodded. “That makes sense. I’ve often wondered.”

  It was odd to think of Alexa being curious over her origins and she felt their mood, smirked. “Like you own the rights to curiosity.”

  She rolled a second smoke, something she rarely did, and they waited silently for her to go on.

  “I stayed in the same lab until I was five. Then I was transferred to a testing wing.”

  None of them wanted to hear those details, but no one interrupted.

  “There were a lot of kids. We could all do things, but we weren’t allowed unless in the lab rooms. If you used your gifts or broke a rule, the punishments were harsh. We obeyed. Most of the time,” she tacked on. “Then there were a few time where we banded together to get something we needed. Like when we had to have medicine for one of the smaller kids. He’d been sneaking outside at night to play in the damp grass and gotten cut. If we’d taken him to the nurse, he’d have been put to sleep.”

  “Put to sleep?” David asked. “Like when they caught you after the war?”

  “Killed.”

  Alexa’s voice was shakier than they were used to.

  “You got one warning and one punishment usually, but being out of the lab unsupervised was the worst crime we could commit.” Alexa looked into the fire. “We were caught, plenty of times. I tried to take the punishments, tried to draw their anger, but I was valuable. I didn’t realize they were using me that way, keeping me there, until I got out.”

  “Until Adrian came for you,” Paul supplied. Adrian’s name was said with awe.

  “He sent a group of his men to break us all out,” Alexa confirmed. “I was taken to an island. The other kids were sent to relatives and friends, I’ve heard, but I didn’t see any of them again. I was nine then.”

  “How long did you stay on the island?” Edward asked after taking a fast look around. The feeling of being stalked had grown.

  “Three years. In that time, I learned who I was, who my father was to our future, and the fate of the world. It was a long time ago, but I can still hear my tutor telling me that my father would save the world.”

  “He was right,” Daniel observed.

  “If we can find him, he can’t stop this mess,” Paul refuted. “We can only stay where he is and enjoy his light.”

  “You haven’t met my father. There isn’t anything he can’t do,” Alexa replied coldly.

  “When did you leave the island?” Jacob asked.

  “When did you meet your dad for the first time?”

  “Why did he leave you here after the war?”

  Alexa raised a brow. “Pick one of those.”

  The fighters exchanged glances and answered together, “Why did he leave you?”

  Alexa stood up. “Because he loves his humans more than his only daughter. He would do anything to keep them alive. As would I.”

  Alexa dropped down next to Paul in the pleased silence, felt the good mood change to dread and regret.

  “Take your coat off.”

  Paul hurried to comply.

  “And those pants. The shirt as well.”

  Paul slid out of his clothes with bright red cheeks and the sounds of the other men grunting and snorting kept him a wreck. How was he supposed to do it with an audience of men who were all bigger and meaner than he was?

  “On your side.”

  When Paul would have rolled toward her, Alexa shoved him the other way. “Not until you’ve washed. You stink.”

  Understanding she’d removed the clothes for the smell, the other males felt better and tried to settle down for sleep.

  Paul wasn’t about to miss his chance to accomplish a goal though, and he scooted back into Alexa’s warm embrace. He pushed against her without hesitating. “My back’s comfortable.”

  Alexa started to refuse, then sighed. “What the hell.”

  She collapsed across his body, soaking up his heat, and Paul moaned in delight.

  Six heads popped up in perfect unison.

  “You can draw from me.”

  Paul’s open offer shamed the others. None of them had found the courage to give her such power over them yet.

  “My thanks,” Alexa answered, mouth lowering to his shoulder. “It has been long and long since I took from my own kind.”

  Alexa’s hand snaked around his mouth as her fangs drove into his skin.

  Paul screamed against her hand and Alexa tightened her grip, drinking.

  Paul tried to fight the sensation of heaven and hell hitting at the same time, but he quickly sagged in her grip, lost in her glow.

  “Lucky bastard,” Jacob muttered.

  Close enough to view what was really happening, Edward shrugged. “If you say so.”

  Alexa slowly withdrew her fangs and ran a light finger over the puncture wounds, healing them. “Paul?”

  Paul roused himself. “Yes, my love?”

  “I’m not satisfied.”

  Paul shuddered. “Again, then. I’m ready.”

  Alexa drove her teeth into his other shoulder with a brutal lunge that had Paul screaming against her hand again. She drew harder and he arched in her grasp, a slick, fiery heat she could have drown in.

  Alexa slowly withdrew, healing the marks again.

  “Will that help you? Hold it back for a while?”

  Alexa nodded against his skin, shivering as his blood raced through her. “Yes. My thanks, Paul. You’ve bought me time.”

  Paul snuggled into her embrace. “Then it was worth it. Thank you for bringing me, even if it was only for the medicine in my blood.”

  Alexa laid her cheek on his back. “Close your eyes. Enjoy the time you have left.”

  She didn’t have a watch posted, telling them she didn’t feel the need to waste two men on sleep simply to confirm what they already knew–they were surrounded. They would sleep while they could, and face the enemy when they chose to attack. Alexa could have barricaded them into a dirt row and started the fighting, but she now wanted the herding they were about to get. It would put them with the rest of the travelers faster and allow her to evaluate their chances of actually surviving this trip through Nebraska before attempting it. The killin’ fields hadn’t earned their reputation by being merciful and they’d already revealed their presence here too many times in a single day. Hiding wasn’t their strength.

  “I don’t want to die. What should I do?”

  Paul’s low, pitiful query was met by a thoughtful pause where all the males tried to imagine making a stand or fighting on the run while trying to keep the Rabbit alive.

  “Go back,” Alexa supplied honestly. “The odds are low for you.”

  Paul didn’t say anything else, but made no plans to leave. He’d chosen his path and with Alexa drowsing on his back, there was nowhere else on earth he’d rather be except in Safe Haven.

  As the others began to snore softly (and Paul, harshly), Edward and Daniel rolled toward each other and held a conversation with their hands. Alexa’s codes were useful in many ways.

  She’s softening towards us, Daniel sent.

  Yes, I agree.

  We’ll all come through this.

  I’m not worried.

  I meant Paul too. She’ll protect him now.

  You think so?

  I’d bet on it.

  Edward grinned. I won’t take odds against you.

  They paused for a moment, and then Daniel asked what he’d been worrying about.

  Being bit by the baby made her sick, didn’t it?

  Edward nodded slowly. Yes. I think so.

  What can we do for her?

  Edward hated the answer. Feed her or try to kill her. Only two choices we have.

  We lose Safe Haven if she dies.

  More than that, Edward corrected. We lose the future Adrian will provide. She has to live and if it takes blood, well, I’ve got plenty.

  Danie
l didn’t have anything to say to after that.

  Neither did Edward.

  Chapter Three

  Hello In The Camp

  1

  “Hello in the camp!”

  Alexa’s men were on their feet in seconds, bleary-eyed, but ready to fight. The dull orange sun was just rising through the haze, barely illuminating the foggy campsite and whining corn. Alexa was nowhere to be seen.

  “Hello? Comin’ in!”

  Edward quickly traced Alexa’s faint tracks to the cottonwood tree, and discovered furiously waiting Colts. He tried not to smirk as he faced the strangers coming cautiously through the field. There was no doubt about who it was. Even Paul know the government had left them alone too long.

  Edward wondered who would be the next of their group to find Alexa. Certainly not the hunters who’d come for her.

  Mark’s chuckle echoed, and then the rest of the senior team joined him. David and Jacob relaxed didn’t discover the source of the amusement, but the two rookies wouldn’t have laughed anyway. They were still too green, too nervous to shove those volatile emotions completely like the senior men were able to do. They settled for still and silent, ready to kill. None of them noticed Paul staring at the hunters in recognition and hatred. He’d seen these men, had handled the captives they brought in, and then listened to the awful stories. He was looking forward to watching them die.

  “Don’t shoot. We’re no threat.”

  Alexa had told them that anyone who claimed they weren’t a threat after surviving in the wastelands of afterworld was a liar, and the sight of their company did nothing to dispel the black mark that had already been given for the lie. The three men wore their gun belts were low, holsters scuffed and cracked from constant exposure, and the half-buttoned white shirts under long coats said they didn’t care much about safety or blending. These men might also be hard-asses.

  “What brings you around here, strangers?” Edward drew their attention, thinking the males were probably true killers. It was one way his kind wasn’t enslaved. A man could be free if he had the sand to fight for it repeatedly. The women now took what they wanted and if that meant stalking for months or even years, then they did. Men were slaves, soldiers, or gunfighters, with few exceptions.