Viper (Second Wave Book 1) Read online

  Chapter Nine

  Dr. Amun Nassur, looked over at his techs and smiled broadly. The new vertebrae had been completed earlier than expected and with the emotional Viper gone, he had finished the replacement surgery with no complications.

  “Keep her in lower suspension. We just need a day or two to ensure that the new vertebrae stabilize properly. Then go and get some sleep.” Amun ordered his team. He would stay with her. Alone.

  Amun watched closely as they did as he had instructed before each left the room. When he was alone with the woman, he rechecked to ensure that everything was fine with her vital signs, and she was properly sedated at a lower level than when she had first come in.

  Sitting down at the computer, he started going through the results of the tests that he had performed earlier. The ones that he had hidden from the techs. Amun had seen these same strange results before, in a few other people. A few other humans, he mentally corrected himself.

  He sent a private message to his mate, Jess, through the Shengari’ that he would be later than he had expected and set to work. Amun knew, whatever it was he discovered, would be yet another thing that would surprise them all. If there was one thing, he had learned since arriving on Earth, it was that this planet and its people were full of surprises.

  *****

  Lara drifted quietly along the edges of her mind, the strange dreams so real that she could smell the air and feel the grass beneath her feet. She looked around and smiled at the antics of the four young boys who were wrestling in the distance.

  One boy broke away from the group and ran toward her. His dark-brown hair glistened with sweat, and his green eyes twinkled with happiness as he plopped down in the grass beside her. Lara couldn’t help but smile at the wide grin on his handsome young face.

  “Come on Viper! You’re going to have the rest of your life to put up with my sister! Come back here and learn to protect her properly!” Lara looked up as one of the other boys spoke. She could have sworn it was John. But a much younger version of him.

  This version of Viper was a younger, more adorable version of the one that she had met. Was this a jacked up version of an afterlife or was she hallucinating? She wondered as she looked down at herself and drew back in surprise.

  She couldn’t be more than a child. Her feet and hands were small, and she felt much older than she looked for some strange reason. By her size, she knew she was no more than seven or eight.

  “Are you all right Kinara? Do you need anything?” The young Viper asked her with a smile as he gently held her hand.

  Lara just looked at him and mutely shook her head, wondering what Kinara was and what the hell kind of dream she was having here. This didn’t look like any place she could have ever dreamed up; she thought as she looked around.

  They were in a clearing, surrounded by trees. However, it wasn’t any clearing Lara had ever been to before. The grass was a deep, dark-green color she had never seen in her life. The tree trunks were all a dark mahogany brown, with leaves that varied in shades of green and violet. It was beautiful. But not real.

  Lara tried to mentally shake herself, to remember… something. There was something important she needed to do she thought as she watched the young Viper run back to the other boys.

  Lara stood, as she did she seemed to grow and become her normal height. This was a really strange dream; Lara thought as she looked down at herself dressed in her camouflage. Which in this strange wooded place, looked really out of place and nothing like the surroundings as it was supposed to do.

  Lara looked back to the young Viper, and as she watched he also grew into the gorgeous man she met in the forest. She smiled, then turned as one of the boys grew into John, and her smile disappeared. What the hell was going on in her dreams, she wondered as she stared at her best friend, dressed in his uniform.

  She took a step towards John and stopped herself. This was a dream. A really strange dream, she thought looking around again. But a dream nonetheless. She didn’t have time for dreams. She had something really important to do. If she could just remember what.

  Looking up, Lara marveled at the color of the sky. It was a pale blue color, but instead of white fluffy clouds, there were light violet streaks that traveled the sky as if it were a road. Even the air smelled differently. Strange but pleasant scents of earth and flowers and what else, she didn’t know, but she liked it.

  In a bizarre way, Lara felt almost as if she had finally come home. But this wasn’t her home; she thought as she looked around the clearing again and the now grown men who were all fully armed and dressed in uniforms. They ran for the trees and quickly became lost among them.

  “Wait!” Lara called and took a step to follow them, but her foot had become stuck. Looking down she watched in horror as the dark-green grass wound up her ankle, holding her in place.

  Panicking now, she reached down and tried to pull the grass off when her other ankle became entwined as well. She heard the rustling of the grass and looked up assuming the men had come back, but the clearing was empty.

  Lara watched as the grass continued to rustle around her, circling her. Her panic rose as she watched the grass trampled by invisible feet. Oh God, she thought. They are back. What did Viper call them, she wondered, frantically trying to get the grass off her feet.

  “Kinara?” Lara looked up and saw Viper coming towards her from the woods. The invisible creatures around her were getting closer now; she could hear the growls and their raspy breath.

  Lara looked sadly to Viper; she couldn’t allow him to get hurt. Not for her. She had to save him; she thought as she watched the grass get trampled closer and closer to her as the creatures advanced to where she was trapped by the grass.

  It was a dream, Lara thought, looking around at the strange landscape, her heart racing with fear. Her cabin flashed through her mind, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the image in her memories.

  Keeping her eyes closed, she listened as the sounds of the grass, and the creatures faded away to a slow humming sound. Lara listened to the low hum and tried to gauge where her mind had taken her this time before trying to open her eyes again.

  It didn’t take long for her to realize that she wasn’t alone. Opening her eyes slowly, Lara looked around the strange room and knew she was in some kind of hospital room. In the corner by a door was a lone man, with his back turned to her.

  She couldn’t tell by the back of his head if she knew him or not, but she knew that it wasn’t Viper. Lara closed her eyes and tried to calm her mind as much as possible. When the images started, she breathed deeply and allowed them to float behind her closed lids as she studied them, trying to remember.

  Viper passed through her mind, and she concentrated on his image until multiple images of him in different stages began to appear for her. She stopped the images at one where he was sitting in her cabin while she was making something in the kitchen.

  It was the flour, salt and water paste that she had been making. For the invisible men who were coming for Viper, she thought before the memories came rushing back to her. Lara clenched her fists tightly and fought to control her breathing as she processed what she remembered.

  Keeping her eyes closed, Lara went over what she had seen of the room she was in. The smooth, stone walls had drawn her eye first because of how unusual it was. There were streaks of shimmering silver and gold randomly shot through the stone. Although it seemed odd to even think, Lara knew she was underground.

  The equipment in the room was obviously medical related. She had seen a monitor near the man, and it showed her heart rate and blood pressure. The rest of what it showed, she had no idea, but she assumed it was other body stats.

  Lara had seen the lines on the monitor jump when she’d opened her eyes to see where she was, so she knew she didn’t have much time before the man in the room realized she was awake.

  Gently, she moved her shoulder to test how much she could use it and was stunned to see that there was no pain or in
dication that she had ever been shot. However, the slight twisting of her back when she’d moved her shoulder had sent bolts of incredible pain shooting up her body.

  Lara held herself completely still while she tried to calm her mind again and breathe through the pain. There was no way in hell, she wanted to alert the man that she was awake until she figured out where she was and why she was here.

  Every part of what happened at her cabin played over and over again in her mind as she struggled to figure out who it was that had come into the clearing before that… thing, for lack of a better word, stabbed her in the back.

  They had been dressed like Viper, but that didn’t mean anything. Lara had seen dozens of mercenaries in Afghanistan, who wore similar clothes. The brief glimpse she had of the man in the room, she couldn’t make any determination as to who he was. Or what side of the team he played on.

  The most important thing that she did know, was that Viper wasn’t here, and she had no idea if he was even still alive. Lara pushed back the pain in her heart at the thought of losing him and considered her options. Which was easy since she only had two.

  The most likely scenario was that they had both been taken by the bastards who were hunting him. It was a playbook for a conspiracy nut. Men in black, shadow ops, black helicopters, underground bases, all of it screamed those bastards who were taking over her country. The ones who had killed John. The ones she had promised Viper she would protect him from and get him back to his people.

  Lara knew what she had to do and the familiar cold, blankness settled over mind and body as her mind worked through different scenarios to escape and find Viper. She replayed the room layout in her mind as she wiggled slightly to determine how bad her back was, and if she could even get off the bed.

  Lara barely held back the gasp that almost exploded from her mouth. Oh hell, she thought, tensing her body to stop it from trembling. Taking deep breaths, she again calmed herself and fought to control the pain that shot through her back.

  Images began flooding her mind, of being trapped somewhere. Not Afghanistan, she had enough of those nightmares to know this image wasn’t from there; she thought as she let it drift behind her eyes. No, she didn’t remember this place at all. It was dark; the air burned as she had struggled to breathe under the weight that had been crushing her.

  Lara could feel her panic building the longer she allowed the image to stay in her mind, and she mentally yanked herself out of her head and back to the present. And pain. Damn, damn, damn, she thought. This was not the time for her PTSD to start rearing its freaking head. She didn’t have time to be crazy. She had a promise to keep.

  Ok, she thought; her back was pretty bad. However, it was doable if she could keep her attention focused elsewhere. That shouldn’t be too hard to do since she was in enemy territory. The worst had already happened; it could only go downhill from here she thought.

  Besides, Lara had known at some point it would be her or them, and this gave her a chance to leave her mark on them the way they had left theirs on her. She would find Viper, get him out if she could and then make sure that this place would be the enemy's grave.

  Lara peeked her eyes open again and looked around the room. The man was pretty absorbed in whatever he was doing and still had his back to her. She almost sighed in relief when she saw a tray with some strange gadgets on it, next to her bed.

  She quickly ran through the items with her eyes, discarding those that couldn’t be used as weapons, and it left her with only one. It was about six inches long, with an obvious handle to it that led to a bluntly pointed end.

  It could easily be used as a knife, she thought, trying not to imagine what it was really used for and why it was on the tray next to her.

  Steeling herself, Lara made a dry run attempt at sitting up and had to try it several times before she could pull it off without having to fight the blackness that threatened to overtake her.

  Lara stayed still for a moment, allowing the adrenaline to build in her body, knowing it would help dull the pain in her back, so she could do what had to be done. She allowed the cold, blankness to settle over her mind again as her body began to vibrate with the need to move.

  Taking a deep breath, Lara lunged upward and slid off of the bed. She couldn’t have been more grateful for the shockingly cold, stone floor that kept her knees from buckling. She stood still for a moment, gathering her senses and blocking the pain while keeping a close eye on the man with his back still turned.

  The longer she stayed upright, the more she regained her footing and balance until she took her first tentative steps towards the tray. By the time she had reached it, she was much more confident in her mobility and the adrenaline was working to help control the pain.

  Flicking the tip of her new weapon, Lara made a mental calculation of how much pressure she would need to exert in order to disable someone with it. Deciding she couldn’t take the risk of being caught, she didn’t try to see if she could do it first and instead moved as silently as she could to the man, taking small steps and staying put for a moment after each step to steady herself.

  Taking a deep breath, she took the last two steps at once and pressed the weapon to the man’s side.

  “Where is Viper?” Lara said in a husky, low voice that surprised her.

  Amun registered the pressure in his kidney about the same time he realized that the patient in suspended animation was somehow awake.

  “Sgt. Blain?” Amun asked stupidly, his mind trying to figure out how the hell, she was standing behind him.

  “Where is Viper?” Lara asked again, her voice sounding more normal after clearing her throat.

  When Amun tried to turn around to look at her, Lara pressed the object more deeply into his kidney stopping him instantly.

  “Hey! It’s all right. I’m not the enemy here. We were able to fix your shoulder, but you suffered extensive damage to your spine. I was turning to check on you. You shouldn’t be up; you could do more damage that I may not be able to repair!” Amun replied, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.

  He needed a damn scanner, and he didn’t think she was going to let him grab one either. His mind ran through the possibilities of how the hell she had awakened herself from suspended animation, and he quickly discarded each one. There was no explanation. Except for the unusual results he had been looking at before she had surprised him.

  “Stop stalling and tell me where Viper is!” Lara growled, her voice hard and cold this time.

  “He’s here with his brother! You need to calm down. No one here has harmed him, I swear. Let me call him…” Amun offered before she cut him off.

  “So you can warn someone? Take me to him. Now.” Lara said coldly, her determination rising the more her adrenaline roared through her body.

  Amun sighed and called out through the Shengari’ for help, trying to ignore the shocked responses and some who were outright mocking him for being taken hostage by a crippled coma patient. Damn if it didn’t sting his pride a little too, he thought shaking his head slightly.

  “We need to go slow. Not because I’m stalling, but because your spine is in a precarious state of healing…” Amun began before Lara drove the object deeper into his side, causing him to stifle a gasp.

  “Just get your ass up and take me to him.” Lara said, ignoring his excuses. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew her back wasn’t doing that great. But, it didn’t matter. She had a promise to keep.

  Amun stood up slowly, hoping the female didn’t fall into him and drive that thing into his back in the process. He tried to relax as Lara grabbed the back of his shirt and pushed him towards the door.

  The second they stepped through the door and into a long hallway, Lara knew she was in deep shit.

  *****

  Viper didn’t bother to hold back his anger as he shot to his feet and turned on Ratoka. “Kinara and her brother, Jacordan were lost to us over a hundred years ago. You told us that the death rite couldn’t be done because there was n
o proof she had passed.”

  “You said that if we did a death rite without proof of passing we could splinter their souls.” Viper mimicked Ratoka dramatically before continuing.

  “When we finally found the bodies, you said there was no hope, their souls were already lost. So explain to me how she is here, on Earth, in the body of Lara Blain?” Viper said, his voice rising in frustration with each sentence.

  Ratoka sighed, “You know the answer to that Viper. I have explained it, and you know the prophecy. The rest is the will of the God of Gods. Being angry will not change it but will only make it harder on your mate, and she is the one who needs you right now.”

  Viper drew in a deep breath, as if to begin arguing with Ratoka again, when Dread stood, grabbed his hand and leaned in until Viper had to look him in the face.

  “Listen to me brother! I know what you are feeling. Drago and I loved them as family too and that pain still haunts us.” Dread winced and looked away quickly, his emotions raw. He pulled himself together quickly and turned back to Viper.

  “But this isn’t about us; it's about her… and Jacordan. You need to get through to her, help her understand. You can’t do that if you’re angry. Please brother, for Kinara’s sake, you need to listen to how to help her.” Dread squeezed his brother’s hand, his emotions as riotous as Viper’s.

  Dread hadn’t lied. He and Drago had mourned both Kinara and Jacordan right along with their brother. Their families had been neighbors and close friends for hundreds of years before Kinara had been born.

  Her birth had been the fulfillment of both families’ wishes to formally join them through the marriage of their children. Dread and his brothers had already been long friends with Jacordan and when the tiny, beautiful little girl was brought into their world, they had all taken on the role of brother and protector.

  Viper, who had known she was his mate the moment he saw her, and became her constant companion and protector. They spent every waking moment together as they grew up, the boys basically raising Kinara.

  Viper turned such sad eyes to Dread, that his heart felt like it was bleeding for his brother. His words crushed him.