New Species 02 Slade (21 page)

stomach and propped her elbows on the sleeping bag

while she continued to catch snatches of the flames.

More time passed and she lay down flatter onto her

stomach. A yawn passed her parted lips, reminding her

of her exhaustion. She drifted to sleep until a single

gunshot jerked her awake.

Trisha scrambled to sit up while frantically aiming

the binoculars toward the campfire. She spent seconds

searching the darkness until she found the flickering

light.

Her attention remained focused on it until it died

out, disappearing in the darkness. No more shots rang

out. It gave her hope that he might have survived if he’d

attacked the camp.

She fought the urge to shed tears over Slade being

out there alone. He could be dead if one of them had

gotten off a lucky shot. She dragged the sleeping bag

away from the edge and huddled into a ball on top of it.

She needed sleep and she had no chance of trying to spot

Slade until the sun rose.

* * * * *

with hatred. He could hear their words and it made his

blood boil. The smell of the deer they’d shot and cooked

faded with the firelight they allowed to slowly burn out.

“Think the animal will beg for his life when we find

him?” The one in the jeans jacket asked the one in the

black shirt.

“I hope so.” He laughed. “I brought along my video

camera to tape it all. We need to show all the decent

folks that they aren’t men.”

Jeans jacket snorted. “Damn two-legged animals. Not

only do we have to protect our country from them but

our women too. First they’ll want to vote, then they’ll

want to get married. If their women look anything

similar to the men they will be after our sisters and

daughters. It’s just sick. I figure they hide how their

women look for a damn reason. They probably mixed

them with mules and they have jackass faces.”

One of the men laughed. “Butt-faced ugly. Forget the

coyotes.”

“They never should have been set free. We don’t go

around freeing monkeys they test makeup on. Hell no.”

The black-shirted man leaned back against the log,

putting his boots closer to the fire. “They are dangerous

and probably nuttier than fruitcakes.”

The blond man who’d kept silent suddenly frowned.

“Does fruitcake actually have nuts in it? I won’t taste that

junk. It looks bad.” He paused. “Do they really use cute

monkeys to test women’s face crap on? Monkeys are

cool. I always wanted one for a pet when I was a kid.”

“Hell if I know.” The guy in the black shirt shrugged

his shoulders. “It’s a damn saying. My point is that they

have to be completely whacked out of their minds. You

don’t set caged animals loose and let them run around

free. It’s dangerous and that’s why they all need taken

out. They sure aren’t cute and I wouldn’t want one for a

pet. It would probably try to hump my wife.”

The blond laughed. “I’ve seen your wife. I doubt it.”

The guy in the black shirt threw his can at his friend,

tagging him in the arm. “Fuck you, Mark.”

“Knock it off,” the guy sitting farthest from the fire

sighed. “We haven’t found our target and every hour

that passes means he could somehow slip out of the area.

The roads are locked down by our teams. They are

trapped in the area, but that woman he’s with is some

kind of doctor. That means she’s smart and is probably

thinking for him. They might have found a hole to hide

in. That’s what I’d do. We need to cover a lot of ground

tomorrow at first light, find them, and kill them. I didn’t

come out here to bullshit and insult each other. I want

the reward.”

“I’m not mounting that head on my hunting wall.”

The blond shuddered. “They look freaky and just plain

ugly. Of course it would be cool just for a conversation

piece. I could charge admission and show it off.”

Slade had heard enough. He wasn’t about to allow

those men to leave the camp. They were too close to

Trisha and they were looking for sheltered places. He

eased around the camp and waited until the men began

preparing to sleep. The blond stood, stretched and

walked into the darkness to take a leak.

The man never heard Slade come up behind him

until his hands were on him. The smaller man only

gasped when a palm slapped over his mouth, he was

jerked off his feet, and the knife on his thigh was yanked

free and pressed to his throat.

“Be quiet,” Slade ordered.

The blond panted but didn’t try to cry out.

“Are there more of you nearby?”

The guy hesitated before he slowly nodded.

“More than the other three at your camp?”

The blond nodded again. The news angered Slade.

He needed to find the other camps, take out the threat to

Trisha, and get hold of their cell phones. Hopefully one

would work. He could call Homeland to help them

locate Trisha faster. She needed to be taken out of this

dangerous mess quickly.

“I’m going to tie you up and go after your friends. If

you don’t fight I won’t kill you. I’ll secure you until my

people come. Do you understand me?”

The blond nodded. Slade wanted the humans dead

but he wasn’t at Homeland. He wasn’t sure where he

stood on the law. Self defense was one thing but the man

he gripped posed no current threat. He hated them but

he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer despite their low opinion

of Species.

He loosened his hold and the blond suddenly struck.

The guy tried to twist out of his hold and twisted his

head. He gasped in air to give the alarm but Slade was

faster. He snapped the man’s neck. The sound of the

bone breaking sickened him as he allowed the body to

slump to the ground. He turned to face the camp but

suddenly spotted movement. Another human came at

him. The guy didn’t seem to see him in the darkness

until the last second.

The human’s shock was apparent as he frantically

grabbed for the handgun strapped to his chest in a

holster. Slade threw the blade in his hand and lunged

forward to grip the man’s arm and throat. The human

went down without putting up too much of a fight. He

lowered the dying body to the ground, staring into his

enemy’s eyes.

“We’re going to kill you and that bitch who owns

you,” the man hissed before he died.

Slade released him, his rage heightened by the stench

of blood and death. His instincts gripped him hard.

Protect Trisha. These men weren’t compassionate. They

weren’t worthy of receiving what they didn’t posses.

They were hunting a helpless woman and a Species in a

death sport for money. He snarled softly, releasing his

human side and embracing the instincts of the predator

that was part of him and came so naturally.

Kill them, make sure they aren’t a threat to my woman, and

show no mercy. Memories of the years he’d been locked

up flashed inside his mind. These men were as bad as

the ones who’d kept Species prisoner. They didn’t see his

people as anything but rabid animals. A soft snarl tore

from his throat as he jerked the knife out of the body, and

rose to his feet. The only way to stop them from reaching

the doc was to kill every one of them. He could do it.

He’d do anything for Trisha.

His gaze drifted toward the camp as he stealthily

moved forward. The humans would die but Trisha

wouldn’t. He’d make certain of that regardless of how

many he had to kill.

* * * * *

inched to the entrance on her stomach, gripping the

binoculars to scan the area. She was careful to go slowly

and tried to use a grid pattern not to miss any sections.

She didn’t see anyone or anything. She finally gave up

after an hour and tried to get some rest on the sleeping

bag again. She drank half a soda, saved the rest, and ate

one more breakfast bar.

She worried that Slade might not return to her,

knowing he could have been killed. She lay there with

her eyes closed, his image haunting her thoughts. She

wasn’t sure what kind of relationship they’d have if they

survived. Did they even have one? He’d called her his.

That has to mean something, she decided. It gave her hope

that they had a future awaiting them if they could avoid

being killed.

A sound jerked her from a light sleep a little while

later. Trisha listened until she heard the noise again. She

sat up, her heart hammered, realizing it sounded similar

to… she wasn’t sure, but it was familiar for some reason.

The noise came again. Crap. It sounded as though rocks

or something equally heavy were falling. She moved and

gripped the handgun since it was a smaller weapon,

easier to hold than the two rifles Slade had left behind.

She crawled toward the opening on her belly to peer

down and jerked back hard when she saw someone

move below her. She moved backward, still on her belly,

and grabbed one of the rifles too. She fought down fear

and inched forward to reach the opening.

She kept on her stomach when she drew closer to the

edge, laying the rifle at her side to keep it within easy

reach. She stayed as low as possible to peer over the

edge again until she saw them. Two men were about

twenty-five feet below her, climbing up the hillside were

she hid. She ducked down.

Both men wore camouflage green clothing and

headed directly toward her hidden spot. She hoped they

hadn’t seen her, assumed not, since they hadn’t called

out. They’d reach the opening soon enough if she didn’t

do something. She wondered how they had found her

and if they were New Species. They usually wore black

uniforms but did they wear them away from Homeland

too? She didn’t know.

She could sit there waiting for them to discover her

or keep them below her. She didn’t know what to do. She

frantically wished Slade hadn’t left her because he’d

know how to handle the situation. At least Slade would

be able to smell them to know if they were his people or

the enemy.

Indecision sawed at her. She uttered a silent curse

and then decided she had to hold them back. If they

reached the opening she wasn’t sure she could shoot

them before they shot her since they outnumbered her.

Slade had told her to hold them off with the weapons

and he’d hear it. She wondered how these men had

gotten past him but it didn’t really matter since they had.

She moved again quickly and grabbed the last weapon.

She wanted all three of them available.

She crawled on her stomach and peeked out over the

edge again but couldn’t see their faces. She gripped the

handgun and waited until one of them looked up. He

appeared to be in his mid-twenties. Trisha leaned out

more to aim the gun right at him. His gaze widened in

surprise when he saw her.

“That’s far enough,” she called out. “Don’t move or I

will shoot. Who are you?”

The man next to him jerked his chin up until she

could see his face too. He was a little older than his

companion, in his early thirties, with facial hair, and a

cold look. Trisha kept glancing back and forth between

them. They climbed in a steep area below her, she

remembered vividly how difficult it had been, and both

of them had to hold on not to fall. It would be a painful

fall if they lost their holds, if not deadly. They were a

good fifty to sixty feet up the incline.

“We’re New Species,” the younger man stated

evenly. “We’ve come to rescue you, Dr. Norbit.”

She bit her lip, studying their features. He looked a

hundred percent human but so did the other man. Most

of the New Species had distinct facial anomalies similar

to Slade’s with his flattened nose and pronounced

cheekbones. Justice North had those feature anomalies

but he had cat eyes. Every New Species man she’d ever

seen had long hair that fell at least to their shoulders but

these men had crew cuts.

“I don’t believe you.” Fear gripped her, knowing