Mission: Guardian Angel (Veslor Mates Book 2) Read online

  Tellis was sprawled on his stomach a few feet away. He’d slid farther than her. “Turn it off.”

  “We need to see,” she whispered back.

  “No, we don’t.”

  She turned, taking in the small cavern. Two holes were visible. The one they’d obviously fallen from and another about five feet to her left. “We’re currently alone. What is this?”

  “Probably a resting place between digging for the ugly bastards. Now they’re going to come eat us.” He sat up, checking his arms. “Are you bleeding?”

  “I’m banged up but I don’t think anything is broken.”

  “I asked if you were bleeding.”

  She looked down, not seeing any tears in her suit. Her gloves remained on and didn’t appear wet. “I don’t think so.”

  “The Cadia can smell blood.” He lowered his voice more. “Like fucking scent hounds.”

  “We need to try to climb out.” There wasn’t enough room to stand fully upright but Abby got on her knees, moving to the hole they’d fallen through. The slanted dirt hole was a few feet higher than where she kneeled.

  “No.”

  She glanced at Tellis. “We can’t stay here. Up is the only way out. I sure don’t want to try that other hole. It looks as if it goes down, since the light showed a wall of dirt behind it.”

  “The Cadia hunt at night and the shuttle was about to pick us up to avoid being here after dark. We’re dead if we manage to reach the surface. It will be even easier for the Cadia to find and kill us. You saw all those fucking holes. Above us is where they come out at night.” He straightened his legs in front of him. “Hell, we’re dead here. I’m in enough pain without adding to it. Milts and Peters killed us. Just…make your peace. And then I’ll shoot us both.”

  She stared at him in horror. “No!”

  “Keep your voice down,” he hissed. “Better a shot to the head than being eaten alive. We’ve got to be close to their breeding caverns. We fell and slid for a while. That means we’re deep. What if they grab us, drag us to a nest of those fucking things, and we’re torn apart by the little ones? Ever seen a vid of a mama bird tossing a worm to her babies?” He visually shuddered. “I have.”

  “Thanks for that graphic and horrifying mental image I could have done without,” she whispered. “Keep your weapon holstered, Tellis. I’m not giving up. We’re going to survive this.”

  “Even if we make it until tomorrow without being found by the Cadia, and manage to climb to the surface, do you think whatever team we run into is going to let us live? You know what Milts and Peters did.”

  “You think the other teams might finish their work? That’s insane! It’s also cold-blooded murder. You’re wrong.”

  “I’m right. We’re not getting out of this, Miss Thomas. Rogers isn’t going to let his close friends go down for murder. The other teams will do whatever Rogers orders. It’s the mentality we’re trained to have. You don’t turn against your fellow soldiers, and you always cover their asses, no matter what.”

  “It sounds like they didn’t do that for you. You’re down here with me.”

  “I tried to save you. They probably saw that as a betrayal.”

  She felt grateful to Tellis for that but also a little guilty. He was in the same situation as her for trying to do the right thing. “Do you think Rogers ordered them to kill me?”

  He shook his head. “Probably not. It’s too stupid when you’re close to the commander. That’s Milts, though. He saw an opportunity and took it. He does that shit all the time. I’ve lost count of the bar fights he’s caused. Then the rest of us cover for him by claiming it was self-defense. He’s always the one to throw the first punch. And Peters would have done what he was told. He’s like Milts’s puppet.”

  “Isn’t there security camera footage from the bars to prove otherwise?”

  Tellis closed his eyes. “We’re trained to look for them and stay in blind spots. It becomes second nature. Nobody wants to be written up for breaking rules.”

  She stretched her upper body, trying to climb into the hole. The dirt crumbled in her fingers.

  “Shush,” Tellis whispered. “Cadia have damn good hearing, remember? Do you want to bring them right to us? There’s no point in climbing anyway.”

  “That’s what you said. I’m still not giving up.” Abby sat back on her haunches, staring up at the hole. It twisted out of sight about nine feet up. It would be a hell of a tough climb, especially with the loose dirt.

  “At least wait until morning. If you won’t let me shoot you, one of the teams can if you actually manage to make it to the surface. It’s a better way to go than being eaten.”

  She turned her head, watching him. His eyes were still closed and he looked pale. “Are you alright?”

  “I think I fractured some bones on the rocks on the way down. It’s why the tunnels are so twisted. The Cadia dig until they hit one, then have to go around. I’m heavier than you are, Miss Thomas. Gravity is a bitch, and so is the pain I’m in. I also think my shoulder is dislocated. These suits are designed to take some damage but not to keep our limbs from being twisted while tumbling over and over.”

  She crawled toward him. “Do you have a first-aid kit? A scanner? I took first-aid courses. It was a few years ago but I have a good memory.”

  “Nope. Mathews is the team medic.”

  “Let’s get your suit off.”

  He opened his eyes and grabbed her gloved hands as she reached for him. “No! I told you, the Cadia hunt by smell. And it’s not just blood they pick up. Humans have become an excellent food source ever since they built that damn settlement. You crack one of these suits and you may as well be ringing a dinner bell.”

  She nodded, understanding the danger.

  He released her and closed his eyes. “Just be quiet and stop moving around.”

  She took a seat next to him, using the rock to lean against.

  “And turn off the fucking light. Cadia can see it if they come anywhere near here. Then again, I suppose it won’t matter. They see much better in the dark. Light actually blinds them.”

  “You’re just a bundle of positivity, Tellis. Did anyone ever tell you that? I’m going to call you the grim reaper of hope.”

  He snorted a laugh. “Grim reaper is right. We’re dead. It’s just a matter of time. I hope the Cadia find us while I’m sleeping. That way I won’t see it coming.”

  Abby didn’t agree. She wanted to see danger coming for her. The weapon strapped to her thigh remained. She carefully pulled it from the strap, studying it. It was basic. There was even a safety on it. Barrel on one end, grip on the other, and it had a trigger. A child could use it.

  “How many weapons do you have?”

  Tellis softly sighed. “It won’t matter. One or two shots won’t kill a Cadia. Did you notice the size of the hole we were pushed into? That’s the girth of their bodies. The adults are about five feet around in diameter and maybe seven feet long like huge fat worms with a gigantic mouth. There’s a rock-hard plating on their heads with sharp ridges. It’s how they dig. You shoot one in the mouth, the only sensitive spot they have, and they thrash around from the pain but it won’t kill them.” He paused. “It’ll collapse this part of the tunnel when they hit the ceiling or sides. We’ll be crushed, and they’ll just dig out our bodies at that point to eat us. We’re fucking dead, Miss Thomas. The best thing to do with that weapon is to shoot yourself.”

  “Go to sleep.” She didn’t want to hear any more. “Rest. Maybe you’ll be less grumpy after a nap.”

  He said nothing. Abby stared at the hole on the other side, where it went deeper into the ground. That’s were a Cadia would probably come from. She kept a firm grip on the weapon and her light trained on that spot. Maybe if she shot the thing before it entered, she and Tellis might stand a chance. After he rested, she’d bring up climbing again. Though it probably was better to wait until morning to do that while the creatures slept.

  The silence was suddenly