Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
“You should have gone with them, should have left me behind,” Indigo said softly from beneath him as her eyes drifted closed.
That she was so quick to dismiss the value of her own life told him that whatever this woman had been through had been rough, made her lose her self-worth.
She’d get it back. He’d insist on it.
Whether she agreed or not, Indigo was one of them, and they didn't leave anyone behind. Didn't matter that they’d known her for less than ten minutes. If she had been genetically enhanced with Dr. Gardner’s experimental drugs, then she had just gotten herself a readymade family.
Because that’s what he and his team were, a family.
They might have been brought together by a drug trial none of them had fully understood, but those bonds that had been forged were for life.
Even after Dr. Gardner was eliminated as a threat, and Voodoo had zero doubt that they would eventually catch the man, and his machinations would catch up with him, he couldn’t see himself ever moving away from the Gothic mansion they shared.
The men of Delta Team—and now Rose, Cassandra, and Whitney, Indigo as well—were as much his family as the parents who had raised him. Well birthed him and handed him off to a nanny to raise, and then to his own devices once they decided he was old enough to take care of himself.
Hearing Indigo so easily accept that she would be worthless enough not to matter had something stirring to life inside him. Rage, but of a different kind than the one he was used to as a side effect of the drugs he’d been given.
“Stop saying that,” he snapped at her, making her body flinch even as her eyes stayed closed. “And don’t pass out on me again. I am not leaving you behind, and I am not letting you die.”
Slowly—oh so slowly—those eyes of hers opened, beautiful brown orbs, shimmering with unshed tears.
“Think it might already be too late,” she murmured.
“Been sick for a while now. They don’t care.
Make me keep doing it.” One of her hands gestured vaguely at the wounds littering her body before dropping back down to the floor.
“What’s your enhancement?” he asked as he rifled through his med kit and found bandages and antibiotic cream.
“Can endure pain. Weird, like it hits me hard but then fades so quickly.”
“They made you do this to yourself,” he said as he slathered on the cream to the worst of her wounds and then began to wrap them.
He couldn’t do anything for her broken leg right now, and she’d need more heavy-duty antibiotics once he got her someplace safe, but the cream would at least help for now.
“How did you know?”
“Because Dr. Gardner’s sister is with us and he made her do the same thing, only without the experimental drugs in her system,” he explained. This woman was one of them, and she was coming back home with them, so that meant she was entitled to every bit of intel they had.
“Didn't know he had a sister. He is angry with someone called Whitney, though. He thinks she betrayed him, and she should be here to help him with the drugs.”
“He’s right, Whitney did betray him,” he told her as he yanked out a spare T-shirt and pants from his pack. It was all he had in there, not really enough to protect her from the elements, although he assumed she had the same ability to better handle hot and cold that he and his team did.
“You know who she is?”
“I’ll explain everything later, I promise. Right now, I need to get you out of here. I’m going to sit you up, put this on you,” he told her as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“Won't hurt much,” she assured him. “Never does. What can you do?”
“Healing. I heal people,” he replied as he lifted her off the ground and slipped the T-shirt over her shoulders. She winced at first, but quickly relaxed against him as he dressed her.
“The warmth?” she asked.
“Warmth?”
“You don’t know how it works?” When he shook his head, she continued. “It felt like warmth curling around inside me. Kind of like getting hugged by a sunbeam.”
“Never heard it explained like that.” It was an accurate description, though, and kind of what he felt when his body healed itself.
Once he had her dressed, Voodoo pulled his pack back on and then stood. Reaching down to pick her up, he paused, his gaze locked on the shock collar, unwanted memories of how he’d once worn one and it had been used to control him assaulting his mind.
“This has to go,” he muttered, scanning the room for something he could use to break it off.
Indigo watched him as he found a scalpel and used the metal instrument to twist into the locking mechanism at the back, causing the collar to fall off.
Then he was moving again, scooping Indigo into his arms. She whimpered at the movement, but again the tension quickly left her body, and she sagged into him.
“Don’t want you to get hurt because of me, Voodoo,” she murmured.
“No one is dying today, honey. No one is getting hurt. And no one is going to hurt you ever again,” he vowed, surprised by just how seriously he meant it.
When he and his team had been in the same position as Indigo had, they’d been together, had each other.
Indigo had gone through it alone and that ate at him.
“Don’t believe you,” she whispered, and a weariness to her tone told him it wasn't just because of what had happened to her at Dr. Gardner’s hands.
There was no time to convince her, though. The smell of smoke was strong enough now that he could smell it, and the sound of bullets began to whiz through the air as he tucked Indigo close and headed back out into the hall.
Getting her safely out was his priority number one, then he could work on showing her what it meant to be part of a family.
It was a lesson he himself had to learn when he joined the military and, for the first time ever, had people in his life who had his back rather than just attempting to control him and mold him into the image they had of what their child should be like.
Out in the hall, Voodoo found it clear, so he made his way to the opposite side of the building from the one they’d entered to avoid the smoke.
He could hear the others firing their weapons, no doubt picking off the guards one by one.
Between their training, experience, and their enhanced skills, they weren't an easy opponent to beat, even for people who thought they understood their abilities.
If the men even realized who they were up against.
“Moving out with Indigo,” he said into his comms unit, although he knew Blade, with his enhanced hearing, would hear him without it, had probably been half listening to his entire conversation with the woman only half conscious in his arms.
“Take her out the side entrance, they’re mostly concentrated at the main door. We’ve already picked off half of them, but they have some training and are making sure to stay out of range after we took out the first few. We’ll keep them distracted here while you get Indigo out,” Steel told him.
Adjusting his position, he headed for the small side entrance they’d noted as they surveyed the building.
It was quieter there, slightly away from the gunshots, but he knew that as soon as he stepped out of this building, they were in danger.
Carrying Indigo put him at a disadvantage.
She was in no condition to assist in her own rescue, and even if she was physically healthier, he had no idea if she had any training.
Locating the door, he unlatched it and pushed it open.
Nothing seemed to move out there. While he might not have Blade’s ability to hear, Dragon’s ability to smell, or Lion’s to see, he still had several years as a special forces’ operator, then a decade working and training with Delta Team, so he had learned to sense the presence of another person.
Sensing nothing, he stepped out into the night.
It was an hour’s hike back to the vehicle, and to get to it, he’d have to either circle around to the side of the building where the guards were, or he would have to hike out into the forest and then double back.
Neither option was appealing when he had a small, trembling woman racked with fever in his arms.
“More coming in, Voodoo,” Steel’s voice came through the comms.
“Need me to come help?” It was the last thing he wanted to do because it would mean leaving Indigo alone, and she couldn’t protect herself, couldn’t even hold her head up. But he also couldn’t abandon his team.
“Focus on Indigo,” Steel replied. “But watch your back. These guys are like cockroaches, they keep coming and coming.”
“Noted.”
This meant he was on his own, no backup, nothing but a woman who had been willing to sacrifice herself to give him a better chance at living. No way was he allowing anything to happen to her, which meant he would do whatever it took to ensure he got Indigo safely out of these woods.
January 21st
12:34 A.M.
Suspended halfway between awake and asleep.
That’s how Indigo felt as she bounced gently against Voodoo’s chest with each running step the man took.
If she were anyone else, she would likely be in excruciating pain with her broken leg jostled.
It was a fresh break, made just hours before the flashing red light alerted them all that someone was coming, and Voodoo and his team showed up.
The cuts littering her body were older, but since some were red and enflamed, filled with infection, they should hurt as well.
Instead, all she felt was the distant echo of pain, too far away for it to affect her.
Too bad it wasn't the same thing with the fever ravaging her system.