Fathom (Mermaids of Montana #3) - Elsa Jade Page 0,68
like fingers clutching for the dark sky.
One by one, the strings broke with a discordant cry, a mockery of the music he’d made with Lana.
She was gone.
Nothing could fight the unvoiced fury howling through him.
He turned his back just as water began to spout from what remained of the ceiling. The spray was icy cold on his burned skin, and he hunched over to protect Kailani from the deluge. The fire around him hissed its own rage at being thwarted, and the coils of smoke and steam clogged his throat.
Thomas met him halfway on the stairs. His gaze fixed on the slumped female in Sting’s arm and then raised to meet his stare. “And Lana?”
Sting shook his head.
They descended to the kitchen, the guardsman rushing ahead to spread a thick layer of decorative linens on the counter. At his gesture, Sting laid Kailani on the padding. Despite his care, she moaned.
Thomas leaned over her, smoothing back her hair with shaking fingers. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We have you. The fire is out.” He glanced distractedly at Sting. “Take the extinguisher. Make sure it’s out. Go see…” In an unconscious gesture, he curled one arm protectively around Kailani’s crown. “Find out what’s left.”
Find Lana, he meant. Because there’d been no other flicker of life upstairs.
Though he’d been given a direct order, Sting hesitated. He never hesitated. But what if he found…nothing? What if all that was left was the void where she’d been, deeper than he could ever dive?
“Find her,” Thomas hissed.
Sting wheeled around and left.
He searched the house. The sprinklers had been late because of the Cretarni electromagnetic pulse that jammed all the systems, but the house was still structurally sound, according to his pings. As he went, he extinguished a few remaining hotspots.
But none were Lana. When the house was finally cold, so was he. And he never felt the cold.
He returned to the kitchen. Kailani was sitting up in the half-round of cushioned seats surrounded by windows. At least these hadn’t been broken. She was wrapped in a blanket and leaning against Thomas while he held a pack of something cold pressed to the back of her head. They both looked up when he arrived.
“Lana?” she asked hoarsely.
Sting shook his head. “Tell me what happened.”
Kailani huddled closer to Thomas, who tightened his arm around her. “Lana and I were just talking in the music room. She was saying…” Her dark gaze, so like Lana’s, flicked over him. “Well, that part doesn’t matter. Thomas brought us some drinks”—she pressed her cheek to the guardsman’s shoulder—“and he had just gone back downstairs when the wall…” Her breath caught. “It just…blew apart. Everything was smoke and screaming.” She grimaced. “I think that last part was me. Lana shoved me under the piano—that’s how I bumped my head—and I saw her run out of the room, leading them away. They followed her, firing these blazing lights that blinded me. But I saw…” Her breath hitched again in a swallowed curse. “Aliens. It was aliens chasing her.” She put one hand over her mouth, but her distress radiated clearly. “They got her, didn’t they? They took Lana.”
Since it was obvious, Sting didn’t answer.
“The Cretarni,” Thomas clarified. “I rebooted the house system and downloaded the security cam footage.” He pulled a small screened device from his pocket and laid it on the table, shoving it across to Sting.
The grainy image, clearly shot from the treeline beyond the fountain pool, showed a ship hovering deftly above the house. Lines descended from the ship, dark forms clinging to the lines. Flashes of light and then fire followed. After decades of air-to-water warring, the Cretarni had perfected the techniques of attacking from above.
“I’ve sent a message to Maelstrom,” Thomas said. “But our array was damaged by the EMP. And since we can’t reveal our unauthorized extraterrestrial interactions to closed-world security, we can’t push the message through on a faster packet.” His expression turned grimmer. “Until the message can bounce on unsuspecting carriers, we’re on our own.”
Sting clenched his jaw. Many times during the war, that had been the case for him. But ever since Coriolis had taken over his command, he’d gotten used to having others on his side, maybe behind him more than beside him, but still there. Now, worse than being alone, he was charged with keeping these innocents safe.
And finding Lana.
But he was still a tracker, hunter, killer. For once, he’d be the monster for good.