Her Wild Hero

There was another reason to get out of the helicopter—the smoke would draw the soldiers and hybrids to come finish the job they’d started. They’d been in the air for a few minutes after getting hit, but he had no idea how far they’d traveled from the landing zone. He knew they didn’t have long.

He pulled back to look down at Kendra. Some of her long hair had come free of her ponytail to hang down in her face, and he had to fight the urge to push it back. “You okay?”

She coughed. “Yeah. You?”

“I’m good. But we need to get out of here.”

He looked around, trying to orient himself in the hazy smoke-filled mess that had been the main section of the helicopter. It took a second for him to figure out which way was up—the Seahawk had landed on its side, blocking the door he’d recently tossed the hybrid out. But it didn’t matter because the whole front of the helicopter was gone. It must have been ripped off as they’d crashed through the trees. He didn’t want to think about what had happened to the pilot and copilot.

Declan turned to see what remained of the other occupants only to find Kendra already checking on the two wounded marines. Declan crawled over the debris to kneel beside her. What he saw turned his stomach. The hybrid’s claws had gotten to one marine, while the impact had gotten to the other. Declan knew their deaths had been anything but painless.

Noise came from the back of the helicopter and Declan lifted his head to see the two local cops slowly coming their way. Declan got them moving in the right direction, then came back to help Kendra pull the DEA agent out of his seat. The guy was unconscious and had a dark purple bruise across his face and temple. He didn’t look good, but Declan carried him outside and gently set him down on the ground anyway. The man’s heart beat with an unsteady rhythm. Declan swore. He hadn’t had a chance to learn the guy’s name, and now it looked like he never would.

He heard a crashing sound behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Kendra dragging out one of the dead marines. When he moved to help her, she waved him off.

“I’ve got him,” she said. “Go get the other guy.”

Declan nodded and ducked inside. The helicopter might not have caught fire, but it still didn’t seem right to leave them in there.

He’d just gotten the second marine positioned respectfully away from the downed bird when he heard more noise coming from the wreck. Kendra was tossing stuff out of the helicopter—weapons, ammo, a rucksack, extra canteens, what looked like ration bars, and a first-aid kit. Okay, it was official. She was a whole lot calmer in a stressful situation than he’d ever imagined she would be. If he wasn’t already hopelessly in love with her, he would be now.

A few moments later, she came stumbling out, coughing and hacking. Declan grabbed one of the canteens and held it out to her.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, taking a big gulp of water, then put the cap back on the canteen. “How far away did we get?”

“Not far enough,” he said. “We flew farther than I thought before the crash, maybe two miles. But I can already hear them coming. They’ll probably be able to hone right in on the smoke coming off the crash.”

“Then we need to get moving.”

As Kendra started gathering up the gear she’d tossed out of the smoldering wreck, Declan checked on the other survivors. The two locals were whispering to each other as he approached the injured DEA agent. He could hear them clearly, but they were speaking in Spanish, so it really didn’t matter that he could overhear everything they said. But while he didn’t understand the words, he got the gist of their tone—they were scared to death and wondering if staying with Declan and Kendra was their best bet.

He knelt down beside the DEA agent, preparing to carry him—at least until they had enough time to rig up some kind of travois or litter—but the man was already dead. Between all the blood he’d lost, shock, and head trauma, there was no way of telling what had done him in.

Declan pulled the DEA agent’s rain jacket off to cover his face. Hopefully the soldiers and hybrids wouldn’t disturb the man’s body or those of the dead marines. But it was anyone’s guess what hybrids considered an acceptable way to honor the dead.

“Where the hell are they going?” Kendra asked.

Declan spun around just in time to see the two police officers slip into a dense section of jungle and disappear.

“I guess they figure they have better odds on their own than staying here with a monster as bad as the things trying to kill them.”

Kendra swore and shouldered one of the packs loaded with extra supplies. “What about the pilot and copilot? Should we go look for them?”