Marcus (13 page)

Elle turned her attention to her comp
screen. The drones were up and giving back live feed. The two Hawks
were converging on the attack site.

“One minute until you reach the site,
Marcus.”

“Roger that.” His gravelly voice filled her
ear.

She zoomed in on the images. Saw the raptors
cutting down humans. Her stomach turned over but she kept the
horror from her voice. She switched to the comp view—raptors marked
in red, civilians in green. “It looks too hot for the Hawks to
land. I suggest you rappel in.”

“Got it. Any sign of that ptero?”

“It’s not on screen. I’ll keep an eye out.
Be careful.”

Shaw’s voice cut across the line. “What
about the rest of us, Ellie, girl? Or do you just care about
Marcus’ ugly mug now?”

“Off the line, Shaw,” Marcus growled.

Elle fought back a smile. “Rescue those
survivors and then
all
of you come home safely.”

Shaw made kissing noises across the line and
Elle heard Marcus growl again. Zeke was laughing.

The Hawk reached the explosion site.

Red dots flickered to life all over her
screen. She tapped it, taking readings. “Thirty raptors on the
ground.”

She heard the squad talking as they attached
to lines and rappelled out of the Hawk.

“Fuck me,” Zeke breathed.

“Raptors everywhere, Elle.” Marcus’ voice
was grim. “They’re picking off the survivors. We’re going in.”

Elle gripped the edge of her desk and
listened as Hell Squad and Squad Nine engaged. There were yells,
carbine fire, and the grunts and shouts of raptors. There were also
screams and keening cries.

She closed her eyes, trying to find some
sort of calm inside. Marcus would be all right. He and the squad
were the best, they always came home.

“Get those survivors to the evac point,”
Marcus yelled. “Elle, we need a Hawk on the ground ASAP. We have
civilians with severe injuries.”

“It’s a fucking mess.” Ragged anger
underscored Cruz’s voice. “The raptors have been here a while
torturing these people.”

Oh, no
. She tapped the screen. “The
first Hawk is circling around. They’ll be on ground in three
minutes.”

“Watch out!” Gabe’s yell tore through the
line.

“Dammit,” Marcus bit out. There was more
laser fire.

Elle watched as more red points poured out
of a concealed location.
No. Where had they come from?
She
heard the distinctive explosion of concussion grenades.

“Marcus! Another thirty raptors—”

“Hell! We see them.”

She wanted to scream Marcus’ name, make sure
he was okay. She bit her lip, tasted blood in her mouth. Instead
she stared at the blue dots of her team on the screen.

“I’m hit!” Zeke’s voice.

“I’m coming,” Gabe yelled.

“Give them cover fire,” Marcus roared.
“Claudia, get the last of those survivors over here!”

Elle patched a line through to the Hawk.
“Finn, you need to get on the ground, now! It’ll be a hot
evac.”

“On it, Elle,” Finn’s cool, calm voice came
through the line. “We see them. Second Hawk is coming in right
behind me.”

She tapped a foot against the floor. Beside
her, she heard Arden’s urgent commands to Roth and his team.

A masculine yell ripped through the line and
Elle jerked.

A blue dot blinked off the screen.

Her heart simply stopped.
No.
One of
Hell Squad was…dead.

“Marcus?” She gripped her earpiece so hard
it cut into her hand. “Marcus, do you copy?”

The only reply was the sound of laser fire
and an inhuman wail that she knew was torn from a human throat.

“Marcus?”
Please, please answer
me.

Marcus’ jaw was clenched so tightly he
thought it might break under the strain. As the side of the Hawk
opened, he gestured to his silent and somber team to help the
sobbing civilians off.

Only Gabe remained, sitting beside Zeke’s
body.

“Time to go, Gabe.”

Gabe’s hands curled into fists. “I will take
down every single raptor on the entire fucking planet.”

“And I’ll help you. For now, let’s get Zeke
to Doc. You know she’ll do right by him.”

Gabe gave a rough nod and for a second,
Marcus caught a glimpse of the man’s gray eyes. They looked like
thunderclouds boiling and brewing before a storm. He was always
intense, but now something frightening was alive in his eyes.

Marcus didn’t let himself think or feel as
he picked up Zeke’s body. Not yet.

Doc Emerson stood near the Hawk, an
iono-stretcher hovering behind her.

And beside her stood Elle, her hands clamped
together in front of her and her face etched with grief.

A flood of conflicting emotions rushed
through Marcus. And leading them was guilt.

He’d been enjoying himself with Elle, and
he’d taken his eye off the ball. Now, one of his team had paid the
price and the rest of them were bleeding from the wound.

As the sobbing survivors were checked over
by Doc Emerson’s staff, he stared at a shell-shocked little boy
sitting on a chair, covered in blood. His ears had been cut
off.

For a second, Marcus flashed back to other
children left dying in pools of their own blood. Another time he’d
been too concerned with his own goddamned wants and needs to do
what had to be done. To be one step ahead of the bad guys.

He set Zeke’s body down on the
stretcher.

“I’m so sorry, Marcus,” Emerson said. But
her gaze strayed over Marcus’ shoulder to Gabe, standing like a
silent sentinel on the other side of the stretcher.

“Take care of him.” The words sounded torn
from Gabe.

“I will.” The doctor looked like she wanted
to reach out to the grieving man. But after a second, she nodded.
“And we’ll do what we can to help the survivors.”

Marcus ground his teeth together. “The
raptors had them for a while. Torturing them.”

“Like I said, we’ll do what we can. But
they’ll need time for the emotional wounds to heal. You got them
out of there, that’s what counts.”

But at what cost? So many of them had
terrible injuries and Marcus knew better than most that sometimes
the emotional scars never healed.

And now Zeke was dead.

“Marcus.”

Elle’s voice was a balm but at the same time
made his guilt spike. He wanted to pull her close and bury his face
in her hair. Just hold on and forget for a second.

But as he watched the stretcher move away,
with the body of a good man going cold on it and the man’s broken
brother walking beside it, he couldn’t bring himself to touch
Elle.

Zeke would never laugh, never spar with
Gabe, never hold a woman again.

Instead, Marcus held up a black crystal.
“They left this at the attack site for us to find. We need to know
what’s on it.
Now
.”

Elle took it and nodded. “Okay.” She reached
her other hand for him.

Marcus side-stepped her. “I need to check on
Zeke…and Gabe. I’ll come to the lab soon.” He walked away and
forced himself not to look back.

It took him almost an hour to prize Gabe
away from his brother’s side. Emerson was taking great care with
Zeke’s body, but seeing the once-vibrant man and badass warrior
with all his armor stripped away…seeing his body so still and white
on the damn bunk in the infirmary left Marcus feeling a sick
mixture of despair and fury.

He needed to find that comms hub. And blow
the fucking raptors to hell.

He needed to stay focused on his mission and
not on organizing picnics and kissing sweet, full lips.

Marcus slammed into the comp lab.

Elle’s head shot up. She sat hunched over
her comp console. The screen in front of her was filled with raptor
symbols and she held a stylus poised above her tablet.

The sick look on her face made his gut
clench. “What?”

“Marcus, I don’t think—”

“Tell me what you found, Elle.”

Her gaze darted away and she took a deep
breath. “They left a message on the crystal.”

He strode over and looked over her shoulder.
She held a spread palm over the tablet but then, reluctantly, she
inched it away.

They died in payment for your continued,
futile attacks on us. Their blood is on your hands.

The more you fight back, the more we will
retaliate. More will die.

Marcus breathed through his nose, fighting
back the vicious emotions storming through him. He wanted to stride
down to the cells below and tear their raptor prisoner apart with
his bare hands.

Instead, he settled for slamming a fist into
the desk. The table jolted, rocking the comp screen.

Elle watched him, biting her bottom lip.
“It’s not your fault, Marcus.”

“I didn’t have my head in the game. I was
too twisted up thinking about—” He had enough sense to cut off his
words, but he saw her flinch. He knew he should say something to
make it better. And he knew was being an ass, but he just didn’t
have it in him right now to be anything else. “Find the comms
hub.”

She nodded. “I won’t stop until I do.”

There were other things he wanted to say and
do, but all he could see in his head was Zeke’s blank face and that
little boy covered in blood. “I…have to go.”

Elle’s lips pressed into a flat line. “Okay.
I’ll get to work.”

He turned and walked away.

“Marcus?”

He paused but didn’t look back. He was
afraid he might collapse at her feet, tug her into his arms and
never let go.

“You’re not alone,” she said quietly.
“Remember that.”

As he slammed out of the lab, he’d never
felt more alone in his life.

***

Marcus jabbed his fist into the boxing bag
hanging from the gym ceiling. As it swung, he followed with a
powerful kick that rattled the chain holding the bag, then he
slammed a sequence of unforgiving punches into the battered
leather.

Sweat dripped into his eyes and soaked his
T-shirt. He’d been in here since he’d dragged himself out of his
bunk that morning, and after he murdered the bag, he was going to
lift some weights.

It had been two days since Zeke had
died.

Two days since a good man’s body had gone
cold.

He hadn’t heard from Elle, so he assumed she
didn’t have a location yet. He hadn’t seen her, hadn’t seen anyone.
He’d either been in the gym or sitting up on the roof in the
darkness.

“What the hell do you think you’re
doing?”

Cruz’s voice made Marcus jerk around. His
friend stood there in black cargo trousers and a black T-shirt.
Menace radiated off him.

“Working out.”

“You haven’t spoken to the team. You haven’t
seen Gabe. You haven’t turned up for training. I didn’t think
moping was your style, Marcus.”

Marcus felt a muscle in his jaw tick. “If
that’s it, you can leave. Or I’ll kick your ass instead of this
bag.”

Cruz shook his head. “The team’s doing okay,
by the way. Well, about as okay as we can be right now. I’m worried
about Gabe, he’s silent at the best of times, but now he won’t talk
at all. He keeps disappearing and won’t tell me where he’s been.
But worst of all is what you’ve done to Elle. I thought you cared
about her, wanted to protect her.”

Marcus stilled. “I haven’t done anything to
Elle.”

Cruz made a rude noise. “You told her to
find the comms hub, Marcus. No matter what. What did you think
Ellie was gonna do,
amigo
?” The man shook his head. “She’s
fucking working herself to the bone, you idiot. She hasn’t slept,
hasn’t eaten.”

Marcus’ heart kicked his ribs. “What?”

“She’ll kill herself trying to decode that
raptor gibberish. You guys are perfect for each other. You’re here
blaming yourself, she’s blaming herself. A pair of idiots.”

“Cruz—”

The other man chopped hand through the air.
“Save it—”

Marcus grabbed Cruz’s shoulders and shook
him. “Is Elle all right?”

“No. She’s exhausted and looks sick.”

Shit
. Marcus released him and scraped
a hand through his hair.

“Look, Marcus, blame the damn raptors for
Zeke, not yourself. Then make Elle get some sleep.”

Marcus was already headed for the door. He
jogged through the tunnels. He had to get to her.

When he stepped into the lab, she was in her
usual position, hunched over the keyboard. He frowned. What the
hell was Cruz talking about? She looked fine.

“Elle.”

She flinched and glanced over her shoulder.
His gut took a hit. Her face was deathly pale and her eyes were
sunken and underscored with black circles. She didn’t just look
tired, she looked dead on her feet.

“I’m really close, Marcus. I made a few
mistakes and got tangled up for a bit because the symbols seem to
move around, but I’m back on track.” She lifted a hand to brush her
hair off her face. Her hand shook. “I’ve narrowed it down to a
certain radius. The hub’s in the suburbs somewhere south of the
city, near the airport. A few more hours and I hope to crack
it.”

“When did you last eat?”

Her gaze skittered away, back to the screen.
“I’m not hungry.”

He stepped closer. “That’s not what I
asked.”

“I don’t remember. Our…the picnic, I
think.”

Marcus swore and watched her curl in on
herself.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he bit out.

“I know,” she whispered.

“Come on. You need to eat.”

A little life sparked in her eyes. “No. I
have to find that hub.”

“Now. Or I’ll carry you.”

“I don’t like you much when you get
bossy.”

“I don’t care.”

“Look—” she stood and took one step.

She collapsed.

Marcus lunged forward and caught her.
“Dammit! Elle?”

“I…don’t feel very well.” Her eyelids
fluttered closed and she fainted.