Marius (12 page)

“Maybe you should take Rem back,” he said to Jenna.

Marius coughed loudly. “Her?”

Jenna frowned. “Got a problem with that?”

Rem laughed loudly from inside the room. “You haven’t seen her shoot,” he said. “I think I’d be a little more careful with what you say around Annie Oakley here.”

“Shut it, or I’ll make you ride in the back,” she mumbled.

Marius stared at Jenna. The sweet, quiet, short, curly haired niece of the major was apparently a sharpshooter that had no problem torturing prisoners.

“Are you a spy?” he blurted out.

This time it was Titus who laughed loudly as Jenna stomped across the room to Rem.

Marius watched her with open fascination. Never had he met someone who was so opposite of themselves.

“Shouldn't a hybrid escort him?” Marius asked.

“We've come to an understanding,” Titus said. He walked over to a desk and pulled out a pistol, which he handed to Jenna.

“I'm not going anywhere yet,” Rem said, a cheery grin on his face.

Jenna just snorted. “Let's go.”

When Rem and Jenna left the room, he turned to Titus.

“Do you really think that's safe?”

“She'll shoot him if necessary. She’s just helping and isn’t very happy about it,” Titus said. “But we need the help of a non-hybrid. It would be best if we kept this quiet for now. I think some men feel talking to him at all is a sign of weakness, and we just can’t have issues right now.”

Marius winced. He’d nearly forgotten the whole reason for him being there.

“Some of the men have come in sick today,” he said.

Titus stilled.

“There are six total, and Rufus is in bad shape,” he said. “We need to know what area he covered. and we also need to close down that section for sure. Who knows what the hell is out there.”

He paused. This was the moment.

“Rachel would like to have only essential personnel mobile and all others homebound.” He watched Titus to see if he could read the man's face. Titus raised a brow.

“And you?” he asked. His long dark hair fanned around his face and made him seem far older than he was.

Marius thought for a moment. “I trust her. I know how people feel, but she has never proved to be wrong when it comes to medicine. She is our best bet, and it’s the most logical move we have. It's not like we can just yank another doctor in here to help with whatever this is immediately.”

Titus looked down and frowned, falling silent. The air in the room felt like it grew a little thin as Marius waited. He wondered if Titus was going to ignore this. It seemed so silly. He'd been willing to lockdown the compound before. There was little reason not to do it now given the current situation.

“I agree,” Titus said, breaking the silence. “I’ll make the announcement the first thing in the morning.”

Marius breathed a sigh of relief. At least now they wouldn’t have to worry about as many people getting sick. As it was, Rachel was already overloaded at work. Her complaints about being understaffed were far from groundless, after all.

“Zeno thinks you need to be pulled from working with her,” Titus said, interrupting Marius's thoughts.

Marius frowned.

“What?”

Titus shrugged. “Said you were too involved with her.”

Marius felt his fists flex and had to force himself to unfurl his fingers.

“Tell him to mind his own fucking business.”

Titus stared at him for a moment before nodding.

“I think that might be best for us all.”

Chapter Ten

It had been a long night. Rachel had slept very little trying to make the men comfortable. She worried. Rufus was the worst, and there wasn’t much she could do. Even if they had been at a full facility hospital, she knew there wasn’t much more they would be able to do if they didn’t know what was causing the problem. Generalities weren't good enough. Unfortunately, the world was filled was deadly poisons, and what nature hadn't seen fit to supply, mankind was more than willing to do so.

Much like the other patients, Rufus's vitals were off and to keep him from crashing, she was giving him a hefty dose of morphine to mostly keep him under. She hoped that some sleep would help. While he was out, they changed his clothes and cleaned him up. He’d been suffering for days trying not to come in, and it ate at her. There was no way she could continue at Luna Lodge if they couldn’t even trust her when they were this sick.

Rachel lay on the couch in her office thinking as the first rays of light filtered in. She had been waiting to call Titus until she knew more, but she really didn’t have much more to offer than she did the previous night. Frustration gnawed at her, and now she had eight patients who required full care. It was too much for her.

She swung her feet to the side and sat up. It was time, whether she wanted to or not. Rachel picked up the phone and dialed Titus's office number first. It picked up on the first ring. She half-expected Jenna or his voice mail.

“Titus,” he said.

“This is Rachel,” she said. There was no point trying to stand firm today. She didn’t feel much like a doctor, and what she really wanted was to crawl in a hole. “I wanted to give an update.”

“Go ahead,” he said.

She took a deep breath before going ahead. “The men are stable. All are in beds and comfortable. Rufus is sedated at the moment, but it’s so he can get some rest. We’ll slowly bring him out of that over the day.”

“How bad is it, Rachel?” His voice was filled with concern, and for once, she felt like she was dealing with someone that might be reasonable.

She sighed. “Can I be honest?”

She could almost hear the frown on the other end. “I would hope so.”

Rachel leaned back in her seat and stretched her muscles. “The others can hold on, but I worry for Rufus. Even at a hospital with constant care, he still might not make it. Whatever this is, he got a heavy dose of it.”

The phone went silent, and she wondered if she’d been too blunt. She knew it was her way sometimes, but she just didn’t know how else to address this. They had to know how serious the situation was. Just being a hybrid wasn't enough to save them this time.

“What do we need to do?” Titus asked.

Her heart jumped, and she nearly dropped the phone. It was the first time he’d asked.

“I can identify the underlying cause,” she said quickly. “I know I can. This is what I do. It’s what I did.” She took a breath. “Before I came here.”

Titus didn’t say anything, so she took that as a sign to continue.

“We need help. Maybe if we can just get some good nurses in here to help rotate care,” she said.

“Bringing in outside help is dangerous,” Titus said. “We'd need time to dig into people to ensure they aren't with the Group, and even if we had time, they still might be able to slip through.”

“I understand that, but not bringing in help is dangerous,” she countered. “Look, I can’t do this by myself. There are just too many beds, and with Rufus, someone is going to suffer, and it’s not going to be just me. If I don't get help, your men may die.”

Titus went silent again. and she waited. Rushing wasn’t going to do her any good.

“I’ll talk to the hospital,” he said after some time. “I’m sure they will have a few people that might be interested.”

Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. Having support would mean so much around here for everyone.

“This is really going to help,” she said.

“I’m trusting you,” Titus said. His voice was tight, and she knew he was trying.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m going to figure this out.”

* * *

Marius watched as the helicopter settled on the landing pad and tried not to calculate how much it would have cost them if Major Carter hadn’t stepped in to help. Varius stepped out with Apollo. He had been less than thrilled with the number of men sick, and as much as he could, Marius was trying to serve as a buffer between the two. The task had been proving harder than he expected, since Rachel wasn’t answering his messages at the moment.

“Did you see anything?” he shouted over the rhythmic pulse of the rotor.

Varius shrugged. “Normal forest,” he shouted back.

Apollo pointed to the building, and they made their way in to escape the noise. Once inside they started toward Marius’s office just down the hall.

“Nothing?” Marius said as he slid the key into the lock and opened the door.

Previously, the space was pretty dull, but since he started sharing his space with Erica, Sol’s wife, things had changed. Suddenly, half the room was bright and cheerful and had far more seating than he cared for. He frowned. She was hardly there now because of her twins. It seemed like a waste of space and resources. Not that it seemed to bother the other men. They happily pulled up one of her comfortable chairs.

“There’s nothing out there,” Varius said as he sat down. “We snapped some shots.” Apollo handed over the camera. “But I couldn’t see anything that stuck out, and we circled around a number of times.”

Marius slipped out the card and loaded it onto his computer. As he waited for it to load, he could feel Apollo’s eyes burning into him. He turned, only to find Apollo glaring at him.

“What?” Marius asked.

“Just want to know if you know what you’re doing,” he said more than asked. Apollo leaned back and stretched out.

Marius glanced back at the computer. “Pretty sure this is my field.”

His eyes narrowed more, and Varius shifted. “He’s talking about Rachel.”

Marius stilled. Fucking Zeno.

Apollo shrugged a shoulder. “She seems like a risk for someone like you.”

A muscle in Marius’s jaw twitched as he tried to control his temper.

“Well,” he said and turned around. “When I need help in that department, I’ll be sure to put it to a vote.”

“Look,” Varius said and placed a hand on his shoulder, “we’re just worried she’ll get the drop on you, and you’ll be defenseless.”

Marius stood up and clicked off the computer.

Marius pointed to the door. “That’s fucking it. Outside,” he said. “Get the fuck up,” he said again and made his way to the door.

“Why?” Apollo said, still leaning back.

“Because if I’m going to beat the shit out of you two, I’m not doing it where my stuff is going to get ruined.”

* * *

“Punch him in the throat!”

Rachel stopped in mid-bite of her egg sandwich and made her way across the lot from the breakfast area, her coffee mug still in hand. It wasn’t really the kind of atmosphere she was looking for, especially after the night she had.

A crowd of hybrids stood in a circle, their massive backs to her and hunched such a way that made it seem like that were trying to hide what was going on. She frowned. Apparently, Titus had a different definition of essential-only personnel.

She edged around the men until she found a break in between. In that gap, she could see several hybrids tossing their fists in flurry of motion. She couldn’t quite make out the men, they kept moving just out of her sight, but from her understanding, it was two against one. It didn’t really seem fair, but she didn’t really know what she could do about it.

Rachel took several big bites of her sandwich, but the sound of flesh meeting flesh was unsettling. She took a drink of coffee to help her swallow.

“Don’t fucking talk about her,” one voice growled. The voice sounded familiar, but in the din of the crowd, she couldn't quite place it.

Her ears perked up. Fights about women were always interesting to her. The male ego was always a fascinating little spectacle.

“Then don’t get involved,” another man said.

“She doesn’t mean anything,” the first man roared.

“What the fuck is going on around here?” Titus yelled from behind her. “We’re on goddamn lockdown for a reason. Why the fuck has discipline fallen apart lately?”

Rachel struggled to keep a hold of the coffee mug in her hand.

The men slowly turned to look their way and parted to reveal the culprits.

Long forgotten, the coffee mug slipped from her hand and splattered on the ground.

Marius, the last person she would have ever have suspected, stood between
Apollo and Varius. Covered in blood and dirt, the three looked like they had been spending most of their time rolling around on the ground than exchanging punches. Still, the presence of more than a few wounds indicated they'd each managed to get in some good blows.

Her eyes clouded with tears. Titus put his hand on her shoulder. It seemed like even he felt a bit sorry for her.

“Rachel?” Marius struggled to get out.

She turned and walked away, as fast as she could without running. She didn’t need to have super-hearing to know he had tried to call after her and that Titus had stopped him. She also didn’t need to have a second guess at who the unimportant person was.