The Last Marine (27 page)

The door rattled and opened, but she didn’t stop. They’d have to kill her before she quit. She pressed her lips to Griffin’s, exhaling, wishing for all the world she were kissing him instead of trying to breathe life back into him. She pulled away and drew in a deep breath and fed him more air.

When she moved to do the compressions, someone pushed her out of the way. Instinctively, she attacked. Strong arms restrained her from behind. “It’s us. Relax, it’s us.”

Prudence froze at the sound of Lucan’s voice.

Merrick took over the chest compressions, then pausing, he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Breathe for him again.”

Lucan released her and she pressed her mouth to Griffin’s.

He coughed. Water sprayed out of his mouth.

Merrick already had the restraints undone and Lucan helped her sit Griffin up. She held him against her, while he struggled to catch his breath. “You’re all right, baby. I’ve got you.” She wasn’t sure anyone could understand what she said, she was crying too hard, but she kept up the words of encouragement.

Once he settled into a more normal breathing pattern, she cupped his face. “I love you so much, baby. I’m so sorry.”

His eyes were so swollen, she wasn’t sure if he could see her, wasn’t sure he was even conscious until his lifted his hand to touch her face. He tried to say something and she lowered her ear closer to his mouth. “So . . . much . . . trouble . . . when we . . . get . . . home.”

She laughed, which seemed to make her tears fall harder. “I know, baby. You can punish me all you want.”

“We gotta get out of here.” Merrick pulled one of Griffin’s arms around him and Lucan took his other side. Griffin groaned as they pulled him to his feet.

Lucan handed Prudence his gun. “Shoot anything that tries to stop us.”

“Do you know how to get out of here?”

“Yeah, same way we got in. There’s a delivery entrance at the end of this hall.” Merrick leaned out the door to check for Blue Helmets. “Grady and some of the guys from town are waiting outside with a hover car we, uh, borrowed.”

She kept her focus trained on the doorways ahead. “Borrowed? Are you sure there’s no GPS tracking on that thing?”

Merrick scoffed. “There was.”

The hallway was deserted. “Where do you think everyone is? There were quite a few Blue Helmets out here earlier.”

Lucan cleared his throat. “Maybe putting out a fire in the courtyard.”

She shot Lucan a droll stare. “That's pretty specific for a maybe statement.”

“Last door on your right.” Merrick nodded ahead. “It’s a storage room, should still be empty.”

Prudence opened the door, keeping her gun at the ready and searching the darkened corners. As Merrick said, the room contained nothing but shelving filled with dry food stuffs and sundries. They made their way to the back of the room, through the door, and out into the night.

A hover car idling in the distance zoomed up as soon as they were outside. Grady hopped out and helped Lucan and Merrick load Griffin into the back.

Merrick jumped into the driver’s seat. “The whole place was empty. How big a fire did you boys start?”

“I may have added a bit too much gunpowder,” Grady admitted. “I cut up fifteen of my kid’s firecrackers and aimed my homemade bomb for the trees in the courtyard.”

Prudence leaned over Griffin, putting her lips to his ear. “I love you. I’m going to take care of everything, baby. We won’t have to worry about Randolph or Bronsen anymore. You’ve done so much for everyone. It’s my turn to do my part, now.”

He tried to say something, but knowing he’d try to stall her, Prudence backed away. By the time Lucan turned to check on her, she was back at the compound door.

He jumped out of the hover car. “What are you doing?”

“Ending this and making sure no one comes after you. Take care of him.” She slipped through the door and locked it behind her.

Prudence returned to the torture room, locking herself in. She curled up in the corner, hiding her gun in the waistband of her pants and waited for Randolph and Bronsen to return.

Chapter 34

Lucan started to go after Prudence, but Griffin’s whole body tensed up and began to shake. “Oh, Christ. Merrick! He’s seizing.”

“Hold on to him, babe. We’ll be in town in ten minutes.”

Lucan threw his body over Griffin’s and Merrick hit the accelerator. “Hold on, big guy. Jesus, don’t die on me.” He kept up a steady stream of commands for his brother. Panic started to eat away at him and his face twisted. Jesus, he was going to lose Griffin.

Grady leaned over the backseat and handed Lucan a med-wand.

“Where? What body part makes a seizure?”

Grady shrugged. “Don’t know. The brain, maybe?”

Griffin had so many injuries, he wasn’t sure the wand would find the right one no matter where he put it. “Front or back?”

“Try the front.” Merrick sped up.

Lucan placed the wand to Griffin’s forehead and pressed the scan button. Blue light ran over Griffin’s wounds. Lucan put his head down next to the wand, listening for the beeps. As soon as the scan finished, he calibrated the wand per the instructions on the display and put it back to Griffin’s head.

The seizure still quaked through Griffin. “I don’t know if it took, maybe he’s shaking too much. Wait.” The violent tremors rolling through Griffin eased, then stopped. He went still. “Shit. Shit. Stop the car.” Oh, God, he lost him. He couldn’t feel a pulse.

They came to a halt and Lucan pressed his head to Griffin’s chest. There. His heartbeat was faint, but it was still there. Relief made him lightheaded. “We’re good.”

Merrick took off again.

Worn out form the emotional ups and downs of the day, Lucan settled in next to Griffin and laid his hand on his chest. That made three times now he thought he’d lost him. No more. Griffin would be grounded for a while until he healed, immobile and at their mercy. And whether he liked it or not, whether he thought he needed it or not, the son of a bitch would be having visits from Doc Lambert for PTSD treatment every day. He leaned over the backseat. “Do you think Doc Lambert would stay with him while we go back for Prudence?”

Merrick nodded. “Yeah. Grady, as soon as we get back why don’t you round up the others while Lucan and I drop him off at Lambert’s place.” Merrick met Lucan’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Everything’s going to be fine. We got him back like I promised. We’ll get Angel, too.”

Lucan nodded. He knew they would, but he needed Merrick’s reassurance. He settled back into the bed of the hover car and checked on Griffin. “Holy shit.”

He jumped back, staring down at his brother. A purple light glowed from somewhere under the sheet they’d covered him with. Lucan pulled back the sheet. A tattoo on Griffin’s stomach radiated light. And while he could see the radiance from the outside, the light itself seemed to shine on his inside, illuminating the network of veins under his skin until his whole body appeared to be entwined in an iridescent, lavender web.

Grady hung over the back seat, jaw agape.

“What’s that light?” Merrick asked. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know. He’s lit up like a goddamned glow-worm.” Did they poison him? Was it some kind of radiation?

Grady pointed. “Look at his face.”

The swelling receded, the lumps and bruises shrinking as he watched. The gash on Griffin’s lip sealed up, scabbing and then healing within seconds.

A sense of wonder overwhelmed Lucan, making him grin. “He’s healing. He’s gonna be fine.” He got to his knees and met Merrick’s eyes in the rearview. “He’s gonna be all right.”

Merrick didn’t smile in return, but swore.

“What?”

“I have a bad feeling. All the sudden this whole scenario reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.” Merrick pulled the hover-car to a stop outside town. “Grady, run and get the boys. Hurry, now, we need to get back to the spaceport before Angelica does something stupid.”

*****

Protect. Provide. Cherish.

Griffin stood in the scene Lucan painted on the mural. Everything around him burned.

Even him.

As he walked through homes disintegrating around him, flames licked his skin, seeming to scorch him from the inside out. He wasn’t worried for himself, though. There was something he had to do. Something important. And while he couldn’t quite remember what it was, he forced himself to keep going, to keep moving.

The ground moved, the build-up of ash shifting into the shapes of men, women, and children. Their blackened, fisted hands reached out to him. His heart pounded faster, his gut twisted tighter. He could’ve done more, should’ve done more to help them. His quest urged him on.

He tried to slip his booted feet on the ground between the bodies, but they were pressed together, covering the ground and forcing him to walk over them to get where he needed to be.

Hesitation made him stumble and fall.

Those blackened fists reached for him. Brittle arms tangled with his and he struggled to get free. When he got to his feet, he ran, which fanned the flames engulfing him and made him burn all the faster.

At last, he broke free from the bodies, his boots connecting with solid ground, but he paused. In front of him, the citizens of Diamond Fjord stood united, blocking his path. Lucan, Merrick, and even Prudence were with them.

As one, they lifted their arms and pointed. They wanted him to go back.

Of course they did. They’d seen him stumbling over the corpses. They wanted him to be punished.

Shamed, he turned back to face his past.

The ashy corpses had gathered behind him, their brittle flesh peeling and sloughing away.

Griffin glanced back over his shoulder. The living closed in, herding him closer to the dead. With nowhere left to run, he stepped into the midst of his sins. The charred faces of the past closed around him, crowding in, their fists held up.

He expected them to drag him down, to beat him, to make him suffer. But they just watched, holding out their fists. Waiting. They must want him to show them he accepted responsibility. They wanted him to participate in accepting their wrath. Griffin opened his arms, holding his palms up outstretched in surrender. One of the dead opened her fist, dropping a tiny green plant into his palm. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was, a thick green stalk with two long, thin leaves growing from either side.

Then he remembered Prudence’s birthmark. He touched the place on his stomach where her mark claimed him as her mate. Tears in his eyes, he looked up into the ruined faces of his past. “Just like that?”

They all lifted their fists, showing the life they harbored. As they crumbled back into the Earth, their offerings grew from the ash into a lush garden around him and the citizens of Diamond Fjord.

He took a step closer to them, closer to Prudence, but she disappeared. All the others remained, Lucan, Merrick, Grady, and many he didn’t know. They stayed and they smiled, but Prudence faded from sight.

She was in trouble.

Protect. Provide. Cherish.

Griffin jolted awake, sucking in a deep breath as he sat straight up.

Like in his dream, Lucan and Merrick stared back at him, grinning. A bunch of men he didn’t know stood behind them. Unlike his dream they were in Diamond Fjord and it was dark.

He looked down at himself. He was naked but for a sheet pooled around his hips. Prudence’s mark glowed purple, the light fading until it once again appeared to be a simple birthmark.

“What is that?” Lucan asked. “The damned thing lit you up and all your wounds faded right before my eyes.”

“It’s Prudence’s mating gift.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “The night she gave me her mark, all I could think about was getting through my mission alive so I’d be here for her.” He drew in a shuddering breath.

It’s a gift. Not everyone needs the gift of persuasion to be happy, but everyone needs something.

He had needed a second chance.

“Where is she?”

Lucan exchanged a glance with Merrick. Their smiles faded.

The beginnings of panic crawled under Griffin’s skin. She couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t, not when he’d been given a second chance. “Tell me she’s not dead.”

Lucan rushed to assure him. “She’s alive. Last we saw her.”

Griffin looked to Merrick, seeking a better answer.

“She went back in while we were loading you into the hover car. Said she wanted to finish it.”

Christ, she was going to get herself killed. Griffin rubbed his hand over his chest as his heart stuttered in his chest. “I need clothes. A weapon. We have to go back. I can’t leave her there.” When they continued to watch him in silence, he cursed. “I’m asking for your help.”

Lucan opened his mouth, but Merrick held up his hand, staying him. “You’ll have all the help you want, providing one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Once we rescue Prudence, you go see Doc Lambert every day for a minimum of a month for PTSD therapy before you make any more decisions that affect your future.”

Griffin stared. What the fuck?

“I’m serious. Prudence is beautiful, inside and out, and all you can think about is how to go out in a blaze of glory. It’s fucked up. You need to quit punishing yourself. We can all see how much you love her. We can all see how much you want to have a normal life. All you need to do is work out the guilt and decide life is worth living. No decisions until you’ve completed one month of therapy.”

Well, shit. “I don’t need therapy. I need to find Prudence. We’re wasting time.”

“He’s right, Griffin.” Lucan cleared his throat. “I’ve never seen you like this. It’s like something’s eating at you from the inside out. It’s gutting me; I can’t imagine what mom and dad would say.”

Griffin spied a pile of clothes near his feet and started dressing. This was ridiculous. He was fine now. He figured everything out on his own, damn it. He’d apologize to Prudence and everything would be okay. “I don’t need to lay on a fucking couch and talk about my dreams.” He stood up and pulled up the cargos, bystanders be damned.

Merrick pushed him back down on his ass. “If there was still a Marine Corps, therapy would’ve been part of your exit screening. I’m not asking you to do anything Marines haven’t been mandated to do for decades. You have to deal with the past, but not by trying to get yourself killed. You need to face it, talk about it, and let that shit go.”

Everything became clear. He remembered lying on the table, knowing he was about to die and not wanting to. He recalled the dream; the dead weren’t telling him to choose Prudence exactly, they wanted him to choose to live. They wanted him to face the past and move on. To do good things with his life, and, yes, that included being with Prudence. It had to.

He was letting the guilt of war, the guilt of being a soldier eat him alive. Guilt for trusting those above him for killing, and maybe most of all for surviving. Part of him had been wanting to die ever since they fragged his base.

But now, people were depending on him. Now, he needed to put the past to rest so he could have a life. “That’s what’s tearing me up. The question of whether or not I deserve such a thing.”

“You do.” Lucan shrugged. “Everybody’s rooting for you. Everyone but you.”

“Christ. I’ve messed things up so many times since I met Prudence—”

“And you’ll fuck up again.” Merrick shrugged. “She will, too. But you love each other, you’ll work things out.”

Griffin nodded. “Therapy, then. All right. Now can we go fight the bad guys?”