Where We Stand

by Angela White

  “We need to hear something soon,” Kevin stated, joining him.

  “Tonight,” Adrian informed him. “I’ll make the calls. You get her to take a sleeping drink and rest. She’s starting to make herself sick.”

  Kevin clamped his lips shut and returned to his post. He didn’t approve of Adrian’s methods, but he also couldn’t tell him why. The blond hadn’t picked up on Angela’s secret yet and Kevin wasn’t going to be the one to clue him in. When Adrian found out, it would change everything.

  4

  Jennifer lingered near the still packed Chevy short-bed. Kyle was making sure it was restocked each time they broke camp. He never mentioned it anymore–that or her leaving–but she knew he was waiting for her choice.

  “Are you okay?”

  Jennifer didn’t answer that dangerous question either, only hugged her sleeping infant closer. In the distance, the mountains beckoned. Behind her, the enemy was coming.

  “They’re on the way…”

  Kyle had heard that tone enough to know what it meant and he sent a quick signal to the guard on duty as he stepped closer. Get the Boss–now.

  “They’re coming here?”

  “Oh, yes,” Jennifer confirmed. “The power we shelter has been reported. They want all of us now.”

  Jennifer peered down at her daughter, at the perfect innocence she would kill for, die for, if her visions weren’t changed. “She’s what they want most. The bunker isn’t producing children. I dream about it.”

  Angela coming up to them was only a small bit of relief.

  “How long, Jenny?”

  “Now.”

  The radio lit up before her words faded.

  “Base! Incoming, base! We have planes!”

  Safe Haven began scanning the sky as Angela hit the mic.

  “Get out of there!” she ordered.

  “We are! Looks like they’re all landing. We’ve lost the base!”

  The radio squealed as Quinn’s panicked voice came from across the camp. “I repeat, we’ve lost Little Rock base.”

  “How many?”

  Silence for a minute where refugees everywhere waited with baited breath.

  “A dozen so far, but we can hear engines coming,” Jax finally answered them, clearly running with a group of people.

  Angela’s voice was as firm as she could make it. “Lookout Mountain. Come home.”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Angela dropped the mic and went to calm the herd, but in her heart, there wasn’t much light left to give them. The teams hadn’t finished digging through the rubble. Marc could still be in there.

  “He’s been out since it collapsed,” the Witch refuted. “We would know if he was dead.”

  “Then why won’t he answer?”

  “He’s doing the right thing.”

  Angela staggered as the truth sank in.

  “He left me. Again.”

  5

  Angela was alone in her tent, much to the displeasure of the nervous Eagles and Adrian. She’d done a good job of calming the camp and hadn’t stopped any of the few that had chosen to split. She’d gone to dinner and left an untouched tray, though, and her appetite had been good until now, even with Marc missing. She’d said the right things and taken the correct actions, but few of her men thought she was all right.

  Samantha was on duty outside Angela’s tent, along with Becky, and the two females stood their post with blank expressions and thumping hearts. At some point, Adrian or one of the Eagles would want a report that they couldn’t give.

  Neil and Seth appeared near the shooting range, finishing their class with the Level Five shooters. When they came towards Angela’s tent, both females started hoping for something, anything, to distract the men.

  “She said four hours,” Becky whispered. “It’s been one and a half.

  Samantha was still hoping someone would pull Neil’s attention from them. “She would have counted on them checking.”

  “Yeah, she counted on us buying her time and we’re not gonna…”

  Becky shut up as Neil and Seth got in hearing distance.

  Samantha knew she would have to do the talking. She spoke up before either of them could. “No change. Any new calls?”

  “Not a word. You okay?” Neil asked as Seth walked toward the flap.

  Samantha slid in front of Seth, tone hard. “She wants to be left alone. Give her some time.”

  Seth didn’t like the feeling he was getting, but knew better than to challenge the two females. He stepped back to let Neil handle it.

  Neil already knew. It was in Samantha’s averted gaze when he tried to make eye contact. But he also knew better than to provoke without proof.

  When he left them standing there without saying anything, Seth quickly caught up, hoping they were going to find Adrian.

  “Her time’s up,” Becky guessed.

  “Yes,” Sam confirmed heavily. “Let’s go have a cup of coffee and tell them what she said.”

  Behind them, Neil and Seth cut slits in the rear of the tent and slipped inside to find it empty.

  Neil didn’t see Samantha’s shadow anymore and understood the girls had known they were busted.

  “What’s going on here, Neil?”

  The trooper let out a frustrated breath. “Isn’t is obvious? She’s gone to find Brady.”

  6

  “She did what?!”

  Adrian’s furious roar sent silence through the entire Mess.

  Samantha withered under his anger, but Becky didn’t care. She wasn’t bound to him the way the others were.

  “She said Kyle has command, with you as his XO. If the camp doesn’t like it, to hold a vote right now. She said she wasn’t coming back without finding Marc, and that if he was dead, she would try to take out as many of them as she could along her own path to hell.”

  Samantha put her head down as the stares became hostile.

  Becky finished the message. “She said she could have blown her way through the gates, that we couldn’t have stopped her. You have no idea how powerful she’s become.”

  “Where’s Charlie?”

  Tracy’s voice in the crowd sent a new rumble of discount through the masses.

  “Here!”

  Charlie went to Tracy and slid an arm around her waist. “I saw her off. She wants me to help protect everyone. She said I’ll save more lives here, that if she and Dog can’t find him, no one can.”

  The crowd grumbled and muttered, but it was accepted. By leaving her son here, she’d proclaimed her loyalty to them and also her need to be with Marc.

  Adrian found himself the center of attention as questions flew, and he was forced to offer solutions and start resuming his former duties. He loathed every minute of it. Angela was out there alone. He would never sleep again.

  Charlie led Tracy away from the others, keeping his voice down even when they were out of range. “She gave me her approval. You’ll stay close, night and day, so you can’t be a target to get to me.”

  Tracy’s stress levels went up at that image. “Why would they come for you if Kyle’s in charge?”

  “To get my mom to surrender. If she can’t find my dad, she’ll go to the bunker to take out the whole thing. She said the time for holding back was over.”

  And with that, Charlie kissed Tracy in front of the camp.

  Because he had made the move, and Tracy didn’t move at all, the Eagles left them alone. Even Daryl’s group only frowned and then went about their duties. The boy’d made his choice. They had bigger battles to fight.

  7

  Angela and Dog walked through the camps around Safe Haven in tense silence. When the base fell the first time, these men had returned to honor their promises to Brady, and as she moved through them, she read their grief and their love.

  There was no doubt as to who she was. If Marc and the others hadn’t filled them in, they would have known her by those red orbs and the wolf at her side. This was the mate of their ghost and she was t
aking his place roaming their shadows.

  Grendin joined Angela without speaking, dark eyes full of her misery. He could feel it coming from her in waves and regretted his choice to leave Brady behind.

  “He insisted?”

  Grendin found his voice. “Yes. He said my people were not to die for him…”

  “Only for me.”

  “Yes.”

  Angela didn’t speak again, but Grendin could feel her scanning their thoughts, their memories. She wanted to know everything that had happened and Grendin had little doubt she would dig until she got them. Marc had been strong, but this woman radiated dark power like a ten foot cloak. He could almost hear the hum.

  Dog stopped suddenly, looking toward the small creek that ran alongside a few of the camps, and Angela change direction.

  Dog went to his old place at her heel and Grendin understood they were searching for more than thoughts or memories.

  “You think he lives!”

  Angela’s eyes blazed and Grendin recoiled as if stung. Her shout in his mind was ringing like a bell.

  “I’m sorry…”

  Angela ignored him and followed Dog’s nose.

  They walked steadily for the next three hours, only stopping when the wolf needed to pick up the scent. Brady wasn’t answering her, but he couldn’t avoid the wolf. He’d healed Dog and that connected them. It also meant that Marc would know when she was close and have the chance to disappear.

  “He waits with great fear,” Dog stated, tracking Marc easily now by the sense of doom. It matched that of the woman at his side. “And he is not alone.”

  Angela hadn’t expected him to be. Grendin was trailing her, along with a dozen others from the outside camps, and she was prepared to break through any defenses if she had to. Marc was alive, but he hadn’t come. She had to find out why. There was no moving on without knowing that.

  8

  The camp surrounding Marc came clear through the early morning fog and Angela paused at their border. She didn’t speak with any of the men on duty, but she stole every memory they had as she swept them.

  Angela waved Dog into the tent, letting Marc have that moment to prepare for facing her. She could feel his terror from here. It was so unlike the man she knew that Angela had to give him time to get ready instead of bursting in like she wanted to.

  Dog disappeared into the center tent and Angela heard Marc’s deep rumble.

  “Welcome home.”

  Angela longed to hear those words and she stepped forward, forgetting what Dog had told her.

  Kendle came from the tent ready to fight… and listened to her heart shatter. One glimpse of the real thing was all it took to convince her she didn’t stand a chance.

  Angela picked out their similarities and also their differences. The feel of Kendle’s disease was like a flame and she wondered if that heat was what had drawn Brady.

  She scanned the scarred women intently, face tightening at the images. The need to kill was strong, but the pain was still in front, pushing the fire aside.

  Kendle didn’t move.

  The wolf behind her had growled and she’d left, but this woman wasn’t doing anything but staring. Kendle realized the wolf had been less dangerous.

  She studied Angela’s clothes and looks, but it was the sense of raw power that said the most. She was stronger than Marc, stronger than any of the descendant fighters who’d come to help them. This woman was an Alpha.

  Angela pulled every moment, every word, every touch. When she got to the kiss, pain lanced into Kendle’s heart. It wasn’t her own.

  Angela broke the scan and pulled out of Kendle’s mind. She had sympathy against her will. The island woman had indeed come during salvation and blood, as Charlie had predicted. If she would save them all, remained to be seen. From Angela’s view, it appeared as though she’d destroyed them. It would depend on how Brady felt. Like him, she could walk away if that would make him happy.

  Angela made a carefully controlled gesture, and Kendle was tossed aside like she weighed nothing.

  She fell heavily against a nearby tent and scrambled to her feet.

  She immediately went the other way and the watching Indians laughed and nudged each other. They knew what it was like to have two women in a tent together and it was amusing to find their Ghost having the same trouble. Betting began on who Kendle would be given to. Like her, they knew it was no contest.

  Angela took a deep breath and ducked into Marc’s tent.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  8/26

  1

  “Angie.”

  “Marc.”

  Sparks exploded as soon as their eyes locked. The same shade of red, they were both struck by the changes.

  Angela was stunned to find out how strong Marc had become. Those glowing orbs said he was like her and the other descendants. The door to his cell had snapped and he now embraced who he was.

  Marc saw how much she’d aged since he left. Her power had grown and she’d gained a little weight, but the gray hair in that braid was striking. She hadn’t been feeding from Adrian or it would have returned to that shiny ebony.

  Tension built between them until Dog rose from his place at Marc’s feet and left the tent. They listened to him curl up outside the flap.

  Marc slowly stood up and Angela almost broke. His use of the crutch was minor compared to the scars running down his arms and neck. They were from a knife fight, but the badly-set ankle wasn’t healing right. The Witch was pointing out each injury and cause as she found them, and Angela gently pushed her into the far corner.

  The Witch fell silent.

  Marc was also refusing to listen to his own inner voice. He didn’t need to have her glow pointed out, or the guilt on her face. Even if Adrian hadn’t tortured him with mental messages, he still would have known she’d been slowly falling apart.

  Angela stepped closer, raising her hand. It wasn’t orbs that shot out this time, but a pale bolt of green light.

  Marc stiffened at the feel of her–he’d missed that!–and then realized his ankle wasn’t throbbing anymore.

  Angela didn’t heal his other wounds. He needed those badges of honor, the same as she did hers.

  “Thank you.”

  Angela’s eyes filled with tears that she blinked away angrily. The sound of his voice was enough to break her. How would she ever hold out if he wanted the island whore, too?

  Marc wanted to go to her, but he wasn’t sure if that’s what she now needed from him. Adrian had sworn that a month was all it would take and he’d gotten quite a bit more in total.

  “How are you?”

  Marc’s voice was a live wire of nerves that made Angela wince.

  Marc took it as another sign that she hadn’t been cared for.

  “I’m alive,” she stated wearily. “As you are.”

  Now came the time for it, but Angela found she couldn’t ask yet. She stalled with the next biggest thing on her mind.

  “She loves you.”

  Marc glowed with misery and triumph. “Yes.”

  “You allowed it… encouraged it.”

  Marc felt her digging in his mind then and didn’t defend. She had a right to know.

  “In case I’d chosen Adrian, or even fled with him and the boys.” Angela’s heart broke as she got the rest. “So you wouldn’t be left alone, without us.”

  Marc came closer, red fading to sad blue.

  “Have you picked him?”

  “No, Brady. Never.”

  “Something happened. I sense it, feel it on you.”

  Angela shoved her hands into her pockets so that she could clench fists against the desire of recalling it all, then opened her mind.

  Marc viewed it without any change in expression. He’d known Adrian would do something like that, but he’d expected it to go much further. She’d been faithful to him.

  “Always,” she whispered. “Can you say the same?”

  Marc didn’t hear any accusation, only heart-stopp
ing fear, and he finally relented.

  “Yes, Baby-cakes. I can.”

  Tears welled for her. “I’ve missed you, Brady…”

  Marc didn’t hesitate any longer. “Come here.”

  Angela curled into his embrace and began sobbing inside. The relief of still being wanted was powerful, but it was the easing of his mind that tore her up. He’d been so sure she would give in to Adrian that he’d surrounded himself with platitudes and safety nets. The coldness wasn’t from him choosing another woman. He was trying to breathe, to go on, without her.

  Marc held her close, nuzzling her neck to get in as much of her scent as he could.

  She shivered against him. “Please?”

  Marc took them to the cot and sank down with her in his arms.

  Across his chest, Angela repositioned herself at his side, drawing a concerned glance thrown in a quick study.

  Angela raised up on one arm and took his hand, placed it on her stomach.

  Marc connected the sound and the feel, and then what it meant. That dark part of his soul began to lighten quicker.

  Angela felt the wall between them melting, becoming a river of regret at her feet, and wrapped him in her arms. She didn’t budge again.

  Marc stayed awake a bit longer, remembering the few times it had felt like this while on the way to Safe Haven. It held the sense of a new beginning, but he wasn’t sure why. The new life they would welcome had to be a part of it, but there was the feeling that maybe he’d missed something else good that would come from all of this.

  “Will she stay with me?” he question in a soft whisper.

  The Witch roused herself from his demon’s arms long enough to give an answer.

  “No. She came to tell you of the baby, and to set you free. If you love her, never leave again.”

  Marc’s grip tightened. Baby or not, that wouldn’t happen. She’d been faithful to him, she still wanted him, and that was all he needed from her.

  2

  Angela woke in the one place that she had longed for since the split and she stayed still, breathing in Marc’s thick scents, listening to his light snore. The urge to bury her head against his chest and stay here forever was strong, but it wasn’t enough to hold her. She’d already chosen the herd over him and that hadn’t changed. If he wanted to be free, he was.