The Enforcer who shot Yoric and Nicron steps out into the corridor with a clear shot to Marcus.
“Marcus! Get down!” I shout. A spark has ignited inside me. My fear of losing Marcus has strengthened some unknown part of me and my protective instincts kick in. My weakness dissipates, as a second wind takes over.
I one nimble move, I rip my holster from my leg, load two magnets from my pocket into the sling and release it. The magnets fly over Marcus’s head, striking the Enforcer in the kneecap. He drops to the floor. Marcus turns to shoot, but he’s out of bullets again. I reload my sling and shoot again, aiming at the arm holding the gun. It drops to the floor with a clank and as he leans forward his helmet topples off his head. Once more I aim my shot between his eyes. His head hits the floor with a thud. He’s still conscious, but stunned.
The labyrinth is eerily quiet. The shooting has ceased. Glenn steps out into the corridor cautiously checking all directions and counting the bodies on the floor.
“We’re clear,” he says. Drake and Glenn run over to the fallen Enforcer. Drake aims his gun, but Glenn stops him.
He points his thumb to his eye patch and says sadistically, “An eye for an eye.” Glenn slides the two knives from the torture chamber out of his belt. I can’t watch the gruesome scene, knowing exactly what he plans to do. I try to block out the high-pitched screams reverberating through the endless maze. The sight of Yoric helps to erase my sympathy for that monster.
Marcus and I hover over Yoric. Blood gushes from the gaping, gurgling wound in his neck. He’s conscious, but just barely. His body quivers in an effort to hang on to those last few seconds of his life. I sob quietly as I realize he won’t make it. He can’t speak, but just before he closes his eyes for the final time, he looks deeply into mine and I know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking about Timber. He wants me to tell her that he loves her. His eyes close and peace blankets his lifeless body.
I fall into Marcus’s waiting arms. He winces as I press against his broken chest, but does not push me away. In fact, he pulls me in tighter. My salty tears drip down his skin, leaking into his wounds, but he is not bothered by the pain. He presses his velvet lips to my ear.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispers, squeezing me into his embrace. I feel moisture running down my neck and I realize he is sobbing too. “I love you, Pollen. I’m so sorry.” Suddenly I know. He does still love me. I don’t know if it is Yoric’s death, his experience in the torture chamber, or seeing me here like this, but something in this moment has touched him, changed him. I haven’t lost him after all.
Chapter 30
I wish the world around us would just disappear and Marcus and I could remain like this forever, embraced in each other’s arms, our hearts beating rhythmically in time. My heart feels like it has outgrown its cavity, stretching the ribs out and swelling through the cracks. Tears of sadness for Yoric intermingle with tears of joy. This is where I belong.
“Don’t worry about me, guys. I’ll be fine,” Nicron says as he leans his back against the opposite wall, staring at us with just a hint of a smile on his full lips. I turn back to Marcus, nuzzling him so deeply I hope my flesh would just sink into his and we would become one being.
“You okay, man?” I hear Marcus’s muffled voice through the depth of the skin and muscle in his chest.
“It’s just my leg. I’ll manage.” Nicron huffs as he struggles to his feet.
“We need to go. Now,” Glenn announces. I don’t want to let go of Marcus, and his grasp on me remains firm.
“I’ll get her,” Marcus says. I don’t know if he was speaking to Glenn or Drake, because I won’t even look up. My head is still buried in Marcus’s chest when he lifts me off the floor and jogs after the others. Every now and then, it goes dark, and then the light appears again. I’m too incoherent to understand if it’s the lighting, or if I’m drifting in and out of consciousness again. I don’t care what happens now. I don’t even care if I die. At least I’ll die happy in Marcus’s arms.
We come to a halt, and I look up to see what is going on. The ominous steel door to the Web stands before us. Glenn holds some small glistening object in his left hand. In his right hand is a severed hand, caked with gooey blood. A small chunk of ivory bone protrudes where the wrist should be. He holds it up to the scanner. It flashes green then he holds up the object in his other hand to the retinal scanner. It is the eye of the Enforcer. The Enforcer he chose not to kill. His bloodcurdling screams still resonate in my head. I’ll be having nightmares for years to come about this day.
Glenn drops the severed body parts and wrenches the door open, allowing us to enter the formidable darkness. I allow my eyelids to fall shut again. I’m so sleepy. My arms dangle loosely around Marcus’s neck, but they will fall soon, too. I don’t know how much longer I can hang on. I’m so tired. Before I lose total consciousness I feel a strange sensation in my belly—not the deep penetrating pain that has been plaguing me for the last hour. No, something just under my skin, the most exquisite sensation I could possibly feel right now. I think the baby just kicked.
* * *
I awaken quietly to the gentle beeping of a heart monitor in a tiny room warmly lit with a large table lamp. It takes me a moment to realize I’m in the medical clinic at Ceborec. I’m so used to the intense overhead lights and brightly colored walls of the examination rooms that my location confuses me. This must be a room reserved for the comatose. It certainly is a welcome atmosphere to wake up to.
I flinch as I attempt to sit up. Pain shoots through the left side of my abdomen and back toward my spine. I lift up the light blue blanket covering my disrobed body and gather the cotton hospital gown in my hand until it pulls up over my belly. The heart monitor attached to my left index finger gets tangled in the gown and I have to use my right hand alone to hold the gown in place. My wound is neatly bandaged and another heart monitor is strapped snuggly to the apex of my belly. I fall back on to the pillow and exhale a sigh of relief, despite the pain. The baby is fine. He made it.
The door opens silently and a nurse, Orla, comes in to check my vitals. She moves around the room silently, checking monitors and taking notes on her clipboard.
“Where’s Timber?” I ask. My voice sounds raspy, not quite catching in my throat. There’s a long pause and I wonder if she even heard me speak.
“Timber’s not working today,” the nurse finally replies without looking up.
I assume she’s already heard about Yoric. Ugh. I really wanted to be the one to tell her. After all, it was kind of my fault he got shot. If I hadn’t shouted at Marcus and distracted him, maybe he’d still be here. Timber must be absolutely devastated. She’s had my back so many times and now I can’t even be there to comfort her. At least she’s got a lot of friends here. I’m sure someone has lent her their shoulder to cry on.
The nurse departs almost as quickly as she came in. A few seconds later, there’s a knock at the door.
“Come in,” I say. I’m sure it’s Glenn, coming to check on me. But I’m surprised to see Marcus step in. I guess over the past few months I’d always associated a knock at the door with Glenn, since he came by so often. I flush as the heart monitor displays my increasingly rapid heart rate.
“How are you feeling?” he asks softly, almost in a whisper. His face looks blank. I can’t interpret what he’s thinking, and that makes my heart race even faster. His eyes seem to be wearing a mask to hide whatever emotion lies beyond them.
“I’m good,” I whisper.
Marcus rolls the doctor’s stool over to the bed to sit next to me. My heartbeat feels incredibly thick and pushes hard against my sternum, almost painfully. I can feel it rising into my throat with each pulse.
Marcus exhales deeply as he combs his hands through my hair. I’ve missed his touch. I want to close my eyes and wallow in this feeling. But I’ve gone so long without him, I don’t want to tear him from my sight. His eyes look tired, and sad.
“Pollen, how did you end
up at Crimson?”
I explain everything I remember about my abduction while Marcus listens intently. “I saw them. The Trinity. They took some amniotic fluid to test the baby’s DNA.” Marcus’s eyes light up in shock.
“Wait, they were there?”
“Well, no, not really. It was like a videoconference. I think they’re still down in the bunkers. Marcus they have it out for me. I don’t know if it’s because I escaped or because of the baby or Evie, but there’s a huge bounty on my head now. They’re determined to find and detain me.”
“How did you get out?”
“Remember Respa?” Marcus nods. “She’s an Enforcer now. She found me and set me free. I was on my way to find Drake when I saw you guys being captured.” Marcus looks down painfully.
“You should have just left.”
“No,” I say squeezing his hand in mine. “I wasn’t going to leave without you. I’d rather have died.”
“Pollen . . . I’ve been a jerk,” he sighs. “I should never have abandoned you like that, after the wedding. I’m really, really sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong Marcus. I did. I deserved it.”
“What you did was abhorrent,” he snaps and I wince at his harsh words. But his face melts almost instantly and my tension eases. “But I could have reacted differently. I should have given you the opportunity to explain. Perhaps I would have if it didn’t come out the way it did, and if you hadn’t lied to me. We should have talked it out. But, in that moment, I was just so angry, so swept up in what happened with her, with Siera, I couldn’t see any other resolution than to just cut you out of my life. But now I realize I can’t do that.
“I went out of my way to stay away from you. To avoid you at all costs. But every time I saw your face, it was like my ribs were collapsing and the pain was unbearable. Not for what you did to me, but for how I felt for you. I couldn’t escape it. When I saw you there, bleeding, losing your life with every second that passed, I realized I couldn’t live without you. I don’t want to live without you. I want us to have a second chance.”
“You’re not angry with me anymore?” I ask, not really believing what I’m hearing.
“I forgive you, Pollen. But I won’t ever be able to forget what you did. Not with this little one coming.” Marcus rests his palm on my belly.
“Glenn will be in our lives. Every day.”
“I know.” Marcus takes another deep breath. “Glenn and I discussed what happened. He explained everything to me; that you were shaken up, drunk, and didn’t even know what was going on. He said that you thought he was me. You were calling him Marcus.”
I was? I don’t remember that, but then, I’ve tried so hard to block out all memories from that day. I’m sure Glenn was just trying to make amends. He knows that I’ll never feel the intense love for him that I share with Marcus.
“Glenn is a good guy. I can see that now. I want him to be involved with the child—if it is his.”
“If?”
“There’s still a chance—a one in a million chance—but there’s still a chance he could be mine.”
I can’t hide the smile that creeps into my lips. Marcus bends over and kisses me chastely, barely brushing his velvety lips over mine.
A moment of silence drifts between us. As much as I want to revel in this moment of reconciliation, I’m curious about the events that I missed as we left Crimson.
“Marcus, what happened? After we got out?”
Marcus leans over, crossing his arms on the edge of my hospital bed.
“We traveled the Web for a while. Drake and Glenn got into a scuffle. I’m sure you can imagine what that was about. Drake broke Glenn’s nose before I was able to break them up.” Marcus pauses for a few seconds. He’s deciding whether or not to tell me something.
“What else?” I ask, catching his eyes in mine.
“I kind of got into a fight with Glenn too. But it’s not what you think.”
“What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
Marcus stands up and paces the tiny room, taking only three strides each way before turning.
“No, it’s not important.”
“Marcus, I can tell it’s eating at you. Please just tell me.”
He stops and turns away from me. “I wanted to go back—above ground. I wanted the memories gone. I thought it would be easier for me to rekindle things with you if I didn’t know what happened. That’s when Glenn stopped me and told me everything. He said that I would just make it harder on us if I did it. That the memories would come back anyway and we’d have to start all over.”
“I’m glad he stopped you.”
“I don’t know, Pollen. It’s going to be hard. For both of us. Especially with Glenn still in our lives. I don’t know if I can trust you like before.”
“I’ll just have to earn it,” I say optimistically. “And I will. I promise. Marcus, I never stopped loving you. And I never will.”
“That makes two of us,” Marcus smiles. He leans over me, cradling my cheeks in his hands and lowers his lips to mine. The heart monitor picks up the pace as he deepens the kiss with intense fury. He only pulls away when he pushes against my wound, causing me to recoil.
“Sorry,” he says.
“Don’t be.” I smile. The pain is sweet coming from him.
“Where’s Drake?” I ask after a minute.
“He’s getting settled in. Granby’s taken a keen interest in your brother. I think he’s going to be an officer.”
“He’ll be the best,” I utter, recalling his expertise at Crimson.
“Speaking of Granby,” Marcus says, “I think he’ll be coming to pay you a visit soon.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Marcus says with a sly smile. “I have to go. I’ll see you soon.” He begins toward the door.
“Please stay. Don’t leave me, Marcus.”
Marcus returns to sit by me again. He brushes my hair back and kisses me on the forehead. “I’ll be right back. Get some rest.”
* * *
Rest? Ha! Like I haven’t gotten enough rest as it is. I lie on the bed bored out of my mind for what feels like hours, although it’s probably only been about thirty minutes. I’m ready to get out of here and go home. The thought of restarting my life with Marcus and Evie again sends pleasant shockwaves up my spine. No, I can’t wait any longer. I yank the heart monitor off my belly. That’s sure to get someone’s attention.
As suspected, the nurse bursts through the door in a panic. I’m already sitting up on the edge the bed with my legs dangling over the side. The nurse gapes at me, looks over at the device on the table, then sternly looks back, shooting toxic arrows into me.
“Miss McRae, you need to keep that on so we can monitor the baby’s heart rate. If you need something the call button is right—”
“My baby’s fine. I’m ready to go home now. Where are my clothes?”
“You’ll have to wait for Dr. Yipolis to give you his approval to leave.”
We both remain in our positions for at least a minute, having a thick-as-sludge stare-off. Finally, the nurse backs up to the door, disgruntled.
“I’ll call him and have him see you right away,” she says solemnly. “Will you please wear the monitor until he gets here?”
“Okay,” I shrug, lying back down. The nurse replaces the monitor, adjusting it by millimeters until it hits the right spot.
And the waiting continues. The imaginary ticking clock in my head counts down the seconds with painstaking clarity. About ten minutes later I’m relieved to hear a gentle knock at the door.
“Come in,” I call. Once again, my visitor is not who I expected.
“Hello, Miss McRae. I hope I’m not disturbing you,” says General Granby. He closes the door and stands in front of it, reluctant to come much closer to me. Why is everyone treating me like some fragile porcelain doll?
“General Granby,” I addr
ess.
“I’m happy to see that you and the baby survived and made it back in one piece. But I’m still a little confused about how you ended up at Crimson. Could you fill me in?”
“Of course,” I say, “if you sit down. I motion him to the stool that Marcus had pulled to the bed. Granby rolls the stool back a few feet then sits, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.
I explain everything that happened, from the day I went above ground to train and was kidnapped, all the way until the moment I passed out in Marcus’s arms. Granby sat like a statue for most of the time, only moving once to rub his brow after I described how I was shot.
“Miss McRae, you astound me. Your courage and tenacity is beyond what I would expect from a woman your age who has never received any military training.”
“I was just trying to survive,” I murmur humbly.
“But you did more than just survive. You rescued three of our men.”
“But only two survived.”
Granby lowers his head. “Yes, it’s a shame what happened to Yoric. But you did rescue him, nonetheless. And you rescued your own brother from part of the prison I thought impenetrable without a full-scale attack. And not only did you steal the plans for the shuttle, we now have more information on Crimson and the Trinity than we could have ever hoped for. Pollen, you went above and beyond the call of duty for any soldier in our militia. If you’d still like to join, after you’ve had your baby of course, I’d like to award you an honorary advisory role in the militia.”
Advisory role? Me? A twenty-one year old girl from Endmore? This is insane. Are they that hard up for good leadership?
“I don’t think I’d qualify for such a prestigious position,” I grimace.
“Miss McRae, the vast majority of our soldiers are just like you, with no background in military service. In fact most of them have never even handled a firearm before coming here. Since the virus took out so many people, and most of those with any substantial military experience sided with Crimson, we have had to rebuild our military from the ground up.
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