Where We Stand Read online

  “We hear from Kenn yet?” Angela asked.

  Kevin made a motion to the perimeter man and got a quick response.

  “He checked in before dawn, but not since.”

  “I want him first when he gets here,” Angela ordered. “Make sure I’m here for it.”

  “I will.”

  Angela spotted Mitch in the coffee line. “That’s different.”

  Kevin filled her in on Mitch, the group fistfight, and gave her an update on Dog–glad Neil had shoved a paper into his hand while he waited at the medical flap for her.

  Angela wanted to spend a few minutes thinking about all three reports, but couldn’t spare the time. The problems with their animal population would also have to wait.

  “John needs help in here. Go visit these people and tell them it’s time they used their skills instead of mooching in fear.”

  Kevin took down the names and left. These women had nursing skills and hadn’t told Adrian? Didn’t they know they would have been priority members? Kevin was still pondering the weakness fear can create as he crossed into the main camp.

  Angela spotted Marc across the distance. That was another change she wanted to explore, but she headed for the little Mess instead, where Li Sing was directing food into the smaller bins. She needed to study the area for a minute. They had to be careful not to let the camp know how injured Adrian was and that required a good illusion.

  “Coffee?”

  Angela smiled gratefully, and Li Sing hurried to push a steaming mug into her hand.

  “Sit, eat.”

  Angela wasn’t going to, but the smell of freshly baked bread caught her nose and pulled her down onto the bench. “Just for a minute.”

  Li Sing went to carve a thick slice and Angela took her notebook out. Around her, the camp and QZ were slowly waking. It was okay to steal a personal minute–something she hadn’t had since before going into Little Rock. Later, it would be impossible.

  “Butter?”

  Angela tore off a small chunk. “Nope.”

  The warm bread was perfect and she found herself sitting quietly instead of viewing the notes and to-do list she’d made. The sound of the camp coming to life was... magical.

  “You look like him. Stop it.”

  Angela didn’t answer Kyle’s half-joke as he came through the netting around the mini-mess.

  He filled a tray with enough food and drinks to outfit a small army, and Angela gave him an approving nod as he slipped out. Kyle was off-duty now. He’d more than earned the break.

  Crack!

  A number of people flinched at the distant thunder. It was something they hadn’t heard in months.

  “Yeah, that timing figures,” Angela muttered, but not bitterly. They’d known that rain was coming. Adrian would have prepared for it.

  As if to mock the assumption, a stiff breeze began rustling the papers in her notebook.

  Angela pulled the pen from the holder. Her minute was up.

  5

  “How is he?”

  Chris jumped at the hostile voice, backing away from the food bowl he’d just set down. He rushed to assure Marc that Dog was okay.

  “Perfect–like there wasn’t even a fight.”

  Marc scowled. “Maybe there wasn’t!”

  Chris retreated another step as Marc came closer. It was easy to guess that the man was upset and the vet grabbed for a calming trigger. “How’s Adrian?”

  Marc growled and the Chris cowered along the tent wall. Wrong button!

  Dog was instantly alarmed at the waves in the tent. This wasn’t the master he’d chosen to serve. This was the soldier–who Dog happened to loathe.

  The wolf wasn’t sure what had occurred after the fight. The last thing he remembered was falling on top of the pile he had already killed, as more of them attacked.

  Marc clenched his fists, throwing out a cold warning. “If anyone suspects what I did, you’re who I’ll talk to about it.”

  Chris stammered out a promise, but it wasn’t enough for Marc.

  “That includes the chain of command–all of it.”

  Chris understood, but unlike the Eagles, he wasn’t bonded with Adrian that way. In fact, in another world, he and Brady might even have been some semblance of friends. Considering who this hard man was sleeping with, it wouldn’t ever happen now.

  “They’ll think it wasn’t bad–that I took care of it. Keep him in here for a bit to cover.”

  Satisfied, Marc delivered a last blast from his current anger supply. “Mitch told me he saw you skulking around the night of the sinkhole. I’m checkin into that when shit settles down around here. Now get out.”

  Chris fled, shaking with fear and anger. Brady thought he could make changes while Adrian was laid up, did he?

  “But he didn’t notice he had help,” Chris sneered scornfully. He hadn’t been able to leave the wolf to suffer. Marc’s magic had done wonders, saved the animal, but the vet had also contributed.

  Chris hurried toward the animal trailer, mind a furious maze of secrets and scars. “I’ll show him. And when I do, she won’t want him anymore.”

  Marc knelt down to stroke the wolf, not reacting to Dog’s reluctance. The animal would always sense the difference, but Marc had no choice in how he handled the vet. Adrian’s traditional methods had barely worked on Chris before. This required sterner measures and he’d had to bring the soldier inside forward to do it. Marc didn’t like being mean, even to those he mistrusted or didn’t care for. It wasn’t in his nature.

  Dog relaxed as the air of menace faded and he allowed himself to enjoy the rub Marc was delivering. Dog wished he could speak to Marc, like he did some of the others here. He needed to express his gratitude, but more, to warn Brady.

  Marc knew Dog was special. He’d watched Adrian put the wolf to work and been glad. He, too, understood what it meant to be needed, to have a place

  “But not this one,” Marc muttered. “The load is too heavy. It’ll use us both up.”

  Dog nudged Marc’s hands and he switched ears, wishing he could talk to Dog. He wasn’t sure what he’d say, other than to ask if the wolf had another name he preferred. After all these years, ‘Dog’ felt rude. The big animal was much more than that.

  Dog strained, not sure if it could be done, but willing to try.

  Marc stilled at the new sensation. He knew what it was–someone inexperienced trying to find a line in–and sudden intuition had him dropping his mental walls.

  “Take her and run–now.”

  Marc drew his gun, even though he connected the deep voice to Dog almost instantly.

  “Where’s the threat?”

  “In the medical tent, about to be healed.”

  Marc winced, reholstering. “The first time we’ve spoken and that’s what you pick?”

  Dog blew out a damp snort. “A warning to get your mate and go, while you still have her. Isn’t that valuable?”

  Marc sighed. “It would be, if I didn’t already know.”

  Dog glanced up in confusion and Marc forced the words out.

  “My time with her is limited. I don’t know why, or what I can do that would possibly change it without hurting all these people, but I know she’ll leave me. At some point, she won’t be satisfied.”

  Dog didn’t know what to say, beyond the obvious. “Why would you accept that?”

  “I haven’t. I’ll fight for her until I’m dead... or until she says she’s done. When I hear that, I’m gone.”

  “Why would you go through so much pain for something that you have no hope of keeping?”

  “Love sucks like that, Dog. It doesn’t give you a choice.”

  Dog considered. “Like the breeding heats.”

  Marc was startled into a smile. “Uh, yeah, I guess. You have no choice, right?”

  Dog whined lowly. “I’d hurt you, if you got in the way.”

  Marc understood. Some things just pulled a male like that.

  “What will you do after?”

>   Marc grunted. “No idea. Find a substitute and hurt, take off and roam this dead world, blow my brains out... It’s hard to say at this point.”

  Marc shook off the depression. “But for right now, I plan to enjoy every second she gives me. I had no idea what I was missing. I thought I did, but Angie willing is...”

  Dog whined again, burying his head under a large paw, and Marc laughed.

  “Sorry.”

  Dog rolled over, staring in concentration. “I’ll stay out of sight for a while.”

  Marc was reminded of his secret, but Dog already knew what he wanted there, too.

  “I would never volunteer such information.”

  Marc didn’t want to ask, but had to. “And if she questions you directly on it?”

  Dog, who was sure telling Adrian those forbidden things had caused his near-death, made his choice quickly.

  “I won’t answer in any way that would imply I was healed.”

  “Can she...” Marc sighed, unhappily. “Could she pry it out of your mind?”

  “She won’t need to. If I refuse to answer, she’ll know it’s to protect someone.”

  “She won’t think of me,” Marc offered miserably. He hated keeping secrets from her.

  “What happens when she finds out?”

  Not if, but when. Marc stood up and left the tent without answering.

  When Angela found out that he was like her and had been all along, that he’d left her to be different alone because he’d feared the same treatment; when she finally realized that he’d been lying to her for the entire time they’d known each other, it would be the beginning of the end for them. That was a pain she would never be able to forgive.

  As Marc came from the tent, he spotted Cynthia herding a small group of reluctant, bleary shadows through the fog. At least he didn’t have Cynthia’s duty. Between Angela and that teenage mess, Marc wasn’t sure he had the worst end of the whipping stick.

  6

  “Why us? We’re not trained for this.”

  Cynthia didn’t answer. None of the teenagers had liked being dragged from their warm cots.

  “Can’t we at least have a few minutes to wake up?”

  Even Charlie was grouchy. He was missing his morning time with Tracy. This was the only ten minutes he could steal with her. Later, the rest of the camp would be out and about.

  Cynthia still didn’t respond. She wouldn’t until one of them asked a question that mattered.

  “Isn’t this a job for the Eagles or Angela?” Jennifer asked, moving slower than the others. Her back was aching.

  Cynthia’s continued silence annoyed the sullen kids and the complaints began to fly uncensored. When it got loud enough to drawn attention, Cynthia stopped and turned around. The only one she viewed was Charlie, but each of them felt her silent scold.

  Charlie didn’t cave. “Well, we won’t be doing anything! After all the fighting here yesterday, any groups that were around took off.”

  Cynthia gestured toward a rising cloud of trail dust coming from the west. “Just the opposite. Because we’ve proven over and over that we can defend ourselves, they’ll come in heavier now. And your mom wants you here, officially. If it goes well, this might be a regular post.”

  Charlie caught the hint. “You mean we’ll pick who gets in and who doesn’t?”

  Cynthia agreed, forgetting how Angela had told her to handle it. “Yes. We need you to do your duty here.”

  Understanding that it wasn’t make-work, the group stopped complaining.

  Cynthia went on. “The front desk is where you’ll sit. The guards will let in one carload at a time for you to do paperwork on. Make us proud.”

  Charlie turned to Jennifer. “You and I will dig while Matt and Becca distract them. Between the two of us, we’ll ferret out every little secret.”

  Jennifer was all for it. “We should have a code or something, for the ones we decide to refuse.”

  “What about a code, like the Eagles use?” Matt suggested. “That way our men can get rid of them.”

  Cynthia listened to them for a minute, hearing the self importance, the too-strict laws emerging. It wasn’t what they needed. When the teenagers began openly discussing life and death, Cynthia remembered her instructions and understood why Angela hadn’t wanted it handled this way.

  “Stop it!”

  The reporter was angry. “Your first thought, when you find something you don’t like, is to ask yourself what Adrian would do.”

  Cynthia held up a curt finger against the protests. “You guys haven’t been made leader. You don’t decide life and death, or even who stays and goes. Only Angela and Adrian do that! You’ll fill out their paperwork, send them to a QZ tent, and let an Eagle know if there’s problem. You will not directly confront anyone about anything you pick up or Angela will send you back to the training tent.”

  Complete silence, layered in hostile glowers.

  Cynthia didn’t know what to do. “Fine. You know what? I’m going to go tell her that I screwed up by telling you this job mattered, and then I’m going to tell her that I think it’s a bad idea.”

  Cynthia stomped away and protests began to echo behind her.

  “Hang on!”

  “Don’t do that!”

  She stopped, but didn’t face them. “Angela knew you guys weren’t ready. I thought you were. It’s no big deal. You’ll train for another six months before you get the next chance and you’ll do great on it.”

  She resumed her steps, fully prepared to report exactly that.

  Charlie waved the others toward the QZ desk with a low whisper. “Wait for me there.”

  He hurried to Cynthia’s side and the reporter tried to block her thoughts by thinking of the brick wall from Village of the Damned.

  “That doesn’t work on me. Cool idea, though, to hide the bomb that way. We might know something was there, but until enough brick crumbled, you’d have the advantage.”

  Cynthia glanced over in mild surprise. Not only did Charlie make it a habit to never talk to her, he also didn’t talk openly about magic with anyone but his mom. Even in the kid’s lessons, which were being called the Jr. Eagles, he was very careful.

  “Thank you.”

  Cynthia stopped to give him a searching look. “For your mom, right?”

  Charlie nodded. “I was reading you just then and I realized I hadn’t said that.”

  Only two other people giving her those words had meant more. Cynthia felt her heart expand and shoved away the teary emotions. “You have to lead them. If you want the things I think you do, the legal bonds with people, then work for it and for them.”

  Charlie knew she meant Tracy and for that bond, he would work their team into the ground.

  Cynthia knew she’d gotten to him and turned to glare at the other kids over the distance. “Each of them have triggers inside those intelligent minds. When you hit one, remember and use it ruthlessly. They’ve been complete strangers to you, fellow refugees, and even friends. Now, make them your team.”

  “I need to think,” Charlie confided lowly. “Can I stand here and do it, or should I put them to work and do it during?”

  Cynthia leaned against the water tanker. “Which way would be more effective?”

  Charlie considered. “If I could at least plan out this first day, I could work on tomorrow’s setup after the shift.”

  “Good. Why not send your team to the Mess for trays to bring with them and buy planning time?”

  Charlie liked it that his first order would be well received. “Thanks, Cyn.”

  Cynthia froze at the nickname, then quickly turned around before she started crying. Being accepted still felt so odd.

  Chapter Two

  1

  Kenn pulled into the QZ parking lot just before lunch, annoyed and worried about more than Adrian.

  He’d already checked in with the perimeter men over the radio and everyone knew he had returned, but no one came to update him. He peered around in confusion.
Where was everyone?

  Crack!

  Thunder had the camp scurrying, and Kenn saw Eagles racing to secure things. Tarps were going up, animals were being brought in, and the perimeter shift was still doubled. It appeared normal for the situation, but Kenn knew it wasn’t.

  He’d been sent away. Why? Because Brady was in charge? Kenn was braced to accept it, so long as he was still the XO when this was all over. Adrian had promised.

  Kenn left his gear in the truck, not sure he wouldn’t be ordered right out on another meaningless run. He headed for the medical tent, but before he got there, Angela came through the QZ with Kevin and Samantha on her heels. Kenn strained to hear them.

  “Yes, to all of those, and shut down the QZ desk half an hour before dark. From now on, we’ll pass out food and water, get a sheet on any medical issues they have that can’t wait, and tell them we’ll open up at 8am.”

  “Do you want security on those who wait overnight?” Kevin asked.

  Angela paused to consider, then made the choice. “Yes, but light. I don’t want to scare even one of them away.”

  As Kevin left, Samantha took over the questioning. “Neil said to tell you he needs an answer on the first three things you were given.”

  “Tell Neil to cool them all off–send the music players out and dig up some pre-holiday fireworks. That’ll buy us more time. They have to have contact with Adrian before they get the official word on who he gave command to. If they think we’re hiding his death, they’ll riot.”

  Angela moved out of sight and this time, Kenn immediately picked up on how much quiet protection she had, including Adrian’s personal sniper.

  Realizing what that meant, his mouth dropped open. “He gave it to her!”

  Mocking laughter came from nearby.

  “After all the training lessons, did you really think he wouldn’t gift her that way? Weren’t you watching her soak it up like she was born a Mitchel?”

  Kenn turned slowly. Marc was lounging casually against the water truck, and Kenn prepared to fight for his place if it was needed.

  Marc threw in a bit of explanation, hoping to be sure of Kenn’s intentions, but also his cooperation. Now wasn’t the time for battling each other. “You lost your chance at leadership awhile ago. So have most of the top men along the way. Other than rookie teams, she’s the only Eagle left who might hesitate to pull a trigger, to kill.”