Cold Mark (24 page)

"He's out there," Jax whispered, his attention cast on the steel door.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

I stayed firmly encased in my best friend's arms. "Who?"

"Stiller." Jax gulped, the sound was audible. "I can feel him. The meds are wearing off."

A government agent bustled by so fast, my hair rustled in the resulting breeze. "Maybe ... that's a good thing?"

His head shake was so slight that I barely perceived it. "No. He's furious."

"Like, 'he's going to yell at you' furious? Or, 'he wants to rip off someone's head' furious?"

"It's undeniably the latter of the two."

As one unit—still embraced—we took cautious steps backward into the bustling bunker.

If Stiller was in a killing frenzy, then the Plumas would be even more so.

I nibbled on my bottom lip ... until my eyebrows rose in time to my startling thoughts. I peered up into my best friend's eyes, the grey still transfixed on the door. "You knew he would come." Stiller was Jax's other half of a Vaq pair. He would have been able to find him anywhere with their link.

His gaze flicked down to me, then back to the supposed 'barrier' that was beginning to bow. "I did." His shoulders shrugged. "Though, I had hoped to be back on Triaz by now."

"That's why you didn't cut the transmission to the hov-craft's whereabouts?"

He hummed deep in his throat. "It would have been a fruitless endeavor. Even if I had known how to do it."

My words were my final decision. "You brought war here."

"No. Technically, the President did that. His greed did so."

Bang. Bang. Bang.

My lips pinched with my continual regard on his eyes. "
And
your choice to follow orders."

His chest rose and fell against my palms. "I did what I needed to do. Humans need the technology to continue living on this planet, and we've seen how well our people are treated when we take refuge elsewhere."

The arrival ritual—
the culling
. "True. But what if there are no Humans alive after this?" I attempted to contain my aggravation, the fury bubbling up inside my chest. My fingertips curled into his shirt. "What good is the technology if there's no one to use it?"

Grey eyes slammed to mine. As he held my own steely-eyed gaze, I knew he believed he had made the right choice. There was no sorrow to be held on his features ... even if he hadn't liked being put in the situation to have to make that impossible choice. "What happens from here is up to the President. If he contains this situation, then there
will
be a future for the Humans. This planet,
the Blessed Joyal
, will only sustain our people—the growing population—for so long, and he knows it.
Now,
he needs to make the right choice."

"He should have done so to begin with."

Jax gazed over my head. We watched as the President ran his hands through his hair in continual, rough strokes. He would be bald soon if he kept that up. Jax snorted and shook his head of curly hair. "It took an invasion of aliens for him to realize that mere fact."

I blinked at his relaxed tone. "Did you plan this, Jax?"

"Unfortunately ... no. As I said, I hoped to be back on Triaz by now." He cleared his throat and peered back to the door that wouldn't be able to take much more of whatever the Mian were doing to it. The hinges were starting to creak in a squeal of grinding steel. "But, if I said I planned to also steal what the Mian wanted—the fish—and have taken the specimen back with me...that might not be too far-fetched an idea."

"Holy fuck." I groaned in exasperation and banged my head in a gentle rhythm against his chest. "This is a damned mess."

His arms tightened around me. "Yes. Yes, it is."

Shush. Shush. Shush.

My dark gaze slammed to the side, widened in horror. "That. Is. Not. Good." The edges of the door were now glowing blue, ice forming and misting on the sides, crawling to the middle, the heart of the steel obstacle. "Jax? How is Stiller feeling now?"

He whispered, "Insatiable. Hungry. Pissed."

I fisted his shirt with both of my hands. "I think we should take cover."

The door was completely iced. "I think so, too."

In a rush, we ran to the far end of the bunker. We fell to our knees on the dusty concrete behind a sturdy desk. I barely felt the bite of pain to my kneecaps before I glanced to the left. I couldn't help but sneer. The President was one desk over with four agents lying on top of him in preparation for the assault. Only the tip of his head showed from under the pile.

I muttered, "Fucking bullshit."

His eyes peeked up. Met mine.

"Yeah, you. You did this to your people."

Through it all, I still heard him growl, "
For
our people."

I countered, "
Killed
your people."

"Get down!" Jax hollered, grabbing my shoulders and thrusting me flat on the floor.

Crack-doom-shh.

Our last hope shattered. The door fell.

The lights went out.

Swallowing in a brutal movement, I covered my ears as a barrage of shots blistered the air.

A piece of the bunker's concrete roof fell from above and pinged the side of Jax's head. With my heart pounding in cadence to the rapid gunfire, I threw myself on top of my best friend, covering his body. He was out cold, a cut bleeding profusely from his left eyebrow.

We would not die here today. I wouldn't allow it.

Coughing on smoke, I grunted in pain as I was dragged away from an unconscious Jax—by my hair. The fist only tightened in my dark locks, threatening to snap my neck if I pushed too hard. Gunshots whizzed past, the struggle still in high gear, though my captor walked at a careful pace through it all. Debris from the fight slammed against my shoulders and legs as I resisted. My shirt tugged back at the neck, and the concrete scraped my flesh. I focused past the stinging soreness, but my feet had nothing to catch on, and any items I grabbed broke apart in my hands, the Mian's weapons demolishing all equipment.

"Jax!" I screamed. I tried to peer through the haze as fires blazed on the left and right. "
Jax!
"

"Be quiet." The paw jiggled my head, rattling my brain. And that voice belonged to ... Malik.

"Let me go!" I growled, grabbing on the wrist of my keeper. I dug my nails in hard, feeling blood pool around my fingertips. I was his Soul. He wouldn't kill me—
couldn't
kill me. "Malik, release me!"

"Shut the fuck up, Braita, before I knock your ass out," he hissed.

"Jax is back there!" The fires were growing.

A firm fist smashed against my cheek, and the back of my head slammed against the floor.

While he may not be able to kill me ... he
could
hurt me. And he was apparently willing to do so.

I groaned as my lashes fluttered down.

Before oblivion took me under, I thought,
He pulled his punch ...

A warm shoulder rubbed against mine. Repeatedly.

My eyes shot open.

I blinked once. Twice.
Shit.

I couldn't speak. Not because I didn't want to, but because my lips were covered with tape.

Same as Jax. He was alive. Sitting next to me. The blood from his wound had dried, but the bleeding had coated the entire left side of his face. He sighed, a great huff of air escaping his nostrils as I assessed his injuries—as if he had feared I was dead, not the other way around.

The sizzle of the laser-cuffs binding my hands behind my back irritated my wrists, but it wasn't enough to harm. Jax didn't seem any worse off either, his expression quickly altering from relief to a bored mien. We peered out to the Mian, who were searching an office where we sat inside, Jax and my location stuffed into a corner, out of the way for whatever had been occurring while I was out. Though, I ground my teeth together after moving my ankles ... the Mian were different. Smarter than the Humans concerning captives. While I had been unconscious, they had removed the few weapons I'd had hidden in the side of my boots. I guessed Jax was now cleaned out, too.

Both sets of Plumas glanced in our direction from where they were speaking softly with each other. There were five other Mian, including Stiller, ransacked the filing cabinets and desk—it had to be the President's office. If I had thought Jax appeared gruesome with blood staining his face, then those four were point blank lethal. Blood, some still slick and wet on their black combat attire, covered their exposed arms and necks. Without a doubt, they had gotten their hands dirty in this conflict.

The President knelt before the four, and with too much pride, he tried to get to his feet.

Killeg lifted his right leg, placed a large boot on the President's chest, and shoved him back to the ground. Not a care in world. Barely looking at him, and then, oh, disgracing the most revered Human leader. The four Plumas continued on with their quiet discussion.

Papers flew through the air, littering the ground. Drawers banged open and closed.

One Mian with yellow hair sat down at the President's desk and started hacking into the server.

Not moving a muscle, I watched as Stiller rifled through a pile of folders. Within a blink, one of the files went up-and-under the backside of his shirt, hidden from view, before he resumed his silent search.

What the hell were they looking for? Or more importantly ... what had Stiller just found?

I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Jax.

He had seen it too, his head cocked curiously.

My attention honed directly on Leo when he turned from their conversation. He hovered over the President, who had chosen wisely to not move again. Leo crouched, placing his elbows on his knees, and gazed down directly into the President's eyes. The golden glow shone onto the President's face in a harsh reality ... he was completely at their mercy. Speaking in precise English, Leo asked, "Tell us what Ms. Valorn and Mr. Waterston told you."

My brows rose slightly, but I stopped it quickly enough. My right cheek was killing me.

From his back, the President glanced at us.

Wrong move.

Malik nailed him in his side with a swift kick that cracked at least two of his ribs by the sound.

I may not like the President, but I didn't take any joy from his agonized
scream
.

"They told me nothing of importance," the President panted, wheezing in pain.

"Word-for-word, Mr. President," Leo stated, sweetness dripping, a direct opposite from his counterpart. "Or you won't like what happens next." Or maybe not so sweet.

The President spoke, his words clipped and full of pain.

I would have applauded the President's memory if we had been in any other situation. He literally remembered everything we had said during the interrogation, down to even the smallest of inflections our faces had given. For someone so damn intelligent, he had royally fucked up with this situation. And it didn't appear as if he held any remorse for his actions with his finishing words.

"Kill me if you wish. I won't apologize for deceiving you. My people needed that technology to live." He altered his attention to glare at Killeg and Phila. "Unlike your people. A few deaths from sickness is nothing compared to an extinction from Mother Nature. Your selfishness has caused this."

Phila ran his fingers gently through his long white hair. He shrugged a shoulder. "Mr. President, you should have planned better. Or perhaps, you should have listened to what Ms. Valorn and Mr. Waterston were saying. Both options would have kept you alive."

My scream could be heard ... as Phila reached down.

When he straightened to his full height, he held the President's decapitated head.

With an uninterested flick, he tossed it aside. "What an idiot."

I closed my eyes against the gore and death of a man I had once pledged my allegiance to.

Killeg muttered, "Let's hope the survivors appoint cunning over pride this time."

"No shit," Leo groused.

With a chuckle, Malik suggested, "Shall we get those fish before we have to kill all the Humans?"