“Gotcha. I’m pretty sure I got everything before we left, but I’ll talk with Evan and make sure he got everything that he needs.”
“That will work, too.” Mark nodded. “Oh, and we can go back after the vampire attack and get the rest, this is just a quick run to get stuff that we need NOW. So tell him that this isn’t to get everything else that we forgot…you know, since we didn’t know this move was going to be permanent and all.”
Laura nodded. “I’ll be sure and explain it to him.”
*****
Matt had a file folder full of info from Lieutenant Gregory and had just returned to his office to sift through it and try to digest it when Captain Roberts burst through his door. “Mitchell, we need to talk.”
Matt glared up from his desk. “Consider knocking once in a while, Captain?” he asked sarcastically. “And last I checked, you should still be addressing me as COLONEL Mitchell.”
Roberts appeared unaffected. “I’d like to know why your men were harassing my security officer while he was in the infirmary?”
Mitchell sat back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Harassing?” His voice didn’t betray his agitated state. “Seriously, Captain, if taking a fruit basket and apologizing for their conduct and for the misunderstanding that occurred while your man tried to shoot them is considered harassing, then I think you need a lesson in diplomacy.” He tried hard to keep his voice from rising.
Roberts stared at the man, his chest rising and falling quickly, his breathing hard. Matt could see his jaw clench as he tried to stare him down. “What were you doing at the abandoned fallback sight this afternoon?” Roberts demanded.
Again Mitchell raised an eyebrow. “First off, Captain, I don’t answer to you,” Matt began slowly. “Second, Captain, this is now MY base and I’ll go where I damn well please.” His voice raised slightly in volume. “Thirdly, Captain, you work for me, and if anybody will answer to anybody else around here, it will be YOU answering to ME!” His voice was loud, firm and strong now as he sat up in his chair, his back straight, his shoulders squared and his head held high. “And finally, Captain, unless you want to find yourself guarding a bridge in the middle of fucking nowhere, you’ll learn a little fucking RESPECT when you come into my office or I’ll have your ass transferred off MY base so fast your head will still be spinning when you get to your next duty station!” he bellowed. Matt was on his feet now and his face was red. “Do you read me, CAPTAIN?!”
Roberts had slowly backed away from him with each escalation and finally found himself all the way against the far wall. He hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from the colonel and was actually more than just a bit surprised to find himself in a position where the tables had been turned on him. He gulped back a quiver in his throat, but found the ability to respond with a simple, “Yes, Colonel.”
“Good,” Matt said softly as he sat back down. “Now shut that fucking door and let’s see if you and I can’t have a decent conversation like two gentlemen.”
Captain Roberts really didn’t want to shut the door behind him, but he did. He turned back around and found Mitchell cracking the seal on a brand new bottle of single malt scotch. “Care to join me?”
Roberts slowly took the chair on the opposite side of Mitchell’s desk and nodded. “This will help,” Matt said as he poured out two drinks.
“Help with what?” Roberts watched him carefully. Matt raised his eyes to glance at the man and Roberts quickly added, “Help with what, sir?”
“With what I’m about to confide in you, Captain.” Matt poured two doubles. “You have two choices here. You can stay aboard here and remain at your post, or you can leave and…well…honestly? Probably live a lot longer.” Roberts noticed that Mitchell’s eyes were serious. “There’s a war coming right here to this desert. To this very base…this place will be Ground Zero, Roberts. And I need to know that I can count on you and your men,” Mitchell handed him the drink, “because if I can’t, then you’re all liabilities. And I will not tolerate liabilities.”
Roberts took the drink and, to his own surprise, his hands weren’t shaking. Mitchell was trying to scare him and he didn’t scare so easily. True, the colonel had spooked him a moment ago, but it didn’t take long for his nerves to recover. He tossed back part of the drink and eyed the older man. He knew he was being measured in the colonel’s eyes, being assessed for weakness. Roberts wouldn’t allow him to see any weakness again. “What kind of war are you talking about? Terrorist attack? Those UFO nuts planning something? What?”
Mitchell smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. That in itself was unnerving, but Roberts didn’t let it show. “No, Captain, something far, far worse.” He swirled his drink in his glass slowly as he measured the man across from him. Mitchell tossed back his drink and allowed it to burn for a moment before he carefully placed his glass down. “What I’m about to tell you, you probably will not believe.” Matt raised his eyes to meet his and Roberts felt a cold chill run down his spine. “At least, not at first. But I assure you, I can prove all of it. And once I do, I need to know that I can count on you to back my play. No matter what.”
Roberts watched him, tried to read his body language. He was being too vague to get a good reading, but if Mitchell wanted to play cloak-and-dagger, he’d go along. If there truly was a threat, he’d measure it himself. Surely he and his boys could handle it. He doubted that he would need these commando types to assist in any kind of security problems that might arise. But if Mitchell could convince him that this ‘war’ of his was real…who knows? Maybe Roberts would be willing to crawl into bed with him. At least, on a temporary basis.
“Okay, Colonel. I’m all ears.” He lifted his glass in mock salute.
“I’ve looked at your file, Roberts. I know that you’ve signed a non-disclosure, so anything I tell you from this point on is purely classified and it stays that way. If I think for one moment that you leaked any of this without my express permission, I’ll personally rip your heart out and let you watch it beat until the blood drains from your brain and you realize that you’ve just died,” he stated flatly.
Roberts smiled at him. “I know what I’ve signed, Colonel. And I know how to keep a secret. You don’t have to use false bravado with me.”
Matt raised a brow and shot Roberts a glare that actually put fear into his heart. “That was no threat, Captain. That was a promise,” he deadpanned. Matt poured another drink and stood up from his desk to look out his window. “Tell me something, Captain, what do you know of the supernatural?”
*****
Behind the barracks that the hunters were using, in the soft desert sand lit only by the moonlight, Hank Michaels and Maria Sanchez practiced with their wooden katanas until both were dripping with sweat. Hank had even resorted to what he considered ‘dirty tricks’ to try to get the better of her on more than one occasion, but Sanchez was ready for him. When he tried to intermix his martial arts training and do a leg sweep, she deftly jumped it or sidestepped it. When he would jab with his sword but then swing back with his fist in a roundhouse maneuver, she would block him or duck and then parry the next incoming sword blow. For every move he tried, she would counter. For every strike that Maria had, Hank was barely able to block her, barely able to defend, barely able to keep her from striking with a deadly blow…or what would have been a deadly blow had they been using real swords.
They continued to practice until neither could lift their arms, both collapsed in the warm sand, panting in the darkness, staring up at the sky. “I have nothing left to teach you, Maria,” Hank gasped after a very long time.
She turned and studied his silhouette in the darkness. She couldn’t tell if he was serious or teasing her. “You are just joking, right, Padre?” She tried to hide the fear in her voice.
Hank shook his head. “I’m afraid not.” He blew out an exasperated breath. “All I’m doing now is giving you a workout. Keeping your skills honed, but…”
“But, what?” She was afraid
he was going to quit on her.
Hank shook his head. “You’ve surpassed me,” he stated quietly. “I don’t know how you’ve done it in such a short time, but you have.” His voice was sad but proud at the same time. “I feel like I am holding you back from your true potential.”
Maria propped her head up on one hand, her elbow sinking into the soft sand. “How can you possibly say that?” She probed his features for the truth. “You’re the only person I know of who even carries a sword.” She jabbed him with a finger. “Besides that, you’re my teacher.”
“And the student has surpassed the teacher.” He stared into the starry sky. “You need a better teacher now.”
“No,” she said firmly. “I don’t want another teacher.” She turned away and lay on her back, staring upwards toward the sky, but not seeing the stars. “I just want you.”
They both lay there in the cooling darkness for a long awkward time, neither saying anything. Finally Hank gave a low groan. “You’re better than me.”
“I don’t think so.” She turned back to him. “I think you were taking it easy on me. Probably ‘cuz I’m a girl.” She sent a soft elbow to his ribs.
Hank snorted. “You know better than that.”
Maria reflected upon the countless hours they had practiced together and she did know better. She had the bruises to prove it. But she refused to believe that she had passed him in any way. “Why are you really saying all this?” She feared his answer. “Are you quitting on me?”
Hank didn’t say anything as they lay there in the darkness, the sounds of the desert surrounding them. She leaned up again and edged closer to him. “Are you?” Hank lay there, mulling the question over in his mind. “You can’t quit on me, Hank,” she said quietly. “I won’t let you.”
She edged closer until she was lying right next to him, her body touching his. She could feel the heat from him through their damp clothing. She knew that the only thing separating them were a few scraps of cheap cotton and she felt a familiar tingle in places that she knew she shouldn’t be feeling, yet…she had been feeling this way for some time now. Slowly, carefully she laid her arm across his midsection and waited for him to protest. Her eyes studied his features, measured his breathing, but nothing changed. He continued to stare at the night sky.
She lay next to him for a few moments more and she watched him, waiting for him to say or do something, but he was stoic. She cupped her hand to his body and pulled herself even closer to him, pressing her body into a tighter embrace…her eyes never leaving his face. She watched for some kind of reaction. An acceptance or a rejection…anything, but it never came.
Maria let herself breathe a little deeper as she relaxed and she laid her head down against the side of his chest. “You can’t quit on me,” she whispered. “I need you.” Tears began to form in her eyes that she desperately did not want to have fall. She debated pressing her face into his sweaty shirt to hide them when she felt his arm lift up and wrap around her, pulling her even tighter to him.
“I won’t,” he whispered back. She felt her chest tremble as she sucked in the cool night air and prayed that he didn’t register it. She didn’t mean to choke back that tiny sob, but she did and she didn’t want him to know how emotional she was getting. They both lay there in the sand, cooling off in the night air, wrapped in a lover’s embrace for so long that neither knew just how much time had passed. Finally, Hank turned to her, “What’s to become of us?”
Maria gently shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Hank tried to think of the right words to say, but they wouldn’t come to him. So he simply said the words that would. “You truly have surpassed me. I wasn’t lying about that.” Maria smiled at his admission, partly from pride, mostly from knowing that he would still be there for her. “But you also know that…something more is happening between us. Don’t you?”
Maria didn’t say anything as she sat up and straddled him. She didn’t remember doing it, but she found herself kissing him. Their lips pressed together, tongues dancing, her hands running through his close cropped hair. Hank sat up with her in his lap and felt her tugging at his shirt, his own hands grasping at her, trying desperately to hold her, to feel her sweat covered body in his arms as their mouths danced and suckled at each other’s tongues.
She pulled his shirt from him and tossed it aside, her mouth nibbling at his neck, his jawline and chin, then back to his mouth. Hank held her tightly, afraid to let her go…afraid it was a dream again. He had dreamed of her so many times and he feared that he would awaken once more, her name on the edge of his lips…but the only thing on the edge of his lips this time was her mouth.
Maria pulled her own shirt off and Hank ran his hands up and down her naked back, letting his hands absorb the smoothness of her skin, the soft silkiness of her flesh under his calloused fingertips. She leaned back and pulled his mouth down to her aching breasts and he kissed ever so gently, first one then the other. Gently suckling each tender peak until it puckered in the cool night air. She pressed his face more aggressively into her soft mounds and he sucked in a large mouthful of her tender flesh and gently bit down, drawing a cry from the back of her throat.
Maria leaned back further and drew Hank down to her. He kissed her body, allowing his tongue to pull chill bumps across her flesh as he kissed and licked his way toward her belt where he worked it loose with his teeth, drawing a giggle from her as he whipped it from the loops and spat it aside. Maria looked up from the warm desert sands, her face flushed at the wild look in his eyes, the pure feral look of male desire that ripped through him as he gazed upon her. She reached up with her hands and gripped his head and pulled his face to where she wanted him to be.
The two took turns pleasing each other in ways that could only be described as creative and animalistic. Outside the barracks, in the moonlight where anyone could stumble upon them had they troubled themselves to go behind the building, the two of them spent the next two hours ravaging each other until neither could take any more. Afterward, as they lay naked in the sand, holding each other and basking in the afterglow, Hank allowed his mind to drift to thoughts of his friend and brother in arms, who he felt he had just betrayed. Guilt overtook him, yet his heart still leapt with joy for having bonded with the woman he loved. He pulled her closer and inhaled of the scent of her hair.
“I know,” she said softly.
“What’s that?”
“All the thoughts running through your head right now.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” Hank kissed her again on her head.
“Yes, I do.” She nodded. “I’ve been having them, too.”
“Like what?”
“Like, what about Apollo? Like what does this mean for us? Like…holy shit, that was the greatest fucking sex ever.”
Hank nodded gently. “That’s pretty close.”
“Close? I figured I hit the nail on the head,” she teased as she lifted her face and kissed him again. “Where was I off?”
“Okay, you were right about Apollo. You were right about the ‘us’ part. But the greatest sex part?” He shook his head. “Naw. Not even close.”
She pulled back with shock. “What?!” she gasped. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Nope,” Hank deadpanned. “Maybe it was the greatest lovemaking ever…for me, at least, but there’s a big difference between that and just sex.” He didn’t meet her gaze.
Maria reached up and gently pulled his face to meet her gaze. “I do love you, Hank,” she said as she kissed him. “I can’t believe my heart would ever allow me to love again, but I do.”
He studied her face and smiled. “Those are the sweetest words I could ever hope to hear.” He nuzzled his face close to her neck and whispered, “I love you, too, Maria.”
8
Jack had left Nadia in their room to finish transferring her belongings to his Team Leader quarters. He didn’t know if it would cause problems, but she was his wife and he’d damn sure share his quarters w
ith her or he’d move into the quarters assigned to her. He needed to be close to her, especially now that he knew she was pregnant.
Jack went down to the lounge area where most of the other hunters were now hanging out, talking, laughing, playing video games or table tennis. A few were swapping field stories and more than a few had broken into groups to compare tactics. As he looked around, he saw a lot of familiar faces from all of the different teams, and he missed a lot of faces that he knew should be here. It reminded him of his own missing squad members and a pang of remorse hit a lot closer to home than he expected. He debated turning and leaving, but decided instead to swallow the pain and he made a mental choice to enjoy the time with the other hunters, to embrace life and celebrate the sacrifice that the other hunters made in order to keep the civilian populace safe.
He stepped into the throng of people and searched out Major Sheridan of Team One. The SAS operator from Newcastle, England had been a very close friend of his back in his early days with the squad and Jack looked forward to seeing him again. When Jack couldn’t find him, he approached one of the other operators with the English teams. “Hey, Bigby, where’s Major Sheridan?”
The shorter redheaded man beamed when he saw Jack. “Thompson! You bloody yank, where were you hiding?” He seemed overly excited to see him again.
“You know how it is, Big. I had things to take care of,” Jack explained. “So where is Sherry? I don’t see him with the rest of your group.”
“I think he’s settling into his quarters.” Bigby waved over the crowd. “He’s been rather sullen since…well since we lost the other team.”
Jack nodded. “I know how he feels.” He stared off reflectively.
“To be honest, Jack-o, he may not join us.” Bigby clapped him on the back. “You may as well stay here and catch up with us.”
Jack looked around the numerous smaller groups sharing stories, laughing and catching up, some were meeting the newer members of the different teams, most were just enjoying the company of like-minded warriors. He shook his head. “Big, I think I’m going to find Sheridan and have a chat with him. Maybe I can help pull him out of his funk.”
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