by Angela White
“And devious,” his demon spoke up carefully. “She isn’t telling them everything.”
Marc heaved a worried sigh. “She isn’t telling me everything.”
“No,” the demon confirmed in surprise at the response. “She’s not sure that she can.”
Marc spun away from the guards and found the shadows of the farthest perimeter. “What does she have planned?”
The demon hesitated and Marc understood Angela’s plan had support.
“Let me guess. A Witch came to visit and now, you’re a convert, too.”
The demon snickered scornfully. “I’ve been a convert all along. So are you.”
Marc couldn’t argue. As much as he hated Adrian, he couldn’t have withheld the energy needed to heal him.
Not wanting to leave them on a sour note, the demon spoke again. “You should rest.”
Marc started to snarl and was interrupted.
“If you don’t rest, you’ll have to start drawing, like she does.”
Marc hadn’t considered any effects. He’d thought if he didn’t acknowledge the demon inside, he wouldn’t have to deal with any of it.
“If I hadn’t been woken, that would still be true,” the demon confessed slowly. “You’d have to put me to sleep again.”
Marc started to ask how and then didn’t. He might not want to get cozy with the power he held, but if he needed it, he sure as hell wanted it to be there.
The demon settled back happily for a change, grateful to the Witch. She’d told him many things, but those he lingered on were about how to gain Marc’s friendship. That was something the demon had longed for the whole time he’d been in this body. He was never more lonely than when his host was pretending he didn’t exist.
9
The Big Plan
Angela went over the outline again, but the math didn’t lie. They’d never get a ship stocked in that time, even if they managed to find one that would haul them all. Then, there was the issue of where to go, and quite a few others. If they didn’t wipe out the first set of troops that came, they were doomed.
By taking out the first troops, they might avoid the fight all together. It was their one chance for peace–that the government would know they had escaped, but not chase them anyway after taking another loss–but Angela knew it wouldn’t work that way. The remaining government needed her kind, desperately if the thoughts of the Major’s men were to be believed. They wouldn’t be stopped by a small defeat. They’d come in force on the second run, whether they left them a body or killed every last man.
“And if the outcome is the same, I have to do something different,” Angela muttered, slipping the paper into her pocket as she finished nightly rounds.
“Yes, but what exactly have you chosen?” a guard asked from his post nearby.
Angela joined Dexter, a Level Three on Kevin’s team, as he lounged against the bumper of Jeremy’s rusty truck.
“What do you think, considering the details you have?”
Dexter had been in jail most of his life and was still shocked to be an Eagle at all, despite being so high up. He answered truthfully.
“I think we could put up a great fight, but in the end, we’d fall.”
“So not fighting,” Angela humored. “That leaves surrender.”
“Negotiate in ways you haven’t considered, maybe, or even a series of hidden camps,” Dexter offered. He gave her a slightly condescending tone. “I don’t have it figured out. That’s why you’re in charge, not me.”
Angela laughed like it was all in the day of a leader, and quickly moved away from prying ears so that she could vent.
“I’m in charge because I value life and Adrian’s knows killing isn’t what I’ll pick if I have another choice. He’s banking on me doing this the right way.”
“Then he’s already lost, hasn’t he?” the Witch questioned.
“Yes,” Angela answered. “I only came up with one way to do this and it’s ugly. I’m turning into him.”
“No,” the Witch corrected sleepily. “You’re becoming a leader. He would have counted on that, as well.”
“Why didn’t he have this covered? The Adrian I know plans for everything!” Angela snapped, fading into the shadows around the perimeter for more privacy. “He would have at least checked through it and set a few things up.”
“He did that. Look at the Eagles. He wasn’t only training them for camp defense. It was also to protect the magic, the people that he knew he would come to him. He taught his men to care for the most important part of the camp–the heart–and he set it up to die, to give us time to gather supplies and find the ship. The government might have experimented on his body for months before seeking out the rest of us.”
“So my plan is all we’ve got,” Angela realized harshly. “That’s all there is.”
The Witch tried to comfort. “It’s good. Many of the pieces are in falling into place. We’ve seen enough to know it could work.”
“But will it?!” Angela demanded.
She was met with the annoyingly familiar answer that had haunted Adrian so often.
“That has not been revealed.”
Kyle came to her side. “They both said no.”
Angela caught a flash of Dog’s anger and made a note to handle that. The wolf had no right to it.
“But?”
“They’re both lying to me.”
Angela made a note of that loyalty and gave her own in return. “I won’t sacrifice her. My word on it.”
Kyle let out the breath he’d taken. “Thank you.”
Angela’s tone went cold. “For trading your life instead? It’ll be my honor and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
Kyle now understood why she’d been avoiding him. He’d thought she had lost too much respect for him upon finding out about Tracy.
“Couldn’t have you discover it until the right time, Reece. You would have seen through me before now.”
Kyle didn’t have to ask what had changed. “She survives?”
“Yes.”
“And the camp?”
Angela faded into the thick darkness without responding.
Chapter Seven
1
“Raven to the gate.”
“Copy.”
The Quarantine Zone was packed. There were dozens of tents, and a growing line at the desk. With the teenagers in a training lesson, Angela was covering the post and the security was double.
Angela gave Dog a cool nod as she walked by and the big wolf heeled, much to the surprise of those around them. The new people were used to animal attacks, not obedience.
Another group had arrived at dawn, survivors from Little Rock judging by the utility trucks they were driving, and they were twitchy enough that the guards had called her early. The gate wasn’t officially open yet. It was barely dawn.
The QZ was easily half the size of the main camp now, and Angela looked to Marc.
“Do we have enough men to cover it all?”
“We’re good. I’m working them differently, arranging by their strengths.”
“The little details Adrian didn’t have time for, and Kenn didn’t have enough support to do on his own?”
“Yes. One of those is Level tests. You’ll need to get them ready soon, for One through Five.”
“Kenn usually does it?”
“Yes. He gave me the files this morning.”
“Suspend the level tests for now, and replace it with classes on survival.”
Marc was relieved. He could come up with plans easily enough, but her work load needed to be lightened, not added to.
“You got it. What else?’
Angela was listening for discontent in his tones, and was glad to not hear any, but didn’t trust it. “I’d like you to pick someone to supervise the party. I want rides if possible, small ones, and all the fireworks we can get our hands on.”
Marc wrote it down, and glared pointedly at her hair. “It’s showing more than before.
”
Angela wasn’t alert enough to lie, not to Marc. “I’ll do something about it later.”
He pushed out that heat. “With me?”
Angela flushed. “Yes, please.”
Marc turned for camp with a light smirk. “You got it.”
Wiping it from her face, she greeted the waiting crowd of new arrivals. “I’m Angela. I’m the leader of this refugee camp and many of you are welcome here. However...”
Her voice turned cold. “Some of you will find our doors closed. Wives and girlfriends, whores, of the Major’s men, are not welcome. Step out of line and wait for me by the trucks you came in.”
No one moved at first and then Angela began to single them out, horrified that she would have to send away so many with children.
“The rest of you need to fill out a paper and then you’ll be put in a quarantine tent until the doctors can look you over.”
There were murmurs of relief and worry. It was a shock to find a woman in charge of so large a camp, and Angela’s protection stayed close as she left the chair and approached the line of nearly twenty pathetic refugees.
One more woman had to exit the line.
Angela stopped in front of a haggard white woman hiding two dark-skinned girls behind her filthy skirts.
“Please don’t make us go.”
Angela nearly crumbled under the guilt. “You traded your kids for theirs. I don’t have a choice by our laws.”
“They would have killed them,” the woman protested, crying. “I had to lure the other kids out for Major Garret!”
Angela observed those in line, listening to them like Adrian had instructed her to do in this situation. The lack of sympathy made the choice. These innocent refugees would never forgive her or her girls because she couldn’t replace the children that had been murdered. There could be no life here for them.
“In this camp, once you’re punished, you’re forgiven, but for crimes against children, you’re banished. Willing accomplice or not, we have no room for you. Seeing your children every day, while the others long for theirs, will disrupt my camp and I won’t allow that. I suggest you stay together, find a library, and learn how to care for yourselves.”
The woman’s sobs were awful, and fear was thick among the dozen females now waiting by the trucks.
There was vindication on the faces of the innocent, and it triggered a justified rage that none of the Eagles were expecting.
One of the women in the rear of the line tossed a thick stone at the sobbing parent with a perfect aim. It struck the mother in the cheek and drew blood.
More refugees began grabbing stones.
“No!” Angela stepped between them.
Too late, rocks flew through the fog.
“Move in!”
Seth’s call sent a rush of Eagles in to grab the stone-throwers and protect their leader.
Angela didn’t rub her stinging shoulder, instead waving at the Eagles to let the first thrower go. She went to stand toe-to-toe with the woman, able to feel her pain, the gaping hole that matched her own.
“If you had been given that choice, to save your kids?”
The woman’s answer was fast. “I would have killed us first!”
Angela agreed. “As would I, but what if you couldn’t? What if his hands had already been on them? Would you have broken?”
The woman, Shellie, held Angela’s gaze a bit longer, then dropped her eyes. “Maybe.”
Angela returned to the desk, to Doug, and felt the relief of her protection. “Get them set up with a few day’s supplies. I want them gone in five.”
The Eagles closed ranks at that moment, cutting off the view of even the desk from the banished women.
“The rest of you, welcome to Safe Haven. May it become your home.”
As Angela went by Doug, she noticed Rock-thrower staring at the main camp. Angela turned to find Samantha moving tiredly by the caution tape and frowned as the Witch started to whisper.
Angela motioned Doug toward the angry woman. “That’s either an Eagle or a future problem. Keep tabs on her.”
“You know it,” Doug responded gravely.
2
At 6am, the rain was falling in heavy drafts. Not violent or windy, but soaking and icy. The camp, now in sloppy conditions, wasn’t recovered enough from the party yet to start wondering why Adrian wasn’t in charge if his injury was minor.
Chris didn’t buy a word of it.
“All lies,” he muttered lowly, slipping from tree to tree in the fog caused by the large temperature difference.
“Doesn’t matter. I need to take action anyway,” the vet told himself, being careful not to leave tracks or make noise as he stalked through the perimeter of the camp. Angela already had a routine and the vet had created one to match hers. He loved to watch her work.
He spotted Brady escorting someone in a black jacket and hurried to get ahead of them. His fear of Marc was huge, but his growing need to be near Angela was irresistible. If Marc caught him, he would face it then.
It felt thrilling to be off his regular schedule of blending in, and Chris ducked into the training tent with only seconds to spare.
He slung his dripping raincoat into the corner, released the cat in the cage, and began digging through his bag.
Chris listened to them as they came inside, felt Marc sweep him in a short, powerful evaluation and kept his mind on the cat.
“He gave them maps to where we left the last batch of supplies.”
“Does Adrian have another shipment planned?”
“I’ll find out. If not?”
“We have to keep leaving supplies.”
“Why?”
“There are starving people following us, but there will also be a great need for it in the future.”
He didn’t argue further. “I’ll handle it. Cute cat.”
“Oh, hey, Chris!”
Angela’s cheerful greeting suggested sexual satisfaction. Chris didn’t turn around. “Yeah.”
“Do you need the tent?”
“No. Letting fat-ass get some exercise where she can’t be hit or tripped over.”
Angela’s laugh sent tingles through the vet’s skin.
“Good idea. We’ll try not to do that to her.”
“She’ll stay out of your way,” Chris stated. He’d fed the cat enough nip to keep her rolling and purring for an hour.
“Any signs of problems with them?” Marc asked.
“No. Cats are one of the few animals that haven’t turned on us yet.”
“She is cute,” Angela commented, kneeling down. “Look at her roll.”
Marc and Angela were distracted by the yellow mix playing with her own tail, and the vet was able to stare unobserved.
He picked up the body language of the couple, the comfortable stances and tones, but it was that light blue glow he studied. There was no chance of breaking them up or removing Marc. The vet would never have a chance with her personally, but he could perform chores for her that no one else would be able to get away with. When she finally learned how useful he was…
Chris stopped the images and got to work with the cat. No one had ever tried to get through his mental walls, but he would be careful around Angela. He had to earn her trust before she discovered his purpose in her Safe Haven. It wouldn’t have been possible with Adrian and Chris was still hoping that man would die.
3
“I hadn’t thought about that, but Neil’s right. They’ll take every Eagle out of this camp. Then they’ll search through the camp for…”
The rest of the words blurred by Matt. His mind centered on only one sentence.
That’s how I get rid of him, he thought, gazing guiltily across the Mess to the deserted center table.
Time slowed, and Matt’s mind was able to keep up for once. None of this would be possible with the government in control. The old rules would apply. The camp would be split up, forced to run. He could go with Cynthia and console her on losing Kevin and the
other Eagles.
Matt shoved a spoonful of chow mein into his mouth and chewed vigorously to cover himself. It was only a fantasy, but he enjoyed the images of Kevin being dragged off and Cynthia needing to be held while she cried.
“Stop it!”
Charlie’s low hiss went mostly unnoticed by those around them, but Matt jumped.
“Stay outta my mind!”
Charlie slid onto the seat across from Matt, thinking his face was almost clear of acne now. “Don’t be stupid. Pick someone you have a chance with.”
Despite himself, Matt was intrigued. “Like who?”
Charlie directed his attention to the corner of the expanded mess. “Any of those five.”
Matt gave each teenage girl a once-over, but none of their bodies were mature enough for him. He wanted a woman–Cynthia–and he would have her.
Charlie snorted. “Good luck.”
Matt stood up, lips clamped together, and left.
As he walked away, one thought beat against his brain.
I don’t need luck if I have a great plan.
Charlie watched his friend vanish into the tent he and Cynthia shared. Matt was growing more restless instead of settling into the new lives they’d been given under his mom’s command. Charlie wasn’t sure what to do about it, but he made a note in his new book to mention it to Kyle or Marc.
4
“They’re back.”
“Copy.”
Angela didn’t leave the target rage, where Peggy and Anne were currently helping with a lesson. One of them would come to her for an update, but it wasn’t needed. If they hadn’t found a body that would suffice, they wouldn’t have returned yet.
A few minutes later, Kevin came to her side, chuckling lowly. “Mission accomplished.”
Kevin kept chuckling softly and Angela raised a brow. “Something good, I hope.”
Kevin started laughing and had to get himself under control before he could answer. “I thought so. Marc thought so. Kenn, not so much.”
Angela settled against the tree to hear the story, sure the prankster had struck again. The camp was already placing bets on who it might be.
“Kenn’s tent collapsed... with him in it.”
“Sounds amusing,” Angela remarked, not sure why that was so funny.
