If there was ever a time when she appreciated the hard years of training she had endured after her abduction, now was that time. Instinct kicked in and she succeeded where she had failed the night before, not allowing her enemies to ambush her from behind and dealing with each one that rushed her with precision and deadly accuracy. Her mentor had not taught her to fight for sport but for survival and a fallen enemy could not get back up to make her falter.
Hit hard. Hit fast.
Martha did not know exactly how many she took out before they seemed to realise that their numbers game was not going to be as effective as they thought but she was once again covered in blood and had only taken a few blows that would hurt later. The remaining vanguards seemed to all decide at the same moment that the fight was not worth it and withdrew almost as quickly as they came, fleeing into the trees. Martha held her ground, breathing heavily as she watched them go but did not celebrate. Because she knew that as well-trained as she was, she should not have been enough to frighten them off. Something else had happened. Something that had changed the game in her favour. Something that was ultimately unreal.
The shrieks and growls and cries of agony that came from deep within the trees gave her an inkling but she couldn’t trust sound alone. Breaking into a run, she plunged into the treeline and was unsurprised rather than horrified by the sights that greeted her.
Bodies had been all but torn apart. Dead vanguards hung from trees, limp and decimated. It was a battleground and the fight was over. So fast, so efficient.
But with absolutely no sign of the victor.
A loud crack of the shotgun drew her attention sharply back to the area she had left. Her heart all but slammed into her chest and she turned away from the gruesome scene, racing back through the thick barrage of trees. Her throat burned, fresh air colliding with spent breath. She became acutely aware of the muscles in her legs, strained by all the exertion, of the sweat and blood that soaked her body and the pumping of blood through her veins. Branches groped at her like scrawny fingers, long and sharp nails attempting to split skin but she would not stop, leaping with an athletic grace over strangled roots, fallen logs and the dead bodies of her foes.
The army of trees ended abruptly as she reached the small clearing. She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight that greeted her. Parker was down on his knees, hands locked behind his head which was now cut open just above the brow-line. There was a very tall and very heavily set male levelling his own shotgun back at him. Four other, similarly built males surrounded the two of them, staring down the human with a mixture of mistrust and anger.
Panic flooded Martha’s chest because these were not vanguards, nor where they mere grunts. The males stood in the clearing were elite and they did not take personal attacks very well at all. She should know. She sparred with them almost daily.
Fortunately, they were her allies. She knew each and every one of them, well enough for her to move forward and push her way through the solid wall of muscle to yell, ‘Stop, wait!’
The male with the shotgun’s focus did not sway from his hostage but Parker’s gaze lifted and locked with hers, flashing with so many emotions, mostly fury, that would have floored her if she had not been determined to save his life. He could be angry at her later. She would explain everything that she had been unable to because she didn’t see a reason why she should keep it from him anymore. The presence of the males who had cleared the area meant only one thing, the situation had changed dramatically and she was no longer going to be able to exist in secret.
‘Wait, Isaac, please,’ she implored, addressing the male before her. ‘Don’t hurt him.’
The response was blunt, with barely contained ire, ‘You know this human?’
‘I do,’ she confirmed. ‘He’s with me and he was only following my orders.’
Isaac continued to glare at her mortal friend for such a long time that she was beginning to think that she might have to step between them but eventually the tension in his wide frame eased and he stood down, moving into a more neutral stance and even holding his hand to the man who was still on his knees on the muddy ground.
Parker looked at the hand for a long moment, as if he did not trust the offering, but had the good sense not to refuse it, allowing the bigger, clearly stronger male to help drag him back up onto his feet. Martha had had a long time to marvel over how the males that played a pivotal role in her life towered over her small, female frame but how Isaac loomed over somebody she had always considered tall momentarily threw her. The shotgun was offered back to its rightful owner. It was accepted without comment. Or retribution.
Martha sighed with relief, going to her old friend. Parker’s gaze met her approach but he said nothing, did nothing. She could tell that he was angry and confused without needing to sense it. He had never been very good at masking his emotions and she had always been more astute than most. There was going to be a conversation but for now, he would defer to her, even though it was also clear that he did not particularly trust her. That smarted but it was what it was.
Instead of getting into something that was going to be far too messy and personal, she regarded the male who was seemingly in charge, asking him, ‘What the hell is going on?’
‘We have new orders,’ he replied succinctly. Martha waited for him to elaborate but he did not. That was all he believed that she deserved to know and she did not dare to push.
Gazing around the other males that had gathered in the clearing, she, of course, knew all of their faces but did not see the face that should have been there amongst them. The leader of this exclusive pack. She hurriedly asked Isaac, ‘Where’s Stefan? Is he not here?’
‘I’m here,’ his familiar voice came from the behind his brothers as he emerged from the treeline and finally into view, making Martha feel relieved all over again. It was not that she had a bad relationship with the other males she oft fought alongside, they simply saw her as less than their equal and therefore did not extend her the same respects as they did themselves. It irked her immensely but she knew that it would take longer than a small, mortal decade for their culture to change. She could fight alongside them and live within their company. It was enough. For now.
‘What’s happening?’ she asked him as he moved towards her. As if proving her point, his brothers respectfully stepped out of his way and then guarded his back.
‘Your actions here have been noticed,’ he stated the obvious before continuing. ‘And not simply by our enemies. This morning, Gadriel petitioned the others and my father backed his call for action. A decision was made. It went in your favour.’
Confused, Martha asked, ‘What do you mean? What decision?’
‘To have a standing force, backing your presence here.’ Stefan smiled, unable to mask his pride in what she had made transpire. ‘We have taken back the border, Martha. From this point forward, Marytown will be under our watch. Not theirs.’
Chapter 27
Martha couldn’t believe what she had just heard. It had been a decade since she was shown what surrounded Marytown and was then bluntly informed that nothing was ever going to be done about it because the area was not deemed worth the effort. It had rankled but she had been too hurt to care and eventually deferred to the judgement of those who knew better. The Pact kept the town and the people that she had left behind safe from the vanguards and the masters they served. So she had moved on. She had left Marytown to its fate. Now her actions had directly resulted in a coup that liberated the lands surrounding what had long been her home.
It was hard not to feel a little bit elated about that.
‘You should be pleased,’ Stefan acknowledged her surprise. ‘This is important.’
‘It’s huge,’ she acknowledged her understanding of the situation but then frowned. ‘Does this mean that The Pact will now be broken?’
Rather than answering her question, Stefan’s eyes lifted and went slightly behind her. She turned around and abruptly remembered that they were no
t alone. If the man behind her had been confused before, he was clearly more perturbed by the path the conversation had taken, making the whole situation even more awkward before Martha even thought to consider the interpersonal relationships involved. In a bid to bridge the gaping cultural abyss, she inelegantly decided to make some introductions, ‘Michael Parker, this is Stefan… Stefan… Parker.’
Her human companion stepped forward, wary in his approach but graciously offered out a hand. Stefan briefly gazed down at the appendage but rather than accepting the civil platitude, sternly spoke directly to his protégé, ‘Martha. A word.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ she replied, feeling deflated. Turning to Parker, she said, ‘Sorry, I…’
‘Go ahead,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll just… wait right here.’
‘I think you can probably call that in,’ she said, pointing at the wrecked car. ‘This won’t take long. I’ll be right back.’
Following Stefan away from the clearing, she couldn’t help but ponder over how insanely complicated her life had become. One of the things that had drawn her to the second chance at life that she had been granted all those years ago was its simplicity. She would heal and she would grow stronger. She would avenge what was done to her by allying herself with the only beings in the world that knew her abusers weaknesses because they had fought them for a millennia. Under the tutelage of their most adept warrior, she had trained and fought until she was good enough to stand alongside them and she had ensured, over a career spanning years, that innocents like her were not harmed as she was. It had been simple and now it was not. Now, there were two worlds. They represented the two sides of her and were colliding with mind-spinning intensity. It was enough to make her feel dizzy inside.
When she was certain that they were out of earshot, Martha glowered at Stefan, ‘Well, there was absolutely no need to be so rude to him.’
‘Wasn’t there?’ he retorted and she rolled her eyes. You would think, given the sheer amount of time in which she had known him, she would be unsurprised by Stefan’s nature but the encounter with Parker had riled her in ways that she didn’t want to think too hard about.
‘He’s a good man,’ she said. ‘He’s not about to run off and consort with our enemies.’
‘Forgive me if I do not have as much irrational trust in your former boyfriend as you do.’
A surprise guffaw of laughter burst from Martha’s lips. She shook her head, ‘Careful there, Stefan. A girl might find herself inclined to mistake your pragmatism for jealousy.’
Holding her eyes with a brusque stare, he said, ‘I have endeavoured for many years to build your status amongst our kind and now, we finally have an opportunity to show each and every one of your detractors that you are much more than a female, much more than your human upbringing. If you see my displeasure at you thinking your old personal life is anything more than a distraction as jealousy than perhaps I should remind you that there are more important things at stake here than any of our personal feelings.’
Martha swallowed. ‘I remember.’
‘The Pact will stay in place,’ he stated, seemingly answering her earlier question. ‘At least for now. Our presence here will be met with retribution but we are confident that we can hold the border and prevent them from reclaiming it.’
‘It’s a start,’ Martha agreed. ‘Where does this leave me?’
‘You are as we are, there is no sense in denying that. There’s a very good chance that you crossing the border from this point forward will be seen as a declaration of war but the response will not be immediate and I have no intention of telling you what you should do other than to let you know that Gadriel supports what you are doing here. You made the right choice in sending your mother to be with him. He wants you to be able to take care of your family, your sister.’
‘He mentioned Amanda?’ she sounded as surprised as she felt.
‘She too is Gale’s daughter. He understands your drive to protect her. We all do.’
Martha appreciated that. If anybody could comprehend the pull of a familial bond, it was the males that had come to offer her support from the border of Marytown. It was not merely a brand of camaraderie that bonded them all so close together. They were brothers in every sense of the word. Martha however found it somewhat difficult to relate what she was being told to the male that was being discussed but knew with certainty that Stefan would never relay a message that was false. Internally, she felt very conflicted, knowing that she now had a free pass to go back into Marytown and be with her sister but also knowing that there would be a price to pay. Eventually, she would have to face the male who made this possible and thank him. She would rather fight another fifty waves of vanguards than do that but it was inevitable.
With a newfound determination, she nodded and asked Stefan, ‘Can I go back now?’
‘You are free to do whatever you will, Martha. As you always have been.’
She nodded and turned away, but then paused after taking two steps back toward the clearing. ‘Thank-you, Stefan. I feel better, knowing that you’ll be here.’
‘Don’t hesitate to come and find me, should you need to.’
‘Usual place?’
‘I’ll be there,’ he said. She did not doubt it for a moment.
By the time that she returned to the clearing, the other males were gone, leaving her old personal life standing alone by the wrecked MPIA Honda. He watched her approach with a little bit of fear and a lot of suspicion. There was an edge to his tone as he informed her, ‘There’s a recovery vehicle on the way. Will be here within the next half an hour.’
‘Okay, great.’
‘Yeah, that should give you enough time to kill the witness and disappear the body.’
‘Excuse me?’ She responded incredulously before realising what he was implying. ‘No. Parker, no. It isn’t like that. I’m not going to… I would never do that.’
‘I’m finding that very difficult to believe right now.’
Taking a deep breath, she resisted the urge to look at her feet and break the intensity of his stare. His anger and mistrust was understandable and she had no right to tell him what he should or should not be feeling. He was afraid of her and what he had seen and that made her feel incredibly guilty but it would be selfish to not let him process the situation in his own way.
‘I won’t tell you to trust me,’ she said, carefully picking out her words. ‘But you should know that I could never hurt you. I’m not evil, Parker. That look you are giving me… I never wanted to have to see you look at me like that and I don’t enjoy having to do what I just did but when it comes down to it, I will defend myself. I won’t ever let them take me away again.’
‘Okay…’ he said simply after a considered stretch of silence. ‘They looked human.’
‘They weren’t. They were… demons. Sort of.’
‘I know that now,’ he retorted. ‘Your charming friend filled me in about that right before he made all the bodies disappear into thin air. But, hey, at least he shook my hand.’
‘Stefan is just… Stefan,’ she tried to explain. ‘He’s blunt and protective of me.’
Parker folded his arms across his chest. ‘Protective or possessive?’
‘It’s not like that,’ she quickly asserted though she didn’t know why she felt like she had to. Her relationship with Stefan may appear complex but it was actually very simple. At least it felt that way to her. ‘I don’t really expect you to understand.’
‘He saved you,’ Parker stated. ‘He found you and he helped you get better after you were abducted. He… trained you, gave you purpose again. You chose to be with him rather than come back and be with us. How’s that for understanding?’
Scarily accurate. Deciding to honour his frankness, she added, ‘We live together in the same residence. Separate areas. We have a bond but it’s utterly platonic, like being family.’
‘Right,’ he said, turning his back on her and going back to the car. ‘Are you hurt?’
<
br /> ‘No,’ she assured him a little bit confused by the switch in topics. ‘Nothing that won’t heal quickly. What about you? You hurt your head.’
Ignoring her concern, he stated, ‘You have a lot of blood on you.’
Martha looked down at herself and noted that he was right. The clothes that she had pulled from her old closet in the early hours were completely ruined, soaked in the blood of the vanguards that she had killed. In other circumstances, she would throw them out and not really think about it again but, for some reason, it brought a lump to her throat and a tear to her eye to see the vestiges of her old life so viscerally ruined by the brutality of the new.
It was illogical. They were only clothes, after all.
Pulling a large, black holdall out of the back of the car, Parker said, ‘There should be a change of clothes in there that will fit you,’ before dropping it at her feet. Seemingly seeing the confusion on her face, he added, ‘They’re Olivia’s. We carry spare clothing around in every car because sometimes the investigations can get… messy.’
‘Is that why also you carry a shotgun?’ Martha asked before she could think not to.
‘Yeah, something like that,’ he replied thinly. ‘The knife too. Only that one is mine. I’d like it back, if you don’t mind. It means a lot to me… You should get changed.’
‘Oh…’ She looked around, realising that she’d dropped the combat knife a little way off into the clearing though she did not remember when. Probably when she had seen him in danger.
Noting its location, she busied herself stripping off the bloody clothes from her body. Her underwear and t-shirt were the only items that had not been spattered and, because it felt like the right thing to do, she wrapped the bloodied blade up in it, informing Parker that she would clean it before returning it to him. The remainder of her clothing, including the checked shirt she had been so fond of went into a black bin liner. It felt like a shame but she let it go.
Parker turned and handed her a bottle of water, which he had also retrieved from the back of the car. If she had learned anything from this abrupt encounter it was that the staff at MPIA were prepared for anything. Even a vehicular demon ambush. She used the water to clean the blood off her hands and skin before rooting through the holdall for the clothes of a woman who she was sure was about ten feet taller and much curvier than her. What she found was a soft, almost lacy, cobalt grey vest and a pair of jeans that actually fit better than expected. The jacket was fitted, black and looked like it was designed to go with a smart suit. Martha also put that on, simply because it was cold. In reality, it was far, far too dressy for her tastes.
Sins of the Father (Bloody Marytown Book 1) Page 18
