From The Ashes (Life After War) (31 page)

“
Good. Maybe we could all start having Mess together?”

Jeremy instantly fell back into competition mode and Sam sighed. “Guess not.”

“
Why don't you just pick one of us?” Jeremy prompted. “We'll work it out.”

Sam shook her head, leading them to the crowded training tent. She wasn't the only one who didn't want to try sleeping right now. “That might ease the two of you, but it wouldn't make me happy.”

“
What would?”

Sam sighed, nerves about shot. She couldn't wait to start swinging. “Being able to spend time with who I want, without people acting like children.”

Jeremy felt the sting, but it was still attention and he responded. “Thanks.”

Samantha opened the flap, held it for him. “Anytime.”

Jeremy wanted to be pissed, but found himself grinning back. He just couldn't figure her out.

15

Becky snapped awake with a startled gasp, not sure where she was or what had happened. Her hand groped out to find Seth’s tense body at her side. They were in the parking area, in the back seat of his big truck.

“
What is it?”

Becky sat up, sweating and shivering. “Dream.”

Seth placed a gentle arm around her trembling shoulders. “Nightmare, you mean. He’s dead, Becca. You saw it.”

The girl nodded and let Seth guide her down to where he could wrap her up tight against him.

Becky felt the tears coming and let them.

“
Gonna have that mouth next, Becky baby!”

She shuddered, lost in her mental prison.

“
Rebecca?”

The different name helped pull her from of the past, and she bit down on her lip in an effort to stop crying. Rick was in her head so often! Seeing him die hadn’t been enough.

Ashamed, Becky buried her head against Seth’s chest to hide the tears she was unable to stop. She didn’t want to die anymore, but living looked hard, too.

Seth held her close, forgetting about the sinkhole, the possible witnesses, and everything else but her anguish. “You were betrayed. That’s not your fault. You didn’t cause this.”

Becky shuddered again. “I should have turned him in.”

Seth didn’t lie. “Yes.”

Becky sucked in a ragged breath. “I wish I had!”

She sounded completely different from the playful flirt they’d all become accustomed to hearing.

“
He’s like Angela. That’s why he won’t… wouldn’t die. Except he’s all darkness, where she’s light.”

Seth had wondered what information she might have gleaned from Rick while with him, but he hadn’t expected her to be so observant.

“
I think he was supposed to be one of us. That’s why he’s so full of hate. If we’d found him first… Cesar stole that hope.”

Becky trembled, forced herself to go on. “He wanted me broken and bleeding. He said… he said stealing my soul would destroy Neil and Sam, and through them–Adrian.”

Becky sobbed, shattering, and Seth tilted her head back to slant his mouth over hers.

She responded as if she were drowning, grateful for any distraction he could provide. His hands would put her back to sleep and she'd be able to try living again when she woke.

Lingering in the fog, Adrian watched Becky skillfully guide Seth's hands, small moans echoing. Now he understood what hadn’t been revealed by his Eagles. Seth was helping the teenager fight Rick’s ghost in a powerful way, one the camp wouldn't condone. Could he?

Awash in guilt at the answer, Adrian headed for the funeral. Yes, he could. He wasn't finished playing with her life, either. Becky's duty to the dream had really only just begun.

Chapter Nine

1

“
Are you sure you should be doing this? John didn’t clear a full course.”

Angela grunted, increased her pace instead of wasting her breath on words. It helped her to think. There was something about having the body in motion that sent new ideas and connections into the human brain.

Marc tried not to stare. Even with bags under her eyes and worried, Angela and those perky breasts were a sight to make a man glad to be alive.

Angela jumped the hole in the ground, landing smoothly despite the arm sling. Marc made sure to stay back, but he was ready to grab her if she slipped. She wasn’t happy about it, but it was the only way John would clear her for even a partial workout so soon. Both of her secret patients were doing well, one already back to work. The other was currently in Kyle’s tent, once again hiding out.

Angela jogged sharply down the flower-dotted hill. Face tight, she picked up the stride and forced air into her burning lungs.

Hanging back a bit more now, Marc watched her muscles flex as she jumped another, wider hole and rolled down a grassy incline. It had to be hurting her, and he knew for a fact that she hadn’t taken a pill. Where had this been when Kenn was beating on her? he wondered, not understanding that surviving it had taken incredible strength.

Angela didn’t correct him. It wasn’t worth the argument or possible misunderstanding. Let him think Kenn had been able to control her because she’d been weak. It didn’t matter, did it?

“
It shows another way he doesn’t understand you,
” the Witch offered.

Angela filed it, but without worry. They didn’t have to be alike in everything.

Angela's foot slipped as she hit the next embankment, and she allowed herself to fall into a roll that took her to the bottom with only a grunt of discomfort–much better than hitting her shoulder directly.

Marc tried not to be offended when she refused his hand, pushing herself up with one arm and a frown. He stared at her for a second of complete bewilderment before jogging to catch up. Would he ever understand what made her so determined that pain meant nothing?

Angela’s heart thumped. He wanted to know her in those ways she was still holding back, but she wasn’t sure he was ready to hear the truth, let alone to accept it. She’d changed… In mere months, Adrian had changed her.

They both called greetings as Charlie moved toward them.

“
Hey, boy.”

“
Good morning.”

Charlie didn’t glance at the men filling in the graves or the crowded Mess, taking Marc’s side. He also didn’t say anything.

That told Angela he wanted to talk to his father.

“
I,” she stated with dramatic eagerness. “Have a class. Excuse me.”

Angela went back the way they’d come and both males tried not to frown or remark on it. Neither of them wanted her to go out of camp at all, but she was clearly stir-crazy. If she could prove she was in shape, Adrian would let her go into Wichita.

The males waited until she was out of earshot, and then Marc met his gaze. “What’s up?”

2

Cynthia nodded to Angela as she went by and got the same in return. She and Matt were working on speech lessons, the reporter insisting on doing it in public for numerous reasons. The biggest was her refusal to be accused of having a thing for someone younger. Too many of this camp’s men had shown that side, and the females were getting tired of it.

“
Do it again.”

The din of the Mess had Matt flustered, cheeks red. Matt repeated the rhyme, easier this time, and stared up at her in adoration. “That was better, huh?”

“
Yes.”

Cynthia’s attention was drawn away as Li Sing came out to personally reload the buffet dishes. Maria had always sent one of her helpers, preferring to hide in the truck. Li Sing liked to circle the tables and make sure people were happy. It wasn’t hard to guess he’d owned a restaurant before the War.

The eager-to-please man had been put in charge of the Mess and providing Safe Haven with a new menu-a quick choice last night by Adrian after a snack he was served. The rice patties and bamboo shoots had been covered in beef and gravy, and Adrian had been sold. It was good, considering that all their food was now nonperishable or being raised. Hilda had run out of meal ideas a while back for the items they had in abundance, but Li Sing had added a new item to his menu every week before the War. He’d promised their stocks of beans and rice would yield more than plates of the same. All of them hoped it was true. After six months, stocks of supplies had dwindling into small stashes that would hold them for days at a time instead of weeks. Many of their favorite items were now only occasional treats.

Cynthia saw Angela's shadow a few seconds later–Zack–and approved. Anyone who wanted to cause Angela trouble here would now have a hard time finding an accomplice. Even Nature wasn’t getting the chance to attack from the bottom again. They would camp on a solid base for a while and more than a few of the camp were already limping due to sore feet. Concrete sucked.

Cynthia swept the crowded Mess around them, spotting Doug lunching with Maria’s boys, and quickly dropped her eyes at the surprising number of males who tried to catch her attention. It felt so odd to be wanted! She wouldn't trade it for anything.

3

Angela slid into the pharmacy tent with a grimace at the strong alcohol odor. “Hey, Tonya, got a minute? I’d like to...”

Angela stopped at the sight of Kenn, shirt off and lying on a bedroll behind the makeshift wooden counter. “Tonya around?”

“
She has babysitting duty.”

“
Oh, right.”

Without the layers of fat and cruelty, Kenn’s hard body was still enough to make the past come flying back in thick waves.

“
There’s only one thing she wants from you, if you came for more than wipes or Chapstick.”

Angela turned around, needing to go. The tent even smelled like the past. “What's that?”

“
A chance.”

Angela understood that Kenn wanted to speak on behalf of the redhead and made herself wait.

Kenn hoped his faith in Tonya wasn’t misplaced. “She deserves it.”

Hearing him care for someone was a good moment, and it broke some of the hold the ghosts were gaining. She really did need all the hard-assed women she could gather, and Tonya fit that part without a doubt.

“
I don’t know how it would work, but if I didn’t tell Anne no, I won’t tell Tonya that, either.”

Kenn grunted in satisfaction, and Angela let anger bleed through. “You’d better be sure, Marine. He will banish you for tanking
this
part of the dream.”

Kenn’s answer was oddly confident. “I think you’ll be surprised.”

Angela sighed restlessly, glancing around. Unlike the mess she’d come to expect from the redhead, Tonya’s tent was orderly, jars and shelves neatly packed away.

Angela stored it and moved on. “I’m going to hold an official tryout. Have her show up five minutes late. Even if she blows it, the surprise might rattle the two women tied for top and help me pick.”

“
Thought you would have already.”

Angela swiveled, bracing for the sight of his naked chest, only to find he’d pulled a shirt on.
Wow
. She was stunned for a minute. She'd never gotten that kind of respect from him. “If it were your choice to make?”

Kenn loved it and hated it that she’d asked–loved the sense of power, but hated the urge to help that usually only Adrian drew.

“
It depends on what you need from a right hand.”

Kenn looked away. “Adrian chose me because he knows there isn’t anything he asks of me that I won’t give him or die trying to. If he needed a stronger moral line, he would have chosen Neil.”

Angela concentrated, not afraid to reveal these things to Kenn, but surprised to be taking him seriously. “And what if I need both of those, at different times, along with organization and constant communication? Who fits that?”

Kenn snorted. “You won’t like my answer.”

Angela’s tenor was only slightly bitter. “I hardly ever did, but tell me anyway.”

Kenn grunted. “As I’m sure you know, I have a lot of time to observe things now, since most of the Eagles aren’t talking to me.”

Angela nodded, sure that would eventually ease.

“
Well, I’ve never seen a more manipulative chick in my life,” Kenn stated. “And that includes you.”