The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (46 page)

"Kathlyn," he murmured
into the top of her head. "I'm not trying to be unreasonable. But I love
you and I don't want to see anything happen to you. Can you understand that?"

"I do. But I love you and I
don't want to see anything happen to you, either. Out of the two of us, I'm the
better bet and we both know it."

He held her tightly. She stopped
crying and clung to him. There was so much chemistry and emotion between them
that it was difficult to watch the scene and not feel the power.

 "An hour," he said
hoarsely. "I'll give you an hour. After that, I go in there looking for
you. Do you understand me?"

She nodded, looking at him with
her great green eyes. "I'll be in and out in an hour, I promise."

He cupped her face in his big,
dirty hands, taking a long last look at her.  He tried to be strong about it
but his emotion was written all over his face. "Christ," he choked.
"If I lose you, I'll never forgive myself."

She kissed him. It was sweet and
longing. "You won't lose me. I'll always come back to you, I swear
it."

Marcus gave her one last kiss
before tearing himself away. He had to before he changed his mind.
"Tony," he forced the words out. "Let's get rolling. She's going
in."

Tony didn't like her going back
into the cavern any more than Marcus did. But he respected their decision. He
only prayed, as he watched the final glances between Marcus and Kathlyn, that
it wasn't the wrong one.

CHAPTER
TWENTY ONE

"How long?"

"Forty-seven minutes, five
seconds."

"She's got thirteen minutes,
fifty-five seconds before I go in after her."

"You've got to give her
time. If you go in there now, you might blow everything. For all you know, she
has everything under control. You're wife isn't an idiot, you know."

Tony's mood was rarely anything
other than even. At this moment, it was bordering on tense. He had watched
Marcus twitch and pace for the past forty-odd minutes and the anxiety was
catching.  It angered him. Anxiety, in his business, could be deadly.

"I know what my wife is and
isn't," Marcus snapped at him. "She isn't a soldier. She isn't a
member of Search and Rescue, or anything like it. But she's filling both shoes
right now and I'm not going to apologize for my concern. I shouldn't have let
her go, anyway. Why do I always give in to her when I know damn well it's not a
good thing?"

Tony sighed heavily. "We've
been through this. You need to relax, Marcus. Just trust that she's going to
come through this."

"Thirteen minutes and I go
in."

"You're going to get
yourself chewed up by those things if you do. Maybe her, too."

Marcus glared at him. "Why
the hell are you so calm about this? She's doing your goddamn job, you know. I
would think you'd show a little more concern."

Tony crossed his arms calmly.
"Does fighting with me make you feel better?"

"Yes, it does."

"Want to punch me,
too?"

"Maybe."

Tony uncrossed his arms and
grinned. "Take your best shot, Dr. Burton. I've seen what you can do, but
go ahead. Give it to me. What's a broken jaw it if will help you calm
down?"

Marcus glared at him a moment
longer before breaking out into a reluctant smirk. "Ass," he growled
benignly. "You're just like her. You take things far too lightly."

Tony slapped him on the big
shoulder, his blue-blue eyes focused on the dark cavern entrance. "Not
really," he said. "We just don't get worked up about things we can't
control."

"And I do?”

Tony burst out laughing. "Do
you recall the fights I've pulled you out of?" When Marcus wouldn't look
at him, he laughed harder. "You are by far the most aggressive,
confrontational man I've ever met. But you're also one of the most
compassionate, brilliant men I've ever known. A weird combination."

Marcus pursed his lips irritably.
"Shut up."

Tony stopped laughing, but his
grin remained. "You know what I see in you? You're going to hate me for
saying this, but I see a hero like Achilles or Heracles or St. George fighting
the dragon. You've got a strength in you that's hard to describe, but it's
something all men wish they had." He sat down on the nearest outcropping
of rock. "You and Kathlyn are made for each other. You don't see much of
that in a lifetime, if ever. I admit that it makes me jealous sometimes."

Marcus' irritation fled and he
shook his head. "Then you know why I'm as worried as I am."

"I do. But I also know this
isn't a matter of trust. You trust her implicitly. You just don't trust those
creatures."

"Exactly."

"But you also know she was
right; they won't hurt her. But they'll kill you."

Marcus didn't want to hear what
he already knew. He liked to think he could fight his way out of anything, but
he had seen the damage those creatures had inflicted. It made him sick to think
of all those dead Americans down in the cave, including Ross Ellsner.  He didn't
want to end up like that.

"Fine," he said
quietly. "So what would you suggest I do? Just sit here and hope she comes
out eventually?"

Tony nodded slowly.
"Something like that."

"If she was your wife, what
would you do?"

Tony got a strange expression on
his face. "You would have to ask me that."

Marcus cocked an eyebrow.
"You see? It's not so easy, is it?"

In the dark sky, a soft rumble of
engines could be heard. It was distant at first, growing closer. Tony and
Marcus strained to see the aircraft against the deep sky, the barely visible
running lights skimming the air about sixty feet off the ground. The day had
produced more than its share of low-flying aircraft.

"Who the hell is that?"
Marcus muttered suspiciously. "Iraqi military?"

Tony studied the plane as it grew
close, finally swooping overhead in a thunder of roaring engines.

  "I'll be damned," he
said. "An old C-141 transport. Those things haven't flown in service since
World War Two. I wonder where it came from?"

Marcus watched it dip in the sky,
apparently in the direction of the village. "I don't know," he said.
"But it looks like it's getting ready to land."

Tony was as baffled as Marcus. 
"Why?" he wondered aloud. "More importantly, who's on it?"

They were about to find out.

***

"Talk to it," Fayd
hissed. "Say something!"

Kathlyn was backed against the
warm, damp wall. In front of her stood the Curious one, his normally benevolent
expression non-existent.  His yellow eyes glowed at her as if viewing a rabbit
caught in a snare. She didn't like the appearance at all.

"He can't understand
me," Kathlyn said through clenched teeth.

 "You must try," Fayd
insisted. "They're going to kill us all!"

That was probably true. Deep in
the bowels of the cavern where it was dark and smelly, a host of winged creatures
hovered in the shadows, quivering and hissing. Kathlyn had managed to stumble
onto her friends only a few minutes ago after traversing the maze of steamy
tunnels and shafts. She didn't even know where she was exactly; it was an area
she'd not yet been introduced to. She had, however, marked the walls as she
explored, using brittle white granite rock that Tony had given her. At least,
she hoped she could find her way out. But she wasn't leaving without her
colleagues, and she wasn't entirely sure the creatures were going to let them
all go. They seemed more like ravenous lions waiting for the kill and she
didn't like the feelings she was sensing.

Dennis, Fayd, Mark, Otis and Gary
sat against a wall, tied up with the same wet ropey fiber that Tony had been
tied up with. They didn't look any worse for the wear, and she was thankful.
Considering the state of the military men in the main cavern, it was also a
surprise. But Jace was down with a wound to his gut, not yet dead, but
seriously injured. He had been vomiting blood and Kathlyn knew that wasn't a
good sign.

She gazed at the Curious one,
trying to remain calm. She could sense his fury and betrayal.

"Please," she said
softly. "Please untie my friends and let them go."

The Curious one just stared at her.
Kathlyn summoned her courage and took a step in the direction of the others.
The Curious one lifted his wings to discourage her. But she bravely took
another step, and still another. The wings lifted higher and higher.  The
tension rose but Kathlyn took her eyes off the creature, moving closer to her
colleagues.  She decided to treat him just as she would treat Marcus; doing
what she had to do, knowing she was right and to hell with the consequences.
Frighteningly, she could feel the breeze from the Curious one as he flapped his
wings in one great gesture to spook her. It worked, but she kept moving. He was
trying to intimidate her, but she wouldn't be swayed.

She finally reached Fayd. As she
knelt beside him and reached for his bindings, the creatures in the shadows
began a chorus of loud hissing. Shivers ran down Kathlyn's spine and she could
feel the Curious one standing behind her, ready to pounce at any moment. But he
had yet to touch her. Without looking at Fayd's terrified face, she untied the
bindings with shaking fingers. The ropes fell away.

"Now, don't move," she
whispered to him. "Just sit tight and show him you mean him no harm."

Fayd complied, mostly because he
had nowhere to go even if he did try to run. Kathlyn moved to Gary and Mark,
and then to Otis. They all sat there, still as stone, watching Kathlyn untie
the bindings and trying not to make eye contact with the massive creature
hovering behind her. It was odd how he went out of his way to glare menacingly
at her, but stopped short of physically preventing her from unfastening the
ropes. The hissing in the cavern was a soft roar by the time she got to
Dennis.  When his bindings were off, she bent over Jace.

"Jace?" she murmured.
"Can you hear me?"

He was lying on his side, deathly
pale. His brown eyes opened, however, and he focused on her.

"Kath... Kathlyn," he
said weakly. "So they called in the big guns, huh? How're you doing,
baby?"

She smiled at him, stroking his
damp forehead. "I'm going to get you out of here," she said.
"Can you walk?"

His eyes closed slowly. "I
doubt it," he whispered. "They got me good, right in the gut. I'm
going to die from this."

"Don't talk like that,"
she could feel a lump in her throat. "Not until Juliana and I have had a
chance to throw you out of the house again without your clothes and change all
the locks."

A weak smile came to his lips.
"Evil women," he was barely audible. "Kat, you need to tell her
something if... if I don't get the chance."

Kathlyn wasn't sure she wanted to
hear. "What?"

"Tell her that I was the one
who gave her the Herpes."

"What?"

He started to laugh. Even in his
darkest hour, Jace was the arrogant smart aleck. "I'm kidding," he
murmured. "Tell her... tell her I'm really sorry about all of this. I
don't know what else to say."

Kathlyn glanced at Dennis and
Otis, sitting the closest.  Their expressions were grave. "You can tell
her yourself," she said. "I'm going to get you out of here now, do
you hear me?"

"Aye, aye, captain."

Kathlyn looked over at the group,
her hand protectively on Jace's back. "I marked my path in here," she
said. "If we just stand up and walk very slowly out of here, maybe they'll
let us go."

The Curious one was standing
closest to Kathlyn. The men looked up at him, dubiously.

"Kathlyn," Otis said
softly," I think letting us go is the last thing on their minds."

Kathlyn couldn't give in to his
negativity. "Well, you can't just sit here."

 "Don't you see what's going
on?"

"What do you mean?"

"All of those bones we've
found all over the place, human bones. Don't you see what's happening?"

"No. What?"

Otis looked at the phantoms
surrounding them. "I think they're getting ready to feed."

Kathlyn's heart beat a little
faster. "But why you guys? They have all those bodies up in the main
cavern to feast on if that's the case."

"How do you know they
haven't already?"

"Well... I don't."

"And you still think they're
going to let us walk out of here?"

"We won't know until we
try."

That was true, but no one wanted
to be the first one to move. Finally, Kathlyn rose slowly to her feet.

"I'll keep him distracted
while you guys get Jace out of here," she said. "Go on, move."

Dennis grabbed Jace and gently
pulled him up. Jace groaned with pain and Gary got around on the other side of
him to support him. The Curious one spread his wings high and long and the air
of the cave stirred menacingly around them.