Operation: Marauder
Chapter 10

Rowan had never seen Jack like this before. He was pacing around the main deck like a wild animal stuck in a cage. Not that he blamed him. Cas confirmed, Jack’s sister had killed a Wraythe. None of them were entirely sure how a human could have gotten the upper hand on a Wraythe or what a Wraythe was doing with Jack’s sister. None of them really cared. She was alive and that was all that mattered.

Maliki lowered the ramp as soon as the ship touched the ground. Rowan had an odd sense that he had been on this street before. It was hard to forget the pink house that sat across from Zoey’s. When Jack turned for the house opposite the pink one, Rowan felt as if someone had sucker punched him.

The street was familiar because he had been here before. That house was Zoey’s. Jack’s sister was Zoey.

“Fuck.” He forgot all about protocol, scanning the area for Wraythe and other threats; he ran for the house, shoving the broken door aside. The house was dark, but his keen eyes spotted the shadow moving towards him. “Zoey!”

Her shirt had been torn open, right down to her navel. Her socks had soaked up the Wraythe’s blood and stained the rug she stood on. Despite how disheveled she was, she looked set to beat whomever came through her front door with the cast iron pan in her hand.

As soon as she saw Rowan, she dropped it. ”Rowan?”

His hearts broke to hear her sound so tired and scared. She had been holding strong, waiting for them to come, and the relief was visible in those brilliant blue eyes. “I’m here.”

He stepped for her, having every intention of pulling her into his arms and never letting go. But Jack pushed past him and basically tackled Zoey with a hug.

“Are you okay??” He took a quick inventory of her, realised he couldn’t see much, then flicked the lights on. Rowan’s eyes hurt for a moment. Then he saw Zoey’s bruises. The bite mark on her throat.

A growl ripped out of his throat. “Which motherfucker bit you?” He wanted a thorough description then he was going hunting. He was going to make sure that Wraythe suffered for daring to taste her blood.

“That one.” She pointed at the body on the kitchen floor, eyes devoid of guilt or sympathy for what she had done. Rowan was pleased to see how thorough she had been in making sure he didn’t come after her again--but he was disappointed it had been quick.

Knox let out a soft whistle as he entered the house, eyes instantly landing on the body. “Daaaamn. You really did kill a. . . vampire.” He cringed at the use of the word, but Jack had been adamant they went along with Zoey’s belief of vampires instead of telling her the truth. It was bullshit. After this, she should be told everything.

Knox went up to the body, flipping it over with his boot, so the Wraythe stared up at the ceiling. A part of his skull was caved in where she had hit him.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Zoey darted for the bathroom, Jack hot on her heels.

Rowan couldn’t help feeling a little proud that she had handled herself so well, showed more strength he gave humans credit for. He’d tell her she did well, but he didn’t think that was what she needed to hear right now. She just needed to know she was safe and no longer alone. Which Jack was providing instead of him.

To distract himself from the fact he wanted to be the one by Zoey’s side, he turned to Knox. “Get rid of the body.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Cas?” he called, hearing him enter the house.

“Yeah?”

“Take care of Zoey.” He tried to make it sound like a simple order, but Cas had known him the longest, gone through boot camp with him, and caught on to the weight of his words; he squeezed his shoulder in a silent comfort before heading to the bathroom.

Maliki came in and helped Knox clean up the mess. Rowan stood out of their way, looking around the house, partly out of curiosity--this was Zoey’s home, everything, from the pictures on the walls to how the furniture was placed, told him a little something about her--but mostly to figure out what the hell a Wraythe was doing in her kitchen. They had been constantly scanning the area for a sign of the Wraythe, looking into unusual homicides. Nothing. Now one attacked Zoey. Why? Was it a random event, she just happened to be in the wrong place and the wrong time, or was it targeted? If it was, what did they want with her?

Jack came down the hall, rubbing his forehead. He looked a little pale, and sat down in the nearest chair.

“Is she okay?” Rowan couldn’t help asking.

He nodded absently, staring at a wall full of pictures. Some were of Zoey and her friend, one with a woman who looked like an older version of her, most with Jack, standing on top of a cliff, inside a helicopter, in front of a Cessna, keys dangling from Zoey’s hand. He was drawn to one in particular when she was much younger, early teens, standing in front of a human spacecraft, propped up, ready to launch. She looked the happiest he had ever seen her, absolutely ecstatic to be so close to such a primitive--compared to what he had seen--ship. If only she knew there was a ship cloaked right in front of her house. He wondered what she would think of it. Of him.

“She got hurt because of me,” Jack confessed, gruff, hollow. His gaze remained on the wall of pictures as if he could go back in time and stop this from happening. “They grabbed her on Sunday,” he went on painfully. He wasn’t the only one wishing he had been here this week. “She counted six altogether. She doesn’t know where exactly they took her, but it was a warehouse in a meadow. I can think of a few places it can be.”

“We’ll check every single one,” Rowan promised. “Those fuckers are going to pay.” No one touched an Arthonian’s female unless they wanted to lose a limb. Or their life.

“They threatened to kill her,” he continued numbly, dropping his head in his hands. “She didn’t tell them anything. She. . . would have died for me. That’s not why I joined the army. I’m supposed to die for her, people like her. She should have told them everything, save herself.”

“She’s smart,” Rowan told him, clasping a hand on his shoulder. “She knew they would have killed her once she gave them everything.” Rowan couldn’t have been more grateful for her quick thinking. He didn’t know what he would do if a Wraythe had been her undoing.

Jack gripped his hair tight then let it go with a long breath. “She was supposed to be bait. They wanted her to call me in. They wanted me.”

“You?” It wasn’t his blood they longed for. What did they want with Jack?

“To get to you. They know I’m human. They can’t touch you. . . not really. You have the advantage; you’ve been here longer, have our protection, our weapons. Me? They can throw me around like a sack of potatoes and there wouldn’t be a whole lot I could do to stop them.” Rowan knew he was thinking about their trip to Russia. “They can’t reach you, so they’ll use the humans you’ve grown attached to to bring you out.”

Rowan snorted. “That isn’t a long list.”

“It doesn’t have to be. Clearly.”

Rowan looked down the hallway where Cas was examining Zoey in her room then back to Jack. His hearts contracted at the thought of the Wraythe coming after her again. She killed one of their own. It was personal now. He couldn’t let them replace her. “Zoey can’t stay here.”

Jack laughed, standing up to look at him. “She’s going to hate the base. She won’t be authorized to see half of the stuff we have there.”

“Then tell her.”

“It’s not up to us to decide.”

Rowan couldn’t believe his ears. “You’re kidding. Without her, we still wouldn’t know how many of them there are. We wouldn’t even know they were here and looking to replace ways to get to us. She deserves to know.”

Jack gave him a look Rowan hated, no matter who wore it. It was a look that said their hands were tied. Bullshit. All he had to do was go to that bedroom and tell her he was from another planet and he was at war with her so-called vampires. That she was safe now and he’d do everything in his power to make sure those bloodsuckers never hurt her again.

Rowan didn’t realise he was heading towards her bedroom until Jack put a hand on his chest. “Don’t.”

He snarled. “Fuck off.”

“You can’t go around telling who you want where you’re from, Rowan,” Jack argued sternly. “If you tell her, they’ll think I’ve lost control of you and reassign me. If I tell her without their permission, they’ll demote me. Please, don’t say anything yet.” It wasn’t so he could keep his job, Rowan knew, it was so he could make sure Zoey was under the best care, and he couldn’t do that if he wasn’t working with them.

Lucky for him, Rowan liked working with Jack and didn’t want to have to deal with training another human. Or to tarnish his record.

He backed off with a frustrated growl. He bit his lip shut when he heard the bedroom door open. Zoey and Cas made their way out, the former looking so drained, ready to fall asleep at a moment’s notice. He didn’t blame her. It had been a rough week.

Her eyes flitted over to him and stayed, ignoring everyone else in the room. He saw the questions dancing inside them, burning so bright, she could barely hold them back. “I thought you said you were contracted under the government.”

“I am,” he answered, confused. Had she misunderstood what he did?

She waited for him to say more, but he wasn’t sure what he could say that wouldn’t make her think he had been lying to her. When he said nothing further, she sighed and patted the outside of her thighs. “I guess I should have asked what that contract entailed.”

Jack frowned at both of them. “How do you know each other?” It was like he couldn’t imagine their lives ever colliding.

Zoey shrugged. “I detailed his car. He’s the client I told you about who wanted the tanky SUV.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Knox barged through the living room and stood over Zoey, examining her head to toe critically, like she was a bomb about to go off. Rowan wanted to rip him away--Jack too, really--and hold her close. Protect her. Comfort her. ”You’re the mechanic.”

She scrunched her face up in annoyance. “What are you talking about?”

Maliki’s eyes went wide. “Oooh. No way. Here I thought we’d never get to meet this mysterious female.”

Jack looked at his sister then at Rowan; he had to do it several times, face going redder with every passing. “No! Nuh-huh. This isn’t happening. Zoey, forget about him.”

She crossed her arms, giving him a hard glower. “You don’t get to decide who I date. That being said, now I’m not sure I want to go on a date.”

Rowan did not want to hear that. “Can we talk?”

“Sure. Why do those vampires want you? Why are they so scared of you?”

He wanted to tell her. His body burned to tell her. It took all of his concentration to keep his mouth shut. And it killed him a little inside because he knew if he didn’t say something, she wouldn’t trust him and he could kiss whatever they had goodbye.

Jack stepped up. “You can’t ask him those questions, Zoey. It’s classified.”

Closing her eyes, sucked in a deep breath and held it, clenching her fists at her sides. “I fucking hate that word.”

Jack moved to take her hands; she pulled away from him, shaking her head at him.

He sighed heavily. “Look, I know this sucks, but that’s all I got. Now, go pack a bag. You’re coming back with us.”

"Fuck you, Jack. I’m not going anywhere if you won’t tell me what’s going on.”

“Don’t be stupid. It’s for your protection, Zoey,” Jack gritted.

She stood straighter, rolling her shoulders back. “I killed one, I can kill the others.”

Jack reached for Zoey. Without thinking, Rowan grabbed him, yanking him away from his female, then stood in front of her. He didn’t care if Jack was her brother, he wasn’t about to let him take her by force or talk to her like that. “That’s enough.”

“Move away from my sister, Rowan.” Jack shoved him. He shouldn’t have. Rowan bared his teeth, raring to tear his throat out for getting between him and Zoey.

A loud whistle pierced his ears.

“You’re taking too fucking long,” Mave snapped, marching through the door. “I am not a taxi service! There’s a storm coming and I don’t want to get caught up in it. Cas, help Zoey pack a bag. Everyone else--outside.”

The fact that Mave had just saved Jack’s life, showed Rowan how out of control he had gotten. He wasn’t in the mind frame to lead his crew. He needed to calm down and regroup.

So he followed Mave’s order, ignoring the hard, disappointed look the pilot fixed on him, and waited inside the craft.