Operation: Marauder
Chapter 12

They took Zoey away. Just like that. And Rowan did nothing to stop it. Not when his instincts burned for him to throw Sergeant Timber into the wall and pull her close to him. Not when her fear crept up in her voice when she tried to stay with him. He couldn't do anything. His relationship with the humans was too delicate. Any sign of him losing control and he could kiss going home goodbye.

Jack and Colonel Shaw left for a debriefing while Rowan was locked in his seething rage, leaving his crew alone in the hangar.

Cas gripped his shoulder. "She's safe, Rowan."

Safe. She was safe from the Wraythe, but now she was a prisoner here. Because of him.

"I want to see her." What he really needed to do was talk to her and explain their misunderstanding. He hadn't lied to her and he certainly would never hurt her, if the Wraythe had made her believe he was something to be afraid of.

"You know they won't allow that," Maliki reminded him. "She was supposed to have never met us. They don't want her to know anything that's going on."

He clenched his fists. He wanted to hit something.

"She's a big girl," Knox assured him. "If she can kill a Wraythe, she'll be fine here. Let's focus on replaceing the rest of them so she doesn't have to stay long."

Rowan liked that plan. The sooner they did that, the sooner he could talk to Zoey and hope she'd give him another chance.

He led the others back to their quarters. It consisted of three bedrooms, each containing two bunk beds that barely held the weight of one of his men. They met in the middle via the main room where their kitchenette sat on one end and the living room on the other. Knox and Maliki usually took up most of the living room, spending their downtime playing Call of Duty on a console. They had similar pastimes on Arthos, but they didn't have remotes, the console was a room and it would create the world around you. Much like the humans' virtual reality concept.

Tonight, however, Rowan had declared it the war room. He gathered a map of the area and laid it on the coffee table. "Cas, you talked to Zoey. What did she say?"

"She was taken from here." The medic crouched and drew a circle around the airport. "She doesn't think she was in the van too long--which she thinks was a rental, something else we can look into. They took her to a warehouse. When she escaped, it was too dark for her to see any landmarkers, but she thinks the warehouse was in this general area." He circled the massive district only a few kilometers away from the airport. "She said she saw a meadow, too, which rules out these ones." He drew a line through a row of warehouses that ran along a trucking road.

Rowan looked at the two blocks that left them, impressed by Zoey's quick thinking. Was there anything she couldn't do?

"All right. Starting tomorrow, we'll scope out the area."

"What are we doing?" Jack came through the door, turning a suspicious pair of eyes their way. "What's going on?"

Rowan straightened up, regarding Jack carefully. He'd been gone some time with his superiors. The fact he was here was a good sign, but they wouldn't have let him get away with bringing his sister to the base, almost exposing their secret. "How did Colonel Shaw take the news?" Depending on his answer, Rowan would tell him what they were up to.

Jack scratched the back of his head and sighed heavily, deflating as he did. "I'm here. For now. He thinks I've lost the objective of our arrangement, that I'm too buddy-buddy with you guys."

"What does that mean for us?" Knox asked, hopping onto the back of the couch to get a better view of Jack as he joined them in the living room. He chose to stand away from the rest of them. Rowan didn't like how aloof he was being. It wasn't a good sign.

"You'll get a new liaison if I get into more shit. So, what are you doing?"

"Making a plan," Rowan informed him. It would be easier to scope the warehouses with Jack's help anyway, and it would keep the higher ups of their backs for the time being. "If the Wraythe are here, we need to replace them before the body count climbs."

As long as the Wraythe were here plotting against them, the residents of Connaville were in danger. Depending on their source, Wraythe needed to feed from every other day to once a week; judging by the work Cas had done on humans, he estimated they would need to feed every three days if they fed off humans. At some point, the humans were going to notice a pattern and start asking questions when people started disappearing. So far the best the military had to say there had been a virus outbreak that made people drink blood. Rowan doubted it would work, but hey, they weren't his people, so they could say what they want.

Nodding in agreement, Jack glanced at the map, the circles and crosses they had made. "There are more warehouses out here." He gestured to the other side of town. "They should be checked too. I'll get in contact with local law enforcement tomorrow, request more patrols near parks and neighbourhoods. With this much ground to cover, I can probably get another team to help us. Maliki, how are those incendiary rounds coming along?"

"We're getting there. But we're hitting a minor issue of them exploding as soon as they're fired."

Cas' eyebrows shot into his hair dubiously. "Minor?"

Maliki shrugged casually. "No one's been hurt. We'll figure it out."

"You have to," Jack urged. "Our guns can't kill them otherwise. We're depending solely on your claws."

"Hang on," Knox interjected. "Not entirely. Zoey killed one with an iron pan. We can arm everyone with pans."

Iron wasn't a common substance on their planet, so to replace out that the Wraythe were weak to it was quite the revaluation.

Cas and Mave laughed at him, but Maliki seemed to like the idea. "I can work with that." He left without another word to write a list of materials he'd need for his plans.

Cas stood up. "Well, if the meeting is adjourned, I'm going to get some rest. I never think I'll miss these bunks until I spend a week on a thin roll of foam."

Knox stretched his arms over his head. "I suppose with the Wraythe in town looking for us, we shouldn't leave the base, should we?"

"No," Rowan and Jack coarsed, putting a frown on Knox's face. "If you need a women's company," Rowan continued, "replace one on base. That isn't Zoey," he added to the inspired look in his eyes. Zoey was off limits. She was his.

"I second that," Jack proclaimed.

Waving him off, not caring about Jack's opinion in the matter of women, Knox left.

Jack turned to Rowan, jaw clenched. Mave saw it too; he cleared his throat and muttered something about the gym.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Jack crossed the living room and stood right in front of him. Rowan was a few inches taller than him, had more muscle mass, but with the look the human gave him, he wouldn't have known. "We need to talk about Zoey."

"Yeah, we do," Rowan agreed, though he wasn't keen on his tone. "I like her, Jack. She's brought something out in me I thought I lost." Being stranded on this planet, away from his family and friends, hell, even his superiors, had left him feeling hollow. Zoey filled the hole in his chest. She intrigued him in ways he didn't know possible. Surprised him even more so.

"I don't care. I don't want you near her."

He suppressed a growl. "Why not? I'm not looking for a one time thing. I want to get to know her, understand her, be with her."

"That's exactly why," he snapped. "What are you going to do when she falls in love with you and the ship's fixed?"

The rage in Rowan puttered out. Jack didn't care if he was an alien, if he loved her, or if he just wanted a fuck. It was what would happen when he left. He hadn't thought about it. He only wanted her.

"I. . ."

"Hadn't thought about it? Yeah, I know you haven't. So just do my sister a favour now and leave her alone. If you really care about her, you won't take things further."

Rowan stood still, too afraid to move in case he threw the couch across the room. He wanted to throttle Jack for being right.

He cared about Zoey, more than he anticipated. He wanted to worship her body, hear her laugh, spend every moment on this dull planet with her. The cost was her heart. It was too high a price.

Despite every effort, a growl rumbled in his chest. He stepped away from him, gripping the couch as his claws came out. "Fine. I'll keep my distance."

"You better." Jack stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Rowan felt as if he had taken a part of his soul with him.

Zoey was bored out of her mind. She had already had the longest shower of her life to rid herself of the black icor and rummaged through Jack's things to see if he had any embarrassing secrets she could tease him about later. Nothing.

Thankfully, she found a flight simulator on Jack's computer, equipped with a stick and a throttle lever. She wasn't allowed to pick her plane, unfortunately. Couldn't even look up to see which model it was, because it handled much differently than she was used to and she wanted to know what engineering masterpiece had given her this challenge. She crashed it several times before getting the hang of the controls, then she was zooming around the planet, gliding under bridges, weaving between mountains. It was the most fun she was probably allowed to have on this stupid base.

Then she found the combat option. Nothing worked out her frustrations more than being able to shoot things out of the sky. Aside from physically hitting things. As it was, she was locked in Jack's room, which wasn't small, big enough to host a double bed, couch, TV, and a bathroom. Still, there was no window, the walls were as bland as water, and the fact Timber wouldn't let her leave drove her up the wall.

She wanted to see Jack, ask him how his meeting went--ask if she was ever going to be free again. She wanted to see Rowan, let him know she wasn't as mad at him as she had been earlier and if he still wanted to get a drink, she'd be happy to join him. She wanted to feel his skin again, to look him in the eye as she touched him, ask him why he felt so different. . . so good.

The door opened.

Zoey glanced over her shoulder, back at Jack, then went back to dogfighting with two alien ships hot on her tail.

"Zoey!"

Jack lunged for the computer and yanked the controls out of their sockets. The alien ships shot her down. The screen went dead.

"Jack! What the hell? I had them!"

"That's a classified document," he hissed, peering at the door, as if he expected Timber to come in and bust them. "How did you get on my computer, anyway?"

"Your password is 'It'sSomnerTime'." It had been for as long as he's been writing passwords. Idiot.

His face went red. "Looks like I have to change my password."

"You're a few years too late. Anyway, why can't I play that game? I need something to do, Jack."

He started tidying the cords and remotes away, avoiding her gaze. "I'll see about getting a console for you to play with while you're here. I can probably get you access to the library if you want to pick up some books, too. You can't have your phone, but I'll get you an iPod with all your music on it for you. Is there anything else you want?"

"Can I see Rowan? I need to talk to him."

"No." That was it. Didn't even look at her. Didn't offer any explanation.

"Why not?" she pressed, stepping around so he had to face her, see how ridiculous it was for her to be locked up in this base without contact with anyone.

Releasing an aggravated breath, he turned the computer off and faced her. "Can we not do this right now? It's been a long day--a long week, really--and I just want to sleep."

"This is bullshit, Jack! I didn't want to come here, but I don't have a choice unless I want to be murdered by vampires!" She put emphasis on the word to remind him how ridiculous this whole situation was. She had wanted his help, expecting him to explain vampires weren't real, that there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for a man to drink her blood and have sharp claws. He offered no such thing, which terrified her more.

"Keep your voice down!" he hissed, pulling her to the bed and sitting her down. "People are trying to sleep. You should too."

"Why can't I talk to him, Jack?" She was exhausted, desperate to close her eyes and dream this away, but she couldn't. She was trapped in this awful nightmare and she was alone. Her brother wouldn't tell her anything and she was forbidden from seeing Rowan, the one man who made her feel like she wasn't alone.

"Because you were never supposed to have met him. He's dangerous. You need to stay away from him."

Everyone said he was dangerous, but she didn't see it. He had only been kind to her, gentle whenever he touched her--which hadn't been as much as she wanted. How could a man like that be so dangerous?

She rubbed her temples, easing the frustrated headache threatening to explode her brain. "I don't understand, Jack. He's not dangerous. At least, he would never hurt me." There wasn't much she was sure on these days, but she was positive Rowan would never hurt her.

"You don't know what he's capable of," Jack warned. "He'll hurt you. Please, Zoey, I know I'm always telling you the guys you're interested in are terrible choices, but trust me, just this once. Stay away."

He took her hands and squeezed tight, like he could will her to listen to him. She wasn't sure if it was because he was exhausted or if he truly believed Rowan would cause her harm and was only trying to protect her, but there was an urgency, a plea, to his voice that made her nod to him. This place was as infuriating as hell, but Jack had always been there for her when it really mattered. She had to trust that he was doing it to protect her.

Smiling wearily, he kissed her forehead. "Thank you. Do you want the bed or the couch?"

"I'll take the couch." She wasn't going to put him out any more than she had already.

"All right. I'm going to have a shower. Make yourself home."

He ruffled her hair like what he used to do when they were kids and left for the bathroom.

She found spare blankets in the chest at the foot of his bed and set up the couch. She hadn't even thought to turn the lights off, and by the time she was comfy under the sheets, she was too tired to move. She passed out minutes later.