The Marine's Queen (35 page)

Joe and Vin arrived at the same time. Vin carefully lifted Yalo off Callie. A trickle of blood bubbled from the side of Yalo’s mouth, and her breath rasped in her chest.

“
Yalo!” Callie cried.

Joe knew the signs of a fatal wound when he saw one. Webb pushed in between Joe and Callie. Joe stood and checked on Hadrason. Kam held him face down with his hands secured behind his back.

Hadrason laughed with the glee of a maniac. “At least I got one of those bitches.”

Roz punched Hadrason in the head. The mine owner’s head dropped to the floor like a sack of lead shot. Joe turned back to Callie.

“
You’re safe, my queen.” Yalo’s voice was barely audible.

Vin held her against his chest. He reached up with a trembling hand and brushed her auburn hair from her glistening forehead.

“
Why did you do that, Yalo?” Callie knelt on the other side of her, holding one of Yalo’s limp hands.

“
Roll her over, Vin,” Webb said. “Let me have a look at it.”

“
No.” Yalo sounded a bit stronger, but more bright blood dribbled down her chin. “You don’t have to look, doctor.”

“
It may feel bad, but I can work wonders,” Webb said. “I’m a hell of a physician.”

“
Let it go, Webb,” Joe ordered.

“
What do you mean?” Callie snarled at Joe.

“
Callie, it’s been my honor to serve.” Yalo’s voice faltered and ended with a gasp.

“
Everybody out,” Joe ordered.

The other marines fisted their hearts as they passed Yalo and Vin. Becker and two of his men dragged the unconscious Hadrason out with them.

The doctor rose and walked like an old man to his demolished work area. He leaned an arm against the wall and bowed his head.

Callie took up Yalo’s hand again, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

Joe knelt beside her, putting his hand on top of hers and Yalo’s. He felt as helpless as when he’d watched the knife flying from Hadrason’s hand. Yalo lifted her pain-filled gaze toward him.

“
You’re a fine soldier, Yalo Pangol, as fine as any marine I’ve known. We will honor your memory.” Joe wondered if the words brought as little comfort to her as they did to him. A woman he cared about had died on his watch. He’d failed.

“
The honor is mine,” Yalo rasped.

Joe urged Callie to rise. She gently place Yalo’s hand on her chest.

Vin lifted his tortured gaze and gave Joe a nod of thanks.

Joe led Callie outside and closed the door. She flung herself against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. He enfolded her as tightly as he could without hurting her. She sobbed with a violence that tore at his heart.

The other women moved closer, Riba laying a hand on Callie’s shoulder. All of them surrounded Joe and Callie, crowding closer and closer, wrapping their arms around whomever was beside them. They stood in one big hug with Joe and Callie in the center.

Helpless anger and endless grief burned Joe’s throat. The burning traveled through him until it centered behind his eyes. He blinked. The first tears he’d ever shed spilled over and rolled down his face.

* * * *

Joe pulled loose from Callie’s hug when Vin came outside. She held back, letting the marines have their time together. Joe took a quick swipe at his eyes, confirming the unbelievable. Her marine was crying.

Grief bowed Vin’s proud, strong, shoulders, but his eyes remained dry. Worse than dry. Bleakness to rival the hellish white desert leached all color from his gray eyes.

Callie couldn’t hear them speak, but Joe shook his head at Vin’s words. Vin gestured wildly with one hand. Joe stepped toward him in a manner that looked threatening.

Vin glared at Joe, the only real defiance any of the men had ever shown their leader, but he saluted before stomping away. Joe called after him, but Vin kept going.

Callie joined Joe, threading her fingers through his.

He pulled her hand up to his chest but still watched Vin with narrowed eyes. “We better keep a watch on Hadrason.”

“
Do you think Vin will try to kill him? That would be murder.”

“
He wants him dead.” Joe shrugged and then looked at her. His own expression had reverted to his usual professional soldier look. “He has nothing to lose.”

Callie could never forget the agony in Vin’s face as he watched Yalo die. Even through her own grief and horror, she’d thought Vin suffered more than a human could bear.

“
Do you want to take her body back?”

Callie appreciated Joe’s sense of duty and responsibility. It helped to think of immediate problems. “No. She had no close family.”

“
Except Vin,” Joe added.

“
And the baby,” Webb said from the doorway behind them.

“
Baby?” Joe and Callie said at the same time.

“
Yalo confided her condition to me a few days ago.” Webb’s eyes filled. “She was so overjoyed.”

“
Did she tell Vin?” Guilt piled on Callie. Why had Yalo thrown herself in the way, knowing she endangered her unborn child?

“
I don’t know.” Webb shook and his head and trudged back inside his office.

“
Do you still think it would be murder if Vin killed Hadrason?” Joe didn’t wait for an answer. He strode after Vin.

“
Spirit Father, help us.” Callie wept. Her friend was dead in her place and now Vin or Joe might throw away their opportunity at a new life by seeking vengeance. She hurried after Joe, determined to kill Hadrason herself if she must to keep the marines from the crime. But the two men had disappeared into the trees.

* * * *

Joe caught up to Vin at the edge of the frothing river. The water kept the sound of his approach from Vin’s ears, but his second-in-command knew he came. He put his hand on Vin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

The inadequate words hung there, unaccepted and unwanted.

“
She carried my child,” Vin said after long moments of nothing but crashing water.

“
I know.”

“
She only told me yesterday.” Vin sank to the ground, his legs wobbling as if he had taken a mortal wound. “For a few hours, I was a father. A tiny life, a tiny part of me, lived.”

Joe squatted on his heels beside Vin. He watched and waited.

“
Is there really this all powerful being, Unon, who sees and knows everything? Why must he be so cruel to us? A tiny bit of paradise dangled before me and then was snatched away. It would have been kinder to have never known Yalo, to have never loved her. To have never made a child.” Vin’s voice broke. He dropped his face into his hands. Shudders rippled across his shoulders, but when he lifted his head, his eyes remained dry. “I wish to die and haven’t the courage to throw myself in the river.”

Joe’s helpless guilt clogged his throat. He’d always felt it when he lost a man, but now his dead were a woman and a child. Vin’s child.

Vin stood up and edged forward so his toes lined up with the sharp drop-off to the river. “Do you think they bred that into us too? This will to survive and never give into death even if we want it to take us?”

Joe resisted wrestling Vin back from the danger. “I think we honed that instinct ourselves. We’ve been through too much to die easily.”

Vin stepped back and turned his bleak gaze to Joe. “I’m going to kill him, sir. If you want to stop me, do it now.”

“
Don’t do it, Vin. We have a chance to be cleared. It may not seem like it now, but you can find happiness again.”

“
Happiness?” Vin brushed by Joe, heading back toward camp. “I’d rather not experience that elusive, temporary emotion again. The pain of losing it isn’t worth it.”

* * * *

“
The last few weeks were the happiest of her life. She died doing what she wanted in the arms of the man she loved. Our grief is for our loss. Wish for Yalo the comforting arms of the Spirit Father.” Callie threw a handful of applenut blossoms on the pyre.

The other women did the same. The marines fisted their hearts, and the Giroux soldiers followed their lead.

Vin walked forward and touched Yalo’s pale hand, his eyes as cold as the approaching night. Callie shivered when his soulless gaze passed over her. He took the torch Jak held and lit the coal beneath the pine branches.

In moments, the fire blazed high around Yalo’s body. Callie didn’t wipe the tears that ran down her cheeks. The day cooled as the sun painted purple on the mountain tops. The fire burned low until only glowing embers remained. The other women drifted back to their homes, followed by the Giroux soldiers.

Jak stood beside Callie, his silent comfort warming her. “Let’s go inside, your highness. You need to eat something and get off your feet. It’s been a tiring few days.”

Callie nodded her agreement and started toward Joe.

Jak stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Let him alone. They’ll stay with their comrade, your highness. Time for you to comfort your friends.”

“
You’re right, Jak.”

The cold nipped at her cheeks and nose as they hurried toward the warmth. She wondered how the marines could stand the drop in temperature. She glanced back once more. They stood like monuments of wars gone by, unmoving and immovable in their loyalty and honor. Their low voices drifted toward her as they began to sing. Yalo would have been pleased to have them honor her so. The silhouette Callie knew to be Vin dropped his chin to his chest.

Becker and two other Giroux soldiers waited by the door to the common building. They stared at the marines, their eyes wide with wonder and unbridled admiration.

“
Captain Sontu.” Callie wondered how much of the marines had already rubbed off on her soldiers. And they’d all liked and respected Yalo. “Double the guard on Hadrason.”

“
You expect a rescue attempt?”

“
No. An assassination.”

* * * *

They watched him. Joe assigned mixed teams of one of his men and two Giroux soldiers to keep an eye on Vin. They all wanted Hadrason dead, but the cost was too high.

Joe took his turn alone. He wished he was with Callie, doubting she slept this night either. The last time he’d entered the common building, all the women sat at a long table talking quietly of Yalo while the children slept in their mothers’ arms. It hurt to look at the baby.

This night should have been Joe’s chance to renew his physical bond with Callie. He ached to hold her instead of standing out in the cold dark. His thoughts froze as the door to Vin’s small house opened with the silence of a grain of sand rolling down the side of a dune.

Vin sprinted to the temporary brig they’d made of a supply shed.

Joe cursed. He’d expected stealth, not a flat out charge.

Vin ripped the door from its hinges, exhibiting the uncommon strength all the marines possessed. Hadrason flew out through the battered door as Joe slid to stop.

Vin pounced on top of Hadrason, raining bone crunching blows at the man’s ribs and face. Blood splattered in a wide circle as Joe tackled Vin.

Hadrason screamed, but the two marines fought in grim silence. Joe’s peripheral senses told him most of the camp had arrived to witness the brawl. He forced all his concentration on defending himself against Vin.

Vin broke away from Joe and glided into the offensive posture of the ancient hand to hand fighting techniques the marines used with expertise.

Joe met him blow for blow, absorbing the rage and grief fueling Vin’s attack. Vin was good, his hands and feet moving faster than a normal person could follow or block. But Joe wasn’t a normal human.

Joe let Vin take the offensive until rivulets of sweat ran off both their faces, then he struck back. Despite Vin’s skills and physical prowess, Joe was the leader for a reason. None of the Recon Marines had ever beat Joe in hand to hand combat, and Vin wouldn’t today.