Page 24 of Marked for Execution

Chapter 5

Eliseo

I took too many knocks to my head. I couldn’t be seeing what I’m seeing. What the fuck kind of sorcery was this?

Fitri’s skin healed completely before my eyes, leaving soft flesh and only bloodstains behind. I was so focused on bringing her back to life, doing whatever I needed to do, that it didn’t register in my mind she was probably already dead. I refused to believe it. The knife jammed right beside her heart so deep, I had to dig my fucking fist in her to pull it out, hoping maybe it missed the mark.

The suspect was already gone by the time I got to her.I just needed her to open her damn eyes!

“Get off me,” she screeched.

“What the hell are you?” I snarled–, pissed that I almost lost her, pissed at what I just witnessed.

She wasnothuman.But what was she?She couldn’t be a bloodsucker; I was covered in blood, and she hadn’t tried to bite my head off. Nothing made sense, and she had better give me some fucking answers before I dragged her to the Doc’s bunker.

“Getoffme!”

Her arms covered her chest, and I remembered I ripped off her shirt to see her injuries.She tapes down her breasts.It was no wonder she easily disguised herself as a boy. My fingers shakily lifted and trailed the blood left on her skin, trying to find the knife’s entry point, but there was nothing. Her chest rose and fell with her rapid breathing, and my shoulders slumped in relief that she was breathing at all.

I almost lost her.

The little brat kept this fucking secret from me.I was pissed beyond reason over that fact. We were a fuckingteam. Doesn’t she know she can trust me?

You were just about to take her to crazy Otis.

I stood up and paced back and forth, pulling my hair from my scalp. The pain clarified my tumultuous emotions as my mind attempted to reason and see logic in everything that has happened.

We lost the group. Everyone’s dead.The other human group that ambushed us scattered the ground amongst our men, and I needed to decide what we were going to do from here.

“Who threw the knife at you?” I barked, unable to tamp down my anger.

“I don’t know.”

“Did you kill him?”

“I don’t know. I…” She groaned as she stood, and my eyes zoomed in on her chest again.

Despite seeing what happened, I still couldn’t fucking believe it. What kind of other shit was out there? What more do wenotknow?

“I don’t think I did. I think he got away.”

“Fuck.”What if this was just a scouting group? What if he was bringing back other guys right now to follow us back to Ashborne?Shit, this was becoming a bigger problem than just a random ambush. “Get your ass in the car; we need to go. Now.”

I watched as Fitri subtly rubbed at her breasts, moaning under her breath. She was fucking beautiful beneath her clothes. I had never seen skin as smooth as hers, without scars. Ripping my bloody shirt off, I threw it at her.

“Cover up and let’s go.” I was distracted. I needed to think. I needed to drive us around in fucking circles just in case something tailed us.

“We should grab some of the guys’ weapons and bring them back.” She walked away before she even finished her sentence, and I growled.

She was stubborn. I loved and hated that about her. But she was right. Grabbing what we could, we shoved them into our pockets and made it back to the Humvee.

My foot slammed on the gas, and we headed toward another cluster of trees. We needed to ride off-road so we were not easily seen. Glancing at my watch, we had about fifteen minutes before I needed to be back at the meet spot.Fuck.

“Eliseo…”

I slammed on the steering wheel with pent-up frustration.Do I report this to the Doc, to the community? What if they exiled her?The thought of losing her from my team made me boil with rage. I wasnotgoing to fail her like this. Not when I promised myself I would take care of her.

We drove in silence for a while, finally back on track. The other teams had probably already headed for the community, leaving us behind. Coming up familiar territory, I drove through a shortcut to see if I could catch up with them.