Page 13 of Marked for Extinction
“I’d use every opportunity that presented itself to me. It’s how we’ve all survived, hasn’t it?” She stood up and used two of her fingers to peel her shirt from her chest, taking away the best view I had all day.
Amir had already disappeared some time ago. I didn’t even see him leave. “I’m Vik, by the way.”
Her eyes sparkled with interest and I felt a lump form in my throat. “Yes, I remember.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, wracking my brain over what normal conversation was supposed to be like. I was rusty and it showed. “Er… You said Gavin had the best recipes. Which stall is his?”
She softly smiled and shot her hand out, grabbing my shirt. I blinked a few times, perplexed. That was, until she put it on, with her arms still inside. In quick movements, her arms finally poked through the sleeves, one hand holding her soaked top. How did she do that?
She took a step forward, shoved her shirt into my back pocket and quickly turned on her heel.
“Well, come on. Don’t just stand there. You owe me another bowl.”
ChapterFive
“Repeat that again, slowly,”I instructed her.
I sat on the top of one of the wooden tables beside her, people watching as we both enjoyed our mid day meal.
“He was an asshole. I told him I wanted to train and he blatantly refused me without reason,” she scoffed. “He didn’t need to say a reason, I guess. We both knew exactly what he was thinking.”
I frowned as I took another bite of food, chewing slowly and mulling over everything she was telling me.
I didn’t know how our conversation strayed this way but I’m glad it did. Inés was telling me that she approached Ozzy some time ago about wanting to join the teams that went topside. He refused her. Why? Wasn’t he the one who threw the challenge at me to increase our numbers? What was I missing? Was he setting me up to fail?
“What do you mean?” I needed her to spell it out for me because I wasn’t connecting the dots.
She wiped her mouth with the bottom of my shirt and I quirked my lips. She stifled a laugh before her face turned serious again.
“Come on, you know what it's like here for us.”
“No,” I told her. “I really don’t. Explain.”
She stared at me for a few moments and the bustle of everything around us turned into soft noise as my entire being focused on the woman beside me. The short trance was broken by Angel’s tail thumping against the table leg.
“I guess you wouldn’t know. You’re always out there, fighting for us. Vik…” She let out a deep sigh before continuing and it made me frown. “Life for a woman in Black Hollow means one thing. We’re expected to help increase the population and it makes sense. We need to keep hope alive, especially when not all of our people come back after missions.”
She took a hard swallow and my skin prickled. What exactly has she heard about me? Fuck, this guilt made me feel like my skin was melting off, exposing all my failures and flaws to the people around me. Suddenly, I wasn’t so hungry anymore. I jumped off the table and placed my bowl on the ground much to Angel’s excitement.
I watched her tail rapidly beat side to side as I shoved my hands in my pocket.
“Did I say something wrong?” Inés asked quietly.
“Nah, it's nothing.” I needed to redirect the conversation away from the topic of loss. “I guess I just never realized what it was like for you guys here. You’re right. I’m always topside. But I have no choice, you understand? I’m one of the few medics here. They need me. We would probably lose more people than—”
Her soft hand on my wrist stopped my self deprecating thoughts before it spiraled into a black hole of no return.
“We’ve all had losses, Vik. It's inevitable. That’s why I wanted to add myself to the team. If I could just do something to help, you know? I know I’m not formally trained. I know I could possibly be a weak link, but I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. I’m not made to just take things as they are, to become a broodmare for this place. I mean, no offense to the girls that embrace the life. Safety should be everyone’s motivation. But it’s just not me. I have too much to give, too much in me to stand aside like that.”
I looked at her soberly. “Inés, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a normal life.”
She slammed her bowl on the table and jumped down. “I know that! Don’t you think I know that? Yet when I watch my sister Lydia slowly wither away from her grief, I can’t help but pull back even further from all that.”
I cringed and physically took a step back as if she dealt me a blow to the gut with a serrated blade. “Shit.”
“What? Why are you acting like that?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry, alright? You don’t fucking realize how sorry I am every time I lose someone. The fucking medic that can’t keep his teammates alive. The guilt tortures me enough. I don’t need—Fuck, you know what? It’s my fault. I’ll just put it out there and clear the air. I should have fucking done more. I should have—”
