Page 14 of Marked for Extinction
“Vik, stop. What is wrong with you? What are you talking about?”
“I’m not made to lead anyone. Who the fuck am I kidding, Inés? You want to get trained? You’re looking at the asshole who’s been given the position,” I said sarcastically, raising my arms up to the sides.
“Wait, what?”
I laughed humorlessly. She couldn’t even comprehend it either. I knew Ozzy was setting me up. He was trying to teach me something, show me that the people of Black Hollow would never follow someone they didn’t know. I get it. I fucking get it. Lesson learned. I needed to keep my mouth shut at the strategy meetings. Leave the important decisions to those that knew what they were doing.
Inés’ eyes turned steely before she straightened her back and crossed her arms. “So, it’s you who I’m supposed to be speaking to? Good. Teach me to fight. I want to be on a team.”
Was she kidding me? “Hell no, Inés. You don’t need to go out there. You don’t need to come across the massacres and newly turned vampires who want nothing but to drain you dry. You don’t deserve that kind of life.”
“Who the hell are you to tell me what I do or don’t deserve. I said, I wanted to train.”
Angel began to whine, feeling the tension sizzling between us.
“Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but the shit that happens out there?” I pointed randomly behind me. “It’s not for the weak. I was tasked to increase our military ranks and you wouldn’t be the first person I would wish to recruit. Let the ones with nothing to lose go out there so that people like you who have a whole future ahead of you stay here and keep the hope alive.”
The words left my mouth before I realized that I was repeating everything she initially said she didn’t want to be. So much for building any sort of public relations with the people because the first person I finally tried to get to know probably hated my guts for putting her in a metaphorical place she already told me she didn’t want to be in.
“La Concha de tu Madre, motherfucker! I am no one’s broodmare. In fact,” she took a step forward and pointed right at my chest. “I don’t need you to fucking train me for shit. I’ll find my own way on a team without your damn help.”
She stomped away and didn’t look back, leaving me to watch her hips sway angrily beneath my shirt. I ran my hand down my face and groaned to the ceiling. I felt stifled being down here. This was why I couldn’t stay home long.This shit.
Grabbing the bowls, I brought them both back to the food stall it belonged to. The owner gave me an intent look as he took them from my hand.
“What the fuck at you looking at?” I snapped, my residual irritation at what happened leaking into my voice without meaning to.
“You’re an idiot.”
I lifted my lip in a snarl.
He shook his head and chuckled tauntingly. “Do you know how many men have tried to tame that woman? Of course, you don’t. You’re always out galavanting topside. And as much as I appreciate the resistance’s efforts to keep us safe, you all sometimes forget one thing. Life down here moves on. The human need for community and family units continues on. It hits the women first. It's why they seek protectors for their future children. Us men? We’re oblivious until we’re shown exactly what we’re missing. What’s life without hope? Without purpose? Because fighting up there?” He pointed up. “It never ends. So what are you left with? A continuous cycle of fucked up shit. You kill one vamp, you kill ten, they just make more. Where does that leave us? If life is going to be fucked up, it’s best to live it to the fullest and that means intentionally pursing some sort of semblance of happiness.”
“What the fuck does your rambling have to do with her?” Maybe I was too pissed to see it. I zoned out half the time this old guy was speaking.
He turned back around after rinsing the bowls and leaned across the stall counter on his forearms. “Look. If you want to choose a life of fighting, go for it. A good handful of us have had our eye on Inés without her giving a passing glance. But your ass comes down here with a dog and she sits to eat with you. I haven’t seen that woman sit to eat with anyone other than her sister. You wanna live topside? What the hell is wrong with doing that with a woman by your side? One that is obviously willing to fight beside you, asking you to train her.”
I shook my head. This was nonsense. “She won't last up there. That would be a loss to the community. I’m tired of fucking losses.”
“You need to shove that self pity right up your ass because it is not you to decide what kind of sacrifices people are willing to make with themselves. She wants to train. Let her fucking train. She wants to go out there and fight bloodsuckers, let her do it. Because if that woman made the decision to never have a family regardless of yours? Then what difference would your stupid idea of a heroic stance make in the end? I’ll tell you. It makes no fucking difference at all.”
I hated to admit it but the man’s words stuck to my head all the way to the communal laundry area as I sat there, scrubbing Inés’ shirt until my hands felt raw from the homemade soap they had down here.
How many other people felt the same way as Inés? If I wanted change to happen for Black Hollow, I needed to include everyone who was willing, not just picking and choosing who I thought had the best probability of survival topside in hand to hand combat.
A soft feminine scoff came behind me as Angel popped her head up from her resting position on the ground beside me with her tail wagging. I looked over my shoulder to find Inés with her arms folded, my shirt in one of her hands.
“If you're done, I need to wash something.” Her voice was laced with attitude and my mind cycled through everything the food vendor threw at me after she abruptly left.
“Give it to me,” I told her, sticking my hand out for the shirt. I was already doing laundry, might as well wash that one too.
“I can do my own.”
I quirked up an eyebrow and dramatically turned my head to look at the wet feminine shirt in my hand. “You saying this belongs to me?”
“I don’t shame anyone for what they enjoy wearing.” She tried for seriousness and attitude, but it came off comical.
Angel barked a few times as if to laugh right before I let out a laugh of my own. Inés dropped her arms and stifled her own little chuckle.
