Sky Ghosts: Marco (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1.5) (3 page)

“Wait!” Marco tried to stop, but behind him, Skull was an unstoppable force, pushing him forward without even noticing him resist, “My sword, when do I get it back?” he yelled over the giant’s shoulder.

Michael raised his eyebrows, as a glint of humor crept into his eyes.

“We’ll give it back to you after we check your record,” he assured him, “don’t worry.”

Marco turned away with a sour face, deciding there was no point pressing the issue. He would have to wait until they trusted him.

As Skull and Marco disappeared in the elevator, Michael turned to the others.

“Rob, keep an eye on him. He’s agreed to join the program, but we have to be careful. Keep the kids away from him, too. You and Skull will be responsible for the others’ safety, understood?”

Rob nodded and wiped the blood off his face.

“Yes. Do you know him?”

“No,” Michael shook his head and looked away, “but he looks familiar, with that Mohawk and tattoos and everything… I’ll need a full profile before I make any decision. Put a guard outside his door for tonight.”

He chewed his bottom lip for a moment and then turned to Peter.

“Tell Rooney it’s his shot if he wants to take Kenji’s place when he leaves. He’ll have to hack into our surveillance for Marco’s picture… if he hasn’t done it already, of course.”

Peter smiled somewhat proudly at that.

“Yesterday, he called to tell me that Pain sneaked out last night, so I’m pretty sure he has. I’ll just check on the girls and get right on it,” he added and strode off, his tall, broad frame blocking the little light there was.

Michael nodded absently and looked at Rob, who towered over him, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other. His distress could be cut with a knife, and it had nothing to do with his own injuries or the amount of blood on his gear.

“Don’t worry about the boys,” Michael said, patting the fighter on the shoulder and earning a surprised look from him. “They’ll be alright. They learn from their fights, and that was a big one. I didn’t expect you back so soon. Go take a shower and write the report tomorrow.”

“Okay,” was all Rob said, his look fixed at the floor, and then left.

Michael stood alone by the door for a minute, thinking about Marco. If he was right about him, the boy could bring him trouble. Hell, he could bring him war. But could he throw him out on the street?

He exhaled loudly, shaking his head, and disappeared behind the infirmary door once again.

It had been two days since Marco agreed to stay at the Headquarters, and he was bored out of his skull.

The place was alright: he had a big room with his own bathroom and plenty of clothes; the food was good in the canteen; he got to use the gym, and he’d heard there was even a pool. But it was the training hall that disappointed him. When he got there on his first day, there were only six young fighters who obviously didn’t know what they were doing. He had never practiced alone and wasn’t able to find anyone he knew, so he left and spent the rest of the day wandering around the building. His classes were supposed to start next week, and he was sure he would die of boredom long before that. Still, on the second day he decided to check the training hall again, just in case something had changed.

It had.

It now looked like the hall was divided into two zones, the first crowded with fighters. They fought sluggishly, pausing often to stare at the other end of the hall, where something spectacular was going on – Rob was sparring with a
girl
.

Marco perked up, coming in and closing the door behind him. He was wearing gear like the others: they had measured him on his first day and provided him with a jacket and pants. The jacket had gone into his wardrobe right away, as it was too uncomfortable. The pants were good for fighting, though, stretchy but tough. He had replaced the jacket with a black T-shirt and prepared to fight Skull for his right not to wear full gear ever, if he had to.

Unable to tear his eyes off the two fighters, he went and sat on a bench. He was vaguely aware of the eyes on him – probing, assessing – but he didn’t care enough to miss even one move from the fighters in front of him. Rob was good, and his big size gave him an advantage – he could reach the girl easily from anywhere, without even fighting at full strength. But her speed didn’t leave him a second to breathe.

She was a ball of fury, a tangle of arms and legs, raining expertly placed blows on Rob without a single pause. They weren’t powerful enough to really hurt him, but every one of them that hit its mark made him a little bit more breathless. She might actually have a chance to knock him out, if she could continue like this. And if Rob didn’t catch her by one of the limbs, because then she would be done. A fighter like him would crush her like a very angry origami doll if he happened to get too close.

For some time, Marco just watched them fight, unable to even tell what style they were using. More often than he expected she brought Rob down, and he nodded in approval. He was holding back, obviously, but it didn’t matter. Marco could imagine what she would do if she could get her hands on the Beasts out there. And this was only hand-to-hand.

He looked around and spotted another girl, a younger version of her, sitting on a bench watching. The same black hair, same slim form, same suspiciously narrowed black eyes stabbed into him.
Must be her sister
, he thought. She couldn’t be more than fourteen, but he wasn’t surprised. He had begun his training when he was seven, even before his Initiation, and they were probably the same.

He had finally decided that it wasn’t a bad idea to stay at this place, when he heard the big sister’s voice.

“Okay, let’s take a break,” she said, pausing.

Marco frowned without realizing it. He remembered her voice.
Can he talk?
Something inside him snapped and started burning, small at first, but creeping into his veins like poison. He breathed out very slowly, trying to calm his fury, and then someone’s voice broke into his inner battle.

“Hey, Marco!” It was Rob, who had just spotted him and waved for him to come over. “I’ve been looking for you today, let’s see what you got!”

Marco nodded and got up, but his gaze was on the girl as she stood by her sister and stared at him. Her face glistened with perspiration, and her long black hair was a mess, but her eyes were trained on Marco’s every move. He knew she was measuring up his skill even now, as he was just walking across the room. Whatever was going on in that head of hers, it didn’t matter, because he already had a plan how to get her out of here, fast.

“Ready?” Rob asked him with a shake of his head.

“Always,” Marco muttered, taking a stance.

He and Rob started sparring, while the girls sat there watching. It distracted him and got on his nerves, because all he could think about was how to get his hands on that girl and teach her some respect. Rob soon noticed that he wasn’t paying attention, and switched to full strength. Marco had to focus now, to avoid being injured because Rob was landing punches and kicks on him whenever he was too slow.

They had been fighting for a half-hour before the girls started practicing again in a few meters from them. Finally, it was time for Marco to make his move. He would steer the fight, using the unsuspecting Rob, to get as close to the girls as possible before he would strike. His plan was simple: pretend to avoid Rob’s blow, then jump backward with all his force and knock the older sister down. He waited for what seemed like forever for the right moment, and then she was right behind him, and her sister was far enough away. He jumped…

…and the room suddenly tilted before him, and he was flung onto the floor. The air was knocked out of his lungs in a wheezing grunt, and his back exploded into fireworks of pain. He sucked in a breath and was brought back to reality by that same voice, its drawling softness tinted ever so slightly with humor,

“Careful, big guy…”

His head snapped up in bewilderment, and his furious eyes searched for his attacker. She was walking away from him, back to her sister. With one quick move he was on his feet and striding after her.

“Hey!” he barked.

His sharp tone made her stop slowly, almost apathetically, but he knew how quickly she would explode into action if he gave her an excuse. Her head turned to him, and she gave him a lazy up-and-down look.

“Yeah..?”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he said without realizing what he was saying.

She scoffed, and her eyebrows crept upward.

“Excuuuse me…?”

Marco could already see Rob walking toward them from the other side of the hall, looking irritated. Angering him was the last thing Marco wanted at the moment, so he decided he would find another time for this.

“Bitch,” he dropped as he brushed past her.

“Pig,” he heard from behind him and barely kept himself from turning around and snapping her neck right there.

*

A few hours later, after a long practice session and a long, angry shower, he made his way down to the canteen. It was full of fighters, and he joined the line by the counter. He still didn’t know anybody aside from those he had met on his first day, but honestly, he didn’t care. He preferred eating alone, anyway. That was what he did, sitting at a big, sturdy table for four and staring sightlessly ahead.

And then the four fighters at the table in front of him left, and he saw her at the next table over. She was sitting with her sister and other lads, staring at him with that wry half-smirk. Marco growled inadvertently, a sound that was too low for anyone to hear.
Little bitch
. She was doing this on purpose, irritating him so he would slip and get in trouble. But he wasn’t going to let himself be provoked. He had more important things on his mind, and he wouldn’t let her get under his skin. Screwing this up was not an option, and certainly not over a stupid girl.

He spent the rest of his meal trying to think of something else. By the time he picked up his tray and headed to the trash can, he had forgotten about her presence altogether. He had even managed to steal a knife from some fighter in the tight crowd and smiled to himself, hiding it under his T-shirt. But all of a sudden the other fighters stepped aside, and there she was, right in front of him, smirking again.

Marco paused, deciding whether he should step around her, or kill her on the spot and forget the whole business of pretending he was one of them. She was waiting for her friends, obviously, but her eyes were on him: black, laughing, daring. In the end, he decided to press forward, shoving her small figure out of the way with his elbow. His satisfaction didn’t last a second: at the last moment she pushed him, causing the tray to fly out of his hand and land on the floor.

Marco stopped.

He looked at the scattered dishes around him and drew a careful breath. Slowly, he turned his head, his dead stare cutting into her. She only smirked and turned away, leaving the room together with some boy.

Around him, people were laughing, but he didn’t care. That malicious little bully, she was the only one that mattered now. She was poison incarnate, and even if he didn’t want to admit it, deep inside he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night while she was out there.

Screw the plan,
he thought as he shoved the fighters out of his way and stormed out of the room heading to the shop on the first floor. If she was going to act like a stupid teenager, he would do the same. He would destroy her and everything that was hers. And he would start from the very bottom.

“Where are you going? It’s only seven,” Jane’s sleepy voice sounded as she rolled over on her bed. She watched Pain incredulously as her sister tried to put on sneakers and a T-shirt at the same time.

“I don’t know,” Pain shrugged, waving her off, “Dean wants to meet me outside.”

“What??” At the edge of her vision, Pain saw her sister sit bolt upright. “Dean never shows up for breakfast before nine! What makes you think he’s gonna meet you somewhere at seven??”

This made Pain pause and look at Jane in puzzlement.

“No idea. He slipped a note under the door.”

She crossed to her sister’s bunk and handed her a piece of paper. It was covered in block letters and looked like the sort of thing that detectives in movies found on the bodies of serial killers’ victims.

Jane grimaced skeptically.

“What’s with the first grade writing?”

“Oh, shut up,” Pain grumbled, rolling her eyes, “I’ll just go and see.”

Because she was still half-asleep herself, she wasn’t listening to any part of her brain aside from the one intrigued by the sudden note. “See you downstairs.”

She opened the door…

…and a red rain poured down on her, soaking her clothes and hair in a second.

“WHAT THE…??”

She whirled, as if expecting to see the cause of it somewhere around, and then threw her head back, looking at the ceiling. A small bucket was swinging over her door, dripping red water that smelled of paint. Much like herself, now. She swore through her teeth.

“What…?” she heard Jane’s voice somewhere far away, but her senses were clouded with anger.

Before she had time to think, her feet were carrying her to the staircase, leaving an angry red trail behind. She threw the staircase door open and stomped down the steps furiously, heading to the third floor. In less than a minute she was by his door, and it opened with a bang when she jerked the knob. Marco was standing in the middle of the room with a newspaper in one hand and an apple in another. He looked like he had just got up, and was only wearing jeans, his face angelically surprised at the sight of her in his doorway.

“You!” she snapped.

She leaped at him without wasting another breath and landed a heavy blow on his temple. But for some reason it didn’t have the same effect as usual. Marco just shook his head, and a second later she was trapped in his steel grip and thrust into a wall. For a moment she was shocked at how blinded she had been by her anger that she had gone full contact with an opponent this big, forgetting all she had been taught. That one moment was all he needed to grab two handfuls of her paint-soaked sweatshirt and pin her to the wall.

“What?” he snarled from an inch away, his dark eyes blazing furiously. “You’ve got something to say? I’m listening!” he stared at her demandingly, but she only huffed at his impudence and her own uselessness.

Meanwhile, a bunch of gawkers had already gathered in the hallway, cheering and laughing as they saw the red trail and the quarrel in the room. They were a small community, the Headquarters, and rumors were the best source of entertainment. Pain could already imagine the nasty stories that would have spread like wildfire around the building in less than ten minutes.

“Look at you, you bloody princess!” she heard from the doorway, followed by another outburst of laughter.

“Finally, someone tamed that bitch!” another voice joined in, and more cheering followed.

Suddenly her vision went red, too.

She jerked her head, smacking Marco’s nose with her forehead, and then kneed him in the gut. He let go with a curse, and she landed on the floor and kicked at him again, this time in full force. But as she swung her foot, aiming for his head, she was suddenly lifted up and thrown into a corner. Her shield flared on its own, and somewhere in the back of her mind she was surprised when no pain followed the fall.

“Break!” someone bawled, and she looked up dizzily to see Rob standing between her and Marco, “What the hell is going on here??”

It wasn’t a question. It was an order to stop with the promise of punishment if they ignored it. But seeing Marco’s face, contorted in rage, she could tell that Rob’s presence had more effect on the other fighters than either of them. The fighters who had gathered by the doors now stepped back, not wanting to get caught in the middle, but too curious to leave. Rob shot her and Marco a furious look and took a deep breath before opening his mouth again.

“Do I have to repeat my question??”

The room seemed to shudder at the sound of his voice.

“Don’t you see?” Pain hissed, casting an irritated glare at him. “Your newbie played the bucket prank on me, like we’re in fuckin’ camp here! He doesn’t know how to behave himself, so get rid of him!”

She jumped to her feet and headed to the door, ignoring Rob’s furious stare. He was barefoot, she suddenly realized, and his white shirt was unbuttoned, revealing the dark, sculpted planes of his chest. He’d obviously run out of his room to them.

“Stop, you!”

His big hand closed on her shirt like a claw, dragging her back into the room. He stood Pain on her feet by his side, and while his hand on the back of her shirt didn’t really hold her from breaking free, she knew better than to provoke him. Unlike Peter, he wouldn’t care about her bruises.

“Is that true, Marco??” Rob enquired.

Marco exhaled loudly and returned Rob’s angry glare.

“Yes, it’s true. She deserved it! She’s a bully, look at her!” he exclaimed, throwing up his hands, but Rob cut him off with an incredulous snort.

“Bully?? She’s a kid, Marco, and you’re nineteen! You should know better!”

“I’m not a kid!” Pain hissed again and shook off his hand, shooting him a hateful look. He didn’t notice it, of course, since she was almost two feet shorter than him.

“And you can’t go around punching people!” Rob shouted suddenly at her, making her insides jump, “You shouldn’t have come to his room in the first place, you know the rules!”

“What??” her face screwed into a grimace of disbelief, and she pushed back her wet hair furiously. “So I should’ve just let him get away with it??”

“No, you should’ve told me or somebody else and- ”

“Fuck you, Rob!” she cut him off and stormed past him to the door before she lost control and hit him. That had happened before, and had resulted in her spending a day or two in the infirmary last time.

“IT’S ROBERT!!” he bellowed after her, and unable to help it, she spun on her heels and grimaced mockingly.

“Oh, I’m sorry! FUCK YOU, ROBERT!!” she yelled back at him and pointed a finger at Marco, who stood by the red-smeared wall gloating, a devilish expression on his face. “See you in the training hall!”

With that, she turned and retraced her red trail to the staircase door imperiously, accompanied by a chorus of laughter and boos. Nobody but her knew that she was doing her best not to break into a run with an image of Rob charging after her stuck in her head.