United

by Melissa Landers

  “It won’t work,” Cara said into his shirt. “The shuttle life support system will only last a few days—less than that if there are extra people on board breathing the air. We won’t even make it to the closest wormhole.”

  “So what?” Troy argued. “That’s three days more than we’ll have if we stay here.”

  “You could cloak the shuttles and anchor them to the moon,” Larish suggested. He held the brandy toward Elle and Syrine, and when they shook their heads, he finished the last of it. “And wait for the Aribol to … well … finish … before you return to Earth.”

  Cara threw him a disbelieving look. “Among billions of rotting corpses?”

  “If you hide in an uninhabited location or a bunker, you might be able to blend in with the new inhabitants once they’re seeded. If nothing else, the human race would live on.”

  “What does it matter?” Cara said. “Humans, L’eihrs, whatever the new arrivals will be called—all of us are Noven. It’s not like we’re really going extinct. Besides, I can’t leave everyone behind to pay for my mistakes. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  Aelyx hugged her close and placed a kiss atop her head. He hated that she blamed herself for this. “It’s not your fault. It was my idea to sneak away from the transport, remember?”

  “Yeah, but if I hadn’t provoked Jaxen, maybe he wouldn’t have told on us.”

  “The truth would’ve come out eventually. It always does.”

  She peered up at him and reached out with her eyes. I want to stay. It’s the right thing to do. There was so much guilt inside her it hurt.

  He smoothed a hand over her hair. Then I’ll stay, too. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.

  A tear slid down her cheek, and she closed her eyes.

  “Well, we can’t give up.” Troy glanced around the living room as if seeking support. “We can get at least fifteen people off this planet. We might make not make it far, but we have to try.”

  Eileen Sweeney spoke softly from within her husband’s arms. “But which fifteen people, love? That’s a terrible choice to make, one that’ll haunt you.”

  “Better fifteen than zero,” Troy muttered, but in a dark tone that said his mother’s message had resonated with him.

  Syrine raised her hand. “I’ll offer my seat to someone else. I want to stay here with David.” Her lips curved in a hesitant grin. “I never believed in the afterlife, but I hope I’m wrong. I know the first thing I’ll say if I see him again.”

  That made Aelyx smile, and when he looked at Cara, he saw the same reaction on her face. Cara lifted her head from his chest. “I bet I can guess.”

  “Me, too,” Aelyx said. Syrine had always regretted failing to tell David that she loved him. “But he already knows.”

  Syrine blushed. “Still, he deserves to hear the words. Everyone deserves that.”

  “You’re right,” Cara agreed. “I wish I could tell the world what’s happening, so people can skip work and spend their last days with the ones they love. I hate the idea of anyone missing their chance to make up, or apologize, or confess their feelings. Now’s the time to throw caution to the wind and live without regrets, not to sit in an office.”

  At those words, Troy and Elle shared a charged glance from across the room. While Elle stared at Troy with her lower lip caught between her teeth, Troy fidgeted with his dog tags and cleared his throat. After hesitating twice, Troy stood from the sofa and extended a hand to her. “Someone should inspect the shuttles. To, uh, you know, see how … roomy they are. Want to come with me?”

  Elle peeked at Syrine as if seeking her approval, and when Syrine answered with a gentle nudge, Elle took Troy’s outstretched hand. He pulled her up from the floor, and within seconds, they were gone. Aelyx smiled after them. By his guess, the roomy shuttle interior was about to be put to good use.

  “It’s about time,” Cara said, leaning aside to watch the back door close. “He’s had the hots for her for ages. He told me she was the medic on his transport to L’eihr last fall. She gave him an injection for speed sickness, and just like that, he was sprung.”

  Bill chuckled to himself. “Well, if the shuttle’s a-rockin’, don’t go a-knockin’.”

  “Bill!” Eileen chided, delivering a light smack to his chest while trying not to laugh. She composed herself and stood up to massage her lower back. “It’s late,” she told the rest of them. “And we’ve had a shock today. Let’s turn in and talk about it in the morning. A good night’s sleep will clear our heads, and maybe tomorrow we’ll see a solution we missed.”

  Everyone nodded, and before Bill and Eileen retired to the second floor bedrooms, Cara gave each of them a long hug. But instead of following them upstairs, she strode into the kitchen and began making a pot of coffee.

  Aelyx joined her, leaning one hip against the counter while she sprinkled coffee grounds into a reusable filter. “What are you doing? Aren’t you tired?”

  Cara set the machine to brew and turned to wrap her arms around his waist. She propped her chin on his chest and peered up at him with weary eyes. “I don’t want to sleep. I can sleep when I’m dead.”

  She’d used that expression before, but this time he didn’t like her choice of words. He couldn’t tell if she was joking or if she really believed her life was over. “For what it’s worth, I agree with your mother. There might be a way to block the shockwave pulses with manmade shields or to evacuate people below ground. Didn’t you say the Earth Council is experimenting with that right now?”

  “Sure, until the power dies.”

  “So for at least another day, every developed nation in the world has its top scientists working on a solution,” he pointed out. “Don’t you think we should do the same?”

  “Don’t you think the Aribol will have a backup plan? As smart as they are, they won’t be fooled by shields, and if we ferret our way underground, they’ll only follow us.”

  Aelyx frowned. His beautiful warrior wasn’t living up to her nickname. He expected her to be afraid—he certainly was—but not to surrender before the fight had begun. “What do you want to do, then? Cry and grieve? Pretend we’re already dead?”

  “Not at all.” Something in her gaze shifted, and she skimmed a hand down the curve of his backside while settling her fingertips at the base of his throat to measure the hitch in his pulse. “I want to live. I want to seize every last minute and fill it with so much fire there’s nothing left. And when the Aribol come, I’ll greet them with two middle fingers and a smile, because I will have experienced more in one day than they will in a thousand years of playing god with people like me.”

  Aelyx wanted to form a reply, but Cara stood on tiptoe to kiss his neck, and in doing so, she diverted all the blood flow away from his brain.

  “They’re only spectators,” she murmured, and licked a teasing trail to his ear. “We’re the stars. So let’s do what stars do best and burn this place down.”

  He groaned when she exhaled into his ear, and gently pressed on her head to encourage her to do it again. “This doesn’t mean I’m giving up.”

  She sucked his earlobe, causing his eyes to roll back. “You know,” she whispered, guiding his hand to the pulse point at her clavicle. “You never topped my high score. I’d love to see you try.”

  Challenge accepted.

  He gripped her by the thighs and lifted her up until she locked both legs around his waist. As he bent to kiss her, Syrine and Larish strolled into the kitchen and froze at the sight of them. Larish snatched a bag of pork rinds from the counter, then turned on the ball of his foot and returned to the living room while Syrine, nonplussed, simply pointed behind them.

  “We smelled the coffee and thought it might help us brainstorm. If you’ll move out of the way, I’ll fill two mugs and let you get back to”—she quirked a brow—“copulating in the room where we prepare our meals.”

  Cara unlocked her ankles and lowered both feet to the floor. “You can have the kitchen. We’ll take this party some
where else.” Her gaze darted between the bedrooms upstairs and the shuttles in the backyard. Neither option seemed to appeal to her.

  Aelyx had an idea. “Let’s walk to the bay. If the water’s warm, we can swim. And if it’s cold …” They could find creative ways to generate heat.

  One corner of her mouth lifted. “I’ll get the towels. You fill a thermos with coffee.”

  “Deal.”

  A few minutes later, they snuck past the guard detail and jogged into the woods. Once they cleared the property line, they slowed to a stroll and passed the thermos back and forth between them, sipping the bitter coffee and waiting for the energy rush. At first they didn’t talk as they picked a path through the trees, but when Aelyx noticed Cara’s hand growing cold and clammy within his, he knew her thoughts had strayed into dark territory. So he distracted her with a question that had lingered at the back of his mind for nearly a year.

  “When was the first time you knew you loved me?”

  She smiled, the moonlight glinting against her teeth. “I don’t know. It’s hard to say because it happened so gradually.” She pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “Maybe the day after our first kiss. Remember how you wouldn’t talk to me?”

  Aelyx scoffed. “I had just learned the alliance I’d sabotaged was the key to mankind’s survival. Believe me, I wish I could forget.”

  “Well, that’s when I knew for sure,” she said. “It hurt too badly to be anything less than love.” She squeezed his palm, and he noticed she was no longer cold. “How about you? When did you fall victim to my charms?” She playfully bumped his shoulder. “I’ll bet it was after I baked l’arun for you, wasn’t it?”

  He laughed remembering the burnt shards of flatbread she’d made in an effort to recreate his favorite breakfast from home. “That’s how it began. I saw you differently after then.” But the real turning point had been when she’d stood beside him during the organized shun. Her loyalty had stolen his heart. “The day I knew I loved you was when I held your hand for the first time. At that moment, there was no doubt for me.”

  Her smile widened, and she peered up at him with enough warmth to make him forget—for just a moment—that their world might end. “I remember that. It was in the school parking lot, in front of all those protesters. That was the first time you really touched me, and I went all gooey inside.”

  “Gooey?”

  “It’s a good thing.”

  He lifted their linked hands and kissed hers. “I’m glad, because I enjoyed touching you, too. Maybe too much. After that, I made the mistake of researching human mating rituals, and I drove myself out of my mind thinking about doing those things with you.”

  She laughed, and when the bay came into view, she spread the towels on the ground. “If it makes you feel better, you had a steady role in my daydreams, too.” She set down the thermos and winked. “You still do.”

  “Come here.” He took her hand and drew her to him, then softened his gaze to connect with her mind. He wanted to show how much he loved her, and to feel the comfort of her affection in return.

  She faced away. “No Silent Speech.”

  “Why not?”

  She tapped a finger against her temple. “Because there’s a lot going on up here. I want to live in the moment with you, but if I slip up and start feeling guilty or afraid, I don’t want you to feel it, too.”

  “But I like knowing how you feel.”

  “Not tonight, okay? Let’s use our words.” She peeled off her shirt. “Or not talk at all.”

  He knew she was trying to distract him—and that it would work if she removed any more of her clothing. So before she finished unfastening her jeans, he gathered her against his chest and spoke softly in her ear.

  “All right, then, here are my words. I told you I would never stop fighting for us, and I meant it. No one will take you from me while I have breath in my body. I’ll use every weapon I can find, even if I’m flinging pebbles from the street, because you are the very heart of me, and what we have is worth clawing and scratching to hold on to.”

  She sniffled and tried to push away. “I don’t want to think about that.”

  “You need to hear me,” he said, holding her close. “Whatever we do here after we take off our clothes isn’t a distraction, and it isn’t surrender. Not for me. This is a reminder of what I’m fighting for.” He cupped her face and tipped it toward his. “And that’s you. For twenty thousand more nights with you. For more arguments and making up, for burnt flatbread and chess games and holding you in the dark. I want it all with you, and no one else.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “You think I don’t want that?”

  “Then show me. Say you’ll fight for me, too.”

  “Even if we don’t stand a chance?”

  “Even if we’re flinging pebbles from the street.” He brushed a thumb over her freckled cheek. “Promise you won’t quit.”

  “I love you.”

  “Then promise.”

  She drew a stuttered breath and nodded. “Okay, I won’t give up.”

  “Thank you.” He dropped a gentle kiss on her lips before turning his attention to the sensitive bend of her neck, where he knew from experience a single nibble would buckle her knees. He brushed his mouth back and forth over the spot. “And what are we doing here tonight? Living our final moments?”

  “No.” She tilted her head aside to give him better access, and when he bit down, her legs went slack. He held her by the waist and did it again, and then she hooked a leg around his hip, and it was his turn to go weak in the knees. She knew what she was doing. With a coy look in her eyes, she said, “We’re here to prove you can’t beat my high score.”

  He grinned and settled a palm over her chest to count its frenzied thumps. “One twenty-five, and I’m just getting started.”

  “Oh, yeah?” She pressed a thumb to his neck and smirked. “One thirty, and I haven’t laid a hand on you yet.”

  “I hope you’ve got an iron heart,” he taunted while peeling off his shirt, “because tonight I’m not holding back.”

  “You talk a big game, buddy. Show me what you’ve got.”

  So he did.

  They never made it as far as the water, which was probably for the best, as their activities would have scandalized the fish. Aelyx was surprised the moon itself didn’t blush. There was nothing he and Cara didn’t do in their quest to outperform the other. He used every move in his arsenal, every secret technique Google had taught him to unravel her control, but just when he thought he’d won, she slowed her hips, and he was at her mercy.

  But despite the wild heat between them, he missed the emotional connection of Silent Speech. Without it the experience seemed one-dimensional. He wanted to share everything with her, both the good and the bad, so he tilted their foreheads together and peered deeply into her eyes.

  “Open to me,” he whispered.

  She did, and then they were linked to the very blood cells careening through their veins. As they each gave themselves up to the other, the outside realm ceased to exist. There was only one love, one rush. They were perfect and whole together.

  They were everything.

  Later they lay on a blanket of rumpled terrycloth and leaves, their bodies slicked with sweat and their hearts racing too fiercely to count. “Let’s call it a draw,” Aelyx suggested, in part from exhaustion but also because he was certain he’d lost.

  “A tie,” she agreed, panting. “You really brought your A-game. My heart’s about to explode.”

  “Mine, too.” He glanced at the moonlit bay. “Forget swimming. I’m so weak I could drown in six inches of water.”

  “What happened to all your stamina from the colony?” she teased.

  “Well, you have to remember this planet is slightly larger than L’eihr. The gravitational pull is a greater strain on my body.”

  “Uh-huh, nice try.” She patted his chest and sat up. “Come on. I’ve never been skinny-dipping on Earth, and neither have you
.” Before he could ask, she clarified, “This isn’t a ‘bucket list’ kind of thing, so don’t think I’m quitting. I just want to cool off.”

  He forced his rubbery limbs into motion, and together they waded into the shallow water, which was freakishly cold. For that reason the skinny-dipping session lasted only long enough to wet their flushed skin, and then they ran back to shore, where they toweled dry and put their clothes back on. After slinging the towels around their necks and collecting the thermos, they started back through the woods the way they’d come.

  Cara swung their linked hands between them, her mood lighter than before, so Aelyx didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with distracting small talk. They listened to the summer symphony of crickets and bullfrogs, occasionally stopping to share a kiss, until he heard a noise that made him pause.

  “Listen.” He cocked an ear toward the sound. From somewhere nearby, a woman’s voice carried on the breeze. She was crying. More than crying. The despair in her hoarse, choking sobs told Aelyx she might be injured.

  Cara patted herself down as if looking for a weapon. “What if Jaxen’s out there? I did steal his shuttle, and we never found him.”

  She made a valid point. The smart thing to do was continue to the safe house and ask the soldiers to check on the woman. But then another series of muffled sobs broke out. “We’ll be careful,” Aelyx said, and he led the way toward the sound.

  They tiptoed over fallen branches and logs, cringing every time a twig snapped beneath their shoes, until they reached a clearing in the woods. The woman, who had gone temporarily silent, made a wet sniffle and drew their attention to where she knelt at the opposite end of the clearing, wiping her eyes with the hem of her shirt. Her gray clothes had camouflaged her into the nearby underbrush, but now that Aelyx could see her outline, he knew he’d made the right choice in coming here.

  She reminded him of Cara’s mother, but rail thin and lacking the matronly curves that made Eileen’s hugs so comforting. The full moon highlighted streaks of silver woven throughout the woman’s braid, and even from a distance, he noticed the signature slackening of her jowls that came with age. She covered her face and began crying again, and her whole body shook with the intensity of her grief. Aelyx rubbed a palm over his chest to dispel a sympathy pain. He glanced at Cara expecting to find her features softened as well, but instead she stared at the woman with her mouth frozen in a perfect oval.