Vincent stared at her, unblinking. Finally, the corners of his mouth began to wrinkle in a smirk. “Fine, woman.” He pulled her against him and kissed her forehead. “I will stay in the bomb shelter with you. We will wait this out underground.”
“Damn straight you will.”
Chapter 30: Monday, August 12th
12:02 AM Pacific Standard Time
Had there ever been a day in history when the minutes passed by more slowly? Probably not since the Cretaceous period when a giant asteroid collided with the planet—but then again, the dinosaurs were lucky; they hadn’t known it was coming. They hadn’t known that they were hours away from being wiped out of existence. If they had, they surely would have spent several hours staring at the bright, incoming object in the sky, and thinking philosophical, dinosaur-thoughts.
This was what Pax was doing as she sat on the rooftop of the temple at Sakra’s Point, hugging her knees and feeling helpless. She stared out at the beautiful Himalayas wistfully. She occasionally looked at her watch, feeling more anxiety every time she saw that a minute had passed. Stop, she told the rotating second-hand. Stop moving—let’s just keep it the way it is now.
Her watch wouldn’t listen. The world wouldn’t stop spinning, and moving through space towards its own doom. Pax closed her eyes, lying back against the rooftop in exasperation. She knew that she had to do something. She closed her eyes, trying to conceive of what that was.
For Sakra’s sake, Pax, Thornton said telepathically. The world is ending today. Wanna get married?
Pax’s eyes flew open, and a smile spread across her face. She knew that Thornton was all the way in California, while she was still in India, but she suddenly felt like he was lying right beside her. She turned to her side, expecting to see his arrogant smirk inches away from her face. I would, Thorn—but if the world doesn’t end, we’ll still be married tomorrow.
Exactly, his voice said into her mind. She could not resist laughing lightly at this. But let’s be real, Pax—just look up. Can you see it from where you are? The world is obviously ending. We tried everything yesterday. We both need to get to Mara’s bomb shelter soon—I’m just saying we should hit up Vegas first. We might be underground for a while.
Pax was glad that he could not see the stupid smile on her face, betraying how adorable she thought he was. You never pay any attention to me in Vegas. You’re always so obsessed with the blackjack tables.
This time will be different. I’m thinking a quaint little chapel, a rushed ceremony, and then the most luxurious honeymoon suite money can buy. We can lock ourselves up all night, order champagne and room service and… well, we can do whatever you feel like. We could even watch pay-per-view movies.
She found herself pressing her cheek against the rooftop and giggling. Movies, indeed. She took several deep breaths for composure, staring at the incoming comet to regain her focus. You already have a girlfriend, Thorn. Go marry her.
She’s not a real girlfriend, he admitted. I just used her to try and make you jealous.
Well, it worked, she answered. I’m jealous. Does that satisfy you?
No, he answered, having you back would satisfy me. Pax, we need to sort this out right now. Teleport your fiery little ass over here. If you don’t, I’m coming there.
She shook her head before remembering that he could not see this motion. Sorry, Thorn. I can’t. I’m really upset about the fact that we can’t stop this thing. It’s really depressing me, and I don’t want you to see me like this.
I’m not a stranger, he told her. You can be sad around me.
I know. But should I really be relaxing and spending the night with you? Or should I be thinking of a way to stop that comet?
It’s going to hit, hot stuff. There’s nothing we can do, and we have to accept that. We tried our best. His thoughts paused. Don’t you want to be with me tonight? We could just unwind and take our mind off things.
I would love to, she answered honestly. I would love nothing more.
Then come be with me, he implored her across the miles. Let’s forget about tomorrow—and especially, let’s forget about yesterday. I love you, and I need you now.
Pax wrapped her arms around herself, feeling as though she had been struck. She felt tears spring to her eyes. Her insides ached for him, yearning to throw caution and pride to the wind and just teleport over to him and fling herself into his arms. It took every ounce of mental stamina to refuse. I can’t, she told him. This is possibly the most important night in human history. I can’t just shut my eyes for the sake of a few moments of my own happiness, and give up on this comet. I need to find a way.
Paxie…
Taking a deep breath, she pressed her hand to her stomach and teleported to Para’s basement. Amara had installed technology that would conceal her life force from his detection, so he would not be able to find her—he would not even be able to reach her telepathically and distract her from her pensive misery. She only hoped something good would come of her nun-like discipline to make it worth sacrificing such precious distractions.
* * *
2:34 AM
Thornton was walking aimlessly through the empty streets, with his hands shoved deep inside his pockets. Every human soul had deserted the city for the safety of a bomb shelter. He could not see the comet through the stormy skies. He supposed that Pax might have a great view from wherever she was hiding in India. He had been walking for quite some time before the sky had begun gushing down on him at a rate of ten bucketfuls a second. He could have flown. He could have driven. But he needed the comfort of just moving his legs in the ancient rhythm of walking.
It was the type of day that required a meditative stroll—especially for a man who was used to taking a limo everywhere. Birthdays were surely special, as were holidays such as Christmas. All of these days had a certain infectious energy about them—but they could be skipped if necessary, for work or other reasons. Doomsday overshadowed them all. It could not be avoided, ignored, or brushed off with a few hundred-dollar-bills stuffed in a Hallmark card.
He wanted to go to Pax. That was the obvious, necessary thing to do. In their darkest moments, they had always relied on each other for comfort—and why should this be any different? It was extremely disturbing to him that he could not sense her prana anywhere on the planet—not even the tiniest hint of it. Where was she? Her life force was great and very familiar to him; he should always be able to find her. The only explanation was that Pax was using Amara’s prana-concealing technology to hide from him.
“You’re my sister,” he muttered to himself angrily. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”
As he continued to walk around aimlessly in the torrential rain, his mind began to taunt him with the possibilities. Why did Pax find it necessary to conceal her prana? She had been acting extremely strange in recent months, arousing his suspicions. He did not believe her spiel about trying to stop the comet. There was only one real reason he could imagine—one reason she would act this way.
She was with someone else.
Her words had haunted him non-stop since they had exited her mouth. I think that we should both see other people. He knew he deserved the rejection, but the one thought that he couldn’t bear was her being with another man. I want anyone but you. Yet it seemed that achieving his greatest fear was her entire agenda.
He could not deny that he had been overly anxious about Pax’s whereabouts since she had spoken those words. When he could detect her prana, he focused on it, sensing for the slightest fluctuations. If she were ever in a passionate moment with another man... well, he would know. He would do something about it. But the only fluctuations he had felt in her life force lately had occurred while she was training with his father.
That had always been a frequent occurrence, but Vincent and Pax had been training notably more in the past few weeks. Obviously, the impending apocalypse had much to do with that, but Thornton’s mind liked to wander and imagine the worst. He had briefly imagine
d that something was going on between Pax and his father, using every tiny bit of evidence to convince himself of this horror. The thought almost made him blind with rage.
He had fantasized about killing his own father. He had searched his soul to determine whether he was capable of this, and he realized that if it came down to Pax, he was capable of anything. He stopped walking and breathed deeply to calm himself. He noticed an empty playground just to his left —even if a projectile larger than the largest possible bomb had not been about to collide with the planet, no one would have allowed their children play in this weather. Hadn’t he and Pax taken Layla’s girls to this playground years ago? The slides and jungle gym were a gaudy bright red and the see-saw was made of blue and yellow.
Damn those primary colors to hell.
Thornton raised his hand and the playground instantly disintegrated.
He couldn’t look at anything or go anywhere without thinking of her. It was as she had said. To break their connection, he would have to destroy everything in existence including himself. They were too deeply connected. Their lives had been too elaborately intertwined.
He continued walking, leaving the blue-white blaze in his wake. He did not turn around to see the destruction he had caused, for he knew that more destruction was about to occur, making this seem meaningless. He might as well help the comet along with a head start. Looters had already begun looting—martial law had been declared weeks ago as people had begun to rush for supplies, and Thornton had barely noticed. He had been too focused on helping his mother implement her strategies—strategies which had miserably failed.
As he walked, he realized that he had been hardly soothed by the small release of energy. His prana still hissed in his gut, with all the turbulence of the storm around him. Images of Pax and his father being intimate together danced through his mind, making him really, really sick. Was this the way Pax had felt when she had seen him with Karina Allbright? If so, he understood why she would hold a grudge for so long. This jealousy was volatile and devastating—even though he knew that it was unwarranted. He tried to focus on something else. Anything else. He shuddered at the visions of Pax and his father making love on the floor of the training room. That's just impossible. It couldn't happen. I must really be losing it.
But if not him... then she’s definitely found someone else. It’s been months since... the incident with Karina. I was too angry for a while to notice anything that was going on around me. I just bet that after she saw me with that woman, after she went berserk, she ran right into the arms of another man for comfort. That’s why she wouldn't let me talk to her in Antarctica. That's why she didn't accept my apologies or proposal. She probably spent all those years in the Pseudosphere thinking about him, whoever he is, and dreaming about him. Yearning for him. What else could explain why she isn’t with me right now?
I bet she couldn’t wait to get back to him as soon as she got out of the vector zone. That’s why she said those awful things to me; that’s why she’s concealing her prana. I bet she couldn’t wait to get back to fucking him. And she’s hiding her prana so that I don't come and slaughter her little boy-toy.
Images of Pax lying under a man and gasping out in pleasure made him clench his fists. Is she screaming his name the way she used to scream for me? The thought of her wrapped up in someone else’s embrace made him want to empty the contents of his stomach. His Paxie! She had always been his.
She could be engaged in such activities at this very moment. He had no way of knowing since he couldn’t sense her. She could be in a new apartment or house that she had bought somewhere... anywhere in the city, anywhere in the world. Underneath a man who was making love to her, stealing her away from him on the most important day of all days. Underneath a man who was making her writhe and moan in pleasure. Underneath the man who had comforted her when he had let her down. Underneath the man who...
Stop it! Sakra. Thornton Vincent Kalgren, get real! He chastised himself. That’s not realistic. That wouldn’t happen. Paxie isn't like that. She would never do something like that. She would never put herself in that position…
She prefers to be on top.
He went back to imagining the disgusting situation in the way which it was more likely to be happening. There’s no way Pax would let some weak human fuck her. No, she’s the one fucking him. Pax was probably lowering her body down onto the man who had consoled her all those weeks ago, giving her body to him in gratitude. Pax was probably closing her eyes and sighing for that man, whoever he was, as she used the muscles in her thighs and abdomen to grind her hips down onto him.
Thornton turned a corner, and seeing a shiny parked yellow car, he planted his foot firmly in the side of the vehicle. Primary colors were just so annoying. The car went tearing across the street before slamming into another car and then into a brick wall. After the impact, he nervously looked around and was relieved to see that it was an incredibly quiet street. There was no one around whatsoever. Anyway—what was this small impact compared to the impending global disturbance?
He groaned at this thought. What am I doing? Why am I acting like a child? This makes me no better than an opportunistic looter or anarchist. Wrecking playgrounds and cars isn’t going to help the situation. What I need to do... is get Pax’s attention. I need to do something so major that she can’t help but take notice. Pax isn’t mourning the loss of me. She’s out there concealing her prana, doing Sakra-knows-what with Sakra-knows-who. I need to live my life and show her.
I need to find Medea, and build something real with her—I need to make it look like I’m perfectly normal. Better than normal. I need to make it look like I’m on top of the world. I need to send a message to Pax that I’m enjoying my life, with or without her. A message that I don’t need her and that she has no power over me. I can’t let her know how jealous I am of whoever she’s with... no, I need to focus on making her jealous. Making her miss me. I know I’m better than any man she could possibly be with. No one else can even handle her physically!
He quietly admitted to himself that the extent of Pax’s passion would be too unbearable for any lover that she chose. When she lost control, when she felt herself at the brink of release, the tension would build in her body and she would involuntarily slip into Ruby Form. Thornton gritted his teeth as he imagined her powerful muscles tightening around another man’s member. She would destroy the body of a human, wouldn’t she? She would! She wasn’t accustomed to exercising control. She’d never had to before. She would unintentionally burn a human man to cinders. This thought made him smile. Pax was incapable of holding back.
Regardless, he knew he needed to find a way to get under her skin. Medea was his best bet. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it was worth a shot. But what if Medea wasn’t responsive to his advances? He hadn’t exactly done much to charm her. Hopefully his wealth and reputation would do the work for him. He should test it now.
Why not? The comet barreling toward the planet was a great excuse to get it on. He would never again have such an impeccable opportunity to use cheesy pick-up lines. Pulling out his trusty, Kalgren Tech cell phone, he began to type a message in the hammering rain.
So, Medea—any plans for your last night on Earth? Because I’ve got a couple ideas. Let me know if you’d like some company.
“You sleazebag,” he said to himself semi-affectionately as he read over the message before sending it. He shook his head, not knowing whether to punish or congratulate himself on this new level of depravity. Now, all he could do was continue to walk around the abandoned city, wandering in circles and letting the rain beat down on him while he waited for her answer.
* * *
3:33 AM
Pax had been sitting in Para’s basement, playing with an ornament that Amara had commissioned for them. It was an antique hourglass that had been filled with the emerald sand they had taken from the final room of the vector zone. The two perfect glass bulbs were joined by a narrow neck that allowed the grains from a
different dimension to pass through.
It took precisely thirty minutes for the sand to completely descend through the neck. As Pax rested on her forearms, staring at the little shower within the hourglass, she reminded herself of just how much could be accomplished in only thirty minutes. There were still plenty of hours left in the day. Something could change.
She was startled by a text message on her phone. She almost knew who it would be without looking. Once she did look, she immediately wished she hadn’t.
“Sleazebag,” she whispered. Would just anyone do to satisfy his masculine urges? But she had declined him, and it was doomsday—and Para wasn’t just anyone. How could she expect that he would sit patiently and wait for her when he was Thorn Kalgren, CEO stud? The worst part was that she was sure he would have waited for her if she had only asked him to—but she had been forcing him away. He was what she wanted more than anything, but she was terrified of accepting happiness again, only to have it inevitably ruined.
Needing to flood her head with a distraction for a few minutes, she used her telekinesis to turn on the TV in the basement. Every channel was filled with morose news coverage on the comet. She knew that it was far too late for anyone to prepare for impact; anyone who did not know where they were staying upon impact was basically a dead person. As she flipped through the channels, Pax was mildly surprised by the efforts being taken to help everyone get to shelter.
“…and if you are stranded, you can call the toll-free number on the bottom of the screen, and rescue efforts will try to send a vehicle or a helicopter to help you and your family. Priority will be given to families with young children…”
Thirty Minutes to Heartbreak Box Set (Books 1-3) Page 57