by Kristie Cook
“Thank you for saving me some,” he said, as though he was the mind reader in this relationship. He sat beside me and lifted the can. “But you can have it. I can wait until we find something else.”
I shook my head without removing my gaze from the water. “Don’t be ridiculous. Eat.”
I didn’t tell him that I suddenly felt ill anyway. It wasn’t quite a sick feeling, and I didn’t think the tuna itself had caused it. Just food in general. The thought of putting anything more in my mouth nearly made me gag. Where had that come from? I hadn’t been sick since before the Ang’dora. Was it because it had been so long since I’d really eaten much? That’s all I could figure, because even if I’d somehow contracted something, my body should have regenerated after yesterday’s taxing flight.
“Do you think the water’s safe to go in?” I asked, really wishing I could wash myself off. It wouldn’t be the same as a hot bath, but better than nothing.
“I don’t know. Whatever black magic was in those bombs that killed all life forms on land probably killed everything in the sea, too, including any bacteria. It’s probably safe …” He leaned forward onto his knees and reached his fingers out for a wave that slid onto the sand. My breath caught, and I cringed as the water washed over his skin. He jerked his hand back and held up his raw fingers. “Or maybe not.”
The skin on his fingertips immediately healed, but I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to immerse my whole body in that acidic water, if only for a moment, even if it did heal.
“There should be fresh water in the water heater,” he said. “We should conserve it, so no bath or shower, but at least we can drink it.”
And for some reason, the inability to wash myself set me off once again.
I snapped.
Total desolation and despair overcame me. I leaned forward on my knees, curled my body over them, and let the sobs ransack me until I couldn’t breathe. Then yesterday’s anger returned, fueled by exhaustion and guilt. Although I’d been saying it all along, yesterday’s flyovers had brought home the truth and the stupid water reinforced it.
“I was right. The world is gone. Our friends and family are gone. We’re completely alone. We can’t even take a fucking bath in the ocean!”
I slammed my fists into the sand. Something sharp, a broken shell or piece of glass, I didn’t know, sliced into the side of my hand. I jumped to my feet, swearing up a storm as I turned toward the house.
“Damn it!” I screamed as I shook my hand.
The pain immediately vanished and the skin was already closing up, but the blood that had trickled out sprayed in splatters that landed on the dead brush of the yard. Bright red dots contrasting against the endless gray. Splashes of color in a monotone world, like those artistic black-and-white photographs with a single hue that caught the eye. Photographs that didn’t exist anymore, that would never again be taken.
Tristan wrapped his arms around me from behind, trying to settle me down, and something about the gesture drained me of all energy worse than a sorcerer could do.
“I’m so done,” I cried quietly as I sagged against him and closed my eyes. Tears seeped between my lashes. “Everybody we love is gone. Why can’t we be, too?”
“It’s not our time,” he murmured against my ear. Not what I wanted to hear, but at least he didn’t argue with me about the hopelessness of the world. Maybe he’d hoped to find something different back in D.C., but he’d finally accepted what I’d been saying all along. At least, I thought he had, until he spoke again a few moments later, and the tone of defeat in his voice had disappeared. “Alexis, open your eyes.”
I didn’t reply, and I didn’t immediately open my eyes. The scene was clear on the backs of my lids, and if he was trying to be cute by filling my vision with his face, I wasn’t in the mood. Yes, I actually thought that for probably the first time ever—I wasn’t in the mood to see my love’s beautiful face. Even when it was the only thing of beauty and life left in this world. That’s how done I was.
“Lexi, my love, open your eyes,” he insisted, his voice even lighter now. Almost excited.
I reluctantly obeyed. And gasped before falling to my knees.
“What the hell?” I breathed as my finger traced over one of the branches of the brush in the yard. A branch that had been dead and gray only moments ago, but now began to turn green, starting at a little dot in the center of the stem and growing outward. My eyes lifted as more little specks of green caught my attention. “I don’t understand.”
“I think it’s everywhere your blood drops landed,” Tristan said as he kneeled down behind me.
“My blood will bring back life?” I started laughing hysterically, but not the kind of joyous laughter that was appropriate. This was a maniacal howl that made me sound like a lunatic. “Classic. Just fucking classic. What am I supposed to do? Spread my blood all over the damn world to save it? Is that their oh-so-wonderful plan?”
I leaned back against Tristan and stared up at the sky, wondering what the Angels were doing on the other side of the veil. Probably cackling their heads off.
Tristan snaked his arm over my hips. “I don’t know, Lex, but it shows that there’s hope.”
I looked back down at the brush. Only a few branches had shown signs of life, and it wasn’t spreading very quickly. I’d bleed out before we could revive this yard. How the heck would this do any good for the world? My eyes fell on a new color that wasn’t gray or green. Something tiny and purple in the dirt. As I watched, it pushed its way up, becoming a purple bud that blossomed before our very eyes. I clamped my hand over my mouth and new tears welled.
I reached for the flower, and at the same time, my stomach jumped.
For a brief moment, I thought my tuna was trying to come back up, but the nauseated feeling had passed.
Then my belly fluttered again.
“What was that?” Tristan asked as his hand pressed against my lower abdomen.
“You felt that?” As soon as I spoke the words, my body did it again. “Oh my God.”
“Alexis …”
Another flutter made him trail off.
My heart leapt and swelled. I clutched the flower I’d accidentally picked to my chest and turned around to face him. The biggest and most sublime smile beamed from his face.
“You believed in hope, and you were right,” I breathed.
I threw my arms around him, and he lifted us both from the ground before swinging me around.
“Faith, my love. The tiniest bit goes a long way.”
He spun us around again, and I felt like the heavy weight of despair peeled away and flung off of me in chunks with the centrifugal force. For some reason, realizing I was pregnant now felt different than last time. The world was in a lot worse condition than it had been then, but something told me that this—the baby’s kicks and the flower—were the signs of hope I was supposed to discover.
“We’re going to have a baby,” I shrieked as I held onto Tristan’s neck.
“Wicked awesome!” The familiar male voice came from near the house, and Tristan suddenly stopped his spinning.
“I told you we’d find them here,” his female companion claimed, and I ran for her.
Chapter 16
The brush slowed me down, so I leapt up and sprinted across the tops of it toward the couple standing by the corner of the house. I launched myself at them in a tackle hug, taking them both down.
“You’re alive!” I squealed as I sprang to my feet and grabbed their hands to help them up.
“The last person who came at me like that got their head bit off,” Vanessa said, brushing herself off and flicking her long, white-blond hair over her shoulder as she leveled me with ice-blue eyes. “Literally.”
“I can’t … I just can’t believe it!” Ignoring her threat, I threw myself at her again, tears streaming down my face. And then I turned to Owen with a huge smile and hugged him again. “I thought you were dead! I thought everyone—”
I cut
myself off, not wanting to ruin the moment by mentioning everyone else we’d lost.
“We didn’t know what happened to you two, either,” Owen said as he held me tightly before letting me go to give Tristan a man-hug. His straw-colored hair was longer than his usual style, and worry lines spread out from his sapphire-blue eyes. I wondered what kind of hell they’d been through since the last time we saw them.
“We thought we’d lost you,” Vanessa said, and although she tried to hide it, I could hear the fear in her voice. “We’ve been looking ever since we figured out we could come to the surface without dying from radiation.”
“We only got here yesterday,” I said.
Owen shook his head, his eyes full of wonder as his gaze swung back and forth between Tristan and me. “I still can’t believe it. Why Vanessa thought you might come here is beyond me, but cheers to her for insisting we come all the way down here.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “It’s a girl thing. And believe it or not, I am a girl.”
I nodded. Owen should have known this place was important to me, but guys just didn’t think the same way.
“What happened to you? Where did you go? Where have you been?” The questions gushed out like a geyser.
“We have the same inquisition for you,” Owen said, “but first, did I hear something about drinking water?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How long have you been here, Mr. Eavesdropper?”
“We popped in under a cloak,” Vanessa admitted. “Looked like you two were having a moment, so we didn’t want to interrupt.”
In other words, they saw my stupid tantrum. Now, at least, I could blame it on hormones. Baby. Oh my God, we were going to have a baby! That’s what you thought last time. I mentally frowned as my hand automatically covered my abdomen, as if to protect it, and then I pushed the negative thought out of my head. I didn’t want to worry right now. I wanted to bask in the little glint of hope today had brought. I knew it would be brief, so I’d enjoy this little escape from the shitty truth of reality while I could.
“The hot water heater’s inside,” Tristan said without missing a beat. He headed for the stairs to the screened-in porch. “Let’s see what’s in there.”
Vanessa and I followed the guys up, but we stayed out on the lanai when they went inside.
“So the baby’s going to make it?” she asked. “I thought you’d be showing by now.”
Both hands went to my stomach this time, and I tried to smile though more tears filled my eyes. Yep, my escape had been brief. “I lost the other one when I, uh, died and took a trip to the Otherworld.”
She stopped in front of the patio chair and stared at me with brows raised. I shrugged.
“Just a brief visit with Mom and Rina … and others. They sent me back.” I sat down in my old favorite chair, trying to blow off the whole thing. Wishing we could forget everything that had happened and celebrate the good, like the baby and finding each other again. But we all had too many questions.
Tristan and Owen came outside holding coffee mugs full of stale tasting water with a metallic aftertaste to it. At least it was something drinkable, though. I drained the entire cup, and Tristan handed me another.
“Hold on,” Owen said as he took a seat next to Vanessa. “Start at the beginning.”
Tristan and I exchanged a look, and then he began telling our story, leaving out the parts of our lengthy stays in Hell. Although we’d never actually discussed what we’d say if we ever found people, we were apparently on the same page that we didn’t want to share the nitty-gritty with anyone. If we mentioned it at all, you could bet they’d want to know everything about our times in Hell, and those details were too personal, too shameful for comfort. They questioned us plenty about the Otherworld as it was.
“I didn’t see anything really,” I said, and I quickly moved on to the rest of the story. “We left Amadis Island and flew over Europe—”
“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You flew?” Vanessa asked.
“But we heard Dorian …” Owen’s voice trailed off, and he looked away from me. So they knew Dorian had left for the Daemoni.
“We need to save him,” I said, and we told them what the Demon said about Dorian being what Lucas needed to drop the veil and open the Gates to Hell.
“So we need to find Dorian,” Owen agreed.
“Wait. Go back,” Vanessa said. “How did you fly over Europe and Africa if not with Dorian?”
Tristan and I exchanged another glance.
“They’re going to find out sooner or later,” he said, and I nodded.
Then we both pushed our chairs away from the table and stood up. We exposed our wings.
“Holy shit!” Vanessa spat. “I guess that explains the holes in the back of your vest.”
“Sweet,” Owen said with awe. They both stood up to inspect our wings, which we had to hold tightly against our bodies because of the confines of the space. “You can fly? What do they mean? And why are they dark? I thought Angel wings would be white.”
“Obviously, we aren’t Angels,” I snapped. Owen frowned, and I immediately felt bad. It wasn’t his fault the Angels were a pain in my ass. I hid my wings and sat back down with a frown. “We don’t know what they mean. Nobody’s explained. We had them when we came back from the Otherworld, though. I guess the Angels thought they’d be useful.”
“And they are,” Tristan said as his wings disappeared, and he also returned to his seat. He gave Owen one of those boyish can’t-wait-to-show-you-my-new-toy grins. I rolled my eyes. “They’re pretty badass. Wait until you see.”
“Wow.” Owen dropped into his chair, his eyes bouncing between the two of us. Everything I’d ever accomplished suddenly disappeared, and I once again returned to my teen years, when everyone stared at me for being a freak. “Wicked awesome!”
That seemed to be Owen’s new phrase. Outdated a bit, but then again, the whole world seemed to have gone back in time.
“So what’s the rest of the world like?” Vanessa asked. “We’ve seen some, but not as much as you.”
“Dead,” I said. “We found no one but Demons, Daemoni, and a few Normans who think the Daemoni are gods. No plant life. No animals, except Weres. Nothing.”
“Until just now.” Tristan lifted his chin in the direction of the brush by the beach. We all turned to look. Tiny blotches of green stood out against all of the monotone gray.
Vanessa shook her head. “I knew your blood was good, but not that good.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I can revive the world,” I said miserably. “So what good is it really?”
“It’ll bring hope,” Owen said. “We need that. So will that baby. In fact, just seeing you and Tristan alive will make a huge difference.”
I frowned. “A difference with who?”
A corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked smile. “Everybody. You’ll see.”
Tristan leaned forward over the table. “There are others alive?”
Owen laughed. “Well, yeah, dude. What? Did you think you two were the last ones on Earth?”
His tone made the theory sound ridiculous.
“Pretty much, yeah,” I admitted.
He shook his head. “Not even close. I mean, we don’t have millions in our group or anything, but we’re growing all the time as we find more survivors.”
“Seriously?” My jaw dropped open. “But we’ve seen nothing … nobody …”
“You’ve been looking in the wrong places. We can show you whenever you’re ready.”
I sprang to my feet, knocking my chair over from the force and speed. “Let’s go!”
We didn’t leave immediately. We rummaged through the beach house first, collecting towels, blankets, pillows, soaps and shampoos, and everything in the kitchen, packing it all into boxes Owen magically created from supplies around the house. He and Tristan drained the rest of the potable water from the hot water heater into other containers. Then we scavenged the other four abandoned houses on our little
key. Hardly anyone knew these homes even existed, hidden from the highway and view of the general public, so nobody had come and looted them. Until now.
“Biggest jackpot yet. We’re gonna be heroes,” Owen said as he appraised the pile of goods we’d collected, including mattresses and other furniture. He rubbed his hands together, and then pulled them apart, opening a portal. “Oh, they’ll be glad to see you, too, Alexis.”
Vanessa lifted a stack of boxes into her arms and walked through the portal. Tristan, Owen, and I used our powers to raise the rest of the pile from the ground.
“Ladies first,” Owen said when I didn’t immediately move forward.
I hesitated, suddenly scared for who I’d find there—or wouldn’t find. I needed to be prepared.
“Owen … your mom?”
He didn’t answer me. My bottom lip trembled as I sucked in a jagged breath. “Blossom? Jax? Sheree? Heather and Sonya? Carlie?”
“Just go,” he said. “You’ll see.”
I inhaled another cleansing breath to gather myself, and then pushed my pile through the portal before I followed it in. On the other side, I arrived at what appeared to be a garage door set into a hillside, once covered by trees and undergrowth that were now nothing but gray, scraggly branches wearing a dirty blanket of crusted snow. Vanessa stood next to the door, holding the boxes and tapping a foot. Not until I moved up closer to her did I notice the tiny wings and A.K. initials carved into the metal jamb, with a line of strange, but vaguely familiar symbols underneath. Owen ran over to us and tapped the symbols in a specific sequence, and I remembered where I’d seen them before—on the trunks Vanessa’s body had once been delivered in.
“Hold on, before you go in,” he said, turning toward us as the garage door began to open from the ground up. “Gotta decon us.”