by Joy Spraycar
He slid his hand into her hair, and then caught the back of her head and pulled her close. Wrapping his arm across the small of her back, he pressed his lips to hers.
Fire scorched her mouth, burned down her throat, and curled around inside her chest, stealing what little oxygen remained there. Her abdomen clenched, causing a sensation she’d never before felt. She threw her arms around his neck and pushed closer. The warmth of his chest wasn’t enough. She needed more, to be closer, tighter than this. She deepened the kiss, her tongue dancing with his, trying to convey with her mouth the desire deep inside.
He groaned.
Pushing one hand into his hair, she relished the feel of his skin. Somewhere beneath her dented scar, desire let loose.
He pulled back so he could look into her eyes. “Zalphia, are you sure you feel up to this?”
Her heart hammered painfully, and her breathing came in giant gulps like she’d run from the tigers in the training arena. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. Whatever becoming one with him meant, she wanted it, wanted it now, more than food, or water, or anything. She swallowed hard and simply nodded.
He gathered her against his chest, and she tightened her arms around his neck. With one foot, he kicked the bearskin open and laid her down. Then he stood and removed his covering.
Never having seen a man totally disrobed before, she was awed. She saw most of him that day in the arena, but now everything was different. His broad chest narrowed to a thinner waist, and below, well, what she saw there defied description. He lay beside her, took her into his arms again, and feathered his lips against hers, then continued to her chin, her neck, and her shoulder. Everything from that moment on felt like a dream, like she had been here before, doing this exact same thing, except she felt more.
Intense pain filled every nerve, but pain that delighted. Or could it even be called pain? Max was gentle and kind. Zalphia closed her eyes and reveled in their oneness. When it was over, sweat covered her and her breathing shuddered in and out. Tears of joy flowed from her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” Max wiped a tear from her cheek. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She laid her ear against his chest and listened to their hearts beat the same rhythm. “No, you didn’t hurt me. It was... wonderful. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“It is so different to feel you this way. You are happy with us becoming one?”
“Yes, very much so.”
“You seem so different from the way I know you. I am unable to separate which feelings are yours and which are mine. I am having a hard time sorting out your emotional side.”
She leaned back and looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry.” A strand of his strange hair hung across his nose, and she brushed it over his shoulder.
“It is all right. Eventually I will learn to know you again, to see you as you truly are. For now, I am used to finding the practical you.”
The look in his eyes echoed hurt. How must he feel not being able to reach her mind as he had always done?
“Help me. Show me what it is you are feeling.”
Her heart ached to know he lost their connection. Placing her hands of the side of his face, she closed her eyes and pushed her thoughts outward.
He jumped and pulled her hands from his face. “Stop, it is too much.”
“What?” She felt her mind slam back into her own head.
Was he displeased with what she’d projected? She rolled over, away from him.
“No!” He turned her back to face him. “It is not what you think. I never felt anything... so intense. It actually hurt.”
“You don’t feel that way?”
He slid an arm beneath her head and pulled her close to his chest. “You see, this is how I remember us. This is the way I pictured it being. The way we have always been. It was your absence that caused me pain, pain of absence to match the intensity of your pleasure. Do you understand? I am glad you feel that way, it is just... a little odd to feel so intense.” He rolled her on top of him, crinkled his nose, and shot her his one-sided grin. “But I love it.”
Her lips nearly split her face. She could feel it now. “Max, I love you.”
“And you, you are my one and only.”
Threading her hands into his hair, she lowered her lips to his. He immediately responded.
“Again?” she asked.
“Oh, yes.”
***
“All right,” Max said. “Enough of this. You have got to eat something before you kill yourself.”
Zalphia lay down beside him and traced the curve of the muscles on his chest. “Are you sure?” She raised one eyebrow. This was what was meant for her? This was heaven! “If Selestia’s anything like this, I vote we go back there right now.”
Max sat up. “No! Zalphia, we came here to save this world.”
The smile slid off her face, and her heart shriveled. “I’m sorry. I know we have something more to do.” She pulled on his arm. “I didn’t mean anything. I just so enjoy, what do you call it, becoming one, that I could do this forever.”
He pulled her onto his lap, careful to avoid the one thing she wanted so desperately to have again. “We can do this all you like. It is not as if I do not crave it, too. But we must find our children and discover why they have not changed this world.”
“Our children?”
“Yes, our sons. They came here long before we did.”
“You sent our sons here?” She could hardly believe her ears. “Why would you send our children to such a depraved world?”
“Because they were supposed to be strong enough to come and turn things around, but they have not.”
“This has been hard enough for us, whatever possessed you to send children here?”
Max pushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “It was not I that sent them, it was you.”
Zalphia’s mouth gaped open. “What? Me?”
“You do not understand. They were not brought here as infants, such as we were. They came in a ship as grown men, and they should have been strong enough to change things, to turn this world around. You never would have sent them if you had known that they would not accomplish their mission.”
“Then what happened? Why is this world still on the wrong path?”
Max shrugged. “I do not understand myself. Maybe they did not fight hard enough. Maybe they picked the wrong side. It is hard to say. Even those on the council of Elders do not have a clue.”
Dread clenched Zalphia’s chest. She sent her children here? “Are our sons still alive?”
Sliding her back onto the bearskin, Max stood and pulled on the covering he called pants. “I do not know. It had been three years since we last sensed them before we decided to come here.”
“Three years?” Zalphia swallowed hard. Had she sent her children here to die?
Max nodded. “Yes, and now our mission has been delayed for eight more years because somehow your abilities were discovered.”
“Have you sensed them here? Like you could me?”
“No, I do not know if they are even still alive.”
Zalphia stood. “But if they came as men, shouldn’t they be?”
“I do not know. I would think if they were, I would be able to feel them.”
Cold raced through her gut, and Zalphia pressed a hand over her rapidly beating heart.
“Are you saying they’re dead?”
Max shot her a sad look. “It is possible.”
“But how? Could these humans overcome Selestial beings?”
“They came during the great war. Even those from our home world are mortal. They can be killed, my love. Just as you and I could succumb to mortal wounds.”
“But they could have used their abilities. Stayed out of the fighting. Why would they put themselves in harm’s way when all they had to do was change things by simply reaching out with their minds?”
“That is true. I cannot answer that.” Max tied the leather band around his waist. “It should have b
een a relatively easy thing. But if our sons failed, then Selestia stands to lose more than this one planet. There has to be more here than meets the eye. That is why you decided that it should be us to come. And being raised by humans would allow us to see this world such as they do.”
“But what if our sons are still alive? Can’t we look for them?”
“We could... but...”
Max avoided her gaze.
“But what?”
“If we find our sons, I am afraid they will need saving, just as you did. It would mean going back to the arena and discovering how this all came about.”
“What?” Zalphia’s insides clenched at the mention of going back.
“I know how you feel, Zalphia. I am not saying you are going back. I would never ask that, especially now that your chip has been removed. You would never be able to stand the emotions. It has to be me. I will go back in order to find out what happened to this world.”
“No!” She leapt to her feet and grabbed his arm. “No, you can’t go back. I won’t let you. I’ve felt your suffering. Besides, if you do, they’ll put you between the stones, and I can’t survive without you. I don’t know anything about living outside the arena. I need you. Need your help. You promised to care for me. I can’t do it alone.”
He ran and finger down her cheek. “I will not go back until you are safely with Simeon. He will teach you all you need to know.”
She didn’t want to be with Simeon. She wanted Max, wanted him close beside her. How could he show her what it was like to be together and then leave her?
A sudden tightness in her chest caused a strangled gasp to escape her lips. Tears burned her eyes. She fought to take in air, but instead, it whooshed from her lungs.
Sound dimmed, and she reached one hand for Max as his face faded into blackness.
CHAPTER 10
Max held Zalphia close. Her reaction to his declaration of going back clear on her face. Did she not know how hard it would be for him to leave her? He wanted nothing more than to gather her in his arms and return to Selestia, but they came here for a purpose, and it must be accomplished. If only she could see the lifetimes they already spent together, she would feel secure, knowing full well he would protect her and together they would save this world.
As he considered taking her into his mind and sharing everything, the look on her face twisted. She fought to catch a breath then slumped against him.
“Zalphia?” Max tipped her back and looked into her face.
Her eyes stared straight ahead, and her lips formed an O, frozen in their last attempt to beg for his companionship.
Max gently shook her. “Zalphia? Zalphia!”
Nothing.
“No, no, no!” His throat constricted. This is not happening. “Zalphia, please, no!” Gathering her limp body into his arms, he rushed back to the bearskin and gently laid her down. The light, which moments before shone from her eyes, vanished. Holding his hand inches from her nose, he felt for the movement of air.
None.
He laid an ear to her chest, listening for the beat of her heart.
Nothing
His mind raced. This could not be happening. Not now. They had come too far for him to lose her. What could have caused this? Her heart stopped. How? Why? She had barely recovered from the barbaric surgery he performed on her, and now, she could die. Maybe becoming one had been too much for her body.
His chest constricted, and his hands shook. What of the trackers? He searched for entrance to their minds and found them less than an hour away. The impossibility of running slapped him across the face. If Zalphia was to live, they must remain here. Frantic, Max reached out for the only person he knew could help.
Simeon?
No answer.
Simeon, where are you? I need your help.
Still, silence answered his plea.
Max frantically searched for the instructions his father gave many years before should he find himself in this situation. What was it? Several seconds passed, and then the memories leapt forward. To save her life, he must do what his father taught, but what would happen once the trackers reached them? He couldn’t think about that now. He had to get her heart to beat, push air into her lungs, and bring her back. What if she didn’t respond? The mere thought sent shivers up his spine, and he fought to catch his own breath.
Why had he let his desires rule him? He should have been more concerned about their safety than satisfying his urges, but it was so hard to have her by him and not want to share himself body and soul.
Max took a deep breath and closed his eyes. No amount of pleasure could bring back what it would now cost them.
Opening his eyes, Max ran a finger down her face. He tilted her head back, pressed his mouth over hers, and blew two breaths in, watching as her chest rose and fell. He pressed with two hands, pumping the blood from her heart for twenty counts and then repeated the process.
How could this happen? She seemed fine just moments ago. But look at her now. Was this Platy’s doing? Had she planted another bomb inside of his love?
He swallowed hard. Trainers used all sorts of tricks, and Platy seemed to know every last one.
Why had he not considered all the ramifications of stealing Zalphia away? First the chip in her brain, now this. What other things would his incompetence cause? Or was this the end? He couldn’t bear that thought. In spite of his promise to protect her, Zalphia was suffering again. He stared at the unseeing eyes and her lips, a pale shade of blue, and saw his failure painted on her features.
“I’m so sorry, my love. I should have prepared better. Come back to me, please.”
A single tear slipped down his cheek. He couldn’t protect her now. No matter what, he wouldn’t be able to save her from what was about to happen.
Oh, Selestia, why had he not pushed on to Kilapon? He took a moment to kiss her before blowing another breath into her lungs.
He’d keep up the life-giving treatment until the trackers were just moments away. But what then? If he stayed, they’d kill the both of them. What would they do with her? He would give his own life if it would save her, but he knew it wouldn’t.
The hardest part was yet to come. If her heart didn’t start by the time the trackers reached them, he would stand by and watch her die or let them take her. Either way, she would again be in the hands of their enemies. They already stole her from him once. Now he would lose her all over again. He would discover who was behind this and make them pay. Zalphia’s death would not go unavenged, and somehow he would bring down the Emperor. Everyone who plotted to keep Zalphia from him would suffer.
Simeon should have known this would happen. He was supposed to know everything. Why hadn’t he warned Max about the chip in her brain? Why hadn’t he covered the possibility that someone could stop her heart? Max had done everything just as Simeon instructed. Now he and Zalphia were supposed to combine and change this world. But here she lay, lifeless before him and just as lost to him as she was the day she was taken to be a Glad.
He continued working until he felt the trackers just a few yards away. Gathering her limp body into his arms one more time, he kissed her forehead and nose and then pressed a kiss to her hair.
“I love you, Zalphia. I am truly sorry. I would have done anything to prevent this.” He ran a finger across her cheek and gently pressed his lips one last time to hers. “We will be together again, I promise. If not here. Somewhere. Sometime. I will fight for us, my love.” A single tear dripped onto her cheek, and Max watched as it slipped into her hairline. Brushing her face one last time with his fingers, he gently laid her down and stood. “Goodbye, my love.”
Max fled into the forest.
Sinking to the ground against the trunk of a towering pine, he waited. He had to know what would happen to her. How he wished he could have taught her all that he knew, things like shadowing, making others only see their surroundings instead of the person standing right in front of them. Max used that now, although, he wasn’
t sure how well it would work when his emotions were so raw. His mind so taken with his love and loss.
Two men entered the clearing where the fire still burned and Zalphia’s naked body lay on the skin. “She’s here,” one of them called back into the trees.
Max’s breath caught, and his fingernails dug into his palms as Platy entered the fire’s glow. How had she escaped what they had done in the arena? She should be dead, but there she was, standing over Zalphia.
“Give me the remote.” One of the men handed Platy a small box, and she flipped a switch.
Zalphia gasped.
Max leapt to his feet. She was alive!
He shuddered and closed his eyes for a brief moment as he sent a quick prayer of thanks toward the heavens. He then glanced around, hoping for a viable plan of escape, one where he could take Zalphia with him. It took every ounce of control not to burst into the clearing, scoop her into his arms and run. But he already knew what would happen if he did that. Platy simply had to throw a switch, and Zalphia would be lost all over again.
He peeked from behind a large tree trunk, thrilled to see the rise and fall of Zalphia’s chest, visual proof that she was indeed among the living. He again scanned the area but couldn’t come up with a plan he could facilitate by himself while carrying an unconscious woman.
Max watched as Platy slipped the remote into the bag at her waist.
This was all her doing. She was the reason Zalphia stopped breathing, her heart stilled. Mo matter what Max tried, Platy had a contingency plan for it. She could do any number of things to keep him and Zalphia apart.
Max fought the urge to burst from the trees and put an end, once and for all, to Platy and her trackers. But he had no idea what other traps lay hidden in Zalphia’s body. Somehow Platy knew what they were going to do before they did it and found a way to stop them. Max wondered if anyone else knew about the chips implanted in the woman he loved.
Platy nodded. “My physician did an excellent job. I’ve got my Glad back. Any sign of the man?”
The trackers sniffed the air.