Eternal Refuge

by Annabelle McInnes

  Knight’s chest rose and fell with winded breaths. ‘You’ll release the women you took from Nirvana now?’

  He should have known it. He should have seen. How else would they have known it all? Only someone close to the head of the pack knew of the bunker. He was a fool. If only Knight had told him. He would have walked through fire to save those that were trapped here. He attempted to speak, but all that came out was garbled words and spit.

  The smile that split Parker’s face dimpled his cheek. Euan jerked in his bonds as Parker pulled a gun from his waistband. Knight simply raised his hands.

  ‘No,’ Parker answered.

  Then fired.

  Knight had betrayed him, but he had done it for a cause. When all that hard muscle, promise and hope hit the floor, Euan cried out. Nick grunted, thrashed, Euan had no such luxury. He could do nothing except pull against the rope that stole his breath, his senses.

  Euan swore vengeance even as he was unable to move, breath, think.

  Parker walked towards him with a lithe gracefulness that would rival a panther. Long limbs and smooth movements. He was surrounded by blood, death and he was at home. He reached Euan, knelt, touched the scar that ran from forehead to cheek. Euan recoiled under the contact. Months ago, he had shared his meals with this man, chuckled at his wit, nodded sagely at his ideas for humanity’s future. Meanwhile, Parker had manipulated a desperate male to coerce Euan into leaving Nick behind so he could be brutalised. The thunder in his chest rolled. The lightning in his fingertips zapped. The scars and chronic pain were absent, the loss of his eye irrelevant. He would kill Parker, no matter the cost to his own life.

  When the man spoke, it was to himself. ‘I should take out your other eye.’

  Euan was lightheaded, the space between one breath and the next dragged out. His neck held no strength. An inarticulate grunt was his reply. The spit that sputtered forth from Euan’s mouth hit Parker in the chin. He removed the thumb from Euan’s face and wiped it from his skin. When he sucked it from his finger, Euan fought the urge to vomit.

  Parker’s knife hovered above his single working eye. ‘I’m going to fuck Nick in front of you and I want to hear you scream. I want to hear you beg. Then, I’m going to take this eye and fuck you. If you ask nicely, I might even use the blood to ease my way.’

  The blade hovered precariously close to his iris but Euan did not close his eye. He did not cower. Even as the memories flooded in. His body taut on a meat hook as another man used a blade to cut his face. The air around him morphed into wisps of smoke. The pain from his old injuries eclipsed the new. The lack of oxygen was drawing the last of his strength. His fingers were no longer responsive.

  Behind Parker, Nick struggled. There was the groan of timber, the creak of rope. He grunted behind his gag.

  ‘If you don’t shut up, Nicky, I’ll take his eye first.’

  With or without the eye, soon it wouldn’t matter. Euan was losing cognisance. His wits were beginning to dull. Shock, trauma, death would soon follow. Realisation came slowly that there was going to be no rescue. They were meant to be the liberation team. Knight was the one who had betrayed them. Kira would never be safe. The horror of her being alone forced him to draw another breath, then another. Every effort he made to see to their safety, it seemed as though he was doomed to always fail.

  He was going to die here. Parker shifted so Euan could see Nick. Across from him. Nick grunted Euan’s name over and over behind his gag as tears dribbled down his cheeks to join the crimson puddles on the floor. Euan couldn’t stop the wetness pooling from his own eye as Nick struggled, bled, begged for Euan’s life with incoherent words.

  It was happening again. Euan could see the script playing out as it had before. They would be tortured, they would be forced to watch each other as they screamed, as they bled, as they died.

  But this time, Euan would be forced to witness the light haemorrhage from Nick’s jade green eyes instead of arctic blue.

  The darkness around Euan’s vision thickened, while Nick pushed through his own pain and fought against his bonds in Euan’s direction.

  Parker stood and moved to Nick, a terrible smile split across his face, his knife held high.

  The screech that came next shocked them all. A feminine battle-cry drew all eyes to the ceiling.

  He knew what it was. But he couldn’t accept it. The bellow in his throat was trapped there by rope. He pulled against his bindings, only for his vision to fade. His chest burned from the lack of oxygen. All he could hear was the beat of his heart.

  The roof fell away. Plasterboard, fibreglass and dust rained down from the ceiling. Plumes of white surrounded them. Euan couldn’t see shit. He was hogtied, hampered. Beside him, a body hit the ground. Then another, and another.

  The cloud of white powder parted and out of the plume of dust, the smallest of the Valiant emerged. In moments, the room was inundated by the well-armed, well-tended female force. They fired loaded weapons at their enemies, they were dressed in military-issued protective gear. Their hands did not tremble, their muscles were honed, strong and conditioned. They were an army that was small, but victorious.

  Lily and Kira were their leaders in battle.

  When Kira emerged, an inarticulate groan vibrated up through Euan’s chest. Covered in white powder, never in all his life, had Euan seen such spectacular splendour. Kira was a warrior, a battle-queen. Dressed in black, her weapon held high, she shot bullets into the dust without thought, without reservation. Etched in her features was such fervour, such determination that if that look had been aimed his way, he would have been afraid. As it was, he knew he was lucky to have her. She was brilliant. There was a shift inside him, even as he began to lose consciousness, Euan knew what he had to do.

  She spotted him on the floor. She knelt beside him and worked efficiently to cut the ropes at his throat. Her tears created pink tracks down her cheeks. When the ropes loosened, he choked, gasped, spat. His tongue was thick and his skin was hot where too much blood had been trapped.

  He pulled himself up onto his shaking knees. Somehow, he managed to gather the energy to snatch Kira and wrap her close. Her scent was obscured by the dust. Her body shook with all that she had done. He could offer her no words of gratitude. His throat burned, his eyes stung. Every breath was agony. Euan didn’t care. She was here, she was whole, she had saved him and he was thankful.

  But across the room, Parker was held to the floor by two women. This was it. It was the moment that was the cataclysm for all things. Their sacrifices, their pain, the blood and tears that had been spilt. The lives that had been lost, the friends, the family, the ones that were borne of both blood and the heart. Every step, every heartbreak, every kiss goodbye was for this exact second. The woman from Nirvana, Lily’s brothers, Mickey-O. Benjamin David Wright, a boy who loved his mother. Knight. This was their moment.

  He hoped they watched on.

  In the dust, Kira found the Glock that Knight had taken from him. It was a weapon that he had claimed as his own since he’d sworn retribution for Nick. She pressed the gun into his shaking hands and said, ‘End it.’

  Euan met furious brown eyes. ‘I will feel no remorse for this.’

  He raised the gun, pulled the trigger, and was right.

  Chapter 25

  Euan

  Nightmares still roamed, some of the worst had escaped. But they were leaderless and afraid. Euan had no time for them now.

  He sat in the dirt outside a green tent that was used as a temporary surgery. Slumped in the only comfortable position he could achieve, Euan’s back rested up against a dusty tyre. The truck laden with medical supplies had been driven by the male members of the Valiant while Kira and the women that supported her had stormed the warehouse. His throat was still hoarse from the strangulation. His body was still coated in the white powder that had fallen from the ceiling. The fire that licked his skin from the rope around his throat, arms and legs was expected.

  The tent flap parte
d and Lily emerged. How she was coping, Euan couldn’t guess. She had lost her brothers, her father and now, her lover. She had scrubbed herself clean and changed her clothes. A blue apron was smeared with blood, the fingertips of her latex gloves were stained pink. Her face was marked with both exhaustion and triumph. She showed the cost and the impact of the win today.

  Euan staggered to his feet. He used the truck as support. He held his breath, wavered as he waited for her update. He almost fell to his knees when she said, ‘He survived. You can see him now.’

  He ignored her outstretched hand of support and stumbled past her. On a single cot inside the waterproof tent, naked, surrounded by dressings soaked in blood, Nick jerked in a restless sleep.

  Kira held his head in her lap. Her hands were at his temples, wiping the blood from his hair with a wet cloth. She avoided the worst of the lacerations, the stitches, the bruising, and focused on his hairline until the black strands turned dark gold.

  ‘How is he?’

  She looked up and blinked. In her focus on Nick, she had missed Euan entering the tent. She had cleaned herself up in order to be a nurse and support Lily. A faded yellow t-shirt stretched across her breasts. Black tactical pants encased her legs. Her boots, still caked in white dust, were the only reminder that she had been the hero today. Her face was the picture of surprise and sorrow. Nick had been unconscious during the makeshift surgery, but it had been her that had pulled his body down from his bindings. Euan wanted to wipe that memory from her mind forever, but it was a wasted plea. Kira would keep it and win out.

  Lily spoke to him from behind. ‘It’s mostly superficial. If we can avoid infection, he’ll survive.’

  He turned back to the woman that had lost everything. ‘Did you know?’

  She shook her head and licked bloodless lips. ‘No.’

  They held each other’s gaze. In her eyes, there was a sea of turmoil, of regret and grief. Until she banked it, shielded her pain and pulled back her shoulders. Her chin was high when she said, ‘I’ll gather up those that are left. We’ll work together to find a solution on how to move forward.’

  After those parting words, she turned from the tent and was gone.

  Euan turned back to Kira and held her gaze as the whirlpool of words swirled between them. ‘We’ll help her, support her, as much as we can.’

  Euan nodded even as the pain of Lily’s loss churned within him.

  ‘I might have scars that rival yours.’ Nick’s voice was rougher than Euan’s.

  Euan did fall to his knees then. He shuffled to them, humble before a woman that had saved not just Nick and himself, but also the human race. He edged towards a man that suffered so much in the hope to save the woman he loved. These new memories would be another burden he would carry, but Euan was sure that with both the love from himself and Kira, they would never take hold.

  Nick’s eyes were bloodshot. Both were swollen and bruised. Saltwater leaked unheeded from the corners. They roved over Euan’s face even as they struggled to blink. Jade green was laced with gold. The eyes of precious stones. Almost as precious as the man that bore them. Kira’s palm was a constant stroke across his forehead.

  Split lips were licked. His voice was hoarse with emotion. ‘I thought I’d never see you again. Both of you.’

  Fingers tunnelled through bloody, sweat-slick hair. When they tangled with feminine ones, they locked and held. Foreheads were pressed together and Euan told him the only thing that mattered. ‘I love you.’

  Blue eyes were met then. They were as bright as the sky, as deep as the ocean. There, Euan found safety, sanctuary. Refuge.

  ‘You are incredible,’ he told her.

  She smiled at him and he breathed through the burn. She was whole, she was safe. She had survived the worst of it and prevailed using her own skill and grit. She sniffed, but her sorrow had been cathartic.

  She gave Euan an impish smile and whispered her words into Nick’s ear. ‘Euan told me he wants a baby.’

  The jerk was so sudden, the jolt rocked through the three of them.

  ‘Yep,’ she repeated into the shocked silence. ‘What do you think, Nicky? A little boy with brown eyes?’

  Despite the tremor that still lingered in his overwrought muscles. Despite the blood and the tears and the stress, Nick said, ‘If we get to pick, I’d prefer a little girl with blue ones.’

  They needed time. Time to heal, time to adjust. Time even to make a baby. It took Euan a moment to realise, finally, they had some. ‘I’ll put my hand up for that one if we get to vote,’ he said.

  The kitten tongue that Kira poked out had his eye narrowing all for show. ‘Lucky for me, I get to make it. My decision will be the one that wins.’

  The laughter that bubbled out of Euan’s chest surprised them all. He wrapped long arms and large hands around the two of them and pulled them as close to his heart as his physical body would let him. Kisses were placed on the crown of both their heads. ‘Time enough for that.’

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out two precious items.

  Both were bloody. Only one was ruined.

  ‘No,’ Kira whispered as she took the paper just as Nick palmed the watch. She fingered the sodden parchment. ‘I loved this picture.’

  ‘I’ll draw you another one,’ Euan said, knowing that he could. He’d draw her a thousand pictures. Ones that captured her smile, the beauty of her face, the glint of mischief in her eyes, the highlights in her hair.

  Maybe even the splendour of her body as she grew swollen with his child.

  Nick swallowed. Masculine hands moved until they could grasp Kira’s. Kira reached out to return the gesture with Euan.

  ‘It’s over,’ she said.

  It was.

  Outside the tent, Lily was issuing orders to right the chaos. Under her command, the Valiant had begun to herd the remnants of Parker’s men into the great entrance of the warehouse. It now no longer foreshadowed death but signalled hope. Those that had stayed were the ones willing to support the change. For the first time since Euan had seen images of bleeding bodies on the screen of his television, he believed in that possibility. He had confidence, optimism and faith in humanity.

  Kira and Lily would be at the helm, and the human race would prevail.

  His focus turned to Kira. She was so beautiful. Even though there were new lines that embedded in the skin of her forehead that would forever tell of the trials she had faced. She was a woman, courageous, strong. Defiant. She had never let him fall, her small, but strong shoulders had always supported him. In this, he would stand by her. Blue eyes turned cobalt as the evening light began to bleed over the horizon. Sapphire and crystal, blue flame and ocean. She completed him, them.

  He swallowed. ‘Yes.’

  Her gaze flickered to Nick before she cocked her head. ‘Yes?’

  Euan reached up, cupped her cheeks. His hands were coated in dust, in blood, in dirt and filth. He didn’t care, neither did she. He ran his thumbs over the skin, relished the warmth that heated his palms. When she gave him a quizzical smile, he returned it, just to see her face bloom. ‘Yes, Kira. You want to help lead them, set humanity on the path to righteousness, then I’ll stand by your side and I’ll support you. I’ll do whatever I need to make you happy.’

  Kira’s spine straightened. Nick grabbed her hand in his. ‘Can we do this?’ he asked.

  She turned until she faced Nick. Her smile was so bright, it illuminated the room with wonder. ‘We can do this.’

  Epilogue

  Euan didn’t think that he could love her more. But with each passing year, he did.

  The music of crickets surrounded him, a hollow thrum that had become the song of their present. That, and the giggle of their children that wafted towards him through the open front door.

  Kira’s voice trailed down after it, through the hall of the house they now called their own. Dormant lavender flowers amassed in front of him. After that, a lawn that hid a bunker used only for storage stretched o
ut dark and silent in the night. The forest was still a sentry, a wooded shield, but it now only offered the privacy they craved. It had taken some time to get the house back into liveable standard. But Kira had wanted their first baby born in her childhood home, and so both he and Nick had indulged her.

  As they did in most things.

  There was no trip wire, no night vision cameras. If visitors came, they knocked at the front door. An election had been held, Lily chosen. A woman that had been silenced by men was now the voice of the remainder of the human race.

  The irony was not lost on Euan.

  He heard Kira’s footsteps over the crickets. Naked feet that he now had no reason to admonish tapped against timber floors. The screen door squeaked when it opened. He would have to fix that.

  ‘Storytime is done and dusted. I’m beat,’ she huffed as she unlocked his arms from his chest and straddled his lap. She curled herself into his body, rested her head on his shoulder. She smelt of lavender and sunshine, of their two babies and Nick.

  ‘They went down okay?’ he asked as he wrapped muscles honed by training and manual labour around the woman he loved, would always love, until the end of time.

  She nodded against his chest. He turned so he could bury his nose in her hair. He inhaled, long and deep. Sleep was close as it always was when the sun set. The challenge of children, a farm and a home was enough to drag any man into an early slumber. But her body was close, her thighs at his hips warm. The chair that supported them was made of wood. Euan had found another talent in the art of making furniture from the remnants of trees from the fire, all those years ago. It was strong, it was durable, it was steadfast. Even if it was a little rustic, a little maimed, a little scarred.

  A little like Euan.

  His words were muffled by her hair. ‘Nicky packing for the markets tomorrow?’

  Her thighs tightened on his hips. ‘I think he’s finished.’

  A slow smile stretched his lips. ‘Bedtime then.’

  ***

  Euan didn’t think that he could love him more. But each time he entered his body, he did.