Immortally Embraced

by fox, angie

  Yes, well, “Unless we can travel to some mythical land, I don’t see how we can stop this.”

  We hadn’t even known Meropis was real until five minutes ago. It’s not like we could book a ship. Or find it on a map.

  Meanwhile, they had our breakthrough, a deadly virus, and a fully functioning weapon.

  I dodged graves, trying to keep up as Marc quickened his pace. It was hopeless. Impossible. “Even if we could make it there, how do we stop a god?”

  “Two gods,” he said, as if he were trying to figure it out. “And Argus.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” I said, as we hit the minefield.

  I stopped for a moment, taking it in. Merde. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to miss this place. I should plant one last prank, a reminder for after I was gone, but I didn’t have it in me.

  Our torches cast shadows as we passed the Hickey Horns van, the burned-out ambulance. “Look, Marc, we don’t need to spend our last night beating our heads against the wall over something we can’t change.”

  He spun on me. “What? Do you just want to die? Give up on the whole human race?” His face was a mask of pain, regret. “How can you quit?”

  “Why can’t you fail?”

  He stared at me as if I’d gone off the deep end.

  I shook my head. “We can’t stop this. We can’t change this.” I strode up to him. “And you won’t admit it. You can’t stand the fact that you’re not in control. We’re not in control.”

  He looked at me, stunned. “We can be,” he said, not convincing either one of us.

  “No, Marc,” I said, planting my torch as the truth slammed into me. I was raw with it. “It’s all about control with you. It has been ever since you set foot in limbo.” I’d never seen it so clearly. Maybe I’d never let myself. “You couldn’t stand being here so you manipulated it.”

  “That’s not true,” he ground out.

  But it was. He’d found a way not to care. “You played dead.”

  He was furious. “We. Settled. That.”

  I met him, matched him snarl-for-snarl. “No. We. Didn’t.” We stood inches apart, like two coiled snakes poised to strike. “You wanted me back, but on your own terms. You wanted to see me, and laugh with me. Fuck me. But you don’t want to give anything up.”

  “I was being practical,” he thundered, breaking away.

  I followed him into the darkness. “You were holding back. You can’t let up an inch. You can’t let yourself feel what it’s like to have your heart ripped out.”

  We were headed for the lab, like two fools, stumbling through the blackened debris. “Even now, you can’t give it up,” I called after him. “You want to spend our last night alive, running on some hamster wheel, just so you don’t have to feel.”

  He spun around. “What the hell do you want me to do?” he demanded, looming over me. “Do you want me to tell you the first year down here almost killed me? That I couldn’t breathe I wanted you so much?” The clouds broke overhead and moonlight shone down. He held back so much pain he was shaking. “I’d sit in my tent at night and grind my fists against my head and imagine you back in New Orleans with some other guy.”

  “I never—”

  “You would have,” he ground out, tortured and sure. “It was a matter of time.” He shook his head. “I’d never get over you. I had nothing but you. But you’d eventually move on. I watched it happen over and over again to guys in camp.” He stood, fierce and alone. “It’s what happens when people never come back.” He stared at me, hard. “So yes, I let you go. I decided you should be happy.” He blinked fast. “I let you off the hook. I gave you up before you could leave me.”

  I stood, stunned.

  He let out a ragged breath. “When I found out you were here, I wanted to see you so bad I was sick with it. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t let myself. I didn’t know what I’d do when I saw you again.” He ground his jaw tight. “I wouldn’t let myself until I knew I could handle it.”

  I touched his shoulder, his arm. “You hurt me, Marc.”

  He looked at me with such love it stole my breath away. “I never wanted to. God, Petra, all I’ve ever wanted to do is love you.”

  Tears clung to my lashes. I hadn’t even realized I was crying. “Then love me.”

  His mouth crashed over mine. I tasted his longing, his regret, his love.

  Arms wrapped around each other, we pushed closer. I needed him here, with me, in the most elemental way. We ground against each other, entwined, pushing, craving each other in a way that went beyond words.

  He loved me.

  He needed me.

  It was all I’d ever wanted.

  I slid my hands under his surgical scrubs, felt his hard muscled chest.

  “Petra,” he hissed, his fingers finding the tie of my scrub pants, delving under and finding where I was hot and wet and ready for him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I want to love you. It’s all I ever wanted.”

  I rained kisses on his cheeks, his lips, his chest. “I love you, Marc. I’ve always loved you.” I’d needed him so bad. Even when I thought I’d lost him forever, I never stopped wanting him.

  And now he was here. He was mine. I ground against him, cherishing him. Desperate to show him with every kiss, every lick, every caress just how much I’d always loved him. That he was right in coming back to me. That he could love me. That even if we had nothing else, we could have this night together.

  It would be our time, and it would be beautiful.

  My entire existence drew down to this place, this moment.

  His fingers slid over the very core of me. I arched into him, flushed, ready, the pleasure of it spiraling through me.

  He rasped kisses over my neck, my jaw, setting me more on edge with every moment that passed. My pleasure turned sharp. It burned like hot glass. He found my mouth and kissed me hard, our tongues entwining, his fingers finding my slick bud. I shot forward. It was half pleasure, half pain.

  I plucked at the skin of his shoulder with my mouth. “I want you.”

  We could go slow later. I’d caress him and lick him until he came all over himself. But right now, I needed him inside me. “Now,” I gasped.

  He hovered over me, his face laid bare, his emotions raw. “I love you,” he said, fiercely, possessively. “I promise I’ll never leave you again. If we find a way out of this, I’ll always be with you.”

  He lifted me against the hood of the half-wrecked jeep and entered me with the same motion. We both gasped, shuddered, clung to each other.

  It was all I’d ever wanted, him with me. He felt perfect. He filled me on a fundamental level. He was that missing piece that I’d lost so long ago.

  He strained against me, as I writhed with him, his hardness sliding in and out of me. It was torture. And bliss. I could hardly believe I was here, with Marc.

  I caressed his cheek as he gazed at me with pure love.

  And lust.

  I gasped as he sped up his thrusts, bucked against him, pulled him tighter, pushed him harder.

  Yes. I wanted it to go on forever and yet, and yet …

  My breasts scraped against his chest. His thighs caressed mine, spreading them wider. The desire wound through me tighter. It concentrated in a hard bud right where his cock scraped against my swollen clit.

  His chest heaved. His mouth parted. I took his lower lip in my mouth and sucked.

  He groaned, pushing harder, losing control with every second, every rock-hard thrust. The pleasure stung me, it pierced me until it consumed me in a white-hot fury.

  I cried out as the searing heat of it washed over me. He bucked, cried out. His hot cum flooded me as I clung to him, boneless, sated.

  He pressed his damp forehead to mine and we held on to each other for a long moment.

  The air between us was heady, damp. “What are you thinking?” he asked, nuzzling me.

  My heart swelled. “You are back,” I said, kissing him, tasting him, reveling in the feel of being
with him.

  He deepened the kiss, holding me, loving me until I quite forgot what he’d even asked.

  His lips traveled to my ear. His fingers found the soft spot behind my neck that only he knew about.

  “I’m glad you’re happy,” he whispered, “because I think it would take an atom bomb to dislodge me.”

  Or a weapon of the gods.

  My heart sank as I caressed his cheeks, his jaw. What I’d give for a lifetime with this man.

  “Follow me,” he said, taking my hand. He led me through the darkness to our demolished lab.

  It looked small and sad in the moonlight. Its door hung open, destruction inside.

  “I have an idea,” he said. He walked over to the wrecked helicopter and managed to pull out a wound bundle of something. He shook it out and I saw he’d come up with a climbing rope. “Standard equipment,” he explained.

  I planted my hands on my hips, half amused, half wondering if he’d knocked something loose back there. “I swear I never know what you’re going to do.”

  “’Fess up. You like it that way,” he said, tossing one end of the ladder up onto the roof of the lab.

  Once he made sure it was secure, and once he’d yanked down about ten feet of excess rope ladder, he offered it to me with a half bow.

  “What is this?” I asked, strolling up, giving the ladder a test-tug.

  His lips grazed my shoulder. “I know you’re used to taller buildings, but this was the only thing I could swing on such short notice.”

  “Hmm,” I said, planting a boot on the bottom rung, willing to take this gift, this man, for as long as I could.

  The roof of the lab was slightly ridged metal. I turned to see Marc following me up, with a blanket tucked under his arm. “You’ve thought of everything.”

  “I wish,” he said, shaking an errant piece of glass away.

  If we’d only known the dangers of our research. If we’d only treated that with as much suspicion as we’d treated each other.

  “Hey,” he said, easing me down on the blanket with him. “No regrets.”

  We lay down under the stars, kissing tenderly. We loved each other slow. Touching, murmuring, even laughing at times, we stayed awake all night, this last night.

  And when streaks of red and purple gave way to dawn, we lay together, bodies and legs entwined, as we watched a gleaming crystal rise up over the horizon.

  chapter twenty-seven

  I’d never seen anything so large, so beautiful. It rose up, high in the sky, a glittering beacon of death. The facets sparkled against the dawn. It was the most brilliant sight I’d ever witnessed.

  When it had reached the apex of the sky, it exploded in a million flecks of light. Glittery shards rained down. They disappeared in the wind, the deadly crystal powder taking flight, poisoning the very air we breathed.

  I swallowed hard.

  Soon, humans would inhale the virus. Their bodies would begin to shut down as it attacked the nervous system. Muscles would slow—the heart, the lungs. They’d breathe out the poison, but it wouldn’t matter. It would already be in the air, the water, the soil. One hundred percent fatal and designed to kill quickly.

  At least it would be over fast.

  The virus could move through the portals and beyond. The humans on Earth might have a few minutes, maybe an hour more. No one would understand what was happening as entire cities succumbed. Until there was nothing left.

  Marc and I held each other close, afraid to breathe. I closed my eyes as I felt the fine dust brush over my skin. I didn’t want to die. I hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much. This feeling of my body shutting down, my lungs failing. It would be like drowning. My breath hitched.

  I buried my face in the warm crook of Marc’s shoulder and waited.

  “I love you,” he murmured in my ear, as if he had to say it one last time.

  It was all so fragile—life, love. Each moment we had together. We could never get them back.

  My lungs felt heavy. I could almost feel the virus invading, working its way into me on a cellular level. It was hard to breathe, hard to think. At least the end would be quick. We would die as we’d always wanted to live—together.

  I clung to Marc, letting his comfort ease through me. I should be more afraid, outraged even, but I was tired of anger. I was sick of living with injustice.

  Death would set me free.

  Marc lifted his chin from my head. The air around us was still, as if the entire world held its breath.

  I blinked up at him. My throat and chest felt tight. We shouldn’t have survived it this long. “What’s happening?” I whispered, afraid to speak.

  “I don’t know,” he said, brushing a smudge of something from my cheek.

  It was as if we were alone in the world.

  We held each other for a moment longer, waiting. For our deaths, for others, for what I wasn’t sure.

  “Let’s see what’s happening,” he said, reaching for his pants.

  Right. If we didn’t succumb right away, they might need us down there.

  We dressed quickly. Well, Marc a little faster than me. He’d flung my clothes everywhere. It seemed the end of the world didn’t change that.

  I cleared my throat, found my voice. “It’s like you’re trying to make it hard for me to get dressed,” I said, spotting my panties on the helicopter landing skid. How had he even pitched them that far?

  “I didn’t think we’d need to,” he said, fishing my shirt from where he’d flung it over the vent pipe.

  Yes. We were alive. For now.

  We made it back toward camp in silence. It was eerie. Not a soul walked the paths. It was so quiet, I could hear our camp flag flapping in the breeze.

  “This is so weird,” I said, my eyes darting, searching for signs of life.

  “I know,” Marc said beside me.

  We passed silent tents, a deserted mess hall. It was as if everyone was dead, except for us.

  “Let’s check out the clinic,” he said as we walked past a discarded boot in the road. Letters from home fluttered in the poison air, scattering down the path like tumbleweeds.

  Maybe some of the virus victims had made it there. We could at least do some good before we succumbed.

  Hot grief welled up inside me and I tamped it down. My friends were going to be in there, my colleagues. The least I could do was face the end with dignity.

  Marc opened the door to the recovery unit, and I followed him in.

  The front desk was stacked with files, as if someone had been working right up until the end. I braced myself and searched behind it, expecting a body. But there was nothing there.

  “Where did everyone go?” It’s not like a virus could consume the bodies.

  Marc shook his head and glanced into the first recovery room, then ducked inside.

  This place was bizarre. I had no idea what to think. Everything was familiar, yet so strange.

  It was the first time I’d ever seen the recovery room completely quiet. I breathed in the familiar scent, ready for my lungs to give out, for my strength to fail. I fingered the files on the desk, as if they could give me some clue as to what had happened here.

  “Hey!” a voice called.

  I flung the file sideways as Holly popped out of one of the middle rooms. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  Marc dashed into the hallway and Holly gave a little scream, dropping the tray she’d been carrying. Scalpels and medical scissors clattered over the floor. “For crying out loud, those were sterile!”

  She bent to pick up the instruments, glaring at Marc and me.

  We simply stared at her.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded.

  “Other than him scaring the bejesus out of me?” She shot Marc a look. “I’m just getting ready for the morning shift.”

  He stood over her. “You haven’t been hit with massive casualties?”

  “No…,” she said, gathering up the last of the scalpels.

  It didn’t make sense.
I saw the crystal explode.

  “What does it mean?” I asked Marc.

  Was there a delayed effect? Did we still have time? I didn’t know what to do with it if we did.

  He stood, jaw clenched. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision. “Let’s go see Eris.”

  We left a very confused Holly and headed for what was left of the VIP tent.

  As we neared, we saw that Eris had replaced the burned red hutch with white limestone. That should be easy to cart around if we needed to relocate the MASH camp.

  The goddess was unlocking an ice-blue front door, wearing the same chain-mail dress she’d had on the night before. Her hair was mussed and son of a … was that a hickey on her neck?

  “Hello,” she giggled, giving me the once-over, “glad to see you got some, too.”

  I reached to smooth down my own bed head. Come on. I couldn’t look that bad.

  At least Marc could get to the point. “Did you save us?” he demanded as we stepped onto Eris’s new threshold. It was made of a kind of clear glass. Tropical fish swam underneath. The poor things had no idea they were in the desert. I didn’t know what to think of this. Of her.

  The glass gave way under Marc’s foot and he sloshed his boot in the muddy bottom. The goddess snickered as he shook out his boot and gave her a look. “I had better things to do,” she trilled, opening the door. “Let’s just say I got mine, too.”

  “Your what?” I asked, throat tight. I was tired of games.

  She pursed her glossy lips. “My sweet revenge. I slept with Nerthus’s son.”

  Marc and I exchanged a look.

  “And then you destroyed the virus,” he said.

  Eris clucked, posing in the doorway as she fondled the frame. “All you humans think about is yourselves. Me, me, me.” She rolled her eyes. “I went up to Thor’s forge, but he said he was way too busy for me. Luckily I had your knife. I showed it to him, and he completely forgot about the crystal he was working on.” She drew her fingers across her collarbone, down her ample cleavage. “I told him it was a gift to his glory, and of course he invited me inside.”

  “You gave my knife as a gift?” This had to be part of the prophecy. Somehow. I just couldn’t put it together yet.

  “You gave it to me,” she huffed. “Anyhow, we did it seventeen different ways, including a reverse Zeus right on top of the crystal he should have been working on. It’s my signature move. Thor was so impressed with my flexibility, he decided to etch my name on it. Did you see it? I hope Nerthus saw it. He sank it into that big fiery forge and of course I told him how hot he was.” She notched her chin up. “He wrote: E-R-I-S right on the front.”