Immortally Embraced

chapter twenty-six




It was over. This was it. “I can’t believe we failed.”

Nerthus had her weapon, her pathway. There was nothing we could do.

On some level, I always thought we’d find a way to beat this. That we’d survive. That we’d come together and somehow make this all right.

I gripped Marc’s arm as he led me away. Torches lined the path, crackling in the cold. “Why warn us?” Why give us a shot if there was nothing we could do?

Why make us helpless to stop the slaughter?

His gaze traveled over me, stark and raw. “Maybe we had a chance, and we failed.”

“No.” I refused to believe that. We’d come together for a reason. And it wasn’t to die.

It had never been an option.

“Stop.” I stood, throat dry, shaking as I tried to make some sense of it. We were missing something. I wasn’t doing enough.

But I’d done everything the oracles had asked. I’d given up my security and my sanity. I’d been willing to talk to a murdered soul, spy on the enemy, sacrifice my mentor. Deny my love. I’d worked days, nights, whatever it took to do the right thing.

And it wasn’t enough.

Marc took my hand. He was cold. “There’s nothing we can do now.”

Tears filled my eyes. The camp was settling down for the night. Lanterns blazed. Laughter burst from a tent nearby. My chest felt tight. “Should we warn them?”

“No.” He squeezed my hand. “Let them be happy.”

A torch bobbed toward us. As it neared, I saw Shirley smiling. “What’s up, buttercup?” Her hair was in twin braids over her shoulders. Her face fell as she drew closer. She narrowed her eyes at Marc. “Is he being an ass?”

“It’s not what you think,” I said, wiping my tears with my sleeve. “Where are you headed?”

“Margarita night,” she said, still sizing us up. “Holly got ahold of a bottle of tequila. Want to come?” she asked me.

“No,” I said, hugging her, saying good-bye to my friend. I squeezed my eyes shut. “Thanks.”

“Okay,” she said, a little confused as she patted me on the back, “well if you change your mind, we’re in Holly’s tent.”

I nodded as I let her go, afraid I’d break down if I said anything else.

They’d have one last girls’ night. They’d drink and laugh and find comfort the best way we knew down here—with one another.

“You know, Shirley can get a hangover from half a beer,” I said, sniffing. She wouldn’t even have to worry about a hangover. The weapon would detonate at dawn.

“Come on,” Marc said, handing me a torch. “We need to hit the lab.”

“Why?” It was trashed. There was nothing left.

He was purposeful, intense as we made our way toward the cemetery. “I keep thinking there’s something we need to do. We can’t just let this happen.”

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. F*ck 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 *.

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.