Immortally Embraced

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.”

I stared at her, tried not to react, as it sank in.

Marc was not so subtle. “Thor sank the loaded crystal into his forge?” he barked, not even caring when his other foot sank into the goddess’s tropical front porch.

Eris frowned. “Well, of course it was loaded. It was the weapon.” She brightened. “With my name on it.”

I couldn’t help but grin. Marc, too. You couldn’t heat the virus. Not without killing it.

He will fire the weapon and bring an end to suffering.

Thank God.

They’d fired a deadly weapon—into a very costly tribute to the goddess of chaos.

I kept my face straight as a grin bubbled up inside me. If I didn’t watch it, I was going to laugh. Incredible. I glanced at Marc and could tell he was on the verge, too.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” I mumbled.

“Yes. Do,” Eris said, dismissing us. “I’m very tired.”

We stumbled off her porch, fighting it as we made our way past the VIP tent, to the other side of the VIP showers. There, we collapsed in a fit of laughter.

It was too much, too overwhelming that the human race was saved by … her. By a reverse Zeus, whatever the hell that was.

“She killed it,” I giggled, tears streaming down my face.

Marc wrapped his arms around me, his fingers tangling in my hair as he pulled me down for a joyful kiss.

I tasted him, savored him. I slid my hands down his chest and under his T-shirt. His skin was warm and alive

“We did it,” he said, against my hair, spinning me in a circle until I was breathless. Free. I smiled against his skin.

We did it.