Immortally Embraced

chapter four




I’d left Marc with a handshake, as if we were passing acquaintances or business associates who’d met for a chat over coffee.

This was so screwed up. I didn’t know what to think or feel, much less what to do around that man. But I’d wanted to touch him again, so I did. In the lamest way possible.

It was an uncomfortable end to a gut-wrenching meeting. I could hardly believe he was alive, or that I’d agreed to help him.

I made my way down the busy walkways of our small tent city, one hand stuffed in my pocket, holding the note he’d left on my door, running my fingers over the paper as if I needed to make sure it had even happened.

A group of nurses passed me going the other way and I nodded to them, or at least I thought about it. I glanced back at the rise that led to the minefield. I just hoped Marc gotten out before that patrol came back around.

He’d asked the impossible. I had every right to be pissed off at him for that. I was.

But like a fool, I’d taken him up on it. It was a terrible risk, one I’d never planned to take.

Aside from the demonic creatures that would delight in eating me whole, there were hell vents, bottomless sand traps, not to mention the stark dry desert itself. That was before I got to the Great Divide.

Immortal armies built up incredible amounts of energy. It was a side effect of the enormous power of these demi-gods. It could melt engines, jam guns, short out modern weapons systems. Colonel Kosta told me once that walking the front lines could actually make an immortal’s hair stand on end. Which was pretty funny at the time because Kosta was stone-cold bald.

The current wouldn’t be as powerful with the armies standing down, but it’s not like I could skip through the middle of the Great Divide. Marc was a silver dragon. He’d shifted and flown. I’d have to find another way.

When I got back to the tent, my werewolf roommate’s bags were stacked outside, along with half a dozen crates of Star Trek figurines.

“Really, Rodger?” I said, opening the flimsy wooden door and banging inside. “You could have brought back Girl Scout cookies. New sheets, pillows, blankets. Instead we have plastic Captain Picards.”

My auburn-haired, barrel-chested roommate turned from his suitcase on the back cot. “They’re called action figures,” he said, as if I were the one being ridiculous. He gave me a half hug and a clap on the back. “Besides, you should know by now that I only collect classic Star Trek.”

“Of course. Nothing but the best.” They all looked the same to me.

“These are really valuable down here,” he insisted.

Right. “I didn’t think I’d see you for another two days.”

He shrugged. “They offered me a deal. Come back early and take four days at Christmas.”

I had to grin. “No kidding. Christmas with the family.”

“It’s a dream come true,” he said, returning to his unpacking.

I hoped Rodger had made them specify which Christmas. Unlike the gods, we didn’t live forever. But if he hadn’t thought of that, telling him now would only depress him.

“Dang you’ve gotten tan,” I told him—or at least more red. Rodger’s fair skin didn’t do well in the sun. His hair was wilder than ever, approaching Einstein proportions. It seemed he hadn’t had time for a stop at the barbershop. “Did they say why they wanted you back?” I asked, taking a seat on Marius’s footlocker. My roommates occupied the two cots on the far wall, overlooking the tar pits. “We still have a cease-fire.” As of this morning anyway.

He shoveled a stack of sweaters into the dresser next to his bed. Mary Ann sure liked to knit. “Something’s going down.”

That’s what I was afraid of. “Did they say what?”

“Of course not.” He slammed his suitcase closed. “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”

Didn’t I know it. “You look like you’ve been in the desert for a month.”

He grinned at that. “Try the pool with the kids.”

For Rodger, there was no better place to be. “How’s Mary Ann?”

Rodger’s expression went goofy at the sound of his wife’s name. “She’s fantastic. Sexy as hell.” He headed for the door. “Before I forget—” He ducked outside and returned with a stack of Star Trek junk, with a Macy’s shirt box on top. “She sent you this.”

I took the Macy’s box and opened the lid on a batch of Cajun ginger cookies. They were small and perfectly rounded with thick, glistening sugar sprinkles on top. I bit into one and could taste the fresh spice and molasses, not to mention the cayenne bite.

“Stephen helps her bake now,” Rodger said, heading outside for another load. “His favorite shows are SpongeBob and Cake Wars.”

“I think I’ve found my dream man.”

“Speaking of which,” he said, easing another load inside, “how’s Galen?”

My heart twisted. “Gone.”

“Aw, geez.” He set down his boxes on the floor.

Rodger had lived through the first set of prophecies with me. So far, I’d managed to avoid telling my closest friend I could see the dead. For all he knew, my involvement was a freak accident. It sure felt that way sometimes.

“It gets worse.” I told Rodger what had happened with Galen.

He planted himself on the edge of his cot, elbows on his knees. “But why?” he asked, just like I had. “Why wouldn’t he let you in on this?”

I shrugged. I’d run the question over in my mind so much, I was exhausted with it. “And in case you thought my love life wasn’t screwed up enough,” I sighed, hardly believing it, “Marc’s back.”

His brows shot up. “No f*cking way.”

I dug my hands through my hair, as if that would help me make sense of it. “He’s still on the other side. But that didn’t keep him from tracking me down. In our camp.”

Rodger’s eyes bugged out.

“He thinks one of our old professors got caught up in something dangerous. He wants me to take a look.”

“You?” my roommate repeated, as the absurdity of it sunk in. I knew the feeling.

My head hurt just thinking about it. “He said they were working on a medicine, but with the prophecy talking about a weapon, and seeing as how we never luck out when it comes to these things…”

“That’s nuts,” said Rodger, openly staring at me.

“I know.” I hated to assume the worst, but—

“You’ve got to do it.”

“Excuse me?”

Me saying I was going to do it and Rodger saying it were two different things. I found myself resisting, even though I knew I didn’t have much of a choice.

“Have you even been outside camp?” I asked him. I’d bet anything he’d just gone through a portal to go stateside.

Rodger leaned back on his elbows. “I went out once, about two years ago. Remember that case at the med evac?”

Now that he mentioned it, yes. “Still, that was you, two other docs, and the MPs. This is me taking off across the desert toward the Great Divide. Even if I can figure out how to cross the lines, I’ll be sneaking into an enemy unit, spying on their new technology. Is any of this scaring you yet?”

“Of course,” he said.

This wasn’t a Star Trek episode, for God’s sake. “I could be executed.”

“Or worse,” he said solemnly.

Still, I couldn’t get the second half of the prophecy out of my head: A horrible new weapon is born.

There’s no way to know what it was. Unless maybe, if I went and took a look at this thing …

“You want me to go with you?” Rodger asked.

“No,” I said quickly. There was no way I’d let anyone besides Marc see me talk to the dead doctor. Besides, I didn’t want to be responsible for Rodger’s life, especially when he had a family to think about.

“Good,” he said, “because I’d probably wet my pants halfway to the Great Divide.”

I buried my head in my hands. “I am so f*cked.”

“What else is new?”

I looked at him. “I’d miss at least two shifts at the hospital.”

“Not if I cover for you. I’ll take your schedule. Hell, I owe it to you anyway.” The cot dipped as he sat next to me. “I checked on the way in, I’m not even on this week’s docket.”

It could work, but, “What if someone comes looking for me?”

He thought for a moment. “I’ll diagnose you with a nasty case of the Imp Flu. Nobody will want to come near this place for a week. We may even get to fumigate my footlocker.”

Lord knew, he could use it.

I stared at the wooden floorboards of our tent. “You make it sound so easy.”

“It’s not. But I do think we can pull it off, at least from this end.”

“I’d be AWOL.”

Rodger nudged me with his shoulder. “It’s always been your dream to run away.”

I smirked. “Only this time, I have to come back.”

“No escape is perfect.” He grew serious. “Look, Petra. I don’t know why this is happening or why you’re in the middle of it.” He stopped to consider. “You’re always in the middle of it, aren’t you?”

“Lately,” I said, giving nothing away.

Rodger watched me as if he was trying to put the pieces together.

Nothing to see here.

I let out a breath when he let it drop. “If it does have something to do with the prophecies, you have to do it,” he said. Avoiding fate could spell disaster. “My pack leader always used to say things happen for a reason.” Rodger shook his head. “I mean, here I am.”

It was eerily unsettling how Rodger had arrived home early. That even before I’d seen Marc, events had been set in motion that would allow me to get out of camp and confront the murdered Dr. Keller. If I actually had the guts to do it.

“It’s the little things, remember?” he said, repeating my words back to me. The last prophecies came true because of seemly inconsequential decisions.

Thank heaven for that. But, “This decision is hardly free of consequences.”

“If you don’t go, what if you miss changing that one thing that could make the difference?” Rodger cocked his head. “What it boils down to is that I don’t think you have a choice.”

The truth of his words settled low in my stomach. “That’s what I was afraid of.”