Which is the long way of saying that I’m attaching a picture of my cabin back home, where I go on the rare occasion that I can pull myself away from work. It’s small and basic—in fact, the amenities aren’t much better than here at the quarantine camp, come to think of it—but the views make me glad to be alive. I don’t know that I could live there full time, at least not at this point in my life—I need fast food and a challenge—but it helps me get through the dark times—like now—knowing that when they’re over, I can go there and just
be.
So have a look. I’m not sure what you’ll see in the picture, or even really what I want you to see. All I know is that I need a pick-me-up tonight, and wonder if you might not need one, too, so I’m sending you my happy place.
Be well, Anna. Take care of yourself and watch out for the doomsday crazies.
Yours,
David
It was the longest note he’d yet sent her, and the first that openly acknowledged that they were doing more than exchanging just updates on the virus and Rosa’s condition. Breathing through an emotion-choked throat, Anna read it twice, and found herself nodding as she read. Yes, I know. Yes, I feel the same way. Then she clicked on the attachment, and caught her breath. “Oh.”
The picture showed David standing by a rustic cabin that was exactly as he’d advertised—small, simple and neat, with a lake edge nearby, a gorgeous mountain view and a huge sky spreading behind it. But although the scene was a postcard, she was far more interested in the man. His clothes were very much like the ones she’d seen him in when he was out of his scrubs—a long-sleeved shirt rolled up over his forearms, with worn jeans and battered boots. But although he was dressed the same, nothing else looked familiar.
He was smiling broadly, looking relaxed and happy as he held up a stringer of fish and mugged for the camera.
Looking at the picture, she yearned all over again, not just for the man she’d been getting to know, but for the same man entirely in his element. Or one of his elements. He hadn’t invited her to go with him, but the hope was there, she thought, between the lines. And oh, how she wanted to go.
Yes, she could ’port herself there right now. But she didn’t want to go alone, and she didn’t want to cheat. She wanted to wait for him, to go there with him and see it through his eyes and her own.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she warned, but it was already too late.
So, knowing she was playing a potentially dangerous game, she sent the e-mail to her desktop and printed out the picture in full color, and then folded it and tucked it into the combat gear she would wear tomorrow. And for the first time in a long, long time, she felt like she wasn’t going to just be fighting against the enemy . . . she’d be fighting for something, too. A future. And, maybe, a new life.
Gods willing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
December 21
Six hours until the Great Conjunction
Skywatch
Myr woke when the sunlight shone on her face, all too aware that today was the day. She had been dreading this solstice for so long . . . but now it was hard to believe it was finally upon them.
Yeah, she could’ve bailed to hide out in a bunker somewhere and pray, but that hadn’t been an option for her any more than it had been for Rabbit. They both believed in the Nightkeepers and the war . . . and Bastet’s message had struck major chords. So they were both still at Skywatch, both ready to renounce the sky gods, and then fight the kax and the kohan when the barrier fell.
We might even die. She’d been trying on the concept for the past few days, trying to imagine how it would happen, what it would feel like. Sometimes picturing it made her weep, other times she just went numb. Right now, the terror was a dull throb.
Maybe if she went back to sleep, when she woke up it would be tomorrow.
Or not.
Murmuring a protest, she turned her face into Rabbit’s warm bulk beside her, letting herself snuggle up against him a little tighter, with her head beneath his beard-shadowed jaw, her thigh over his.
Yeah, she had stayed the night. So sue her.
“Hey.” His voice was a warm rumble, his hand gentle when it skimmed up her arm to her throat, then to brush across her cheek. “Don’t.” It wasn’t until she felt the chill of cooling moisture that she realized there were tears on her cheek.
“I’m not. I won’t.” She rolled away.
“Don’t do that, either. Seriously.” He snaked out an arm, wrapped it around her waist and rolled her back into him in a smooth move that didn’t seem to take any effort for him, but wasn’t something she could fight. Not that she tried all that hard, because for a moment it almost felt like a regular morning, the kind they used to have.
The kind she wanted to have more of.
She had gone into this saying they had to keep it casual, that she wasn’t going to fall back into old patterns, but this wasn’t an old pattern—it was a new relationship, a new love affair. They spent their days together training, their nights together loving each other, talking about everything and nothing, holding each other, just freaking being together, a way they hadn’t before. And as the barrier grew thinner, their powers—and their feelings—grew.
This time around, being with him didn’t make her weaker. It made them both stronger.
So she let herself be snuggled back against his side, but poked him in the ribs. “You’re full of orders this morning, mister. Okay, what do you want me to do then?”
“Pretty much just lie there,” he said with a chuckle in his voice as he rolled partway atop her, pinning her with his warm, sleepy weight.
“Oh, that’s charming. Really.” But she arched beneath him, looped her legs around his hips, and ran her feet up the backs of his thighs while he settled against her, hard and ready for action. Her blood heated, then burned, because she was ready for him, too. More than ready. And where they had kept things to the darkness this past week, with no time for daylight trysts and her slipping away well before the dawn, now they could see each other in the morning light. It glowed in the air, haloing him with sparks of red, green and gold. His magic. Hers. Gods.
The solstice was amping their powers already. But would it be enough?
He kissed her deeply, rocking his hips against her so his hard flesh slid against the wet, wanting place between her legs. Moaning his name, she tried to set aside the fear, focusing instead on the man in her arms, the heat they made together, and the way her magic intertwined with his, making the air around them come alive.
She kissed him, stroked him, and then curled around him and angled her body so he could slide into her, putting him exactly where they both wanted him to be. A sexy groan rumbled in his chest and he began the thrust, but then he stopped with just the tip of his thick cock inside her.
Her eyes came open, and she found him braced over her, looking down at her. Expression tender, he stroked her cheek, brushing a few strands away from her forehead. “I’m glad you stayed. There’s nobody else I would want to wake up next to on a day like today. Only you.”
Throat tightening, she said, “I needed this. I needed you.” Then she reached up, tugged him down, and poured herself into a kiss. Groaning, he shifted and slid all the way into her, filling her, stretching her and sending pleasure caroming through her. And for the next few minutes, he kissed her, held her, moved against her, stripped her down to need and sensation and then gave her more, thrusting hard and sure until her entire universe coalesced to the feel of his body inside hers, and the hum of magic that surrounded them.
Spurred by the sudden, sharp desperation of knowing that this might be it, this might be their last time together, she surged up beneath him, twisting up and over to reverse their positions. As she rose above him, his
