by Keri Hudson
K-booooooooommmm!
The wave of hot energy slammed into Bazz, sending him staggering back. He couldn’t fall or he’d crush Phoebe behind him. But even a creature of Bazz’s magnificent power and strength had never faced such an adversary. That unseen wave was beyond resisting, impossible to fight, an unstoppable force.
It was like stepping into hell, so hot that Bazz could feel nothing at all. Bazz slammed his eyes shut to prevent them being cooked in his skull, mouth instantly dry as he wailed out a death roar.
The energy wave passed and Bazz remained on his feet, looking down to see his fur smoldering, a few flames clinging to patches of his charred fur. But the true damage was internal, perhaps beyond even his innate shifter’s ability to quickly heal. They were not indestructible, and the chill flooding Bazz’s blood told him that beyond any doubt.
Nobody and nothing lived forever.
Bazz felt Phoebe drop down off his back, a sweet weight he was glad she could still control on her own. But it was a bittersweet separation, something in Bazz telling him that he’d never feel her cling to him again.
“Bazz? Bazz, are you okay?”
Bazz wanted to shift back into his human form, but he knew he’d be far too weak to survive. Only his ursine physique allowed him any chance at all, and that seemed to be fading fast. Bazz stepped back, unable to speak or even to breathe, finally falling back and to his side.
“Bazz!”
Bazz collapsed hard, the desert ground finally ready to claim him. He was weak, drained of strength, his very life force feeling as if it was draining into that hot sand. Phoebe fell to her knees before him, brushing his face with her trembling hand. She looked over his body, seeming to understand that, besides the external damage, the killing blow had come from within.
Bazz lay there, reflecting on his feared vulnerabilities. His heart had always been his greatest weakness. But even as a cold wave passed over him, Bazz looked up at the woman whom he’d loved, the woman he’d given his life for. He knew he’d do it again, a hundred times; that death itself would never separate them.
“Bazz, Bazz!” She leaned in, stroking his face. His breath became even, less and less as the seconds ticked away, eyesight blurring. But he focused on that gorgeous face, radiant, the picture of pure womanly perfection, the very best the human race had ever shown him. He saw in Phoebe the affection he’d had for all mankind encapsulated in a single, graceful, angelic manifestation of earthly love. He’d had it for only a few days, but they had been the very best of his life, and Bazz regretted only one thing—not being able to tell her so.
Phoebe tugged at him, gave him a little shake. “Bazz, stay with me, baby, please!”
He’d been wrong, Bazz realized. She would cling to him again, he would feel her tender touch… at least for one last time.
“I was wrong, Bazz, about my parents. You’re the real warrior, I… can only try to follow in their footsteps. But… that’s all any of us do, right? Our best. As long as we do our best; that’s all anybody can ask, and all anybody can do.”
Bazz lay there, his strength fading. Unable to speak, he could only look up and hope she could hear what he was thinking, what he was feeling, knowing that he wanted nothing more than to be with her, to raise their child and others afterward, to go on playing his part in the grand cycle of life.
But it seemed destined not to be.
“C’mon, Bazz,” Phoebe said through her tears, voice cracking, “you’re a survivor, we are survivors…” She touched a hand to her belly and smiled through her tears. “It runs in the family.”
Phoebe cracked a sad little chuckle, but it was drowned by her sobbing, panted breath, a last-ditch attempt to regain control of herself and urge Bazz toward recovery.
“Don’t do this to us, Bazz, please! We deserve each other, the love we… we’re both good and decent people, doing the right things for the right reasons. You’re brave and ready to fight; that you’ve done so makes your parents proud, I’m sure.” A slow, tender quiet passed between them before Phoebe added, “But you’re also still young, both of us, our lives ahead of us. You… you have to know what’s on the line, Bazz!”
Phoebe’s tears pushed out of her eyes, trailing down her pale, freckled cheek, and their natural fear was clear to Bazz. She didn’t want to lose him, and he didn’t want to leave her. They’d been through so much, relied upon each other and saved each other’s lives in many more ways than one. It seemed tragic to Bazz that he should have to lose her, but he knew also that his was a life of tragedy; it always had been and would always be.
“You have to survive, Bazz,” Phoebe said, voice rising in tearful desperation. “Jason was right… we’ve come too far to turn back now.”
Bazz knew she was right. The cycle had been completed. Bazz recalled himself telling her that there was a point of no return, and he felt certain that he’d passed it. He gone too far to go back, as much as he dearly wished to.
Bazz looked at Phoebe, savoring the gentle strokes of her little hand on his hairy hide. She said, “You have to survive, Bazz… I need you, the human race needs you… our child needs you.” She smiled and touched her belly, nodding to reassure Bazz that she knew it was true. It was powerful enough for her to know it, and he could sense it too. Like his father, he would leave a shifter behind, perhaps the shifter destined to tip the balance in favor of righteousness and goodness, the true alpha that the human race was waiting for and counting on.
The cycle was complete, his fate to match his father’s. Bazz looked up, past Phoebe to see his father and mother, both in their human form, standing in each other’s arms. Each was radiant, in their earthly prime, smiling with sweet serenity.
They were there to welcome him home, to congratulate him on a fight well fought, on his readiness to fight and die, their pride in him and gratitude for all he’d done.
His mother held out her hand to him, a gentle smile inviting him to the peace and repose he’d worked and fought and sacrificed so much for. The temptation was great, to leave behind the world with all its miseries and hardships, a lonely rock spinning in space with no apparent purpose or reason besides some celestial experiment.
“Bazz? Bazz… what’s… what’s happening?” Bazz’s eyes fluttered, heavier than they’d ever been before or ever would be again. “Don’t close your eyes, Bazz, don’t!”
He tried to keep them open, but his lids were becoming too heavy, breath wheezing out of his lungs.
A helicopter flew overhead, rotors loud. Bazz knew they’d be Phoebe’s rescue, that they would take her to the life she deserved.
She’ll be a good mother, Bazz thought as his eyesight faded, hers the last face he would see. She’ll see them all into the future, a new Mary to bring the shifter messiah into the world, the one true redeemer of our modern world.
“Bazz, you open those eyes, Bazz! Please? Please, Bazz! You… you have to stay, raise our child. You can’t leave us, Bazz! I love you so much, you’re the love of my life!”
I’m sorry, he wanted to say. I will always look out for you… somehow… some way…
Bazz’s eyes finally slid shut and Phoebe broke out in tears, a gut-wrenching sob wrapped around her pitiful objections. But no words could stop what was inevitable, no amount of her sorrow was going to change his fate. His hearing became numb, arms and legs still at his side.
In a last gesture, Bazz shifted again, once more a man lying helpless and prostrate before the world. His fading thought was that it was all he’d truly ever been, all any creature ever can be—humbled and small before an infinite universe and merciless god. But he’d found love, and that had made his journey complete.
She pressed her face against his chest, tears pouring out over him, hands gripping his flesh as if to hold him back, keep him from slipping away with sweet futility.
Goodbye, my love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Boulder 8 TV news reporter Kyle Keller stood in front of the charred remains of the Armstrong
Headquarters compound, the wrecked refinery and charred office building still wafting smoke despite being hosed down by fire crews.
“Nobody’s sure exactly what started the fires or who killed all these people here at this Nevada compound. Authorities believe it may have been a bear, enraged by the company’s presence in its territory. Bears are not common to Nevada, of course, but it’s not impossible that a creature may have made its way down here. That’s what our experts tell us. And that’s what witnesses indicate, though the chain-link fencing around the compound did not seem to be violated. Unfortunately, it looks as if all recordings from security cameras were lost in the blaze.”
Kyle glanced dramatically at the buildings and then back into the camera.
“Among the dead or missing are Armstrong CEO Brandon Malone. The embattled company itself has not released any statement, but experts expect the natural gas mining conglomerate to shut its doors altogether. This is the second major setback for the company, which faced a public-relations defeat in Camelback, Arizona, earlier this year, at a protest during which the controversial CEO was nearly killed by the bullets of alleged attempted assassin, Elijah Ott, currently being held at Arizona State Prison Complex, Phoenix, on one million dollars bail.”
The shot cut to footage outside the Boulder Police Department station house, where BPD detective Marvin Chin stood, aging and rumpled, seeming chronically tired. His name appeared in a subtitle along the bottom of the TV screen.
“Keep in mind that my colleagues in Nevada’s law enforcement community have their end of all this well in hand, though we are cooperating, of course. They do have some witnesses, I’m told, some men and women running from the scene, for example, and their testimonies more or less measure up to what they found in that compound near that burned refinery.”
Kyle asked, “Do you think there’s a connection between events in Nevada and the recent protest debacle here in Boulder?”
“That’s what we’re looking into. But it could also be that what happened in Nevada was a… a fluke; an act of God, if you will.”
Another jump cut replaced Dt. Chin’s face with that of Jason Corruthers, long, black hair and beard framing his face, eyes burning with political fury.
“We don’t know what’s going on here,” he said, “but we will get to the bottom of it! Independent Citizens United has never backed down from a bully and we never will.”
Sitting in a public park in Boulder, Kyle asked Jason, “It looks like Armstrong has shut its doors.”
“And thank God for that! But fracking remains a huge threat across the nation. We only hope that all this has shed light on the danger fracking brings to the human race on every level. The more people know about this, the better our chances are of stopping that hideous and dangerous practice altogether.”
Kyle nodded. “The creature found at the Nevada compound is said to be bigger than any normal wolf.”
“Sure,” Jason said with a shrug. “That’s proof of radiation poisoning, just like the wolves in Chernobyl, same thing. Of course those remains have disappeared, can’t be studied. What’s that? A government cover-up! But we’re not going to stop until this terrible, destructive practice is outlawed in every state in the nation.”
Kyle said, “One of your members was found alive on the compound.”
“Yes, though we’re keeping her name out of it.”
“For her safety?”
Jason seemed to give it some thought. “She’s not in any danger that we know of, but she’s retired from ICU. She wants to live a quiet and peaceful life, and that’s what we want for her. So, as a matter of respecting her wishes…”
“I understand,” Kyle said.
“But we’re relieved to have gotten her out of there, and she’ll always be one of our ICU family.”
Kyle turned to face the camera, wearing his professional expression and projecting in his best reporter’s voice. “Kyle Keller reporting for Boulder 8 TV News.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The pastor’s voice rang through the church, otherwise reverently silent. The man’s rich baritone wrapped around those sanctified verses, delivering hope and love to those most in need, in the time of their greatest need. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Phoebe looked out over the crowd, so many of Bazz’s fellow teachers and students filling the pews. She’d never had a chance to meet them before their chaotic misadventure together, but she knew just how each and every one of them felt. Young women sat in tears, sniffling into handkerchiefs. Bazz had never mentioned it, but it was clear to all that he’d had a lot more female admirers than Phoebe might have expected.
“Therefore we will not fear,” the pastor read on, “though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
Phoebe couldn’t help but be fully aware of the terrible damage the frackers had tried to do to their planet, and the righteous and vital victory they’d achieved. She had to be proud of the part she’d played in that victory, and to be inspired to fight on, and achieve even greater victories to come.
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”
Phoebe thought of herself, so lost for so long without ever even realizing. Her parents had shown her the way, her brother had protected her, her young life had been dedicated to a fight she did not truly understand. It was only with Sebastian Bazz Malloch that she truly came to understand how desperate a fight she was facing, how truly heavenly the stakes were. But she hadn’t fallen, at least not yet; the god of the mountain was the one who had helped her at the break of day. And a new day had indeed broken—over Boulder, over Colorado, over the entire nation.
“Nations are in uproar,” the pastor went on, “kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
How true, she thought, thinking of the melting earth, the fallen kingdom of Armstrong and other companies of that sort. Their victory had been costly, but they had prevailed over the forces of otherworldly evil and kept their fortress strong. Maybe it was the Lord, but it certainly was Bazz who was with us... thank God for that at least.
“Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.”
Phoebe looked at the flowers around the altar, colorful promises of life and love and the future, delicate and fleeting, the perfect picture of everything that had ever been, ever would be, or ever could be. The cycle of life was rolling forward, Phoebe had resolved herself to that.
“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
Phoebe looked up and into Bazz’s eyes, handsome in his black tuxedo, a gentle smile on his face. He could see the flood of gratitude and love pouring through her; he felt the very same way. They’d come so close to losing each other, and to losing so much more than that. But by sheer strength of will, by luck and dedication and perhaps the power of love itself, Bazz and Phoebe had prevailed. They’d won the lives and the love they’d earned. And they’d have it for the rest of their lives; Bazz knew it and he was certain that Phoebe knew it too. They were of one mind, one heart, one soul.
“Do you, Sebastian Malloch, take this woman, Phoebe Blaire, to be your lawfully wedded wife; to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness or in heath, until death do you part, so help you God?”
“I do.” Bazz slipped the smaller gold ring on Phoebe’s finger as she looked at him with a tender little smile and a tear rolling down her cheek.
“Do you, Phoebe Blaire, take this man, Sebast
ian Malloch, to be your lawfully wedded husband; to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness or in heath, until death do you part, so help you God?”
“I do.”
Phoebe slipped the bigger gold ring on his finger, her own hand trembling a bit before they clasped hands together, eyes locked in a silent salute.
The pastor addressed the crowd. “If there is anybody here that knows any reason why these two should not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”
Bazz looked out over their crowd of friends, neighbors, members of the faculty of University of Colorado, Boulder. They filled the pews of the exquisite old church in downtown Boulder, not an unfriendly face among them. But Bazz had a tinge of worry that some voice might rise up, some hidden lupes to shift in a sudden display and turn that church into a bloodbath, their wedding ceremony into a massacre. It was too easy to imagine the shock and horror on their faces, the swaths of death those lupes could cut through those good and wholesome people. Bazz had always had a warm place for them in his heart; he still did and he always would. They were his unknowing subjects, the throngs over which he ruled with quiet calm and divine mercy. It was more than his fate to stand as their protector, it was his duty and it was his pleasure.
He looked at Phoebe, who he knew would stand with him for the rest of their lives. They would raise their unborn child to lead the next generation of ursine shifters, and Bazz felt certain that the side of rightness and decency would eventually prevail. Bazz’s line may yet be able to prevent the coming shifter apocalypse, keep the peace and allow the subtle, delicate peace to go on, preserve the lives of the normalos who would live and die under his or her own reign.
“Then by the power vested in me by the great state of Colorado, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Bazz leaned forward and down and Phoebe looked up to kiss him, their lips meeting and pressing gently together. Tongues reached out to meet in that hidden chamber, dark and wet and thrilling. Her eyes dipped shut and his did too. When they opened them, they were looking at a new person, their spouse; and a new future, their family.
