“Gotta love Mr. Glock,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion and exhaustion.
I rolled out from under the beast with a grunt to see Jennifer kneeling in the snow, my still-smoking pistol clenched in her hand. She held the gun in the grip I’d taught her, but it wavered, and her eyes were glossy with shock.
I struggled to my feet to take the pistol from her, but weapon safety wasn’t my concern. She’d saved my life, but as I looked at her, with her bare hands and ridiculous bedroom slippers, down the path she’d carved from the lodge, I knew she was hurting. She wilted in my arms, the adrenaline from her desperate chase to save me dissipating.
I shoved the pistol in my belt, leaving the rifle and bloodied pack where they lay. I hoisted her unceremoniously across my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and struggled through the snow as quickly as I could to the lodge, taking the extra seconds to enter through the mudroom entrance.
I clambered up the steps, not taking the time to remove the now-clumsy snowshoes. I shifted Jennifer’s weight slightly then threw the door open to Tray’s furious barking, thankful the stupid mutt hadn’t run off outside.
Jennifer shivered violently in my arms, her teeth chattering and her breathing labored. I set her gently down on the tiled floor and turned the taps on to fill the bath, the temperature warm but not hot. I helped her strip out of her clothes and sodden slippers, and then struggled out of my own, modesty not even a minor consideration at the moment. I stepped into the warm water, hissing as my feet and calves stung like hornets, then helped Jennifer step into the tub as well, ignoring her whimpers of pain even though they stung me almost as badly as my calves did. Tray paced around the mud room for a few moments, then plopped on the rug as Jennifer and I both sat down, splashing water over the sides of the tub as we settled.
She leaned back against me and I took her hands, each in turn, critically examining them. Her hands were so small and delicate; thankfully, her fingertips were not blue or mottled.
I finally exhaled and relaxed against the back of the tub, interlacing my fingers with hers. “You know, I had that wolf eating out of the palm of my hand.”
She snorted, and my heart soared. “That wolf would have eaten your hand if I hadn’t shot him.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. I breathed in the steam filling the small room, feeling the tension finally draining from my body. “You saved my life tonight, and you risked yours doing it. You're an honorary Marine now, your worship. That was an amazing head shot.”
Jennifer blushed and glanced away. Concerned, I took her chin in my hand. “Jenn?”
She sighed. “I was aiming for its chest. Center mass, like you taught me?”
I considered the implications of her words. She had missed the shot. Of course, she had missed the shot, you jackass! It had been her first time shooting at a living, moving target, and the first time she had shot under stressful circumstances. I was damned lucky it had been the wolf’s head that exploded instead of mine. I burst out laughing, abruptly choking it off so I wouldn't hurt her feelings. “It doesn’t matter, honey. You saved my ass.”
The water splashed as she rose from the bath. She slipped on the wet floor as she stepped out, but didn’t fall. I scrambled to my feet…or, more accurately, creaked to them.
“Come on.” Her eyes were bright, and I took her hand. She led me out the door and down the corridor to her room.
I’d been in the room many times before, but I’d never entered since Jennifer had arrived. It was her place, and I respected that.
Now...fuck! Jennifer and I stood at the threshold, both of us wet and naked, beginning to chill, and all I wanted was to go inside. A tiny voice sounded an alarm in my head, but I shut it down savagely.
***
Jennifer
I saw it. I saw his doubt and his guilt, and it worried me…almost enough to push him away.
I didn’t.
I opened the door to my room at the same time I opened the door to my soul. Jaz saw it, too, his eyes widening slightly. This wasn’t a simple invitation.
It was his fault. He’d started this when he’d given me a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, the day we’d arrived at the lodge. That had simply been the beginning of our journey.
He came in with me.
He closed the door behind him, to Tray's surprised indignation.
“Do you want to go?” I whispered.
“No.”
“What do you want?” God, he was so goddamned tall! I had to crane my neck to see his eyes.
Then his fingers were tangled in my hair, pulling my head back. “You.” He whispered before kissing me, gently at first. I kissed him back, slipping my tongue into his mouth.
I felt the corners of his mouth lift into a smile and he pulled back infinitesimally, speaking with his lips grazing mine.
“Your worshipfulness,” he said, in his killer Han Solo impression. “For a princess, you are…brazen.”
Brazen. I liked that. At this moment, there wasn’t a better word to describe how I felt. I stole a glance downward. I needn’t have bothered. I could feel him responding. I ran a fingernail down his chest. “It looks like we skipped the sensual undressing scenes they show in the movies.”
This was it. This was the moment. I’d bared everything, literally. Now, he had to choose, and a cold ball of dread settled at my core as he paused, considering.
Fuck! I’d done it again. Too soon...too soon...too soon.
Tears slipped down my cheeks, but then Jaz was there, wiping some of them away with his thumb, kissing away the rest.
He chuckled. “I’d have tripped while taking my jeans off.”
I smiled in relief as the uncertainty dissipated and gasped as an errant tear rolled past my collarbone and Jaz caressed it with his tongue.
He leaned into me. “I love you.”
I broke inside. “Why?”
He pulled me close. God, he was huge. Yes, that way, too. I had peeked.
“You think I’m going to say some crap about us being each other’s only choice?” Jaz took my chin in his hand, and gently tilted my head back so we gazed into each other’s eyes. “Like, we are the only two people left, so we just have to suck it up?”
“Aren’t you?” Tears flowed freely down my cheeks now.
Jaz’s eye’s narrowed. “That might have been true at the beginning, maybe the first twenty minutes or so, when you kicked me in the nuts. But now?” His eyes sparkled with deep intensity, and I found myself drowning in his gaze. “Now, I know I’m not settling for anything, Jennifer. Now, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” Then he kissed me again. His lips were soft and tender.
I ran my hands across his chest, and I caressed the taut muscles, gradually getting lower until my hands rested on his waist.
Jaz halted my progress by gently grasping my hand and bringing it up to kiss the back of it, the palm, the inside of my wrist. God, this was amazing.
“Are you sure about this?” He breathed, his voice rasping with emotion.
I drew his lips back to mine, but before they met, I whispered, “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Then we were kissing again, and Jaz was running his fingers up my back, causing me to arch into him. Tiny sparks erupted behind my closed eyes as my brain went into sensory overload. Just when I thought I could take no more and reached down to take him in my hand, Jaz hoisted me effortlessly into his arms, lifting me and carrying me across my room, lying me on my bed. He lay down beside me and leaned in to kiss my lips. His mouth travelled to the nape of my neck. Lightning shot through my nerve endings.
I felt his own arousal stiffen against my leg, and reached down. I wanted him so bad it hurt – Oh my GOD, it hurt – but Jaz took my hand, raising it up to kiss my palm.
“Not yet,” he said. “It’s your turn first.”
What followed was amazing. It was as unlike the awkward fumbling with Glen as night was to day. I had expected it to be passionate, but rough an
d rushed, judging by Jaz’s normal caveman behavior, but I was totally unprepared for the tender kisses and gentle touches that heightened my senses until I begged him to touch me…there.
He gazed down at me, longing filling his expression.
“I love you too, Jaz,” I whispered, as he reached down to guide himself and slowly entered me. Oh...my...fucking...GOD! I ground my hips upward, forcing more of him into me as my senses exploded out of control. Shit! It had never been like this with Glen! I thought I might have come a couple of times with him. Now, I knew I hadn’t even gotten close.
We made love three times that night, the spaces between filled with talking, kisses and caresses, before we eventually fell into exhausted sleep.
The ground shook beneath my feet, a crack appearing in the earth as the sky ignited in orange flame. Around me, the mountain tops exploded, rocketing house-sized chunks of molten rock into the sky.
In return, the heavens unleashed a thousand spears of lightning, and where they intercepted the projectiles, the air ignited and shockwave after shockwave battered the world, both above and below. A few rocks broke through to strike the heavens, and a similar number of lightning bolts escaped to strike the ground, the resulting collisions dwarfing the previous contacts by an order of magnitude.
Dimly, I knew the impacts should have deafened me at least, but more likely should have pummeled me into a warm, sticky puddle on the arid surface of this Godforsaken land; for it was. No God had ever set foot on these plains. I was certain of that, as much as I knew I wasn’t truly “here”
either.
“What is this place?” I asked. I could feel the presence, hovering just outside my awareness, waiting for me to ask the questions.
“This is the first circle of the Underhell, the realm that sits directly beneath your dimension.” The voice was soft-spoken, but it held a strength I knew could crush me with a single thought.
“Who are you?”
“You already know.”
I did, but it didn’t stop me from gasping, and my hand closed involuntarily around the cross I wore around my neck. “Why am I here?”
The voice was silent for a long moment, as if deciding how much to tell me. “You are not here…not yet.”
Not yet? “So, I will be here, soon?”
“‘Soon’ is a human construct,” said the voice. “This war you see being fought before you has raged since the dawn of the age, but it seems like a fleeting instant to me.”
I watched the battle intensify, the entire mountain range exploding in fiery fury, even as the heavens raged and rained.
“Who are you fighting? Lucifer? Satan?”
The voice laughed softly. “The fallen ones? Ha!” It was a snort of derision, something I didn’t expect when discussing the Devil. “No, the fallen are long since gone, banished by the true enemy: the betrayer.” There was bitterness, tinged with something that could only be…grief?
It was silent for a long time, so I looked around me. The empty plain I thought I stood on was actually a plateau, and as I watched the pyrotechnics illuminate the steppes below, I saw them. Thousands – no, millions upon millions of creatures – Treaters – scrambling over one another. They raced frenetically to chase down bright orbs of humanity – the final few hundred souls that remained. Only a few hundred, from the millions of souls that had been ripped from their human bodies. They were captured and twisted by the strongest of the Treaters, used as toys for sport and torture, until the beasts tired and finally consumed them.
I watched as one exceptionally bright orb was held aloft by a huge figure from my deepest, darkest nightmare. Even from this distance I could make out the red, throbbing eyes, staring at me, and I took a step back.
“Behold, the betrayer. Behold, Semyaza. Behold, my son.”
Wait, what? Son? Who …
“He has known many names throughout the ages.”
As I watched, the beast crushed the orb, consuming the soul. The mass of Treaters stilled, as one, and looked upward. Semyaza bellowed and an entire mountain uprooted itself and hurtled into the sky. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt struck it, hundreds, thousands, in just a few seconds, but all they did was chip the surface. It struck the border between above and below, and the world shook to its foundation.
“Soon, he will have the power he needs. Soon, he will take the heavens and rule the realms, and the universe shall suffer.”
“Why are you showing me this?” I asked.
The world around me began to fade to blackness, the sounds diminishing, the smells dissipating as I raced toward wakefulness. “Wait! I need to know.”
“There is one thing that can stop him, one thing this Underhell he has created has never possessed.”
As I felt my body stir, I shouted, “What is it? Tell me!”
***
I awoke in the morning, unsettled and anxious. I had the feeling I had forgotten something – something really important – and it worried me. It had been an unsettling dream, probably, but it felt …vital. I swept my hand over the other side of my bed. It was warm, and the pillow had a head-shaped depression in it. That eased my concern as I remembered the night before. Hoo-boy, did I remember the night before!
At the bottom of the bed, Tray gave an indignant snort. If I could have read her mind, I was pretty sure she’d be saying, “It’s about time.”
Cooking smells wafted in through the open door, and my mouth watered. I got out of bed and retrieved a robe from the closet. It seemed I’d worked up quite an appetite, but I wanted more. Food first, I thought, then smirked as I remembered Jaz’s words of the previous evening. Brazen. Yes, I felt brazen, and I loved it.
***
Jaz
I hadn’t known what to expect from our first Christmas together, but Jennifer’s immediately-after-breakfast present set the theme for the day. I had wondered if she were a virgin, but although she was inexperienced, it didn't matter to me; I had been as gentle as if I knew she were a virgin and her eagerness had only heightened my own enjoyment. She had a willingness to learn and to please; oh, God, she was eager to please!
I had to physically unwrap her arms from around me to get up and start dinner that evening. Earlier, we had trudged back to the site where I’d shot the elk to find that, naturally, the wolves and other scavengers had done their worst. Still, huge chunks of the carcass had been left untouched and were frozen solid. We managed to salvage about fifty pounds of meat to restock the freezer, plus more than enough for Christmas dinner.
“Mmm, it smells divine,” Jennifer said, as she wrapped her arms around me again. She’d crept up behind me, barefoot and wearing nothing but my oversized T-shirt.
“Roast venison is one of my favorites,” I replied, as I kissed the back of her hand. I cut myself off. No way in hell was I going to tell her elk veal was my favorite meat. I knew better!
Jennifer’s other hand strayed lower, and I felt myself responding.
“So, when will dinner be ready?” she asked, her voice low and husky.
“A couple of hours,” I replied. “Wanna watch a movie? I have The Santa Clause...Ooo!” Jennifer’s hand slipped even lower.
“You know what they say about Santa Claus?” she asked.
I turned around to envelope her in my arms, but her hand stayed in place. “No, what do they say?”
Jennifer’s grin was wanton and full of mischief. “That he only comes once a year, but when he does, he fills your stockings.”
My laughter was smothered by her lips covering mine and her tongue snaking in to flick over mine. Two hours. Hmm, I figured that’d be long enough to give Jennifer her present.
***
That evening, we sat in front of the roaring fire, our bellies stuffed. The meal had exceeded both of our expectations.
“I never realized venison was elk, you know that?” said Jennifer, burping.
I laughed aloud. “Haven’t you ever eaten it?”
She gave me her look. “Only deer, asshole.
My dad always brought it back. To be honest, I think he brought it with us in the car, but at the time I was too young to realize.”
“Ha! Your dad was a legend!”
Jennifer’s eyes welled, and I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She was quiet for a moment, then she sighed deeply. “Yes, he was. He always told us these amazing bedtime stories. He made up a different one every night.” She smiled, but there was a sadness etched into it. “I remember his face when I told him I was too old for the stories. I was thirteen. I thought if my friends found out I was still getting a bedtime story, they’d say I was a baby. Plus, he still had a few years with Jess. So…he stopped telling them.” Tears spilled silently down her cheeks. “I wish he was here now. I want one of his fairy tales. They always had a happy ending.”
“I’m sorry there’s no happy ending.”
She smiled. “Who said there was no happy ending?” She tilted her head back to accept a kiss, which I happily obliged. “We’re here, together. We’re safe –”
Tray picked this moment to decide we weren’t paying her enough attention, so Jennifer didn’t get to finish her sentence, but her final word unsettled me. We weren’t safe. Eventually, the Treaters would reach us, even this far out in the wild. For now, though, I was willing to forget about anything outside of these four walls.
Leaving Tray in the den, I took Jennifer by the hand and led her to my – our – bedroom. It had made sense to move into the bigger room, now that any pretense was gone. Fine. I was a dirty old man in love with a younger woman. I could live with that.
Now, this was our space, and even Tray accepted there were times she wasn’t allowed to come in with us. There was nothing guaranteed to deflate an aroused libido more than a dog slobbering on you, and, at the moment, my aroused libido needed some attention.
Treaters: Book One of the Divine Conflict. Page 12
