“No, I’m not.”
She didn’t believe him.
A burst of water energy hit his back and Cross fell forward on top of her.
They both groaned.
“That was cheating.” Cross was pressed up against her body and she was still spread open. He instinctively rocked against her. “Shit.” He dropped his head down to her shoulder and let out a harsh sound of desire. “I’m not going to stop, Nia. So, don’t worry. I know you need the Phazing and you’re going to get it. Be a good girl and I’ll make sure you get all of it. But, we have to be safe.” Against his will, his hand found the curve of her breast. “God, you’re so soft.”
Nia whimpered and tried to move against him. “We are safe. You’re just torturing me for fun.”
Cross smiled, slightly. “Well, maybe a little.” He leaned forward to kiss her, briefly. “But mostly, it’s so you don’t get hurt.” The Phazing energy was going to break through, he could feel the Shadows battering at him. He massaged her nipple, enjoying the way it rasped against his palm. “Okay, we need to take a break and…” He lost his train of thought, as she sent Water energy sliding around him again like a fist. “Baby.” He swallowed. “Harder. Yeah, just like that.” He dropped his forehead to hers. “You’re cheating again. Don’t stop.”
“Cross.” She added a seductive huskiness to his name. “You’re still holding the Shadows back from me. It’s time. You have to let go.”
Cross met her eyes and saw stubbornness underlying passion. “Princesses fight.” He hung on to control as her energy stroked him. “But, they’re not supposed to fight dirty, baby.” He let the Shadows out just enough to push against the Water energy. It was a careful brush and it felt so incredible Cross nearly came right then. “Slow.” He ground out. Even if it killed him, they were going slow. “Do you still feel… right?”
“Yes!” Nia gasped, her breath sawing in and out. “But, I’m not a princess. I’m the Shadow Queen. And you need to see that this will work, before I die from slowness. You aren’t wrong and neither are your powers.” She let go of the Water. She just released whatever restraints she might have been keeping on it and let it flow out unrestricted between them.
It was like a bomb detonating inside Cross’ brain. The fluid pressure burst through him, cleansing and powerful. It massaged him from the inside out, arousing places that Cross hadn’t even known he possessed. Filling up holes and empty spaces inside of him, healing and pure. Nia’s energy was like life.
“Oh God.” It was a whisper. A prayer. Cross closed his eyes. “Oh God, baby.” He forgot about teasing her, and about going slow, and about everything else except getting inside of her.
Now.
His hands grew rougher as he pulled her fully beneath him and positioned her hips. Too rough. He had to be more careful, he knew that even as he trapped her. The Shadows screamed for release, blood dripped out of his eyes as he tried to contain them.
“Cross?” Nia’s voice broke in something like panic. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He paused, even though it hurt like an icepick to his brain. “Stop touching?” He eased back.
Nia calmed down, instantly. “No.” She smiled up at him. “Don’t stop. Just… I love you. It’ll be okay.”
“Love you.” He whispered. “The Shadows are going to get loose, though. Are you sure about this?”
“Yep.” She leaned up to press her lips against his. “Don’t fight it, sweetie.”
Her kiss is what did it.
The Shadows got free.
They poured into Nia, swirling and combining with the Water energy like a fireworks display. Cross’ breath escaped in a rush as he felt the power surge out. His energy slammed into Nia’s with a pyrotechnic explosion that literally lit up the room. Shadows and Water, twirling and twisting and swelling into something bigger.
And bigger.
And bigger.
“Holy Gaia.” Nia’s words came out as a wail. Her heels dug into the sofa. “Cross, now! Now, now, now, now, now!”
Cross had absolutely no argument with that plan.
He slid inside of her with one long, forceful move and she exploded around him.
“Cross.”
“Nia.” Her face filled his vision. She was so, so beautiful.
The Water energy rained down on every inch of his body, inside and out. Cross saw a rainbow of colors and lights, of love and wholeness and connection. He saw everything he’d ever wanted and all of it was Nia.
And then he couldn’t do anything, but roar as he came deep inside of her. It was too much. He couldn’t stop it.
Their powers snapped together like puzzle pieces. No longer two different energies, but one synergetic whole. The oppressive weight of the Shadows lifted. Instead, of a solid mass pressing down on him, it washed against Cross like a waves in an ocean. Just as powerful, but moving, natural, almost soothing.
Healed.
Freed.
Right.
Cross knew that he wasn’t going to get a headache, even if he let go of Nia.
Except, that he wasn’t planning to release her. Ever.
Cross’ head dropped forward so he could kiss the turquoise streak at her temple. “You okay, baby?”
Nia let out a purring sound and stretched beneath him. “No more space between us.”
“No, there’s not.” He tugged at the turquoise hair just hard enough to make her smile. “Are you okay?” He repeated. “Did the Shadows hurt you?”
“No. The Shadows are wonderful. I can feel them all over me, like a blanket. Keeping me safe. I told you this would work.”
“And I told you, I wanted to go slow.” Cross was still inside of her and he could feel himself growing hard, again. “Next time we go slow, Nia.” He moved out of her. “No arguments or cheating or fighting dirty.”
Her eyes widened, as if she thought he was stopping. “Well, we have forever and there’s no one around and... Oh, yes.” She gave a ‘hmmm’ of surprised pleasure, as he slowly pushed back in. “And there are a lot of rooms in this castle to practice various speeds in, so do whatever you want. Just keep doing it.”
“Good girl.” Cross glanced around and grinned. “God, I love this house.”
Epilogue
Five hundred years ago, when the Fall began and our way of life changed forever, I wasn’t even alive. Everything in this volume comes from my interviews with the survivors and from historical records I’ve collected from the Elemental archives. Since I take my role as impartial reporter of facts very seriously, rest assured this text is a completely objective and accurate account of the plague and all that followed. Give or take…
Daphne, of the Time House- “After the Fall: A History of the Dark War”
Job lived alone.
He’d lived alone for centuries, so he should have been used to the quiet solitude of an empty house. Constructed along the lines of a Renaissance castle, the Earth Fortress stood in a neat clearing of trees, along a small river. With its curving edges, arched doorways, and symmetrical design, Job’s home wasn’t the worst place to be on an autumn night. He had a fire blazing in his study and a stack of reports to wade through, so there was no need for him to feel so… lonely.
Job knew Cross and Nia would be happy together. He’d worked hard to ensure that they found one another because he’d sensed that they were a Match. Since Job loved them both, their happiness made him happy, too.
It truly did.
But, it also made him feel the weight of his thousand years of quiet solitude. A thousand years of living alone. Elementals could survive for millennia longer than Job. A thousand years wasn’t the end of his life.
Except, in a way, it was.
The Fall had killed something inside of him. Job knew that he’d never find his Match. It was too late for him, now. Having met nearly Phase in the universe, Job knew that his Match wasn’t among them. And he had very little hope that his Match was one of the humans that everyone was now so intent on findin
g.
It amazed Job that humans and Elementals could interbreed. It took a lot to amaze someone who’d seen eleven centuries, but he still could barely believe it. It went against all the biological knowledge of their species. Still, not even Job could argue with the proof when she grinned at him, shook his hand, and said, “Hey, I’m Melanie. Wow, you sure don’t look like you’re a million years old.”
Uriel presented his Match to the Council with all the modesty of someone who’d discovered a lost continent. And why shouldn’t he be proud? He’s just become the most famous Elemental in the universe. The Phase who went to the human realm and brought back hope for everyone. There’d been a few muttered complaints about diluting the Elemental bloodline with human DNA. But, most Phases instantly supported any chance to have a Match, even a part human one. It was a sobering indication of how concerned the Council was about the future of the Elementals that not a single person voted to banish Uriel.
Instead, he got a medal.
Melanie O’Shea was mostly human, but in the eyes of the Council, she was also a Wood Phase. Her grandfather, Parson, had been a great man. Job had known him. Parson was not a Phase to break rules or shrink from his duties, so Job remained curious about what Parson had been doing in the human realm.
Just looking at Melanie, though, Job knew that she shared Parson’s DNA, even with the mystery attached. Her smile was identical to Parson’s.
Her cousin, the cop who was apparently insisting that Ty, Uriel, and Thar show up for some ludicrous court date, must have Elemental DNA, too. Someone was going to have to talk to him and Job had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the Wood House. Melanie seemed certain that Sullivan enjoyed his “humans only” mindset and Uriel –besotted pushover that he was- agreed that they should leave Sullivan in his happy ignorance, for now.
Job disagreed.
He wasn’t about to let some idiotic human prejudices doom the universe. They needed more Phases, or the Elementals would become extinct. Extinction meant no more world for anybody. That trumped Sullivan’s desire to leave his head in the sand.
Sullivan could be someone’s Match. He could help stop another apocalypse. Melanie was now supporting some of the Wood House. And, given the rewritten laws of interbreeding, there didn’t seem to be any reason why she and Uriel couldn’t have children.
This was the first positive news Job had heard since the Fall. Especially, since Phase-Matches usually had closely synced lifespans. Uriel was well past a human’s age already, so logically Melanie’s life span would stretch to correspond with his. She was part Wood Phase, after all. The Fall had disrupted the natural flow of life and death, but traditionally Phases were hardy creatures.
Humans could replace some of what had been lost.
Additionally, looking for more humans with Elemental DNA would occupy a lot of desperate Houses and keep them out of trouble. Job didn’t care if the search drew Phases to the human realm and broke the Council’s oldest law. If human Matches stopped the despair and hatred, if it slowed the number of Phases joining the Reprisal, then Job –for once- would toss out the rulebook himself.
Job was sick of the killing.
Chason and Parald’s endless battle, the growing number of Phases who just stopped trying, the innocent people caught up in cycles of death… He’d much prefer that the Elementals turned their attention to sustaining life.
Job didn’t have any hope that his own Match might be out there, though. Logically, he knew that his Match could have died in the Fall before he ever found her. So many Phases had been lost; more than even Job could identify.
In his heart, Job doubted that his Match had ever existed, at all. He just wasn’t meant to have one. Most Elementals found their Matches long before they reached their thousandth birthday. Job had scoured the universe when he was younger, and all he found was more quiet and solitude. He’d slowly come to acknowledge that he was meant to be alone. So, he worked hard to make a difference for Elementals and save whoever was left. He accepted his life and the path he walked.
And, if loneliness struck him sometimes, he didn’t let it affect his duty or the obligations that he carried.
So, when Job sensed another presence in the Earth Palace, he actually ignored his instincts for a moment. He believed in his security measures and, perhaps egotistically, he just couldn’t imagine anyone breaking into his home. He thought the tingling at the back of his neck was a symptom of his isolation.
Until, he heard the female voice, anyway. “So, you’re the almighty Job, huh?”
Job’s head snapped up. He stared at the woman who’d invaded his sanctuary, trying to process her sudden appearance.
She wasn’t a Phase.
That was his first thought. There was no streak in her hair. It fell, thick and wavy and solid black, to her waist. Besides which, Job absolutely would have heard about it if an Elemental who looked like this woman survived the Fall. She wasn’t traditionally beautiful, but she had vivid lavender eyes and the rounded, curvy shape that male Phases lusted after. If she was Elemental, she’d have a phalanx of men crowded around her, vying for attention.
In fact, the woman almost seemed… human.
Dressed in kakis with frayed hems, thick soled flip-flops, and purple, spaghetti-strapped shirt emblazoned with ‘I got wasted at Mayport Beach’s Wastin’ Away Bar and Grill’ she looked… human. And he’d never seen a Phase carry a zebra stripped backpack slung over one shoulder.
Not even the Fire House had taste that bad.
“I’m Job.” He confirmed, because he had no idea what else to say. He should toss her out, obviously. Granted, she didn’t look dangerous and, even if she was hiding a sword somewhere on her (really) lovely body, he could still flatten her in a fight. No one had Job’s powers. But, she shouldn’t be here. Barging into someone’s home was a mark of poor breeding and Job refused to put up with it from anyone. For some reason, though, he didn’t insist that the woman leave. “May I help you?”
“You’d better. I got a gigantic fucking problem and I’m expecting you to fix it, big shot. It’s your damn fault I’m in this mess.” She dropped her zebra backpack onto the two hundred year old, Aubusson rug. The soothing earth tones of the carpet clashed horribly with the shiny, patent leather stripes.
It should have offended every molecule of Job’s dignity. Instead, staring at her tacky clothes and angry face, he actually felt that lonely feeling inside of him fade.
“I see.” Job got to his feet, out of habit, and gestured towards a Chippendale chair. “Please have a seat.”
She flopped down on the subtle, fretwork upholstery. “You have no idea what you’ve done to me.” She scraped an agitated hand through her ebony hair. “I’m completely screwed now, all because you wouldn’t connect the dots. Stupid, stubborn asshole.”
“I see.” Job repeated and, since it seemed clear that she wasn’t going to volunteer her identity without prompting, he asked, “Have we been introduced?” He knew that they hadn’t, but demanding “who the hell are you?” seemed inappropriate.
“I’m Tessie.” She scowled at him as if he should’ve known that. “Aren’t you supposed to be all mega-genius? God, keep up, huh?”
“Tessie?” That wasn’t an Elemental name. He wasn’t even sure it was a human one, except that it made him think of baseball for some reason. Job liked baseball. It was game of statistics and firm rules. “Are you sure that you’re in the right place? Because, I…”
“Oh, I’m in the right place, alright.” She interrupted. “I’m declaring sanctuary and you’re gonna provide it for me. It’s the least you can do. Now, I have that GI Joe dipshit Chason and his Reprisal goon squad tearing up my town, looking for me with all the subtly of that bumbling Schliemann guy trying to find Troy. There are reasons I try to keep a low profile, ya know.”
An odd thought occurred to Job. He eyed the woman with a growing feeling of dread and wonder. “Are you claiming that you’re the…”
“The Quintessence.
Yeah, hi, how are ya?” She flashed an insincere smile. “Just show me where my room is. I’m moving in here until you get your damn Elementals under control.”
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