She tried to speak but couldn’t. Her mouth had turned to a desert as if his kiss had sucked all the moisture out of her. She cleared her throat and tried again. “What was that for?” And why did you stop?
Israel’s eyes seemed to darken with intensity as he stared back at her. “Once I open this door, you’ll be back in the real world and so will I. I just…I just needed to do that, just in case we don’t remember this when we get out.”
“Israel, I couldn’t forget you.”
He smiled but it was tinged with sadness. “If you believe that we lived a past life together, then…yes, you could.”
She was suddenly struck with a horror. What if he was right? What if they forgot each other when they woke up? What if this was all they had?
If this was all they could have, would it be worth it?
She wasn’t prepared to find out yet. She grabbed his jacket, fisted her hands in it, and brought her mouth up to his. He tasted like mint and smelled like the desert wind. For a second he didn’t react. She heard a soft groan come from him. His arms went around her, pulling her in close. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss, their tongues coming together in a soft dance. She felt the sensation that she was suddenly flying.
This was what she had been missing. This was what she had been waiting for. She felt a thread of connection shoot through him and her and back through time and space. Whatever this was, it was infinite and timeless, beyond love, beyond magic. Now that she knew this, how was she ever going to live without it?
Above the roar of her blood in her ears was the rustle of a hundred sunflowers growing, pushing up through the snow and filling her ears, their petals brushing up against her body as she clung on to Israel, her head tilting so that she could kiss him deeper, her hands finding their way into his hair.
The memories of all their past kisses rose up from the very depths of her soul.
…Alyx traced her fingers across his top lip and pressed her mouth to it, soft like the first drops of spring rain, her thumb trapped between the corners of their mouths. A rush filled her head. He gasped. Or did she? She wasn’t sure. She pulled back to look at him. The way he was looking at her was...like he was seeing the stars for the first time…
…“Damn you,” he all but whispered. “Despite everything you’ve done, I still love you, Alyx.” He pulled at her and her body slammed against his, causing her to gasp. A gasp which he stifled when his lips closed roughly over hers…
…He gripped her as if he feared that she might disappear. Alyx felt herself melting into him, her mind disappearing into this complete bliss that only Israel could weave around her. She deepened the kiss and pressed her body against his.
This time it was her turn to groan when he pulled away. “Why did you stop?” she moaned. “We don’t have to stop. What about naked kisses?”
He leaned his forehead on hers, his breath rushing hard around her cheeks. “I don’t know. Something about saving the world.”…
The feeling from each past kiss multiplied and folded and compounded on the one before it until she felt like her heart would explode out of her ribcage. The final kiss rose up like a phoenix, like an ember floating up out of a fire.
…“I love you, angel,” he whispered to her. “In this life and the next.”
“I love you too.” In this life and the next. Alyx closed her mouth over his in their last kiss on this Earth, tasting salt and copper. Their blood and tears were mixing together. Soon their souls, freed from these two bodies, would too. She slipped her hand under his shirt to find his heart. She felt it slow under her fingers, then finally it beat its last beat, and all that was left was the echo of her own racing heart. She kissed the very last breath from him as his body slackened in her arms…
The intensity of their past kisses, all at once, the knowledge that this hadn’t been their first kiss…it was all too much. The force of these memories threw her back and she broke off the present kiss, gasping.
Israel’s breath was heaving out of his lungs. “Holy shit…” He trailed off.
She knew he’d seen them all too, felt them all too. He’d remembered them.
They stood staring at each other, their breaths heaving in and out of their chests, a wariness to their stares, as if the other had suddenly become dangerous.
How… How would they move forward from this?
“What if you do forget me?” he asked. “What if we step through this door and this becomes just a dream? I can’t forget that…this…us.”
Neither could she. The thought of it tore at her.
“Here.” She pulled her necklace from around her neck and placed it in his palm. “It was my mother’s.”
His eyes were shiny when he looked back up from the plain silver wedding band hanging at the end of a matching chain. “I can’t take it.”
“You can. I want you to. I don’t know how this works. I don’t know whether you can take this back into the real world with you, but I hope you can. I hope you wake up with it. Even if you don’t remember me. Even if I don’t remember you. Then at least you have something of mine…” She let out a small breath as she remembered a different ring in a different life. “Perhaps one day this ring will lead you back to me, just like your mother’s ring in our last life led me to you.”
Israel closed his hand over hers before he grabbed her and kissed her again.
She didn’t know how long they stood there wrapped in each other’s kiss, tasting each other, exploring each other, remembering each other. But even as the seconds ticked by, the lessening snow brushing at their faces reminding them that winter was coming to an end. She almost didn’t care. She could die here in his kiss.
Israel pulled away and she let out a sigh. He leaned his forehead on hers.
“Why did you stop?” Her tongue felt thick and her head spun. She still felt like she was flying.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Something about saving your life.”
She let out a small laugh. “It’s not the world we’re saving this time.”
“It is for me.”
Her heart turned molten and slid down the insides of her chest. It tore at her when he pulled away but she let him. They had this one last thing to do so she could wake up.
He lowered the necklace over his head, her mother’s ring settling against his heart. He placed his hand on the globe-turned-key. “Here we go.” He turned it and there was a loud click.
The doors rumbled as they drew apart. How would this work? Would she see herself in the hospital bed? Or would there just be a lot of light?
The doors finally clanged open, revealing a dark cave, tiny grains of rock and sand falling in a soft cloud.
As the dust cleared, Alyx peered inside. Her stomach dropped. It wasn’t the way out. “This doesn’t look like the outside world. This looks like a dark, scary cave.”
“You scared?”
She snorted to cover up the tremor of apprehension running through her veins. “No.”
Israel reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I am too.”
She squeezed his hand back and her nerves calmed.
He peered into the darkness. “Let’s go, but be careful. And stay close.”
They stepped inside together. Alyx squinted as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. The cave disappeared higher and farther back than the light from the outside reached, large boulders jutting about the place and creating shadowy areas. Every tiny noise seemed to echo in here; even her breathing seemed to shudder back to her. She heard a noise emanating from deep in the shadows and she flinched. “What was that?” she whispered.
They paused, listening.
There was another noise. This time she was able to hear it more clearly. It was the sound of something scraping the stony floor.
“There’s something in here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Something moved deep inside the cavern. Alyx only knew it was there because she could hear sharp clicking against the stone floor and the heavy rasping of its breat
h.
“Can you see it?” Israel whispered as he unsheathed his sword.
“No.”
“It sounds…big.”
“And pointy.” She unsheathed her own weapon, her muscles coiled with fear, her heart skittering.
“Don’t worry,” Israel said, shooting her a grin. “You and me, we’re unbeatable together. We got this.”
She met his eyes for a second. The confidence clear in his face fell over her like a light veil, causing some of the tension to drop from her shoulders. They did make a good team. He was right. They’d get through this. Together.
The creature let out a screech that echoed from inside the cavern. It cut into her ears and pain sliced through her head. She dropped her sword as her hands flew up to cover her ears. Israel was writhing around too. The screech faded, leaving behind a throbbing, ringing sound like…like she was underwater.
“Israel?” But she could only hear her muffled voice from inside her own head. Worse still, Israel didn’t turn towards her. She grabbed his arm to get his attention. “Can you hear me?”
As she spoke his eyes dropped to her mouth with a frown, then his face broke out into a mask of horror.
He couldn’t hear her either. They were both deaf. Dear God. How do you fight something you couldn’t hear coming?
Movement caught her eye. The creature moved close enough that the pale light from the outside of the cave fell upon it. A useless cry tore from her lips. It had claws at the end of its hands, folded wings, thin and black like a bat’s, a black hairless torso with breasts and legs like a female human, but this thing was definitely not human. Its bony face was veiny and hairless, with eyes so dark that they were almost indistinguishable from the rest of it. It was those eyes like slits, focused right on her, that pinned her to where she stood. She froze, her muscles seizing, even as the creature flapped its wings and flew towards her.
Just give up.
It would be so easy to just let this creature win. It would be so easy to just give in. Yes, Alyx thought she heard hissing inside her head. Just slip away. It won’t hurt a bit.
The creature lunged for her, mouth open and long needle-like fangs extending out and dripping with viscose saliva. But she couldn’t move. This was it. This was the end for her.
Israel jumped between them, breaking her eye contact with the beast. She shook herself. What the hell?
Israel swung his sword. The hell-creature lashed out a muscular arm, meeting his blade with one of its claws that hooked right around it. It twisted his weapon out of his hand, throwing it aside, and swiped at Israel with its other hand. He went flying after his sword and landed in a crumpled heap, blood already oozing from where the claws had slashed him.
“Israel!” But he couldn’t hear her.
The hell-creature turned its vacant eyes to Alyx. She knew now not to make eye contact so she kept her eyes on the creature’s mouth where its fangs extended out, quivering as if excited at the prospect of biting into her flesh.
She couldn’t stare at that mouth and keep her nerve. She dropped her gaze lower to the bony chin lined with tiny bumps. As the creature advanced upon her the silence that suffocated her was louder than any noise she had ever heard. She tried to balance herself, to let go…
She was already moving when the creature attacked, lashing at her with its talons. Its wings created a small wind behind it, kicking up dust around the cave. Alyx ducked and lashed back, managing to slash at the creature’s arm. It let out an angry roar that echoed through her partly deaf state. Her hearing was coming back. The effects of the creature’s screech must be wearing off.
It came at her again. She twisted into the air to avoid a clawed kick. As she landed, she spotted Israel advancing towards them slowly with his sword at the ready. Their eyes met for a second. Neither of them spoke but she knew in an instant what he planned to do. She knew exactly what she needed to do to help him.
She lashed out her sword in the creature’s face, getting its attention. “Hey, you, look at me.” It reacted by letting out another piercing screech. This time she didn’t drop her sword and she hardly flinched as her world went mute again.
She shifted around farther into the cave, causing the creature to turn its back completely on Israel. “Come on, come get me,” she taunted into her own silence. She led the beast back until she was almost completely in the dark.
In her near-deaf, near-blind state, her other senses seemed to rise to a heightened state. She could sense the creature getting closer as the air shifted against her skin. She could smell the musty dampness of the cave and underneath it, the scent of something metallic. Under her feet she could feel a steady vibration that went on and off like a drum beat.
The creature was partially silhouetted against the light coming in from the cave’s entrance. She felt the air shift, signaling an attack. She spun out of the creature’s way, the tip of its claw catching her arm. She barely registered it.
Her focus was on the tip of Israel’s sword pushed through between its black breasts. The creature let out a fierce roar that broke through the muffle, and it spun, the sword still stuck in its body. Israel rolled around behind it towards her.
“Move.” Israel grabbed her arm and yanked her aside. Just as one of the creature’s wings came crashing down where she had just been standing.
They ran outside and ducked behind the side of the entrance. They watched as the creature convulsed in the dim cave. She let out a long breath. They did it. They defeated it. Any minute now the creature would drop down dead.
The creature folded its wings back, reached behind with its hands and awkwardly pulled the sword out from its body, a dark blue sticky blood bubbling out from its wound. It then snapped the blade in two and dropped the pieces to the floor with a clatter. It opened its mouth and a long dark blue tongue forked out.
“What is it doing?” Israel said. Her hearing had almost returned to normal.
“I don’t know.” She watched in horror as the creature licked at its raw flesh. “Oh my God,” she hissed. “Look.”
The creature licked itself again and again, like a cat would. The dark blue blood stopped bubbling out and the wound began to seal itself. It was self-healing. It had been stabbed through the heart and it was still standing. How the hell were they supposed to kill it?
“It can’t be possible,” she said. “You struck it straight through the heart.” Could a creature really regenerate its own heart?
Israel cursed. “How do we kill it?”
They both backed away from the entrance as the creature darted towards them, moving a little slower than before.
Alyx skidded back in the melting snow as the creature landed at the cave entrance and appraised them both with what she took to be utter disdain. It began to pace the entrance, glaring at them and flapping its large wings, sending flakes of snow back from the doorway. But it got no closer.
“Why isn’t it coming out here?” she asked.
“Maybe it can’t deal with sunlight. Like a vampire.”
“Don’t be silly. There’re no such things as vampires.” She swallowed. “At least I hope not.” She stared at the creature, watching it. “It can’t be about the light. Look, it just walked through a patch of sunlight.”
Why wasn’t it coming out?
Realization struck Alyx. “You know what it looks like?”
“We’re screwed?”
“It looks like it’s guarding something.”
The creature hissed loudly at them, then disappeared inside.
“I think you’re right. It’s guarding the exit. That’s why it won’t leave the cave. We’re not supposed to kill it. We’ve got to get past it.”
Alyx was alert for any sound as they entered the cave again. They moved carefully, deeper into the cave, the light dimming as they traveled farther away from the large open doors. She could hear the sound of claws on stone and the steady low drumbeat coinciding with the vibrations through the stone floor. What was that noise?
At the back of the cave was the creature silhouetted against a bluish light coming from an unknown source. It must be the exit.
“We need a plan,” Israel said. “In a few minutes that creature is going to come back and finish us both off.”
“What do we do? With only one weapon left, we’re running out of options.”
“Give me your sword.”
She handed it to him by the handle. “What are you going to do?”
“The door back to the real world must be back there. I’ll distract it, and you sneak past and get to the exit.”
Shock reverberated through her. “I can’t leave you behind. That monster will tear you apart.”
He wouldn’t look at her. He just kept staring at the creature as he bounced on his toes, twirling her sword in his hand. “We don’t have time to argue. Go, on my signal.”
“Israel, you’re insane. I won’t let you—”
He grabbed her head with his free hand and planted a firm kiss on her mouth. When he pulled back she found her eyes filling with tears.
“Thank you,” she said. Thank you for what he was about to do. For what he had already done: making her feel again, making her brave again.
He nodded once. The moment his hands left her, she felt her heart lurch. He backed out from behind the boulder, his eyes locked on hers. “Even if this is all we have,” he said to her, “it was worth it.”
Alyx couldn’t speak, her heart swollen against her throat. She just nodded.
He broke eye-contact with her and turned to face the creature. “Hey, you ugly devil-bat. You want me? Come get me.” He waved his arms around.
The creature lifted its head and screeched, once more taking away sound so that Alyx couldn’t hear Israel’s voice anymore. It stepped fully from the small enclosure in the back, opened its wings and shot forward through the air towards Israel. He cursed and flew back, the air crackling with magic.
Alyx ducked as the creature flew past. She sent out a curse and a prayer out to Israel and sprinted towards the blue glow at the back of the cave, her legs pumping as fast as they could. She tripped as her foot caught on a rock and stumbled to the ground, the harsh stone tearing at her hands and knees. She barely gave the pain across her skin a thought. She rolled to her feet and kept running, her blood a swollen beat in her ears almost in time with the vibration in the ground. At any moment she expected the creature to rip at her from behind. She stumbled into the semi-enclosed space where the blue light was coming from. But it wasn’t the exit.
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