by Angie Fox
“Rodger’s thinking of installing a hot tub next to the tar swamps.”
He held his hands out. “You see? My sacrifices are worth it.”
God, he was too good. I tilted my head. “I hate it when you get all noble.”
“It’s my curse,” he said, his face light until we both realized what he’d said. He had been the demigod of truth and nobility. Now he was a man, like any other.
Wait. That wasn’t right either. He was an extraordinary man, one who saw the good in people, and in me. He’d almost died trying to protect me. He’d given up his immortal life to be with me and I’d never forget that.
I reached for him. “Good thing I have a weakness for noble men,” I said, before I could hit the edit button. He stilled, his thigh tensing under my hand.
I remembered exactly what it was like to have him, how sexy he’d made me feel. How loved. He’d been my partner in all things, for the short time that I’d had him.
It could never be the same as it had been between us, but I found myself desperately wanting to pretend, if only for a little while.
His body had always fit perfectly with mine.
I fought off the rising desire, even as a traitorous thought formed at the back of my mind: We are alone. No one would know.
He was practically naked. And he was hard underneath the thin material pooled at his waist. He thickened even more as I stared.
I could have him one more time. Then I could give him up.
He’d been gone so suddenly before that I’d never truly had the chance to say good-bye.
It would be so easy to touch him, to relearn every aching inch of him.
He wouldn’t stop me.
His features were hard, his body strung tight. “This Marc, he’s the one you had lost before we met, isn’t he? The one you were going to marry.” He visibly flinched on that last word.
The mention of Marc’s name cooled my desire. “Yes.” This was good. I had to remember where I was.
He gave a sharp nod. “I’m glad you found him.”
“So am I.” Marc was a good man, and I was glad that he was with us, instead of trapped behind the lines of the old army.
But Galen had shown me what it was like to have everything. I couldn’t settle for anything less.
“What happened?” he rasped.
I felt my voice waver and before I could stop it, I said, “You.”
I had a split second to marvel at the sheer wonder on his face before his mouth slanted over mine. Nothing had ever felt so right. He slid his tongue in my mouth, tangling with mine. I pressed up tight against him, needing him like air.
This was what I wanted. It brought tears to my eyes to realize I could never truly have him.
That I was setting myself up for an even bigger fall.
He groaned and deepened the kiss, or maybe that was me.
He held me close, the gown crumpled between us, his body leading mine. In another five seconds, I’d be flat on my back, under him.
It was all too much. It wasn’t what I’d planned. But I burned for him in a way I could never have imagined before Galen entered my life.
I couldn’t think, didn’t want to as his hands slid up my sides under my scrub top. His roughened touch awakening every inch of my body.
The curtain screeched back and I stiffened. Naked, Galen leaped to his feet, body braced from years of military training.
Marc stood frozen in horror, holding a box of doughnuts from Frank’s Fish Market in New Orleans. It had been our place. Our private, decadent escape. I didn’t know what he’d had to do to get them.
They were a rare and precious treat.
He dropped them.
I don’t even think he noticed. “I thought you might need a break,” he said, sounding as shocked and hollow as I felt. I’d never meant for Marc to see this. Us.
“Marc, I—” There was nothing I could say that would make this right.
He took in every detail of my disheveled, passion-soaked state before he turned and left.
“Marc, wait!” I started after him. He slammed the main door. “Damn it.” I stopped, sick to my stomach. “He doesn’t deserve this.” I knew I should go after him, but I didn’t want him back. I just hadn’t wanted it to end like this.
Galen retrieved his gown from the floor. “It’s better he knows we’re together.”
Wait. No. I straightened my clothes, tried to calm my raging body. “We are not back together.” Yes, I loved him and I needed him and I craved just one more time with him. But he knew as well as I did that he was leaving. Our situation hadn’t changed.
“I just had a weak moment.” Or five. At least he was getting dressed again. “Let’s get one thing straight. What just happened here was a one time temptation, not an open invitation to take what you want.”
He had the nerve to look shocked. “You wanted it too.”
“I did,” I said. There was no use pretending otherwise. “I wanted you one last time.”
His fury rose. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“What else did you expect?” I asked, heading for the door.
“How about a goddamned chance?” he snapped.
I spun on him. “You’re the one who ended it.” He’d ripped my heart out. I wasn’t going to set myself up for another fall like that.
I turned back for the door. My heel slid, and I skidded two feet on the gooey remains of a jelly doughnut. My favorite.
“I was wrong.” The raw note in his voice struck me to the core.
I wanted to go to bed and never wake up again. I glanced back at Galen, determined to keep moving. “Right or wrong, I’m smart enough to know what I can’t have.”
chapter eight
I slammed the door on him and ran straight into more trouble. Only this time it was named Marius. He could have used super vampire speed to get out of my way, but of course he didn’t.
“Watch it.” He raised his chart over his head and turned so that I smacked into his side. “First Marc and now you.” He sneered, dusting himself off as if I carried Moldovian fleas.
A wide-eyed Holly rounded the nurse’s desk. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I’d wounded Marc more than I ever could have imagined. The prophecy didn’t make sense. Galen was pissed off and hiding in the back and I didn’t see how I could get him out with all these people around who knew him.
I’d had it with him and this war and these people and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.
Thaïs nudged me out of the way as he went to sign in. “Get out of my way. You’re off shift.”
Yeah, that made it perfect.
I rubbed at the back of my neck. I didn’t even know what time it was.
Thaïs hummed to himself. It was both peppy and annoying at the same time. “What is that? The BeeGees?”
“Sycion lyre quartet.” He signed his name with a flourish. “This dump is about to change for the better. HQ has finally seen fit to send investigators to this camp.”
I about choked.
“Why?” Holly blurted.
Thaïs looked smug. “To bring law and order, no doubt.” His mouth quirked. “I hear they’ll be looking for spies.”
More like a special ops soldier who had gone off the reservation.
It took everything I had not to glance back at the room that held Galen. I wondered if he could hear what was going on, if he knew the danger.
Marius drew up to his full height. It was rare to see the vampire spooked. “How soon?”
Thaïs grinned. “A day. Two at most.”
We had to get Galen out of here. I doubted he’d go without Leta. She’d need at least that long to recover. Even if the squad from HQ hadn’t arrived yet, Galen and Leta ran the risk of crossing paths with them on the way out. The limbo desert didn’t give you too many places to hide.
I’d never met an investigator, but I’d heard the stories. Whole squads of soldiers, complete departments at
HQ, hell, I’m sure entire MASH units as well, brought in for questioning and torture.
Because why not, right? How better to get answers than by bringing around an angry manticore or three in order to tear off some arms and legs? Or if they miss and lop off a head, whoops, those mortals sure are fragile.
They’d take entire companies of soldiers, tie them to boulders, and roll the men downhill. At least it was flat around here, which meant they’d probably bring out the hot coals. Answer questions while your feet burn. My toes clenched at the thought. If they liked what you had to say, you’d get to answer follow-ups—while your feet burned. If they didn’t like your responses, you just burned.
I stood frozen by the desk as Thaïs and Marius began rounds.
Holly drew up next to me, panicked. “Is Galen still back there?”
“Cover me.” I didn’t know how I was going to get him out. The big jerk.
Steeling myself, I pushed open the door. The room was dark. “Galen?” I whispered as loudly as I dared.
We had to move fast.
“Galen.” I flipped on the overhead light.
The exam rooms were open and empty, save for the one at the back. “It’s only me.” I ripped open the curtain to exam room two, but he was gone.
I burst out of the room. “How did he do it?”
“What?” Thaïs barked from a nearby patient’s bed.
“Nothing.” I shared a glance with a worried Holly as I scrawled my signature on the status sheet.
I banged out into the night. The sun had barely set, which meant everyone was out enjoying the 1.5 minutes we got between the blazing heat and the evening freeze.
Focus. I had to get a hold of myself.
I was so intent on heading to see Shirley that I nearly got run over by two mechanics on a motorcycle. They shot out between the secondary supply tent and Recovery.
“Watch it!” one of them called as the contraption screamed past, spitting rocks and engine exhaust.
“Shove it up your—” I choked back the last word as Father McArio breezed past me from behind, his purple stole flapping in his wake.
He raised his water bottle. “Evening, Petra.”
Just the man I wanted to see. If anyone had a bead on this camp, it was Father McArio. “You have a minute?” I called after him. And why was it that a sixty-seven-year-old priest was outgunning me?
“Later.” He turned to walk backward. He was in his usual army pants paired with a black clerical shirt and collar. The dust swirled around him, his cheeks red from the sun. “I have a few critical cases in the ICU.”
I knew exactly who he was talking about. No problem. “Go.” As if he needed my permission. I headed for Colonel Kosta’s office on the other side of the OR. Shirley may have taken the job of company clerk in order to ogle her immortal Spartan boss, but she was also one of the first people to know what was going on around here.
But she wasn’t in her office. She’d left the lanterns blazing. A single fan blew at the papers on her desk. Most of her official documents were weighted down by various staplers, tape dispensers, and coffee mugs. The rest blew in circles on the floor.
When I looked closer, I could see Kosta wasn’t in either. The door to his office stood open. Every lantern was lit.
Not good. I ran a thumb along the door frame. These two didn’t keep banker’s hours. And they didn’t just leave the office open like this. Something had pulled both of them away pretty quickly. And I had a sinking feeling I knew what.
“Petra!” Horace zipped up behind me and nearly gave me a heart attack.
His face was stern, his cheeks flushed. “A pair of level six investigators are here from headquarters,” he said, loudly enough to catch the ear of a few clerks walking past.
Bureaucracy, my butt. They sure didn’t waste any time. “I was hoping Shirley knew something.”
“Who do you think is meeting with them?”
I about choked. “They have Shirley answering questions?”
He trembled slightly. “Not yet. You know exactly what this is about.”
I steered him inside and closed the door. The normally busy office was silent as a tomb. “Don’t assume anything.” Maybe we were lucky and some nut had started a revolution.
He sneered, his voice a tight whisper. “They’re looking for an AWOL special ops officer.”
I kept my voice neutral and my face blank. “He’s gone.”
“Interesting.” Horace wrinkled his nose. “Because just this morning, I found a stack of pennies on my altar.”
I was going to kill Galen.
He always did have a soft spot for the little god. And he never stopped to think that the rest of us didn’t always take the time.
Horace glared at me. His narrow face flushed, his bulbous nose had gone red. “Spill it. Why is he still here?” His eyes widened. “You didn’t seduce him, did you?”
“What? No.” Marc had walked in before I could. I tried not to wince, focused on the obvious. “Did you see his injuries?”
It wasn’t as good of a protest as I’d hoped.
Horace wasn’t in the mood. “He promised me he’d be gone in a day.”
And Galen had promised he’d find a way to be with me forever. We could all see how that had worked out.
Jeffe snarled from the doorway to Kosta’s office and my heart gave a little lurch.
“What are you doing in there?” Horace snapped.
“I am under orders to guard this room,” Jeffe snarled. The sphinx turned his attention to me. “I saw Galen on the way here. You stay away. He is too good for you.”
That might be, but, “I have to warn him.”
“Galen knows about the investigators in camp. He saw before you did.” The sphinx bristled. “Whatever you did made him very sad,” Jeffe lectured.
Yeah, well, I didn’t need any opinions from a guard sphinx when it came to my love life.
“Hah!” Horace snarled. “You see? You’re rolling your eyes. What are you two doing?”
I felt my face redden with the memory of that kiss. What I’d give for five minutes, consequences-free, with Galen of Delphi. “I don’t roll my eyes,” I reminded the sprite. Especially over Galen. I was a professional.
Horace’s wings beat hard, scattering papers at my feet. “Spare me. It’s disgusting. You get that exasperated infatuated look about you whenever he’s around. I’ve watched you for seven years and it only happens around Galen.” He crossed his arms over his chest, as if daring me to contradict him.
Yeah, well, I wasn’t getting into that debate. Besides, we had bigger problems. “Where are the investigators?”
“Setting up in the visiting officers’ quarters.” Horace frowned. “They look mean.”
Naturally. Okay, we had to get a handle on this. “Are they after anyone specifically?”
They might be forcing Shirley to put together a list of names.
Horace’s eyelashes fluttered a mile a minute. “I don’t know, but I’ll bet they question the entire camp. I’ll never hold up under questioning. I’m too beautiful for torture.”
“Nobody’s getting tortured,” I said, at an absolute loss as to how to prevent it. “Here’s what you do. Keep an eye on that tent.” Horace could blend a lot better than I could. “When Shirley comes out, get her alone. Ask her what she knows. They’re not going to do anything around here without going through Kosta first.” An early warning from Shirley would be our one shot to know what the hell was up.
Horace wrung his hands. “Kosta can’t stop them. They have power from the gods.”
“True, but we can at least try to get the drop on them.”
Kosta might be one to follow orders, but if they were going to hurt anyone in camp, I was betting the colonel would be able to hold them off with rules and procedures, to at least buy some time while he tried to wheedle some sanity out of HQ.
Meanwhile, we could get Galen and Leta to make their escape.
It would be a clean break, like
ripping off a bandage.
Horace planted himself outside, near the main message board, where he had a straight shot at the visiting officers’ tent.
“Let’s keep what you find between you and me,” I said, as he scanned the bulletin board, which was jam-packed with official notices from HQ detailing correct and committee-approved ways to sheath a sword, avoid hell vents, and chew gum while walking.
Too many people knew our little secret. There was Jeffe, who couldn’t bluff to save his life. Holly. I wasn’t so worried about her. Horace, who was starting to panic.
We were losing control and putting more people in danger.
I gave one final glance back at Horace before heading south toward a maze of low-slung tents that made up the officers’ housing.
My hutch was dark when I made it back home. Rodger was snoring. Marius was on shift.
I reached for the door and about had a heart attack when Marc stepped out of the shadows.
“Petra.” He grabbed my arm as my hand flew to my chest and I ended up slammed against him. “It’s only me.”
“Oh, God.” I stepped back, shaking, relieved it was him and not the death squad. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to recover. “I’m sorry for what you saw back in Recovery.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. I’d never in a million years imagined Marc would walk in.
He stood ramrod straight, a muscle in his jaw worrying. “He’s the one you fell for when you thought I was dead.”
I had no idea how to explain it to Marc of all people. This was so wrong. I’d hurt him in a way I could never make right.
His eyes hardened. “I thought he was gone.”
My throat felt thick. “So did I.”
He reached for me, then pulled back, having come to a conclusion that neither one of us wanted to think about.
He cleared his throat. “So this is really it.”
“Yes,” I said, feeling the weight of the distance between us. I hated this emotional no-man’s-land, but I had to live in it. The frustration, the guilt, we had to endure it and pull through it or else we’d never come out on the other side.
