by A. R. Ford
He trudged toward the middle of town. Someone appeared in the center of the street. It was Nyssa. He knew without seeing her face. He could sense her, feel the psychic energy tentatively teasing his mind.
“Nyssa!” and he ran, feet driving hard against the ground. Puffs of dust marked each stride. Less than fifteen feet from her, he watched in horror as she crumpled to her knees, folding up like an accordion.
“Nyssa? I’m here.” He reached for her. She pulled away.
Tears streamed down her face. Chocolate eyes held his gaze. The pain reflected there made him sob.
“I’m sorry.” He reached out for her again and groaned when she pitched into his arms. Her body was limp, boneless. “Let me take you inside. Do you have a room?”
Nyssa lay motionless in his arms, eyes screwed shut. Her face was as pale as freshly fallen snow. The clerk at the desk tossed a key to him at Luca’s shouted demand about Nyssa’s room. He was horrified to see the twin bed in the cramped room. It was little more than a closet with a narrow window.
He held her, rocking, hoping to soothe her. The instant his hand moved toward her belly she became the fighting lioness he knew. Tiny fists, knees, and feet. Luca did the only thing he could. He held her, trapping her arms and legs with his massive body.
“You will listen, Nyssa. Stop fighting. I didn’t tell you about Eden because I hid a very painful event in my life from you. I’m sorry I didn’t share it with you. The child you saw is not mine.” She remained silent, chest heaving, eyes glistening with unshed tears. “See for yourself. Go inside my mind. I won’t block you from anything.”
“I hate you.” Her voice was flat and lifeless.
“You hate that I lied to you, and for that, I’m sorry. You’re hurt. But you don’t hate me, Nyssa.” The room grew silent. The silence was only broken by Nyssa’s panting breaths.
He felt the first tender caress of her within his mind. It brought a groan and instant arousal. She probed, danced within his mind, and paused. The pure, white energy of her pulsed. Every bit of tension eased from her body.
“It’s okay. Sshh.” He stroked her hair awkwardly. Hair that had grown much longer, hanging even with her shoulders.
“Don’t be mad,” she whispered. “You hurt me when you snapped at me. And I saw part of what happened with her. I’m so stupid!”
He let her go when she struggled to be free. The need to have her had not died. It grew until his swollen cock pressed uncomfortably against the zipper of his jeans. He walked to the door and locked it. The pack hit the floor with a loud thud. His shirt was tossed over one shoulder to the floor.
Nyssa backed against the wall, eyes wide and uncertain. Luca removed the boots and socks before slipping out of the jeans and boxers.
Nyssa attempted to escape. Luca pinned her against the wall.
“I’ve missed you, Nyssa. And you scared the shit out of me. I think you need to have that round ass spanked until it’s red.”
“You wouldn’t!” She cried out when he pushed the shirt over her head. His fingers released the bra with practiced ease. He caressed her belly tenderly.
“I would. Don’t test me, Nyssa.”
“Sex won’t fix this,” she whimpered against his hungry mouth.
“Are you so certain?” Nyssa’s face flamed when he ground his erection against her belly. A grin lit his face. “I thought as much.”
“Your belly is much bigger than before. My son continues to grow.”
His fingers hooked the waistband of the sweatpants she wore and pushed them to the floor. His hand slid between her legs, gently cupping her sex. He paused only briefly before teasing her clit with a finger. Thank the gods she was slick and wet.
Luca picked Nyssa up effortlessly and deposited her in the center of the bed. He growled when she scooted away. He caged her with his arms, face inches from hers. Tree-trunk thighs spread her legs wide.
“Don’t torture me, Nyssa.” He palmed his cock then notched the broad head against her core. A snap of his hips and he was inside the tight, wet heat. His heaven.
His claiming was tinged with desperation. Nyssa came undone without warning, writhing and grinding against him. Her release was his undoing. Luca could not hold back. He pounded into her silken depths. The molten heat of his release melted his spine and drained him. Luca collapsed beside Nyssa.
“You’re the only woman I’ve loved, Nyssa. And the baby you carry is my only child.”
Nyssa clung to him. Luca watched as her eyes grew heavy. Eventually she slept. It was the restless sleep of a tormented soul. She jerked and whimpered and cried, mumbling indecipherable words. All the while he drank in the contours of her face, the outline of her belly. His hand came to rest there. He smiled when the baby moved beneath his hand.
Luca kissed Nyssa’s belly reverently. One big hand caressed his son within the womb. A whispered conversation passed between father and son through the thin flesh wall.
“Your mother worries me. She thinks I do not love her. I love her more than life itself. What must I do to convince her, Tristan?”
He chuckled at a kick, eyes wide with wonder when he saw the baby’s movements.
“You’re right,” he continued as if the baby replied. “I’ll take care of that. Don’t you worry.”
Luca lay beside Nyssa in the early morning hours. She slept peacefully after the nightmarish specters haunting her dreams faded sometime in the night. He thought of the rings he purchased in Walden. It was time to put his plan into action.
Chapter 15
Nyssa
The warmth and security of Luca’s body enfolded her when she woke. Easing into awareness, she turned toward him, gasping to see icy eyes fixed on her. “You scared me.”
Luca’s hand caught the back of her head. His lips claimed hers. It was a leisurely kiss filled with promise and something more. “Is there a priest in town?”
Instead of an answer, she questioned him. “Why do we need a priest, Luca?”
“You’ll see soon enough.” He pulled the sheet down and kissed her belly button. His voice lowered fractionally when he spoke to their unborn child, “Your mother doesn’t know how much I love her, Tristan. Please remind her.”
The baby’s movement within her womb brought a gasp. “Barnaby, the old man who sits on the porch of the post office is a pastor. Not that anyone celebrates religion these days.”
He moved with the liquid grace of a panther. Before Nyssa could say more, he stood by the bed, hand held out. “Come. I saw a bathroom and hoped there’s a shower. We bathe first, find food, and then Barnaby.”
Nyssa enjoyed the shower more than she cared to admit. Crossroads was fortunate enough to be connected to the fledgling water supply One World started before fighting with the resistance began. Luca growled his appreciation when she washed his back, a favor he returned with fervor.
Food in Crossroads amounted to the same fare she and Luca ate at home. Potatoes, fried venison, and a pan of bread. They enjoyed the food in companionable silence in the hotel’s ramshackle dining room that once served continental breakfast to tourists.
Once the meal ended, Luca took her hand. “We should find Barnaby.”
Nyssa led Luca through town to the old post office. Barnaby sat there as he did every day, rocking in a rocking chair. The old man smiled upon seeing Nyssa.
“Perdita!” he cried with a mostly toothless grin. “You’ve come to chat with your old friend.”
“Perdita?” Luca grumbled.
“I didn’t want anyone to know my real name,” Nyssa explained. “The name meant I was lost.”
“Well, you aren’t lost now, are you?” Luca muttered. His attention turned to Barnaby. He pulled the rings from the pocket of his jeans and held them in the palm of one hand. “I’m Luca Walker, Barnaby. It’s good to meet you. Nyssa says you’re a pastor. I’d like you to marry us.”
Barnaby cackled and clapped his hands. He stood without question, motioning to the post office’s door. “Yo
u best come in. I have a ledger inside that I write marriages, deaths, and births in. It’s the best I can do since One World insisted on managing every bit of our lives before the resistance stepped in.”
Luca tugged her arm with a nod toward the door. “Come on, Nyssa. You’ll have no doubts once this is done.”
Nyssa stumbled but quickly regained her composure. Her heart leapt, a hand going to her belly when the baby kicked. Confusion swirled in her mind. Marriage? Luca meant to marry her.
Barnaby produced a dog-eared ledger from a cabinet. He placed it on a counter, turned it toward the couple and produced an ink pen. “You just write your names down there. I’ll fill out the rest of the information.”
With a few strokes of the pen, Luca scrawled his name in the space indicated by Barnaby’s finger. Nyssa hesitated, pen clutched in one hand. “You don’t have to do this, Luca.”
The comment earned her an icy glare and a smack on the bottom. Luca glared until she scratched her name in the space provided.
Barnaby recited the vows for the ceremony. It was brief, asking only for the commitment of each person to the other. Luca slid the ring on her finger and grinned when she slid the ring on his finger. Miraculously, both rings fit as if having been custom-made for the couple.
“I suppose this makes you an official married couple,” Barnaby chuckled. “So, it’s Nyssa and not Perdita?” he asked of her.
“I’m not lost now,” she said with a shrug.
“You helped me find myself, Nyssa. Now that I’ve found you, neither of us will be lost again.” Luca’s words came after he shook Barnaby’s hand.
As always, the words held a world of meaning. She realized there were many layers to the man-mountain who stole her heart.
They remained in town that night. Luca demanded a room with a bed large enough to accommodate his large frame. Nyssa couldn’t hold back a giggle when his feet hung off the bottom of the king-size bed. The effort earned her a growled comment about useless hotels and beds.
“You built your bed for the same reason.”
The observation brought a snort from Luca. “At least I have someone to keep me warm,” he muttered. “Feet be damned.”
“Are we going back to the cabin?” she asked in the dark. Luca’s arm tightened around her.
“If we intend on being there before the baby comes, we need to leave tomorrow. There’s no need to rush but Mary warned me that we only have a couple months at most.” He kissed her hair before chastising, “Go to sleep, Nyssa Runaway Walker.”
The next morning brought with it a swirling fog rarely seen in Crossroads. There were few things to take with them on the trip to the cabin. Luca stopped at the general store to replenish supplies. He handed Nyssa the lighter pack containing their clothing and took her hand. The streets of Crossroads were deserted. People rarely woke up and ventured out until the sun was halfway to its zenith.
The shadowy figure of a man stepped into their path as they neared the post office. “I thought I’d never find you,” a familiar voice called. “By the looks of her belly it looks like she came in handy, Luca. I knew you’d be on her like a stud on a mare in heat.”
Nyssa’s heart clenched in her chest. Not Dreven. How had he found them? And after all these months, it appeared he was alive, well, and intent on revenge. Luca pushed her behind him. His massive form hid her from Dreven’s view.
She was no mouse who ran and hid. The Hunter taught her well. Dreven was clueless when it came to powers discovered only months before. Taking a deep breath, she stood beside Luca, eyes fixed on Dreven.
“This is between us, Dreven,” Luca called. He loosened the Bowie knife in its sheath. The movement was not lost on Dreven.
“Come on now, Luca. I just want to talk.”
“It’s my turn,” she whispered. Luca turned to glare at her. “I owe him for all the years locked in that room.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Luca snapped. “He’s dangerous, Nyssa. You have no clue what he’s capable of.”
“I do know what he’s capable of. Remember? He held me captive, shackled and locked in a room for years. He beat and starved me. Threatened to kill me. And I have Tristan to think about.” She caught his hand, chocolate eyes damp and pleading. “Let me. I promise we’ll never have to worry about him ever again.”
Dreven continued to walk closer until he stood within a dozen paces of the couple. He grinned, rolled his head and shoulders, and pulled a knife from its sheath. “You two having a lover’s quarrel?”
“No quarrel,” Nyssa smiled. “I’ve missed you, Dreven. It’s not every day you see shit stacked that high.”
The grin disappeared from Dreven’s face at Nyssa’s words. “You got a smart mouth, girl. I’ve half a mind to beat the bastard baby out of you.”
Luca growled at Dreven’s threat. Every muscle in his body tensed. The Bowie knife slid from the sheath at his side. Nyssa put a hand on his arm. Let me.
The psychic whisper brought another growl from Luca’s lips. Eyes narrowed and brow furrowed, he muttered, “Go on then.”
Nyssa took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She harnessed the power within her mind, the dark power that she used to reduce Cinnamon to a blubbering puddle of hair and flesh. Subliminally she teased it to life before wielding it with the same deadly force that Luca wielded the Bowie knife. Finding an entrance inside Dreven’s mind was more difficult from this distance. The life of her unborn child depended on it.
Murky and dank, smelling of decay and other foul things, Dreven’s mind revealed a miniscule crevice. A tendril from her mind elongated, writhed, and slithered into the opening. Nyssa lost conscious contact with the world around her. Awareness faded in one realm only to bloom in another.
The first thrust into Dreven’s mind came after she harnessed the entirety of her psychic energy. It failed to take the monster down. Refocusing, another attempt came. The fierce spirit of a mother intensified the strike. Grey matter imploded. Neurons and glia disintegrated.
An electric shock forced her to her knees. A dozen paces from where she knelt on the ground, Dreven lay with flat, dead eyes staring at the sky. Blood trickled from his nose and ears only to be sucked into the dry earth when it dripped there.
Luca was there, as always, helping her to stand. Swaying as a reed in the wind, Nyssa could only suck air into her lungs. “Dreven won’t bother us again, Nyssa. You did well,” Luca said. “Let’s get you home.”
They walked for several hours before stopping for the noon meal. Luca found shelter instead of forging onward. “You have no color in your face, Nyssa. We can rest here and travel tomorrow when you’re stronger,” he explained. “Don’t argue.”
Nyssa mumbled a half-hearted protest but gratefully lay in the sleeping bag he placed on pine boughs within the depths of a shallow cave. She woke the next morning to find flames licking at wood Luca placed on the fire. He handed her a cup of coffee and a piece of jerky.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I feel much better today.”
“We’ll make better time on our way to the cabin. You’ve learned a lot about survival. I thought I’d lost your trail several times,” Luca grinned. He knelt near the fire, hands held out to absorb the warmth.
“I had an excellent teacher. Some hot guy living in a cabin in the wild,” she laughed.
A grunt was the only reply she received. Luca’s eyes told her everything she needed to know. They made good time that day, only stopping for the midday meal and water. Luca located a rocky outcropping that protected them in the event of rain. He gathered firewood while Nyssa built a fire.
Nyssa lay against Luca’s side that night, her eyes fixed on the dancing flames. She held his much larger hand in her own while thinking of Tristan’s birth soon to come.
“Will you stay with me when he’s born?” The question came randomly to her mind. Moments after speaking she blushed, wishing the words could be taken back. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask you that.”
“I w
as present when our son was created. I would like to think I’ll be present when he arrives in this world,” Luca mused. “Who would have guessed I’d be almost domesticated less than a year after meeting some minx who stumbled into my arms one night?”
Nyssa laughed at his observation. “Who would have thought the man-mountain would show me what love really is?”
Luca kissed the top of her head. “We should get some rest, Nyssa. One more day and I think we should be home. Things are moving along nicely without my having to run in circles like a scared rabbit trying to find your trail.”
She fell asleep nestled against his side, an arm flung across his waist and a leg across his own. Luca pushed hard the next day. The closer they came to the cabin, the faster he walked. Nyssa found that she struggled up the steep mountain pathway. Exasperated with Luca’s rapid stride, she tapped once inside his mind. He turned instantly and walked back to her.
“Is everything okay?”
Arms akimbo, Nyssa frowned. “I’m not as slender as I was the last time we walked this path. Slow down, please.”
Luca pulled her close, one hand at her back while the other cupped her neck. “You understand why I’m anxious to be home don’t you?”
Nyssa pondered for a moment then shrugged. “You’re tired of sleeping on the ground.”
He grinned, leaning close enough that the tip of his nose touched hers. “Wrong. I get to carry my bride across the threshold. And you know what comes next?”
“Dinner?” she murmured.
“No, my dear. Our honeymoon.” Luca took her hand and trudged along the path. “It’s the first time I get to make love to my wife in our cabin.”
He carried her across the threshold when they arrived at the cabin. Nyssa wrapped both arms around his neck, giggling the entire time. Luca kicked the door closed behind them.
Concerned he might hurt the baby, Luca urged Nyssa onto her hands and knees the instant their clothing fell to the floor. She cried out when he pressed deep within her. A rough hand stroked her back reassuringly.
