by Maddie Wade
“Let’s go home.”
Bebe drove the first car with her and Ty in the back, while Zack rode upfront with a case at his feet. They caught her up on what happened, and she knew she was getting the abbreviated version and was okay with that. She didn’t want to know the gory details, she’d lived enough of them.
“The rest of the guys got back a few hours ago, and everyone is at the Estate I think.”
“We’ll get this case over there to the lab so Meg can decide what she wants to do with it. My choice would be to destroy it but she’s the lead on this, not me.”
That was the thing about Zack, he was in charge, but he wasn’t an autocratic asshole, he listened to his team.
Arriving at a houseful of people, it felt almost like a party with everyone feeling so light, laughter ringing through the gorgeous old home that was full of life and vitality. Something that would have been lost if the drug and been dispersed because half of these people didn’t have abilities.
Ty hadn’t let her hand go the entire car ride, and he only let go now so he could climb from the car before he grabbed it again and linked their fingers. Romantic Ty was her new favourite, and for a second, the joy of having him here and the prospect of their future overrode her remaining fears and anxiety.
Meg and Lucy met them, her sisters hugging Ty, while Jace and Daniel shook his hand as Ava kissed her husband soundly. Liz followed Zack and Ava into the room he used as an office as he laid the case with the drug that would have ruined so many lives on the desk.
Meg moved towards it carefully, the scientist taking over as she donned protective gloves. Liz shivered, glancing out the window as a light drizzle began to fall, the late morning sun obliterated by the grey clouds. Ty draped his arm over her shoulders, and she cuddled into his warmth.
Seeing Lucy looking at her, she frowned before casting a glance to Meg. They were feeling it too, this sense that the threat still loomed even with Rhea dead and the remaining Watchers being dismantled by Eidolon.
The click of the locks on the case resounded in the room, and she reached out as if to stop it, but it was too late. Meg lifted the lid and sitting among foam-padded shells was a five-litre phial of the drug.
“Jesus, that’s enough to kill half the population if my maths is correct.” Meg looked it over carefully, making sure there were no wires attached, then lifted the bottle as Daniel stood close. The loud snick had every person in the room freezing in place. Meg looked at her, then Lucy, as her blood turned to ice in her veins.
Daniel cupped Meg’s shoulders, leaning closer to peer over her shoulder. His features paled and he swallowed before looking up at Zack and Ty. “It’s a pressure switch. The timer is counting back from five minutes, then the drug will mix with the compound and it will blow.”
Ty pushed her behind him as if he could protect her, Jace moving Lucy aside so he could get close and look at the bomb in her sister’s hands.
Lizzie was calm on the outside, but inside, her thoughts were flying, as she tried to grasp the reality of what had happened. This was why she felt that impending sense of doom, this was her dread.
Touching Ava’s arm to get her attention, she saw the fear on her friend’s face. “Get everyone into the ballroom as quick as you can and barricade the windows.”
Ava gave her a funny look and a quick hug, and then did as Liz asked her. Moving to Lucy, she took her hand, and as they locked eyes, she knew her sister was thinking the same thing. Her gaze shifted to Meg, and she nodded imperceptibly.
“You need to take this outside to the far edge of the land and quickly.”
Smithy turned to her, his face contorted in fear and anger until he saw her expression. “No.”
Liz touched his arm, moving closer. “It’s the only way.”
He grasped her to him, holding her body close as he shook his head. “No.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Jace asked, his jaw clenched hard.
“We need to shield the bomb blast to try and contain the drug.” Lucy touched her husband’s face softly, and he stepped back.
“No fucking way.”
“We don’t have time to argue. It’s the only way we can keep millions of people from dying, including our own children and the people we love,” Meg said firmly as Daniel practically crumpled in front of her.
“Meg, please. I can’t lose you.”
“We have no choice.”
Lizzie saw the tortured look on Zack’s face as he looked at his men falling apart under the weight of the loss they faced.
Reaching over, Zack took the bomb and the drug and walked towards the door. Liz followed with a stunned Ty still holding her hand. Daniel and Meg were still arguing, as were Jace and Lucy as they ran towards the far east corner of the property.
Zack stepped back a few feet to give the couples privacy. “This should be far enough from the house for the blast.”
Lizzie turned to Ty, looking at the man who held her heart in his hands and prayed he’d forgive her.
Tears filled his eyes as he looked down at her. “I can’t say goodbye to you. Let me stay, please?”
Liz shook her head as her own tears fell. She’d had so many dreams for them, so many plans, to watch her son get married, to dance at his wedding with the man in front of her. To hold his hand and be by his side as they grew old.
“I need you to look after Mateo, to make sure he finds a love like ours.”
Ty didn’t speak, too choked to get words out as he crushed her body to his and kissed her, as if by doing so, he could save them both. Too soon, she pulled away and saw her sisters do the same.
“Go, we’ll stay as far from the blast as we can while maintaining the barrier.”
Liz knew her words were masking the fact they most likely wouldn’t walk away from this with their lives, but the other option was potentially millions dying.
“I’m sorry.” Meg turned her head towards Daniel, but the words were meant for them.
Liz felt the tears prick her eyes. “What for?”
Her baby sister was filled with so much anguish and grief. “If I had found the vaccine earlier, we’d be safe.”
“No, don’t think like that. We all did our best, and this is the prophecy, right? Maybe there was never a way to outrun this thing.”
Lucy was watching Jace walk away from them, the men they loved fighting every instinct they had to let them do this, and only the love for their families allowed it.
“Meg, I need you to know something.” Liz looked away for a second, trying to compose herself before she looked up into the bright brown eyes of her baby sister. “I saw John take you. I didn’t know it at the time, but when it became clear you were gone, I should have said something, but I was too scared.”
Meg gripped her hand. “You were a child. There’s nothing to forgive. We’re here now, and that’s what counts.”
Lucy pulled them into a hug, the three holding tight for a second as they accepted their fate.
Arms linked, they moved away from the blast as far as they could and gripped hands. The energy pulsing instantly between them more potent than ever before. Liz cast one more glance at the three men who were standing outside the house, refusing to go inside, standing side by side in their terror, their grief palpable even from a distance but taking strength from each other as they stood together.
“Sisters,” Lucy said.
“Always.”
Liz smiled at her baby sisters and felt so much love for them. Each strong and brave and willing to die to protect those they cared about.
Then they bowed their collective heads and the power around them rippled and buzzed like never before, wind whipped up inside the dome of energy they were creating, electricity pulsing in her hands and up her body as she shoved every ounce of her love for her family into it. Then the world became unsteady as it rumbled beneath their feet, an explosion rocking them, bright sparks exploded around them, and she held tight as she felt the power from her sisters burn he
r palms until it was almost too much for her to take, sweat poured from her body that shook.
Then she felt herself falling as the world went black.
Pain radiated through him as he watched the scene unfold. Shoulder to shoulder with Jace and Daniel, it was if all the grief and terror they were feeling was magnified until he could hardly breathe from it.
In his mind he saw every encounter they’d ever shared running like a movie, then it stopped and every hope he’d ever had for them formed like a dream he’d never see become a reality. A family, a life, growing old together and seeing their kids fall in love, becoming grandparents, sitting in a place they’d made a home, and just being together. Making love to her and tasting her skin, hearing the noises she made when he made her climax. All of it was a running reel of film in his head.
The air began to crackle as the invisible dome rippled around them.
“I can’t stand this.” Daniel began to move, but Smithy pulled him back.
“Think of the girls. They need you.”
He held Daniel’s arm and felt the way his body shook before he wrenched his arm away and turned back to the scene. Smithy laid his hand on Jace’s shoulder, the new father silent, his eyes locked on his wife.
Just then, the ground began to shake, and white light exploded around them. He fell forward, his knees and palms hitting the gravel as his legs gave way from the force of the blast and the emotion pouring through him. Smoke and dust hid his view as he tried to stand and staggered. His ears ringing from the explosion, he could only make out a muffled sound.
Then it began to clear, and Jace started to run. He followed the direction and his heart almost stopped as he saw all three women crumpled on the ground, lifeless and unmoving.
“Nooooo.” His roar of pain and denial feral as it tore from the heart of him. His legs pumping, he ran. Skidding to his knees beside Liz, he gathered her still form into his body. Smithy held her tight, rocking her as he kissed her face, tears running unchecked down his face.
“Liz, come on, please wake up. You can’t leave me. We have a life to live.” His words fell on deaf ears, and he looked up to see his friends and family were coming from the house, Doc Turner leading the charge.
Dane looked completely wrecked as he ran to his sisters and fell to his knees in the middle of them, the sound that tore from him almost animal in its pain.
Smithy kissed Lizzie’s face over and over, the salt from the tears he cried sticking to her skin.
“Please, baby, wake up. Just wake up and show me those beautiful brown eyes.”
He thought he’d known hell, but he hadn’t, not until this moment.
Chapter 26
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride—again.” Smithy took Liz in his arms and bent her back over his arm with a flourish, kissing her until all of the noise, all the people, faded into the background. Nothing existed except the two of them at that moment. He felt her hands at the back of his collar, in his hair, heard the sound of her breath as she laughed and threw her head back with utter and joy, and he smiled.
It was a day he never thought he’d get, one that had seemed so far from the realm of possibilities as to be impossible. But she’d never given up, never stopped loving him and in turn, she’d shown him how to love himself. It was something he was still working on, but he knew with Lizzie at his side he could do anything.
He felt a tap on his arm and turned to see Mateo grinning up at him. They’d become close in the last six months, and he’d even asked his and Colin’s permission before he’d proposed to her. Getting their blessing, after all he’d put her through, felt like the right thing to do.
“Yes, mate?”
“Can I take the tie off now?”
Mateo was his best man because to choose between his friends after everything had seemed wrong. He’d been great and even had a speech written which Smithy knew was going to make Liz cry, but the monkey suit wasn’t his thing.
“Can you wait until after the pictures for your mum?”
Mateo groaned. “Fine.”
Smithy messed his hair, which the boy quickly smoothed out with a huff and roll of his eyes. “Thanks, mate.”
They moved outside the church where Liz’s parents had married, her arm through his as confetti rained down on them. A chimney sweep was even in attendance to give them good fortune for their future. He looked down at Liz, who was beaming with joy and life, her energy and constant ability to see the good in people and to love with her whole heart amazing him. She turned to him, and each time he looked at her, he fell in love all over again.
She’d both literally and figuratively saved him, and he’d be forever grateful, but it was the way she loved him that was his biggest gift, and one he’d never take for granted.
“Ready to smile for the camera?”
Her hand squeezed his arm, and her mouth popped open in surprise.
His heart beat fast in alarm. “What is it?” His hand went to the bump where their surprise baby was nestled warm and safe. At six months pregnant she was already showing quite a bit, and they’d not kept this miracle baby a secret for even a second. Being the age she was, they had decided it could be tricky to get pregnant and she had come off birth control after things had gone down with the bomb. Neither one of them was willing to wait a second longer for their happily ever after.
“The baby kicked.”
His gaze fell, and he looked up, his eyes wide as it happened again, and this time he felt it too. It was the first time he’d felt it, and he couldn’t help thinking it was a sign that all would be well. Liz would more than likely end up on bed rest at some point because of the damage to her pelvis that caused weakness, but he’d vowed to make sure she didn’t want for anything, either then or in the future.
“I think the baby approves of you making an honest woman out of me.”
He cast a look at Colin who was holding hands with a woman he’d been dating for a few months. “I think your dad does too.”
“He just wants all his babies happy, and now we are.”
“I love you, Liz.”
He kissed her as they posed for photographs he knew would adorn the new home they’d bought not far from her father. His life had been empty for so long, and now it was full of family and more love than he could take some days.
He still had nightmares about the day of the explosion. Holding Liz’s limp body in his arms haunted his dreams and he woke up sweating some nights from it, but each day was better, and he’d made great strides in his recovery. He’d always have PTSD; he just had the tools to cope now. He was lucky, and he never thought to say that about himself before, but he was. He’d survived the horror and made it to the beauty on the other side. Others hadn’t been so lucky.
As his wedding day progressed, he tried to take in every second, the laughs, the smiles, the love, and it nurtured his soul in a way he couldn’t explain. He was watching Liz as she laughed with Meg and Lucy as Daniel and Jace stepped up beside him. The three of them shared a bond now, not through the fact they were family but because they’d watched as the women they loved almost died to save people they didn’t know.
The explosion had blown a crater in the land when it exploded, the power the three of them created smothering the blast, so it imploded and the drug had been blown underground. They’d been knocked out from the sheer power, and it had drained almost every drop of energy from them, causing them to go into a three-day coma. They’d otherwise been unharmed, but it was a time none of them liked to think about, and he knew they bore the internal scars much as he did.
“Congratulations, brother.” Jace shook his hand.
Daniel threw him a look of two men who’d shared the same horror and came out the other side stronger than ever before, the normally reserved man grinned and nodded his head towards the women they loved. “Is it me or do those three look like they might be plotting something?”
He angled his head to where Liz was throwing back her hea
d, the perfect arch of her throat making his mouth water, her laughter ringing out across the room before she sensed him looking and turned, her eyes shining with love for him. “Maybe, but I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned, she can do what she wants as long as it doesn’t involve her putting herself in danger.”
“Amen to that.” Daniel took the last swig from his beer and popped the bottle on the side as his wife moved towards them with her sisters.
Liz slid into his arms and leaned her head against his chest. He inhaled her scent, knowing he’d never get sick of it or her, she was like an addiction he never wanted to kick.
“Ready for the first dance?”
“I guess.”
This was the bit he wasn’t looking forward to, being on display and not being able to dance but he had a secret up his sleeve, and what Liz wanted she got. Not because she was a brat but because he wanted her to have everything she wanted in life. There was nothing in this world he wouldn’t give her if it were in his power to do so.
“Come on, it won’t be so bad, just imagine them all naked.”
He gave her a wry look. “Or I could imagine you naked.”
He took her into his arms as the lights dimmed and the world fell away as the first notes of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere began to play. They both loved the song and it was upbeat which they liked, but for him, it was the words that touched him. He did want to be with her everywhere and always.
He twirled her around, and she laughed as she spun back into his arms, her hands landing on his chest. “When did you learn to dance?”
“I’ve been taking lessons with Lucy and Roz,” he admitted with a smile as he spun them again. Seeing the light in her eyes was worth every tortured minute of it.
“It’s very sexy, a man that can dance,” she said breathlessly, and it wasn’t from tiredness but husky with desire. His body tightened at the sound. His dick, already hard from holding her so close, was a hard length against her rounded belly. Liz wiggled, and he was glad for the suit to hide the evidence of his lust for his sexy wife.
