Immortally Embraced (2 page)

“Petra,” Galen called, emerging from behind a tangle of burned-out jeeps. He strode toward me, and I took off in a run.

He wore black combat fatigues with a Ken rune etched in red on his left shoulder. It was the symbol of flame, sex, action, and heroism, and the man had it all in spades.

“I just heard,” I said, dodging graves, rushing into his arms. He held me tight and squeezed. God, I was going to miss him. I closed my eyes. “When do you leave?”

“In an hour.”

My eyes flew open. “What?”

That was ridiculous. He had to pack, prepare. We had to say good-bye.

He stood in front of me, all brute force and power. He was built for combat, but he couldn’t fight this. “You know the army.”

Did I ever. I understood it the moment I’d sat in my little paranormal clinic in New Orleans and opened the New Order Army draft notice.

My dad couldn’t even see me off as they led me out into the depths of the bayou to a portal that hung like a misty cloud amid a tangle of cypress trees. Before I could say
Bad idea,
I was in the red, flat wastelands of limbo.

Still, Galen should have been different. He was with an elite unit that took on the most important, and deadly, missions. In the past, he’d been given special consideration. He was one of them—the immortals—until a risk he took for me drew the ire of the gods.

They’d had stripped him of his demi-god status. Now he was human, and he was leaving to fight immortals.

I might never see him again.

“It’s too soon,” I said, running my hands down his uniform. I wished there was something I could do to stop this, to buy more time.

He lowered his mouth to mine in a searing kiss. It was like coming home. I gripped the collar of his combat fatigues, drawing tight against him. I couldn’t imagine giving this man up.

I’d had him in bed every night for almost a month, exploring every part of him, coming together hot and slick and naked. I knew exactly what it was like to cling to him as he drove into me. And I knew the sweet ecstasy of making this elite warrior shudder and moan my name when he came.

He was set up in the VIP tent, which was a slice of heaven. Afterward, we’d laugh and talk and feed each other fruit from the incredible daily ration they gave him. He had to keep up his strength, after all.

“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he murmured, sliding a hand under my surgical scrubs, drawing it up my side until he cupped my breast. The nipple hardened instantly.

I nibbled at his ear. “Well, I never imagined this as the most romantic spot.” At least we were alone.

He drew a breath. “Don’t tease.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “I could stay here for eternity and still never get enough of you.”

“I like the staying-for-eternity part.”

“I know.”

We rested for a moment. There were no right words; Nothing either of us could say would make this better.

He drew me close and stared out over the darkened cemetery.

I traced my fingers along his bicep, a few inches below his unit patch. There was a scar there, crisscrossing over to his chest. I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there. I knew every inch of him. “It’s going to be okay,” I said.

“No, it’s not,” he said into my hair. His posture was stiff. As he pulled back, his face was a mask of pain and regret. “Petra.” The agony was clear in his voice. “We can’t see each other anymore.”

For a split second, I didn’t understand what he said. “What?” He hesitated for a moment and I knew. I
knew
. My ears buzzed and my brain threatened to explode. “You’re breaking up with me?”

He winced as if I’d slapped him. “I don’t want to.” He took me by the shoulders, as if he could somehow will me to understand. “I received my orders this morning. What I’m going to do—” He stopped, shook his head. “—what I
must
do could expose you and your secret. I’m not going to take that chance.”

Expose me? “What’s going on?”

He stiffened and dropped his hands. “It’s classified.”

“Do not pull that shit.”

His jaw was tight, his expression guarded, and I realized I was talking to Galen the warrior instead of Galen the man. “If there was another way, I’d find it. You know I’d fight for you. I’d do anything to be with you. But I’m not going to lose you. I’m not going to damn you.” He spoke as if he were in physical pain. “We have to cut it off. Now.”

What the hell was going on? And “why is this your decision? What about me? Tell me what’s going on and we can fight this.” Whatever this was, we could face it together.

He bristled. “This isn’t up for debate. I’m not going to let you do anything stupid that could get you killed.”

Oh sure. Fine. “But it’s okay for you to die.”

He cleared his throat, and suddenly I felt horribly guilty. There was a real chance I would never see him again, even if he wasn’t being an idiot and breaking up with me.

He said the words slowly, as if he’d gone over them so many times in his mind that they were permanently fixed. “We knew when I lost my powers that eventually it was going to end that way,” he said. “Please. Don’t let this be the way we say good-bye.”

I planted my hands on my hips and stared him right in the baby blues. Too bad for him I sucked at going along with shit that didn’t make sense. “I’m sorry to fuck up your noble moment here, but this is war. We’re soldiers. We fight. And I’m going to be with you until the end whether you like it or not.”

“You are in danger,” he said, his words clipped. “Every second I stay here, intimate with you, you are at risk.”

He didn’t get it. It was like I had to pound it into his head with a hammer. “It’s my choice.” I’d been through enough already. This was war. I’d buried my first love, Marc, when he was killed. I never regretted sticking with him until the end, and I wasn’t about to abandon Galen, either.

“So it’s a risk. What kind of risk?” I’d chanced the wrath of the gods themselves last month. I could handle whatever Galen had to face. I could see him working to close himself off.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I shouldn’t have even told you that much.”

“This is insane. You’ve let me in on things before.”

He broke. “Not this time,” he thundered.

“You’re an asshole. You know that?”

He cursed under his breath before the wall was back.

Well, I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. I couldn’t. Tears heated the corners of my eyes. “You said you loved me.”

“I do,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion.

He reached out slowly, deliberately, and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

I flinched. I didn’t want him touching me. I was weak when it came to that.

“I want you to be happy,” he said simply.

Gods, that was the same thing Marc had said. Only I didn’t let him get away with it. I waited for him. I stood by him. He knew I loved him.

Galen ran a hand through his short, clipped hair. His jaw ground tight. “If I somehow make it back in five, ten, fifty years and you’re still here and still available—then it’s fate. But if I come back and find you happy, I’m okay with that, too.” He was intense, almost pleading. I’d never seen him like that before.

“Galen—”

His eyes glittered. “If I die, I don’t want to go knowing this time we had only caused you misery in the end.”

“But I’m miserable now.”

His expression softened. “Don’t hold back your life the way you did before I met you. You were only existing.” His fingers skimmed my cheek. “More than anything, I want you to live, even if I can’t be there with you.”

I didn’t know what to say.

He brushed his lips against my forehead. “Good-bye, Petra,” he said, before he walked out of my life.

chapter two

So this was it. I couldn’t believe it.

“Goddamn it!” I kicked a tombstone, which was a really bad idea. It hurt like hell. “Son of a…” Tears stung my eyes.

I liked the pain. I liked being pissed. Otherwise, I was going to curl up on the ground and cry like a baby.

Galen had no right, no business deciding anything for me. I didn’t know if he was protecting my secret or if he was shielding me from some other abomination of the gods, but it didn’t matter. He’d shut me out. Cut me off. He’d ended our partnership in the cruelest way possible, because he refused to even tell me
why
.

He’d decided for me, for us. Now he had peace. He had resolution and I had a gaping hole where my life used to be.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” I mumbled to myself, weaving through the tombstones, kicking up a small cloud of dust and decay. I ignored my aching right toe. It would heal.

As for the rest of me?

Hell and damnation. I had to move, think. Get away.

I couldn’t imagine what kind of military order Galen could get that would make him destroy me, end
us
.

Unless he really didn’t want me. The horrifying notion settled in my stomach like an ugly black rock.

Maybe I’d been just a fun diversion, something pleasant, like good food or a warm tent.

I barreled onto the main path and almost ran into a supply clerk. She reached out to steady me. “Hey,” she said, “sorry to hear about Galen.”

“Can it, Mitchell,” I said, stepping around her, the apology dying on my lips as I wondered how she knew. She had to be talking about the transfer, not the way Galen had just ripped my heart out. Still. Did the whole camp know?

Mitchell lingered. “He’s a hell of a guy.”

“Right,” I said, taking off for my hutch.

The sun had set and a cold wind whipped in from the desert. Daytime was stifling hot, but we had to fire up the heaters at night. I wrapped my physician’s coat around my body and hugged my arms tight as another gust of wind blew straight through me.

“Petra.” A few of the nurses clustered outside the officers’ club, waving at me to get my attention.

I took the long way around. I didn’t want to talk.

Galen had left me. Just like Marc. Only Marc had had an excuse—he was dead.

It was full darkness by now, which was good. I wanted to hide.

Torches lined the walk, casting scattered pools of light.

We’d talked the new gods into a generator for the hospital, but otherwise they insisted we go old school with lanterns and anything else we could set on fire. And we were supposed to be on the progressive side. Ha.

I trudged past the OR and the recovery tent. A few solders crouched outside the enlisted quarters, laughing as they raced baby swamp monsters and did shots of Hell’s Rain.

The laughter died down as I passed. Holy Hades. I was a walking party killer.

“Gentlemen.” I nodded to them as I passed.

I probably should have warned them that Colonel Kosta would skewer them for harboring illegal creatures, or that as a doctor I didn’t recommend drinking the 180-proof precipitation that fell from the limbo sky. But that would mean talking to them.

Yes, Galen is gone.

Yes, he left me to pick up the pieces.

Yes, I’ve been through it before.

I made my way to the officers’ tents and banged into the hutch I shared with a moody vampire and an oversexed werewolf. Lucky for me, the werewolf was home on leave. The vampire was another story.

Marius stood preening in front of a mirror we’d tacked up to one of the main tent poles. He’d lit every lantern in the place.

He wore a black leather jacket, black leather pants, and knee-high swashbuckler boots. His blond hair draped roguishly over one eye, and he gave himself a smoldering look before frowning at me. “I’m sorry to hear about Galen.”

“Does the whole camp know?” I asked, thwumping down on my bed.

“Yes.”

“He also broke up with me,” I said, pulling a blanket up to my chin. It was rough and scratchy. I hated it. Maybe I could sleep for a year.

The vampire tucked a six-pack of Oreos next to me.

“Where’d you get these?” I grudgingly inspected the pack. They certainly weren’t from his private stash. Marius didn’t eat. And the PX never had chocolate anything.

He showed his fangs. “I threatened to devour Phineus, the deliveryman.”

“You don’t even like werewolves,” I said, sitting up.

“Phineus doesn’t know that.”

I sampled a cookie while Marius opened a bottle of red wine and poured us both a glass. “Drink,” he said, handing it to me. “Doctor’s orders.”

I tried to give him a grin and failed.

Marius took a seat on his footlocker, and we drank in silence. The wine was good, smooth. Very Marius.

He didn’t ask questions or try to talk to me, which was a relief. We just sat and listened to the tar swamp bubble out back. If he’d been on his way out the door before, he didn’t let on.

I swirled the liquid in my glass. “Men suck.”

Marius held up his glass in a mock toast. “Yes, they do.”

*   *   *

Shirley rapped on my door early the next morning. “Did you hear?”

I rolled over in bed. “I don’t want to know.”

She let herself in. Shirley was wearing red pigtails today. It was very … Heidi. “Things are gearing up again,” she said. “It’s all over the news. They say there’s going to be a new prophecy.”

“Lordy.” My head felt like it was filled with cotton, but I sat up anyway.

I ground my fingers over my eyes.

“Come on,” Shirley said, inspecting one of the wineglasses from last night. “The prophecies are exciting.”

I stood slowly. “Not the word I’d use.”

It was quite a trick—trying to save the world while being sneaky about it.

“I need a shower,” I told her, using my foot to dig the caddy out from under my cot.

My towel was still hanging off the clothesline strung across our tent. I was tired of blood and guts and war. Now Galen was gone, the armies were gearing up and I’d bet my last Oreo that the oracles were going to give us a prediction that would cost a lot of soldiers their lives.

I managed to make it in and out of the shower tent without anyone giving me any sympathetic clucking about Galen. Probably because everyone was in the mess tent watching the Paranormal News Network. PNN was our answer to CNN. It was
Immortality’s never-ending news source.
Or so they said. I supposed we mortals would simply have to take their word for it.