Our movements become frenzied, and frustration and need fuel us, driving us impossibly closer to an abyss I’m not even sure we’ll both survive as the white-hot inferno combusts between us.
A low keening moan falls from her lips into my mouth. I feed off her pleasure, allowing the slick heat of her to pull my own release from me until my delirium echoes throughout the clearing.
A cacophony of pure violence and chaos follows. Blinding electricity erupts, the earth and sky melding until there is no beginning and no end. There is only now.
Lightning crashes.
Thunder flashes.
My entire being splinters.
And then, light.
TWENTY-TWO
SCORCHED EARTH
Vivian
I am excessively warm.
Which is surprising, given the fact I basically passed out in the middle of the woods without a blanket. Or clothes.
Lucky for me, I went lights out next to a rather large warm body that is currently wrapped around me.
Predawn light is just beginning to cut through the night sky. Wiggling around, Zion’s arms slowly loosen, and I manage to roll over onto my back. Frowning, I blink into what appears to be a bottomless sky.
I rub my hands over my face, then look again. Everything is different and yet remains the same. My eyes roam around the clearing, taking in the trees and underbrush, the plush green grass and moss I’m lying on.
But there’s something else, an odd shimmer of sorts in the air that has me holding my hand out in front of me, my frown deepening as the air appears to move around my reaching fingers.
Cursing, I slap my hands over my face and rub my eyes, but when I open them again, it’s all the same.
“You’ll get used to it,” a voice startles me from the other side of Zion.
“Who’s there?”
A low chuckle sounds. “Really? Because so many other people would be here?”
I think for a moment, trying to pinpoint the voice, familiar and yet still new. Finally, I ask, “Cornelius?”
Embarrassed, I attempt to cover myself, and then he says, “Don’t worry. I can’t see you through Z’s bare ass.”
“But what are you doing here?”
“We have business.”
“Now?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he replies mildly, though I sense underlying tension in his tone. “How about you wake sleeping beauty and then meet me down at the house.”
Sitting up slightly, I look around, and when I don’t catch sight of my clothes, I ask, “Have you seen my clothes?”
“I found this,” Cornelius says, right before something hits me in the face. I grab it, holding it out in front of me. My shirt.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” he responds.
