Kismet (11 page)

And then there is a cry, a man’s agonized cry, and my heart stops. I turn and look, and I see Isabel in her father’s arms. I run to him and catch him just as he collapses to his knees. There is blood everywhere, on her head and her body, on her father. I try to be gentle as I reach for the pulse at her neck, hoping and praying, only this time my prayers go unanswered.

Little Isabel is dead.

I sit back on my heels and can only watch as people come to take Isabel’s father away. He still cradles his little girl in his arms, and all I can do is watch. I am numb. Why was I given a vision to save Shalana and not Isabel? Tears well up; they run down my cheeks.
Wait. This is so wrong. I saved her. I had a vision to save her. What about now? Why did this happen?

Once before I had to watch a parent grieve over the loss of a child, and I swore that I wouldn’t let that happen again, yet here I am. I have this ability, this gift to help people, but the most innocent of us all now lies dead. I’ve strongly protested that I am not a superhero, but maybe I do hold a bit of a God complex. I know that I have a gift, a way, to help people. And I believe that my power came from some higher being, whether from God or the universe I can’t say, but I’ve always traded my power for something in return. I’ve never walked away from a situation empty-handed. But this time anger swells within me. I don’t understand, and for a moment I hate Him for that.

I have a sense that time is passing, but it’s impossible to tell night from day in this subterranean city. I rise up and walk among the survivors, not helping because I simply can’t bear another pitiful face. I know there are dead to be found, there are wounded to help, but I can’t. I just simply can’t.

I’m not sure how long Hyde has been gone, but suddenly he appears at my elbow. He takes one look into my face and leads me away from the destruction.

“Are you all right?” he asks in a low voice.

I shake my head.

“Come,” he says and takes my hand. He leads me past rubble, past people, past the silence that has descended over us.

“A bomb?” I ask, mainly for confirmation.

“Yes.”

“How long do we have to wait for the pickup?”

“About twenty-six hours. Going topside is too risky right now. This place is better fortified.”

“What if they bomb again?”

“Let’s hope their ordnance isn’t strong enough.”

“Have you told Shalana?”

“Not yet.” He glances around. His lips purse to one side as he thinks. “I’ve inspected all I know of this little city, but she can tell me what I don’t know.”

I see Hyde gesture with a wave, and Shalana meets us halfway.

“That wasn’t a fucking earthquake!” She hisses, keeping her voice low.

“I know,” Hyde says immediately.

“They’re hunting you!”

“They’re hunting all of us, Shalana. And you’re out of time. You want to stay here and die? Kill them all?”

There’s a war in Shalana’s mind; I can see her emotions scattering all over the place. But finally she sighs. Her shoulders deflate somewhat. “I’ve had men checking all the passages, but we’re sealed in tight here.”

“No tunnels or shafts that are exposed to topside?”

“No,” she says. “This pocket we’re in was reinforced because of the building on top of it, so when the earthquake hit, everything around it collapsed.”

“Evie,” he says, “can you help them clean up as much as possible? I’m going to take Shalana and explore.”

I watch them leave. A headache forms at my temples, and I wish I could care, but my emotions are frozen. Exhaustion creeps up on me, so I disregard the favor Hyde asked, and I leave. I walk toward the small tent assigned to us, surprised to find it still standing, but very glad it is. I enter it and leave the world behind.

The bowl of water I used to clean Hyde is still there, mostly. A small amount of tepid water remains, enough to wash myself down with, so I quickly disrobe, letting my hair fall free in hopes of easing my headache, and use the washcloth to wipe the sweat off my body, as well as the remains of my time with Kris.

The water is cool against my skin. And suddenly the ice melts and I break down. Sobs rack my body, disabling my ability to stand. All I could see in my mind is Isabel’s face and how it looked in death. Everywhere around me is death. I hate it here. I hate this broken city.

And then Hyde is there, and he cradles me in his arms. He wipes my face free of tears. “Stop it. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Get out!”

“When you stop crying. There wasn’t anything you could have done.”

“But why not? She was so little, Hyde. And we only had another day until she would’ve been safe.”

“I don’t know, Evie.”

He holds me until my tears run out, until there is nothing left inside. I will never understand why Isabel died, but I have to believe her death happened for a reason. It’s the only solace I know, this power of mine.

As I take a deep, calming breath, it suddenly dawns on me that I am naked. And that Hyde is very aroused. My blood heats, my nerves sing, and cream floods my center.

“Let me go,” I mutter.

“No.”

I struggle, but it’s halfhearted at best. “There’s no time for this.”

“No time for what? For me to comfort you? For you to break down? I get it, Evie. She was a little girl you couldn’t save. But honey, you can’t save everyone.”

He caresses my cheek, and before I quite know what I’m doing, he lifts my face up and kisses me lightly on the mouth. It’s sweet, if not overwhelming, like Kris’s kiss, but it touches the ache inside my soul. When he breaks the kiss and leans back, I keep my eyes shut because then I can pretend it’s Kris holding me, being tender and loving and gentle.

And then he kisses me again, harder, parting my lips, and his tongue takes possession of mine. I felt so lost and alone only moments before that the heat pouring through me makes me feel so alive. I grab it. I grab on to Hyde as I push aside the voice of reason that reminds me that perhaps I’m not all that stable enough right now to be making this decision.

I just want to be warm again.

One of his hands sweeps around my waist, and the other buries in my hair to bring my mouth up to meet his. His body is big, hard, with all the right angles to fit mine, and he uses that to his advantage, pulling me in tightly. I mold myself into him and wrap my arms around his neck.

It doesn’t take him long to start exploring me. The hand at my waist comes around to trail up my flat belly and find my aching nipple. At first Hyde massages my breast, kneading it and learning the texture. His thumb and finger bring my nipple to a turgid peak, causing me to lean into it, desperate for more. Juice immediately gushes from my pussy, signaling my need for his cock to slide in and ease the fire that’s erupted in my body.

But I suppose he has another agenda before he fucks me silly. He abruptly pulls back from his kiss and pushes me down. I lie on my back and watch as he almost flings himself down on top of me, settling between the juncture of my legs.
Oh. My. God.

The short bristle of his beard pricks against the soft skin of my thighs, causing me to buck. His breath tickles my pubic hair. My fingers dig into the rug beneath me. The first touch of his kiss against my pussy lips causes my stomach to clench and fire to dance over my skin. He sucks one pussy lip into his mouth, nibbles, then takes the other before licking the inner folds like a cat lapping at a bowl of cream. My hips start undulating, seeking more. As nice as the foreplay is, I need him to go deeper.

His fingers ease my pussy lips open, and his tongue darts out to tease, tonguing my clit before sliding in. I almost arch off the floor. Spasms rack me, and I’m not sure how much of this I can stand. On one hand, it’s the most erotic, the most unbelievably intense feeling I’ve ever had. On the other, I’m nervous about these feelings. I mean, I don’t mind succumbing to an orgasm, but this tugging sensation all the way up my groin, into my stomach, and straight up into my brain is frightening. It begs me to let go of everything, to willingly go over that precipice and free-fall.

His tongue delves inside me, then pulls out just a little to nibbles on my clit. Back and forth he arouses me to a fever pitch. It feels amazing. I want to come, but I don’t want this feeling to fade, this riding the wave of intensity. I cram a knuckle into my mouth so I don’t scream out my pleasure.

And then it’s out of my hands. Hyde takes his hands and cradles my ass, lifting me into his mouth so he can feast. And my hips being airborne while his mouth and teeth and tongue deliver magic is just too much. I try to pull back, I reach out a hand to lift his head, but he refuses my request. And then the wave crashes over me, drowning me, and I’m sucked in without even realizing it.

My inner walls contract over and over as the orgasm sweeps through me. And still Hyde does not let up. He braces me with his arms as I buck against his mouth, two fingers suddenly filling me up next to his tongue, and the sensation causes the tide to crest again. Another orgasm floods me, and I have to grind my hand in my mouth so my cries of pleasure don’t reach a crescendo.

Hyde pulls back abruptly, and I whimper at the sudden loss of my tormentor. My eyes slit open, and I see him holding his cock, stroking it. I want it. I want it so bad I actually ache.

I reach for him, and just like that he’s on me, pushing my thighs wide open and entering me without any other preamble. I arch in pure ecstasy, lust heavy in the blood that pumps through my veins. I reach around to grab his ass as he starts to slide in and out. Slowly at first, savoring the unbelievable thrill, and then gaining speed as the sensitive nerve endings start taking over both our bodies.

I feel another orgasm sliding over me without warning. As my pussy contracts and the flush of release spreads over my skin, Hyde moans above me. He still jackhammers, though I can start to feel him become more uncoordinated as his own pleasure starts to take flight. I try to recover my breathing even as tingles race up and down my spine.

“Evie.” His forehead drops onto mine. The moistness of his breath slides over my skin. “Evie, Evie.” He repeats my name like a mantra.

He reaches between our fused bodies, touching my clit, sky rocketing me. Immediately I light up, my body going up in flames. I orgasm so hard I see stars.

Hyde pumps once, twice, and then pulls out of my body as he loses himself to his pleasure. He smashes his lips on mine as he moans, and I absorb the sound in my mouth. There is a hot, wet stickiness on my stomach as he falls onto me.

We lie like that for a time, until both our heartbeats calm down and our skin acclimates to the underground temperature again. Then he pushes off and lies down beside me.

Without the heat of the moment, Kris’s face floats into my mind, reminding me that I’ve just fucked his friend. His partner. Guilt practically steals my breath as hate sweeps through me. Hate for Hyde, hate for the circumstances, but mostly self-hate. I cheated. I am a cheater.

And then a horrible thought storms in. Am I my mother’s daughter after all?

Bile turns my gut.

“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” he whispers.

“No, we shouldn’t have.” I get up, disgusted with myself, to start cleaning the residue of sex off my body.

“Evie?”

“Shut up, Hyde.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Really? You’re asking me what wrong? Are you dense?”

“Kris,” he reasons. “He’s my partner, and he slept with you first.”

“Oh my God, you’ve made me sound like a slut,” I grouse.

“Evie—”

“Did you have sex with me because Kris had sex with me?”

He doesn’t answer, which of course, is the answer. Hyde has suddenly morphed into someone I don’t know. And I’ve turned into someone I don’t like.

I dress quickly. Tears threaten to come to the surface, but I blink them back because I have no one to blame for this situation except myself. I feel like I’m swimming in glue, trying to figure out how to play a game I don’t even know the rules of. Kris in his coldness and Hyde in his selfish deception; I thought I knew these men. I used my visions as a beacon of light, and I blindly followed, but truthfully what do I know of relationships, personal or other?

I watched my mother for years making the mistake of thinking she understood men. A kind word or a small gift had been enough to turn Misty Mae Rhoton’s head, have her believing there was gold at the end of a rainbow. I would always scoff, and my heart would break, but I always believed I was different than her. I had a gift, didn’t I? I could see the future.

But I’ve never seen mine. Maybe there’s a reason for that. And maybe I’m more like my mother than I thought. I shiver in fear. That’s a side of my personality I don’t want to analyze too deeply, especially not now.

Hyde sits up and runs a hand down his face. “Listen, obviously I’m fucking this up. I’m really tired. Why don’t we get some sleep and hopefully we can figure everything out later.”

“Fine,” I say, but I move to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Evie—”

“Guards are posted?” I change the subject. Hyde studies me, and after a moment I can see he lets go of what we just shared.

“Shalana has her people taking shifts guarding where the bomb blew.” His tone is brisk, no-nonsense.

“Then I’ll help keep watch. I can’t sleep anyway.”

“Evie.”

I pause, my back toward him.

“When this is all over, will you be heading out again?”

Really? That’s what he asks me? I don’t answer, but then I don’t think he really wants one. Yes, it does seem quite unbelievable that in all the time I’ve been tracking them, we end up together in a fuck-all situation.

Kris pops into my mind, big and bold and brooding. I can’t keep a little worm of guilt wiggling its way insidiously into my heart, bringing uncertainty with it. This is something I simply have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with right now. I turn from Hyde and exit the small room. I have no desire to sleep next to him.

Chapter Ten

Shalana is surprised to see me. She’s on duty with her men, fully automated weapons at the ready. I step up next to her. She gives me wry smile.