WastelandRogue (25 page)

“Countdown to sanitation begins now.” the computerized
female voice coldly informed them through the intercom.

“Just start looking. It appears everyone has already left
but be careful. I’ve no doubt this place holds many secrets, so we don’t know
who might hang back to guard things until the last possible moment.”

“Ninety-nine,” the female voice announced after a long
pause.

“From what your brother said, I don’t think anyone would
risk waiting.”

“You have to remember, they do this on a regular schedule.
They know how to get out and how long it will take them. We can’t linger as
long, so we’ll give ourselves until that voice,” he pointed to the intercom,
“gets to the count of fifty. If in that time we haven’t found Zandt and Shay,
we’ll assume they’ve gotten out and we’ll make our own way out of here.”

“What about the explosives? How long do you think your
brother will wait to set them off?”

“He thinks we’re in the bottom sub-level and he knows we
have to get out, so I’m sure he’ll set the detonator for the longest amount of
time possible.”

“Or not!” Rye yelled over the loud blast echoing down the
corridor.

Sevrin pushed Rye toward a glass door. Inside a lab, he
continued prodding her across the room to another door. The floor roiled as
though a violent thunderstorm brewed beneath his feet. Equipment on counters
danced to the edges and fell. Bottles and boxes dropped from falling shelves.
And then he felt himself dropping away with the floor. Rye’s scream surrounded
him in the cloudy turmoil of the crumbling ceiling rushing down on them. He
tried to reach for her. Touch her one last time. But he felt nothing except the
pain of a fall of stone rubble crashing on top of him.

Rye opened her eyes. Lying facedown with the debris from the
fallen ceiling on her, she pushed to get up. “‘The longest amount of time’, my ass,”
she grumbled.

The stillness around her suggested she had been unconscious
for some time, enough time that every dust particle from the explosion had
settled.

She looked for Sevrin. Where was he? He’d survive if she
did.

He had to.

“Sevrin,” she called, getting to her feet. “Sevrin, where
are you?”

A strange déjà vu swept through her. They’d been through
this before, the allium field. She tried consoling herself.

He had to have survived
.

“Sevrin?” She staggered along, searching between the mounds
of mangled steel and stone.

Everywhere that she looked, she found more debris, not a
trace of Sevrin. Overhead there was a large break in the ceiling. Then she
looked at the jagged opening in the floor. Was that where he had been standing?
Everything looked so different, as if turned upside down.

She got on her hands and knees and crawled over broken glass
toward the opening. Ignoring the sting from cuts, she leaned over the gaping
hole. Below, partly under the wreckage, lay Sevrin.

“Sevrin, can you hear me?” she asked.

He didn’t move or say anything. The shortest—the quickest
route was through the hole. Common sense told her to find another way down. She
was never one to think of her safety first. The worst would be that she broke
her leg or got more cuts. All would heal in time.

Swinging around, she winced at the glass nicking her. She
lowered herself through the gap and dropped to the rubble. Unable to get her
footing, she fell back and toppled from the mound. Sevrin made a sound, a grunt
of pain at the same time. It was her fault for landing on him.

“Rye?” he mumbled.

“I’m here.” She started moving chunks of concrete off him.

“Were you hurt in the fall?” he asked, groaning as she
lifted more weight from him.

“I didn’t fall. I climbed down here.”

“That didn’t answer my question.” He put his hand over her
arm.

“Some bumps and cuts. In a while, I’ll be as good as new and
so will you.”

“I heal slower, sunshine, remember?”

His endearment swept though her so fast, tears sprang to her
eyes. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “You
will
heal and that’s
all that matters.” She took a deep breath to hold back the churning emotions
threatening to make her cry.

“Maybe I already have.” He helped push a sheet of steel off
that had shielded him from the looser items. “I don’t feel much pain.”

Rye stared at the heavy metal I-beam lodged in Sevrin’s leg.
She wiped the back of her hand over her face.

“What’s wrong?” Sevrin lifted his head and looked down at
what she saw. “That doesn’t look good.”

He tried to move and immediately expressed with a loud yell
the pain he had obviously tried to ignore.

“It’ll be all right,” she assured him. “After I get the beam
off, you’ll heal.”

She tried pulling, then pushing. Every attempt failed. The
steel was heavy and embedded deep. Blood continued to ooze out from where the
skin was unable to mend.

Another violent explosion shook the building. More walls
came crashing down. Even in his pain, Sevrin thought of her, covering her head
with his arms and holding her down on his chest.

“Apparently, my brother isn’t done blowing this place up.”
He tried laughing but it quickly turned into a bout of coughing.

“I don’t think that was him,” she said, concerned about the
experimental chemicals they might have in the facility.

“Rye, I want you to get out of here.”

“No.” She kicked at the beam, trying to dislodge it from
Sevrin’s leg.
He can scream all he wants.
She’d not leave him there.

“Rye, stop.” His grip on her arm dug deep and he pulled her
from her task. “We don’t know anything about what they use in that sanitation
process. It could kill you.”

She thought of Shay. They had been apart for so long. Her
sister would be devastated to lose her now. She looked around the destroyed
room. What hope was there for them to get out alive? With Sevrin trapped and
the walls tumbling down, she debated her options.

Sevrin forced Rye back. He didn’t want her to die. “You have
to leave.”

When she rose and walked away, he stared in disbelief. Was
she really going to leave him? What was he thinking? She had to go. But he
couldn’t help voicing an internal plea for help.

“That’s it, no argument?” he asked. “You’re just going to
leave?”

He watched her continue toward the opening in the wall. A
part of him really wanted her to run, find safe ground. Yet the emptiness he’d
feel if she left made him yearn to hear her stubborn refusal. He wanted
something real to exist between them.

He pushed up on an arm and another pulsating sharp pain
ripped through his leg. The slow healing fought the pressure of the steel beam
embedded in the flesh and bone of his thigh.

He heard the rattle of falling rubble and looked toward the
opening Rye had headed for. He didn’t see her. Sadness compounded his raging
emotions. Particles of dust from the falling structure burned his eyes. Tears
formed and he blinked, using the moisture to wash away the grit.

If only sadness could be washed away as easily.

“Give up,” he grumbled and lay back against the rock pile,
wishing his thoughts could rule his body’s regenerative powers. A slow death
wasn’t a pleasant prospect.

“Don’t you even dare think about giving up, Sevrin Renault,”
Rye ordered as if she heard him. He once again wondered if she couldn’t read
his thoughts. She had said no, yet that was early in their relationship, not
necessarily the right time to confess to extraordinary abilities.

He quickly rubbed his tear-dampened face against his
shoulder. He’d ask her again sometime about her knowing his thoughts.

Rye scrambled over the pile of broken block. She dragged a
long steel I-beam similar to the one pinning him down, only narrower.

“I told you to get out of here.” He pushed back up, happy
she was there and angry she hadn’t left.

“Unlike some think,
lamians
don’t have super powers,
so if I manage to get this up, then you be prepared to pull your leg out.”

“Rye—” His voice cracked.

“I’m not leaving you,” she declared harshly.

“No, not that,” he said, knowing it was better not to argue
with her. “The super powers…In the steam-trekker, when I fed you blood. You
showed an incredible amount of strength pushing me off you.”

“That comes from an energy spike, an adrenaline rush. That
can’t help me now.” She shoved the smaller steel beam under the larger one and
pushed.

Sevrin grimaced from pain but still tried to pull his leg
free. The numbness wasn’t allowing him to tell if she had moved the steel or
not. Severe pain in the rest of him confirmed she wasn’t making headway.

“Rye,” he groaned. “Rye, stop.”

“No. I have to get you out.” Her forehead wrinkled under the
strain of her efforts.

“Rye, wait. Just wait and come down here to me.”

She let go of the steel and wiped her forearm across her
forehead.

“I’m not leaving you here, Sevrin.” She knelt down next to
him, fierce determination alight in her eyes. “I won’t let you die.”

“I know you won’t.” He raked his arm across the jagged edge
of a concrete block. Blood bubbled to the surface of his skin. “Drink. It’ll
give you the adrenaline rush you need for one of those super powers you
adamantly deny having.”

He suspected she feared she didn’t possess enough strength.

“I trust you,” he said, bolstering her with the truest of
facts.

Rye grabbed his arm. She sealed her lips over the serrated
wound and sucked. The sting wasn’t anything compared to the one in his leg. He
watched her mannerisms change as she swallowed. Her low, seductive hum vibrated
into the open vein. His pulse quickened, a rush of energy zipped through his
blood vessels. Rye extracted his life force and at the same time churned his
sexual hunger.

The rise of lust stiffened his cock. “That should do it,” he
said, fighting the feeling. “Rye?”

She didn’t stop. Feral greed had taken over and she ripped
his flesh, opening the laceration wide. Her teeth punctured the sinew and she
latched on, sucking rapaciously.

His thunderous heartbeat aroused every fiber in his soul. He
struggled to unfasten his pants and release his engorged cock for the explosion
of his semen.

Rye suddenly unclenched her bite from his arm. He looked at
her rising away, blood dripping from her lips and rolling down her chin. Her
gaze shot up to his. The dark irises blended with her dilated pupils and red
flooded the whites of her eyes.

“Sevrin?” Fear rattled her voice as she threw herself back
onto him.

He kissed her hungrily, tasting, swallowing the blood from
her mouth. Then he pushed her free, feeling an unnatural force surging through
him. “Get this beam off me!”

Rye jumped to her feet.

“Push,” he commanded, placing his hand on the beam to wait
for movement. “That’s it.”

The steel came up and he dragged himself out. As the steel
slipped and the beam fell, Rye’s alarmed shriek filled the air.

“I’m all right, I’m free,” he told her.

She dropped to him and flung her arms around his neck. “I
didn’t think I could actually do it. That burst of strength lasts such a short
time.”

“But you did do it.” He pulled her head back and kissed her.
The saltiness of tears stopped him. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

Lifting his arm, she licked over the jagged cut that he had
made and she had worsened. The rippling effects of lust traveled up to his
shoulder and filtered through his veins.

“That’s enough.” He stopped her, unable to handle another
tumultuous flow of desire.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He slid his hand behind her head, pulled her forward
and put his forehead against hers. “I’m always all right when you’re around.”

Rye turned her head, looking toward his thigh. “How does it
feel? I can’t see.” She used her hand to make up for her blurred sight and he
guided her fingers over the wound.

“Better.” He sensed her reserve in talking about her
feelings. From the little bit Rye told him, she expressed a lot of love for the
home she had with her sister. He had no doubt she’d go back to her mountain
retreat. Was there a place there for him, with her?

“Can you stand?” She looked back at him. The bloody haze in
her eyes began to clear.

“Let’s see.”

She rose to her feet first and held his arm, helping him up.
A deep ache, probably bruising on the bone, made him shaky. He put more
pressure on the leg. Rye showed patience, still offering support. He pushed her
hand away and took a few steps, limping to the pile of rubble and back.

“Let’s go find Zandt and your sister.” He held his hand out
to her.

Her cool fingers slid across his palm and folded around his.
A shaft of heat shot up his arm but he ignored the longing to pull her close
and hold on tight. He took a step to go. Rye didn’t move.

He turned. “What’s wrong?”

“This may be the last time I have the chance to talk to you
alone.”

“Oh?” Her casual statement sunk in as clearly as if she said
the words of departure. It wasn’t possible for this to be a goodbye.

“When we get out of here, I’ll be taking Shay home. And
you—”

Sevrin pulled Rye to him and kissed her. Her response was as
warm and welcoming as ever. He thought he was in command of her and his senses.
As usual, she took the lead, rolling her hands over his shoulders, across his
back and up against the back of his head. Aggressively, she twisted strands of
his hair around her knuckles, using her hold to guide him.

He broke from her lips for a second. Just long enough to get
out her name. “Rye.” He wanted ask her to stay with him, go wherever, whenever
the mood struck them.

“Don’t talk,” she replied, resuming their kiss, her tongue
slipping between his parted lips.

As if she were the missing piece to a puzzle of his life,
her every curve fit the length of him. Her knee pressed between his legs and
his crotch rested against her hip. She had to have felt his throbbing cock by
the moves she made to rub it with her rocking body.

Then she pulled away. Her gaze held all the wrong emotions.
Tears glistened in those sorrowful eyes. Sadness dulled her features.

At a loss as to how to express what he wanted directly, he
said, “That place of yours sounds pretty amazing.”

She brushed her hand over her eyes, hiding the fact she
wiped a tear by flicking at it as if it were a bug. “It’s a wonderful place. I
can’t wait to return.”

“Then why the unhappy look?”

She took a deep breath and whispered words he didn’t expect
would come with such a heartbreaking sob. “I’ll miss you.”

“There’s no reason you have to.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t think I can handle staying in one place all the
time but it would be a nice change to take a break from wandering from time to
time.”

“It’s a long journey between my home and the wastelands.”

Was she trying to deter him from visiting? “I have a steam-trekker,
remember?”

“You’ll never find Levor.”

“I was talking about the one I flipped on its side on that
hill.”

“You’d really visit?” Her face brightened, giving him the
reassurance he needed.

“Depends.” He reached out and pulled her close. “Can we
plant something edible in that garden of yours?”

“Anything you want.” She smiled.

“Then my plans all seem to be working out. We spend time
together, I go off and save a few people and then I return to you, all my
wanderlust satisfied for a while.”

“You’ve mapped out all this between us before now, haven’t
you?” she scolded gently.

“I’ve given it some thought. You did drink my blood.” He
cupped her face.

“Ah, and you think since you saved my life, you own it
because we’ve bonded?”

“No.” He leaned and kissed the side of her head. “All joking
aside, I feel like—”

“Like we’re closer than any blood thirst can ever make us
feel?”

He slid his arm around her and guided her toward the door.
“We belong together, Rye. Now let’s get out of here before we become victims of
something worse than falling walls.”

She nodded and went with him through the rubble of the
building until they reached the outside. Immediately, he heard his brother’s
and Rye’s sister’s shout of joy.

“Sevrin.” Rye stopped him again. “Why do you think we belong
together, really?”

He cupped her jaw and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip.
“You never asked anything of me and yet you needed me. Each day we got closer
and I waited for you to be more demanding and self-centered but you weren’t.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say I was selfless, you do remember I
stole your steam-trekkerand got you shot, don’t you?”

“Those little things aren’t what I’m talking about. You’re
different from other females. If something needs done, you do it. If there’s a
problem, you try to figure out a way to resolve it. If there is danger, you
face it. You have an independence that fits my life. I adapt well to change and
I can adapt my life to fit in yours the way you need me to.”

“I don’t want you to change for me.”

He brushed a kiss to her lips. “See, as I was saying, you’re
not asking anything of me. It makes me want to do whatever it takes to be with
you.”

“I want to be with you too.” She stroked his jaw and then
slid her arms around his neck.

“What’s this?” He accepted her kiss and then warned, “Your
sister and my brother are coming.”

“I don’t care.” She kissed him again. “I need you to know
how much I love you.”

“I love you too, sunshine.”

A faint, happy sound sputtered from Rye and then she was
crushing him with her embrace. In between those, sweet, brief kisses splashing
affection over his face, she asked, “Since when?”

He wanted to say when he found her in the ditch or when she
insisted on having sex with him in the mineshaft. However, those times only led
to the moment when he thought he had lost her in the bowels of the earth. Was
it then that the first twinges of love had snared him? He wasn’t sure. He only
knew what she would want to hear.

“Since forever, Rye.”