Revolution (9 page)

             
"I can't wait to tell Mom!" he said excite
dly
.

             
I turned to Jeff. "Did you hear what he said?"
             

             
He groaned.
"I heard. We better start packing everybody up."

             
I sighed and looked at Cain as he
slapped his stake into his palm over and over in frustration
as he said,
"You mean we have to leave th
e store
? After all the work and everything we've done-"

             
"Can't be helped," Jeff cut
him
off. "You heard
that thing
. Let's get this show on the road. The sooner we get out, the better."
             
He huffed and groaned as he and the rest of them beat a quick path back inside. I slung my arm over Calvin's shoulder as we followed them. "I'm proud of you, Calvin."

             
"Thanks, Ry. I'm kinda proud of me, too." He grinned and bounced excitedly. "Let the record show that I saved your behinds."

             
I shook my head and felt a smile tilt my lips. "Sure thing."

             
As we descended the stairs, I was plowed into by a sweet smelling thing that made my smile even larger. I wrapped my arms around her and felt the
question I kept asking myself , '
Would I be able to le
ave when and if the time came?'
spring to my mind, but I pushed it to the back.

             
This girl, this human female, had wiggled her way into my heart somehow. It happened with
out
my consent, really. I'd tried to talk to Merrick about it once, about how his feelings for Sherry seemed to be all consuming. He didn't really know how to explain it to me. I could see exactly what he meant now. If you asked me how this happened or why, I would have no words to describe it.

             
Confused
would be a good word.

             
I pulled back and looked at her face. She was fighting tears and I realized…those tears were for me. This human cared for me and though I struggled to understand the whys of it all, I understood one thing perfectly.

             
This girl had been
sent to me, given to me really, for a reason and I intended to guard and look after her as if she were my own charge. She made me feel strange in my belly and chest, a buzzing that had nothing to do with my conscience. I felt warm and…content when I was with her. Content was something I hadn't felt since we arrived on Earth and the fact that she gave me a small slice of my old self back was a gift all itself.

             
I saw in her eyes as she tilted her face back that she wanted me to kiss her again. And this body wanted to as well. No, that was a copout.

             
I
wanted to.

             
Me.

             
I wanted to feel the rush of blood that her kiss induced in me. So I did.

             
With my fingers wrapped gently around her upper arms I pulled her closer. She came surprisingly easy and then lifted on her toes to reach me. I felt her nose on my cheek first and then her lips. I let my body take over and was surprised when I once again put my arms around her and the
n
lifted her feet from the floor in an embrace. But she just held on and it felt incredible.

             
For now, all those
What Ifs
would just have to wait. Today, I was taking my prize. When she
tugged at my hair and pressed closer, I realized she was doing the exact same thing.

Smitten Kitten

Cain

             
An eager L was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs and I let my newfound vulnerability fly like a flag and ran to her. It actually was a little liberating. The fact that I been crying like a chick just yesterday was not the issue on trial here. It was the fact that I l
iked that
L and anybody else that wanted to take a gander
could
see that I was smitten.

             
I smirked as L smashed herself to me and leaped, wrapping her legs around me. She pressed her face to my neck and exhaled.
I exhaled, too, and dreaded telling her the devastating news; that we had to pack up our crap and get the heck out of Dodge. She pulled back a little. "You're worried about something. I thought it was all over?"

             
"No," I sighed. "No
,
my little smitten kitten, it's not over."

             
She smiled, but stopped. "Not over? What do you mean?"

             
"Let Jeff explain. I'm more than willing to let Keeper boy take the fallout."

             
She gave me a weird look, but turned to look at Jeff. He must've already told Marissa because her hand gripped Jeff's so tightly that his fingers were white.
Lillian looked back at me with alarm, but I gave her my best reassuring smile.

             
"All right," Jeff started, but plopped himself down on the bottom step and groaned, running his free hand through his hair. "It seems… Well, we took care of- Calvin took care of," he corrected and continued, "the new beast that we encountered. But it seems that they aren't finished with us. They know we're here now and will be back. We've…we've got to leave the bunker."
             
"What?"
Sherry gasped. She was the only one who spoke, everyone else just stood stunned. She looked destroyed. She'd been here from the beginning and I could imagine she'd have lots of attachment to this place. I felt that familiar tug for
me to go and hug her, make everything right again, but I held back. Poor girl had been through hell lately. Screw it. I tugged Lillian along with me and went to Sherry's side. I gripped her
fingers
and that seemed to jolt her. She looked up at me and the tears forming
at the edges of her
eyes made me ache. She squeezed my fingers and I squeezed back. Then I squeezed L's fingers and she squeezed back, too.
I looked down at her, my wife, and
I let my breath come out in a long puff.

             
This next step for us was going to suck something fierce, but we could do this. We
had
to do this.

             
Danny
wrapped his arm around Sherry's neck from behind and we continued to listen to Jeff as he explained that our home was no longer our place of residence. The pastor went on about his place being a good replacement. Miguel argued that his place was destroyed.

             
"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Rylee told him, hands on her hips. "You and your bunch of Neanderthals ransacked the place!"

             
"We did no such thing! We didn't break your place, a Lighter did. We almost died trying to get out."

             
"Now, now," Pastor soothed them both. "Trouble has befallen us all, but that's no reason to go at each other's throats." He gave Rylee a hard look. "The fact that
our
place was destroyed is all the more reason to go back there. No one will think someone was staying there or would know there was a basement underneath. It's not as comfy as this place, it'll be an actual bunker, not the loving
ly
titled one you've coined this place as, but we'll be together and we'll be safe."
             
"Let's do it," Merrick said and his w
orried face turned to Sherry. "
Let's go as soon as possible."

             
Max, who had been awfully quiet in the corner, stood. Then Patrick and Ann stood. Then Simon, A.K.A. Josh, stood. They seemed to be doing that silent agreement thing. Merrick gulped and nodded at Jeff. Jeff looked at his now wife and in a rare show of affection got down on his knees and pressed his ear to her belly. She giggled
out of surprise and nervousness as she combed his hair with her fingers.

             
"
I'll do anything to keep you safe, little one. Don't you worry.
" He looked at us all without getting up.
"
Let's get going. Bring only what we need. Every person needs to get a bag together, but only what you can carry.
We'll leave at daybreak.
"

             
That seemed to be everyone's cue.

             
We scattered in a haste to pack our pathetic little lives into bags and boxes. I dragged L to her room first and helped her stuff her clothes into a pillowcase. Then we went next door and I put all my crap into my duffel.

             
I pulled her down with me and figured we'd pick up our bedding stuff to bring with us tomorrow. This was it. It was sad that my who
le life fit into one duffel bag, a
nd the sad little beat-up guitar next to it.

             
"Are we going to be ok?"
             
I wanted to just say
Yes
,
I was just too tired to not be honest. "I don't know."

             
"This is it
,
isn't it? This is the beginning of the end. Everything that happens from now on is going to be life or death, stay or go, win or lose."

             
"Uhuh," I answered and rubbed my chin on her head. "It looks that way."

             
"So…this is our last night of peace? And privacy?" she said with a funny tone.

             
I frowned. "Yeah, guess so."

             
She lifted up to lean over me. She bit her lip and gave me this fluttery eyelid look and…holy… I gulped as the meaning of her actions hit me. I didn't gulp with fear, but with
finally!

             
"Well, you are my wife now," I said, my smirk ear to ear.

             
"I am," she agreed and kissed my chin. "Make me forget that the world's ending, Cain."

             
My heart ached
a bit at that, but I complied
with a willing mind and body and even grinned as I said,
"Anything you want, L.
"