To Die for... Duty

TWO

TWO

THE TEMPERATURE PLUMMETED at night. Maybe it was her mood or just that she’d taken the Beast and real blankets for granted. She did sleep. At some point, the anxiety overtook her and she passed out. Waking up cuddled next to Styx was a shock, but not one that bothered her after she shoved away from him only to realize how cold it was without his body heat.

They hadn’t lit a fire or eaten anything either before setting up the tent or after waking. On the ground, huddled in Daire’s sweater, she watched Styx pack everything into his big Bergen backpack.

“Can we go back now?” she asked.

It had been the first question on her mind the moment after she opened her eyes, but she’d held off from asking it. Unless he answered in the affirmative, her mood wouldn’t lift.

“Let’s find out,” he said, fastening the backpack and slinging it onto his back. “Come on.”

He started to stride away, so she scrambled to her aching feet to rush after him. “How will we find out?” she asked, noting that they weren’t going up or down.

From what she could tell, they were heading toward the water, though the rise they’d ascended would leave them somewhere on the ridge. That was just fine. The thought of an early morning swim in potentially frigid, near freezing water didn’t appeal in the slightest.

“I have a scope.”

“What does that mean?”

It might be a relief he wasn’t yanking and tugging at her like the previous night. Except for the fact she had little choice but to follow him. Yesterday, she’d been ready to rush back into camp to do whatever she could for Daire and Harry. In the cool light of a dewy morning, she understood how dangerous that could be. Presenting herself, their weakness, could do more harm than good.

“It means we have to look for a sign,” Styx said, pausing where the trees ended, though there was another ten feet to the edge of the ridge.

He hunkered down and took something from the thigh pocket of his pants. A little telescope. Crouching with him, she looked out over the ridge. The water and their height separated them from the camp, but it was visible in the distance. The Airstream wasn’t difficult to see, especially when it caught a glint of the sun rays still scattering themselves wide, maybe only an hour or two after first appearing.

“What’s the sign?” she asked, eager to know what they were looking for. Though without the scope, all she could really see were shapes and colors. “Can you see other vehicles?”

“Two,” he said, “which isn’t bad. Means no more than ten.”

Those didn’t sound like the best odds. “Ten against two?”

He glanced away from the scope to look at her. “I’ll remember to tell Ares you doubted him.”

“I don’t doubt him,” she said, standing up when he did. “I just prefer it when there isn’t the chance he had to face off against ten automatic weapons.”

Styx tucked the scope away in his thigh pocket again. “We didn’t hear gunfire, remember? And that those vehicles are still there suggests they weren’t taken.”

“Doesn’t mean they’re not being tortured though, does it?” she asked. “They could be tied up over there, beaten, anything.” When he started to move again, she followed. “That’s it? Don’t I get to see?”

“No,” Styx said. “I saw what I needed to.”

“What did you see?” she asked, wishing his pace was more urgent. Last night he couldn’t move fast enough, that morning he was much more leisurely. “Are we going back?”

“What do you think?”

Glancing around, she took note that they were descending rather than the opposite. “We are going back. How do you know it’s safe?”

“Last night you were all for rushing down there. Now you’re scared?”

“I’m not scared,” she sneered. “I do want to go back. I just want to know how you—”

“The tailgate was down.”

She thought about that for a second. “The tailgate was down?” she asked. “On the truck?” He nodded. “And that’s the sign? How do you know they’re not just unloading something?”

“Because it was down when I checked earlier too. Everything’s in the same position.”

“Wait, how did you…? When did you check earlier?” As far as she knew, they’d been together every second since leaving camp. “You left me alone in the tent?”

His smirk didn’t amuse her. “I was careful, Lady. No point waking you… I went back and forth between the tent and the viewpoint a few times.”

So sleep must have found her sooner than she thought. Either that or he’d slipped her something. “If you knew it was safe last night, why didn’t we just go back?”

“Orders were to keep you away all night. We need a cover story and us out on a trek worked.”

“So we were out on a trek,” she said. “An overnight trek? Together? Alone?”

Telling the new arrivals they’d split because they feared the newcomers’ intentions wouldn’t be the best way to start a new alliance.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”

“If I was going on an overnight trek with anyone, alone, it wouldn’t be you.”

“Yeah, it would,” Styx said, still smiling. “ ‘Cause Hades would never let you and Ares go off together, chances are, you wouldn’t come back.”

True story. Not for a while anyway. Tess was good at tempting her lover into bed, and at tempting her Heart to go against his better judgement… which maybe wasn’t something to boast about. More than once he’d reminded her that all she had to do was ask and he’d take her anywhere she wanted to go, even if that was a million miles from the security of their unit.

Their unit. That seemed like a joke. Even if those who were at the camp were loyal to Harry and Daire, she wouldn’t know them. Wouldn’t know it. The only thing that she could trust was Daire’s word. If he told her to trust the people there, she would. Not that she’d be comfortable with them. Chances were those people would have to go into battle with her Heart. They could be responsible for him keeping or losing his life.

She couldn’t be argumentative. She had to be the perfect, amiable hostess. Those men, whoever they were, either wanted to end her love or protect him. Even though she couldn’t admit to anyone that Daire was actually hers, she wouldn’t give anyone any excuse to be combative. Unit cohesion was the most important thing. She could smile and laugh and be a silent companion to the group. Yeah, it might not be her natural state, but she’d do it for Daire. For his life.

Retrieving one of the power bars from her pocket, she opened it up to start eating. Styx glanced at her, then the bar. “You want one?” she asked, plucking out another to offer it to him.

He took it to begin eating. “Where did you get those?”

“The Beast,” she said.

“Panties and power bars, maybe you’re not an i***t after all.”

She just sneered at his snicker. “I’m surprised you don’t have food in that big pack of yours.”

“I do,” he said, chomping on the bar she’d provided.

“Then why are you eating mine,” she said, lunging across him. “Gimme that back.”

He just held his hand out of her reach. “You offered.”

“Why didn’t you offer me yours?”

“I don’t know how long we’ll be out here,” he said. “I wasn’t just gonna start handing things out before I knew whether we were going to camp or hike to town.”

The prospect of hiking to town was so daunting that she didn’t even dare ask how long it would take or the distance from here to there.

“Daire always feeds me.”

Another scoff of a laugh escaped him. “Yeah, but I think he’d object to me feeding you the same thing the same way.”

She frowned. “What are you—” Realizing what he meant, she threw the back of her hand against his arm in a gentle slap. “Yeah, that’s disgusting. I would object too… So would you when I bit down hard.”

They kept on going. Both finished their food and Styx took the wrappers to stuff them in his pocket.

“Did you and Ares talk out there or was there only one thing on your mind?” he asked and glanced her way. When she wasn’t quick to reply, he kept going. “I know you think it’s none of my business, but the truth is, if you’re carrying an Olympus kid—”

“Elysium.”

“What?”

“That’s what we decided to call it,” she said, retrieving her water bottle.

“You want to call your kid Elysium?”

“No!” she said, lowering the bottle from her lips. “Olympus is dead. It won’t come back in its previous form. So we decided to call the new organization something else. Elysium is what we came up with.”

“You had time out to talk and you brainstormed company names?” he asked. “You guys have some weird idea of dirty talk.”

“We were done with s*x by then.”

Truly they never were and she didn’t think they ever could be. Just thinking about him got her ready for another roll in the forest and he was nowhere in sight. Still, thinking about how she felt out there compared to how she’d felt the previous day when they were both in camp, there was more zing in her step. Whatever happened, she felt ready, invigorated, prepared to take on the world. The biggest difference between that moment and yesterday’s was the duration between intimate bouts.

That seemed a pretty good measure to her of just how important s*x was in their relationship. She’d done her duty by refilling his stores not long before they were descended upon. Except with Styx’s message from Harry that they should keep their relationship under wraps, they may not have a chance to refill those stores again any time soon.

“You’re really not gonna tell me?” Styx asked after they’d gone another few yards.

“Tell you what?” she asked. “What is it you want to know?”

If anyone should be giving him information about their relationship, it should be Daire. Still, she wanted to at least know what the guy was so curious about.

“Are you pregnant?”

“I don’t know,” she said because it was a straightforward answer. “How would I know that? I’ve been stuck out here for eleven days now. Harry and me were with Asclepius before that, traveling from Miami, which we left just a few hours after you and Daire. When would I have had the time to do a pregnancy test or see a doctor?”

“But it’s possible?”

“Anything is possible,” she said. “You must’ve heard us having s*x. Telling you we were together wasn’t a prank. We really are together.”

“And you’re not careful? Hades seemed to think you used rubbers.”

“This is exactly the conversation I didn’t want to have,” she said, catching a loose leaf from a low branch as they passed. “Daire said it, our methods of birth control are our own. Besides, nothing is a hundred percent.”

“When was your last period?”

“Not your business,” she said in a sort of sing-song voice, figuring Daire would prefer to control the flow of information to his own family.

“Okay, but say you are, what would be the plan? Would you keep it or… not?”

Again, still not his business, yet she understood everyone’s need to plan ahead. “It doesn’t feel good to be evasive,” she said. “But I don’t have answers. I can’t promise anything until I know something.”

Anticipating her honest reaction in a hypothetical was impossible. Maybe she would be so fiercely protective that she’d run and hide even from Daire. Maybe she’d be flat out terrified of what might happen to her and her child. Maybe she would consider aborting if the reality of carrying Daire’s baby overwhelmed her. She couldn’t really see it going that way, but no one knew anything for sure until they were in a given situation.