Crashing Into Destiny

  He was erect. His cock appeared thick and heavily veined. My mouth watered. “Can I take you in my mouth? I’d like that.”

  His breathing sped up immediately. “Yes. But I’m coming inside of you. Not your mouth. Your pussy.”

  “Yes.” I dropped to my knees, the water messaging my back while I took his hard length in my lips. He was big. I was never going to get all of him inside of me at once. So I concentrated on the head. I swirled my tongue around it, which Cash seemed to like. He leaned back against the side of the shower and closed his eyes.

  With my hands, I stroked the part of his cock I couldn’t get into my mouth. His moans were my reward. He wanted to know my body, and I loved that, but I also really wanted the chance to explore his. Eventually he sucked in a long breath.

  “Stop, Boo. I won’t make it if you go anymore.” He was hot and throbbing. I could feel it in my mouth how he’d grown since I started. I gave him one more lick and pulled back. He yanked me to my feet and turned us until I had my legs around his waist and my back against the shower where he’d been.

  I closed my eyes, knowing what was going to happen, wanting it, craving it. He pushed inside of me. I cried out his name, and he bit down on my shoulder, lightly. I moaned, my insides pulsating with need. I hadn’t known I wanted to be bit. But oh yes, I really did. By Cash. As often as he wanted.

  Whenever he wanted.

  He surged inside of me, pushing in and pulling out. Over and over. My back hit the wall. It didn’t hurt, and even if it had, I doubt I would have cared. This was what I needed. I came around him like an explosion. I said his name over and over and over.

  When Cash came, it was quieter. He sighed his release inside of me, mumbling something when he did. I didn’t catch all of it, but something sounded like home. If that was what he said, I understood his sentiment. He felt like home to me, too.

  Dinner was somewhat subdued. Damian and Judge weren’t back. We’d all known that could happen; it didn’t make worrying about them any less troubling. What if the time differential moved and they were gone for years?

  Still, Cash’s stew tasted delicious, and I ate it all down like a starving woman. When Sterling suggested skipping game night, since none of us were concentrating well on anything, we all agreed. I fell asleep in Cash’s arms in my bed. I knew his strong arms would get me through the night of worrying.

  A ding on his tablet woke me before it did him. I kissed him awake, and he checked the message. Damian and Judge were back. They’d felt like they’d been gone for about twelve hours. As the sun setting made its way through my door, I knew it had been much more than that.

  “It’s a device.” Judge pointed at it, a grin on his face over the breakfast table. “Don’t worry. It has an on-and-off setting. I turned it off. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it before. This is not tech from this world. Do you have it, Di?”

  I shook my head. “No way. Never seen it. If it’s over there, then someone is hiding it.”

  “Then we’re dealing with something quite new. Well, old. See how it’s all started to rust a little bit. Honestly? It looks like tech that’s fifty years old. Yet it’s beyond my understanding. I think it should be hooked up to a ship. Like it has to do with time somehow. I’m going to have to study it without turning it back on. I think it would take the whole enclosure and mess our time up. When I turned it off, the hot springs stopped, too. I’m sorry guys. I think this controlled the heat over there too.”

  Lewis met my eye contact and raised his eyebrows. We’d had such a good time there. I guess it really didn’t matter, when it came down to it. We’d always have the memories.

  I walked up next to it and stared down at the small device. “Where did you find it?”

  “Hidden behind a rock. I did a real thorough exam of the whole cave, or I’d have missed it.”

  Damian sighed loudly. “Once again, I’m going to hide something from Evander. I don’t want them interested in this and coming here to investigate with a team more appropriate for managing this strange event. I don’t want them finding Diana.”

  “Another thing that’ll weigh on you.” I touched his arm. “If we can get Artemis fixed, I can come on and off the planet at will. Evander comes; I leave. They leave; I come back.”

  “No.” All five of them said at the same time.

  Damian touched my arm. “Too risky. Not going to happen. Something could happen to you up there.”

  I wanted to argue and didn’t. Truth was, I had no interest, really, in bopping around in space either. If not for Damian’s stress, I wouldn’t worry about it at all.

  The device really did have an on-and-off button. It was even labeled as such. I ran my finger over the words.

  “What is it?” Cash caught my attention. “Something wrong?”

  “I feel like I know the handwriting. Weird. I can’t possibly.” Still, the eerie sensation of an impossibility suddenly becoming plausible didn’t leave me. Where did I know that writing from?

  Lewis brought a card game and taught me how to play it. We sat together on my bed while he instructed me.

  He’d made no overtures of doing more than kissing me, despite the fact I could see he’d gotten as excited as the others did when his lips met mine. He wanted slow, and that was what we were going to do.

  “Do you suppose I could be going crazy?” I asked him when he beat me for the third time.

  “No, I’d notice.” He winked at me. “I have the anti-crazy drugs. Anxious about something? Paranoid? Depressed? What’s going on, Doll?”

  I scooted toward him and held his hand while I talked. “I think I’ve seen that handwriting. I know I said it earlier and dismissed it. Still, I’ve got this crazy sense … I don’t know.”

  “Maybe you have seen it. Maybe you saw it in the cave and didn’t realize it. When you full on read it today, the experience brought on déjà vu.”

  That would be a good, logical explanation. I set down my cards while we started a new round. I wasn’t going to figure anything out tonight; that much I was sure about.

  I must have eventually dozed off playing cards because the next thing I remembered was Lewis taking me in his arms and shutting off the light. I was really, ridiculously tired. I hadn’t had a very busy day. It didn’t make a lot of sense. Still, I slept like a baby. If he snored, I never heard it.

  The next morning, Lewis kissed me awake. “Are you okay?”

  “Sure.” I felt a little bit sore. The gym was a must-do. I couldn’t be in this much pain from a basic day of working. I’d clearly been sitting around too much and for too long. “I think I’m going to take up running again. I’m lazy.”

  “I wouldn’t use that word to describe you. Did I keep you up last night?”

  I shook my head. “Out like a light.”

  “If I ever do, kick me or something.”

  He leaned down to kiss me, and I let him. “Not going to happen. I love you, Lewis.”

  I hadn’t said it before, and my heart fell into my stomach. He wanted slow, and I’d thrown myself right over the cliff into too much, too soon. His smile stunned me. He kissed me rapidly, my mouth, my nose, my eyes.

  “I love you, too. Thanks for being brave when I’m not.”

  My day dragged. I managed to change most of the circuit breakers and started on the tires in the truck we kept using, when it was finally time to change for dinner. Damian had made spinach and beef wraps. Nothing tasted right. I couldn’t stomach any of it.

  “Not your favorite, huh?” Damian knocked his shoulder into me playfully when I helped him clean up.

  “Sorry.” I grinned at him. A slight headache formed behind my eyes. I didn’t get them all that often, but it could happen. I’d been so out of sorts all day; maybe that was why.

  I curled up next to Damian for the movie he’d chosen. It was an action flick about taking over a building that had been infested with monsters. Two minutes in, I was out cold.

  “Diana.” Damian’s voice was loud
. I felt his hand on my face and then another set of hands. Why was everyone touching me? I groaned and tried to push them off. They needed to let me sleep.

  “She’s hot.” Lewis shook my arm gently. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes.” I tried to shove him away, but my arms were too heavy. “Hot. Need to sleep.” And my throat hurt. My joints. My headache had gotten worse. They needed to leave me alone.

  “Diana.” Cash’s voice tried to command my attention. “What hurts?”

  “Everything.” I closed my eyes as someone—Sterling, I could feel the muscles in his chest when I laid my head down on him—lifted me.

  Judge sounded frantic. “What’s wrong with her?”

  I was too hot to care.

  Chapter Nineteen

  F12902

  The medical table in Lewis’ lab was cold. Too cold. I shivered on it. The lights were bright, and the noises from the machines all around zapped at my consciousness, making me want to scream. If I’d had the energy to do so.

  “Do I have the infection? Am I becoming a Zombie?” I managed to croak out.

  “No.” Lewis looked down at me. He looked funny. It took me a second to realize he wore a mask over his mouth and nose. “You have a virus. The flu actually. A bad one. But you’re not going to be an Infected like the ones behind the glass.”

  I vaguely remembered him taking blood and putting it into a machine. A readout caught my attention. It flashed a letter and some numbers: F12902.

  Cash came into my viewpoint. “How you doing, Boo? Thirsty?”

  I could have laughed if I’d had the energy. I was very, very thirsty, but that wasn’t what amused me. When I’d first woken up in their enclosure, Lewis had sent for Cash, saying he had a better bedside manner. I’d not believed it at the time. Cash had seemed sort of hostile. But now I could see what he meant. Lewis was all business when it came to lifesaving, and Cash offered things like water. Or maybe I was simply delirious.

  “Tell me it’s not the one that killed my mother.” Damian spoke from a distance away. Where was he? Why couldn’t I see him? And why wasn’t I in the machine if I was so sick? He sounded … frantic. His voice hitched when he spoke. “Please, tell me that.”

  There was the please. I would do anything for the please ...

  “It’s not the one that killed your mother.” Phew, I hated to let Damian down. “It’s from the same family. The F family flu is what killed your mom. That was a different strand. I cured that one. If that was what she had, it would already be on its way out. This is F as well. It’s not been cured. It has to be endured.”

  Damian said something I couldn’t make out, and then it was Sterling’s voice I heard. Low, clear and direct. “Fatal?”

  “It can be.”

  “Hey,” Judge answered. “Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else. We don’t need to terrify her.”

  “In this case, she’s the patient,” Lewis responded. “Technically, she’s the only one I should be speaking to. You’re all here because I think she would want you to know. Doll, this is going to be rough. You have the flu. It’s a bad one. You can survive it. The medical machine, it’s not going to be much use to us except in treating symptoms. If your fever gets too high, I’ll put you in. If you are having trouble breathing, I’ll put you in.”

  His voice was soothing. I believed him. He knew what he was doing. I could sleep. Maybe. I was hot and the table was so cold …

  “I’d rather keep you out of the machine. I can watch you more closely. Your face tells us a lot more than the readings do. If you’re suddenly in horrible pain, I need to know. I’ve given you an anti-viral injection. It should help shorten the time and maybe lessen the symptoms. As for the rest of us … checking your immune readouts, Sterling is, no surprise, not going to catch this. Judge and Damian, you might. You’ve both been exposed to Fs as children, which should give you some immunity to all of them. You might get a low impact case. There’s always a dose of F in the flu shots; unfortunately not this one specifically. Cash and I are in the same situation. We’ll wear masks, and the best thing would be if you two would stay away.”

  Damian made a sound akin to a growl. “Like hell. I know what happens. I’ve seen it.” His voice choked again. “I’m not leaving her. She needs me.”

  “We all need you to not come down with this too,” Cash responded. “Although you might have it. We’ll know in three to five days. We’ve all been intimate with her. Slept with her. I’m going to go figure out where the virus came from. It shouldn’t be here at all.”

  Whatever else they said, I didn’t hear. Sleep was my best friend.

  “Doll.” Lewis sat me up, which is what made me wake up a bit. “I need to cool you down a bit in the machine, okay?’

  Whatever he wanted. The walls bled. I pointed that out to him, and he made a non-committal sound. “Fever is rough. I’ve given you something for it, but it’s not working. The machine will get it down.” The unspoken I hope hung off his words.

  I passed out before I ever saw the medical machine close.

  “Oh, Diana. Love.” My mother helped me sit up. “How hard did you hit your head? You’ve been in this thing for so long.”

  I was so confused. I’d just been in the medical machine in Lewis’ bay, and suddenly I’m with my mom on Artemis?

  “You must have concussed yourself when the ship went into the black hole. Took us two days to tug you out. I’m so sorry, baby.” She kissed my cheek. She sounded like my mom. Smelled like her strawberry shampoo. But, no, this wasn’t right. I hadn’t been out cold for two days on Artemis. I lived in an enclosure on Orion with my five.

  “Mom, where are they? My guys? The five? Where are they?”

  Her eyes were kind. “I heard you muttering about five guys. You were dreaming. Is that what you want? A multiple marriage? We can get looking into that. She’s going to be okay; isn’t she Dane?”

  The walls bled around me, and I backed up. “No. This isn’t real.”

  Fever is hard.

  I was dreaming. I was in the machine. I loved my family. They’d never be a nightmare to me. But my mother telling me my five weren’t real constituted something else entirely. They were real.

  “Diana …” My mother reached for me, and I sat up straight, grabbing onto … Cash. Yes, I could see his dark eyes over the mask on his face.

  “Sshh.” He held me against his shoulder. “You must have been having some fever dream in there. It’s down a bit. Lewis said to let you out if it dropped below danger threshold, so that’s what I’m doing. He’s in charge in here. Probably not surprising to you. He does people better. I manage the Infected.”

  Cash rambled. So unlike him. I took a better look at his eyes and fear stared back at me. “Am I going to die?”

  “No,” he answered, and behind him someone made a sound of pain. I lifted my head a little. It was Damian. He sat on the floor by the door. His eyes were red-rimmed, and he had hair growth on his face like I’d never seen before.

  Sterling was in a chair to the left, unmasked. Judge stood, leaning against the wall near Damian. None of them had shaved. If I took off Cash’s mask—which I wouldn’t do—would I find that he had whiskers as well? I closed my eyes.

  I woke up to raised voices. Cash and Lewis. I looked left and right; the other three were gone. That was good. I hoped they slept.

  “I found it. It must have come in alive on the shipment Evander sent. It was alive on one of the battery packs she stored away in the pod room,” Cash shouted, his hand on the wall. “So we, what? Can’t even expect them to clean the stuff they send here anymore?”

  Lewis made a growling sound. “Fuck them. If she dies, I’m done. I can’t—won’t—live here without her. Hell, I don’t know how I’ll live anywhere without her but damned if I’m doing it here. Damian can pack me in the pod and send me back. I’ll buy out my contract or go to jail. I don’t give a shit.”

  “She isn’t going to die.” Cash’s voice was low.

/>   “She might. Is she getting better to you? She doesn’t seem better to me. Her blood work isn’t improving. The fever is up more than it’s down. A side infection will come any time now. You know it. I know it. Damian for sure knows it. If Judge and Sterling don’t, then I wish them well in their ignorance.”

  Cash grabbed Lewis’ shirt. “You saved her from radiation poisoning. You can do the flu. I am not leaving. I will be right here. You’re a better doctor than me. I’m lab; you’re patient care. Let’s save her. What do I need to do? Tell me.”

  “There’s nothing to do,” Lewis yelled back, louder and angrier than I’d ever heard him. “I am not in charge of the universe. And neither are you. We might have pretended for five years there was a hot chance in hell we’d …”

  I reached out my hand. “Don’t fight.”

  They both jerked around and rushed to my side. Cash spoke first, through his teeth. “Fever is still up. Damn it. Want some water, Boo?”

  “Don’t mind us yelling. We sometimes do that. You should see us really go at it over who gets the last piece of pie.”

  I coughed; my throat was dry. “Listen, I need to tell you something. And I want you to tell the other three, too. If I don’t make it through this …”

  “Stop that.” Cash used his in charge voice, and I almost did. This was too important.

  “This was the best time of my life. I never imagined moments like the ones we had. I love all of you. I don’t want to die. But if this is it, I don’t want you to be sad when you think about me. I want you to remember me happy with all of you. Brief, but the best.”

  I saw the tears running down Lewis’ face come out the side of his mask. He pushed them away. “I love you, too. We all do.”

  “You’re not dying.” Cash must be speaking through clenched teeth. “We love you. Lewis is not giving up. He’s just fatalistic. Always has been. I see the future. I see the place away from here. I see the babies. It’s all happening. You’re going to be our wife. It’s not just dating. It’s not ‘trying it out.’ You are our forever. We all see it. I’m not letting go, and neither are you. Go to sleep and get better.”