Jak knew he was taking a risk when he stepped outside, but he was desperate for some fresh air. Walking through the Devil’s Slaughterhouse at night was dangerous, but he wasn’t the kind of person who liked being cooped up for too long.
He and the others had already been in Hammersmith’s lab for hours. They’d decided to stay the night there—camping on the floor with their bedrolls—but had agreed to leave first thing in the morning, with or without Hammersmith.
Morning wasn’t soon enough for Jak to take a walk, though. He needed to feel the wind on his skin, see the moonlight, hear the crickets and night birds. It was possible, in the Slaughterhouse, that those crickets might have laser-beam eyes, and the birds might emit acid sprays from their beaks, but Jak wasn’t worried. As always, he was confident in his ability to handle any threat, and the risk was worth it. Getting out for a while would keep him sane; plus, it wouldn’t hurt to do a little surveillance.
And he had another reason for being out there, too. He wanted to see if Union was anywhere nearby, after being away from the group for hours.
Had she left for good? Jak thought it was possible. It had been a long time since she’d stormed out after revealing her history with Hammersmith. She’d been iffy about working with the group from the beginning; maybe having Hammersmith thrown into the mix had been the last straw.
Or not. As Jak walked around the base of the next hill, he spotted Union’s unmistakably lithe form gliding toward him.
“Look what cat drag in.” Jak smiled as she approached. “Gone long time.”
“I needed some time alone. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”
Taryn was running Union just then; the black braid confirmed it. But Jak wasn’t sorry he was facing the ice-maiden personality. “Yeah, appreciate.” In fact, she was his favorite of the four. “Better now?”
“I’m not sure.” Union frowned. “No worse anyway.”
Jak nodded. “Where been?”
“I don’t know.” Her frown deepened. “Why do you care?”
“Curious.” Jak shrugged. “Taking walk myself, wonder what see or avoid.”
“There’s nothing. Just wasteland for miles. The mutie creatures must all be asleep or elsewhere or something.”
“So.” Jak narrowed his ruby eyes and stared at her. “Coming back Hammersmith’s place? Turning in?”
“I don’t want to, but yes.” There was resignation in her voice. “There’s no place safer to bed down, that’s for sure. As long as that son of a bitch keeps his distance.”
“Not need worry ’bout him,” Jak said. “Rest of us have back.”
“Is that so?” She looked and sounded suspicious. “We barely know one another.”
“Part of team now. Like family. Take care of you.”
Union’s braid turned auburn, and she sneered. “You’re full of shit, Jack Sprat. Just trying to sweet-talk us into letting you in our pants.”
“Tell like it is. Not alone anymore.”
She stared at him for a moment, but he couldn’t tell if that was a good thing. Her expression was unreadable—eyes steady, brow creased slightly, jaw set, head tipped forward—but the braid was what caught his attention.
It was striped with all four colors now: black, auburn, white and brown. What could that mean, if it was more than a trick of the moonlight? That all four personalities were acting in concert?
“We are never alone.” When she spoke, her voice sounded different, deeper, darker. “We are four women in one body, remember?”
Jak watched and listened, mesmerized. It was then, as if on cue, that the first of the fireflies appeared.
They drifted in lazy looping swirls, blinking as they gathered nearby—but they were no kind of ordinary fireflies. Each bug had multiple nodes on its body, illuminating in sequence, and the nodes were different colors, all the colors of the spectrum.
Jak focused on a single mutant firefly as it swirled around him. Its lights winked as if signaling a secret code: red, yellow, green, purple, red. Another firefly glided after it, lighting up in the opposite order: red, purple, green, yellow, red.
“Look.” Jak grinned as he watched yet another firefly drift past. “Cool, huh?”
Union folded her arms over her chest and looked unimpressed. “They will probably shock you to death or impregnate your brain or something.”
Jak brushed a hand through the air, stirring fireflies like stardust. “Who say everything deadly?”
In spite of herself, Union’s eyes lit on one of the twinkling bugs as it floated past her face. “Don’t be fooled. These are probably lures for some monstrous carnivore about to pounce on us.”
“Not think so.” Jak caught one of the bugs and held it loosely in his fist, watching the multicolored light blinking between his fingers. “Just pretty.” He released it so it flew lazily in her direction.
“Pretty can mean trouble,” Union cautioned him. “And there’s enough trouble in life that you shouldn’t go looking for more.”
“Then miss all fun.” Jak grinned and caught another bug, then held it out to her on the palm of his hand. “All excitement.”
Union scowled as if she’d had a sudden urge to hit him. For a moment, Jak thought she might clap her hand down on his, smashing the firefly between them.
Instead, she slid two fingertips over his palm, pushing them up to the nose of the insect. Still blinking in multicolored code, the firefly crawled onto her fingers and perched there, antennae twitching in her direction.
“Not relax much, do you?” Jak asked.
Gazing at the bug, Union shook her head slowly. “That’s a recipe for extinction in the Deathlands.”
“Going die anyway. Might as well enjoy ride.”
Union brought the firefly closer to her face. “I don’t think I know how to do that. Not really.”
“Need right people.” Jak shrugged. “Mebbe finally found.”
Union blew gently on her fingertips, and the firefly extended its wings and took off. It fluttered in a circle in front of her, flashing blue, white, red, yellow, blue, and then it drifted over to swim a lazy loop around Jak’s head before zigzagging off into the moonlit night.
Chuckling, Jak watched it go, then turned back to Union. Before he could say another word, she lunged at him—but not with the intention of doing him harm.
Instead, she grabbed his head in her hands, lowered her head and kissed him.
Jak was stunned, but not for long. He quickly lost himself in her long, languorous kiss, enjoying the pressure and movement of her lips on his.
When she finally pulled back, her face was flushed, and her gray eyes were sparkling. She stayed close, just inches away, and kept holding his head in her long-fingered hands. “That…that was…” For once, she seemed to be at a loss for words.
“Wonderful.” Jak grinned. “About time let self go.”
“Only part of me,” she told him. “The others don’t all agree that I should have done it.”
Jak realized her braid had gone all black again. She had to have switched from whatever unified front she’d erected back to Taryn, the original ice maiden.
“Tell others give me little time,” Jak said. “I’ll win them over, you’ll see.”
Suddenly, Union shifted again. Auburn braid, snarky attitude…Rhonda. “If you think you’ve got what it takes, bring it on, white boy.”
“Okay.” This time, Jak took the initiative, standing on his tiptoes, pushing forward to claim another kiss. Now that the door had been opened, he was only too happy to make contact again.
It was different this time, though, rougher—probably because Rhonda was dominant. Though Jak had started this round as the aggressor, Rhonda quickly took over and locked him in a hungry, tight embrace.
This kiss lasted longer than the first and was equally enjoyable in a different way. Then it suddenly changed, becoming jittery and erratic, a series of quick, birdlike pecks on his lips and cheeks. She blew little puffs of warm air into his ears, making him squirm with delight; her caresses roamed his body with restless grace, sparking little fireworks of intense sensation wherever they lighted.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” she said in a nervous voice when she pulled back. Her white braid gave her away: Carrie, the crazy one. “I feel so guilty. This was wrong…but it felt…”
“Shh.” Jak reached up to touch the side of her face. “Will be all right.” How strange it was to speak to the same woman as if she were separate people in one body…and yet, it was becoming easier for him all the time.
“I don’t know why, but I believe you.” Her eyes half closed as she turned her face to kiss his hand. “I want to believe you.”
“Not hurt you.” Jak shook his head. “Will protect you.” Slowly, he went in for the softest kiss yet, barely touching her lips with his own. Somehow, it was the most perfect kiss yet, this tender contact with a skittish, vulnerable soul.
When he drew back, she stayed frozen with eyes closed and lips slightly parted as if he was still kissing her. Fireflies blinked all the colors of the rainbow around her, their radiance lighting her face like some kind of softly blended stained glass.
As he started in for another kiss, her eyes suddenly popped open, and she giggled. “I hear you’re a good kisser. Is that so?” It was brown-braided Dulcet this time.
“You be judge,” Jak said, finishing his approach.
Dulcet’s kiss was the most sensuous of the four. Her lips flowed like water, melting into his with supple abandon. Grabbing his shoulders, she bent slightly and pressed her body against his, twining her arms around his sides and back, making sure he could feel the curves of her breasts and hips and thighs.
Jak knew instantly where she was heading, and he wanted the same thing. He rolled his hands down her back to cup her bottom, felt it flex when he tightened his grip.
It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman, and Union was beautiful. They’d had a connection from the start, though only now had it come to fruition.
So what if she was damaged and potentially deadly? The same could be said of him and just about everyone in the Deathlands, couldn’t it?
And could there be a more perfect setting than there in the moonlight, with the rainbow fireflies whirling around them?
In the Deathlands, fleeting pleasures were a thing to be seized and treasured. It was a lesson Jak had learned long ago. But he had also learned that pleasures found with a kindred spirit were more satisfying than those taken from an empty heart. And the fact was, he felt as if Union was a kindred spirit.
So he made a decision to keep going if she would have him. Together, at least for a time, they could forget the challenges ahead of them.
It was then, when he was ready to take the next step, that Union suddenly pushed him away. She stared at him with a strange, dark look in her eyes, a look he didn’t recognize from the ones he’d seen there before.
Jack frowned. “What problem?”
Union just shook her head slowly. “Not tonight.” Her voice sounded different, laced with some kind of foreign accent. “Big day tomorrow. We need to rest up.”
“Not understand,” Jak said. “I do something wrong?”
She tipped her head to one side and stared at him as if he were a thoroughly uninteresting bug. “I just explained myself. Do I need to draw you a picture?”
Jak didn’t answer. Studying her braid, he saw it was striped with all four colors of hair again.
“I’ll take that for a no.” Union strode past him as if he didn’t exist and headed in the direction of Hammersmith’s lab.
“So much for mood.” Jak watched her go, wondering what the hell had come over her.