Nightmares still roamed, some of the worst had escaped. But they were leaderless and afraid. Euan had no time for them now.
He sat in the dirt outside a green tent that was used as a temporary surgery. Slumped in the only comfortable position he could achieve, Euan’s back rested up against a dusty tyre. The truck laden with medical supplies had been driven by the male members of the Valiant while Kira and the women that supported her had stormed the warehouse. His throat was still hoarse from the strangulation. His body was still coated in the white powder that had fallen from the ceiling. The fire that licked his skin from the rope around his throat, arms and legs was expected.
The tent flap parted and Lily emerged. How she was coping, Euan couldn’t guess. She had lost her brothers, her father and now, her lover. She had scrubbed herself clean and changed her clothes. A blue apron was smeared with blood, the fingertips of her latex gloves were stained pink. Her face was marked with both exhaustion and triumph. She showed the cost and the impact of the win today.
Euan staggered to his feet. He used the truck as support. He held his breath, wavered as he waited for her update. He almost fell to his knees when she said, ‘He survived. You can see him now.’
He ignored her outstretched hand of support and stumbled past her. On a single cot inside the waterproof tent, naked, surrounded by dressings soaked in blood, Nick jerked in a restless sleep.
Kira held his head in her lap. Her hands were at his temples, wiping the blood from his hair with a wet cloth. She avoided the worst of the lacerations, the stitches, the bruising, and focused on his hairline until the black strands turned dark gold.
‘How is he?’
She looked up and blinked. In her focus on Nick, she had missed Euan entering the tent. She had cleaned herself up in order to be a nurse and support Lily. A faded yellow t-shirt stretched across her breasts. Black tactical pants encased her legs. Her boots, still caked in white dust, were the only reminder that she had been the hero today. Her face was the picture of surprise and sorrow. Nick had been unconscious during the makeshift surgery, but it had been her that had pulled his body down from his bindings. Euan wanted to wipe that memory from her mind forever, but it was a wasted plea. Kira would keep it and win out.
Lily spoke to him from behind. ‘It’s mostly superficial. If we can avoid infection, he’ll survive.’
He turned back to the woman that had lost everything. ‘Did you know?’
She shook her head and licked bloodless lips. ‘No.’
They held each other’s gaze. In her eyes, there was a sea of turmoil, of regret and grief. Until she banked it, shielded her pain and pulled back her shoulders. Her chin was high when she said, ‘I’ll gather up those that are left. We’ll work together to find a solution on how to move forward.’
After those parting words, she turned from the tent and was gone.
Euan turned back to Kira and held her gaze as the whirlpool of words swirled between them. ‘We’ll help her, support her, as much as we can.’
Euan nodded even as the pain of Lily’s loss churned within him.
‘I might have scars that rival yours.’ Nick’s voice was rougher than Euan’s.
Euan did fall to his knees then. He shuffled to them, humble before a woman that had saved not just Nick and himself, but also the human race. He edged towards a man that suffered so much in the hope to save the woman he loved. These new memories would be another burden he would carry, but Euan was sure that with both the love from himself and Kira, they would never take hold.
Nick’s eyes were bloodshot. Both were swollen and bruised. Saltwater leaked unheeded from the corners. They roved over Euan’s face even as they struggled to blink. Jade green was laced with gold. The eyes of precious stones. Almost as precious as the man that bore them. Kira’s palm was a constant stroke across his forehead.
Split lips were licked. His voice was hoarse with emotion. ‘I thought I’d never see you again. Both of you.’
Fingers tunnelled through bloody, sweat-slick hair. When they tangled with feminine ones, they locked and held. Foreheads were pressed together and Euan told him the only thing that mattered. ‘I love you.’
Blue eyes were met then. They were as bright as the sky, as deep as the ocean. There, Euan found safety, sanctuary. Refuge.
‘You are incredible,’ he told her.
She smiled at him and he breathed through the burn. She was whole, she was safe. She had survived the worst of it and prevailed using her own skill and grit. She sniffed, but her sorrow had been cathartic.
She gave Euan an impish smile and whispered her words into Nick’s ear. ‘Euan told me he wants a baby.’
The jerk was so sudden, the jolt rocked through the three of them.
‘Yep,’ she repeated into the shocked silence. ‘What do you think, Nicky? A little boy with brown eyes?’
Despite the tremor that still lingered in his overwrought muscles. Despite the blood and the tears and the stress, Nick said, ‘If we get to pick, I’d prefer a little girl with blue ones.’
They needed time. Time to heal, time to adjust. Time even to make a baby. It took Euan a moment to realise, finally, they had some. ‘I’ll put my hand up for that one if we get to vote,’ he said.
The kitten tongue that Kira poked out had his eye narrowing all for show. ‘Lucky for me, I get to make it. My decision will be the one that wins.’
The laughter that bubbled out of Euan’s chest surprised them all. He wrapped long arms and large hands around the two of them and pulled them as close to his heart as his physical body would let him. Kisses were placed on the crown of both their heads. ‘Time enough for that.’
He reached into his pocket and pulled out two precious items.
Both were bloody. Only one was ruined.
‘No,’ Kira whispered as she took the paper just as Nick palmed the watch. She fingered the sodden parchment. ‘I loved this picture.’
‘I’ll draw you another one,’ Euan said, knowing that he could. He’d draw her a thousand pictures. Ones that captured her smile, the beauty of her face, the glint of mischief in her eyes, the highlights in her hair.
Maybe even the splendour of her body as she grew swollen with his child.
Nick swallowed. Masculine hands moved until they could grasp Kira’s. Kira reached out to return the gesture with Euan.
‘It’s over,’ she said.
It was.
Outside the tent, Lily was issuing orders to right the chaos. Under her command, the Valiant had begun to herd the remnants of Parker’s men into the great entrance of the warehouse. It now no longer foreshadowed death but signalled hope. Those that had stayed were the ones willing to support the change. For the first time since Euan had seen images of bleeding bodies on the screen of his television, he believed in that possibility. He had confidence, optimism and faith in humanity.
Kira and Lily would be at the helm, and the human race would prevail.
His focus turned to Kira. She was so beautiful. Even though there were new lines that embedded in the skin of her forehead that would forever tell of the trials she had faced. She was a woman, courageous, strong. Defiant. She had never let him fall, her small, but strong shoulders had always supported him. In this, he would stand by her. Blue eyes turned cobalt as the evening light began to bleed over the horizon. Sapphire and crystal, blue flame and ocean. She completed him, them.
He swallowed. ‘Yes.’
Her gaze flickered to Nick before she cocked her head. ‘Yes?’
Euan reached up, cupped her cheeks. His hands were coated in dust, in blood, in dirt and filth. He didn’t care, neither did she. He ran his thumbs over the skin, relished the warmth that heated his palms. When she gave him a quizzical smile, he returned it, just to see her face bloom. ‘Yes, Kira. You want to help lead them, set humanity on the path to righteousness, then I’ll stand by your side and I’ll support you. I’ll do whatever I need to make you happy.’
Kira’s spine straightened. Nick grabbed her hand in his. ‘Can we do this?’ he asked.
She turned until she faced Nick. Her smile was so bright, it illuminated the room with wonder. ‘We can do this.’