Genesis, p.1
Genesis, page 1
part #2 of Infinity Series
“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”
-Albert Einstein
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
-2 Peter 3:8
CHAPTER ONE
Alex
What does it feel like to lose the love of your life?
It was the worst kind of torture knowing that every step you took only served to take you farther away from the woman you loved. There was nothing worse than knowing you’d never see her face again, never hear her voice or feel her hand in yours. I knew what losing someone felt like. I’d been there, got the t-shirt, and would have sworn to anyone listening that I’d never suffer more than I did that day.
And I would’ve been wrong.
The one thing worse than losing someone was watching someone you loved suffer and being unable to stop it.
My eyes flicked to the rearview mirror where Gwen was curled up on a small mattress, her face glistening with sweat. The strange rash that was developing where she’d been injected seemed to have spread down the side of her neck and under the hem of her shirt, like faint purple tentacles sucking the life from her.
Jasper and I had tried everything, but nothing we’d done brought her a moment of comfort. We’d watched as she’d suffered through agonizing bouts of shivering followed by intense, sweaty sessions that had left her begging for relief.
The smug expression Hannah had displayed as she’d poisoned Gwen flashed through my mind. Hannah had been so pleased with herself as she’d trotted up the stairs and skipped off into the sunset with Ky.
Ky. That bastard was going to pay. The way he’d played me for a fool, then laughed as he and Hannah left Gwen for dead—
“You’re going to break the steering wheel. Chill the fuck out.” Jasper’s groggy voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
I loosened my grip and focused on the unending farmland around us.
A newly painted barn stood off to the left; the vibrant red paint contrasted with the green of the adjacent field. Cows grazed lazily in the distance. I focused solely on the landscape and allowed the Jeep and everything in it to disappear as I slowed my breathing.
I slammed my palms against the wheel. How was I supposed to stay calm when Gwen was suffering not two feet away?
“Just chill,” Jasper muttered, his eyes still closed.
“If you tell me to chill one more time, I will break your fucking neck.”
Jasper raised his hands. “Okay, okay. Sorry, but you breaking shit isn’t going to fix anything.” He raised his seat and rubbed his eyes before looking around. “Where the hell are we?”
“Texas. We have about twenty-eight more hours of driving.”
“That sucks.”
Yeah, it sucked all right, but we fell into a comfortable silence as the countryside gave way to neighborhoods and shopping malls, and traffic slowed to a crawl.
“We need to stop for breakfast.”
I almost refused but realized with traffic being what it was, we might as well stop.
I took the next exit, pulled into the first available gas station, and began filling up the tank. As I pumped the gas, I watched Gwen through the back window.
Weak fingers clung to her blanket and her slick, strawberry-blonde hair was plastered against her pale cheeks.
Guilt knotted in my gut. Gwen’s suffering was my fault. If I had just done the right thing, if I had protected her, she would have been safe. She wouldn’t be in pain. She wouldn’t be fighting for her life from a deadly poison.
Hell, we didn’t even know what it was. Poison? A toxin? Some bioweapon? I wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, it was killing her.
I sighed.
Why had I been such an idiot and pushed her away so many times? I’d hurt her, been an asshole to her numerous times, and she’d always forgiven me. And this was how I’d repaid her.
I’d pushed her away again because she was someone else’s soulmate. I hadn’t bothered to ask what she wanted, I’d made the decision for us both and completely cut her off. I’d left her so she could be with Ky, the guy who hadn’t given a damn about her, and who’d helped Hannah poison her.
I’d realized I loved her just in time to fail her, and I had done so on a massive scale. Gwen could die because I hadn’t been there to protect her, and even if I managed to save her, how would she ever forgive me?
Jasper asked Gwen if she wanted anything from the store. She shook her head.
“What do you want?”
“Just something to drink.”
Jasper nodded and headed toward the store.
When I finished with the gas, I slipped into the back beside Gwen. The Jeep guzzled gas like nobody’s business, but it did have its perks, one being the extra space in the back. I’d removed the seats and replaced them with a small mattress, some pillows, and a blanket to make Gwen as comfortable as possible.
I slid my hand around her clammy fingers. My vision blurred. I couldn’t breathe. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest as I forced words past the lump in my throat.
“I will fix this.”
I pressed my lips to her forehead, then quickly got behind the wheel and pulled out my phone. Clicking Zane’s contact info, I pressed it to my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Got any more info for me?” I asked, hoping Zane had found something, anything, that would lead us to the people who’d manufactured the poison.
“Not a thing. Sorry.”
Dammit. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Calling Zane had been a last-ditch effort to find an earthly solution to our problem. Now, given what little time we had, I had no choice but to follow through with my original plan.
I sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten.
Get your shit together, Alex.
I blew all the air out with a huff. “All right, this is what I need from you…”
I proceeded to give Zane his list of priorities. First, he needed to go to Gwen’s house and pick up Spyder, the little black kitten Gwen kept. Second, I needed him to contact Eli about finding my replacement as the Technical Advisor at Mercury Technologies. And last, I reminded him to check up on Beverly, Gwen’s best friend whose parents had been in an accident overseas.
I ended the call just as Jasper returned. He slid into his seat, arranged the food, then motioned with a water bottle toward Gwen. “It’s for her. She needs to hydrate.”
Jasper stretched around his seat to the back and raised the drink to Gwen’s chapped lips.
Despite his rough exterior, Jasper had turned out to be a good guy. Back when we’d auditioned for his play I hadn’t known what to think of him. He’d seemed like a cool guy, but I never would have guessed that he’d offer to help us the way he had. Nor would I have imagined him being there for Gwen the way he had been when they’d been kidnapped. I owed Jasper for that. But even though he was trying to help, I couldn’t stand the sight of him touching her.
“I’ve got it.” I jerked the bottle from his hand and raised it to her lips.
A few sips were all she would take. I wiped excess water from her mouth then started the engine.
I flicked my eyes to Jasper as I turned onto the highway. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem,” he laughed. “I get it.”
My eyes scanned over Jasper, taking in his bruised face, split lip, and swollen eye. “How are you feeling? They really did a number on you.”
“Looks worse than it is.” Jasper shrugged it off.
Well, at least he wasn’t going to whine about it. We had a long drive ahead of us, and it was nice to know I wouldn’t have to deal with constant complaints. I wished I could have flown us to California, it would have been a lot faster, but the change in air pressure would only have worsened Gwen’s condition. This long-ass drive was our only option.
“What’s the plan?” Jasper turned in his seat to face me. “Back in Florida, you said there was no cure for this, so what are we traveling all the way across the damn country for?”
I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut.
Jasper was a mortal, a human. I couldn’t divulge such information to him. It was treason.
But Jasper already knew I was an angel. He’d found that out when I’d rescued them from that basement, and he’d seen me use my powers. If he already knew that much, would knowing my plan be that much worse? Him knowing didn’t change the fact of what I was going to do. Besides, I could use his help.
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and made a decision. “Ever hear of the Tree of Life?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be answering questions, not asking them?”
“Sorry.” I paused, then ran a hand through my hair. “Fruit from the tree would make a human immortal. It was hidden thousands of years ago and is protected by a flaming sword and guarded by angels. Three angels, to be precise, otherwise known as gatekeepers. Each gatekeeper was given a key to the flaming sword with specific instructions in the event they chose to transfer ownership of that key to another angel. If any one angel obtained ownership of all three keys, he would have access to the tree itself. Twelve hundred years ago, one of the keys was transferred to an old friend of mine. His name is Cassius, and from what I’ve heard, he built a home in California’s northern mountains near Basinger. That’s where we’re headed.”
“All this angel shit is real, isn’t it?” Jasper ran a hand throu
“Nope.”
“Are you sure we shouldn’t take her to a hospital? Maybe there’s something they can do.”
“They can’t do anything about this. What Hannah injected into Gwen…” I shook my head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. A hospital visit would be useless.”
“But this tree will fix everything? It will heal her?”
“Yeah, assuming we can get it.”
“How hard is it? Has a human ever eaten the fruit, you know, since it’s been guarded?”
I stared straight ahead at the road. Dread collected in the pit of my stomach as the answer fell flat from my lips.
“Never.”
∞∞∞∞∞
Afternoon drifted into evening, then evening to night. The miles passed by in silence, though Jasper did his best to drive me out of my mind with constant rest stops.
Seriously, I’d never seen a man who refused to piss on the side of the road. Never. And Jasper wasn’t the delicate type.
Hell, maybe those kidnappers had injured him worse than he’d let on. I should have pushed for more answers when I’d asked how he was doing. Something had to be wrong, otherwise, why would we be stopping ten times a day?
“We stopping anytime soon?”
“No, we need to get to California.”
“Yeah, I get that, but Gwen needs a break.” Jasper motioned toward the back. “Look at her. She needs a bath and somewhere comfortable to rest.” He shifted in his seat and huffed. “Dammit, if I wanted to listen to a woman moan all night I would have stayed in Florida.”
I gritted my teeth but didn’t argue. As much as I hated the idea of stopping, Jasper was right. Gwen’s vitals were stable, but she was feeling like hell. A decent bed and a bath could be just what she needed.
A red flashing vacancy sign caught my eye.
I parked the Jeep, entered the hotel lobby, and tapped the small bell on the desk.
Shoving my hands into my jeans pockets, I leaned over the counter and peered through the door behind the desk, looking for the hotel clerk whose overly enthusiastic conversation about a pair of new shoes was distracting her from her job.
No matter how I twisted, I couldn’t see her in the adjacent room, but I could hear her voice.
I tapped my hand on the bell again.
“Just a minute!” she nearly shouted through the door before lowering her voice and whispering, “Sorry, Gina, some people can be so rude.”
I pressed my lips together and kept them that way until the petite clerk trudged through the entryway, head down as she tapped on her phone. Her brown hair almost fell into the pink bubble gum that was slowly expanding from her lips.
I cleared my throat.
She huffed through her nose as she shoved her phone into her pocket, then jerked her head up.
Her bubble popped.
She straightened as her eyes skimmed over my designer clothes and expensive watch. She brushed a messy strand of hair behind her ear, then smiled brightly. “How may I help you, sir?”
I pulled out my driver’s license and credit card and told her I’d like a double queen room, doing my best to minimize the interaction with her despite her attempts at conversation.
When I returned to the Jeep, Jasper was in the back with Gwen. Her eyes drooped as she sipped from the water bottle he held for her.
I nudged Jasper aside and grabbed the bottle from his hand. “Gwen?”
“Mmm?” Gwen mumbled before her glassy eyes rolled back and her head slumped forward.
I lifted her out of the vehicle, pressing her head against my shoulder as I carried her to our room and laid her trembling body across the bed.
“Gwen?” Jasper knelt at her side and grasped her hand.
Her eyes fluttered open.
I caressed her cheek and stared into her red-tinged, sluggish eyes. Eyes that slowly focused and zeroed in on mine.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
“I’ve felt better.” She groaned as she struggled to sit upright. She raised a hand to her face, swiping an oily strand of hair from her cheek. “Ugh, I’m disgusting.”
I chuckled. Gwen’s eyes flicked up to mine, confusion evident on her pale face.
“You. Are. Beautiful.”
Gwen’s lips parted as she sucked in a soft breath.
I smiled, thankful that I still affected her.
I took her hand in mine. “I’ll carry you to the bathroom and get you undressed and bathed. I promise I won’t take advantage, I won’t even look—”
“No,” she said, releasing my hand. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Gwen, you need to get cleaned up.”
“I know,” she muttered. Her eyes were glued to the floor. “But you hurt me, Alex. I can’t—” A shuddering breath blew past her lips. “I can’t deal with that right now. Can’t take the chance of getting hurt again.”
Pain cut my breath short. Gwen’s words sliced through me, bleeding me from the inside out.
Gwen turned to Jasper with trusting eyes. “Will you help me?”
Not a chance in hell.
“What?” Only the one word slipped through my clenched jaw, and I all but growled it as my eyes narrowed on Jasper.
“Thank you for saving us,” Gwen muttered. “I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did, but I just can’t…I just can’t be that close to you.”
My throat tightened.
She had every right to feel that way. I’d hurt her. I’d turned my back on her too many times.
Her gaze flicked back to Jasper. “Please?”
“Sure.”
One moment Jasper was reaching for Gwen’s hand, the next his back was against the wall with my hand pulling the collar of his shirt tight around his neck.
His eyes were wide, his chest rose and fell with every shallow breath.
“What is wrong with you?”
I blinked. Gwen’s voice broke through the haze of my anger, and I suddenly realized what I was doing.
My fingers uncurled, releasing the hold on Jasper’s shirt as I stepped back and dropped my head.
“Dammit,” I ran a hand through my hair and wondered how I’d become such a mess. I was overreacting and emotional. Get control of yourself, jackass. Jasper was just a human, and if I wasn’t careful, if I didn’t control my reactions, I’d end up killing him. “I’m sorry,” I said, flicking my eyes toward Jasper.
Jasper nodded as he adjusted his collar. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Besides, Gwen trusts me, and you should too.”
I turned and stared at the wall as my jaw clenched tight enough to break teeth.
Once upon a time, Gwen had trusted me.
I blew out a breath.
“What about you?” I asked, in a last-ditch effort to stop this. “You’re injured. Are you sure you can handle it?”
Jasper’s lips twitched, and a hint of something sparked in his eye, then as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.
“Yeah,” Jasper answered. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.”
Had I imagined that strange expression flash across Jasper’s face, or was jealousy getting the best of me again?
I ran my hand down my face, letting it linger over my mouth before I said something I’d regret.
I needed to calm down.
Jasper turned, lifting Gwen and carrying her to the bathroom.
“Leave the door open,” I told him. The clawing feeling in my chest had me jumping to my feet. My hands closed into fists, and suddenly I needed to pulverize something. Mainly, Jasper’s head.
“No, close the door, Jasper,” Gwen contradicted me, and the door swung closed behind them.
CHAPTER TWO
Alex
My hands shook. Energy coursed through me, and if I didn’t let it out, I was going to explode. I grabbed a room key and stalked out of the room, through the lobby, and into the parking lot.
Dammit.
I paced in circles, cursing myself for pushing Gwen away and for imagining scenes of Jasper removing Gwen’s clothing.
There was no reason to worry. Jasper was a decent guy. He’d taken beating after beating for Gwen when they’d been kidnapped, and Gwen trusted him.
I groaned, imagining Gwen in that bathtub with the water lapping against her bare skin. No man could resist that, and Jasper wasn’t known for showing restraint.
