Chapter 1
THE COLLAPSE: SAN FRANCISCO
“We have to stop doing this,” Jordan said between kisses that he shouldn’t have returned but kissing Sean had become a habit that he hadn’t been able to break.
“I know, but we both needed the break from studying.” Sean’s hands were already undoing Jordan’s jeans. “Besides, we’re both single.” Sean dropped to his knees.
Sean was good with his mouth, and Jordan had been half hard since he’d called to say he was coming over—he’d also changed his underwear from lacy panties to boring briefs.
He hoped Sean didn’t find them shoved under his pillow. That was a secret that he shared with no one. The underwear was only for him as no man would believe he was a top if he ran around in women’s underwear.
The eyeliner he liked he could get away with.
Plenty of guys wore it around campus, but most were doing art or some other creative field.
He was supposed to be serious because he was studying criminology.
But after hiding who he was while growing up, he wasn’t about to keep his face clean to make others happy.
“We’re single because we broke…uh.” He glanced down as Sean licked the head of Jordan’s dick.
He hadn’t asked if Jordan was seeing anyone else—he wasn’t.
As much as he enjoyed having a boyfriend, and being open about it for the first time, he was having much more fun being single.
He didn’t need to hook up with his ex to get laid.
He watched Sean for another couple of seconds, half tempted to let him finish and be done so he could finish his essay and go out. “If you keep going, you won’t get what you came for.”
And neither would Jordan. He didn’t know what he wanted, only that it was more than this.
They’d broken up over a month ago, agreeing that they were better friends than lovers.
Yet somehow they ended up fucking every other week when Sean came looking.
A part of Jordan wasn’t sure what had changed in their relationship, except he no longer felt as though he needed to invite Sean when he went out.
Sean rocked back and gazed up at him. “Just wanted to make sure you’re interested.”
The edge in Jordan’s blood softened. He cupped Sean’s cheek, not knowing how to say no and avoid hurting his feelings. “I am.”
But he also wasn’t.
They both needed to move on.
“How are you going to date if you’re hooking up with me?”
Sean shrugged and stood. “It’s awkward. I’m not like you. I can’t talk to everyone and make them my friend in under a minute.”
“You need to go out more.” His first months in San Francisco had been eye opening, and he’d woken up in so many strange beds. He’d also nearly failed a couple of classes, so he’d gotten his shit together fast. “Go and—"
A vibration thrummed through his blood.
“Did you feel that?” He knew California sometimes had earthquakes, but he had no idea what to expect.
“I want to feel this.” Sean wrapped his hand around Jordan’s cock. “In my ass.”
Jordan lifted an eyebrow. “Subtle.”
“You’re the one who said I need to ask for what I want and be bolder”
“Yeah, but that’s not what I meant. You need to talk to people.”
“Eh.” Sean tugged down his track pants and palmed his own dick. “Why waste time talking?”
He wasn’t going to get anywhere with Sean while he was like this, but at the same time he didn’t want to take him with him when he went out because then if he picked up and Sean didn’t there’d be that knife between them, and Jordan didn’t want that.
He’d meant it when he’d said he wanted to keep Sean as a friend.
Jordan walked over to his bed and pulled out a condom.
Sean frowned. “Have you been fucking other people?”
“Nothing serious.” He was gripping the packet too tight, could feel the rubber moving in its foil.
“It was a club.” He couldn’t drink, but someone had offered him a joint, and he’d been happy to have a smoke and join in the fun downstairs.
He wasn’t sure it was his thing as there had been far too much leather, but he figured he should try everything at least once.
Or most things anyway.
“What kind of club? Why didn’t you invite me?”
“Because I didn’t know what it was going to be like and I…” he didn’t want Sean to be clinging to his side, unwilling to talk to anyone but him.
The pens on his desk danced and one rolled off and landed on the floor. The window rattled like when the military jets flew over the house where he’d grown up.
“Earthquake.” Sean pulled up his pants.
Jordan did the same. The walls pulsed and for a couple of breaths, his stomach lifted as if he was about to be sick.
“Something isn’t right. Earthquakes—” Sean was suddenly airborne.
And so was he. He didn’t know how it had happened.
He hit the ground, smashing his hip on the drawer that was now on the ground. He swore, but couldn’t hear his voice.
Another boom. He’d heard the sonic booms as the jets had broken the sound barrier, but this was different. It was within him.
“Are we under attack?” He shouted.
Sean stared at him, then crawled for the door.
The building groaned. The explosions continued. Jordan pulled himself up and gripped the windowsill, needing to figure out what was happening.
Lights were going out. Buildings toppled.
Was it safer in or out?
He turned. Sean sat against the door with blood running down the side of his face. If the building collapsed, they’d be buried along with all the other students. He strode over and pulled Sean up. “We need to get out of here.”
This time, he heard himself. Jordan grabbed his keys. If the building was still standing—if the world was still here—he could do without his shit being looted. He locked the door after them.
Hand in hand, they ran along the corridor and down the three flights of stairs and out into the open.
The red brick building that should have been on the other side of the street was half missing, and rubble was strewn all over the road.
A new white building, or half of it, listed where the red one had been.
Something big and hairy ran past, screaming, howling. Jordan stepped back. It looked like. No. It couldn’t have been a werewolf. He shook his head even as he watched it run up the street and into the dark.
“What the fuck?” Sean asked.
Jordan had no answer. He let go of Sean and walked into the road, then bent over and picked up a red brick. It was real. Heavy. He wasn’t asleep.
Overhead, something roared. He flinched and cowered. The sound chilled the center of his bones and all he wanted to was hide, but he couldn’t move as a massive beast—a dragon?—swept over the building.
That wasn’t possible.
Sean swore as though he’d seen the beast, too.
That was when Jordan realized the explosions had stopped and the ground no longer shook. Whatever it was, it was over.
The sirens of emergency vehicles began to fill the night. Fallen power cables sparked up the road from him.
“We should go in and call emergency services. It’s not safe out,” Sean said.
Jordan stood in the middle of the road. Rubble was scattered around. A car was overturned. No vehicle would be able to reach them.
From the new building that shouldn’t be there, someone cried as though calling for help.
Jordan turned around. His building was standing. The one next to it wasn’t and survivors were spilling on to the street. “People are hurt. We have to do something.”
“What are you going to do?” Sean asked, taking a step back.
“I don’t know. First aid?” The city’s hospitals would rapidly fill if it was everywhere, not just this area.
“Something.” He couldn’t hide in his room and wait for others.
The person in the new building cried out again.
“I’m coming,” Jordan called. He glanced back at Sean.
“If you don’t want to help me, find out where is affected.
Call for help. Get water and blankets and stuff. ...”
“Right.” Sean nodded. “Water. Blankets. Yours?”
“Sure.” Jordan tossed the key at him. “A torch, too.” Then he picked his way over bricks and broken wood to the crying. The person, a woman he thought from the pitch of her voice, called out in a language he didn’t understand. He moved the rubble aside, needing to find her. Needing to do something.
He pushed aside a piece of wood and stopped. His brain turning to static again as the person’s human-like hand reached for him. That was where the likeness ended.
They begged in their language, tears welling in yellow eyes with rectangular pupils. Small horns sprouted from their head and a beard grew from their chin. He blinked, but nothing changed. He wasn’t hallucinating.
The creature? The person? What were they?
Their crying and begging continued. Their hand outstretched.
Jordan glanced at the rest of the rubble. He couldn’t lift what looked like a concrete slab crushing their body.
Another roar from the sky. This one was different, pained, and Jordan didn’t see the dragon that made it. It couldn’t be a dragon.
But if it wasn’t, what had he seen?
The talking goat-person broke into sobs, their hand dropping to the rubble.
His heart ached. He couldn’t walk away from them, so he took a breath and sat.
He gently lifted their hand and held it.
Their hand felt like any other hand he’d ever held.
If he didn’t look he could pretend that there was nothing strange going on.
“Help is coming. It’s okay.” What else could he say? Did they even understand him?
They gripped his hand tightly and kept begging, and he listened even though he couldn’t understand what they were asking for. Their body shook with sobs, and tears streamed over their face.
He made himself look at the goat-person. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do.”
Now the ground had stopped shaking more people were screaming for help.
Students who lived in his building were venturing out to look at the damage.
Some of them were freaking out and adding to the noise and chaos.
He wouldn’t give himself the opportunity to fracture and panic, not right now, anyway.
His heart thumped against his ribs as he stared at the person trapped in the rubble. What were they? How had they gotten there?
The person’s sobs became whimpers and their words slurred.
He squeezed their hand. “Stay with me. We’ll pull you out.” He needed help to lift the slab. “Hey, come here.” He used his other hand to beckon to the onlookers.
The grip on his hand loosened and when he glanced at them their eyes were staring blankly at the sky.
Jordan’s eyes prickled. “No…” He should’ve done more. How many more were trapped in the building?
Sean returned with a blanket and a bottle of water and a torch. His face was pale. “It’s everywhere.”
Jordan swallowed down the lump in his throat. “What’s everywhere?”
“This. People are posting videos of buildings…arriving. Of monsters on the street.”
Monsters? Jordan glanced up at the half-building that didn’t belong. “Arriving from where?”
Sean pointed at the person whose hand Jordan was holding. “Wherever that is from.”
Deep in the rubble, a baby whimpered.
Jordan turned toward the sound, with dread swelling in his chest. Now he understood what the goat-person had been asking. They wanted their baby. He let go of their hand and placed it down. There was nothing more he could do for them. Whatever they were, or wherever they were from.
He stood and faced Sean and the onlookers, and shouted over the noise. “We need to help the survivors. We need to find them and pull them out. We can’t wait for emergency services to get here.”
He glanced down at the goat-person he’d let die. No one should die alone buried in rubble. Behind him, the baby’s cries became louder.
No one moved. They stared at him like he was the one talking a strange language.
Jordan put his hand out to Sean. “Help me find the baby.”
Sean put down the blanket and water and took Jordan’s hand to climb into the rubble. Jordan was so thankful Sean was with him, and that he wasn’t alone.