Chapter Twenty-Five
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URZRA STILL COULDN’T believe his female had not only decided to change her mind and find him, but she’d saved him from being captured again. Her vague answer about Fate being to blame intrigued him. His cambion had a tale to tell and he very much wanted to hear it.
Bria avoided looking at him as she cleaned up the small mess she’d made. Her cheeks were red in the dim candlelight. Her eyes kept sliding to his groin, which made his body react even more.
“What did you mean when you said Fate is to blame for you finding me, female?” Urzra asked.
Tossing the items into the wastebasket under the sink in the kitchen, Bria blew out a small sigh.
She crossed to the table and sat on the opposite side from him.
She might have decided to rescue him, but she clearly wasn’t ecstatic about it.
“The townsfolk we saved from the bandits stole my cart full of supplies,” she told him.
“I managed to get my duffle bags back, then decided to pick a house somewhere isolated to stay in until the war is over. I planned to stock enough food to survive on, then eventually return to my home on Block Island.”
She paused and he quirked an eyebrow. “Something happened to ruin your plans?” he guessed.
“You could say that,” she said unhappily. “I said something to disrespect Fate and she hit me upside the head with a branch. Then she sent a black bear from the woods to chase me towards Manhattan. I promised I’d find you just to keep Fate off my back. So, here I am, back with you again.”
Her posture was tense and her fists were clenched on the table.
Urzra felt hurt all over again. Bria hadn’t found him because she cared about him.
She was just trying to save her own life.
“I see,” he said and she flinched when she presumably felt his disappointment and pain. “Thank you for being honest,” he added.
“Look, Urzra,” Bria said, prompting him to lift his eyes to hers.
“If we were normal people and the world hadn’t turned to crap, I’d totally be into the idea of dating you.
” His heart soared at her admission. “But neither of us are normal and the world is in ruins,” she went on.
“Do you know what it’s like to be able to feel other people’s emotions constantly? ”
Her expression became haunted and he frowned. The knight hadn’t put any thought into what having her talent would be like. “Tell me, female,” he requested.
“It’s a constant barrage,” Bria said. “The more people that are around me, the worse it gets. It wasn’t so bad living with Ethel, since she had a serene personality.
But living with my mom and her stream of junkie boyfriends was hell when my skill kicked in when I hit puberty.
High school was no picnic either. It was like being in a swimming pool and drowning in every emotion you can possibly conceive of.
It’s hard to concentrate on anything but what everyone else is feeling. ”
Urzra wished he could reach over the table and take her hand, but he didn’t want to be rejected yet again. “Is there no way you can shut out other peoples’ emotions?” he asked.
“How?” she asked with a helpless shrug. “I don’t have a switch in my head that I can turn off and on at will.”
“What do you want to do, Bria Janke?” he asked, bracing himself for more pain. “I’ll ask Fate to release you from whatever plan she has in store for us, if you wish. I’m not sure what the consequences will be, since she tends to set things up eons in advance.”
Bria looked conflicted and he tried to stifle his emotions so he wouldn’t influence her decision. “There’s no point asking her to change her mind,” she said crankily. “I’m going to have to stick with you until she decides we’ve done whatever it is she wants us to do.”
That answer made things worse for Urzra.
He was all in on whatever Fate’s scheme was.
His female felt the complete opposite and was going to resist it to the end.
“It’s too dangerous for us to remain near Manhattan,” Urzra said.
“Soldiers of Chaos are searching the other boroughs as well. We’ll need to wait for a sign from either Fate, or the Mad Prophet to tell us what to do. ”
“Are we going to stay here?” she asked, gesturing at the suburban house. “We’re still pretty close to the city. The people wearing white armbands will probably work their way outwards to search for supplies.”
Urzra nodded in agreement. “We should find somewhere further away from here where we can stockpile provisions for you and where we’ll be safe,” he said, hating how dejected she looked. “Maybe Amaros will find me once I remain in the same location instead of moving around from place to place.”
“You have nineteen brothers, right?” she asked. “It’s going to be awesome living in a base with a bunch of alien men,” she muttered when he nodded again.
“I’m sure Amaros won’t mind if you have your own space, female,” Urzra said, determined that she wouldn’t have to suffer just because Fate had stuck her with him against her will.
“I guess we’ll see,” she said, obviously of the belief that the entity wanted her to be miserable.
Urzra took the maps out of his pocket and spread them out on the table. “We need to choose a location,” he said, hoping his cambion would come out of her funk soon.
Bria leaned over to study the map from the side. “There are a lot of rural areas that will have isolated farms,” she said. “We just need to pick one and make sure it’s vacant, then search for supplies in other houses.”
“Do any of the rural areas catch your eye?” he asked, turning the map to face her.
His female rested an elbow on the table and trailed her fingertip over the map. “This one,” she said, tapping it. “I can see a small lake, so there will be houses nearby. It’ll take a couple of days to reach it on foot, though.”
“I could always steal one of the trucks the militia are using,” Urzra suggested.
Bria thought about it, then shook her head. “A lot of the highways and roads are clogged with traffic,” she reminded him. “It’ll be too dangerous to speed away from them if they chase after us.”
“We could run into a pileup,” he figured. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and some bandits will attack us. We can steal their vehicle instead.”
Bria snorted out a laugh. “I’m not sure I’d call it lucky if we get attacked, but I know what you mean.”
His heart lightened at her sign of amusement.
Maybe Bria would change her mind about him if she got to know him better.
Maybe she would see that being paired together could turn out to be the best thing that had happened to either of them.
Urzra didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he’d always been an optimist. He just needed to be patient and try not to make Bria feel like she was being pressured.
“We should get moving,” he said. “We’ll find somewhere to stay for the night once we’re a safe distance from the city. ”
“I want to raid the pantry first,” his cambion said. “I might as well start gathering some supplies now, since I’m back to having nothing again.”
Urzra went in search of something to carry her provisions in. He found large canvas bags in the mudroom at the back of the house. Bria placed some canned goods in one, then they left the house. They broke into a few more homes during their journey and filled two bags with food and bottles of water.
“We should be safe enough here,” Urzra said when he noticed his companion was yawning.
Bria looked at the nondescript house and nodded.
“It’s empty and the front door hasn’t been busted open,” she said.
Some of the homes had been attacked, possibly by irate neighbors back when the Rapture had first happened.
They’d only sensed scatterings of humans during the past few hours.
It was easy to avoid people, thanks to their radars.
Urzra broke into the house through the back door and they filed inside. “I can smell bodies,” he warned her.
“Ugh, that’s great,” Bria complained. “I guess we’ll be sleeping downstairs tonight.”
“We can always choose another house, female,” the warrior pointed out.
Bria waved his suggestion away. “I’m too tired and I just want to sleep,” she said wearily.
“You take the couch and I’ll sleep on the floor,” he said.
“Thanks,” she said, dredging up a small smile. She’d eaten while walking, so she didn’t need to make herself a late dinner. Bria crashed on the couch without bothering to take her shoes off.
Urzra finally relaxed his tight rein of his emotions when he sensed she was asleep.
Bria stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up.
He sat with his back against the couch and her knees pressing lightly against his back.
That small contact was enough to fill him with contentment.
He dozed off, keeping his senses alert for danger.