Reece awoke in his below-decks cabin aboard the carrier, wrapped in a pair of heavy cotton blankets. The first thing he noticed was a slight headache. The second was that he wasn’t alone. Curled up next to him was Aika. That surprised him. He wasn’t sure she had forgiven him for everything that had happened, nor did he feel that she trusted his abilities yet. Still, this was a gift and he just remained still and enjoyed the subtle warmth of her body.

She wasn’t as warm as he remembered, as she was a vampire now. She had died shortly after they had crash-landed and was turned by Karina but had passed away before the transformation could be completed. Instead of becoming a living breathing lilitu, she had become a vampire. Reece didn’t understand the differences, but body temperature must have been one of them. It didn’t matter to him either way. He had fallen in love with her aboard the Zhengzhou, and she had done nothing to diminish the love that he still felt for her.

He found it interesting and somewhat disturbing how he loved several women, each in their own way. He couldn’t bear the thought of any one of them not being in his life. If they no longer desired a physical relationship, he was fine with that. He chuckled to himself at that thought. He probably had far more than he could handle in that department anyway. No, they were his friends, his companions, and he would do anything for any one of them.

The same could be said for Angel and Pasha. Though their relationship was different, it was no less important. He’d die for any of them and imagined they probably felt the same way. He wondered if he’d feel the same way about Bjorn, and Aspen, and some of the others he’d met more recently. They had bonded over a common enemy and each of them had shown their character to him several times over. He hoped he was proving to be worthy of them all. He thought so but would never claim to be so arrogant to assume something like that. It just wasn’t who he was.

He was disturbed from his daydreaming when Aika shifted in her sleep, grabbing him tighter and mumbling something unintelligible. He found it endearing on the beautiful woman that he had fallen in love with far above the surface of the planet. He studied her smooth naturally tan skin and the straight jet-black hair that framed her perfect face.

“What would life be like if we hadn’t lost each other for such a long time?” he wondered. “Now, everything is so complicated.”

The two women he felt closest to, Aika and Karina, were immortal. He would grow old and die while they would remain forever young. More than that, while he wasn’t sure about Karina... Aika, being a vampire, almost definitely couldn’t have children. Plus, he knew that she had developed feelings for Pasha, so Reece would need to consider his feelings as well...or hers – depending on which sex Pasha was at the time. Reece laughed inwardly at that. Just one more complication in an already complicated series of relationships.

He had to also consider Naeva and Ciera, who had become close to each other as well. To him, they seemed more like friends with benefits, but he decided he needed to clarify how they felt about him before things got even more out of hand. While he could see a path where everyone could be happy, it was razor thin with very little room for error.

Trust, honesty and communication would be paramount in whatever happened or there would be hurt, heartache, jealousy, and grief. When you have it all, you have a lot to lose. Such was the nature of life. As scary as that prospect was to Reece, he also knew that it was better to have a lot to lose than nothing at all.

“Hey babe,” purred Aika, distracting Reece from his drifting thoughts. “Yen for your thoughts.”

Reece gazed down at the vampire’s beautiful face and smiled warmly. “I’m just thinking how lucky I am and how I never want to lose you now that I have you back in my life. To be brutally honest, I’m worried about losing any of you. I love you all more than life itself. I just don’t know how we can make it work without making someone angry, hurt, or jealous. What I’m trying to say is; ever since we were separated, life got complicated.”

“Ahh,” replied Aika as she struggled to find the words that she needed to express herself to Reece. “I may not have understood what you are going through if I wasn’t going through something similar. When it was just Pasha and me, it was easy to fall in love with her. We knew each other, had fought and literally died together, and we had already been intimate when she was a man. I love Pasha, as a man and a woman, Reece.”

A sharp pang shot through Reece as she said that. It was an awful feeling and it lingered, not nearly as bad as the initial jolt, but more like aftershocks of bitterness. Cold logic told Reece that he had no right to feel that way about her. After all, he had fallen in love with Karina as well. Aika’s eyes narrowed just a bit as she studied his face.

“You’re actually jealous,” she stated, somewhat incredulously.

“It doesn’t matter,” replied Reece, somewhat sadly. “And I have no right. What matters is what you want to do.”

“Well,” began Aika, again drawing out her thoughts before continuing. “I guess that depends on what you want to do.”

“What I want is for all of us to survive this apocalypse,” answered Reece wearily. “But I know what you mean. Look, it may end up being a moot point, but I don’t see any path forward where I survive this without you by my side. I believe that Naeva and Ciera are an item, but I still need to take care of Ciera for her survival. I love them both, but I’m pretty sure that I’m not in love with either of them."

"I’m also confident that they feel the same way. Even the time that Naeva and I spent aboard the Zhengzhou was as much out of convenience as any deep attraction that we had for each other. What’s really tearing me up inside is Karina. I fell in love with her after I had thought you were dead and buried, literally. I feel like I must choose between my heart and my lungs. However. if you...”

“Sshhh,” whispered Aika as she put a finger over her mouth to shush him. “Who says that you have to choose? Besides, Karina should be involved in the conversation as well. So should Pasha. Maybe even Naeva and Ciera.”

“You’re right, of course,” chuckled Reece. “See, I need you. You see what I miss, even if it’s right before my eyes.”

“Good,” purred Aika as she nuzzled Reece’s chest with her face. “And don’t you forget it. For now, let’s just have fun and not worry about it too much. None of us may survive, so making a bunch of life-altering decisions may end up causing unnecessary pain. You know, you’re lucky we’re all bisexual. I think that makes things a bit more equitable. I honestly don’t know how you managed it. You’re a very cunning man, Reece Danielson.”

“Hey now,” replied Reece hastily as he put up his hands to proclaim his innocence. “I had no idea and hadn’t planned any of it. In fact, pretty much all of you found me. Naeva hunted me down aboard the Zhengzhou, then brought me to you. Pasha was a complete surprise, you know, being a guy and all. Karina came out of the shadows only a few minutes after we crash-landed, and I met Ciera when she infiltrated our community at Kennedy while she was a thrall of the Order. If there is anything to it at all, I’d say that one or more of the gods, or goddesses, or whatever powers are lurking out there in the nether have set this all up somehow.”

“Hmmm,” pondered Aika. “I hadn’t considered that. It does make a certain amount of sense. Good to know.”

While he lay there, stroking Aika’s silky black hair, they stared into each other’s eyes. The memory of the previous day finally filtered into his consciousness and his eyes shot wide open in shock.

“By the gods, Aika,” blurted Reece. “I was so taken with you that I totally forgot about everything we went through yesterday. I remember the tree and the goddess and the battle with the berserkers. I also remember the whales, the carrier...and... oh gods...the Kraken! That was about the last thing I remember. It helped us defeat the Order’s forces and then returned to its lair, warning me not to bother it again. What happened after that? I think I passed out.”

“Oh my, where to begin,” answered Aika as she collected her thoughts. “Well, you’re right about passing out. However, that was nearly a week ago.”

“A week!” exclaimed Reece, trying to sit up despite Aika’s weight on his chest where she was laying on him. “I need to...”

“Relax,” commanded Aika as she used her body to push him back onto the bed. “You were exhausted after your ordeal, but everything is fine right now. Karina drank some of your blood and was able to piece most of what had happened together without you. She filled us in. You were controlling the whales and had single-handedly nearly turned the tide of the battle."

"When that didn’t work," she continued. "Karina mentioned something about a ghost squirrel...not sure what that was about, but that you had reached out to some ancient powerful creature of the sea to interfere on our behalf. Apparently, it worked, because the next thing we know, the Order’s creatures were getting decimated until none were left.”

"After that, we left the area since there was so much carnage that it began to draw in thousands of sharks. Somehow, those had survived the zombies. So, we escaped southward and traveled around southern Africa, and are nearing Madagascar. Ciera told us we needed to head to Egypt for a nightcore fragment. Micah picked up a transmission from there. It seems like there’s another large community of survivors hiding on the massive island and we’re going to offer them any help they may need and share what information we can with each other.”

“Wow, okay,” breathed Reece. “I guess you all have been busy. That’s good. But, is everyone okay?”

“Yeah,” answered Aika. “For the most part. We lost a few good people to the gargoyles, mostly military gunners, but all the civilians stayed safely below-decks. Oh, some more good news. The Madagascans have a line on some torpedoes that will fit this carrier and our two remaining battleships. Capt. Schwarzenegger used up the few we had by attacking a couple of the zombie whales. They were effective and we managed to destroy both whales before she ran out of torpedoes. That was shortly before the rest of us returned aboard the Phoenix.”

“Ahh, that is good news,” smiled Reece. “If we can keep making contact with more survivors and make allies out of them, then maybe we can finally give this Order a solid defeat.”

“Oh, I think you’ve given the Order several defeats already,” stated Aika. “You need to give yourself more credit.”

"Hah, yeah, I guess you have a point,” chuckled Reece before leaning in and kissing Aika on her forehead. “I’m glad I have you back to help straighten me out.”

“What was that?” Aika asked testily.

“What? The kiss?” asked Reece, tilting his head and giving a little shrug.

“Hah, you call that a kiss?” This time it was Aika’s turn to chuckle. “No, hon... this is a kiss.”

Before Reece could register the movement, Aika’s mouth was pressed against his own. Her lips greedily seeking his as her tongue explored his mouth. After a long pleasurable moment, Reece played along by snaking his tongue out and into Aika’s mouth. Unlike Karina, Aika’s fangs weren’t retractable and he found it strangely sexy that he could feel their long sharp tips with his tongue. While he was enjoying the warm wet sensations contrasted with the dangerous teeth, a sharp pain shot through his tongue and he pulled back with the coppery taste of the blood in his mouth.