Revenant's Kiss | ONC 2022 Shortlister ✓

O N E

I shot up from the covers, gasping for any amount of oxygen to enter my airless lungs. My heart beat against my ribcage and I struggled to breathe evenly.

I hated nightmares. Loathed them. Yet they were the norm for me whether I liked it or not.

Even after four years, the horrors of my past haunted me like wraiths in the night. I never knew when they would strike and turn a peaceful night into a hellish dream world.

At my twenty-five years of age, I shouldn't have this amount of trauma. But in this day and time, everyone had it, from the youngest to the oldest.

A warm, rough hand ran up my back, gripping my shoulder blades. I closed my eyes, letting the touch relax me.

"Nightmares again?" A sleep thickened voice asked.

Switching my attention from my thoughts, I glanced down at the tanned and five-o'clock-shadowed face of my second in command and lover. "Azrael, when is it not nightmares?"

He laughed and it drove away the rest of the uneasiness inside me. His warm brown eyes flashed with amusement as he looked up at me. "When you dream of me, of course."

"Fuck you," I laughed out, shaking my head. My blue-tipped ebony hair flipped over my shoulder and I shoved it back before plopping back onto the bed beside Azrael.

He traced the curvature of my upper chest with a sly grin pulling on his plump lips. Gently and deliberately, he shifted and held his body on top of mine, his hands now pressing into the bed on either side of my head. "Not if I fuck you first."

I pushed on his chest, biting back a smirk as he pressed forward against my palms and planted smooches on my neck. "Another time, okay? Tess wanted to see me as soon as I woke up."

"All her medical jargon and revenant info can wait." He nibbled along a vein and I tilted my head when I shouldn't have. "You can always tell her you slept in."

His teeth grazed and pinched my skin and I closed my eyes, enjoying this for a few more moments. This attention would undoubtedly leave marks behind but I wouldn't hide them, not when most of the men in this damned Quarantine Zone wanted to warm my sheets. It showed them I had someone else taking care of my wants, and I wasn't in need of anything they could offer.

As tempting as it was to stay and let Azrael mess up my ability to walk, whatever Tess wanted to see me over was important. She stressed it too much last night for me to think otherwise. Besides, to take my time getting there was to listen to her rant about how I need to take things more seriously if I wanted a cure for this godforsaken virus.

"Alright, off me," I prompted, shoving at him harder.

He stuck out his bottom lip in a pout, but did as he was told. "Yes ma'am," he relented in a feigned submissive tone.

If there was one thing to be said of him, it was this: dominance was his very soul. There was no true submission from him, especially in the bedroom.

"I'll make it up to you, promise," I assured as I stepped from the bed, the cool air wrapping around my body like a second skin.

He smirked and licked his lips, tilting his head deeper into the pillow where his thick curly hair nestled around his face. "Deal."

Pulling undergarments from the dresser and over my bare body, I finished up in a dark green tank top, beige cargo pants, and combat boots. Since my head was shaved on both sides with only a thick strip of hair down the middle, there wasn't much I could do to make it super presentable. Well, on second thought, maybe there was, but I wasn't in the mood to spend a lot of time on some overdone updo.

Settling for an extremely messy bun held in place with only an elastic, I stood in front of Azrael where he lounged still naked in my bed. I crossed my arms and felt my right brow raise a smidgeon. "How about you get your Israeli ass out of the covers and clean up while I'm gone?"

"Racist." He snorted playfully and rolled on his back, placing his toned arms behind his head as he looked up at me with a loose smile. "What is there to clean?"

I took a few seconds to glance around the concrete floor, instantly spotting the clothes we stripped off in passion last night and the crinkly thin plastics of a few used condoms. Waving my hand around at it all, I donned my aviator sunglasses. "All of this."

He surveyed the mess, a carefree smirk lacing his face. "Consider it done."

I had to laugh. If my room was clean by the time I got back, it would be a miracle. Just like me, he had duties in the QZ to handle, like patrolling or distributing rations to the lucky bastards who had enough ration cards.

Despite what the Eastern Guard League wanted everyone on the outside to think, life inside wasn't that grand. If anyone knew, it was me. As sergeant of our recon and recovery team, I'd seen plenty of action both in this concrete-surrounded hell and beyond.

Walking down the hallway of the hotel-turned-barracks, I jogged down the curving flight of stairs with gusto. Muted thumps resonated each time my foot struck a metal step, forming a sort of whispered rhythm.

"Morning, D," Miller, one of my squad members, greeted me the moment I reached the bottom. His powder blue eyes sparkled with cheerfulness and he threw up his pale hand in a half salute before tossing my walkie. "You're up early. Az got too annoying?"

"More like too horny." I rolled my eyes with a short laugh, crossing my arms across my chest after sticking the device in my back pocket.

His dirty blonde hair bounced with his laughter. "Good ol' Az. Say, Tess wanted me to remind you to meet up with her. She's over at the hospital."

"Alright thanks Miller. Don't let the drills get to you too much, okay?" I teased as I left him there at the base of the staircase. I didn't have to hear his answer because I already knew it. Just like every other time, he would assure me the drills needed to be afraid of him.

Passing through the few grunts scattered around the former lobby, I passed through the worn double doors and into the soft light of early morning.

Gentle tendrils of the sun's rays reached beyond the puffy clouds and streaked hues of pink across the sky. It was beautiful, but the ugly concrete walls surrounding what was left of the once great city of Boston, Massachusetts cut an ugly gash of reality into it. Places like this were the remaining touches of government after martial law was put in place and Washington D.C. fell to the infected.

Everything beyond the barricades lay in complete ruin. Toppled towers, destroyed buildings, all the remnants of a time before LycanZ. It was hard to enjoy the sunrise knowing what state the world was in and how quickly revenants were out-populating the uninfected.

I stepped through the small puddles left after yesterday's brief storm, nearly tripping on my own foot as the radio in my pocket unexpectedly spurted with static.

"Alpha Chaos, report to Ward immediately. I repeat, Alpha Chaos, report to Ward."

Lifting the walkie to my mouth, I held the transmission button. "Acknowledged."

Tess would just have to wait. After all, duty called, and I wasn't about to piss off the big man himself. Not this time at least.