Free Death Springs Eternal: The Rift Book III by Robert J. Duperre, Jesse David Young

Kyra, almost naked. She was shaking and tears rolled down her cheeks. Guilt bubbled in his throat, but it wasn’t the same kind he’d experienced over and over again for the past few months. No, this was helpful guilt, the type of guilt that told him it was time to stop being a baby and start acting like a man. He rolled over.
    “Kye,” he whispered, gently rocking her shoulder. Her green eyes fluttered open, sopping with wetness. He smiled at her, and she broke down. She almost leapt into his arms, squeezing his neck tight as she clung to him.
    “Whoa, Kye, what’s wrong?”
    She sniffled in response.
    He stayed still for a long time afterward, letting her sobbing die down to a small chain of sighs. He softly urged her away from him and looked in her eyes. She seemed to have composed herself, and she shrugged the bit of the old blanket that had lodged in her armpit away, revealing her rapidly enlarging breasts. Josh tried his best to keep his focus on her face. He felt his eye muscles twitch and thought that he must’ve looked quite peculiar in that moment.
    “Hey,” Kyra said, forcing a grin.
    “Hey, yourself.”
    She sat up, looking around the room the same way Josh had done earlier. Her expression said she couldn’t believe she was sitting there, in that house, in that bed, with him. Josh propped himself up on his elbow and tapped her knee.
    “So what happened?” he asked.
    Kyra shivered, exhaled, and dropped her chin to face him. “Nothing. Bad dream. You?”
    Josh grinned. “Good dream. The best one in a long, long time.”
    “Lucky bastard.” She smirked as she said it, as if trying to force herself out of a bad place. Then she leaned forward, kissed his nose, and said, “You seem much chippier than I’ve seen you in a while.”
    “Yeah,” Josh replied. “I guess there were some things I had to work out.”
    She looked at him sideways. “And that’s all it took? One good dream?”
    “Well,” he said with a frown, “not exactly. It’s not that easy.”
    She opened her mouth to say something more, winced, and then grabbed Josh’s hand. She guided it to her belly and placed it on the hard spot. The child within her squirmed, and a faint knot moved beneath her flesh. Josh’s eyes widened, his lips quivered, and his other hand soon joined his first. Before too long they were both sitting there with their hands on her stomach, quietly reveling at the miracles around them—the life they’d created, the life they still had, the connection between them. Josh noticed moisture starting to form in Kyra’s eyes once more, and he guessed it was that last miracle that she was thinking of, a miracle that he’d done everything he could to make it seem like a mirage.
    “I’m sorry,” he said.
    She nodded. “I know.”
    “I’ll do better.”
    “You better. Or else.”
    She playfully punched his shoulder, and Josh feigned insult. They began wrestling together, causing the bed to creak. Even though Josh heard the sounds of people waking up downstairs, he didn’t stop. It had been so long since he’d felt this good. It was like a lifetime of regret had been cleansed from his soul. He wanted to share that feeling with the only woman who cared.
    Before too long, Kyra’s panties were off and they were making love for the first time in ages. Josh was careful not to hurt her, not to press too hard on her stomach. He moved gently, gliding his hips in a slow, sensual rhythm. He felt Kyra’s chest hitch, felt her breathing pick up pace, but he didn’t speed up. He wanted this to be slow, to be felt , to let her know how sorry he was.
    What he didn’t know, seeing as he was behind her, was that Kyra silently cried the whole time.
     
     

CHAPTER 3
    HECTOR GOES TO THE DOGS
     
     
     
    Desperate fingers reached through the gate, grasping at air. Rotting faces pressed against the bars, opening sores, causing blood to cascade over the thin steel shafts. Empty eyes stared straight ahead while mouths filled