"It's a little bit of a walk." Tess looked past him at Verd, frowning. "And there's some climbing. Do you think he can make it?"
"No need," Verd declared, and before David knew what was happening to him, he'd been swept off his feet and Verd was holding him bridal-style.
"What the hell," David managed faintly. He tried to struggle, but there wasn't much strength in it, or much heat. "Put me down, you ox."
"I'll get the door," Tess said, patting his arm, and vanished. It was a conspiracy, he thought weakly, as Verd carried him through the door. They were getting along with each other now just to make his life difficult.
He rested his head against Verd's chest, and the steady thumping of Verd's heart, the rhythmic motion of Verd's steps, carried him out of the hotel into the bright night. He was only dimly aware of the passing scenery, until Verd's stride faltered, and now Tess was holding onto both of them from the side, helping keep Verd steady as they navigated some kind of steep path. Branches caught at David's hair.
"Where are you taking me?" he mumbled.
"Somewhere we hope we can help you," Tess answered.
He smelled the hot springs as he was let down on the wet rocks at its edge. Opening his eyes, he saw an overhanging rock ledge above him, and a sliver of the colorless, too-bright midnight sky.
Two pairs of hands undressed him. He was beyond complaining now; he just let them take care of him, relaxing into it.
Verd cursed softly, and David remembered, in his half-dreaming state, that Verd hadn't yet seen how much of the dark corruption covered his body. The threads visible under his collar and sleeves were only the tip of it. His entire body was a map of darkness now, all of it radiating out from the place on his hip where he'd been bitten by that monstrous dragon-like thing he'd fought in Arizona.
Hot water touched him, and he jerked.
"Shhh," Tess soothed, and, "Shhh," Verd echoed. He relaxed again, trusting them, letting their hands support him in the water.
He opened his eyes to find that they'd both shed their clothing, too. The three of them were naked in the pool.
If he didn't feel like hell at the moment, this would be like some kind of glorious dream. He'd literally had dreams like this. The problem was, in real life he knew Tess and Verd wouldn't get along ...
Which meant this might actually be a dream. Maybe he was dying.
Lips brushed his. Verd's lips. He would know Verd's kiss anywhere. He kissed back, because if he was going to die, he wanted to kiss the first love of his life one more time.
And then Tess was kissing his cheek, his brow. Verd's mouth moved aside to make room for hers.
Some people were lucky enough to fall in love with one amazing person who completed them. He'd done it twice.
It had been fifteen years since Verd had seen David's body in all its naked glory, since he'd tasted David's lips with his own. When he was a teenager and young adult, when he'd lived only one lifetime in his own head and was hardly distinguishable from the humans around him in mind or soul, he had lost his virginity and his heart to David Monaghan.
Now, he had a hundred generations' memories of other lovers in the back of his mind. Yet all of them faded away as he floated in the water, supporting David between himself and Tess.
Since he'd come into his adult memories, he wasn't sure if he'd ever felt this centered in himself, this sure of what he felt as opposed to what all his ancestors had felt. There were endless memories crowding his mind of old loves, old families, old homes, faded like sepia-toned photos with the emotions bled out of them, leaving only ghostly echoes behind.
But there was only one David. Only he, Verdegris, had loved David. The emotions he felt now were his own.
And he now knew that he loved David still.
Even after what he'd glimpsed in the hotel room, he had been unprepared for the extent of the corruption that had spread across David's body. It wasn't rot or a rash or anything he'd ever seen before. The purplish blackness was under the skin, delicate traceries of darkness like a bruise or broken capillaries, but everywhere, covering all of David's body except his face and most of his hands and feet.
In the water, it was worse. Verd could not only see but feel it, and he now realized that the visible corruption on the surface was only a small part of it. That poisonous infestation had invaded David's tissues and internal organs, tearing him apart from the inside.
"How long has it looked like this?" Verd asked Tess quietly as they floated in the pool.
"Not very long. It started as a black spot on his hip, like a bruise, and it's getting worse by the day. You can see why I said he didn't have much time."
David drifted between them, naked and limp, his eyes half closed. "Do I dare ask what you're planning on doing?" he asked faintly.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Tess said.
Verd knew that he should have found their frivolity irritating, at a serious moment like this one. His memories told him so. But instead it made him smile slightly. This was what David had always brought into his life—lightness, play, delight. And there had been little of either in his life since he'd done his best to shut David out of it.