"You fucking idiot," he snarls. "What kind of stunt are you trying to pull?"
"I need to get away from the others."
"Why?"
"Because I don't belong here. They do. You do. I have no useful purpose except to stop the lightning from destroying everything and everyone in its path." Tears burn in my eyes and stream down my cheeks. "Let me go. I need to sacrifice myself to the Echo."
"Are you totally brainless? Or just suicidal?" He grabs my arms and pulls me up into a sitting position, holding me inches away from him. Face to face, we stare at each other. "Killing yourself won't solve anything."
"But the lightning wants me. I need to give it what it wants."
"That's bullshit." He's so angry that his eyes have narrowed and he's gritting his teeth. "What makes you think you're so damn important that the Echo wants to murder you? You're just some girl from who knows where, probably a socialite who never worked a day in her life. I bet you spent your days getting manicures and agonizing over which pair of shoes go best with your hair."
Is he trying to tick me off? To dissuade me from what I've resolved to do? If so, it's working. I want to deck him. But I can't move any part of my body. All my muscles have turned to jelly, thanks to my panicked flight through the woods, and I can't tear my focus away from Gabriel's eyes.
"Don't you think your friends need you?" he asks. "Or do you only care about your own fears? What about that girl, Willow? I guess you'll just leave her to grieve for you, like everyone else. How thoughtful of you."
"Stop trying to piss me off, Gabriel."
"Why? You pissed me off, running away like that. I'm supposed to protect you, remember?"
Something in his eyes convinces me that he's genuinely worried about me. We're essentially strangers, yet he won't leave me alone to sacrifice myself for a stupid belief that only my death can stop the Echo lightning.
"Okay, I won't run out there," I say. "I won't let the Echo kill me."
All the anger in his expression melts away. He's breathing hard, but he no longer seems upset. No, I sense something else from him, something I've never experienced before. He wantsme. I can't explain how I know it, but I guess my amnesia is letting me know what it means. He wants to have sex with me. I crave that too. Even while the lightning slams down on the camp, I grow wet and tingly between my thighs, and I instinctively understand what that means.
Lust. Hard, hot lust.
Gabriel pulls me into his body and crushes his mouth to mine. His rough lips scrape across mine, and my stiff nipples rub against his chest. Then he thrusts his tongue into my mouth and devours me so completely that my heart pounds and my ears ring because I've stopped breathing. God, this feels incredible, and I want more, need more, can't take another breath again until he consumes my body in every way imaginable. He slides a hand down to my ass, grasping it firmly, and pushes one finger between my cheeks.
I moan and fling my arms around his neck, pushing my tongue between his lips. My sex throbs while slickness dribbles down my inner thighs. I can smell a musky scent that I instinctively know is the proof of how much I hunger for him.
He drops to the ground with me beneath him. Above us, Echo lightning ravages the sky, crashing down to penetrate the earth too. The ground vibrates beneath our bodies as he yanks my jeans and panties down to my ankles and unzips his pants, then plunges inside me so suddenly that I cry out and arch my back. He slaps his hands down on the ground at either side of my head. I bend my knees to cradle his body with them, and though I have no memory of sex, I realize that what's about to happen will change everything in ways I can't comprehend.
Gabriel begins thrusting, hard and fast, the pace brutal, while I grip his biceps and hoist my hips up into his thrusts. I need him to fuck me like the world is ending, and maybe it is. The Echo started the apocalypse, but our blistering lust for each other might eradicate both worlds.
And I don't care.
He growls and snarls and fucks me even harder, making my body bounce while lightning pulsates above us. He fills me so completely that it almost hurts. I don't care about that either. The ground shudders as a monstrous bolt penetrates the earth one after another, zigzagging across the sky.
The thickest, most explosive bolt yet punches into the earth—and I come.
My body curls in on itself while mind-blowing spasms seize my inner muscles, and I scream again and again. Gabriel punches into me twice more, roaring to the heavens as I feel him releasing everything inside me. The sensation makes me come harder.
The entire world falls into a deep, tranquil silence.
Gabriel still has his cock inside me. He gazes down at me with a look of wonder and shock on his face. Then he pulls out of my body, sitting up, and glances down at himself.
His eyes go wide. He jerks his head up to gape at me.
"What's wrong?" I ask, pushing up on my straight arms.
"You, ah…" He rubs his jaw and won't look at me. "This is… I'm sorry."
"For what?" I look down at my hips, which seem to have transfixed him with horror. And I see why. I have blood smeared on my inner thighs. When I glance at his dick, I see blood there too. "Um, I don't understand."
"Did it hurt the first time I, ah, thrust into you?"