Page 7 of Desiderium (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse #2)

Aly

We should have taken the boat…

Taking the boat would have probably been easier… Much easier.

When I asked Jax why we were walking the entire way and not using the boat, he simply said, “It’s been out all winter, uncovered, at a rickety dock and with little to no gas.

We can’t guarantee it’s even there anymore let alone if it would get us all the way back to the estate without any issue.

This is just the safer, more reliable route. ”

Yeah, no. My legs don’t seem so reliable right now. And if I have to walk all the way to New Bern? I repeat, yeah, no… fuck that.

Just the thought of New Bern and Tryon Palace is enough to bring up old memories of when I used to live down here. The majority of my life was spent in New York, but for a few short months, North Carolina was my home. It wasn’t long but the time I spent here mattered… at least to me .

Nine Years Ago…

“At your next exit, take a right.”

It’s our first road trip outside of New York and I’m both thrilled and terrified. My boyfriend, Darius, just signed his life away to join the Marine Corps and will be leaving at some point in the near future to go to boot camp.

I wasn’t happy in the least at the news.

No one wants to wake up and hear that the person they love is leaving them.

Voluntarily, to boot. It didn’t matter how secure I felt in our relationship.

Hearing those words? It shook my confidence to the core.

To reassure me and to make up for his cheating on me with his whore of a mistress—the government—he decided to take me on a trip down to where we hope he might be stationed.

Instead of confronting the beast head on and checking out Jacksonville, the town the base is located, we decided to vacation to the nearby sites.

I’d always heard that Tryon Palace was beautiful, and if we were ever in the area, and able to make a pitstop to go see it, we should. So that’s what we’re doing.

“Here we go.” He takes a second to check the GPS before saying, “Ok, I think the entrance is just across the street.”

We park the car and exit, crossing the road and entering some sort of gift shop. Little trinkets, shirts, and hats that mean nothing to me right now surround us as we wander through the building. After a few minutes, we finally enter a court yard and there it is—Tryon Palace.

“Wow, this place is so… little. Where’s the palace?” I turn my questionable gaze on my boyfriend, hoping he knows where they hid the actual palace.

“This is it, mi alma. In the seventeen hundreds this place would be considered huge. Still is huge, if you ask me.” Darius pulls out the map he picked up from the gift shop and unfolds it.

He brushes his fingers across the picture, showing me a few key areas.

“See, there are tons of gardens and it links up with the river back this way.”

I take a second to review the map, but then step back to look around skeptically, crossing my arms across my chest. “Isn’t a palace supposed to be like a castle?

Boldt Castle back home is three times the size of this.

And it has an indoor pool and a bowling alley.

This place probably doesn’t even have a yacht house.

It’s losing points. Big ones,” I say with a smirk.

“We’ll just have to build our own palace down here, then, won’t we?

Make up for their blatant lack of respect in building this puny place.

What do you think?” He pulls me in by my waist, his smile tilting up on one side.

“Could you handle being my princess down here in a palace of our own?” His voice lowers even deeper than it normally is as he purrs into my ear.

“Could you handle me, surrounding you with affection? With lust? With love? The all-consuming type of worship you truly deserve every minute of every hour of every day? Could you handle the passion you create deep within my soul that aches and burns only for you?” His arms encompass me, guaranteed to feel the quiver his words subconsciously draw out of my body as he lures my gaze to his.

“Could you handle the love I have for you, mi alma?”

My breath stutters. We’ve never lived together.

Not yet anyways. He had his apartment and I had mine.

It’s been the comfortable status quo for the entire duration of our relationship.

I’m not sure why we never made the big decision to move in together, but our relationship was steady, constant, solid, so there was never any rush to change what we were doing.

With him moving away, I thought about how difficult a long-distance relationship would be—the inevitable arguments that would manifest as the miles built up over the days and months ahead. But if he’s offering to move in together, of starting a life down here together. That’s big.

When he sees he’s stunned me speechless, he pulls me close and kisses my forehead.

Taking my hand in his, he lifts it to his lips, kissing my knuckles before angling his body towards the pathway to the left.

Eventually, I’m able to breathe again, and we decide to explore the entirety of the grounds for the rest of the day.

The palace was actually very beautiful and surprisingly larger than I thought, once we’re able to enter the buildings and gardens, that is.

At least from what I remember of the outing.

It was just a few short months after that vacation that he packed up his bags and left for boot camp.

Little did he know, he took my heart with him that day, regardless of what he asked of me when he left .

A sudden jolt of pain shoots through my shoulder, bringing me back to the present.

I didn’t realize, when I was packing my bag, just how heavy it was.

Still is. Shit, it feels even heavier than when we first left.

I even tried to keep it to just the essentials since the guys took it upon themselves to carry most of the heavy stuff.

Super Awesome Exodus Packing List

-Clothing-

(I just got a new wardrobe. I’m not giving it up already.)

-Toiletries and Hygiene Necessities-

(It’s a LONG trip. If we stink, how are we going to sniff out the zombies? Besides, have you ever smelled a guy who didn’t bathe in a while? Fucking ick.)

-Toilet Paper-

(I think it’s self-explanatory. If I need to give up a toilet, I refuse to give up the toilet paper too, dammit.)

- Water Bottle-

(I filled it and brought it without Cole needing to ask me. Booyah. *Finger guns*)

-My Cute Little Pink Gun -

(Thank you, Jax)

-The Motherfucking Smore’s Kit-

(Hell-to-the-yeah, we saved it)

That’s it! That’s all I was tasked to load up with but, holy shit, it feels like I’m carrying a damn elephant on my back. Scratch that. A pregnant elephant… with twins!

Ok, so maybe I didn’t need to bring along twelve rolls of toilet paper. And maybe I could have left the shampoo and conditioner behind and just found some wherever we stopped. But there was no way in Hell I was going to abandon my smore’s kit. I mean… come on. It’s me we’re talking about here.

I heave out a sigh and lift my pack higher on my shoulders in a fool’s attempt to redistribute the weight more evenly or some other nonsense bullshit since it doesn’t help in the least. Hawk must hear my struggle and decides to bump his hip into mine.

“Doing ok there, sweetheart?” He looks to my pack and back to me, noticing how hunched over I’m getting. “Want me to take that from you for a little bit?”

I sigh again. “No, I’ve got it. I was the dumbass who chose to bring all of this stuff, plus you’re already carrying a pack that weighs more than you.

I’ll be ok,” I say. The exaggerated breath I let out, however, says quite the opposite.

Then there’s the embarrassing groan that follows, combined with an obvious wedgie pick that totally doesn’t do anything for my overall sexiness rating.

But, let’s face it, Hawk’s pack is huge.

I could probably fit my entire body in it and still have room to stretch out a bit.

When we decided to leave the cabin, Jax pulled out his old military grade ‘luggage’ that he took overseas all those years ago.

The term duffel bag comes to mind but doesn’t even cover the sheer enormity they actually are in size.

Between the three of them, they were able to pack clothing for each of them, a first aid kit, lighters, the box of cookies thanks to Hawk, blankets, extra boots, ponchos, Jax’s knife set, a cast iron set along with utensils and minor dish set, water purifiers, the remainder of the food, a fucking tent and a bunch of other stuff.

Not to mention, their bodies are absolutely covered with holsters carrying various weapons and ammunition.

Jax even has a compound bow and a quiver filled with arrows strapped across his back while a fishing rod is jutting out of the top of Hawk’s bag.

Come on Aly, get it together. I have nothing to complain about. Just need to woman the fuck up. I can do this. It’s walking for crying out loud. Babies do it! We could be run—

“Let’s pick it up a bit….”

Son of a bitch!

Jax turns his head back to look at the rest of us trailing behind him.

“The weather was clear earlier but it looks like some clouds might be rolling in.” He points to the dark, ominous, poofy bits of doom just ahead of us.

“We need to find a place to hunker down for a bit. There’s a farmhouse just up ahead that we might be able to get to before the bottom drops out.

We good to go?” Hawk and Cole both nod their reassurance but I hesitate, not fully confident in my good to go status.

“I, uh… that farmhouse? Like the little, tiny one way over there? That one?” I ask with a wince but am interrupted by a disturbingly low groan followed by repetitive gravelly scrapes across the blacktop. The sound draws my attention to the far side of the road.

Fucking hell...