To her amazement, she felt no pain whatsoever. None.
Grateful to her adrenaline or whatever spared her from hurting, she placed the crystal over Ren's mark.
Nothing happened.
Panic tore through her. Was it the wrong stone? Had she messed something up? "It's not working. What did I do wrong?"
Nick placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Give it a second."
It still wasn't working. She wanted to scream.
But then, just as she was about to attack Nick for killing him when they should have been trying to save his life, it happened.
Ren sucked his breath in hard and arched his back. Panic contorted his features as he met her gaze, and held it with those blue eyes that again sparkled with life.
And this time, his soul.
Cupping his face in her palm, she smiled at him. "Hey, baby. Welcome back."
Nick took her hand that held the crystal and pulled it away. "You can let go now."
"Sorry. I didn't want to take any chances."
Nick frowned as he saw her unscarred palm. "You weren't hurt?"
She shook her head.
"Well, good." Nick flashed a grin at her. "Mazel tov. He's all yours now. Take good care of him." And with that, Nick vanished.
Kateri laced her fingers with Ren's as he came to terms with being human again.
He glanced up at the mural in the ceiling. "Did we make it in time?"
"I'm not sure. I think we did." Biting her lip, she met Jess's gaze. "Did we?"
He pushed his cowboy hat back on his head and shrugged. "We won't know for sure until 11:11 A.M., but yeah, I think we did. By the skin of our teeth."
Cabeza yawned from across the room, and Kateri felt bad that she'd been so fixated on Ren that she'd forgotten about them.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I need some sleep," Cabeza said. He clapped Sasha on the back. "Either wake me for the Apocalypse or, if the world's still here and not overrun with demons, I'll see you at sunset." He saluted them, then vanished.
Sasha duplicated his yawn. "Yeah, I could use some beauty sleep and a masseuse myself. See you guys later. Hopefully under much better circumstances."
"Take care." Kateri surveyed the damage around them that the lightning and fight had caused. While it was an impressive mess, it didn't look like it'd stopped the end of the world.
Ren tugged her hand to get her attention back on him.
"What, sweetie?"
He rose up to give her the hottest, sexiest kiss in the history of humanity.
And when he pulled back to rub his nose against hers, he offered her the sweetest smile she'd ever seen. "So tell me, Kateri. What does the future hold for us?"
Us ...
That one word and his question filled her with the warmth of a million suns.
Before she could answer, Jess stood and swung his shotgun up to rest on top of his shoulder. "Ah hell, boy, I can answer that one. A whole passel of kids, and a life that's damn worth living." July 28, 2061