Plague

wind-shields in Perdido Beach. Bright red tile roofs and tall palm trees made it seem so normal. As if it really was just another California beach town.
    The nuclear power plant was closer. It, too, looked normal. The hole in the containment tower was on the far side, not visible from here. The hole he’d made.
    He was startled by the sound behind him but didn’t show it. Much.
    “What are you looking at, Napoleon?” Diana asked.
    “Napoleon?”
    “You know, because he was exiled to an island after he almost took over the world,” Diana said. “Although he was short. You’re much taller.”
    Caine wasn’t sure he minded Diana tweaking him. It was better than the way she’d been lately, all depressed and giving up on life. Hating herself.
    He didn’t mind if she hated him. They were never going to be a cute romantic couple like Sam and Astrid. Clean-cut, righteous, all that. The perfect couple. He and Diana were the imperfect couple.
    “How did it work out for Napoleon?” he asked her.
    He caught the slight hesitation as she searched for a glib answer.
    “He lived happily ever after on his island,” Diana said. “He had a beautiful girlfriend who was far better than he deserved.”
    “Stop worrying,” he said harshly. “I’m not planning on leaving the island. How could I, even if I wanted to?”
    “You would find a way,” Diana said bleakly.
    “Yeah. But here I am anyway,” Caine said. He aimed the telescope back at the town. He could see the blackened hulks of burned-out homes just to the west of downtown.
    “Don’t do it,” Diana said.
    Caine didn’t ask what she meant. He knew.
    “Just let it go,” Diana said. She put her hand on his shoulder. She caressed the side of his neck, his cheek.
    He lowered the telescope and tossed it onto the overgrown sea grass. He turned, took her in his arms, and kissed her.
    It had been a long time since he’d done that.
    She felt different in his arms. Thinner. Smaller. More frail. But his body responded to her as it always had.
    She did not pull away.
    His own response surprised him. It had been a long time for that, too. A long time since he’d felt desire. Starving boys lusted after food, not after girls.
    And now that it was happening, it was overwhelming. Like a roar in his ears. A pounding in his chest. He ached all the way through.
    At the last second, the second when he would have lost the last of his self-control, Diana gently but firmly pushed him away.
    “Not here,” she said.
    “Where?” he gasped. He hated the neediness in his voice. He hated needing anyone or anything that badly. Need was weakness.
    She detached his hands from her body. She took one step back. She was wearing an actual dress. A dress, with her legs showing and her shoulders bare and it was like she was a visitor from another planet.
    He blinked, thinking maybe it was all a dream. She was clean and wearing a yellow summer dress. Her teeth had been brushed. Her hair was brushed, too, still a mess from cutting it all off and having it grow back while too hungry, but a shadow at least of its former dark, tumbling sensuality.
    She bent down demurely and picked up the telescope. She handed it to him.
    “Your choice, Caine. You can have me. Or you can try to take over the world. Not both. Because I’m not going to be part of that anymore. I can’t. So it’s up to you.”
    His jaw dropped. Literally.
    “You witch,” he said.
    Diana laughed.
    “You know I have the power . . . ,” he threatened.
    “Of course. I would be helpless. But that’s not what you want.”
    Caine spotted a boulder, not far away. Impressively big. He raised one hand, palm out, and with a scraping sound the boulder lifted into the air.
    “Sometimes I hate you!” he yelled and with a flick of his wrist sent the boulder flying off the cliff and falling toward the water below.
    “Just sometimes?” Diana raised one skeptical brow. “I hate you almost all the time.”
    They glared at each other with a look that was hate but also something else, something so much more helpless than hatred.
    “We’re damaged people,” Diana said, suddenly sad and serious. “Horrible, messed-up, evil people. But I want to change. I want us both to change.”
    “Change? To what?” Caine asked, mystified.
    “To people who no longer have dreams of being Napoleon.”
    She was her usual smirking self again as she looked him slowly up and down. Slowly enough that he actually felt embarrassed and had to overcome