Lady Grace & the War for a New World (Earth's End Book 2) by Sandy Nathan Page A

anything.
     
    “Mom! Mom! Wake up.” Jeremy shook her. “Sam! There’s something wrong with my mom!”
    Sam moved so fast he was a blur. He lay next to her, cupping her with his body. One arm curved over her head, and the other stroked her rigid limbs. He whispered in her ear.
    Her arms relaxed. Sam lay them down softly and kept his arm around her, stroking her with the other hand. He kept whispering to her. She felt very sleepy, almost drugged.
    “Sam, is that you?” She opened her eyes. “Is that you, Sam?”
    “Aye,” he said.
    “Oh, I’m so glad. I thought you were gone. Is it another time, Sam?”
    “Yes, lady. I’m here. Sleep.”
     
    Jeremy couldn’t get the way she had looked at Sam out of his mind. So soft and sweet, unlike the way she was with other men. He knew his mother had thought he was their old headman, Sam Baahuhd. People wondered if she and old Sam had ever been lovers. Jeremy knew they hadn’t been.
    It was a new time, a new world. But was it one that permitted love?

13
    Jeremy found himself standing on a flat rock shelf high above a rolling plain. The shelf was hundreds of feet deep and a thousand feet long, cut out of a much larger cliff face. They were in a broad cave stuck into a rock mountain. A stone arch curved above them, sheltering them from the elements. Some ancient adobe buildings were on the end of the shelf, down from their container.
    He ran to the edge of the ledge. A river meandered in the valley below. Big bright green trees followed the river, and the banks along both sides were lush and green. They could grow things down there. They had water. He ran back to the container to tell the others when he saw it: Another crate stood behind theirs. They’d sent the one with the weapons.
    “Mom! Mom!” he dashed inside and stopped dead. His mother and Sam were cuddled together, their arms around each other. The sight brought him up short. They looked so tender, like they belonged together. It shocked him. It was like seeing his mom with Sam Baahuhd, if everything in their world had been different.
    He shook his mother’s foot. “Mom! Mom! They did it.”
    She raised her head sleepily. “What?”
    “They moved us, and they sent the other container!”
    She scrambled out of bed and to the open door. “Oh, my God, Sam. Look at where we are!” She stepped onto the shelf’s stone floor and looked around. They could see back to where the estate and bomb shelter were to the east. It was a long way. They could see any enemy coming for days.
    “Oh, thank you, golden people.” She threw her arms over her head and danced in a circle. “Sam, look! They moved us! They gave us what we wanted.” She ran to him and hugged him as he emerged from inside. He stood blinking in the sun.
    “I don’t hurt,” he said, unbuttoning his shirt so he could see the bandage on his belly. Veronica pulled aside the dressing and examined the wound.
    “It’s healed, Sam. Not even a scar.” She removed the bandage. He walked into the sunlight and she gasped. “You look …”
    Sam stared at his forearms and stomach. Jeremy also gawked. Sam wasn’t gray any more. His skin was flesh-colored like his own, a different color than Jeremy’s, but a regular human color. Sam’s skin tone was very fair with a pink/ivory cast. He had a redhead’s complexion. He looked up and Jeremy could see his face. Wide cheekbones, straight nose. Huge green eyes. The girls in his high school would have gone crazy over him.
    “Sam, smile!” Jeremy called.
    Sam did. His teeth were perfect and white.
    His mother had put her hand to her throat and stood staring. Sam’s closely cut reddish hair sparkled in the light, as did his nubby beard. His chest and belly were exposed by the open shirt. Muscles covered his stomach, which was brushed with dark red hair.
    “Oh …” Sam had noticed the river valley below. He staggered back, covering his eyes. Then he was doubled up on his knees. He put his hands over his head