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It was just us now, but my instincts still screamed at me from the danger.
I barely even felt the gunshot wound in my side.
Yeah, that was going to hurt later.
“I’m okay,” I said, moving to untie the ropes that held her wrists. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“I knew he would try to do this.” She swallowed. “We were idiots thinking he was going to move on with his life.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all over now, okay? Let’s go find the others.”
Neither of us spoke of the light that just killed them all. Neither of us had to. We both knew exactly what had just happened.
Lyra’s blood in my body just saved us all.
Again.
CHAPTER 22
Lyra
“You’re bleeding!” I yelled. My heart raced so loudly in my ears, I could barely hear my own words.
Alek mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand, lurching forward and catching himself on a tree ahead of us.
I hurried to reach him, placing a shaking hand on his shoulder.
Alek flinched—actually flinched—away from me, as if my touch hurt him just as bad as the wound in his side.
“Alek!” I warned. “We can’t keep running through the forest like this! You won’t make it!”
His brows furrowed, and he dipped his head and clenched the fist that pressed against his damaged torso. “It’s too much,” he rasped.
“What? What’s too much, Alek? Let me help you!” Panic laced my words. Desperation, even. But I didn’t care.
Alek was losing his mind.
He stopped scrambling away from me, though, and his eyes even locked into mine as I took a step toward him.
Then another.
With my hands held out before me, I approached him. Blood splattered his face, soaked his clothes. His hair strung messy and wild across his head, hanging over his tanned forehead. The tattoo that peaked out from the collar of his shirt throbbed with every rapid heartbeat. Wild, unkept, chaotic. This was Alek. This was the demon I fell in love with.
And I would not run away now.
Especially because I knew. I knew in my bones what Alek was really freaked out about. I saw it in those emerald eyes. I saw it in the way he sucked in oxygen, in the way he now grasped his torso as if he could stop the pain, could stop the cravings.
“Alek,” I said again, softer. His back now rested against another tree, giving him nowhere to retreat as I took another step. Only a foot separated us now. “Let me help you.”
I searched his face, searched his soul. Let me help. Trust me.
Just like he had asked me to trust him.
“You’re bleeding,” I whispered. “I’ve helped you before. Remember? When you crawled through my window and bled all over the floor of my apartment?”
A smile cracked through his heavy pants. “How could I forget?” he asked. “I still have the scar.”
“You scared me to death that night,” I admitted. His eyes softened. “And you’re scaring me again now.”
