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AXEL ALVARES
Axel woke to an empty bed.The first rays of dawn filtered through the open window. A cool breeze drifted in, kissing his face, cooling the sheets that had been warm and twisted around their bodies last night. Somewhere in the distant city, a cat meowed but no sounds of criminal activity assaulted him.
Perhaps the death of the city had taken a break, just like Elena’s illness had stalled.
He hoped.
Daisy was probably down in the training room, getting back to what he’d interrupted last night. He scrubbed his face and cleared his throat and then checked his cell phone with trepidation for bad news from Mary. Nothing.
No news was good news, right?
He cleaned himself up, went to the bathroom, and then quickly made his way back to Mary’s and Flint’s apartment. The intelligent computer let him in. The apartment was quiet. Everyone must still be asleep. He tiptoed to Elena’s room, holding his breath, hoping for a miracle.
When he entered, he almost did a double take, thinking he was still asleep and dreaming. Elena was sitting in the bed, awake, and with flushed and rosy cheeks.
“Ellie?” he gaped.
His surprise was echoed on her face.
“I just woke up,” she said, eyes wide at him. “I feel… Axel! I feel amazing.”
She threw her hands up in glee, but the IV cord caught and she winced. “Oh shit. I made myself bleed. I think there’s blood backwash in the line.”
Axel went to her side to help. He’d done this once or twice both in his day job and helping his parents with their lines. But when he got to the skinny plastic tube, he jerked.
“This can’t be right. It’s not connected to the bag. It’s connected to—” He trailed his finger under the line, followed it to the other side of the bed to—Daisy on the floor! Face down and in the narrow space between the bed and the wall. The truth quickly became evident. Daisy had hooked up a direct transfusion line from herself to Elena. She’d given her blood to a dying girl, and now was… unconscious… maybe—
“No,” he choked out. He vaulted the bed, stumbled in the small space, and gathered her roughly, trying to lift her. “She’s cold.”
His heart stopped beating. He ripped out the canula from her arm. Blood kept oozing. Her blood, from both her arm and the tubing. It was also running down her nose. Dribbling from the corner of Daisy’s mouth. Her ears.
“Pinch that,” he barked at Elena, pointing at her tubing. “Or you’ll lose blood.”
Elena whimpered, panicked, but did as she was told. Axel didn’t have time to deal with her. He bellowed, “HELP!” And lifted Daisy’s lifeless body onto the bed, shoving his now perfectly healthy sister out of the way.
Holding her pinched blood-filled tubing, she scrambled away. “What’s happening?”
“Daisy’s—HELP!” His shout barely made it through his tight throat. He checked her pulse. It beat sluggishly against the pallid skin of her neck. Thank Christ. “She’s given you her blood to heal. I think… I think she forced it into your body using her gift.”
She’d gone too far. She was still weak herself, still recovering, still fragile.
“She what?” Mary ran in, her eyes wide and panicking.
“I woke up and she was gone.” Axel’s eyes burned.
“Call Parker,” Mary said to Flint. “And Grace. And… everyone.”
Then she came over to Daisy and checked her as Axel had. She found the same signs. Cold skin. Sluggish pulse. Labored breath almost too weak to keep her alive. Mary met Axel’s eyes with a grim finality in her own.
“No.” He pointed at her. “Don’t you dare say it. So long as she’s alive, there’s hope.”
“She’s lost too much blood,” Mary whispered.
“No,” Axel choked, shaking his head. He gathered Daisy’s limp body into his arms. He tugged her like a rag doll to his chest and held her tight, pressing her floppy head to his shoulder. “No, Daisy. Fight. Fight like you’ve always fought.”
That she had done this… given her last to save his sister only proved she was someone who deserved to live. She wasn’t a villain. She was a hero. She’d been a hero from the moment she was born. She’d survived a hellish life with a man who used and abused her. Yet she still had something left in the tank to give. Please don’t let it be all she hasleft.
Mary found something crumpled in Daisy’s fist. She covered her mouth with her hand as she read the note. Her eyes squeezed shut and she shook her head. Fuck.
