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AXEL ALVARES
In Mary’s kitchen,Axel helped his sister prepare lunch. It was the least they could do after everything. He rinsed lettuce under a stream of bottled water and gave his sister the side-eye as she chopped tomatoes for the salad. The color had returned to her face. The brightness to her eyes. The spring in her step. All signs pointed to recovery, and dare he hoped, remission.
He’d thoroughly checked her over the minute he’d had a chance, and she’d told him she’d never felt better. Like a new person. Like sick wasn’t even a word in her vocabulary. There was guilt in her eyes, and he hated that if things went south with Daisy, she would live with it forever.
But things wouldn’t go south.
If she was alive, there was hope. Hope that Daisy would survive. Hope that Elena’s illness wouldn’t come back. Just goddamned hope. He goddamned deserved this after all the hardship he’d suffered. He was owed it.
Axel kept a brave face on as he continued prepping food.
Less than an hour ago, Evan and Grace had come running into the apartment with Wyatt, claiming to have a plan to bring Daisy back. Since each of the siblings could donate blood to their mates—and in Elena’s case, their mate’s sibling—they assumed they could donate blood to each other as well. So they’d set up a roster to donate a little at a time from each Lazarus sibling and then monitor Daisy for reactions and complications.
She was on death’s door, her heart weak, her body drained dry of nutrients. But her family was rallying to give it all back to her.
Wyatt’s turn was almost done. But since Wyatt’s skin was invulnerable, setting up the line had taken longer than they’d expected. Grace had to get creative. So Axel had come out here to give Elena something to do. Her boundless energy made Misha and the baby restless, and on more than one occasion Lilo had told her to sit down and be still while she spoke on the phone to her news network contacts about the contaminated water supply.
Elena finished cutting tomatoes. Axel added them to the enormous salad bowl then took it to the long, family dining table by the window where Mary sat writing something. Sheer curtains gave them a view of the city, of the smoke billowing from random places. Every so often, sirens filtered in as Cardinal City’s finest joined the heroic family with their efforts. A lot of good people were going to die today.
Axel should be out there helping his crew. They’d be wondering where he was. He gritted his teeth and turned back to the table.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he placed napkins near Mary as she wrote.
She glanced up. “I’m almost done.”
He went back to the kitchen, just as Grace joined them.
“How is she?” he asked.
“So far so good.” Grace bit her bottom lip.
“But…”
“There’s something we didn’t think about by putting Wyatt first.” She took one of the many bottles of water and unscrewed the cap. “In Evan’s dream-sketch, Daisy exhibited powers that weren’t hers.”
Axel’s heart stopped as the implications hit. “You’re saying we should have put Wyatt last.”
She nodded. “Because his epidermis is invulnerable, I had to go through his mouth to access a vein that could bleed. And… it wasn’t pretty. He’s extremely brave to have allowed me to do what I did.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Not unless you want me to detail exploratory surg—” She clamped her lips shut as she noticed Misha coming over to the dining table with Amari. Grace met Axel’s eyes. “You don’t want to know.”
Misha bounced the baby on her hip. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” Grace answered. “Wyatt is set up and Daisy is taking his blood. I’ll go in and check in a few minutes to make sure it’s all going according to plan.” She paused. “Maybe stay out here for the duration. I’ll keep you updated.”
Misha nodded and forced a smile on her face. Axel and Elena finished setting the table. Soon, Lilo came over and helped.
“Will Flint be coming?” Axel asked.
Mary gave him a tight look as she gathered her papers. “He’s running comms in the basement. I’ll bring him a plate.”
Just as Axel placed the plate down, an explosion in the streets rocked the building. At least, Axel thought it was in the street. An alarm went off. The baby started crying, and AIMI announced over the speaker system that the building was under attack again.
“I thought Nightingale Security was down there,” Axel stated, worried. The rest of the family had dealt with the earlier disturbance and set up Max, Bailey, and their team to man the front entrance in case more Faithful, replicates, or drugged civilians arrived while the Seven headed into the city and hunted down the worst of the sinners.
“They are,” Mary replied grimly.
