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My gaze darted to the sky. A fraction of the sky was exposed, the smoke slinking back enough to show that night already losing its inky hold. The teal blues of coming dawn started to sneak their way in and the few visible stars blinked out one by one. It was strange to see stars at all in the city, and I regretted not taking the opportunity to appreciate them one last time. Maybe I could have seen the real Pleiades, like Sutherland kept suggesting. “You’re right. I’m not going to live seven hundred years. I’m not going to live another seven hours.”
“I know.” When she smiled, her teeth were slick with blood.
“Oh, please. You think you’re going to be the one to kill me? No. But you know when people say I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do? In this case, it’s true.”
“Shut up and do it then.”
My finger moved to the trigger, and I sucked in a breath, ready to take the one life I’d set out to end tonight. What was one more at this point, after everything that had happened over the past week? One more name on my list wasn’t going to tip the scales of my sins one way or the other.
“FREEZE.”
My hand obeyed, though there was no magic in the command. A huge spotlight came on over us, and the light was so bright Marcela and I both blinked in sudden blindness. It had been a while since I’d seen light that intense.
My hair whipped around my face, and she and I both glanced up to see one of the three helicopters hovering above. The loudspeaker crackled, and the next voice that came through was a familiar one.
“Secret, it’s Emilio. Special Agent Emilio LaRoy. I’m going to need you to go ahead and put your weapon down. We’ll take it from here.”
No. No.
I knew we’d been short on time. And I knew the FBI had been looking for a way to help. But this was not helping. I couldn’t let her go, not now. My friends were dead, and I’d given up my own life for this opportunity.
Marcela took two steps back, slipping out of my reach, and she gave me a shit-eating grin that announced she thought she’d won. She thought she’d bested me. If the FBI got her, I didn’t know if she’d stand trial for war crimes, or if they would take her to a lab and study her, but I didn’t care. True justice wouldn’t be done. Human laws couldn’t make her pay the way she had to pay.
The helicopter lowered itself to a nearby lawn, and within moments three armed men jumped out, crouched low to avoid the blades. Emilio, the voice I’d recognized, climbed out behind them. He was a short Hispanic man with a Marine crew cut and warm brown eyes. I liked Emilio.
But he wasn’t going to like me much in a second.
I looked at him, refusing to lower my weapon even as they advanced on me, and when they were out of range of the chopper blades, I pulled the trigger.
The pop made everyone freeze, except Marcella. The back of her head turned to a fine pink mist, and her eyes widened in surprise.
She slumped back to the concrete, and I dropped my gun, lifting my hands to the top of my head in surrender.
“Oops.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The night sky was overwhelmed with helicopters now, and men in military uniforms were more plentiful than the dead.
Emilio had needed to pull rank and threaten several men with court-martialing if they attempted to arrest me, and in the end I was left alone. The first people on the choppers were Cedes, O’Brian, Nolan and Genie. Sig, Clementine, Reggie and the rest of the vamps still with us managed to slip away without notice, which was for the best. The sun would be up soon, and I’d have enough trouble finding safe places for Holden and Sutherland.
In all the mess and confusion, Marty—the living necro twin—was long gone, having bailed long before we got to the Met. No one knew where he was, and he obviously hadn’t stuck around to see what happened to Marcela. I was too tired now to care about one necromancer. He couldn’t cause this level of trouble on his own.
At least Emilio and Tyler—who had now taken charge of the scene—knew the vampires needed special treatment. I could count on them to take care of the others, even if I wasn’t around to help.
I didn’t say goodbye to the group on the first helicopter. I knew them all well enough to know they would insist on staying behind to talk me out of what I was going to do. But a deal was a deal, and I’d done what I had to. I was too tired to fight anymore. The battle was over and we’d won, but I’d lost so much in the process and so had they. It was better they didn’t know, not until it was over. I was happy just to know they were all safe, and though my city was in ruins, I knew it would thrive again.
Desmond, who had stepped into a leadership role with Dominick at his side, was discussing something with one of the tactical unit leaders. I thought about slipping away, but if I was going to do this, he was the one person who needed a proper goodbye. Maybe not the goodbye he deserved, but he shouldn’t be asking himself later if he was to blame.
He might have thought he could stop me, and I needed him to know none of this was his fault. I couldn’t tell him what I was going to do, but I had to make sure he knew what we’d shared had been the most real, most important thing in my life.
“Des?” I came up beside him and took his hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Hey, you.” He bent and kissed my forehead, smiling down at me. “You okay?”
“I…” I glanced back at the museum, and my heart
skipped a beat. “I will be. And you will be too. It’s over now, and everything is the way it’s supposed to be.” Now I knew how it felt to be on the delivery end of a far-too-vague speech. He looked confused, worried, but when I offered him a small smile, he seemed to relax. “I love you so much, you know that?”
