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FOURTEEN
Decima
I spentmost of the conversation staring at my brother as he lay on the sofa, a bruise developing on the side of his forehead from where I’d knocked him unconscious in the basement. He’d woken up again after I’d first gotten back to the house and made such a fuss that we’d sedated him by more peaceful means. Now he lay limp as a noodle.
Julius stared down at him with a frown. “I understand that you wanted to give him a second chance, but we’re having enough trouble keeping ahead of the Blood Hunter on our own. He’s an unneeded complication.”
“I couldn’t leave him at the house,” I reminded him. “He’d have been calling the cops on me, and then my mug would be all over the news too. It was either bring him here or kill him, and… he’s just a kid, really. My family messed with his head, but maybe we can un-mess it.”
“He’s a kid who’s taken part in killing other kids,” Garrison put in with an edge in his tone. “I say that we let him suffer the consequences. Even after you gave him a second chance, he jumped up and tried to attack us. Poor Blaze nearly kicked the bucket yet again.”
I glanced over to where Blaze sat in an armchair with his laptop. He raised his eyebrows. “Poor me?” He pointed at Talon. “He was the one who caught a fist.”
I could tell from Garrison’s sly expression where this was about to go, and I didn’t have the time to stop it. “Talon can handle a hit from a teenage boy. He elbowed you trying to get out. Are youokay?” He dragged out the last word with faux concern.
Talon looked as emotionless as he’d been the day I met him, but I’d swear he was restraining himself from rolling his eyes at the bickering. Garrison was right about him catching one of Carter’s fists, but it hadn’t seemed to faze him any more than Blaze had appeared injured by what had really been just a graze of an elbow.
I stepped between them before they could take the heckling any further. “This is on me. He’s my responsibility, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t become too much of a liability. Okay?”
Julius inclined his head. “As long as you understand that if the situation gets rough, my priority is going to be getting the rest of you through it, not him.”
“Understood.” I looked at Garrison. “And you? Stop picking fights. We have a lot of shit to worry about, and you causing unnecessary drama isn’t going to be on that list. Understood?”
“I’d consider it unnecessaryfun, but—”
“Garrison.”
He let out a huff and smirked at me. “Fine. Serious matters only. Got it.”
I looked back down at Carter. He’d be out for hours if the sedative worked as expected, but I couldn’t keep him unconscious forever. He was going to need to eat and relieve himself… and I could hardly make a case to him about changing his sense of morality while he was dead to the world.
“Julius is right,” I said. “We’ll keep him with us if we can, but we’re not protecting him above ourselves. Hopefully, he can figure out that what he and his family did was wrong so we can let him go and start his life sooner rather than later. I know we don’t really have time to deal with this, but thank you all for trusting me.”
Garrison folded his arms over his chest. “Now are we going to talk about the fact that your family kidnapped and drugged you?”
I shook my head. “There’s nothing to talk about. They tried to kill me, and it didn’t take. Now they’re all dead except my brother, and I’m still here. End of story.”
“Dess took care of herself like she always does,” Talon said in a voice that dared anyone to continue pursuing the subject.
“Indeed she did.” Julius sighed and pressed his hands together. “Let’s get down to business. We were going to hash out a strategy after Dess got back from her run. We have information on a few more of the Blood Hunter’s associates. Who’s our best next target? Has there been any sign of retaliation from the Blood Hunter in response to our efforts so far?”
Blaze was quick to answer. “Nothing that I’ve seen. We can’t even be sure that the general has pulled his support. He sounded upset when I prodded him yesterday, but you never know—”
With a bang that echoed through the floor, the front door flew open. One of the side windows shattered at the same instant. Heavy boots thumped onto the wooden floor all around us, crunching the fresh shards of glass beneath them. Just like that, we were facing off against men dressed all in black and armed to the teeth.
We’d been prepared that we might need to leave the house, but we’d expected more warning than this. Most of our weapons were stashed in the closet near the front door. Our attackers stood between us and it. And the hillside that guarded the house’s rear now blocked us in. There was no back door to flee through, and they’d cut us off from the windows too.
As the men opened fire, Talon launched into motion, yanking me down behind the sofa and firing off a few shots from the one pistol he’d kept on him over the top. Garrison leapt over beside us. As far as I could tell, he was unarmed.
Blaze ducked behind the armchair, hugging his laptop to him and jerking out a pistol of his own with his other hand. Julius flipped the dining table for additional cover, dropping behind it and taking a few shots around its side.
How much ammo did any of them have on them? I didn’t have a gun at all, only my usual knives that the Maliks had taken off me in their basement room that I’d retrieved before I left. I tugged one into my hand, ready to throw or stab when a good moment presented itself.
Stabbing was better. Stabbing meant I could use it again.
The men who’d come for us obviously didn’t have any concerns about their ammunition supply. They flooded the living room with bullets that thudded into the furniture and walls. I didn’t think the gangster brothers who’d lent us this place were going to be happy about the violent renovation.
And through it all, Carter lay still and slack on the sofa, protected by its back but utterly unaware of what was going on around him. Shit. How was I going to protect him too?
