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I won’t let go of Eli, no matter how much it hurts, when it comes.
I want to die in his arms.
Usually, pain blooms with fire, like touching hot coals to bare fingers, like the sound Brutus and Alec made when a brand met their skin. But when my pain comes it burns so hot it becomes ice, a frigid, crushing pain that makes my teeth clatter and numbness sweep through my arms and legs.
I can’t feel anything through the pain. I can’t even feel Eli anymore.
“Who shot at us?” I manage to gasp out.
“I don’t know. It was strange. It almost looked like…” Eli’s words trail off as he sits up, holding me at arm’s length. His eyes bug out as he stares at my belly.
I look down and notice with strange detachment the neat hole in my shirt, the round circle of crimson forming around it – so tidy, so different from the splatters of Brutus’ blood that speckle my skin. The whole area sizzles with ice, but I feel oddly calm about it.
I’ve already lived through so much, dying will be a breeze.
“Claudia,” Eli’s voice shakes. “You’re shot.”
Gizmo’s head pops up between us. She prods my stomach with a curious paw. I don’t feel it. All I feel is ice and fire.
I’m shot. It doesn’t seem real. The bullet might still be inside me. If it’s not, it’s torn up all sorts of vital organs on its passage through my body.
I want to laugh. It’s too fucking cruel. I’ve literally just promised Eli I’ll protect him forever. Fat lot of use I am. In fact, I wish I was fat. If I ate more pasta then maybe I’d have some padding that could have stopped the bullet.
A laugh bubbles up from inside me at the absurdity of my thoughts. Sharp pain twists in my gut. I fall forward into Eli’s arms, and the pain blooms bright and hot and intense. I’m no longer numb.
I feel everything.
Eli says something, but I can’t hear his words. It’s like he’s yelling at me underwater. Sensations fade at the edges. I can no longer sense his touch as he holds me, tugs at me, shakes me. I can’t react. I’ve lost control of my body. The room spins, rippling as the waves of fire wash over me.
I have Eli.
I’m okay with death, because I have Eli.
I love three men, and they love me back. I’ll die in perfect peace, knowing that I had their hearts and they had mine, that I never had to live through their betrayal.
Eli’s face fades into the shadows. He calls my name, but I’m sinking deeper underwater. I carry the vision of his perfect face, ringed in a halo of golden hair, as I slip into oblivion.
Darkness takes me.
Noah
Fuck.
I tear out of the shack after Antony. In the distance, a figure ducks behind one of the outbuildings. I glimpse blonde hair streaming behind him. I pour on speed, putting Eli’s track training to good use as I tear around the side of the shed. I swing my weapon around, but when I scan the buildings for the shooter, I can’t see them anywhere.
Footsteps pound in the dust. Antony yells behind me. I whip around just as he lets off a spray of bullets that shred the ground, kicking up clouds of sand and dust. A figure leaps out of sight behind a rusting tractor.
I slam my back against the shack. Antony gestures to me to stay put and cover him while he tries to get closer. He launches himself at the tractor just as the figure makes a run for it. I think they’re doubling back toward the shack where Claudia and Eli are, so I bolt around the other side of the shed. But when I whip around to attack them head-on, there’s no one there.
“Where’d they go?” I call to Antony. But then I catch the figure darting in front of the arc of our car’s headlights. Shit. I bolt toward the car, but it’s too late. The shooter slams the door, and I run into the beam of the headlights and raise my gun as he whips the wheel around, and I see it’s not a he at all.
It’s a she.
A very familiar she.
Blonde hair.
Ice eyes.
