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This thing would have killed him.
This thingshouldhave killed him.
But Birdie twisted everything.
Sound came through with her scream, and my chest ached as I watched my bloodied hands reach out for her. Unfamiliar fingers locked around her wrist, and the beast forced the blade into Birdie’s hand and back to Tristan’s throat.
“Do it,” I snarled. “Do it.”
“No.”
She let out the slightest whimper when I forced her hand tighter against his throat. Tristan let out a scream, but Birdie wouldn’t dare look away from me. She knew better than to ever bend for me, and that just made the thing in my chest angrier. Her hand trembled in my grip.
“We don’t have to do this, Michael.”
“He’s not going to stop.”
Her weakened fingers tried to pry her hand free, but every piece of me was already numb.
She doesn’t understand.
She’ll never understand.
“He won’t stop unless you stop him,” I choked. “Neither of us will.”
Finally, I felt her freeze beneath me. With her golden eyes on me, I could almost feel it— the sign of life she’d been so desperate to find. Her gaze locked onto me, and suddenly, she wasn’t clawing at my hand anymore. Bridget’s soft touch rested on my bloody knuckles.
“I’m not hurting him,” she murmured. “I’m not hurting you, Michael.”
The name made my head ring and my muscles ache. Her hand drifted up my wrist, and the beast inside me screamed out. She trusted me, trustedit, far more than she should, because Birdie didn’t hesitate to rest her palm so gently on my cheek. She didn’t tremble when she pressed the softest kiss against my bloody forehead. “Please, Michael.”
Her warmth drove out the dark. A single push was all it took to tear me off the child on the floor, a bloodied and sobbing carcass. Birdie shoved me back onto my ass, and before the beast could lunge for its target again, she nestled herself against my chest. Her murmurs for peace would forever be lost against my neck, her tears forever staining my shirt. As my arms wrapped around her, not even the sound of a body slamming against the front door would pull my attention from her. As she wrapped her arms around me, not even the shouts of my oldest friend could pull her eyes off me.
“You’re bleeding,” she rushed. “Michael, you’re bleeding.”
“I told you not to fucking—” Omar’s shout drove out the last of the dark. The sudden pain in my side brought me back to reality. The officer’s scream brought another cry from the boy, and Omar’s eyes shifted between the two of us. He tried again. “Don’t move.”
Omar pushed forward, his gun drawn on the boy as he rushed orders into his radio. The buzz of static, the buzz in my head, pulled my attention back down. Birdie had pulled away from me— just enough to examine the blood that poured out of my side. Though, it wasn’t the rush of pain that made my head grow fuzzy. When she looked up at me, when she hissed out another demand that I take care of myself, my gaze could only focus on the slice across her throat.
Never again.
Never fucking again would I leave her.
Never again would I let her get hurt.
“You’re bleeding.”
When the words wouldn’t leave my dry throat, I licked at my lips. “I’ll be okay.”
“Mick, you’ve gotta get the hell out of here,” Omar hissed. “They’re three minutes out, and I’m not going to be able to—”
“You’re not leaving,” Birdie croaked. Her fingers balled in my shirt, attention shifting between the officer and myself. “Please don’t leave, Michael.”
“Birdie—”
“Things are better when we stick together, aren’t they?” Her golden eyes, her worried eyes, flashed over me. My shoulders softened, and at the first sign of weakness, her arms wrapped around me. “You can’t just leave, Michael. I need you here.”
“Birdie, it won’t—” The words caught in my throat. “What the hell do you think it’ll look like if I stay?”
“They’ll believe you,” she blurted. When her golden eyes locked onto mine, when her spell finally took hold of my soul, we both knew I’d never fight her. “Your friends believe you, Michael. Please don’t leave me here alone.”
If I was everything she needed, I would have been able to explain that the last thing she needed was another tie to me. The last thing she needed was a court case publicly defending me, to see me dragged through the mud, to gamble her grace on another monster. But I wasn’t everything she needed— not yet. But maybe I was finally ready to try. When that plea fell from her lips, my arms wrapped back around her. I held her until the sirens filled the air, held her until the officers tried to pry us apart. I’d hold her for as long as she let me, because I wasn’t sure I had a choice anymore.
I loved her.
I loved her too much to ever let her go again, and maybe Birdie understood that.
Maybe Birdie finally felt the same way. Maybe she always had.
