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"She had your blood all over her."
Oh, God. I wracked my brain, but all I saw was Emilia's pale, panicked face, pleading with me to let her call an ambulance. "Is she okay?"
"She'll be fine, no thanks to you," Luca muttered under his breath as he got an arm under my shoulder. "Home's the safest place for her. You, on the other hand, are in a bit of trouble."
I nearly passed out with the first step. Pain ripped through my left leg, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out. I wasn't about to moan like a pussy in front of this guy. "I didn't ask you to help me," I grunted. "I can get home from here."
He actually laughed at that. "You won't make it two steps without falling on your face. Come on, I've got a car."
A car. That sounded nice.
I still didn't like the guy, though.
Luca bundled me into the front seat and turned the heater all the way up. I didn't notice I was shivering until then. "Blood loss," he said as he handed me a bottle of water from the back seat. "Drink this. It'll help."
I begrudgingly took the water from him, and I only managed to spill half of it down my front as I drained it, my hands were shaking so bad. The car picked up speed, city lights blurring dizzyingly as they sped past the window. "Where are we going?"
"Is there a place in Southie I can drop you that won't earn me a matching bullet hole?"
Shakily, I gave him an address a block down from Lady D's. I could make it from there. Probably.
Luca was silent for most of the drive. I stared at the blackness outside the car, the lights smearing together as we drove through the streets of Boston. My eyes grew heavy, and Luca had to smack me across the chest a couple times to keep me awake. The burning pain in my leg had faded away to almost nothing. I was dimly aware that wasn't a good sign. "W-Why are you helping me?"
"Because Emilia asked me to," he said simply.
"That's it?"
He shrugged. "Well, if I left you to die, I'm pretty sure she'd never forgive me."
The thought of Emilia sent a fresh wave of pain through my chest. I didn't want to think about her, how hurt and scared she'd been when I told her to leave, the way she'd looked at me, the desperation in her eyes. I didn't want to think about the way she'd kissed me tonight in the grass, soft and sweet with a promise of fire, a kiss I might never taste again.
Would she forgive me for tonight?
I'd put her in danger. Maybe not willingly, but knowingly. She'd been shaking, terrified, her hands stained red with my blood and my sins. All the pains she'd taken to distance herself from the violence of our world, and I'd shattered that with my own selfishness and bullheadedness. And while I didn't regret a single minute I'd spent with Emilia, I did regret not doing more to protect her from getting caught up in our war.
I was too far gone for her. I would do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant walking away from her if she asked me to.
Even if it killed me.
A palm smacked across my chest, and I startled awake. I didn't realize my eyes had drifted shut. "We're here, Irish."
"My name's--"
Luca cut me off. "I don't want to know your name. I don't want to know anything about you, actually. I want to drop you off and forget this night ever happened."
"Fine. Just do one more thing for me, will you?"
"What?"
"Tell Emilia I'm sorry. Tell her...tell her if she doesn't put out the brick, I'll understand."
He scowled. "I don't know what that means."
"You don't have to. Just tell her."
"I will, but don't be expecting a response," he said. "I'll be doing my best to talk her out of it."
"I'd expect nothing less."
