When his eyes bore into me, unbearably broken and full of sorrow, my heart stumbles in my chest.
“Leave us and go home, Briar.”
CHAPTER 23
BRIAR
“Absolutely fucking not!”
The words rip out of Elias as his body jerks forward, and the sudden surge of movement presses his throat tighter against the knife dad holds there. The sharp scent of fresh blood cuts through the air as the blade bites into his skin, a crimson bead welling bright against the moonlight before slipping down his neck in a thin line.
“Shut the hell up,” Dad growls, the sound gritty and lethal in a way I’ve never heard from him before. His lean frame is rigid with fury, the glint of his silver rings catching the faint light as his hand clamps harder around the hilt of his knife. “You will keep your lips sealed, or I’ll make you regret ever drawing breath. There will be vengeance for whatever your part is in our daughter’s suffering.”
Elias’s lips thin into a tight line in response as a low growl rattles from him. The sight of the blade so close to nicking a crucial artery sends my own pulse whooshing loudly in my ears. I swear I can hear the grind of his teeth from how hard his jaw is clenched. The blade digs deeper, another ribbon of blood trailing down his throat, but he doesn’t flinch away from it.
“We didn’t just go through all of that,” he snarls, voice vibrating with a feral edge, “fighting our way out from Terrance’s compound and getting dragged back from the brink of death after doing so, just to give up now.”
His words tear through the field, strong and defiant, and for a heartbeat all I can do is nod.
It mirrors my own sentiments. I didn’t just decide to get their unconscious bodies to the vehicle, struggle to learn how to drive here, and then heal them with my blood, to allow them to be left behind to fend for themselves now. I could have just left them before but my heart told me not to–that isn’t going to change just because my parents are telling me no now.
Dad’s lips peel back in a menacing hiss, the steel of his knife trembling with how tightly he grips it, and the night feels one sharp movement away from shifting into slaughter.
The problem is, I can’t blame my parents for denying my requests to bring them. I can’t even say they are in the wrong for wanting to kill them. It’s such an incredibly fucked up and complex predicament to try to wade through.
Dante’s voice cuts through the strained tension, hoarse and shaking.
“Elias. Remember what I tried to drill into your thick-headed skull about snapping back when you shouldn’t?”
The barrel of my father's gun digs into his temple as soon as his lips move, black metal gleaming cruelly under the moonlight. Still Dante tilts his head forward just enough to be able to find his cousin’s face. His voice wavers under the fear I’m sure he’s feeling the full weight of as he presses on, “Don’t make this worse for us by acting like we don’t need to atone at all for what we’ve done.”
Elias’s mouth opens immediately to fire back, despite the warnings. “I took a fucking bullet for her when you were both passed out and it was just me and her fighting those guards off!So don’t act like you think I feel innocent in this.” His throat bobs against the blade once more as his gaze falls to the grass at his feet, voice barely a whisper as he adds, “My own guilt drove me in front of her.”
I hear a sharp inhale from my mom at that, but it doesn’t seem to faze my fathers in the slightest. I can practically hear them all thinkingas you fucking deservedin response to Elias’s admission.
Dante nods his head slightly before his attention flicks to Callum, softer and akin to a pleading expression. “And I needyouto know, if we don’t make it out of here, that it isn’t all on you, so please don’t carry the weight alone. You can’t be blamed for everything when it was my father who forced us all into this. We all tried to avoid it well before Briar was involved.”
Callum’s jaw flexes once before he drags his bottom lip between his teeth, blinking and unfocused in his attention.
I can truly see how much his guilt eats him alive, and once again the sight of his raw fury breaking open that container of my blood in the lab comes surging forward.
“Please,” I beg, turning into my mother’s side, clutching at her arm like she’s the only one who can possibly be broken through to. “Don’t let them die. Don’t let this end here. Bring them back with us to Sanguis.”
Mom’s gaze sharpens, her mouth hardening into a line as she shakes her head, her words firm and immovable. “Briar, you’re asking too much. You don’t understand the risk. We can’t just drag human hunters into the heart of our city.”
My chest tightens with her refusal, but still I can’t accept it.
“I’ll take responsibility for them,” I blurt out, my mind frantically trying to come up with a way to make this work. “If they come to Sanguis, they’ll answer to me. I’ll guard them myself if I have to. They won’t lay a finger on anyone while I’m there to stop them.”
Mom’s blue eyes begin to flare with crimson at the edges once more. “No.” The word cracks through the air. “I don’t want them anywhere near you. Not after whatever their hand was in it.”
I can’t deny her words, but my parents refuse to see what good the guys did in getting me out.
Two things can be true at once, is a sentiment I’m learning to come to terms with, but I can’t force my family into also getting that. Not when they don’t have my same lived experiences with these humans.
Frustrated tears sting my eyes, but I don’t look away from her as I take a deep breath and draw a line in the sand. “Then I will stay here with them.”
Her face goes slack, lips parting as if I’ve struck her harder than any weapon could. I press on before she can gather her fury, voice breaking, but resolute. “I promised to take them where their family couldn’t reach them, and if I can’t do that, then I will protect them here.”
