I stare at him with tears spilling down my face. His jaw is sharp, edged with bruises and scrapes that wear on my soul. Those sage eyes look through me, but I take them in all the same. Yearning for his release from this fate.
My love took the form of you, Mori.
I grit my teeth and shake my head.
No one else can end up this way. Not like Cameron. Not like me.
We have to be the last of the medical experiments. Reed has to put an end to it. If he takes over the family…maybe it can be done.
If anyone can do it, it’s him.
It’s all of us.
Cameron walks slowly around the room, looking for an opportunity to attack. Our time is short.
I pull my mask up over my lips. Then I break both ends of the smoker flares. Fire and pink smoke plume heavily through the room, sucking all of the air from the small space. Cameron instantly starts coughing and lets out an angry growl as he slashes into the smoke, aiming to slaughter me.
I duck and cut the back of his thigh in an attempt to get him on the ground. I’m not sure if I hit his tendon like I was intending to, but he whirls on me and thrusts his fist down over my spine hard. It sends me crashing to the floor, and the force tears the breath from my lungs. I choke out a grunt and spin to the side in time to evade the tip of his blade.
The steel snaps from impacting the ground.
Cameron feels around for me feverishly, his coughs are heavy but he moves like they don’t even begin to faze him. His hand brushes across my hip and he doubles down swiftly, grabbing me tightly and ripping a scream from my lips.
I smack my hand to the left side floor, desperately searching for the broken part of his knife. He sits on my chest and stares down at me, a slight furrow to his brow.
Is he breaking through?
“Cameron. It’s me, baby. It’s Emery,” I rasp, coughing as the smoke clears more and I can see him better.
“Em,” he mumbles like an empty shell. His brows pinch and he shakes his head furiously as if the demons in his blood are beckoning for him to stay under his spell.
I know he’s probably seeing all the horrible things I did whenI went under. Perhaps worse. Does he see the dead like I did? Do they chase him and taunt him? My heart breaks and no matter how I try to collect the pieces from falling, they slip through my fingers anyway.
“Cameron, you’re safe. I’ve got you,” I murmur gently and his expression softens into weary confusion. He tears my mask down. The blood from his eye drips onto my cheek as he lowers his jaw to my neck. His muscles slack and he breaths heavily, inhaling my scent.
“Em…” Cameron whispers with an ache in his tone. It moves through my entire body like morphine.“Emery…”He buries his teeth into my flesh and my entire body jolts at the force of it.
I take one long breath, a cry grates against the dryness of my throat.
Cameron lifts his head, my thick red blood covering his lips. His nose is a few inches from mine.
I can’t feel the pain that throbs. But warmth blooms where his teeth punctured my skin. I can’t tell how deep it is. And honestly it’s the furthest thing from my mind at the moment. Because he’s staring down at me. A hint of light growing there.
My lips form a smile. His green eyes study me, lost somewhere between the blood and our hearts.
I lean up and our lips connect. I kiss him like it’s a sin. I kiss him like I’ll never get the chance to again. His breath rushes from him, and after a moment of hesitation, he parts his lips, leaning down into me.
A soft hymn floats through my soul as our broken bodies meet, but it’s quickly dashed as Cameron lifts me up. Blood streams from his eye.
“Useless, thing,” he spits at me as he raises me up off my feet and holds me in the air, gripping my neck so tightly it cuts the airflow off completely.
Tears spill from my eyes as I struggle to no avail.
Please, don’t make me do this.I gnash my eyes closed as my palm curls around the broken piece of his knife.
“Die,” he whispers a mere breath from my lips.
I force my blurry eyes back open and take him in one last time before I bring the shard down to his back.
