Those big blue eyes disappeared for a second. He blinked, and it took a long time for his eyes to open again. He was fading away. Dammit! He was human. A vampire would survive these wounds. In a way, it was my cure that killed him.
Lucas reached out and stroked my cheek. “I saved you … I’m going to be … with my wife and kids now.” His breathing was raspy as he struggled for words. “I got to be human … that’s happy enough for me.”
I couldn’t hold back the sob that hit me. You know how there are moments when you’re supposed to try to be strong for those around you? This was one of those and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep myself from ugly crying all over him.
“Shhh,” he said again, and that was his last word. Life left his eyes. I clutched him closer to me, even though I knew he was gone. His body was still warm, but the essence which had always followed Lucas around was no more. He was no more.
Eventually cold hard anger replaced my sorrow. Lucas had saved me so many times. From my first day in the Hive up until now, he had been my angel. And now he was dead in an alley. He deserved better.
“Fuck!” I shouted, wiping my tears and pulling out both of my guns, replacing the cure cartridge with bullets. Fuck the cure. Any vampire left now was a dead one. They’d chosen to fight, to follow Allistair and his minion Blake. Now they would face the consequences.
Tessa looked afraid. “Charlie?”
I must have looked like a maniac, covered in Lucas’ blood, holding two guns, streams of tears still coating my cheeks.
“Humans are dying. I gotta help and you’re not safe alone. You know how to use a gun?” She sure as hell had handled Blake like an expert. I held one of my kill guns out to her and she took it, stepping even closer. Her eyes were sad as she knelt beside Lucas. She made the sign of the cross over his chest and closed his eyes. “Lucas taught me to protect myself,” she said, standing again.
Of course he did. I told him to look after my bestie in the Hive, and he did, like a fucking gentleman. The world had lost a good man.
“Stick to my ass, and if you see any vampires, shoot to kill.” I wanted these assholes to die. I wanted revenge. Blake’s death wasn’t enough. Lucas had been human, and he’d drunk the blood wine at the same time as everyone else, which had to mean most were or would soon be human. I needed to take out as many vampires as I could before they were human too.
A shout cut through my red murderous haze. As if the universe thought I hadn’t been through enough tonight, Oliver’s bellow rang through the night. “JAYDEN!”
“Oh fuck!” I shouted, and took off running like I was in the goddamn Olympics. “Oliver!” I shouted, trying to pinpoint where I’d heard the scream.
“Charlie!” Oliver screamed and when I burst out of the alley. I took a right, heading toward his voice. I kept close to the walls but bullets snapped at my feet. Shit. Sniper. I was pleased to hear Tessa’s footsteps pounding behind me. Bitch hated running, and at this speed she would probably collapse and die when we got there. But I couldn’t think about anything other than Jayden. Oliver was a badass mother, and nothing short of death would make him scream like that.
“Charlie!” Oliver shouted, and I burst into the open building. The door had been blown off. Holy shit, this was my favorite coffee shop. Oliver was crouching over Jayden’s lifeless body. Oh my God, so much blood. Jayden was lying in a pool of blood as big as an elephant. Oliver was holding his leg, which was spurting in tiny little streams.
A dead vampire lay on the ground next to them.
I turned to see Tessa wheezing, trying to catch her breath. She wouldn’t be able to run and get help. Oliver was holding Jayden’s leg together.
“I’m getting a medic,” I said to Oliver, and he nodded. His face was drained of color, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Turning to Tessa, I gave her a serious look. “Guard them with your fucking life.” Tessa was born into privilege, never went through the culling, and before Blake had never killed anyone. But I needed her to be a badass right now.
Tessa nodded, clenching her jaw, and tightened the grip on her gun, standing in front of the café door like a sentinel.
I didn’t wait. I took off running.
I was the fastest runner I knew, other than Ryder. I WOULD get to a medic. I WOULD get some fucking blood and I WOULD save Jayden’s life. He’d bled a lot during the culling and he’d survived, I told myself. He could survive this.
Fuck! I forgot about the sniper. Bullets snapped all around me as I ran in a zigzag back to the place where the medical triage had been set up. In the end I tapped into my center, letting the heat take me over as I soared close to the medic building.
“Charlie!” Ryder’s voice came to my left, as a bullet nicked my shoulder and I tripped over my legs. Tucking down my left shoulder, I braced for the fall, rolling with it, before quickly popping up to find Ryder at my side, shooting the shit out of the guy on the roof.
“Jayden is dying! Needs blood,” I shouted to him, and took off running again. He kept pace with me easily, guns out, firing at anyone who got in our way. We dashed into the building. I ran right up to the first person I saw.
“I need to do a blood transfusion STAT!” I all but shouted in her face.
She was in the middle of bandaging someone’s neck, so she motioned over to a cooler. “Blood pouches in there. IV lines on the on table. Help yourself.”
Okay. I could do a blood transfusion. How hard could it be? My mom was a nurse. I threw open the top of the cooler and grabbed three bags labeled AB-negative. I grabbed two IV lines and took off running again. Ryder was right with me the whole time; he was my muscle, shooting any remaining vamps down.
Once I had time to think, I’d realize how damn happy I was to have Ryder close to me again. As a team we kinda rocked. Plus, knowing he was alive was everything. Couldn’t focus on that though, I had a BAFF to save. I’d already lost one friend tonight, and I would not lose another.
I was back at the café in record time and nearly got my head blown off by a trigger-happy Tessa. She pulled her hand away at the last second and shot the ground.
