Blake whispers into his ear, making me incapable of hearing what he said. The only evidence I am offered of its magnitude is the horror written on Xavier’s face as his eyes go wide and mouth hangs open, his skin turning pale. He visibly shivers and I lift an eyebrow curiously.
“Now be a good boy and crawl to her.” Blake says as he waves his gun pointedly towards me. Xavier hesitates, looking back as if Blake’s gone mad. I give him thesame look. Completely beside myself at his words. Heat floods my skin and my heart rate picks up.
“Do not make me tell you twice. I am not a forgiving man, Xavier. I don't make idle threats and I definitely do not ask twice. So crawl over there and say you are sorry for pointing a gun at her.” His voice is animalistic. Sounding more like a caged beast rattling the bars than a man. My panties grow increasingly soaked as a tightness builds in my pelvis. The power radiating off of Blake nearly has me drooling.
Slowly, Xavier gets to his knees and goes to bear his weight on his palms. He does as he's told and starts crawling towards me. Within seconds, he's at my feet looking up at me. Quivering, snot runs down his face as tears threaten to fall from his eyes. Knowing that he feels even an ounce of what he’s made others feel gives me a small amount of comfort for those we haven’t been able to save.
“I-I’m s-o-sorry for aiming a g-gun a-t your he-head.” He stammers embarrassingly. Looking back at Blake, waiting for approval he shakes more. What did Blake say to him that made him so afraid?
“Amoure? Do you forgive him?” Blake asks.
“Not even a little,” finally speaking after enjoying the view of Blake’s power.
“Well in that case-“ Blake starts before firing his weapon at Xavier. The bullet hits him in the shoulder and he falls forward.
“We need him for information. When the time comes, I’ll let you do the honors.” Blake offers. I nod in approval with a smile.
Quickly, our men assist us with unlocking the remaining cells and guiding the victims out one by one. Doing a final sweep of the room, Blake and I ensure the remaining enemies are dead. Absentmindedly shooting any that make a sound or movement. The guys grab Xavier and haul him to his feet before dragging him out of the room.
Walking down one of the hallways with Blake following me, I am unsure of what causes me to turn around but when I do my attention is pulled to the ground behind him. There I am met with a nearly dead guard raising his gun, pointing it directly at Blake’s back. There’s a singular moment in your life where you make a split second decision. There are no clear thoughts on how to come to that choice but you do nonetheless. This is that time for me.
The moment the gun goes off I push Blake out of the way. I’m not sure if I even move when the bullet hits me in the chest but the impact of it throws me backwards. Just as I hit the ground, Blake turns around and sends a bullet into the skull of the shooter. He throws himself to his knees and says something but all I can see is the way his face is contorted in pain. The way his lips are a soft rosy color. The way his hair is stringy from sweat. The way his French pendant hangs from his neck. My thoughts slip to another man that bears the same one. A man with crystal blue eyes and a tormented soul.
“Well that’s just rude.” I choke out.
Reaching out, I touch the pendant. Feeling it between my fingers, reminiscing of a time last year where that same pendant danced on my skin as I memorized every fine detail of the wearer's face. My vision fades but all I see is him. Ghost, looking down on me, telling me to wait for him.
Telling me to not forget him. To keep living, for him. All I see is black as the pain slips away and I bathe in the comfort of the darkness.
The darkness only leaves me when I hear a faint beeping and the distant sound of voices. My eyes creek open and light drowns my vision. Looking around, I see a hospital room. Pale grays and blues cover the room making for a dull environment. The smell of antiseptics stick to everything the way death does. My hand is squeezed as I look over to find Blake seated in a chair beside me. He looks awful with dark circles, painting his eyes and hair unruly.
“Hey,” is all I can manage to croak out. My throat is painfully dry. Like he can read my thoughts, Blake grabs a cup of water and brings its straw to my lips. The water is like a godsend that nearly has me feral with my eyes rolling back. Once I’ve had my fill, the cup is pulled away and placed back in its previous spot.
“Everly, what you did was stupid,” are the first words he says to me. I’m startled and confused, feeling like a child being scolded.
“What?” I ask, completely void of expression.
“You jumping in front of that bullet was impulsive and stupid. You could have died and for what? To save me?”
“I mean, yeah. That’s kinda the point when you take a bullet for someone.” I chuckle at his rhetorical question.
“That's exactly my point. You tried sacrificing your life to save me. If it had worked and you died…that would be your blood on my hands. If being with you means you will put your life at risk for me, then we can’t be together.” He’s nearly yelling as he finishes talking. My blood runs cold and my heart pounds. I canhear the thumping in my ears and tears pool at my eyes. Not again. Another person leaving me for loving them too much.
He stands and turns his back to me. He mumbles something about letting the nurses know I am awake before he walks out and closes the door behind him. I’m left in utter silence, thoughts bouncing off my skull painfully. I begin hyperventilating and the pain in my chest becomes unbearable as the feeling of being entirely alone is excruciatingly clear. Seconds go by and my room fills with nurses, family, and friends but all I can see is the vision of both men I’ve loved walking away from me. I’m jostled and touched but all I can feel is the shattering of my heart as it fades to dust.
Chapter Nineteen
Desperately Crazy
Life must go on even if my soul aches. I focus on work and keep my head down. Blake doesn’t talk to me outside of missions. I’ll give him one thing, he had professional courtesy. I almost expected him to avoid me or not even show up to missions but surprisingly he's been there for every single one. Rarely does helook me in the eyes or stand near me longer than is necessary. His avoidance offers as much comfort as it possibly could considering our circumstances. I think he believes by ignoring my existence, it’ll make our break up easier. He’s not wrong there. It drives me to despise him more and love him less.
Today is yet another mission, one I am going solo on. No reason to degrade my self worth by having Blake come along. He would probably end up pissing me off to the point I either shoot him or blow the head off an innocent bystander due to his blatant need to pretend I don't exist. I dress and head to the warehouse. I need to collect a very particular weapon that I strictly keep there for safekeeping. The drive doesn’t take long as I busy myself with music.
“Little Siren.” Ghost’s voice in my ear startles me to the point I slam on my brakes causing me to almost be rear ended by various cars. Other drivers lay on their horns as they swerve around me. I whip my head around to find an empty backseat. Oh yeah, that’s a new symptom of my hysteria. Hallucinations of Ghost and Blake pop up at random times like their souls are haunting me into an early grave. I aggressively rub my face in a desperate attempt to rid myself of them. Even when I have neither of them, my mind finds ways to keep them attached to me. Like a leech, they continue to suck me dry.
Slowly beginning to drive again, I focus back on the road, refusing to let my thoughts travel to undesirable places. Within another ten minutes, I arrive at my destination. I head in, quickly gather my weapons before heading back to my car and begin my drive to this mission’s destination. This time making sure to check the backseat in an effort to remind myself of his absence. It’s dark now and street lights flash overhead as I drive down city streets. As I pull up to a red light, nodding my headto the beat of music, my eyes travel to an area ahead of me lit by a lamp post. A figure stands below it, looking at me. I squint to better see them. There stands Blake, dressed in one of his suits looking divine. A horn sounding behind causes me to look in my mirror at the car it came from. My eyes whip forward to see the light has turned green but I don't move until I've looked back at Blake to find he has vanished. I groan and keep driving.
Pulling up to my destination, I retrieve my custom built rifle and head to the ladder of a nearby building. Once at the top, I throw myself over the ledge and walk to a good vantage point. Setting up the rifle, I mount it to the ledge and look through the scope. My sight dances between windows until it finds my target. An old, heavyset man perches himself on a long couch while smoking a cigar. A young brunette in a sleek dress comes into view offering him a short glass of, what I am assuming is, scotch. She halts until he tastes it and gives her an approving nod. She glides away and heads out of sight. Moments later, she can be found slipping into the small bathroom and opening a small pouch that was placed next to the sink. She pulls out some make up and carefully applies it to her neck. Zooming in, it's clear she is covering bruises in the shapes of fingers. I almost chuckle at the memories where I have had similar marks caused by a certain someone, but stop myself as I watch her face slip into a pained expression. She cries into her hands and my heart squeezes in response.
