"It's not mine." I pull back. "The blood isn't mine. I'm fine. Help him."
Maya holds my gaze for a beat, confirming. Then she's moving toward Diesel.
"Sit down before you fall down."
"I'm fine," Diesel says.
"You're gray and you're swaying." She's already pulling at his shirt. "Sit."
His knee buckles.
Crow catches him before he hits the floor, eases him down against the wall. Diesel fights it, tries to push back up, but his body has started cashing the checks his will has been writing.
"Easy." Crow keeps a hand on his shoulder. "We've got her. Stand down."
Diesel's eyes find mine. Bleeding out against the wall and he's still checking. Making sure I'm here. Making sure I'm safe.
"I'm okay," I tell him. "I'm right here."
His jaw unclenches.
Maya examines the wounds. Her face doesn't change, but her hands move faster.
"Two entry wounds. You shouldn't be conscious right now." She glances at his face. "Adrenaline's a hell of a drug. Enjoy it while it lasts—you're going to crash hard."
"How long do I have?"
"With your biology? An hour, maybe. Probably less." She reaches into her bag, pulls out gauze and pressure bandages. "A human would already be dead. I can slow the bleeding here, but the real work happens at my clinic."
She looks over her shoulder at Ash. "Call Vargan. Tell him to get Knox and get their asses to the clinic. I'm going to needorc blood—as much as Mandy can collect. Human transfusions won't work on him."
Ash is already pulling out his phone. "On it."
Crow stays crouched beside Diesel, one hand still on his shoulder.
Ash tilts his head. Listening. "Sirens. We've got maybe three minutes." His eyes cut to me. "I need to know what happened. The real version, before I hear the official one."
I don't hesitate. "Daniels was the leak. He fed Venetti our location at the safehouse, shot himself to cover it. Carver got too close, so Daniels killed him this morning. He came here to finish me and make it look like suicide. There's a note—he forged my handwriting."
"Where?"
I reach for it from where I'm kneeling. It's in the blood between us. I pull it free from the congealing red.
"I shot him." My voice comes out strange, scraped hollow. "Not Diesel. Me. I pulled the trigger."
I push myself to my feet and hold out the note.
Ash takes it and reads it. By the time he finishes, his knuckles are white around the paper.
"I spent a lot of time with Carver," I say. "So the optics look right for it being true. But not a word of it is. This note tied up all of Daniels' loose ends and got rid of two of us at once. Carver and me."
"Eden." Diesel's voice is strained behind me. "Stop. Breathe."
"No." I turn to face him. "I know how this goes down. An orc killed a cop. That's the headline unless the facts come out before the police arrive."
I look at Ash. Then at the note in his hands.
"I pulled the trigger. I did to him what he tried to do to me. That's the story. That's what happened." I point at the note."That's the proof that he planned all of it. And my prints are on both guns. Diesel's aren't."
