“Elena!” Knox roars, and sound rushes back in.
Several shots are fired, but all I feel is my kneesbuckling, my heart slowing, warmth blooming against my back with a sticky kind of wetness that makes my skin crawl.
“Stay with me,” Knox catches me when my legs can no longer hold me. “Stay with me, Elena.”
A scream rips from me as hands press to the spot on my back, the pain a bright burst that rips through me. It sets my blood on fire, turns my bones to dust. When I was shot in the thigh, the pain was bad, but this? This feels as if everything inside of me has just imploded.
“No!” Knox roars. “No! This isn’t how it ends!”
“Call for the medics!” Caden’s voice sounds as if it’s coming from behind a pillow, muffled to the sound of blood thumping inside my ears. Knox lowers me to the floor, keeping me steady, supporting my body. I’m not sure I’d be able to do it myself.
“Why did you do that, Hellion!?” Knox holds my eyes, his own glistening, the blue of them so bright, electric, turning them neon against the dark lashes and stern brows. “Why?”
I can feel my heart slowing inside my chest, the thump of it feeling as if it’s pushing against my skin.
“Because that’s what you do,” I rasp, “When you love someone.”
I watch a single tear drop from his eye, rolling down his cheek before it catches in the hairaround his mouth.
“And I do.” I use whatever strength I have left to lift my hand and wipe away that tear. “I love you.”
“Then you don’t fucking leave me!” Knox growls, his hand wrapping around my wrist to hold my hand to his face, “You stay with me, Elena. Stay with me, please.I’ll do anything.”
“I’ll try,” I lie.
I’ve been close to death a couple of times, toed the line, but I’ve always known it wasn’t quite the right time, but here, right now? The pain is gone; my body is numb, but I feel the blood, my life essence, running from me, pooling beneath. My body isn’t working; my heart is slowing down.
“But just in case,” I wheeze, “Can you tell me again?”
His eyes bounce between mine, another tear rolling down his cheek. I don’t have the strength to wipe this one away, and it seeps beneath my palm resting there.
“I love you.” He whispers.
CHAPTER 45
She closes her eyes, and her chest stops moving.
“No!” The sound that rips from my throat isn’t human. It’s raw, and it’s desperate, and it’s fuckingbroken.“Don’t leave me. Don’t you fucking leave me!”
“Knox,” Someone touches my shoulder, but I shove them away.
“She’s not dead. She’s not fucking dead!”
I get to my knees by her side and begin compressions, the sound of her ribs breaking shattering something even further inside of me. But the violence isnecessary.
“Please,” Tears drop onto her pretty dress, joining the splatters of blood covering her. “Please, Elena.Please.”
Tilting her head back, I squeeze her nose, tilt her chin and blow two breaths into her before I begin the compressions again. Desperation fuels me.
She’s too still, too quiet. Her skin is the wrong color, her lips paling too. No. No.No.
Behind me, I hear more people enter the room, and hands grab me, yanking me so hard and heavily, I’ve no choice but to be dragged back. My spine hits the floor as two people I don’t recognize swoop in on my woman. They pull out machines and paddles, cut down her dress, and stick things to her skin.
“Clear!” Someone yells, and then her body jolts while hands keep me down and away from her.
They do it again and again, a monitor hooked up to Elena providing a steady, long beep that echoes inside of my skull.
I feel my own heart shatter inside my chest.
