I look away from my ankle and at Cole on the ground at my feet. I blink, confused, and Jax wraps his arms around my body and says, “I need you alive, even if it’s kicking and screaming.”
“Jax!” I scream, thrashing, but he has me caged tight against his chest.
“We won’t survive carrying dead weight and your bad leg. I’m sorry, Saya.”
I lash out, Jax twisting my body around to drag me, when I start clawing at the face I used to kiss. “Get the fuck off me! Get off me, motherfucker!”
“I’m sorry.” He grabs at my shirt, trying for a better grip, but tears through it, exposing the shoulder with my moonflower tattoo as I try to get away. “I’m sorry, but I’d prefer you alive and hating me than dead. I prefer you with me than in the arms of that fuckingbloodsucker.”
“Jax. Iamone of thosefucking—”My words cut off when pain pierces my chest. I slacken my hold on Jax, and my eyes fall to the blotch of red seeping through the fabric of my gown.
A man steps out of the darkness into the red glow of the moon, his gun aimed at me. “Get the fuck away from her, brother. Before she peels your skin from your bones!”
Jax presses his fingers to the bullet wound, but I don’t feel his touch. “What the fuck, Leon!” Jax slumps to the ground with me in his lap, and his warm tears drip down onto my cheek, turning to ice as I stare up at him through tired eyes.
“Jaxton, get the fuck away from her and help me!”
Warm hands caress my cheeks, yet a chill courses through my body. “Saya, stay with me, yeah? It’s not so bad.”
A whimper slips from my lips when Jax presses down harder on the bullet wound in my chest. I try to speak, but the words catch in my throat.
He leans down, his lips pressing against mine as he breathes, “It’s okay. Stay with me. Remember our dream? You and I, growing old together?”
I cough blood all over his unflinching face.There is no us, you putrid slayer! I will carve out your eyes so you never see my face again! You can roam Kepler with only a memory, fucker!
“Jaxton, leave her!” the other man says, but his words are fading.
“Fuck off! You didn’t have to shoot her! You didn’t have to!” Jax yells, but it’s like hearing him scream while submerged underwater.
“She’s a fucking leech of a vegodian. The moonflowers tell me all I need to know. Now get over here. We have a live one!”
A trembling quake shudders underneath me, and heat scorches my back.
“Fuck, we gotta move, but I can’t without sealing his wound.” The man lets out a frustrated exhale. “Shit, I have to give him some of my blood. Andrew, get my brother while I help the kid.”
“It’s illegal to give?—”
“Now, Andrew! That’s an order! I will deal with the council when we return.”
“Alright,” the other grunts.
“Fuck off! Don’t touch me! Don’t touch—” Jax’s words fade away, and my body is rolled to the side, sticky and soaked in crimson.
Cole?The man who shot me has Cole’s limp body, while the other carries Jaxton. I try to move, but the heat beneath me grows unbearable, and I scream. A roar echoes around me, and the ground splits open, a thousand claws engulfing me under the eye of the red moon.
Rolling through countless bones that slice my skin, I sink into the Hellsgate.
When I stop, everything becomes unbearably cold.
Flames flicker brightly, and a warm, sticky heat drips down from above. I close my eyes, and if I concentrate, the clicking of insects stings my ears. They surround me now, swarming like bees in a frenzied hive.
I reach out, and my hand brushes against something cold. Confused at first, I realise it’s a hand curling across my knuckles. “There you are, kamai,” a soft, husky voice murmurs.
Nightwalker.
“The one and only,” he says, and whatever shred of life I cling to resides in icy arms.
“Drink from my wrist, kamai.” Cold skin presses against my lips, and I turn away. “Your brother is alive, but if you die now, he will stay in the hands of those slayers.”
