Vessa’s battered mouth parts when I kneel beside her, kissing the back of her hand. She clutches my knuckles with all her strength. My other thumb smooths over her brow as I silently thank the Luna goddess.
“You’re safe, Moonshine,” I breathe, pulling the blanket higher.
Cora curses. We both sense it as her pulse begins to race.
“I tried, Axe. Please, believe me. I tried to help her. There was so much . . . so much blood. I couldn’t. I couldn’t—oh gods, I’m so sorry. S-so s-sorry.”
“Shh,” I coax her, stroking her hair.
Vessa heaves a sob.
“Take a deep breath,” Cora urges. “This is the noxious gas talking. Just breathe.”
Vessa starts to hyperventilate against me, her eyes swollen and bloodshot. I cup her face, and she turns away. It’s all too much.
Qinnu and Jabir jog up next to Dom. The four of us seem to exchange the same question in silence.Where is the Blood Master? Why didn’t he show?
“Rally the other vehicles,” I order. “We’re taking our Luna home.”
Chapter 49
AXE
Lupine Manor hasn’t been this unbearable since it nearly burned to the ground. Flowers and sympathy cards are placed on every surface, brought by members of Bleeding Sun and our surrounding packs. I was hoping the sight would bring comfort to my mate. But she hasn’t been down to see them.
Vessa hasn’t left my quarters. Cora and Nell have been watching over her vigilantly, assuring that she sleeps and that her fluids are restored. At night, I’m back to sleeping outside her door in case the horrors return in her dreaming hours. That is, if sleep comes to me at all.
I haven’t touched her since she shivered in the back of the cargo van as the IV drip nursed her. Sitting in silence, I could no longer hold back the crushing weight of accepting that my mistakes had put her through hell—had led to my sister taking three bullets for her. I couldn’t breathe, not even as she twitched in my lap. I was terrified of accidentally nudging one of her broken ribs or her injured legs. But against my chest, she slept soundly while Levi’s bitemark drank in the daylight, taunting me in a way that will forever remind me of my failures.
As Domand Chris discuss tomorrow’s arrangements to lay my sister to rest, Nell joins us on the couch, warming her hands by the fire. Judging from the weary look in her eyes, she has just been relieved from my mate’s bedside. Always in tune, Jabir appears from around the corner, handing her a generous pour of wine and pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“How is she?” Dom asks.
Nell sighs. Vessa still refuses to let anyone open the curtains. In the shower, she suffered another panic attack, petrified to face Demi’s family. As if any of this was remotely her fault . . .
“I think . . .” she croaks, shifting to face me. “I think it’s time you went and had a word with her. See if you can convince her to take a walk. Or anything that will just remind her that she’s stillalive.”
Jabir’s brows lift as he bends to stoke the flaming logs. “What about?—”
Tesni kicks through the front door, blowing past Jabir and Cora.
While driving back to Tukkon, I received a message from the Sentinel. She succeeded in locating our oracle, after catching a lead which diverted her south. But someone beat her to the job. Detained for trespassing in the capital archives, Maurleen was promptly escorted out by the armed guard of the Yinsew Council. Oddly, Wyatt and their daughter weren’t anywhere near the vicinity.
Tesni had already changed course by the time I returned the call yesterday afternoon. When I delivered the tragic news.
"How could you? Had I been there, it would've made a difference. You could've called off my mission. You could’ve fuckingtold me."
I swallow hard. Demi's mate drops his head between his legs.
"There wasn't time. You were a thousand miles away, Tez."
She balks at me. "I would've driven for two days straight if it meant that my best friend could've stayed behind."
Nell pokes her head up with a sniffle. "None of us could've predicted this would happen."
"I don't care! I should've been with the recovery squad. Me! Not her! She waspregnant, Axe. What the hell were you thinking?"
Her words are double-edged daggers, reminding me once again that we didn’t lose one, but two. I can't summon the right words to respond. There’s nothing that can be said. Nothing that will remotely make sense of the loss.
