The Alpha blinks. “Vessa . . . Did you know your skin could do that?”
“Do what?”
“Glow,” he coughs.
Panic envelopes me. “Don’t you dare start to talk like that. Listen to my voice. Squeeze my hand.”
Attempting to reach for me, his eyes flutter shut, arms going limp. Ichor seeps between my fingers, but I hold my compression steady, even as his breathing wanes.
“Axe,” I whimper. “Please, hang on. I promise I’ll stay with you. I’m yours. I’mall yours?—”
In a matter of seconds, my hands are pried away by a crisis medic. The woman sternly orders me to stand back. Her partner pulls me away from the gushing wound and helps me onto my feet before finding his place at her side. Solmuk and the mayor walk over. The elder takes my hand and offers me a blanket, repeating in a whisper that it’s over now. That I’m safe.
But Axe?—
I smother a sob, my blood-slicked hands shaking.
Solmuk stares at the havoc strewn across the floor. By now, the bodies of the fallen have been covered with white sheets. “I should’ve known they were mercenaries.”
The mayor narrows his eyes. “This the first time you’ve killed one of his kind,E’yonno?”
The apprentice peers over at the guard who finally succumbs to the leg wounds I dealt him. “Actually, Vessa should be taking the credit.”
A scrappy young enforcement officer surveys the damage behind the counter. Mayor Henry’s face is cold. Grave.
The enforcer redirects his attention to me. “Ma’am, for the witness report, may I ask how you know the gunsmith?”
I gulp. “I’m his . . . fiancée.”
The officer is taken aback. The mayor tilts his head, raising a brow. “You’re his ma?—”
“Uncle,” Solmuk cautions.
After applying a heavy amount of gauze, the crisis medic cuts through Axe’s shirt and vest, slipping the protective armor off. As the second technician approaches with a flimsy stretcher Axe couldn’t possibly even fit on, Cora bursts in at the last possible moment.
“Don’t move him any further!” she calls out. “I’ll handle this.”
The crisis medic regards her as if she has three heads. “Miss, this man needs to come with us so we can prep him for surgery. He’ll bleed out here if we don’t.”
Cora raises her chin in defiance. “I am his personal physician. And as I just stated, I’ll take it from here.”
The mayor’s eyes widen as he waves his hand at the medics, urging them to step aside. Reluctantly, they do, just in time for Jabir, Qinnu, and Nell to push their way into the room. Solmuk stands by as Jabir and the Sentinel squat down at Cora’s feet. The men carefully hoist up their cumbersome Alpha and Cora leads them in the direction of his office. As I turn to follow, Nell pulls me into her arms.
“Vessa,” she sniffles. “Oh, thank the goddess.”
I wrap my arms around her, taking in the comfort of her embrace. I let myself finally release an aching exhale. “I should be in that room right now.”
She squeezes my hand. “Listen to me. It’s gonna take a lot more than two silver bullets to kill that stubborn asshole. Cora will be distracted if you hover around in there with all this nervous energy.”
My lip starts to quiver again. Truthfully, I haven’t stopped trembling since I fired Axe’s weapon. The realization crystalizes then.Gods. I killed two men. Lycans.
Nell gently presses a hand to my lower back, guiding me away from the gruesome scene. “C’mon, let’s go take care of you.”
Chapter 23
VESSA
Blood and makeup are wiped from my blotchy face, my dress discarded. In the spare closet, Nell finds an oversized shirt for me to throw on. Though it falls nearly to my shins, the scent belonging to the male two doors over brings me comfort. As does a glass of ice water. I don’t realize how parched I am until I’ve gulped down the entire thing in one breath.
