Blood spurts out of my wound as I collapse onto her. She sinks to the ground with me, clutching my body close to her as the blood begins to drain from my veins. My back stings with pain, electricity shooting out into my legs.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God!” Milo yelps as he runs to my side and cradles me too. “He hit your back! Fuck!”
I try to move, but it hurts so damn badly that I just stay here in Lana’s arms. Above me, gunshots fly left and right, and Kai and Caleb are the only ones left fighting to keep the Bonesmen at bay.
“Fuck! There are too many,” Kai grits, directing his attention toward Caleb. “You take the left; I’ll take the right!”
“We have to do something,” Milo begs Lana.
She rips a part of her shirt from her waistline and binds it around me, sealing my wound. “It’s soaking right through. Dammit.”
“We have to get him out of here,” Milo says.
BANG!
They duck for cover, hovering over me to protect me.
“Why did you do it?” Lana whispers into my ear. “Why did you protect me?”
“Because I love you. And I protect the people I love.”
I can feel the tears falling down onto my hair, the cold droplets soothing the pain just a little, taking the edge off things.
“Please …” she murmurs.
Her whole body begins to quake against me, and she leans over to grasp my knives and tucks them into her own pocket. Then she slips out from underneath me and tells Milo, “Keep watch over him. Don’t let him die.”
Milo nods.
“What are you going to do?” I mutter and lean up to look at her march straight toward Romeo, her head held high, knives at the ready. Like a goddamn motherfucking angel of revenge.
“Protect the people I love.”
Lana
I shake off all of the drugs and focus on the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Pure hatred drives me as I run toward Romeo.
Shots fire past my head, and I bolt from left to right to avoid all of them.
A knife whips past me, and I glance over my shoulder to see Caleb covering for me. I focus on getting to Romeo, ignoring the other guards headed in my direction.
“Stay away from me!” Romeo yells.
“You messed with the wrong bitch,” I growl as I run right at him. “You touch my friends, you fucking die!”
I chuck two knives at his face, and he dodges them, so I chuck the third at his knee. He groans when it lodges into his flesh, and he collapses from the pain. Just in time for my knee to hit his nose.
CRACK!
Blood pours from his face, and I ram my fourth knife straight into his back.
He yelps and cries out in pain.
“Get away from me, you bitch!” He attacks me with his own knife, swiping it from left to right like a madman.
One cut slices through my arm, but I ignore the pain and grasp his wrist instead, bending it until it snaps and breaks.
“FUCK!”
The knife falls to the floor, and I pick it up and jam it into his belly, pulling it through.
He falls to the floor, bleeding everywhere, and I perch myself on top of him.
A knife comes out of nowhere, and he tries to ram it into my thigh, but I grasp that arm too and slowly bring his own knife back to his face.
“You thought you could take me? I murder men like you in my spare time,” I hiss. Leaning in close, I whisper, “Now fear me.”
He whimpers, the cries slowly becoming more agonizing as the blade pierces his eye. Blood sprays onto my face and body, but it only makes me smile harder. I take my time, making sure he’s alive to feel all the pain he deserves. And I don’t stop until his body stops writhing entirely.
When his body goes limp, I get off and pull out all the knives, looking around the auction room. The chairs are upended and the floor’s caked in blood, but in the back a rose with half its petals lies on the floor, and my eyes follow the trail of blood leading up to it.
A door is wide open. Behind it, a van is parked out on the street … Crystal’s eyes boring into mine.
“Crystal?” Caleb yells.
He knows her?
He bolts right past me, headed straight for the door through which they disappear.
But he’s no match for their speed.
The van doors slam shut right before it races away in front of Caleb.
“FUCK!” he growls out loud.
Too late.
She’s gone.
I clutch the knife tighter, fury overcoming me, and I roar out loud and rush toward the rest of the guards.
“LOOK AT ME!” I scream.
Slowly but surely, all the Bonesmen stop firing at my friends and home in on the blood caking my skin.
“Your leader is dead,” I say, pointing at Romeo’s dead body. “His blood is on my skin.”
Even Kai and Milo gaze at me in awe.
“And this will be your fate too if you don’t let us go. Now.”
The men swallow, fear settling in their bones.
The first one drops his gun.
Then the next.
And soon, all of them drops whatever they are carrying.
I walk through the hallway and chuck a knife at the last remaining guard still trying to keep us here.
He drops to the floor like a fly.
I walk past, blood smeared all over my body, but the second I lay eyes on my own damn brother along with his friends and Penelope, I stop moving entirely.
Felix’s eyes widen at the sight of me. Or rather, the violence I’ve inflicted upon these monsters.
I swallow back the lump in my throat. The secret I’ve been holding feels awfully heavy on my shoulders. Each step I take leaves a trail of blood on the floor.
“Lana?” he mutters, almost as if he doesn’t recognize me.
But his voice soothes my soul.
All of the years of suffering … all that bloodshed and the frenzy to murder …
It was all for him.
If he hates me now, so be it. I wouldn’t want to touch someone as violent as me with a ten-foot pole. Let alone the fact that I’m covered in someone else’s blood.
Instead, he runs at me, chucking his gun to the side, and wraps both arms around me.
I’m stunned to even react, blinking rapidly.
But I eventually cave to his safe arms, burying my face into his chest.
My body feels so heavy I can barely stand. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, the drugs have the upper hand again, and they’re draining all my remaining energy.
“You murdered him in cold blood,” Felix mutters.
“Do you despise me?” I ask.
“No,” he says, and I can hear him smile. “I’m proud of you.”
I grin against his chest and take in a breath.
“We should go,” Caleb says, clearing his throat. “This truce won’t last long.”
I lean away and watch the men stare us out.
Kai and Milo have helped Nathan up. “Can you walk?” Milo asks him.
Nathan nods. “I can try.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Alistair says as he approaches us from behind and places a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Y’all can have a family reunion later.”
Felix supports me while we run toward the exit, with Kai and Milo keeping Nathan on his feet. At the back entrance, a blazing fire stops us. In front of it is Dylan, chucking random guards on top of a pile of bodies burning to a crisp.
“Hey, guys! Back already? I cleared out this area!” he says cheerfully. “Roasted them like sautéed chicken.”
I’m both mildly disgusted and impressed at the same time.
“We’re done,” Penelope tells him. “Let’s go.”
Alistair runs ahead of us and gets the car, driving it toward us so we can easily get in.
“Fuck, it’s gonna take forever to get those stains out,” Dylan mutters when he sees all the blood his friends drip onto his leather seat.
“Worry about the cleaning later!” Penelope yells at him.
“I’ll take our car back with Nathan and Milo,” Kai says. “You go with your brother. Caleb, you go with her too.”
I nod and jump in with them while Milo and Kai help Nathan into the back seat of their car. Both cars race off together, leaving behind a bloodied, crippled Bones Brotherhood.
But the longer we drive, the bigger the hole in my heart becomes.
Crystal.
Tears well up in my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Penelope asks.
“Crystal got taken with me.”
Penelope’s eyes widen, her face turning white as snow.
“She was here too?” She grasps my shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought there was still time to save her,” I reply. “But when I finally found her, she was getting shoved into a van, and it raced off before I could get to her. I couldn’t see the license plate. And now they’ve taken her to God knows where.”
“I’ll ask the Tartarus boys to check with their connections and see if they can find her whereabouts,” Caleb says.
“Thank you,” I mutter, still overcome with emotions.
“Felix,” Penelope growls.
He stares at her through the rearview mirror. “No.”
“Felix, we have to go back.”
He only hits the gas harder. “No.”
“She’ll be sold!” Penelope yells in terror.
“We’ll go back for her later. We have to get Lana to safety first.”
“But Crystal—”
“Will be saved too,” Felix interrupts. “You can count on it.”
Penelope sits back, still antsy as she glances through the window behind her. “Crystal …”
“I’m sorry, Pen,” I say.
She swallows back the tears. “It’s not your fault.”
“She came to my room to talk and get ice cream, but then we got taken by the Bones Brotherhood because they were shadowing me. It’s because of me that she’s—”
“Stop,” Penelope interjects. “Stop feeling guilty, and promise me you’ll help me find her.”
I nod a few times. “I won’t stop looking for her. Promise.”
Alistair rubs my back. “We’ll get her back.”
I know he’s only saying that to ease the aching in my heart.
The truth is, no one knows how far the Bones Brotherhood’s connections span. She could be anywhere by now, on her way to be sold to the highest bidder.
Poor Crystal …
We may have lost her forever.
