This Blood that Bonds Us (This Blood that Binds Us #4)

77. Seventy-Seven

Seventy-Seven

Presley

Holy shit.

That was the first thought that entered my head when I realized where I was. I was in the cathedral, along with knowledge of the building I didn’t remember learning. Weird.

Aaron.

I’d seen the whole thing below. The moment he shoved the dagger into his chest, my world came back into view. My brother just had to be the hero. It took Zach a few minutes to realize it when Luke joined him in the fray. But when he did, all the light left his eyes.

I had felt nothing. The shock of it kept me numb enough to move with no tears or theatrics. I could still help him. I knew where the blood was. Rushing through the secret passageway, I went for the halls to search for our stash.

“Thane?”

“Presley.” His eyes widened when he saw me, and he used his body to guard the remaining stash of blood that was almost depleted. Around him were wounded men I hardly remembered.

“Oh. I’m me again. I’m normal.”

“Is She dead? I still feel the same.”

“No, it’s a long story, but I need that blood for Aaron.”

“Here.” He handed me some. “He wouldn’t take it earlier, but maybe things are different. Hurry.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. In seconds, I arrived back in the cathedral where Zach and Luke were fighting alongside Kilian. Aaron wasn’t moving. I bit into the blood bag to pour down his throat. He couldn’t be dead. No. He would get up and be annoying any second. It wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be.

We had done nothing on our forever list. Not a single thing. At every attempt for grief to find its way through my panic, I pushed it further down. I’d had so much practice with it, it was a reflex. His skin was cold. My brain wouldn’t stop reminding me.

Someone slammed into me from the side, and I reared back to see that prick Henderson stalking toward me.

“Uh, can I help you?”

“Yeah, you and your brother can die.”

“Jeez. Holding in some anger there, huh, buddy?”

He charged me, and in seconds, his fingers dug into my throat as he lifted me off the ground.

“You . . . really . . . don’t like us.”

“I don’t like traitors.”

Zach tackled him, and we all tumbled to the ground. I sat up long enough to see Luke and Dom fighting Sirius. They were nearly spent. Super bloody.

“Ah!”

Henderson hit me again, and Zach flung him across the room into the wall. A scattering of lit candles fell over him and singed his clothes. The collective lot lit the gathering bodies closer to the wall and sent them ablaze.

“Don’t touch my brother.”

Our fights collided till we all stumbled back to look at each other. Kilian was clutching his side. One of his eyes was gone. Sirius’s arm was broken, practically hanging there. Ezra was the least beat up, but his gaze flitted to the pulpit every few seconds. I knew that look. The look of a fellow bolter.

“How did this happen?” Ezra looked at my brothers. “I don’t understand.”

“I told you they’re traitors,” Sirius spat.

“No. Their brother paid a high price to break the bond of your queen,” Kilian said.

Ezra shook his head. “That’s not possible.”

“Guess you didn’t see this one coming?” Zach said.

“It can be remade. It’s not too late,” Ezra said.

A shiver of fear fell over me. Something told me if we didn’t beat The Guard here, they weren’t against holding us all down to remake that bond.

And with that bond, Aaron’s sacrifice would be for nothing. This was it. He was right. Losing was not an option.

I shifted my thoughts back to Aaron, whose blood was pooling onto the floor. All the fighting was taking too long. Aaron needed help. He needed blood.

Ezra bolted, and I lunged for him. The others collided with shouts and grunts. He tried to fling me off, but I held onto his arm till he bit my wrist.

“Ah, fuck,” I groaned. I really shouldn’t have spent all that time moping instead of learning to fight. Bad Presley.

Zach slid next to me and grabbed Henderson as he tried to ambush me from behind.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Been better.”

Suddenly, Sirius and Henderson fixated on me while Luke and Kilian barred Ezra from leaving. I had to hand it to them. It was a good strategy—I was useless.

“Not so strong now, huh, Calem?”

I tried to dodge but even with the blood loss, they were too fast. Zach shoved me out of the way to take every hit and keep them from me. Any attempt to move ended the same way.

Sirius got Zach by the neck and tore a chunk of his shoulder out with his teeth. It was agonizing watching him wither from Sirius’s grasp, but Sirius had lost a lot of blood and the use of an arm—it wasn’t enough alone.

Sirius charged again while Henderson came up behind. Zach didn’t see it while all his attention was on me. He would not dodge both.

It was kinda like the movies. My body moved without thinking.

“No!” I fell in front of him, and excruciating pain tore through my chest. A sickening wet tearing noise filled my ears. When he pulled his arm away, there was a hole clean through my chest and shoulder.

“What the fuck did you just do?” Zach’s eyes went wide, then completely dark.

I always said I wanted to be there when my brother went off like a nuclear bomb, but not like this. As I crumbled to the ground in a pool of my own blood, Zach held Henderson down before crushing his head with his foot. There wasn’t a lot of fun about any of it. He wasn’t ever going to stop. I wondered what would have made it more fun. Less blood? Less death?

Sirius tried to retreat.

“Stop him!” Zach snarled.

Luke’s head snapped up. His large frame towered over Sirius, who was barely on his feet.

“Times up,” Luke said, lunging. He won the brief struggle, snapping his neck and ripping it from his body. Good riddance.

Zach was drenched when he was finished with his rampage, and my limbs were heavy when he pulled me to his lap.

“Come on. I’m going to get you blood.” His voice broke, and his eyes, once dark, were back to the brown I knew.

“No, you gotta stay. You have to finish this. You gotta make sure She’s dead.”

“I can’t, Pres.”

“Why?”

“Because it doesn’t matter! None of this fucking matters if you’re dead. And Aaron . . . I can’t.”

“You’re such an idiot.”

“What?”

“You’re just as important as I am.” It was so obvious, but he still didn’t get it.

“Stop talking, you’re making it worse.” He worked to patch my wound with his shirt, but my blood was everywhere. It clung to my shirt, and now I was cold too.

The room blurred, and I remembered I was close to Aaron. I reached for him. Maybe I couldn’t save him, but at least we’d die together. That wasn’t so bad.

“No. Fuck. No.”

“It’s true, dude. Sorry I had to die for you to see it.”

“Fuck you,” Zach said with a choked sob.

I smiled for what had to be the first real smile in months. “I love you too.”

I did it. I helped. I smiled at the thought, then the world went dark.