Chapter 50
Time seems to slow down as his fingers tighten around the knife. There’s no mystery about what’s happening. But I can only watch as it comes down in increments, aware of a loud sound in my ears that I assume is my mind screaming its panic for the rest of me to listen.
Not that I’m going to be able to do anything about it. What can I do, except what I’ve been doing, with my hands tied and my brain foggy from pain and blood loss?
I’m going to die here, under Shawn.
And all I can think about is how upset Kayde will be with me when he finds my body.
The sound gets louder and Shawn jerks his face up, shock registering in his eyes, just as something crashes into him and takes him to the ground away from me.
“Oh.” I murmur, blinking up at the dark sky I can see through the trees. “Well, okay then.” I’m definitely not in my right mind. The pain is dulling slightly, but that’s probably not a great thing considering how much Shawn has hit me and the blood loss. In fact, when I struggle to sit up, my ribs twinge in a way that makes me think they’re cracked, at the very least. The rope feels looser around my hands now, thanks to Shawn, I suppose, and I manage to get one of my hands free to brace my weight as my eyes fall on the scene in front of me.
Kayde saved me, after all. Like I’d hoped he would.
As I watch, he slams his fist against Shawn’s face over and over again, snarling something I can’t understand while he pins him under his weight. But I can’t even pretend to be shocked or upset about it. Shakily, I try to get to my feet, only to fail and drop back down to my knees.
“Okay then,” I mumble, my vision a pinpoint surrounded by blackness. I can’t focus on more than one thing at a time, so I slowly crawl my way over to the tree where Kinsley and Liza are still tied.
But they aren’t looking at me. They’re staring at Kayde, though neither looks particularly horrified by him beating the shit out of Shawn.
“Can you guys help me with this?” I ask when I’m close enough. “I’d actually like to see the show as well. But I figured it’s a little rude to leave you tied up.” I’m rambling now, and lightheadedness is taking over as I fall into Kinsley.
“Holy shit, Summer,” she whispers, looking down at me and trying to writhe free of her ropes. “You’re really not okay. Fuck.”
“Yeah, nope.” I agree, pulling the knife free from my shorts. “Definitely not okay.” I have to focus on what I’m doing with my small amount of vision, and when Kinsley is free, she gently takes the knife from me and does the same for Liza.
Who, naturally, springs straight into action. Tearing her gaze from Kayde and Shawn, she kneels down in front of me, one hand on my wrist as she presses two fingers against my pulse. “Kins, I need your shirt. If you can tear it, do that,” she orders, gently pressing me back.
“I’m fine,” I protest, though I’m sure I’d just said the opposite a few seconds ago. “I’m fiiiine.” I’m so not fine.
Liza just glares at me as Kinsley holds up both pieces of her destroyed shirt, but my brain doesn’t feel like listening to them when I turn my head to look at Kayde and Shawn.
“Don’t you just think he’s so pretty?” I barely know what I’m saying anymore. But at least the pain has dulled, becoming a tingling, unpleasant sensation that’s present all throughout my body. I can barely tell what hurts the worst anymore, though if I had to say, I’d pick my shoulder, just under my collarbone.
Where Shawn had stabbed me, even though he hadn’t committed well enough to keep me down.
“Sure, he’s gorgeous,” Liza agrees flatly, and a moment later, I hiss when one of them presses down hard on the stab wound. “Just keep your eyes on him for me, okay? Don’t go to sleep.”
“Uh, huh.” That feels like it’s going to be harder than it should be, and I realize distantly this is when the shock sets in.
And maybe when I die, if I’m unfortunate enough.
Suddenly Kayde stands, and fists his hand in Shawn’s torn and ragged t-shirt before dragging him toward us across the clearing. Kinsley stiffens, forming a barrier between us, but even I can see that Shawn isn’t in a position to do more than just lay there and sob.
“Tell her you’re fucking sorry,” Kayde hisses, hand in Shawn’s hair to hold him up. “Tell her you’re just some fucking loser who never had a chance with her and needed a reason for your own bullshit. Tell her!” he thunders, voice colder than I’ve ever heard it.
But so is his face, when I manage to look up at him. Kayde is furious, and he’s white under his tan. His hair has come free from its bun and hangs around his face in waves, giving him even more of a feral and unhinged look.
It’s hot as fuck.
And I don’t think that’s the blood loss talking.
“But I’m not…sorry,” Shawn snarls, though he can’t do more than squirm in Kayde’s hold. “I’m not fucking sorry. I’m going to kill her one way or another. She’s already mostly dead, anyway.” Kayde drops him to the ground, flat on his face, and kicks him over onto his back.
“Then if you’re not going to say it, you really don’t need to talk anymore.” The words register in my brain a little late, as does the coldness in them.
I just wish I could warn my friends not to look.
Kayde lifts one foot before slamming his heel down on Shawn’s face, the lack of emotion making it somehow worse. Kinsley screams, her face in her hands, and even Liza looks away sharply.
But I...don’t.
I watch as he lifts his shoe to do it again.
I watch as Shawn spits out the cracked remains of his teeth and wails out a sound that barely sounds human.
I watch as Kayde bends to pick up the discarded knife Grey gave me, and straightens to meet my gaze. “Don’t look away,” he whispers, and I’m sure the others have heard. But the words aren’t for them.
They’re for me.
I keep my eyes on him, even though I can barely see through the black spots in my vision and the spinning of my head. I don’t look away when he falls to his knees over Shawn, hand raised.
“Your first mistake, Shawn,” Kayde tells him with a coldness that should herald the beginning of winter. ”Was ever thinking Summer belonged to you.” His hand moves so fast, that to me that it looks like a blur, and it’s not until Shawn screams that I realize Kayde has plunged the blade into his chest, just above his heart.
“Your second mistake?” He gently, almost fondly, reaches up to tangle his fingers in Shawn’s hair and drags his head back so that Shawn has no choice but to look at him. “Well, your second mistake, and arguably the most important, was touching what belongs to me.”
Shawn’s mouth opens, as if he’s going to argue, but Kayde moves too fast for that. He drags the blade across Shawn’s throat, blood spraying from the wound as Kinsley scrambles back from them, face pale.
My lips part, and I suck in a breath as arterial spray splashes Kayde’s shirt and face. I watch the pulses of Shawn’s heart send blood spraying upward, and I can’t take my eyes off of his face or his still open mouth.
He dies like that, with his eyes and mouth open as Shawn stares up at Kayde with disbelief clear on his features.
Shawn dies, and for a few seconds, everything feels too quiet. Too still.
Until Liza clears her throat. “Are you done?” she asks, unimpressed with Kayde or his murdering of Shawnathon. “Because if you are, I could use some help with her. Are the police on their way?”
“Paramedics too, according to Daniel.” Kayde moves smoothly, sinking into a crouch on my other side and surveying the damage.
Judging by the way his eyes darken, it’s not great. But thankfully, I’m too lightheaded and out of it to feel much of anything. That’s a bad thing, I know, rationally. It’s a terrible thing to not feel the wounds Shawn has inflicted. But right now, I can’t help feeling grateful over it, and grateful I’m not in the kind of pain I’d been in earlier.
“You know, I’m not dead yet,” I slur, feeling my consciousness coming into question. “You don’t need to look at me like that.”
Kayde snorts and accepts the t-shirt, which he presses over my collarbone. “Just admiring your pretty face, baby girl,” he assures me, leaning down so that he’s the only thing I can see. “And wondering what in the world you said to him for him to fuck you up this badly.”
Kinsley laughs at that, sounding hysterical, and I turn just enough to watch her sink down against my third favorite tree. “What didn’t she say to him?” She giggles, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Seriously, Summer. What the fuck were you thinking?”
Isn’t it obvious? My brows knit in confusion, and I look from her to Kayde. “I was thinking of saving you,” I mumble, more of my consciousness escaping into the ground along with my blood. “I’d do anything to save you, Kins. You, and Liza, and Kayde.”
My head spins, and when I try to blink up at Kayde again, his face is blurry. “Uh oh,” I mumble. “I’m uh, not feeling so great, Liza.” I know my words are slurring, but I can’t help it. “Maybe I won’t be able to stay quite so awake after all.”
“No, don’t you dare,” Liza sounds threatening, but her voice is distant. “Space out if you want, if you have to, but don’t you dare go to sleep.”
“Summer…” I hear Kayde’s voice, and I think I see his lips move, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what he’s saying to me.
Oh well,I think, eyes slipping closed. I can’t win ‘em all.
I don’t quite fall asleep. Not all the way, at least. I doze, maybe, and space out as Kayde scoops me up in his arms to carry me somewhere that isn’t here. There are voices around me when I come to next, and the loud wailing of sirens does more to drag me from my near unconsciousness than any of Kayde’s threats.
At some point, I’m laid on a stretcher. Unfamiliar voices talk about my vitals with Liza, and I feel hands on my face and shoulder, causing the pain to violently slice through my daze.
Last but not least, as the paramedics are lifting me into the ambulance, I distinctly hear Melody from somewhere near me, whispering to Kayde.
“Is she dying?” There’s a tremble in her voice I’ve never heard, and if I could, I’d open my eyes and tell her I’m fine.
“No.” Kayde’s voice is solid and firm, but underneath that, he sounds…unsure. “No, Mel. She’s going to be fine.” But if he doesn’t seem to believe it, then how in the world can I?
“You’re going to be okay.” The paramedic that speaks to me is a woman, and seconds later, I hear the doors of the ambulance slam closed. “We’re getting you to the hospital, Summer. You’ll be okay. Just stay with me, okay?”
But she isn’t Kayde, and her words don’t have the same pull on me as his. I try, I really do, but as the ambulance jerks into motion, the last of my consciousness flees as darkness fills my brain with a painless, dreamless sleep.