Chapter 37
Bella
Fraternitas takes us to a safe house.
I’m huddled in a blanket in a dark corner of the room while Atticus and his team work on Kaiser. Jaeger stands next to me, guarding me even as he watches his brother fight for his life.
Everyone’s been careful not to touch me.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “He wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”
Jaeger glances at me but doesn’t say anything.
Pain stabs my abdomen. I curl up and cover my face with my hands. I can’t look at Kaiser lying in the medical bed. He’s been cleaned up, his head and face swathed in white bandages. Even his eyes are covered. He looks halfway to being a mummy.
Blood stains the white sheets.
I kept thinking of him as impervious, immortal. A demigod like Thorbjorn. I should’ve done more to protect him. I thought of it as a game, one I would win.
It was a game between us, I realize. I wanted it to be real, so he obliged. He made it fun. I didn’t think through the consequences of my actions, and now Kaiser might pay the ultimate price.
I cover my mouth, stifling a moan. I can’t do this. It hurts so much. Memories flash through my mind. Kaiser watching me garden in the greenhouse. Chasing me through the forest. Touching me. Taking me to the bookstore. Reading my mother’s journals.
I can’t imagine living one day without him by my side.
My captor, my protector, the one who keeps me grounded, keeps me sane.
The one who goes along with my wicked games.
The one who chases me, catches me, punishes me and makes me like it.
The one who soothes me. The one who hates to be touched but holds me through the night.
I need him to live. I don’t want to be without him.
“Bella?” It’s Atticus, standing over me with concern etched on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” I sit up, hiding my wince, and wipe the wetness off my cheeks quickly. “What’s up?”
“He’s stable. We need to know what you poisoned him with.”
“It was a lot of things mixed together. My father invented it. Distillation of sap from a manicheel tree, plus a few other compounds from lily of the valley.”
“Lily of the valley? The little white flower?”
I nod sadly. “Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it won’t kill you.” Atticus and Jaeger murmur to each other, then turn as three more men enter the room. St. James and the Devil. They look different without their masks. I could imagine poisoning them, but I don’t bother.
Father Francis walks in behind them. A priest coming to the deathbed to administer last rites.
“No.” I stand up, ready to race to Kaiser’s side. “No, no, no—”
“Bella?” Atticus asks. Jaeger tries to stop me, but I slip away and throw myself between Kaiser and the rest.
“He’s not going to die. He can’t.”
The men are all staring at me.
“Bella—” Atticus tries again.
“You have to help him,” I scream. “Don’t give up. Don’t let him die.”
Father Francis moves closer. I back up as if he’s going to attack. “No one’s giving up on Kaiser. Atticus will do everything to keep him alive.”
“You have to help him.”
“We are, Bella,” Atticus says. “He’s our brother. We’re doing everything.” I look around desperately. I need to do more. “Did you call my father? He might be able to figure something else out.”
Father Francis looks grim. He motions to St. James, who steps forward into the light. “That’s why we’re here to speak to you. We need to tell you something about your father.”
“Come,” Father Francis beckons. I let him and St. James lead me to a side room for a private conversation. “Men went to your father’s house in New Rome. Frankie Vesuvio and a force of fifty men. They busted down the door.” I brace myself, waiting to hear what happened next.
“Three minutes later, the house exploded. It took out Frankie and at least half of Vesuvio’s best men, as best we can tell. There are no remains.” My face feels frozen.
“He set a trap.” I can imagine him doing that. He lay in wait, like I did in the greenhouse, only on a bigger scale.
“He did. And it worked. But I’m sorry, there’s no sign of your father.”
“I understand.” He was the bait. Now everyone thinks he’s dead.
I think my father’s smart enough to fake his death, but I don’t need to tell St. James that.
“NRPD is all over the site. We have some spies who will keep us informed if they find anything. Once the cops clear out, we can try to access his underground labs—”
“Okay.” They’re not going to find my father. I don’t believe he’s dead, but I doubt I’ll see him again.
I let my head droop, like I’m sad. And I am. Whether or not my father is gone, I’m on my own.
“We will honor the contract,” St. James says. “Your safety is our priority. Fraternitas will stand with you against your enemies.”
I don’t give a fuck about the contract, so I say nothing.
One day, I will die, my father told me. When that day comes, it is my final wish that you remain in an alliance with Fraternitas.
He knew this was coming. He planned for it.
The fucker. He left me. As soon as he knew he could trust Kaiser to protect me, he left me.
I don’t know whether to scream or cry, and I’m empty from everything that happened tonight, so I allow myself to feel nothing. I’ll save my tears for someone who deserves it. Like Kaiser.
St. James sets a box down in front of me. “We also intercepted this package. It was sent to Club Inferno, care of Lucifer. Lucy opened it and saw the contents were addressed to you.”
My father’s handwriting. I don’t have to fake the tears clogging my throat. Finally, he sends me something. “Can I have a moment?”
“Take as long as you need.” He and Father Francis leave.
My father didn’t send me much. Inside the box is a thick envelope.
As soon as I open it, a few rose petals fall out.
The rest of the contents are stacks of paperwork.
I skim a few documents that outline my inheritance.
I now have ownership of all Bosco holdings, including a few warehouses and farms I didn’t know existed.
I look for a note from my father, but there is none.
Next to his signature, though, he taped a dried flower.
Lily of the valley. The sweet scent clings to the paper.
I page back through the packet, skimming the list of properties.
One that I can’t find listed is the family farm, Flowerwood.
It belonged to my maternal grandparents, who farmed it and then gave it to my mother as a wedding gift. It was probably in my mother’s name.
Maybe he sold it?
Or maybe… he hung onto it for himself.
A shadow falls across the doorframe. It’s Jaeger. “He’s waking up,” he says. I stuff everything back in the box and head back to Kaiser. The room’s cleared out except for me, Jaeger, and one nurse monitoring the machines.
“Bella,” Kaiser rasps in a raw voice. Under the bandages, his skin is horribly blistered; I need to get some salve on it.
“Shhh, don’t try to talk,” I say.
“I’m here, brother,” Jaeger rumbles.
Kaiser lets his head rest on the pillow. They shaved off his hair to clean him up, and the crumpled edge of his misshapen ears peeks out above the bandages. “Vesuvios?”
“Dead,” Jaeger confirms. “We’re dealing with the bodies. Final count is forty-three. You did good.” He looks down at me. “So did she.” I move closer to Kaiser, wishing with all my might that I could heal him. Why do I just have to poison people? Why can’t I fix him?
I thought the only thing that mattered was being a supervillain. But I was wrong.
Kaiser reaches for me. I retreat before he touches me—my skin is still poison—and his hand falls on the box.
“What’s this?” he asks. His voice sounds like his throat is sliced to ribbons. Just hearing him is painful, and I wish he would stop trying to talk.
I wrap my hands in the blanket so my skin won’t touch his and cradle his hand between them. “It’s from my father. He’s… he’s gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. He wanted this.” My father may not be dead, but he’s gone from my life. He finally left me. He’s finally free. After making sure that Kaiser would keep me safe from blowback, he was finally able to get his revenge.
It hurts knowing he’s gone, but I’m glad he finally fought for the vengeance my mother deserved.
“Dominus will pay,” Kaiser vows.
“He already lost two sons in one night,” Jaeger says. “He’s hurting. We’ll end this soon.”
I want to close my eyes and sleep. I don’t want to be a supervillain right now. That was a bloody battle and it was epic, but it came at too high a cost.
I never want Kaiser to be hurt. Never, ever. Everyone expects him to fight for them. But who will fight for him?
Atticus returns to speak to Kaiser. “We wrapped your ribs. You had a stab wound in your back that we treated, but we couldn’t find a bullet hole. It looks like the vest protected you.”
That’s right, that’s where all the blood came from. The stab wound. The bullet he took for me didn’t penetrate.
It hits me: if Kaiser dies, it won’t be from Sal’s shot. It will be because of the poison.
Because of me.
“My eyes,” Kaiser says. His hand raises a few inches, like he wants to touch the bandages but thinks better of it.
“Do they hurt?”
Kaiser flicks a few fingers, which I take to mean, yes, they hurt.
“Manicheel sap can cause acute keratoconjunctivitis.” Atticus glances at me, and I nod.
“The damage may only be temporary. You weren’t exposed to the full force of the sap, just a compound that included it.
It seems to be specially formulated to be more toxic—”
“It was,” I say. “Ten times more toxic. A hundred times.” Papa made sure it would be instantly painful if not deadly.
“You may recover fully,” Atticus says. “We just don’t know.”
We’re all silent, probably imagining all the terrible ways Kaiser could die or be permanently maimed. At least, I am.
My eyes are wet again.
“Now what?” Kaiser asks.
“Your body is fighting the poison,” Atticus says.
“We’ve given you painkillers and a few of my own formulations that will boost your immune system.
” Jaeger and Kaiser nod as if they know what Atticus is talking about.
I remember Kaiser saying that Atticus cared for them after their fights.
They’re used to him patching them up. They trust him.
“A little activated charcoal in case you ingested any of it.” Atticus sighs, rubbing his shaved head. “But since the compound was designed to be absorbed through skin contact versus your digestive system, I don’t know if it will help. We just have to wait and see.”
“What about my blood?” I ask. My voice sounds almost as raw as Kaiser’s. “It might hold the antidote. I’m immune to poison. There might be something you can find in my blood to save him.”
“That’s an idea,” Atticus says, sounding thoughtful. “There was a man who developed super immunity to snake bites through repeated exposure, and he gave his blood to a lab to create a universal antivenom. We might be able to isolate an antitoxin from your blood. How many poisons did you ingest?”
“As many as I could. I’ll write you a list.”
“And you’re immune to all of them?”
“To most poisons, yes. Some of them still cause a reaction, though.”
“That’s why you were in a coma for a few days.”
“Yes.”
“And the senator? How did you poison him?”
Atticus is prying for more information, knowing that in this desperate emotional state, I’m likely to give him anything he wants.
I can hear my father warning me not to give away any proprietary formulas, but I don’t care about protecting our secrets anymore.
“It was a blend of several compounds mixed into a lotion I put on my palm.”
“Ricin?”
“No. He would have to ingest that. I used compounds distilled from cassava and oleander, along with a compound my father invented to make it faster-acting.”
Atticus’s eyes narrow. “And Alfredo Vesuvio?”
Despite feeling rotten, I smile. My secrets are out. They all know I’m the Poisoner now. “Good old arsenic and belladonna. Aqua Tofana.”
“Nobody knows that recipe.”
“My mother did.”
“And what about Bella’s blood?” Jaeger asks. “Can it help my brother?”
Atticus rubs his face. He’s thinking about what a bad idea this is. “It’s risky and it might not even work. I’d need to test it.”
“Just try.” I hold out my arm. “Please.” Atticus waves to his team, and two nurses come to my side to prep my arm for a blood draw.
I don’t even feel the bite of the needle.
I don’t feel anything at all. Jaeger leans over Kaiser.
They speak softly to each other. Then Jaeger hovers his hand over his brother’s head, not touching him.
He stands frozen like this for a moment, then turns and strides out of the room without another word.
If Kaiser dies, Jaeger will probably kill me.
If Kaiser dies, I’ll probably beg him to.
No, it won’t come to that. I’ll nurse Kaiser back to health, I don’t care what I have to do. I can’t lose him. He’s all I have. Without him, I’ll be all alone.
“All done,” Atticus says. He and his team now have several vials of my dark blood.
Kaiser lies still and quiet. Only the rise and fall of his chest tells me he’s alive.
“We’ve done all we can do for him, for now.” Atticus takes a deep breath, hesitates. “Except… we have a salve for his skin that should help with the blisters.”
“Okay...” I say, confused.
“We want to apply it but—”
It dawns on me what Atticus is hinting at. Of course he knows Kaiser’s secret weakness. “He doesn’t like to be touched. I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?”
I look up at Atticus, and he blurs. I’m crying again. “He’s mine,” I say. “My… fiancé. I’ll do it.”
“All right, we’ll hold him down for you.”
“No,” I sniffle. “No. I’ll be okay.”
“He might fight,” Atticus warns.
“He won’t hurt me.”
“Call out if you need us.” Atticus and his team rip off their gloves and throw them in the hazmat container, leaving me and Kaiser alone.
The room feels so big and empty. Kaiser usually fills every space with his presence, but now he’s small, shrunk down, confined to a bed. His beautiful eyes are under a shroud.
It’s like he’s lying in a tomb, ready for death.
I can’t stand it. But I did this to him, so I’d better face the consequences. His head lifts when I move to his side. “Bella?”
“I’m here.” I don’t know what to say. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not. I’d do it again.”
I place the container of lotion close enough that his fingers can brush it. “I have to put this on your skin.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“It’s okay. I can take the pain.”