Chapter 32 JERICHO
JERICHO
Ilook around the club, my skin blazing and heart thumping erratically. “EVAN!”
The empty response cuts through me like a knife.
“Willow, where is he?”
The short woman brushes some of her blue locks away, eyes still wide and frantic. “I don’t know! We got separated when the crowd pushed him toward the bar. We never made it to Orem.”
The bar. Oh, no. Did Evan see Foxx? If he had, he would have taken off after him like an idiot. I knew bringing him here was reckless, but I didn’t see a way to convince him to stay back. I never meant for him to leave my side.
Running to the front of the building, I take the same exit Foxx used to make his escape. Outside, hundreds of people are running around, trying to get away from the madness. Sirens blare as cops screech to a stop in front of the building.
“Evan!” I shout.
A few people turn, but none of them are Evan. Fuck. Where is he?
Smoke billows out of a broken window, causing a knee-jerk panic to rise in my veins. The irony that my vampire gift came from being the sole survivor of a house fire is not lost on me, yet despite my power, I doubt I will ever get used to the smell. Fire means death, even to supernaturals.
Closing my eyes, I draw in a long breath through my nose, searching for Evan’s sweet lemongrass scent. It’s so familiar to me, so branded into my memory, that it’s easy to pick it up even with the chaos.
I take off running, dodging through the crowd without looking back. All I can think about is him out here alone, fighting my sire as a mere mortal. I have to get to him.
When I reach the corner, I’m bombarded with a few other scents that are just as familiar to me now, but for very different reasons. The pack. Rowen and Sage’s scents are strong. They must have been here just seconds ago, but there is one other that makes my fists clench.
“Kaine.” I spit his name like a curse. How can Evan have trusted that guy enough to let him come? After what he did? I want to snap his neck.
Shouts up ahead catch my attention.
“Tell me where he is!” Kaine roars.
“Kaine!” Sage says, his voice clipped. “We need him alive!”
“Fuck, Sage, this is bad!” Rowen says. “We need Red!”
Rowen is on his knees, and—
My steps falter when I see a form lying on the ground in front of him, arms splayed to the side and blond hair sticking up at all angles.
My heart plummets.
“No!”
Running over to them, I collapse on my knees in horror as I take in Evan’s mangled face. Pain rips through me like a branding iron. “NO!”
Evan isn’t moving. He isn’t even breathing. His body lay lifeless.
Evan is dead.
No. He can’t be dead. He can’t!
“Ev?” I say, nudging his shoulder. His beautiful blood-stained face doesn’t flinch, doesn’t show any recognition to my voice. A hoarse cry escapes me as I cradle his head, my hands shaking. “Evan, baby, please! Answer me!”
Without thinking, I bite into my wrist and hold it against Evan’s mouth, tilting his head back to ensure some of my blood goes down this throat. He doesn’t swallow or choke.
He doesn’t do anything.
“Evan, please! You can’t…”
Tears blur my vision, my chest constricting. This can’t be happening. Evan can’t be dead.
Red appears beside me, shifting in an instant and leaning over to listen to Evan’s chest. “Still alive, but barely. Fucking hell… his throat. What did Foxx do to him?”
Red tears Evan’s shirt open, tugging the collar away from a gaping wound at his neck, where blood is pooling everywhere. It looks like Foxx ripped a chunk of muscle right out of him.
“Red,” I plead, words failing me.
Red covers the wound with this hand, light pulsing under his skin. “I don’t smell venom,” he says. “That’s good. Stars above, Evan. Hang in there.”
Good? How the fuck is this good? Evan isn’t even conscious. He’s barely alive!
Over his shoulder, he calls, “Sage! Call for help! He needs blood!”
I struggle to draw breath. “Evan, please,” I say, leaning over to kiss his forehead. “Please, baby. Don’t leave me.”
Kaine roars behind us. “Your sire is a fucking coward! Couldn’t even stay to fight!”
Water hits my back, startling me back to the present. When I look over my shoulder at the man in Kaine’s grasp, anger rises like boiling magma.
“WHERE IS HE?” Kaine roars, lifting Foxx from the ground. His eyes are blazing a deadly shade of gold, long hair blowing in the breeze. Kaine slowly turns his hand in a clockwise position, causing the rope of water around Foxx’s neck to tighten.
Foxx flails, hands groping at the water, but to no avail. His finger slips right through.
“You think you’re so clever, covering for that sick fuck. Do you even realize what you’ve done?”
Covering for him?
“Where. The hell. Is he?” Kaine bellows.
The man’s eyes bulge as he struggles to draw breath, and that’s when I notice it. His features are shifting right before me, nose and lips altering as if they can’t settle on a preference. Even his hair is changing from blond to red to russet brown.
Dread fills my stomach like a lead balloon. “That isn’t Foxx.”
“No fucking shit, Sherlock!” Kaine snaps, his voice dripping with poison.
“What happened? Where is he?”
“Probably hitching a ride out of the city,” Kaine says. “This son of a bitch changed himself to look like Foxx so his master could get away!” Kaine spits the word master, disgust dripping from his lips.
I shake my head, still confused. “But that was him at the club. I’m certain of it.”
“Of course it was. But as usual, he fled at the first sign of trouble. He’s such a fucking coward. Your mate almost had him, then Foxx disappeared around a corner. I followed him, but this fucker,” Kaine snarls again, fangs exposed, “knocked me over the head and went after Evan.”
The truth hits me square in the chest. This guy tricked Evan into fighting him just to protect Foxx? And Kaine still chose to fight for Evan?
My hands ignite with fire as the Foxx look-alike flails, still trying to break free of Kaine’s water noose. “You must be Breckley,” I say. “The chameleon.”
His face contorts, shifting from one to the next like a slot machine in Vegas. Worthless scum.
“He’s not going to tell us anything,” I say. “Foxx’s men are too loyal to him.”
“Agreed. Foxx will be long gone by now, anyway,” Sage adds. “Finish him so we can help Ev.”
Without a second thought, Kaine tightens the rope, severing the man’s head from his body. They both fall to the ground with a dull thud.
I stare down at it for about two seconds before casting a ball of fire at his ankles. It’s the only dry place on his body, but it’s all I need. He burns slowly, the water hissing as it evaporates against melting skin. Within a minute, the vampire is nothing more than a pile of ash.
I turn my back on him, sinking to my knees beside Evan again. He hasn’t changed.
Red is still pouring his healing magic into the wound, but his expression is grim. “He’s barely hanging on, Jer. I’m doing the best I can, but if the paramedics don’t get here soon—”
“Don’t say it.” I bite into my wrist again, giving Evan more blood as I carefully pull him into my lap. His head rolls to the side, mouth agape. God, he looks so weak. So pale. If I didn’t hear his faint heartbeat with my own ears, I would’ve thought we were too late.
We still might be.
I clutch him to my chest, a broken sob escaping me as I tuck my face against his. “Please don’t go, baby,” I say, kissing his cold, lifeless lips. “I need you.”
After years of loving Evan and never believing it was possible for him to love me back, this can’t be how it ends.
This can’t be how Evan dies—at the hand of someone who wasn’t even my sire.
His death would be for nothing—a waste in this ridiculous war.
Foxx is still out there, still going to hurt innocent people.
Evan can’t die.
So many memories flash before my eyes—from our hikes in the mountains to the first time I saw him on our college campus.
He captured my attention immediately with his easy smile and warm laugh.
And the first time we spoke, it was like he reached directly into my heart, touching me in a way no one ever had.
Evan helped me feel alive again after walking around numb for so long.
I had been grieving my family for years, feeling lost and alone…
and then he came in and poured his life into me like a warm blanket.
He taught me how to laugh again, gave me the motivation to pick up a pencil again.
Evan became my best friend instantly, and through the years, he became so much more.
I was in love with him long before I ever realized it.
“I love you,” I whisper.
Tears sear my skin in rivulets down my cheeks. I clutch his shirt, struggling to breathe through the pain. “You hear that?” I shake him. “I fucking love you Evan, so don’t you leave me!”
Footsteps sound nearby, and I vaguely hear paramedics surveying the scene. I ignore them, still holding Evan to my chest. I can’t let him go. If I do, I might never get him back.
“Sir, we’re here to help,” someone says, tapping my shoulder.
I whirl around, baring my fangs at the woman who dared touch me. She steps back, throwing her arms up.
“Holy shit,” Sage says, stepping closer.
Red gasps, leaning in. “Jericho, look!”
I wipe my eyes, trying to see what has them so excited through the blurry vision. Shock and confusion swirl within. “How…”
I lift my gaze to Red. “You?”
He shakes his head, almost laughing with relief. “Your tears.”
“My… what?”
“Your phoenix tears,” he clarifies. “The tears of a phoenix have healing powers.”
I look back down, realizing with a start that he’s right. My tears still glisten against Evan’s skin, covering the wound almost completely. The gaping wound had been too severe to close when we first arrived, yet now it is stitching itself closed. Not perfectly, but enough to stop the bleeding.
I did that?
“Sir,” the paramedic tries again.
I blink hard, still trying to believe what I’m seeing.
Sage nudges my shoulder. “Let him go, Jer. The wound is closed, but he still needs blood. Breck drained him.”
I sit frozen in place as the paramedics lift Evan’s frail body onto a gurney. One arm slides off the hard mattress, as if reaching for me. I hold it for as long as I can until they strap it against his stomach.
When they start to wheel him away, I get to my feet. “Wait! I’m going with you.”
“You can’t—”
“He’s my life mate,” I explain. “I have every right to go with him.”
“Even so, we don’t have room for extras,” the paramedic insists. “I’m sorry. You can wait for him at the hospital.”
I start to argue, but Sage grips my shoulder. “Let them go, Jer. We’ll gather the pack and head over.”
When I don’t move, he forcefully turns me. “They’re his best chance. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t help him now.” I sense a double meaning behind his words, but don’t understand it.
“I can’t,” I say, my heart breaking.
He doesn’t back down. “We’ll be right behind them.”
I watch Evan go, vision blurring as more tears fall. Please, let him be okay.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kaine watching me, his brows pulled together in a frown. In an instant, all the hate I’d felt toward the guy melts away. If Kaine hadn’t been there to rip Breckley away from Evan, I might’ve lost him.
Getting to my feet, I cross the distance to stand in front of Kaine, causing the vampire to involuntarily step back.
“Thank you,” I say quickly.
His eyes widen.
“You chose to help Evan instead of going after Foxx.”
Kaine scoffs. “Only because I didn’t see where Foxx went. If I had…” Anger hardens his features.
“I hear you. Believe me, I still want to kill him too. But seriously, thank you.”
He doesn’t reply.
I straighten my shoulders. “We should head back, but if anyone asks, I’m the one who killed Breckley.”
Kaine seems stunned that I would take the fall for him when he could be jailed for killing Breckley. But I feel like I owe him, even after threatening Evan’s life.
“He’s my life mate,” I say simply.
Kaine nods. “Yeah, I… heard.” He drops his gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Evan was right. Kaine only threatened him because he was desperate to get help for Willow. That’s something I can understand. I would rip anyone apart for hurting those I care about.
“You should go back to the club,” I say. “Willow was at the bar when I left.”
Kaine freezes. “You saw her?”
I nod. “She’s fine. Just shaken by this whole mess. She was trying to help the humans.”
He closes his eyes, clearly relieved. In a flash, he’s gone.
I turn back to the shifters. “Let’s gather the pack and get to the hospital.”