Chapter Fourteen Pax
Chapter Fourteen
Pax
“Aria!” I barely caught her before she fully crumpled to the ground, and I swept her into my arms.
Holding her close while my heart beat at a manic pace.
What the fuck were we thinking? Standing here on this street doing this? But there’d been no chance I could try to stop her. Not when I knew it was her purpose. Not when I knew it was what she was meant to do.
My attention dashed left and right, searching for a place to hide us as I listened to the single siren grow louder as it approached.
We had to get the hell out of here, or everything we’d been fighting for was going to go up in flames.
Had to assume it was the single gunshot she’d fired that had caused someone to call and report hearing it. The single gunshot that had saved my life.
I pressed my nose into her hair, inhaling her coconut scent, trying to find a semblance of calm as panic flailed against the gratitude I felt.
The overwhelming awe I had for this brave, beautiful, unstoppable girl who was limp in my arms.
Completely drained because she was always willing to give all of herself to others.
To offer it all.
“This way. Hurry.” I was surprised when the hushed voice hit me from the side, and I looked up to find the brown-haired girl hissing the words. She held the hand of the younger girl as she waved for me to follow them with the other.
I didn’t hesitate. I followed them around the corner, jogging to keep up as they ran ahead of us.
Aria’s head jostled from side to side with each thud of my boots on the sidewalk.
Harsh pants were ripped from my mouth by the exertion.
They hustled along the sidewalk before they stalled out at a tiny alley that cut between this building and the next.
The older one ushered me and the younger girl ahead of her before she ducked in behind us. The blonde teetered on her heels, trying to balance as she ran, her movements entirely different from before Aria had helped her.
That gaunt hopelessness was gone.
Now her gasps were sharp and raking as we raced between the two buildings all the way down to the intersecting road.
We stopped at the end of it, still hidden in its shadows.
The brown-haired girl pointed across the street.
“Keep going between the buildings for three blocks. Once you get to the third street, there is a bar just off to the right. Catch a ride there, and tell them your girl is drunk and you want to get her home. We need to clean her up first.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and cleaned the droplets of blood that had splattered on Aria’s face.
My throat thickened. I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was supposed to say. I’d always gone it alone. But now, Aria had taught me that every fucking thing was different.
“Thank you.” The words were gravel.
A sound of disbelief huffed from her mouth, and she dropped her gaze to Aria. A riot of emotion rippled across her face. “I don’t know what the hell just happened, but I’m pretty sure it’s us who should be doing the thanking.”
She was back to clutching the other girl’s hand, and she shook her head as if she didn’t want to contemplate what she had just seen and felt.
“Go on. Get yourselves to safety,” she said, urging me with her chin in the direction she’d pointed out.
I hesitated, then asked, “What are you going to do?”
She squeezed the blond girl’s hand firmly in hers. “Soph and I are gonna start a new life. Right now. We’re gonna disappear from this horrid place, just like I suggest you do.”
I attempted to shift Aria around so I could get to the pocket where I’d stuffed the cash I’d poached from those fucks. She must have known my intention, because she gave a slight shake of her head. “No. We don’t need it. We’ll make it.”
Aria groaned through the exhaustion, my name a garbled roll on her lips.
Both came forward and brushed their fingertips over the back of her hand before the older one sent me a knowing glance.
A clear understanding.
She was promising to hold our secrets.
Then they rounded the corner and walked away.
I watched them disappear into the thick mist before I darted across the street beneath the cover of night and into the next alleyway.
I kept Aria tight against me as I followed the brunette’s instructions.
The pathway dumped us out exactly where she’d said.
Music and a drone of lifted voices seeped out of a dive bar that was on the right side, and a few people loitered in a roped-off section out front, smoking cigarettes and sipping beers beneath the orange glow of outdoor heaters.
I angled in close to that area like we were two more patrons, and I waited at least half an hour before a cab finally came by. Wasn’t about to risk making a fake account for an Uber or some shit like that.
I hailed it, and the guy barely grunted at me as I gave him an address across the city. As far away from our motel as we could feasibly get.
Once he dropped us off, I did the same thing three more times, grabbing cabs and having them drop us off in random places.
Making sure the two of us disappeared without a trace.
I had the last driver leave us half a mile from the motel.
I paid him and stepped out, clinging to Aria, who had fallen into a foggy state of coherence.
She gazed up at me with those pale, pale eyes, cognizance as heavy as the clouds that covered us as I carried her the rest of the way to our motel.
I climbed the steps, let us into the room, and laid her out on the bed.
She blinked up at me through the bleary light. Sadness pooled there, all mixed with that glorious, unfathomable strength.
“I won’t say I’m sorry.” The words were hoarse when she whispered them.
I dropped to my knees at her side, gathered her hand in mine, and brought her knuckles to my lips. “No, baby, I’m the one who’s sorry,” I murmured against them.
She shifted so she could curl her hand around mine. “We’re in this together, Pax. Wholly. In every way. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. You can’t protect me from this life.”
My nod was tight. “I know. I keep thinking I can, but I end up making it worse.”
I brushed the pad of my thumb over her sweat-drenched brow, while she trembled from the cold.
She was completely drained, though at least this time she hadn’t been struck by either of the Kruen she’d encountered. It was strange that she hadn’t been drained when she fought the Ghorl in her father’s mind, but tonight she’d been completely zapped.
It was so hard to make sense of the difference.
“You think I wouldn’t give everything to protect you, too?” she whispered.
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
“Yes, it is. That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be.” She said it so quickly she nearly cut me off. Then she lowered her voice as she continued, “It’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be. You and me fighting for humanity. It’s our fate, and we do it together.”
“You shot a man tonight.” It raked from my chest. A stake of guilt.
She gave a long blink. “I hate it . . . that people can be so depraved that it was the only option I had. Hate that I had to do it. But I can promise I’d do it all over again, a thousand times over. For you, Pax. Because I love you.”
As I sat there on my knees next to her, the significance of the night sank through me.
“You saved me,” I told her. I wasn’t sure what the fuck would have happened if she hadn’t come. If she’d listened to the bullshit I’d spewed.
My thinking had been faulty. I knew it now. Knew she was right.
“I needed you—need you in every way,” I corrected. “In every aspect and every manner, and I promise you I won’t try to keep you from the things I have to do ever again.”
Her teeth raked over her bottom lip as she nodded against the pillow, all that black hair strewn around her gorgeous face.
“Because you and I are in this thing together, Pax. To the very end.”