Chapter 21
elaine
I sat at the side of the room, my hands clasped anxiously at my waist, as Jenna, the Blackbird physician, tended to Vera’s injuries.
To my wife.
I still thought I was dreaming. I turned the ring anxiously on my finger, incredulously looking at Vera and repeating in my head my wife, trying to reconcile the two. I knew it didn’t mean anything, but also… I was a married woman now. I had a wife.
And my wife had saved me. Directly, and indirectly, by marrying me.
Vera had a far-off look the whole time, not even flinching at Jenna giving her stitches in her hand, tending to her shoulder, and everything else. She didn’t look at Jenna, didn’t look at me, didn’t say a word.
Finally, when Jenna gave Vera a second alone to sit with it before they continued with the rest of the physical evaluation, she led me out of the room, out to a rear balcony with beautiful ornate railing wrapped in ivy.
“Are you okay?” she said. She was a kindly older woman with dark skin and short hair, wrinkles around her eyes and that kind of soft strength that only came from seeing so many terrible things through that you always knew there was something on the other side.
I’d seen the starting roots of that on some of the kids who came into the community events, all too young to start to know that pain.
“You tell me, Doc,” I said, trying for a joking tone. It came out a little shaky. She smiled thinly.
“Physically, you’re fine. Emotionally… hard to say.”
“I’m confused. And scared. And still trying to catch up…” I twisted the ring on my finger. “I never thought getting married would look like this. I mean, who does think that?”
She smiled softly. “One day, you’ll look back on this as a short but intense, deeply strange period of your life. While you’re together with the person you actually do marry.”
I laughed thinly. “It feels weird to be thinking about meeting someone and falling in love with them. I mean, I got married two hours ago.”
She studied me carefully. “You should be careful with Vera, dear.”
“What… do you mean?”
“She’s very charming in her way. But she’s an unpredictable one who would do anything for the mission.” She folded her hands on the rail. “I don’t actually know what her mission is right now, just that you’re central to it. And being central to Vera’s mission is often dangerous.”
“I don’t think she would hurt me,” I said quietly. “She’s had every opportunity to, and all she’s done is keep me safe.”
“And yet I can promise you, if you let yourself grow attached to her, it will hurt you. One way or another. I do care for Vera, deeply. I was the one who took her in when she came to us, after her father’s death, sickly and tortured and barely holding on.
There’s a reason they call her the Wolf.
There’s something animalistic inside her. Make sure she doesn’t see you as prey.”
Vera had said the same thing last night. I’m a predator… and you’re prey.
But would she really hurt me?
On the surface it seemed obvious. She was an assassin. I was useful. The moment I stopped being useful, surely I should have feared for my life.
But the way she looked at me… like she would kill for me.
I got a shudder.
Jenna pushed away from the railing. “Vera should be cleared to leave care shortly,” she said. “After that, I leave her to you. But I’ll be around. I have a very charismatic little kitten to look after.”
I laughed, brightening a little. “Jenna?” I said, and she stopped.
“Yes, dear?”
“Thank you. For keeping us safe.”
She stared at me for a while before she broke out into a smile. “You’re very welcome. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”
I guess a mob doctor didn’t get a lot of genuine appreciation.
I stayed on the balcony, and before long, Vera joined me, leaning on the rail, her expression dark. I smiled at her, and I felt myself melting a little when it got a smile out of her too, the dark countenance breaking.
“Are you okay?” I said, and she shrugged.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m your wife. Of course I’m worried.”
She laughed, hanging her head. “Should have realized you’d be like this with a wife. You’re a softie.”
“You caught a knife for me.”
“I’m not a good person. I’m doing this for the job.”
I gave her a playful push. “You still got hurt, Vera! Let me worry about you a little.”
She held out her hand for me, wrapped in bandages but moving fine. “I’m okay,” she said. “See?”
I caressed her hand gingerly before I even realized what I was doing. The bandaged hand felt like a symbol… the woman who had caught a knife by the blade to keep me alive. “Thank you… for protecting me.”
She looked away with a sigh. I turned to the railing.
“Sorry… am I annoying?”
“You’re too good to be involved in this.” She put her hand on my opposite hip, pulling me into her side, and I went with a gasp, my heart racing. Viscerally, I flashed back to the kiss—even as heated as the moment was, how much it made everything else disappear.
And to last night… to the sounds she made.
“I’m safe now, though,” I whispered, and she hung her head.
“I just don’t know how Whitecliff got here. They won’t try another attack like that, not for a while at least, now that they lost the element of surprise, but… this was supposed to be a secret location. All I can think is that someone… someone must have leaked it.”
“Vera… who even knows about this place?”
“Not many.” Her voice was clipped, but she squeezed me before she let go. “Come on. I’m exhausted. And starving. And I need a break.”
“Me too,” I said, and I reached for her hand without thinking. And I think she took it without thinking—held my hand and led me back to the house, but we both stopped in our tracks at the sound that made my stomach drop.
A gunshot.
“Vera,” I whispered, and she shushed me.
“Elaine… I need you to stay here with Jenna. Don’t go anywhere,” she said. “I’m going to go find out what that was.”
“Where’s Petra? I don’t want you walking into this alone!”
“Trust me. I’ve got this.”
“Vera—”
She pulled her hand from mine, and I fumbled, reaching for her again.
“Vera!”
“Stay here.” She turned back just long enough to caress my cheek, and it stopped me in my tracks as she whispered, her eyes locked on mine. “Don’t make me worry about you.”
“I…” I swallowed. “Please be safe.”
She nodded.
And with that, she turned around, and she took off into the house.