Chapter Thirty-Seven
“No!” Reyna screamed.
She launched herself toward him. Her hand moved to the knife sticking out of his chest as if she could stop this somehow. Blood gushed from the wound, coating his crisp white button-up. Then sticking to her hands as she attempted to stop it.
She needed him. She needed him alive.
She had chosen justice. She had chosen good. Had used the cure when anyone else would have ended his worthless life for the horrors he’d inflicted on her. And he had done this anyway.
He was supposed to pay for his crimes. This was all supposed to happen a different way.
Her hands were red with blood as she put pressure on the wound. But it was no use.
“Why?” she gasped.
Harrington gurgled incoherently and then the light went out of those intelligent eyes. They went blank and empty. Gone was the visionary man. The ruthless monster. The sick lonely broken boy. A nightmare and a genius.
“Reyna, he’s gone,” Beckham said gently. He lifted her off of the ground and pulled her tight against his chest. “He’s gone.”
“I know,” she said, leaning her head into Beckham’s shoulder. “But I wanted more.”
“We all play the hand we’re dealt.”
She sighed against him and nodded. This wasn’t over. Harrington was the first step in a long game. His death wasn’t a tragedy. It was a mercy. One he didn’t deserve. But they would end this without him all the same.
“Let’s go save the world.”
…
“William Harrington is dead,” Beckham bellowed to the remaining fighters, from the front of the observation deck. “Roland Batiste has fled the building. And Bronwyn…” He gestured to his sister, tied up and unconscious. “She no longer leads your army.”
All fighting stilled at the news. At the commanding presence Beckham issued.
“I am the new leader of Visage, and I command you to stop. Or I will hunt you all down and rip out your bloody throats myself,” he roared. “Get down on your knees and surrender.”
A few snarled their disapproval, but the look on Beckham’s face silenced them. Along with much of his inner circle walking down the stairs to stop any further protests. They might have been Harrington’s army, but they knew power when they saw it.
Beckham gestured for Reyna to come forward.
She squeezed Jodie’s hand before stepping toward him.
He clasped her hand and she was surprised to find that his was shaking.
He was still so weak from what they’d gone through together, but no one else knew that.
They saw what he projected, not what was underneath.
“I am Beckham Anderson and this is Reyna Carpenter. Together we have brought you into a new age where vampires and humans are equal,” Beckham announced gallantly.
Then he lifted their hands into the air. A cheer rose up from the remaining members of Elle, who had fought for this cause. Who had done everything that they could to make this a reality. Something like relief flooded her system for the first time in so long.
Katarina rushed in at that moment. Her eyes found Beckham’s and she shook her head. “He got away.”
Beckham sighed. “Let’s finish this up and then we’ll go after him again. We can’t let Roland remain loose.”
“I can’t believe he got away,” Reyna said.
“He would have killed you otherwise. It’s a trade.”
Katarina joined the rest of Beckham’s circle, the friends they’d called in for a favor, and the anti-vamps who were now rounding up the remaining vampires and cordoning them off into separate rooms. The rest of Elle was releasing any of the people who were still locked up.
Vampires and humans working together to walk forward into a new world.
Reyna’s friends were standing around a body at the base of the stairs and she glanced at Jodie, who followed her down.
What they saw there turned her stomach. Reyna had seen so much death and destruction, but…Tye. He’d been so good. He’d deserved better than what had happened to him. To any of the fallen.
Meghan leaned into Gabe’s arms, tears freely flowing down her face. Drew was pale and hugged Reyna when she came near.
“It’s over,” he whispered. “It’s really over.”
“This is just the beginning,” she said quietly. “Now we have to rebuild.”
“We need a memorial,” Meghan whispered.
Reyna released her brother to look across the room full of the fallen. “A memorial for everyone who sacrificed themselves to get here. For Tye, Sydney, Washington, Xavier, Tony, Everett, and so many more.”
“So much death,” Meghan said.
“We’ll never forget them,” Reyna said.
Gabe turned to her then. “Well, General, what do we do now?”
Everyone’s eyes shifted to her, and she took in each and every one of her friends.
She thought about all the others still working to fix this mess.
About Brian and Laura back in Beckham’s safe house.
All the anti-vamp people who had risked their lives and worked with the vampires they claimed to hate.
About every person who had ever fought for this cause.
“We live.”
It was the best she could offer them. And at the same time, it was everything.
Beckham touched her arm. She smiled at her friends and left them to grieve.
“We need to get you medical attention,” Beckham said.
“I’m okay,” she lied.
“You’re going to run yourself into the ground.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Beckham brushed her hair off of her face and smiled at her. “You did an incredible job today. I’m lucky to stand at your side.”
“Forever and always, right?”
He nodded decisively. Forever and always.
Reyna stared up into his dark eyes, so full of longing.
It was amazing that she had ever believed him expressionless.
She opened her senses to him and enveloped his heart, body, and soul with all the love in her heart.
He pushed right back, colliding, capturing, encasing her.
They were both weak from blood loss and using their powers, but they were strong in all the ways that mattered.
She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His hands moved up into her hair, tilting her head and melding their lips together.
They had won.
The world was still turning.
There was much work left to do—a world to save.
But here, now, there were just two blood matches who had found the cure to their souls.