Page 211 of Shhh…It’s A Killer Story

"No, you don't!" she cried, struggling so violently I had to hold her shoulders just to stop her sitting upright into the line of fire. Tears mixed with blood as they ran down the bruises covering her face.

"Move!"

"I'm not leaving you."

Another volley of rounds cracked somewhere behind me. I didn't even flinch but she completely broke.

"I can die!" she sobbed, the words ripping themselves out of her chest so violently it physically hurt to hear them. "You can't!"

Time stopped. Everything stopped.

She grabbed both sides of my face with trembling, filthy hands, forcing me to look directly into her one open eye. There was no sarcasm left. No jokes. No fourth wall. No fearless grin. Only absolute terror.

"I breathe..." she whispered, barely able to get the words out between broken breaths, "...when you breathe."

My heart forgot how to beat.

"My heart beats... because yours does."

Another explosion sounded somewhere behind me. It might as well have been miles away.

"You may not need me..." she cried, every word breaking apart as fresh tears spilled down her swollen cheeks, "...but I need you. Without you I'm nothing."

Her fingers shook against my jaw, smearing blood across my face without either of us noticing.

"So, move, Elias..." she begged, her voice collapsing into desperate sobs. "Please... move... don't die because of me."

I just stared at her.

God...

She is breaking my heart, how could she think for one fucking moment that my life meant more than hers will. What had they done to her? The bruises, split lip, swelling around her eye. The rope burns cutting into both wrists, dried blood across her temple and fresh cuts running down her arm.

She looked like she'd been fighting for hours.

I reached up slowly, brushing the blood-soaked strands of hair away from her face as gently as I could, terrified even that small movement would hurt her more. My thumb rested against her bruised cheek, barely touching the skin.

"No," I whispered, my voice cracking for the first time in years.

"No, baby... I'm not leaving you. Not ever again. We'll argue later. You can yell at me later. You can call me every name under the sun later. But right now..."

I pulled her back against my chest, wrapping myself around her once more as the last few gunshots echoed through the warehouse.

"Right now, you stay with me."

She didn't stop crying. She just buried her face against my vest, clutching fistfuls of my jacket as though letting go would make me disappear. And I held her tighter than I had ever held anyone in my life.

"Eagle One."

Mason's voice crackled through my earpiece, calm and controlled despite the smoke still hanging inside the warehouse. The gunfire died. Not all at once. One rifle… Another burst… Then nothing.

Silence rolled through the building like a living thing, swallowing the screams, the ricochets and the ringing in my ears until all I could hear was our breathing and the metallic clink of spent brass slowly spinning itself to a stop across the concrete.

"Code Four," Mason confirmed.

I finally let myself breathe. The pressure crushing my ribs eased just enough that I could move. Keeping one arm around Seraphina, I eased us upright from the splintered remains of the chair. Only then did I really look at her.

Jesus...