Page 103 of Whispers of Fire

“WHO DID THIS?! WHO?!” I yell instinctively, but I already know the answer, my eyes staying locked on my girl's face.

We gotta go before one of those fuckers takes out a gun. There’re kids everywhere here. Can't take too many risks.

I turn quickly toward Shadow, one arm still holding my girl, and without a fuckin’ second of hesitation, I shoot Skarn right in the head between the eyes. His body falls at the same time as dozens of gasps echo around the room.

Carrying my girl's wet body on my shoulder, holding her with one hand and carrying the gun in the other, I head off to the exit when somebody pushes me.

“Get your hands off my daughter! She's not yours to touch!” A gray hair man, I recognise as her father, tries to remove my hold from Rose and I fuckin’ lose it.

“BACK THE FUCK AWAY! Shadow! Take him with us, he’s her fuckin’ father!” And like my fuckin’ right hand man, Shadow shoots him twice in the knees, then drags him toward the exit. The old guy is crying and shouting at the pain Shadow gave him.

Can say a lot about his methods but they're damn efficient.

I'll deal with her father later. After all, he's the one who's put her in this situation, bringing her to this sick community and offering her to a maniac.

I expect other people to stop us, but nobody does. The crowd is moving toward the stage. To their fuckin’ joke of a leader, I think. But I don't give a fuck about it as I enter the van, my girl’s body now on my lap, my shaking hands under her knees and back.

Wake up, Angel.

Please.

Stay with me.

I'll die here with ya if you let go.

Rose

“Stay with me, Angel, hold on, I'm here… fuck… I arrived too late… fuck… please, Angel, wake up.”

Familiar arms and shaking hands are holding me, my eyes impossibly shut.

I can't breathe.

Everything comes back to me.

The water, his hold on my neck, my empty lungs, an explosion, and my body letting go with the last flashes of Vox’s handsome face and chocolate hair I'd never get to see again.

“Angel, please, anything, give me a sign. We're getting ya to a doctor fuckin’ soon, stay with me,” Vox pleads, breaking my heart in the process.

I’m here, I’m right here.

“Carter, SPEED THE FUCK UP!” his voice shouts, carrying so much pain and worry. My body doesn't respond to my brain. I try to talk but it doesn't work. I must be in shock. I cough, trying to free my throat from the full sensation I felt when the water entered it. It is so painful, I wince. Coughing again, I sense his whole body freezing.

“Angel?”

My eyes slightly open with difficulty. It’s so hard, like trying to get out of quicksand.

Vox.

He’s here. It wasn’t just my imagination.

I needed him to come and he did. My heart quickens and the noise around us disappears for a few seconds.

“Don’t fuckin’ try to leave me, Angel,” he says, his voice like a lifeline, keeping me from drifting away. I can’t see him; everything is blurred like a camera that can’t seem to focus. Black and white shapes dance around me.

His rough hands are holding me tight, one cupping my head while the other is under my back, pushing my body to nestle into his. The dress is sticking to my body, water dripping all over me, making me shiver. He must sense it because he grabs a blanket from the rear shelf and tucks it around me.

“Vox,” I try to say, pushing myself despite the burn in my throat, hoping he’ll hear me. I never thought I’d make it, and perhaps I won’t. Maybe these are our last moments together as I feel my mind drifting away, wondering what the damage of the minutes I’ve spent unconscious underwater will be.

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