Page 166 of Black Bird

“This could possibly save your life. It’s what you were going to be given at the benefit.” Annie rolled herself onto her back, holding the bag and staring at it.

“This looks like … blood,” she said, looking over at him.

“It is. From a donor that willingly gave it to me to deliver to you, myself. It’s the only one, and she wants you to have the chance to grow up. The only condition is that you don’t tell anybody about it.”

“You want us to give some stranger’s blood to our daughter?” the woman asked, starting to become flustered. “How would we administer something like that to her without someone helping us? And how do we know it won’t kill her?”

“She’s dying anyway, Vanessa …” the husband interjected, a pleading look on his face. “If we don’t take the risk, then we’re gonna lose her either way.” He looked back at little Annie who was watching them both. “She deserves to be able to choose for herself.”

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Annie asked, looking at Brent. “That lady from the benefit. She's the one who gave me this?”

“Yeah …” Brent slowly nodded and stared at the floor. “Yeah, she’s—she’s just as special as you are.”

“I wanna meet her. Can you bring her here?”

“I can try.”

Annie tried to sit straighter, her parents helping her, and adjusting a pillow behind her back. “I don’t have long. If I do this, I wanna hear it from her. I trust you, Brent. But I saw how upset she was that night. I’m young, but I’m not stupid. I’d like to have the chance to at least thank her for this, if it works. I need the chance to thank her if itdoesn’t. Do you know what I mean?”

Brent raised his eyes back to hers. “Yeah, kid. I understand. Gimme a few minutes, okay? Can you hang on for me?”

“You’ll have to marry me.” Annie winked.

Brent softly smiled and reached for his phone in his pocket. Sarah would have hers back by now. He dialed her number, not sure what he’d say. If she’d heard about what he’d done in the observation room, she might not even consider answering, let alone coming over here. It rang twice, and then cut to her voicemail. She’d ignored him. Brent glanced at Annie, realizing both she and her parents were intently watching him. He called again. This time it rang once before her voicemail sounded again.

“Sarah … it’s Brent. I need you to call me. Right now. It’s a matter of life and death.” He hung up and found himself pacing in front of Annie’s bed.

“You love her, huh?” Annie breathed, stopping him in his tracks. He met her eyes.

“I thought I did. It’s … very complicated. But none of it was her fault. I’m not really husband material, kid. You don’t wanna marry somebody like me.”

“Maybe that’s your problem, Stratford.” Annie smiled weakly. “That’s not for you to decide.”

Everything going through his mind prior to walking into this room, had just been leveled by a nine-year-old girl. What was his decision, he’d made a complete disaster of. All the things that he thought he could control … even if he didn’t mean to try and control them … had pushed Sarah so far away that she’d drifted into someone else’s arms. She had practically told him that at her apartment the night that she gave him back his ring. He couldn’t truly blame Detective Kane. This unraveling had been by his own hands.

“I’ll get her here.”

It was a nightmare. To have gone through a transition over the weekend, to coming home and getting her badge yanked from her … the state of this apartment had almost sent Rhaena over the edge with frustration. With every piece of her life that she picked up off the floor, she felt something stir within her. Something familiar, that hadn’t appreciated being bested. Like that beast was cunningly biding its time picking the lock to its cage. When the veil had been ripped down, and Kane’s truth exposed, she wondered when her own truth would come out. She half-wondered if Foster actually had even had anything at all, and if Athan’s confession had even been necessary. She’d kill that little bitch. She should anyway, if for no other reason than her unwelcome presence in her house, and the way she’d carelessly littered it with everything Rhaena owned.

It seemed like they’d been picking through the mess for hours, and Jenkins had just about gotten to the point of grinding on her nerves, though Rhaena found herself feeling rather bad about it. He was only trying to help, and she knew that. But the irritation from the whole ordeal was getting the better of her and answering every‘where does this go?’or‘do you wanna keep this?’was starting to get oldreallyquickly. It wasn’t until they’d started on her bedroom that she felt the first rush of nervous flutter through her belly when she spotted the old set of boat chains laid outside her closet door. The claw marks from the inside would have given her away without the obvious reason for a chain that heavy. She’d forgotten all about it.

“What’s wrong, babe?” Jenkins asked, coming around her and brushing his hand against her side.

“She knows,” Rhaena said quietly, staring at the chains. “She knows what I am.” He turned her around to face him and braced her hips.

“Hey,” he started, lifting her chin. “It’s alright. What other proof would she have, anyway? You didn’t hurt anybody. And as far as we know, you won’t be turning anymore, right? Who cares what she thinks she knows. Who would believe her?”

“Were you not there when Kane told the truth about himself? Cap barely blinked at the word vampire. I think his shock was more in the sense that he couldn’t believe how bad we betrayed his trust. How badIbetrayed his trust.” Rhaena’s throat bobbed, and she blinked back emotion. “I don’t have any way of knowing what’ll happen next full moon. Sarah’s blood might have stopped it this time, but who knows how long those effects last? My being what I am isn’t some kind of disease. It’s part of me. If she tells anybody—”

“She won’t,” Jenkins interrupted, pinching her chin. “I think if she was going to, then she’d have done it by now. Sarah took the heat for everybody.”

“We still don’t even know what happened there, either. We need to finish up and check in on everybody. I don’t have time to be selfish and whine. And we need to find Wren and give her that phone. See if she wants to come back yet.”

“You’re not being selfish, Rhaena. If that were the least bit true, Wren wouldn’t have been here in the first place, and you’d still have your badge.” His smile was tender, and the taste of his lips a lot sweeter than an hour ago. “And you still don’t understand why I fell for you …”

Rhaena brought her arms around his neck and leaned into him, drawing him into another heated kiss. “Because you’ve lost your mind,” she whispered into his mouth. She decided that their comrades would have to wait just a bit longer as she backed him to the edge of her bed and pushed him down, crawling on top of his body.

“Damn, woman …” Jenkins grinned. “We haven’t even finished in here.”

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