Page 183 of Black Bird

Kane smirked at him over his shoulder. “She’s sending you into the club to fetch an old friend for me. You’re gonna help get him outside so I can talk to him, and then we use him to get the coven on board.”

Nick sprang up from his stool. “You’re trying to send me into thesnake pit?” He frantically shook his head. “Hell no. Absolutely not. I’m not going into a den of fucking—vampires, orwhateverthe fuck you are. Not on your life.” Kane slowly raised from his seat and turned to him, those strange eyes showing that familiar darkness that always had Nick testing his bladder.

“Well, Nick … for once this evening, you’re right. It’snoton my life. It’s onyours.” He took a step toward him, and Nick bristled. “You know, I find it so amusing. You’re still so worried about your pathetic life, but you were never worried about hers. You offered it up like a stack of banded cash, just to save your own ass. Have you ever once … done one selfless thing, Nick? That girl right there is draining the most vital part of herself to get the monsters off your back, and yet you still sit here and whine. Would it be easier for you to pretend it wasn’t her idea, and do it behind her fucking back? Like the coward you’ve proved yourself to be?”

“So, I’m not as brave as the two of you,” Nick stuttered. “Forgive me, Kane … but you know the things I have to lose. Now you have something, too. I see how important she is to you. I understand why you’d slaughter anyone for that girl. Call me a coward, butI don’t want to die. If I go, then who protects my wife? My son? It seems easy to say that shit when you don’t have them to worry about.”

His words must have hit home. Kane’s eyes softened, turning back to that staggering blue that even Nick couldn’t help but find breathtaking. The detective opened his mouth to say something else, but Sarah’s monitor started beeping loudly, startling them both. The borders around the screen flashed red, and her numbers dropped to the most dangerous low. The blood bag was nearly full. Nick leapt into action, uncovering Sarah’s arms and leaning her chair back so that she laid flat.

“She’s going into shock, Kane! I gotta stop it!” Nick panicked, about to pull the tape off her arm.

“No! She said not to stop it until you had what you needed!” Kane’s face was grave with worry and anguish, and he hovered over her, turning her face up to his and softly begging her to wake up under his breath.

Sarah didn’t wake. Her body went nauseatingly limp, and Nick watched the screen. “Kane … whatever you’re gonna do to save her … you better do it now. If you don’t, I’m pulling this out. I don’t care what you do to me. I’m not killing this girl.” Her heartbeat barely stirred a ripple on the line. “Kane …”

The detective desperately looked between her and the monitor. Nick couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. It was obvious how much he loved her. He couldn’t imagine Evie being in this situation, or what he’d do to spare her. He raised his face to Nick.

“Don’t take that needle out until that bag starts beeping,” he said. His voice was edged with something like regret. Nick checked the bag. Five more minutes. If she could hang on for five more minutes, it’d be done.

“You need to buy her time, Kane. I dunno what your plan is, but she needs just a couple more minutes. If we don’t do something, her organs will shut down, and her heart will stop.”

There was darkness all around her. The kind of darkness that felt like being in that space between sleep and awake, but—safe. Peaceful. Serene, even. Like there was some unnatural warmth to it that took you by surprise. She had the feeling of floating. Like floating in a calm sea, but—not quite. Instead of the heaviness of water, it was the weightlessness of air … of divine comfort. Like the darkness wasn’t justwhereshe was but …whatshe was. It soothed her. She didn’t want to leave. Didn’t want to open her eyes and find it all to be a dream. She could faintly hear someone calling her name. At first, Sarah chose to ignore it. But it grew louder—familiar. The tether that she had to the world she knew was fading, and she somehow understood it.

She couldn’t remember this calm being present the last time she’d come this close to death. While the previous experience was final, and brutally painful, this time Death greeted her as if he were someone who cared deeply for her. Like a loved one finally coming home. Her name was called again, and this time … Sarah opened her eyes. Before her, as she stretched her arms out, her skin seemed translucent beneath a soft, eerie glowing light. She flipped her hands over in front of her, inspecting the strange way that her tattoos still remained visible within it.

“Sarah …” the voice called a final time, shifting Sarah’s attention toward a face she was sure she’d never see again.

“Mom?” Sarah choked, rushing towards her. Initially, she thought she’d pass right through her, but the warmth of Katherine’s embrace filled every void in her heart with all the things that had been stripped away when they’d taken her. Sarah’s chin found the familiar place on her shoulder where she’d buried it so many times before—as a child … as a teenager … as a young adult. Every tear was more happy than the last. “Mama …” she whispered, clutching her tight.

Katherine pulled back, tilting Sarah’s chin up and taking her face in both hands. “Have you completely lost your mind, baby? Even when it’s a struggle to communicate with you, you’re still so damned hard-headed. Iguess some things never change.” She smiled sweetly. “Don’t get comfortable. You’re not staying.”

“What?”

“I didn’t go through all that trouble of pulling the two of you together to have you separated. You know that boy isn’t gonna let you jump without diving in after you.”

Sarah drew in a sharp breath, suddenly remembering what she’d left behind. “Athan …”

“Yeah …Athan.” Katherine rolled her eyes. “Geez, what a catch. Makes you wonder why you wasted two minutes on that dork back home, doesn’t it?”

Though that personality shined through her as if nothing had changed, Sarah found herself growing more frustrated by the second as the realization hit her. Her mother could be taken from her just as quickly as she had the last time. Sarah deserved an explanation.

“You lied to me, Mom.” Sarah conceded a step, taking her hands and lowering them from her face. “Did you know?” Her lip wobbled; the answer clearly written all over her mother’s face. “Did you know what I was?”

“I did … and you’re right. I kept it from you, and I shouldn’t have. I was gonna tell you when you were a little older, but—”

“Is that why you were killed? Was I next?”

“No … they’d never hurt you, Sarah. Stop seeking trouble and enjoy your life. You’ve found somebody that can understand you. Somebody that would lay his life down to protect you. Embrace who you really are, baby … let me go.”

“No! I wanna know the truth, Mom. You owe me that much. Tell me what happened, tell me who did this to you!”

Katherine’s shoulders sank and her eyes glistened with tears as she shook her head. “I can’t do that. I love you too much. You’re the best thing I ever had in my life. If you knew the truth it would only hurt you more. Put it behind you and move on. Please … do it for me.”

Sarah gripped her hands, shaking them with frustration, more tears rolling down her cheeks. “Everything I’ve done since you left has been for you, Mom! How can you tell me to move on? How can you ask that of me?”

“Because, Sarah. The truth of everything is better left buried with me. You can’t—”

“You’re not buried!” Sarah belted, growing angry. “I have shards, Mom. Just tiny pieces of whatever was left of you. No closure, no answers, no way to say goodbye. No family to lean on to help me through it. You’re gone, and all that’s been left is this gaping hole. And you wanna ask me to learn how to turn my back on it and pretend it doesn’t kill a little part of me every single day?”

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