Page 83 of What Doesn't Kill Us

The group of people suddenly disperse, everyone turning and rushing in my direction. They’re no longer trying to engage with us; they’re running in fear, and I hear her voice shout one more time, “Grenade!”

I try to increase my speed, yelling for her, but my movement against the tide of people retreating in a frenzy is too slow. I hear Tony behind me, shouting for me to get down, then I’m hit from behind, my body connecting with the pavement a second before the boom.

The ground shakes, and then people are screaming. My ears are ringing, the surrounding noise muted as I push whoever tackled me off. I roll to my back and look over and see Tony. For a second, it looks like he’s knocked out, but within a few moments, he gasps, trying to curse and breathe as he attempts to get back the wind that was knocked out of him. I blink a few times, then attempt to get to my feet, slowly righting myself and stand fully. I take in the surrounding chaos, not seeing Toni anywhere as I’m met with an ominous silence punctuated with random groaning.

I help Tony to his feet, and he grasps my shoulders as he says something directly into my face. I can’t make out his words because of the ringing in my ears, so I focus on his lips, finally understanding when he repeats, “We’ll find her. She’s okay.”

I nod in understanding and then turn back to stare into the carnage. Once I have my bearings, I slowly make my way in the direction I last saw her.

The closer I get, the more frantic I feel. I stop, standing in the middle of it all, and turn around in a full circle with my hands in my hair as I yell for her. A hand touches my shoulder, and I spin around, coming face-to-face with Agatha. She’s pointing behind me, so I turn, looking in that direction. I move in what feels like slow motion until, finally, my brain and limbs sync, and I’m running, Agatha on my heels.

I stop at a pile of bodies, seeing a feminine hand sticking out of the pile. My stomach drops, and my heart stops in my chest as I stumble, but I right myself quickly. I rush the last few yards, then we work together to pull the bodies off.

Toni is lying face down, sprawled across two men, and suddenly, a memory of the darkness and the rain flashes before me. Once again, animalistic noises come from deep inside me, and I attempt to choke them back.

I drop to my knees beside her, my hands hovering over her, unsure how to proceed. Agatha comes up behind me, her arms wrapping around the front of me, holding me back, and I hear her saying, “We’ve got her. Just wait.”

I sit back on my haunches and watch as Matt and Tony carefully lift her, rolling her toward me into my arms. Just like the last time, she’s too pale, a limp ghost against me with her eyes closed.

Agatha leans close to her, putting her cheek against her mouth. She pulls back with a look of relief, and it sounds like she’s saying Toni’s alive. She’s breathing.

Relief washes over me with such intensity I pause to catch the breath that was knocked out of me. A guttural sob rushes from me, and Tony says he called a bus, then the three of them take off to tend to whatever needs tending.

I adjust my stance so I’m sitting with her resting in my lap, her head supported in the cradle of my shoulder. I hear her groan, and she squirms. I whimper, looking down at her face, and her eyes flutter, then open, meeting mine. She stiffens, her eyes shifting around and then narrowing as they focus back to my face. “What happened?”

I clear my throat several times before I can get a word out. “Grenade.”

She winces, taking a shuddering breath before speaking. “That explains a lot.”

I tighten my hold on her, dropping my head so my face is pressed into her neck. “Are you okay?”

Her shoulders squirm, and then she’s pushing me away. I pull back and look at her face, her eyes meeting mine, searching. “Who are you?”

My stomach drops. I let out a weird, whining noise as I process what she asked me. Like déjà vu, I have a hard time catching my breath, and I curse several times, staring up at the sky. Then her body shakes a little, and I look back down at her to see she’s smiling and then she’s laughing. My urge to shake her until her teeth rattle explodes. “You. Oh, I fucking hate you.”

Now, she laughs outright. “The look on your face.”

“You’re lucky you’re injured. I’ll have to save your punishment.”

She laughs for a few more moments, her body relaxing into me. “Did I get him?”

“Well, I don’t see how you could’ve missed, considering you chose the most unusual, dramatic weapon.”

“Pretty good, right? He never saw that one coming.”

I shake my head, growling a bit as I think about what could’ve happened. “Yeah, don’t worry. You’re going to be punished for that one, too.”

She laughs again but then winces, her discomfort obviously increasing with the adrenaline subsiding. “Do you think it’s over?”

“For now.”

I wish I had a more concise answer. I wish I could say that it was over, and we can move forward with our lives without worry. But evil will never “be over.” People will always be drawn to money and power. There will always be people who will sell drugs, guns, and humans. People who will step over anyone and anything to gain whatever they feel is owed to them.

She’s silent for a few moments as she stares up at me, and I get lost in the bottomlessness of her eyes. “I think Lilith would’ve liked this end. I mean, it’s not as exciting as chewing out a throat, but it’s not every day you get to stick a grenade in a man’s drawers.”

I grimace, and she laughs again. “I can’t even imagine how you did that, but I’m relieved. I wish there was a way for you to promise me you would never put yourself in harm’s way again, but I know that’s not a possibility. Especially if you’re going to continue on with The Dead.”

“Oh, didn’t you hear? Seems The Dead is in the middle of a change in management and decided to restructure and take the company in a new direction.”

---