Page 98 of Coerced

26. Ruthless

Rome

Kerry was gone when I woke up again. Gray light filtered through the curtains, telling me it was dawn. I stretched, felt the duct tape pull at skin and hair, and gritted my teeth when fire ran up my side. My head felt better, though, and the numbing exhaustion was gone.

I sat up with a groan, swung my feet over the side of the bed, picked up yesterday’s jeans from the floor, and pulled them on. Seeing a sketchbook laying on the table by the window, I picked it up and opened it.

My jaw dropped.

Well, who would have thought? Kerry has talent. Realtalent.

The first page had been cut out and the next couple were covered in random bits and pieces - parts of faces, flowers, a leaf, a glob of spit. I stared at a little Hellcat hissing and spitting in a corner and wondered why, of all things, Kerry had drawnthat.

When Gemma started taking over every page, I grinned. There she was again and again - smiling, frowning, crying, laughing, blushing - until about halfway through the book when a pair of drawings stopped me cold.

In the first one, she lay crumpled on a sidewalk with a nearby street lamp providing a pool of light around her. Darkness seeped from her shoulder and spread in a puddle beneath her, staining the white circle. Agony lit her eyes and her lips twisted with pain.

On the page directly opposite, she knelt next to a prone figure on a wooden floor. The body was vaguely drawn with few details, but I could tell it was supposed to be Kerry. She held his hand in one of hers and touched his cheek with the other. Her face radiated sympathy, compassion in every tear that streamed from her eyes. The background was hazy, like it would be in a dream, distorted by the glow surrounding Gemma like a halo.

A nightmare and a glimpse of heaven?I studied the twin scenes.At least I know why he calls her angel now. That’s how he sees her in his mind.

“The one on the left is the night she found me,” Kerry’s voice came from over my shoulder.

I jumped. I hadn’t even heard the door opening. He must have gone for a run; his shirt was soaked with sweat and his hair plastered to his head. He stood very still, and his eyes burned.

I didn’t move a muscle. He was definitely in a bad head space, and I didn’t want to trigger an explosion. That would only get people hurt and delay our search for the others.

“I apologize. This is private and I shouldn’t have looked.”

“I almost killed her that night. On the other page is the night the wardens exorcized the demon. I thought I’d died and was stuck in Limbo and dreaming of her. But she really did come to heal me.Me. The demon-tainted guy who’d tried to kill her not a week before.” His voice cracked. “Do you think she hates me now?”

Once more, I wished Chance was here, so I could hand this over to him. All I knew to do was keep everyone as calm as possible.

“No. No way.” I took a chance and moved enough to lay the sketchbook back on the table. “You said it yourself. You almost killed her and she healed you. That’s not hate. Far from it.”

“She doesn’t trust me.” He turned his head. “And now, I let her be taken by an enemy.”

“You didn’tletanything happen. That was as much my fault as yours. I knew the trap was coming, but I sent them ahead anyway. Anyway, she’ll know you’re coming for her, won’t she?”

“Oh, yeah. Even if she doubts everything else about me, she won’t doubt that.”

“Listen, she does trust you.” I frowned. “She made a dumb mistake. And probably not even for the reasons you think. I’ll bet my blades she was more worried about how you would live with yourself than the fact that you’d killed an innocent human.”

“Yeah, that sounds like her way of thinking.” He bowed his head and clenched his hands into white-knuckled fists. “Promise me something.”

Uh-oh. I’m not going to like this.

“When we get there, if she’s—” Faint blue embers swirled out of his mouth with every breath. “If the worst has happened, forget me and grab as many as you can, then go. As far and as fast as you can.”

“I won’t leave you behind.”

“You don’t understand. I’m not … safe … at the best of times, but if she’s d—” His chest heaved. “If we get there and find only corpses—”

“Don’t! Wewillfind them. Wewillsave them. Positive thinking, karma, God, luck, destiny, fate, whatever you believe in, we need it on our side right now.”

I took a deep breath. Barking at him wasn’t going to help.

“Don’t think you’re going to get there and lose it, okay? That’s giving yourself permission. Tell yourself you’re going to keep it together no matter what we find. Then it’ll be easier to hold yourself to a higher standard and resist the temptation.”

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