Page 118 of Bound By Blood

“Indeed.”

“Take her back to the hotel. I’ll clean up the mess here.”

“I will help you,” Stefan said.

“I thought you were dead,” Zack remarked, grinning.

“Not quite.” Stefan glanced around the church. “We can dispose of the bodies, but I do not know how we will remove the blood from the floor.”

“Yeah, that might be a problem,” Zack agreed.

“I’ll take care of the mess on the floor,” Scherry said.

“How’s your arm?” Zack asked.

She stretched it out and rotated it back and forth. “Good enough to clean up the blood,” she said, grinning.

“I will help you, if you like,” Liliana offered.

“Great.”

“We’d best get busy,” Zack suggested. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“What are we going to do with the bodies?” Kaitlyn asked.

“We’ll take them up in the mountains,” Zack said, “and leave them there for the sun to find.”

Kaitlyn looked at her father. “Who were they?”

“Three of them were Nadiya’s sons. I did not recognize the others.”

Kaitlyn shook her head. What a waste. Nadiya was dead, and all her sons with her. Had Nadiya survived, Kaitlyn wondered if the woman would have considered the blood of all her sons well spent.

“Revenge is a terrible thing,” Stefan remarked, hoisting one of the bodies over his shoulder. “The worst of it is, Florin brought his death on himself with his treachery against our father. There was nothing to avenge.”

It took several trips to transport all of the bodies to a place where they wouldn’t be found before sunrise. Standing between Zack and Stefan, Kaitlyn felt a moment of remorse for those who had needlessly died, but it was quickly swept away when she recalled how close she had come to losing her mother.

“I can bury them if it’ll make you feel better,” Zack said.

Kaitlyn shook her head. “No. They don’t deserve a decent burial.”

“We’d better go,” Zack said.

Kaitlyn glanced at Zack and then at Stefan. Both men were covered with blood and gore. As was she. Her beautiful wedding gown and veil were splattered with blood. Her satin shoes were smeared with stains she didn’t care to examine too closely.

“Not the way you planned to spend your honeymoon, is it?” Zack asked ruefully.

“Not quite,” she admitted with a wry grin.

Stefan removed his bloodstained jacket and tossed it over one of the bodies. “The woman, Scherry,” he said. “Is she …?” He cleared his throat. “Is she married or engaged, or … anything?”

“No.” Zack took off his own bloody coat and added it to the pile. She’s not married, or anything. If it helps, she thinks you’re, and I quote, ‘a hottie.’”

“She told you that?” Stefan asked.

“No, I read it in her mind before the ceremony.”

Stefan grinned, obviously pleased. And just as obviously smitten by Zack’s bartender.

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