Page 38 of Lust
“I want leads, Luciano. Evidence that ties the Lazarus family to the disaster we’ve just witnessed. If we can prosecute them for murder, they’re all going away for a very long time.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I expect a full report tomorrow. If I don’t get it by the evening, I might need to find a new lead investigator for this case.”
“You won’t need that, sir. I’ll have something for you tomorrow.”
The call ended, and Joe put his cell away. When he slipped his hand into his jacket pocket, he felt the baseball.
“Shit,” he muttered.
12
“Don’t touch anyone!”Parker shouted at Liza as he wheeled Daisy on a gurney into the medical room of the basement headquarters in Lazarus House. “You need to shower the chemical off. Go!”
Liza flattened herself against a wall as they rushed past.
Daisy’s violet eyes were stark. She blinked at the ceiling. Max was on the gurney, kneeling over Daisy, pressing his palms to the wound. Blood welled from beneath his fingertips. They made it to the medical room where Griffin and Evan waited, both in battle gear, hoods down. Parker was a genius. He knew a lot, but he wasn’t a surgeon. Would he be enough? Could they keep Daisy from bleeding out?
“She’s going to make it, right?” Sloan asked, coming up to Liza. “I mean, she’s got the same fast healing ability as us, right?”
Uncertainty stretched before them like a gaping abyss. There was so much they didn’t know about their eldest sister. As Mary and Flint rushed into the hallway, faces gray with worry, Liza knew a turning point had been reached in their relationship with Daisy. Behind her parents, other members of the Deadly Seven and their partners crowded into the hallway, each with expressions of concern.
Daisy was one of them.
It didn’t matter whether she had worked for the enemy, had committed atrocities, or loved them back. She was their blood, and they would take care of her.
Family first, Mary had always said. Because without this love between one other, there was nothing. There was doom, and the empty violent apocalypse Mary had foretold when she was younger.
Liza glanced at Sloan, also covered in an array of dust, blood, and yellow residue. Warm pride unfurled in her chest. Her sister had walked headfirst into danger and excelled. She’d almost died, too, but Liza had kept her baby sister safe. Sloan wasn’t so helpless anymore. She was a strong, powerful, woman. And she was winning at life, far better than Liza ever was.
Sloan wrung her fingers, eyes glued to the windowpane leading to the medical room where Parker and Max triaged Daisy.
“Are you okay?” Liza asked, voice still trembling. “I mean, the toxin… it hasn’t…”
Sloan shook her head. “I feel fine. A little numb around the lips, but fine.” She met Liza’s eyes. “What the hell was it, sis? You had yellow smoke curling from your mouth and shooting from your hands. If anyone else got that in their system—”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Liza’s eyes blurred as she recalled what had happened. The way the Faithful in her path had paralyzed, seized, and convulsed. “I need to wash this shit off. You too.”
“I’m fine.”
“If Max touches you with that stuff on, it could kill him. Mama. Papa. Anyone not genetically modified will be at risk.”
“Damn it. I’m coming.”
The two of them jogged to the locker room and then into the bathroom with three shower stalls against the wall. On the other side were the mirrors and vanities. Liza turned on the first shower faucet and ushered Sloan in.
“Clothes and all,” she said, and then turned on the faucet in the second stall before dunking under herself.
Water saturated her body. Yellow mixed with the blood of her enemies and dribbled down, leaving a swirling pattern of orange as it disappeared into the drain. Opening her mouth, she let the water clean inside, spat, and then drank deeply.So thirsty. She peeled off her outer layers and remained in her bra and panties, all the while receiving flashes of the bloody devastation from the street.
What were the Faithful thinking? They’d attacked for no reason. There was no logic to their actions. Anyone and everyone in their way had been the focus of their wrath. But it hadn’t been the first time they’d done this. They’d attacked randomly multiple times over the past two years. They didn’t need a reason, this was what they did—incite chaos.
Waterlogged inside and out, Liza turned off the faucet and shuddered. If she hadn’t done what she did, more people could have died.
She’d done the right thing.
There was no other option.
