Page 74 of Venomous Heart
“Arlen, please.” She cupped his cheek, and Arlen opened his eyes.
Her striking purple eyes were set squarely on him, and she stood close enough that he could feel the heat from her body. She lifted herself onto the tips of her toes, then planted a simple kiss on his lips.
The contact sent a rush through his body. The ice melted inside him, wiping the rage clean.
“Are you not scared of me?” The question sent flashes of pain all the way to his chest. “Do you not see that I am a monster?”
“You saved us.” Her voice was steady and confident. “The only monster was him.”
Then Arlen breathed deeply and the pain in his side blossomed into a searing inferno.
“Arlen!” Her voice rose, full of alarm. “You’ve been shot!”
Arlen steadied himself as he pressed hard against his side. He glanced down to see a gush of blood spilling between his fingers. He clenched his jaw at the realization that the wound inflicted while he’d been prey to the bloodlust was fatal.
He didn’t have long if he wanted to save Ava.
“I’ll be fine.” When she stared at him with terror, he grabbed her shoulder roughly. “We need to get to the others, then we need to get out of here. We’ve lost too much time already. If the Ilarian guards take the facility while we’re still here, we won’t be able to escape.”
Ava swallowed, then picked up the child again. Arlen grabbed the two ionic guns, then handed one to her.
“If I fall, you have to keep going.” He locked gazes with her and saw her eyes fill with tears. “Promise me, Ava. If I fall, you will save yourself.”
“I will never leave you behind.” Her voice was full of fear, but she held his gaze with a steady look. “So, if you want to save me, you’d better make sure your blue butt is in that transport, because I’m not carrying you.”
Arlen shook his head. She was so fierce, so strong, he just knew she meant it. She would not leave him behind.
That meant he had to pull through.
“Like I said: you’re physically incapable of following orders.”
He planted a kiss on her lips, then turned around and walked out of the room and into a blazing inferno.
22
Ava
Arlen had fallen silent a while back. Ava knew what that meant and it filled her with dread. His wound covered his entire side, eating away at his liver, his stomach while blood flowed freely between his stiff fingers. The extreme electric current in the ionic detonation didn’t cauterize the wound—it was designed that way. It tore apart tissue and bone, leaving the flesh gaping and oozing blood. It was deadly by design, and even with Arlen’s superior strength, she knew he wasn’t going to hold on for long.
It was a miracle he’d been able to walk this far.
But as he hunched over, and the hand holding the ionic gun hung heavily at his side, she knew he had gone for as long as he could. And if he fell, he wouldn’t get back up.
“Hush now, don’t look.” Ava put her hand over Derek’s eyes as they turned a corner. They had left the thick of the fight behind a while back, but danger continued to encroach steadily. Two more bodies lay just ahead of them—one Ilarian and one human, their eyes staring at the stone ceiling without seeing, their chests torn open by the impact of ionic detonation. Blood covered the floor, slippery and shiny.
Then Ava stopped.
Her eyes locked onto the human man’s face. His full beard was soaked with blood and his formerly piercing blue eyes unseeing. It was Ben.
“Shit.” Ava shook her head, then carefully hid Derek’s face in the crook of her neck as she stepped over the corpse. She didn’t want him to see his father like that, for this to be the last image he had of him. “Almost there. Stay strong, okay?”
Derek nodded against her shoulder, his little arms locked around her neck.
Then they finally stepped into the garage where the other Eoks were locked up. Four pairs of blue eyes settled on them, incredulous expressions on their faces.
Expressions which soon morphed into fierce triumph.
“Commander!” a strong male voice called, and Arlen walked quickly to the back of the room. “How did you find us?”
