Page 164 of Toxic Salvation
All I can register is sweet, blissful, beautiful relief.
She’s alive.
For now, that’s all that matters.
55
KOVAN
“Vesper?”
She looks at me, but her eyes are vacant. Empty. Like she’s seeing through me to something else entirely. Her eyelashes are dark with tears, clumped together in wet spikes.
“He’s dead,” she says. Not a question—a statement waiting for confirmation.
I glance down at Tikhon’s body. His eyes stare at the ceiling, unseeing. The fluorescent lights reflect off his pupils. I reach down and close his eyelids, then take Vesper’s blood-stained hand in mine.
“He’s not in pain anymore.”
She jerks away from my touch. “There was so much blood, Kovan. So much blood everywhere.”
I scan her body for injuries. Her arms are streaked red, her hands completely covered. But it’s his blood, not hers. She was never hurt. The relief hits me so hard I nearly collapse.
She blinks slowly. A fat tear rolls down her cheek. “I watched him die. I’ve watched so many people die, but this was different. I couldn’t do anything about it. It was too fast. He was too fast.”
“Was it Ihor? Was he here?”
She nods. Her bottom lip won’t stop trembling. “He tried to kill me, too.”
“But he didn’t,” I remind her. “He failed.”
I look around the examination room. Medical supplies are strewn across the floor, a chair is overturned, and blood is splattered on the wall behind the examination table. Everything is ruined. But not her. She’s safe.
“Where is he now?” I ask.
She’s blinking rapidly. The constellation of freckles across her cheek is hidden under flecks of Tikhon’s blood.
“I don’t know. He left. I don’t know where he went.”
I swallow my disappointment. I’d hoped to corner the bastard here. End this once and for all. But maybe it’s better this way. I can focus on Vesper.
“Come with me. I’m taking you home.”
She doesn’t move. “What about Nikolai?”
I consider lying for half a second. “He didn’t make it.”
Her breathing becomes rapid and shallow. “He’s dead?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell you later. Right now?—”
“I want to know.” Life flares in her eyes for the first time since I walked in. “I want to know how he died.”
I sigh. “He was stabbed in the neck. He must have died instantly.”
