“You said you’d seen her pass out? Spontaneously?” Rahil’s hands tried to hold him up, but Mercer shoved him off, shoved himself up, stumbling, catching his body on the central counter. The notebook nearly slipped from his arms, but he held to it.
“That was nothing!” Mercer choked. “She said it wasnothing. They ran tests, and it was—it was some autonomic nervous system issue. She was going to befine.”
Rahil didn’t know. Who the hell did he think he was? He hadn’t known her.
Even if he’d killed her. Even if he’d—
He’d—
Mercer shoved himself toward the shed door. “I have to check on Lydia.”
“Mercer—”
“Don’t.” He didn’t mean to shout it, but it was what came out, sharp as the stake he’d dreamed of stabbing into Leah’s murderer. Leah wasmurdered. Leah was— “Leave.” He couldn’t see that vampire, any vampire right now, even behind the blurry sheen of his vision and the memory of Leah’s cooling body regurgitating through his mind like an undead thing. His heart screamed, and from his lungs came the short, snapped demand: “Get out!”
33
RAHIL
Rahil left, into the sun, into the open ocean. Like always, Rahil left.
34
MERCER
Mercer wasn’t sure what had happened, afterward.
He stood in the shed, holding Leah’s old notebook and staring at the space Rahil had been, as slowly his fear hollowed out. The shed had been this empty before. It had been this empty for most of his time here. But never had it felt like this: this shell of a place, haunted and shadowy. It made Mercer want to look over his shoulder. To reach for someone.
For Leah?
But Leah was…
Mercer made himself walk, out the front of the shed and across the yard. He instinctively pet Kat as she bounded up to him at the back door. His hand didn’t visibly shake, so perhaps only he could feel the trembling beneath his skin. There still seemed to be too little oxygen in the air, but hewasbreathing. Though everything echoed back out of his head as soon as it came, he could still hear Anthony and Lydia chatting in the kitchen.
Anthony had just finished wrapping Lydia’s arm, two fresh vials of blood in a tiny rack on the table beside her. She snorted at whatever he’d said last.
“And I thought scientists were smart or something.”
“Even the most genius mind requires sleep.” Anthony smiled as he tucked the samples into his bag, and it reminded Mercer uncomfortably of the way Natalie had looked at his unholy gold—not joyless, but darker than simple happiness, thoughtful in a way that made Mercer question himself.
Rahil had said—
And he couldn’t think about Rahil right now, about any of the nonsense or truth he’d spouted, but Mercercouldthink about that metal, and very quickly his mind began churning through all the reasons this might truly be a mistake. He recalled what Anthony had asked when Mercer questioned him on his involvement with Vitalis-Barron:“Would it make a difference?”
Mercer had agreed to this knowing full well that as good as Anthony was to some people, there were surely others whom he’d hurt in the process of reaching his goals. He had been a saint to Lydia, but Rahil was right—that didn’t make him trustworthy. Not for this.
And Mercer feared that Anthony’s actions outside of his home hadn’t concerned him nearly enough—not until one of the people those actions could harm had held Mercer’s hand and told him that he wasn’t alone anymore. What was the least he could do for someone he loved?
Someone he loved. Someone who’d killed someone he’d loved.
Mercer breathed in and out and told himself it didn’t matter yet. He put one foot in front of the other, and made sure to only shake in his soul, where Anthony couldn’t see. As the scientist finished gathering his things and said farewell to Lydia, Mercer settled a hand on his arm, guiding him toward the door.
He lowered his voice in the hopes of keeping eavesdropping preteens at bay. “How do I know I can trust you with this metal?”
Anthony lifted a single brow, his mouth a grim line. “I thought we were in agreement about this.”
“I’m in agreement that it should be used to help the vampires,” Mercer said. “You haven’t given me any proof of that.”
