Page 23 of Blood from the Marrow
When Marisol looked up from the first patient she couldn’t save, Sayah had vanished along with the vampires who’d survived.
Librada stumbled toward them, her face still unusually pale. “We must go after them.” Her voice was rough and betrayed the damage to her vocal cords.
Marisol stood, palm pressed to her neck to close the wound. “You lost too much blood,” she said softly while looking into eyes that looked too much like all the blood spilled on stone. “I don’t know how to make your body produce more any faster.”
As soon as Marisol had healed the horrific bites on Elena’s shoulder and Zuri’s arm, she was completely depleted. Giving the still disoriented Sofia the last drops of her light, it was all she could do to remain standing.
Elena, her face a mask of controlled fury, didn’t chase Sayah. Didn’t avenge the injustice. She didn’t even glance at the lifeless bodies scattered around the room. Instead, her gaze swept over Marisol, Zuri, and Librada before scooping Sofia into her arms. The assessment was swift, decisive.
They were outnumbered. They were wounded. They were vulnerable. Walking away was all they could hope for.
“We go,” Elena commanded, her voice sharp and clear, cutting through the unnatural silence. “Now.” She looked down at Narine’s body like she wished she could take her with them. Like it broke her all over again to leave her behind. “And when we return… We will be vengeance,” she said in a voice Marisol didn’t believe.
Chapter Eleven
“It’s not safe for you,”Elena said, breaking the silence in her private jet.
Every muscle in Zuri’s body ached. She was the kind of exhausted that famous people went to seaside retreats for after publicly humiliating themselves. They’d narrowly escaped a nightmare and she didn’t have an ounce of energy left for the stupid shit that was about to leave Elena’s mouth.
“I have a place in Alaska. It’s not?—”
“Shut up,” Zuri said from where she sat facing Elena and Marisol. “Don’t even fucking start this bullshit.”
Elena looked at her, eyes so heavy with pain they ripped right through Zuri and made her forget about anything other than how much she loved her.
“I have no precedent for this, Zuri.” Elena’s voice was so unsteady, so foreign and broken and unacceptable. “I don’t know if I can protect you. Actually, I’m quite sure I can’t.” Her watery gaze bounced between Marisol at her side and Zuri leaning forward across from her. “What we’ve had these last few months has been unbelievable, and I will carry it with gratitude in my heart always, but we can’t?—”
“Oh, Elena. You have so many undesirable traits.” Zuri stood even if she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her. “This faux cowering isn’t one of them. You’re not going to send us off to boarding school like entitled brats.” She reached down, cupped her jaw, and waited for her to look up at her.
Elena’s doubt and pain were palpable. It was the reason agony was described as heart-wrenching. Zuri felt it in her own chest like rending flesh and tearing muscle. She’d fight a thousand more fights to change Elena’s expression. To mend what had broken.
“If I couldn’t stop this…” Elena shook her head. “If I was so distracted that I didn’t even see it…” She swallowed like shards of glass were shredding her from within.
“Distracted with us?” Marisol shrunk under the weight of the question. Guilt marred her face like somehow a maniacal vampire’s actions could be charged to her. Like she accepted the blame and was ready to be booted.
Zuri would never adjust to how easily Marisol accepted being dropped. How readily, even after everything they’d been through, she believed she could be discarded without a thought. Zuri’s chest burned from her own fucking powerlessness.
“We’re not a liability, Elena. We’re your strength.” Zuri wished there’d been time to clean the blood off her hands. It would be easier to sell hope when they weren’t covered in disaster. In death. “Whatever the hell happened tonight, it’s not because you found a shred of fucking happiness.”
“We’re your heart,” Marisol said when she slipped one hand in Elena’s and reached for Zuri with the other. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“And you better hope she doesn’t, because Tweedle Doom and Tweedle Death wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Bambi.” Zuri pointed to where Lib and Sofia were resting in the jet’s bedroom.
Zuri had never been more relieved to have them nearby. For a dark and terrifying moment, she wasn’t sure they’d leave with their lives. Having seen Librada and Sofia willingly step into mortal danger to protect them just because they loved Elena that much, Zuri decided they were her family now, too. That sticking together was the only way to survive. For all of them.
“Whatever we face, we face together,” Marisol said with conviction, even if she looked just as depleted as Zuri felt.
“And if it’s to war?” Elena asked, as if to shock them. As if they hadn’t just seen the most horrific carnage and understood exactly what was at stake.
“To war, then,” Zuri replied because there was no alternative. There was no universe in which she’d leave Elena or Marisol to fend for themselves.
Elena closed her eyes, but that only pushed the tears she’d been holding in fall down her cheeks. She shook her head. “I can’t ask…”
The sight of Elena’s tears were so rare, they made the fear Zuri was suppressing spike in her gut. Elena was screaming a soundless surrender and Zuri had no idea how to respond.
“You’re not asking,” Marisol said when Elena’s voice faded. “We’re telling you.”
She tugged Zuri closer and made space for her to sit in her lap. Her touch reset Zuri’s nervous system and reminded her that there was no choice but forward. Sayah wasn’t just going to go away if Elena bowed out of some fight. There was nothing but the rally. Nothing but gathering strength from each other and forging ahead.
