Page 74 of Marked

“It doesn’t work that way and you know it,” Jack counters, balling his hands into fists. “This is our realm’s problem.”

The triples all bare their teeth. “No, Anubis. As soon as this demon released Ammit into the living world, it became everyone’s problem. Souls meant and destined for other realms have been taken from us. The balance has been shifted, thrown off. You, the one who weighs hearts, should know all about the scales of balance.”

Another low rumble from Jack has me turning my gaze to him. “I know.” His nostrils flare as his aura does, the spike in energy swelling in the room once again. “But Osiris will not allow you to just take him.”

The triplets laugh. “Allow? I’d like to see him stop us.” With identical wicked grins, smoke begins to swirl around them again. “Tell your daddy that Hades sends his regards.”

Jack lurches for them as they disappear, but his hand passes through the fading smoke, the four already gone. “Fuck!” he curses and shoves his hands through his hair. “I have to get him.”

Get him?

“Jack?” I ask, voice hardly louder than a whisper.

He whirls towards me and the rage in his eyes dims when he meets my panicked gaze. He quickly closes the distance between us, looking at Taylor then back to me. My stomach clenches when he looks at me with pure remorse. “I’m sorry.”

I snap my head back to Taylor and see that her eyes have closed. My panic surges. When did that happen? When did she slip away from me? I whine and lean over her, refusing to move my blood covered hands from the wound on her neck. I tilt my cheek over her lips and almost cry in relief when I feel her soft breath against my skin.

“She’s alive,” I exhale and look at him again. My relief withers when I see him handing his phone out to me, that same regret in his eyes. I blink at it and furrow my brow in confusion. “Why are you handing this to me?”

“I have to go,” he states in a solemn tone.

“…go?” I repeat. “Go where?”

Jack’s eyes briefly close as he seems to fight some inner battle. I hate the determined look in his eyes when he reopens them. “I must go get Shezmu from Cerberus. He can’t have him. I have to take him to Osiris.”

I stare at him in disbelief, my mouth floundering as I try to wrap my mind around what he’s saying. I mean, I know what he’s saying. But he wouldn’t really leave me right now, would he? With my best friend bleeding out on the floor because some deranged, sick god kidnapped her?

“You can’t,” I whisper. My eyes widen when he looks away with a flicker of shame. “Jack. You can’t leave me like this.”

Anguish contorts his handsome face when he turns back to me. “I have to, Valkyrie. He must be punished for what he has done. It will be worse if I don’t take him back to my underworld.”

My chest heaves with anxiety, fear lurking behind it with savage intent. “You can’t.”

When I refuse to take the phone from him, he bends so he can place it on my lap. Before he straightens, he lightly runs his fingers along my cheek. “I wish I didn’t have to, but I do. I hate to leave you, truly I do.”

I watch in complete horror and incredulity as he stands back up to his full height. “Then don’t! Don’t leave me like this,” I beg, eyes brimming with tears as he turns away from me.

He hovers his hand over the back of his neck and drags it up, following the curve of his head. As he does, a gleaming gold and black headdress with two tall, pointed ears appears in its wake. It finishes with a black canine snout when his palm reaches the front of his face.

I’m facing Anubis in his official headdress, but all I care about is being left alone like this. “Please don’t leave me, Jack.” More tears spill down my cheeks. “Please.”

His hands twitch before they ball into tight fists. “I’m so sorry, Valkyrie,” he says in a soft, sad voice but without looking at me. That manages to hurt even more. “I already dialed 911. You only need to hit the call button.”

Before I can plead with him more, a wall of black shoots up in front of him. I watch with helplessness as he hesitates for a moment before walking into the void of black without so much as a glance over his shoulder. As soon as he does, the wall collapses and disappears back into the floor as if it had never been there. As if Jack had never been there.

He actually left me.

Before I can completely fall apart, Taylor coughs causing her body to spasm. I focus back on her and realize I’m completely fucked trying to do this alone. With great care, I remove one of my hands from her throat and grab Jack’s phone. It takes a few tries to awaken his phone, but after wiping the bloodied fingers off on my leggings, the touch screen responds.

“What’s your emergency?” comes the dispatcher’s calm tone.

Somehow, I manage to slide into Val the Detective, hiding behind her as my world continues to crumble. “This is Detective Valkyrie Dalton of the LVPCU, and I need an ambulance sent to my location immediately. LVPCU tech Taylor Meyers has had her throat slit and is losing blood.”

I can tell the dispatcher immediately snaps into action by the sound of rapid keyboard clicks through the phone. “Alright Detective, I’m sending out the order now. You said her throat has been slit?”

She’s dying!I want to scream into the phone, but I refrain. “Yes, I have pressure on it, but it’s still bleeding. She lost consciousness but is still breathing.”

“Keep the pressure firm.” When my breath stutters, her voice softens. “They’re on their way, Detective.”

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