Page 64 of Savage Sin

“Leave here.” His voice isn’t his own. Smoke-roughened and thick with…remorse?

“You should not see me like this.”

He falls to his knees and leans back, head held high. That’s when I see the wounds.

He falls back and I rush toward him, striping my shirt off as I fall to my knees by his side. “No! Do you hear me! You better not fucking die.”

He cups the side of my face and I peer down into his eyes. Love shines up at me and it steals my breath away.

“I’m a monster, Persephone. Don’t look at me like I’m some hero.” He tries to push me away, but he’s weak from the blood loss and adrenaline crash. My hands roam over his torso. There’s a knife sticking out of his shoulder and a thick gash over his chest, slicing through the neck of his unfinished phoenix.

I brush his hair away from his face. “You’re my monster,” I whisper and fall over his chest, my unshed tears free falling to mix with his blood. “You’re the monster I needed you to be. Now stay with me. Don’t leave me. I don’t even know your real name. You can’t die. You can’t.”

Stark blue eyes lift to look at me.

“Leave before more come. Find Seth.”

“It doesn’t matter where we hide out or run to. My step-father has been watching you since he killed your brother.”

I press my shirt over his knife wound, but the bleeding isn’t slowing.

I scramble to fallen enforcers and search their pockets for a phone but come up with nothing. Water blurs my vision. No, no. I can’t lose him. Not like this. Not in any way.

I rush back to him, trying to pull the blade out of his shoulder. I jerk his hands away. “Rage. I got you. Leave it for now. Just leave it.” I press harder on the large cut, but it’s so deep.

He is dying because of me and there’s nothing I can do to save him.

Two sets of hands come down on my shoulders and I’m hauled off the floor.

I kick, scream and land a solid fist in someone’s face. I hear mumbles of syllables, but my brain is stuck in fight mode. One foot goes up and the heel comes down on a hard boot. My fist connects with a stone covered face with stubble.

“Easy, sweetheart. I said, we’re friends. Come on now.” Muscular arms wrap around me and I’m pulled into a bear hug.

“Calm down, before you have a heart attack. Rage, man, you have a fighter on your hands with this one.”

“Jokes? It’s not time for jokes.” I slap at a large chest and look up into a set of sharp brown eyes. The man’s face is covered in beard and he looks every bit the clichéd mountain man. And the man beside him in jeans and a matching black shirt with a name embroidered on the left pocket looks just like him. Only his eyes are gunmetal gray and not as kind.

I’m set aside. Who they are doesn’t matter, as long as they are not trying to kill Rage.

The one with gray eyes turns to me. “The names, Seth,” he offers like he can read my mind. “Got a phone? His boy will wanna know about this. Get him on the line while we patch him up well enough to travel.”

They are here to help. This man is the friend Rage wanted me to run off to while he fought against the invasion of enforcers. Alone.

I look between both men, my throat suddenly as dry as sandpaper. “Is he… will he.” I can’t handle the idea of Rage dying.

“Nah, sweetheart. But if you don’t find a phone, we might need to go back to our cabin for one.”

It’s nearly impossible to see anything past all the smoke. I stumble over debris. Glass hidden away in the grass crunches underfoot. I pick up my pace. The guy Ghost shot. I didn’t check him for a phone. I hope this Seth guy knows who he needs to call, because I’m hitting 9-1-1 the second he hesitates.

My efforts come up short. Nothing. What? Does no one carry a fucking phone?

I see Ghost.

Please, Jesus. Give me this one answered prayer.

Ghost’s lifeless body is where Rage left him. I don’t know much about anything between those two, but it sounds bad. I can piece it together here and there, but none of that matters now.

I search his pockets and I come back with a cell phone and a set of keys in the first pocket. Relief floods my veins and I want to ugly cry so damn hard. I suppress the need and settle for some deep breathing and a prayer that this thing works. The glass is cracked and the metal casing is dented.

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