Page 70 of Venom and Bind

Juliet poked the man on the ground with her boot. “Where are the police? Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

I furrowed my brow, wondering the same thing. The town was only five miles away, and I knew we were in blizzard conditions, but still… they should have come by now.

“I have an idea. It’s crazy, but it could work.” Juliet snapped her fingers. All attention was on her. “Eros’s snowmobile is still out back. What if we tied one of these assholes to it and made it crash into the cabin?” She looked around the room.

Thora shook her head. “Too dangerous. It could explode, and we don’t know if the boys are in there.”

“But”—I held up my finger—“we could drive it towards the tree line. The noise alone would draw them out and then…” I pointed at the gun in Kaviathin’s hands. “Someone could take them out. They would just have to get to a high enough spot where they could see all the cabins.”

“I can get on the roof. There’s a hatch in the attic.” Thora held her hand out for the gun. Kaviathin narrowed his eyes at her and passed it over, muttering something in Italian. Thora held the gun up, looking it over. “This’ll work.” She looked at me, hope shining in her eyes. “You four can sneak around the lake and get to the back of that cabin. There’s enough hills there where they won’t see you coming.”

I agreed and looked at the rest of the group. The four of us could do this. We had to make this work. It was the only way to save Cian and get everyone out of here alive. “Let’s do it.”

After making sure the back was clear, Kaviathin and Althazair dragged the body of one man out back and hoisted him onto the snowmobile. Juliet and I took stock of the weapons we had. I had my dagger and poker, while she had Thora’s gun, and she also grabbed a butcher’s knife from the knife block.

“Good idea,” I mumbled and grabbed one of the smaller knives and slid it into my boot. Kaviathin, Althazair and Thora each had a rifle now. It wasn’t a lot, but it was the best we could do.

The snow was coming down a little faster, making it harder to see. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to shoot them through all this snow?” I grabbed Thora’s arm, searching her face for any doubt, but I didn’t see any.

She smirked, swinging the rifle over her shoulder. “Of course I can. Cian taught me how to shoot.” Her eyes shimmered, and I tugged her into a hug, squeezing her as tight as I could. For all I knew, this would be the last time I would ever see her.

Her lips trembled slightly, as if she could read my mind. “Go kill that son of a bitch. I’ll have you covered.” She gave a salute to the rest of the group, then ran up the stairs.

They had the body tied tightly to the snowmobile, and I nibbled my bottom lip as they placed his hands on the handlebars. Kaviathin looked at me, his eyes piercing mine. “As soon as I push him past the house, I’ll aim him down the slope towards the trees. We have to move right away.”

I nodded and handed him the roll of duct tape. The wind whipped at my face, and I begged the universe for this to work. Would it tip over? Hit a rock? Stop driving in the middle of the field and fuck up our whole plan? If only I could know. But there wasn’t a way. We just had to take this risk and pray that it worked in our favor. My heart slammed against my chest as they pushed him around the corner.

“I love you, Nova.” Juliet squeezed me in her arms, and tears threatened to fall from my eyes. I cleared my throat and squeezed her as hard as I could.

“I love you too.” She was doing more than I could ever ask. I wished she’d stayed in the panic room with the others, nice and safe, but I thanked my lucky stars that she was by my side at this moment.

Footsteps pounded in the snow as Althazair raced towards us. “Get ready,” he shouted.

A moment later, the sound of the snowmobile engine turning on and then revving at an obnoxious caliber surrounded us, and Kaviathin ran from around the corner, his gun in his hand. “Let’s move.”

We ran down the hill as fast as we could, our feet sinking into the freshly fallen snow. It was so fucking hard to breathe with the wind blasting me in my face and I tried to suck in as much air as possible as I ran behind them. The sound of men shouting could be heard up ahead and then a moment later a gunshot, then a series of them. Kaviathin ducked down low behind the edge of a slope, and we dropped behind him, looking over at where the armed men had been.

One man took aim at the house, a series of shots so loud that I inhaled sharply at the thought of him hitting Thora. A second later, another shot, but this time the man crumpled to the ground. Kaviathin whistled, and we moved further down the slope. We made it almost halfway when something near the lake caught my attention and I jerked on Kaviathin’s jacket, pointing at the lump lying on the ground.

You could tell from the shape that it was a body, and my blood ran cold. I raced over, slipped just a few feet away and crawled the rest.Please don’t be Cian. Please don’t be Cian.The blood on the surrounding snow was so jarring, I gasped and stopped moving. Althazair flipped the body over, and my heart sank.

Harvey.

Althazair checked his pulse at his neck, shaking his head, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

“There’s another one,” Juliet shrieked, the sound whipping all around us as the wind howled. She raced down a little further where a larger mass was and covered her mouth. My heart sank.

“It’s Eros,” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

Oh, God, no. He couldn’t be dead.

The blood in the snow was such a stark contrast, and bile rose in the back of my throat. We helped turn him. Blood coated his pants and chest, but I was unable to see where the bullet had gone. Althazair checked his pulse, nodding his head. “He’s got a pulse. It’s weak, but there.”

Fuck. Think, Nova. Think.

“He’s losing too much blood,” I shouted over the wind. “Take him back to the house!”

Althazair didn’t seem convinced, and he looked up at Kaviathin.

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