Neither (The Noctalis Chronicles 3)

“How old are you?” Texas asks, turning to face him.

“I don't remember,” he says.

“Exactly,” she says, putting her finger in his face. “A year is like nothing for you. Don't you pull that crap with me, Viktor Belikov. I know my dates.” He told her his last name. That is not something he shares lightly. This relationship is more serious than I thought.

“Wow, you know his last name?” Ava says.

“I know a lot of things,” Texas says. “So, as I said, don't you pull that crap with me.” She pokes him in the chest.

“I will try not to.”

“Good,” she says, smiling at him.

Ava waves her hands. “Hello? We still need to come up with a plan, and waiting around isn't an option. Didn't you say you had some other noctali you knew who could help? Or who might know how to undo binds? That won't want to kill me?”

“A few,” Viktor says. “I have some friends overseas who might know things.”

“Really?” Texas claps her hands and bounces on the couch. “How would we get there?”

“They will come to us,” he says, watching her.

“That sounds like a bad idea,” Ava says, shaking her head.

“You can trust them,” Viktor says.

“I don't even know if I can trust you,” she says in a small voice. I sense she is feeling that way, but don't want to say anything.

“Viktor volunteered to make the bind when I first asked him for help. I didn't ask him to do it, but we agreed that when it was needed, he would do it for me. For us.”

“What?!” Ava yells, getting up. “So everyone just thinks it's okay to keep these things from me? That it's okay to make plans without me? Screw you. Screw all of you.” She storms out of the house and I let her go. Her car door slams.

Texas moves to go after her, but Viktor holds her back.

“Let her have a moment,” he says.

We all wait. I hear her screaming curses in her head.

“So, we're just going to sit here?” Texas says.

“No, I am giving her space. She needs some space,” I say.

I wait until she tugs at our connection. I'm not sure if she's aware that she does it, but that is all I need. I get up and walk at human speed to the car. I tap on the window. She wipes tears from her face before hitting the button to make the window go down. Viktor was able to put in a new mechanism after I tore it off not that long ago.

“I'm sorry,” she says, sniffing.

I put my face at her level. “Talk to me.”

“It's just a lot, you know? Just with everything that happened last night, and now Tex being Claimed and Viktor. I just feel like things keep getting worse instead of getting better. Like we're jinxed. Every time I think things are going to get better, they just get worse. Even if you change me, Viktor is still bound. Why won't you guys stop making binds?”

“He did it for you.”

She throws up her hands and bangs them on the steering wheel. “That's what makes this suck so much!”

“We would all do anything for you.”

“I know,” she says, turning her head.

I reach out and touch her face. My precious girl.

“We have to figure this out as soon as possible. Tell Viktor to get his people here now. I don't possibly see how things can get worse than they already are. Bring it on.” She blows her cheeks out and crosses her eyes.

“If that is what you want.”

“What I want is you. I don't care how we get there, but I want the end of the story to be 'and they lived happily ever after.' Is that too much to ask?”

“For anyone but you, yes. I'll do what I can.”

“That's all I ask,” she says, finally smiling.

I try out a smile back.

“Good job,” she says. She gets out of the car and takes my hand as we walk back into the house.

“Are you okay?” Texas asks.

“Yeah, just had a little freak out. Carry on.”

“You sure?”

Ava nods.

“Ava, I only made the bind to help you, to help Peter. I would not hurt my brother,” Viktor says.

“I know. It was stupid of me to think that you would. I guess I'm not a good judge. I thought Ivan was evil and then he turned out not to be, so what do I know?”

“Yeah, what was up with that?” Texas says.

“I do not know,” I say. “I thought that his one goal in life was to destroy me for what I did to Josephine, but something changed him. Something happened to him in the past few weeks that changed his outlook. I think that had something to do with you,” I say, looking at Ava.

Her green eyes go wide. “Me? What did it have to do with me?”

“He fell for you,” I say.

“What? You're crazy.”

She thinks I'm making a joke.

“It is true. The only thing that would have changed his mind about getting rid of you to avenge Josephine would be if he cared for you.” She didn't know him like I did. I spent more time with him than I have with her. I hadn't wanted to see how his feelings had changed for her. Jealousy is a human emotion, but somehow I picked up the ability to feel it acutely.

“I thought he was coming to kill me when he showed up,” Ava says. “I couldn't believe you'd called him, of all people — whatever — to help. We talked a lot when we were coming to get you.” She did not tell me that part.

“What did you talk about?” I ask.

“The best way to survive the zombie apocalypse,” she says with a smile.

“What did he think?” Texas says, leaning forward.

“He agreed with me that the backward treadmill idea was insane and wouldn't work.” She smirks at Texas, who makes a frustrated sound.

“I still say you would have generators. What about solar power?”

Ava sighs and rolls her eyes.

“I still say you're underestimating the human race's ability to survive the zombie apocalypse,” Texas shoots back.

Ava shakes her head back and forth, her hair brushing my arm. “Not this again. Only the strong will survive, Tex. Most people will be too dumb to realize what's going on. We've been over this before.”

The conversation evolves into a discussion on the best way to dispose of zombies. Viktor puts in his part, and I add a little. Talking about zombies, something that doesn't exist, is a change from talking about Di, Cal and binds. I watch Ava as she talks. She is so passionate that it oozes out of her. I soak it up, taking it in like a drug.

Just as Ava makes the salient point — that if ninety percent of the world became a zombie, and it took an average of three bullets to kill a zombie, you would never be able to make enough bullets — Texas gasps, grabbing her stomach.