This was about what people were going to say about us. She thought they weren’t going to trust her now that she was in love with the same guy she sent to jail.
“People think because I’m blind that I’m dumb,” she told me. “They treat me like a child. I want to prove I’m capable. That I’m someone.”
“You should’ve been strong,” I replied, my fingers freezing now all of a sudden. “If anyone knew what a vile cunt this world could be, it was us. But all I needed was you, and all you should’ve needed was me, and fuck all the rest. We would’ve done it. We would’ve won.”
“I came back,” she said again. “I was barely gone fifteen minutes. I came right back.” She kissed my temple. “And we will win. We will.”
Sure. Maybe.
“Okay, there’s Banks and the guys,” I heard Rika say and noticed the headlights coming through the rear window. “We have about three more seconds before Gabriel figures it out.”
My eyes grew heavy again, and my heart was pounding in my ears. I didn’t feel so good.
I swallowed. “I sometimes wonder what I’d be like if I grew up in Michael’s house. Or Kai’s.”
She laughed a little. “You wouldn’t be like them.”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “People are a blend of external and internal influences, not all controlled variables. Sometimes, just sometimes, we are who we are. Even in the sea, a snake is a snake.”
“A lion, a lion,” she added with a smile in her voice.
Blood from the wound dripped from my skin under the shirt.
“I should’ve taken you to St. Killian’s,” I told her. “There’s a room down in the catacombs.”
I paused to make sure she was listening.
“You turn left at the bottom of the stairs and keep going,” I instructed, knowing she was mapping it out in her head. “When you feel a draft from your left, you’ve hit a hallway, and you turn right. Drag your hand along the right wall until you feel the fourth doorway, and then enter it. Water from the snowmelt on the hills above the church seeps through the ground and spills down the walls like a tiny waterfall.” My arms started to fall, unable to hold her anymore. “You can smell the wet rock, and there’s a little pool where the water sits before it drains into a well. In the pool, there’s something you can have. Something of yours I saved. Something you forgot about.”
She waited a moment, probably thinking.
“I’m not missing anything,” she informed me. “There’s nothing I’m forgetting, Damon.”
I closed my eyes. “There is so much you’re forgetting, baby.”
She moved her hand and then sucked in a short breath. “What is this?” She panted, fear filling her throat. “Damon, what happened? Are you injured?”
She lifted my shirt, touching my wound. I grunted. Jesus, it felt on fucking fire now.
She started gasping. “Will, go to the hospital! He’s been hurt!”
“What?” Will shouted.
He must be who was driving.
“Get the flashlight on your phone,” Rika told someone. “Look at it.”
I kept my eyes closed but winced when a bright light shined on me.
“Oh, my God,” Alex cursed. “He’s soaked. Damon, how long have you been bleeding?”
I just grunted, their voices fading.
“Will, just go,” I heard Rika bark. “Speed. Hurry up.”
“Fucking Miles Anderson,” I growled u
nder my breath. “We gotta kill that motherfucker.”