The world was a blur around me. I knew there were several people watching on, but I couldn’t focus on their faces. Xander slammed on his breaks next to our Fiat and he and Xavier jumped from their seats to watch the healing process. Christi Ludu would be on his way too, with the rest of the old Titans and the confiscated ammunition, but I couldn’t focus on that until I knew Titus was going to live through this.
My heart hammered in my chest, a rhythm that had not slowed since the incident happened. We hadn’t even caught the sniper, he had disappeared into the thick Latvian forest before we could catch up with him. And now Titus’s life hung in the balance from a bullet that was made of pure poison for us.
I felt Eden’s smoke work on Titus, touching the infected wound, spreading throughout his blood to heal him. I took another deep breath, but this one finally felt fulfilling, I finally felt like the oxygen was actually getting to my lungs.
It was working.
I wanted to believe that Eden’s smoke could cure anything. She could cure the King’s Curse for God’s sake and that was as bad as it got for us.
Except…. was this worse?
The pain wasn’t as excruciating and unconsciousness found you a lot faster, but this felt worse for so many more reasons. First, death was a lot quicker with a bullet than it was the Curse. Second and probably most importantly, this was designed by an Immortal. This weapon was created and manufactured to kill other Immortals.
Even when Lucan was King he had only used swords. Terletov was an entirely different kind of monster. Sending snipers to take out his own henchmen so they couldn’t give anything away was possibly the worst kind of brutality I had ever seen.
Or possibly not…. I had been through a lot. It was hard to mentally wrap my head around a scale of horrible events. They could all tie the spot for number one for all I cared.
So whether the guns and bullets were number one or not didn’t really matter. My whole life was all some messed up shit.
As the smoke worked through Titus’s body I stood paralyzed watching. This couldn’t happen again. This couldn’t happen to anybody…. but the echoes of truth bounced back and forth in my head. Titus wasn’t the first casualty and as much as I refused to admit it to myself I knew he wouldn’t be the last.
I rubbed at my eyes, forcing myself to focus, forcing myself to breathe easier now that Titus was getting better. I shook my hands out at my sides, knowing there was no nail left to rip off. My thumbs were raw and tender, the nail bitten down to flesh.
A small hand slipped into my nervous, trembling one and I looked down to see Amelia at my side. Her touch had the calming effect I needed and except for my heart completely stalling and then jumpstarting rapidly in my chest, I was able to focus on Titus without drowning in panic.
She wasn’t looking at me, her eyes were straight ahead, watching as Titus coughed himself back to consciousness. Her tiny hand felt delicate and fragile in mine. I held onto her like she was my only lifeline, but gently so not to hurt her. She could have pulled away at any time, but I felt myself chanting a prayer that she wouldn’t.
Eden finally coaxed Titus into sitting, which was difficult in the tiny back seat of the Italian car. He wasn’t as tall as Xavier, Xander or me, but he was bulky and big. His shoulders took up most of the space in the backseat and Roxie had to wiggle out from underneath him to give him more room.
My sister had started to ask him questions about his injury, making sure he was fine. His hand rubbed at the entry and exit wound in his neck distractedly, but he was answering her and seemed to be lucid.
I heard Amelia sigh deeply and then felt her relax next to me. Her ease pulled my attention to her and when I looked down at her I swear she was even more beautiful than when I left her only a few weeks ago. Her long, brown hair was down and wild in the fall wind, her big doe eyes were glued to Titus and she was chewing on her bottom lip as if biting it so fiercely would help heal Titus.
I had a job to do, there were questions that needed answering and I should really check to see if Titus was Ok. I needed to let go of Amelia’s hand and join Eden and Kiran who stood hovering behind her.
But then again…. Eden and Kiran were already over there. And Titus seemed to be doing much better.
“You and me need to talk, Amelia,” I whispered in a voice that was hoarse from the trauma of the last twenty-five hours and tense with a need for this girl that I couldn’t even begin to understand. It ignited my magic, set my blood on fire and there was a hunger deep inside my chest that wanted to consume her in all the best ways.
“Not now, Avalon,” she reprimanded me and then tried to pull her soft hand from mine. I turned to face her and grabbed on to it with both of mine, desperate to feel her skin against mine for just a few moments more. “You need to go check on Titus.” Her voice was quiet but fierce and if I wouldn’t have looked up into her pleading eyes I would have thought that she meant it. But the ravenous look in her gaze made me brave, made me certain.
“And you should probably go say hi to your boyfriend,” I taunted, rubbing my thumb gently against the palm of her hand. She shivered.
I took a step closer to her, hiding the smile threatening to ruin my plan.
“My boyfriend?” She squeaked, when my thumb moved from her palm to the inside of her wrist, moving back and forth, barely touching her.
“Jericho, right? I asked him what you guys had going on after you ran away from me,” I looked straight into her eyes and was rewarded with a nervous glance in Jericho’s direction.
“You did?” she whispered.
“I did,” I promised. “And he told me the truth.”
Her eyes flickered anxiously in Jericho’s direction again. A sense of amusement filled me, and I realized how sick that was, but I couldn’t help myself. She had made me suffer since she walked into my life and I was enjoying making her squirm.