As Holly pointed the gun at Levi, Zoe’s breath left her in a sob. Her eyes filled with tears, already grieving for what was about to happen. To have her heart made whole again, only to be ripped out once and for all. She couldn’t stand it. It wasn’t fair.
Not willing to let Levi be taken from her, she reached out to him, as though she could hold him there, keep him in her life.
A split-second later, the shot pierced the night air, echoing through the woods surrounding the rescue center. She could feel the sharp loss almost as though she’d taken the bullet herself. As though Holly had aimed for her newly repaired heart and blown it wide open.
Zoe cried out with the pain and the loss. She wrapped her arms around Levi, holding him tight.
Somehow, even after being shot, he found the energy to bring his guitar down on Holly. Again and again it twanged, and rung, and thumped until all he held was the neck, dripping with dark liquid that glinted in the dim moonlight. Panting, he tossed it aside and fell to his knees, Zoe along with him.
That ache, it burned inside her. It was almost too much to bear, but she held onto it as she held Levi. She didn’t want to bottle anything up anymore. She didn’t want to hold back. Because without the fear and pain of losing him, she couldn’t give him her love. And she had so much to give him. And she wanted it all, every feeling, every last painful second she had with him.
“Levi,” she sobbed. “Stay with me. Don’t die.”
“I won’t leave.” His voice broke, as though he could barely get the words out. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She heard Piper’s screams fade as she headed back toward the center. “Help! We’re over here! We need a medic!”
Levi seemed to be holding Zoe as much as she was holding him. Like he needed her as much as she needed him. She felt the damp soil seep through her dress, making her shiver.
“I can’t lose you,” she said. “Not now. It’s just … too short.” She choked on her tears as another wave of grief ripped through her.
She was shaking now, breathing in short gasps, unable to get enough oxygen between her sobs and that terrible heartbreak.
“Don’t leave me,” she said.
Levi laid a hand on her face, wet and hot with his own blood. Or maybe it was that her face felt so cold. He held her gaze, the moonlight reflecting in his blue eyes. His expression looked so pained that it hurt her to see him suffer.
Between her quick breaths, he kissed her. “I will never leave you. I promise. Never.”
Those words made it a little easier to breathe. The constriction in her chest eased. After all the excitement, Zoe could feel the energy trickle out of her body. She relaxed in Levi’s arms, feeling very tired all of a sudden.
The sound of ripping fabric made her drooping eyes flutter open. Her blurry gaze landed on Piper. She was balling up a piece of her dress. No, her beautiful dress, Zoe thought. She laid it against Zoe’s chest and pressed firmly.
Zoe screamed out as hot, white pain shot through her body, rippling down to her cold toes. She bit her lip to stop from screaming again.
Her vision was no longer blurry. Sleep no longer called to her. How could she sleep when it felt like Piper was stabbing her through with a hot poker? The pain seemed to pulse with every beat of her heart. Which at least told her that she did, in fact, still have her heart.
“Can you carry her?” Piper asked Levi.
Instead of answering, Zoe felt his hold on her shift. Then the world spun as he stood up, or maybe that was just her head. Every step that Levi took felt like a fresh stab to her chest.
Levi grunted and huffed as he headed back for the center, holding her protectively to his body as he picked his way through the rough terrain. She watched his face, focusing on the effort, the strain, the worry that creased it.
It struck her as odd that he was carrying her when he was the one who was shot. And when the dim lights from her wedding decorations glowed up ahead, it was even stranger that everyone was calling her name and not his. Especially when he was covered in so much blood. It was smeared all over his shirt, his hands, his neck.
The music had stopped, replaced by agitated chatter, cries of exclaim, tinny voices over two-way radios, and distant echoes of sirens.
The light brightened and Levi set her down on a cold, hard surface. She blinked around the room and saw she was in Piper’s veterinary operating room.
Piper set something over Zoe’s face. It hissed at her, blowing air.
Annoyed, Zoe raised a hand, trying to swipe it away. A hand clamped over hers and held it still. Her head swiveled toward the person. It was Levi.
There was a clink of metal on metal as Piper set tools down next to Zoe. She then hung a bag of liquid above her head and Zoe watched it swing back and forth, almost hypnotized.
Her eyes began to droop until something pinched the skin in the crook of her arm. She hissed at the sharp pain. Levi held her hand tight, as though afraid she would fight back, but she no longer had the energy to react. Instead, she watched Piper fuss over her from the end of a really long tunnel.
The pain had dulled. She wasn’t sure when. Or maybe she’d become used to it. In fact, she felt like she’d left her body entirely. The only thing that remained was the buzzing inside her head like a swarm of cicadas had gathered in there and the feeling of her hand in Levi’s.
Only now did it occur to her that Levi hadn’t been shot. She had.
But that didn’t seem like the most important thing right now. The only thing that seemed to matter was that Levi had kept his promise. He hadn’t left her. Only, as her eyes began to droop, she wasn’t so sure she could promise the same thing.