CHAPTER 30 – Ink
“What the fuck are they talking about?” Jebediah whined from somewhere to my right. “This isn’t a fucking tea party. Jezebeth, stop playing with your food and pulverize it already.”
The women ignored him as words were passed between them, words that didn’t reach the outer circle. Words that lit a fire in Gracie, sparking in her green eyes until she was a flaming inferno, anger snapping her spine straight as she lifted her fists up before her. I knew the second she decided to use the knife. Her scream shattered my heart as her broken finger was forced to curl. The look on Jeze’s face when Gracie delivered the first welcoming thrust of her blade flooded me with hope. Then, Gracie went wild, attacking Jeze with a speed I hadn’t ever seen her move with before. Punch after punch, slice after slice, she carved up her enemy slow and steady.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jebediah finally realized something was off. “Why is she bleeding so much?”
Spinning on her heel, Jeze turned and ran, her gaze locked on the knife stuck in the ground several feet away. Somehow I knew if she made it to that knife it would be over, Gracie had never been entirely comfortable when training with a blade, but I had no doubt Jeze was.
“Stop her, Gracie,” I roared.
She took off, gaining speed when Jeze slipped on ice as they raced toward the weapon sitting so innocuously in the snow. Launching herself forward, my Gracie flew, her purchase finding Jeze’s back as the knife sliced through her clothing and flesh. Together they tumbled to the ground and rolled until Jeze was sitting atop Gracie, her thighs straddling her stomach and a hand wrapped around her throat.
“Fuck!” I spat out, my feet moving before my mind even contemplated what I was doing.
A heavy thump to the bullet wound in my thigh had my legs buckle, and my knees hit the ground.
“Stay put,” snapped one of Jebediah’s men.
Pain almost rendered me unconscious, but I fought it, breathing hard and fast as my blurring vision found Gracie and latched on. With awkward movements, she thrust her injured hand into Jeze’s side, over and over again. From this distance, it looked like ineffective and sloppy punches, but I knew her secret, the knife I’d secured to her palm with careful wrapping. Each punch pushed the blade through flesh, puncturing over and over again.
Both women became sluggish, Gracie fighting for air, Jeze no doubt feeling the blood loss of too many stab wounds to count. With listless movements, Jeze’s hand fell away from Gracie’s throat, and I heard the harsh intake of breath as my girl sucked air into her lungs.
“What the fuck?” Jebediah snapped as Jeze lolled forward, crushing Gracie.
After a few short moments, Jeze’s body was rolled away. Once free of her burden, Gracie pushed to her knees as she hovered over our enemy.
“How’s this for up close and personal, bitch,” I heard her slur before shoving a knife into Jeze’s throat.
Gracie was a hot mess, blood covering her face, arms, and torso—Jeze’s blood. She wavered on her knees but didn’t fall. She shouldn’t have had to fight for me, to kill for me, but I couldn’t deny how fucking proud I was. From beside me, Jebediah sprang into action, drawing both the guns from his holsters. He stormed forward, one aimed at me in his outstretched hand, the other pointing at Grace. His face was set in a stony mask of fury as he strolled through the snow which had churned into slush and mud, his finger slipping around the trigger.
Staggering to get to my feet, I was pushed back down by one of the soldiers behind me, and another swift kick to my wounded thigh almost stole me from consciousness. My entire world spun. I was going to lose her. She had won but I was still going to lose her. Desperation had my fingers dig into the ground as I tried once again to get to my feet.
Jebediah glanced my way, his usually smug grin gone, his eyes wide with shock. “Ink,” he began, his voice holding tight to composure, even though the rest of his body indicated chaos. I staggered to my feet and froze, my body resting heavy on my one good leg. “I think our little bird cheated.” Swinging his attention back to Gracie he stopped just a few feet away. She had collapsed from atop Jeze’s form and was trying to push to her feet, fighting fatigue and pain. When she noticed Jebediah standing between the two of us, guns raised, she too froze.
“What have you done?” Jebediah murmured, his gaze darting from Gracie to his sister’s lifeless body. “What have you done,” he screamed.
Gracie’s body shook as she glanced at Jeze. Finally, she grinned, blood on her teeth giving her a menacing look. “I killed your bitch of a fucking sister.”
And then all hell broke loose.
***
Bullets shattered the shocked silence, screams filled the night. Jebediah ducked, swinging his guns away from Gracie and me in search of his new enemy. There were too many though, men flooding through the buildings and trees, all armed, all wearing the standard uniform of the rebel forces.
Holy shit, Slink had made it.
My vision wavered as I struggled to stay on my feet. A bullet whizzed by so close it shifted the air and burned my cheek in its wake.
“Gracie, get down,” I commanded.
Instead, she was frozen in place as Jebediah turned on her, both of his guns aimed at her chest. “How about I help you with that?” Jebediah snarled.
Digging my foot into the ground for purchase, I ran, ignoring the screaming pain in my thigh as I bellowed her name. Horror blanketed her face, leeching the color from her beautiful features.
There was no way I would make it in time.
“Shoot me you fucker, leave her alone,” I bellowed.
Jebediah grinned, the self-righteous smile of insanity back in place on his pierced lips. He never said a word as he turned his attention back on Gracie, and my heart ripped right down the middle. He couldn’t take her away, not after we’d come so close to freedom. If she died, I’d fucking follow her right into the afterlife.
Suddenly, Jebediah’s body rocked forward, his back arching, his grin disappearing. With chaos all around us, war reigning down on the men who had invaded Liberty, time crawling to a standstill. Jebediah was shot, multiple times. As his body was thrown forward by the force of the bullets lodging in his back, his finger squeezed the trigger of one of his guns, releasing a bullet that flew straight toward Gracie.
“Nooo,” I screamed, changing course from Jebediah to Gracie.
Her tiny body was thrown back a few feet by the impact, and I slid to my knees and collapsed over her. For a moment I stilled, searching for signs of a bullet wound. There was nothing, yet she didn’t move, her horror-stricken eyes glued to mine. Then I saw it, the morbid bloom like an unfurling flower as it spread on her dirty white thermal shirt.
Chest. The bullet hit her in the fucking chest.
“No, you fucking don’t,” I yelled, gripping her cheeks. “Hold on. Don’t you fucking give up, you hear me?” I demanded. She looked so small and fragile, not the warrior who had battled for my life only moments ago.
“It hurts,” she whimpered, her breathing already raspy.
“Shhh… don’t try and talk, save your energy. You’re going to need it when I spank your ass red for pulling this shit.” Her face grimaced in pain. “Ashlynn!”
Looking around me I tried to search through the confusion for a familiar face. Fury was attacking a man with deadly fists that were turning him into pulverized flesh right before my very eyes. Ace, Axel, and Charlie were engaged in their own fights, while men in rebel uniforms began rounding up the mercenaries.
Isaac was jogging toward me, his sniper rifle still in his hands as he watched Jebediah’s unmoving body.
“Ink?” a familiar voice came from beside me.
My panicked gaze darted around until I found the owner of that voice. Harrigan, the leader of the rebellion.
“She needs a medic,” I frantically begged.
“Edwards… over here, now,” Harrigan ordered one of his men to our side.
The soldier carried a large backpack which he hastily shouldered off, throwing his weapon to one side. When his hand went to Gracie’s shirt, I stopped him with a growl, my hands wrapped around his wrists. Common sense had fled me, and animalistic possessive need controlled my response to another man touching my Grace.
“He’s a medic, let him work,” Harrigan ordered, his voice level and full of authority.
Understanding seeped into my chaotic thoughts, and I released his hands, allowing him to rip Gracie’s shirt right up the middle. The bullet had lodged high in her chest, in the flesh of her upper breast.
“Ink?” Her breathless voice pulled my attention away from the wound.
“It’s okay,” I crooned, leaning in until my nose touched hers. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Ink,” she repeated her eyes full of panic. “I… breathe… Ink…”
She fought for air, her body convulsing with the need to take a breath.
“What’s happening?” I demanded.
“Must have clipped a lung,” the medic responded, efficiently pulling things out of his bag.
The fingers on Gracie’s good hand dug into my bicep, and I reached for her hand, enveloping it in mine. She felt so delicate, but I knew beneath the fine bones and pale flesh she was made of steel. Gracie was the perfect combination of power and vulnerability. From just a child she’d infected me with a lethal dose of love, which grew into intense feelings of need as she changed right before my eyes, from awkward teenager to a beautiful woman. Her wings had once been clipped, but in Liberty she’d found freedom, and she fucking flew.
“You did so good, buttercup,” I whispered, blowing warm air into her cold fingers. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
Her eyes watered, but she didn’t look away, a blink sending the built up tears over her lashes and down the sides of her face.
“I love you so fucking much, Gracie. Don’t you dare leave me,” I implored, unashamed that my own tears worked themselves free. I’d only ever cried once before, a few tears for a lost soldier and friend, but right now my tears fell unchecked, wetting my skin and landing in perfect drops on Gracie’s face, combining with her own grief and sorrow. “I can’t do this without you, so you fucking stay with me.”
Thick lashes fought the darkness, and I watched her lose the battle. On one long, deep breath her body went still, her fingers limp in my hand, and her green eyes disappeared under her heavy lids.
“No, no, nooo…” My body jerked with disbelief. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me,” I screamed.
Someone pulled me away, and I watched in horror as the medic leaned over Gracie, his hands on her chest as he began trying to pound the life back into her heart. I fought to get back to her because I’d be damned if she was going to die. I fought the arms that manacled me in place. I fought my swimming vision and spinning head. I fought to get to my Gracie, and inevitably, under the darkness of starless night, surrounded by death and a win that somehow felt like a loss, I lost my fight as I fell into the shadows of darkness.