Page 59 of Blood in the Water

We carefully navigated the burning building, which wasn’t as gnarly on the inside. The fire had collected on the roof and what looked like the south side of the building. Definitely at risk of collapsing, but there was enough room for us to move around and keep looking for Ciel. The closer we got to his ping, the deeper we went inside the building.

An arm wrapped around my neck and yanked me backward. I barely got out a squeak of surprise before my air cut off. In the struggle, I dropped my gun and cursed myself for my foolishness that I didn’t immediately shoot this asshole in the gut.

Wynn whipped around, gun raised.

A barrel dug into the side of my ribs, eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from me.

“Let her go.” Wynn’s voice was calm but had a deadly edge. His entire demeanor changed as the Shadow took over. It reminded me of the first time he called me on top of those rafters. He looked through his blonde eyelashes like he owned the world, and if you didn’t obey his command, there would be hell to pay.

“Who are you?” The man behind me demanded. I winced as the barrel dug even further into my side. Damn, that was going to leave a nice bruise.

Wynn stayed perfectly still, eyes flicking between me and the man slightly behind me. If I could read his mind, I’d guess he was thinking if he could get away with that shot with me right in front. My heart threatened to burst from my chest. Could he pull it off? Was I supposed to trust him?

“What do you want?” I hissed.

“Put your weapons down. Then turn around,” the man directed to Wynn, desperation in his voice. “I know who she is. Max wants her.”

A shock of icy fear trickled down my spine.

“That is not going to happen,” Wynn said, probably more to me than to the guy who was trying to kidnap me right now. Fuck. I was so fuckingweakI couldn’t even defend myself.

The man grunted in pain, losing his grip on my neck enough that I could wriggle out of his grasp. His eyes went wide as his hand reached behind him.

“What the fuck?” he whispered. A slight turn of his body showed a knife now sticking out of his back, right in the middle of his shoulder blades. Where the hell had that come from?

“Oh, m-m-my God!” A voice screamed from down the hallway. “It hit! Wow!”

The man standing on the other side of the hallway was dressed in all black, contrasting with the piercing blue color of his eyes even at this distance. He stumbled closer, excitement mixing with confusion on his face.

“Ciel!” Wynn shouted, jumping forward to grab him as he collapsed into Wynn’s arms. “What the hell? What’s going on?”

“Wynn!” He reached up to touch Wynn’s face gently. “Bro—bro—bro. You’re so pretty. Hey. Is that dude dead?” He jerked his head in the direction of my attacker, who had now slumped against the wall but was very much alive.

The man raised his weapon and pointed it at me. Without thinking, I dove to the side as aboomrang out, the gunshot ringing through the tiny hallway. I landed right next to my gun. My fingers scrambled to grab the handle, and I frantically fired a round in his direction.

He slumped, gasping twice, as he slid down the wall with a trail of blood following him.

I paused, staring down at his dead body.

Another person, dead at my hands.

Ishouldfeel regret. I should feel terrified or horrible that I just killed someone.

But I didn’t. Anger surged through me. At myself. At this asshole who tried to kill me. At everything.

I wanted to scream. All my feelings of weakness and inadequacy rose to the surface like they were choking me from the inside out. Despite my big threats of revenge, I was still so damn weak. So damnashamedthat I continued to put those around me at risk, just like my selfishness had my entire life. Was I so different than the Leona of two weeks ago?

Big threats. Big talk. But it meant nothing if I was weak.

“Leona,” Wynn said from behind me as I stared at the attacker’s body, breathing heavily. The sound of his voice cut through the haze. “Let’s go.”

I blinked, the world coming back to clarity. Wynn stood to my side with Ciel’s arm around his neck.

“Fuucccckkkk, that was crazy,” Ciel laughed. Thank God he had broken himself out of wherever he was stuck, so we didn’t have to search through the burning building, but he was alsosuperhigh.

“Oh wow,” he whispered, eyes locked on me, as I came to Ciel’s other side and threw his arm over my shoulders. Poor Ciel was super lopsided between Wynn and me. “You are so beau—You are so beautiful. Who are you?”

I huffed a laugh, straining with the effort. At first glance, he seemed slight. Shorter than Wynn, even if not by much, but from what I could feel, every part of him was corded with muscle. He washeavy.