She fell against me, panting and cursing and I chuckled as I released my hold on her wrists and ran my hands up her spine, enjoying the feeling of our bodies being joined too much to let her move away just yet.
"I fucking hate you, Kyan," Saint snarled in my ear and I burst out laughing as I realised he'd been listening to that entire thing.
"Stop listening in on us if you don't like it, asshole," I taunted as Tatum fought against a laugh of her own. “If I’m alone with my wife I’m going to end up fucking her. It’s a foregone conclusion, so suck it up.”
Saint cursed us but I just pulled the earpiece out and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans which were folded on the seat beside us.
The car was clearly moving down streets with streetlights now and the orange glow of them made it in through the blacked out windows just enough for me to see a bit better and I looked up at my girl with a smile on my face.
“Didn’t I say we’d be fine, baby?” I teased her and she rolled her eyes at me.
“Let’s just wait until we’ve finished this before we start gloating,” she suggested, cocking her head in a way that was so fucking cute that it made me want to eat her up like the big bad wolf.
I claimed her lips and kissed her deeply, trying to tell her exactly how much she meant to me with that kiss alone, because I knew that there was no fucking way I could put it into words.
Her hands slid onto my chest again and this time instead of pulling them away, I let myself enjoy the way her fingers moved against my skin, the brush of the ring I'd given her when I married her making me smile as she continued to wear it. Every day since I’d spoken those vows to her in that church, she’d kept it on her finger and every time I saw it, I couldn’t help but grin like the smug bastard I was for making her mine.
I had no fucking idea how we were going to do any of the things we would need to do to take down the people who had wronged us. But when I was in her arms like that, I found I didn't care. I'd do whatever it took to tear them apart and I'd give everything I had to protect this girl in my arms.
My life was hers and she could have my death too if she needed it. I'd made a vow to that anyway. ‘Til death do us part. And for every moment that my heart remained beating, I knew it would belong to her.
M y adrenaline levels were still high as we walked back to The Temple. Saint had left a basket outside full of new clothes, hand gel and freaking watered down bleach so we were as fresh as a daisy by the time we walked inside.
Monroe rushed at me, crushing me into his chest without a care and I sighed, breathing in his comforting scent. My guardian angel. I had no doubt he’d been going crazy with worry here and it hurt me to see him looking at me like that. Like he had feared I wouldn’t come back.
Monroe released me, clapping Kyan on the shoulder, but I pushed him away from him. "Don't get too close," I said in alarm. "He needs to quarantine."
"Yeah, she's right," Kyan said firmly and Monroe nodded, backing up. "Not that the Hades Virus could ever really take down Kyan Roscoe." He smirked like a cocky bastard and I rolled my eyes at him.
Saint approached me next and my brows shot up when he dragged me against him, one hand on the back of my head and the other on the base of my spine. He released me just as fast, then nodded to Kyan who returned the nod, some silent conversation passing between them. Though I could hazard a guess at what it was.
I knew I wasn't just some possession to them anymore, but with Saint it was always hard to tell exactly what he thought of me. An asset that he'd die for, or a girl that he'd actually let into his ice-cold heart?
"Where's Blake?" I asked, hunting for the final member of our tribe.
"He's in his room," Monroe said with a frown. "I think he's processing the fact that he has a new enemy to blame. One without a face. For now, anyway."
I nodded, my heart squeezing. "Kyan, you should go to your room. I can bring you food and stuff for the next couple of days."
"Thanks, baby." He kissed my head then the others moved back to let him through and he walked away across the room. He staggered a little as he headed down the corridor and I frowned. He must have been exhausted. Or possibly drunk. But I hadn't seen him drinking a whole lot...
"I'm gonna go home," Monroe said, giving me a longing look and my gut knotted. I wished he could stay, but there was nowhere for him to sleep here except the couch and that wasn’t ideal.
"See you tomorrow?" I asked, unable to disguise the hope in my tone even when I felt Saint's eyes drilling into me.
"Yeah," he promised, smiling tightly and lingering there a moment too long before heading out the door.
A weight dropped inside me as he left and I had the urge to run after him, but I couldn't with Saint watching me. We just had to continue living from one private moment to the next, but they never seemed to come often enough.
I tossed Saint a casual smile then headed to the kitchen, grabbing some supplies for Kyan before taking them to his room. He was already falling asleep on his bed as I set him up for quarantine so I slipped back out of his room and knocked on Blake's door. He grunted in answer and my gut tugged.
"Can I come in?" I asked.
"Tatum?" The door yanked open and he pulled me into his arms, hugging me hard enough to drive the breath from my lungs. I clung to him equally hard, sensing his pain and it cut me apart too.
"I'm glad you're home," he said gruffly.
"I'd always come back," I breathed, realising I meant that. That leaving the Night Keepers was no longer an option for me. It might happen one way or another eventually, by fate or grand design. But it wouldn't happen because I was running away. Not anymore.
"Those monsters," Blake snarled. "How could you stand being around them without tearing their throats out?"
"Because I know we have to play the long game and that's something I've learned a bit about," I said and his grip on me firmed.
"Because of us?”
"You're a tamer kind of monster, but…yeah," I admitted.
"You think you've tamed me?" he purred, releasing me and giving me a dark look that made my heart pound.
I tickled his chin like he was a dog, grinning at him. "A little."
He smirked, catching my hand and pulling me down to sit beside him on the bed with a heavy sigh.
"I thought it would feel good to have the right target at last, but somehow it just drags up all that hate and anger again," he growled. "It makes me worry that I'll hurt the wrong person...like I hurt you."
"You won't," I swore, looking into his eyes as I vowed it. "You won't, Blake."
"Do you really have that much faith in me after what I did to you?" he asked, his voice rough.
"Yeah, I do. Because even if you destroyed every member of Royaume D’élite, they deserve it Blake. I saw what they are. I saw what they do," I seethed. “It wouldn’t matter which one of them you destroyed, none of them are innocent." His jaw ticked furiously and I reached out to brush my thumb over his cheek to calm him. "So don't worry that you'll hurt the wrong people, because you won't. We've found a bee hive and we need to destroy them all until we find the queen."
"Or the king," he pointed out and I nodded.
"Yeah. Whichever bastard of a monarch runs that place is responsible for releasing the Hades Virus. For everything that happened to my dad...to your mom."
He swallowed hard, his adam's apple bobbing and I leaned in to kiss him.
“Stay,” he murmured against my lips and I nodded, wrapping my arms around him. It had been too long since I’d lost myself in my golden boy and after the night I’d had I wanted to drown in his light, the two of us battling the shadows away together.
He fell back on the bed and I curled up in his arms, tiredness dragging at me already as he stroked my hair.
“You’re the best Bond girl there ever was,” he murmured into my hair and I breathed a laugh.
“What?”
He chuckled softly and the sound made me grin. He started telling me about how h
im and the others had assigned each other action movie roles and I was giggling as he told me about Saint calling Monroe the old timer.
“He’s not old,” I laughed, slapping his chest.
“And I’m not the rookie,” he said firmly.
“You’re such a rookie,” I snorted and he clutched me tighter with a growl.
“I’m James Bond dammit,” he insisted and I gave in.
“Alright, so what would my Bond girl name be?”
“Your first pet and your mother’s maiden name,” he said simply.
“Isn’t that your porn name?” I frowned and he shrugged. “Well…I don’t know what my mother’s maiden name is and I don’t really care either so I’m going to stick with Rivers for the second part. But I never had a pet, we moved around too much for it to be possible. I did go to a school that had a class goldfish for a while though…”
“That’ll do. What was it called?” He prodded me, still grinning.
“Jeremy,” I announced and Blake burst out laughing. He grabbed my hips, wheeling me on top of him.
“Come here Jeremy Rivers, I’m gonna ravage you,” he growled and I laughed, leaning down to kiss him so a curtain of my golden hair fell around us.
“Ravage me in the morning, James Bond, I’m exhausted.” I flopped down beside him and he wrapped me back in his arms.
“That’s a promise.” He kissed me sweetly and I sighed as my eyes fluttered closed.
“I’ll even make sure your cocktini is shaken not stirred,” I murmured and he snorted a laugh.
“Just you wait for me to plough into your Octopussy,” he said before switching the light off. I had the biggest smile on my lips as I fell asleep in Blake’s arms and I knew no one but him could have made me feel this way after a night in that hell hole.
***
I woke to a heavy cough coming from Kyan's room and my heart juddered as I blinked against the light pouring in from the window. Maybe I imagined it…
Another loud cough made chills run through me and I pulled away from Blake, getting up.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he woke.
Kyan coughed again and my heart thumped out a frantic tune against my ribcage.
"Brother," Blake gasped, jumping up and stepping toward the bathroom door to make his way through to Kyan's room. I snatched his arm to hold him back and realised I was shaking, panic ripping up the centre of me.
"I'll check. It's not safe for you to go in there if -if-" I couldn't get the end of that sentence out, my throat clogged with worry.
Blake nodded stiffly and I stepped past him, opening the door to the bathroom and closing it behind me before I headed to Kyan's door and pushed it open.
"Kyan?" I asked gently, my stomach churning as I saw him lying on the bed on his back, shirtless with sweat collecting on his brow. He coughed heavily and I shoved the door closed behind me, panic bleeding through me as I spotted the rose-shaped rash on his arm, swirling across his skin.
"No," I denied this was happening as my whole world crumpled in on itself. He can’t have the virus, he can’t be sick!
"I'm alright," he said, his voice raspy and I shook my head, climbing onto the bed and pressing the back of my hand to his forehead.
"You're burning up," I said, blinking back tears, trying not to let him see the fear in my eyes.
"Is he okay?" Blake called anxiously from the bathroom.
Kyan coughed heavily again, pushing himself up to sit. "I'm fine," he insisted, but I took his hand, turning it over and finding the rash there across his wrist.
I didn't want to voice it, couldn't bear to say it, but Blake called in again, desperate to know if his friend was alright.
"Kyan," I breathed in horror. "You're sick."
His jaw gritted and he cupped my cheek as his eyes darkened, a cold acceptance filling them that terrified me even more.
I climbed into his lap, clutching his face and making him look at me. "You won't die," I growled and the fog cleared from his eyes. "Kyan Roscoe doesn't die like this."
He nodded, giving me a smirk despite the virus taking hold of him and promising him a single week of life at most if he was one of the unlucky ones.
Sixty percent of infected people die from the virus. I could hear the news reels in my head, the death toll growing every day. But I never thought it would strike here. I never wanted to believe it could touch my Night Keepers.
"It would take more than the Hades Virus to kill me, baby," he vowed and I nodded several times, not letting myself entertain the idea of losing him.
Tears ran hot and thick down my cheeks as I held him and kissed him to seal that promise between us. He would not die from this.
"Tate!" Blake barked in desperation.
"What's going on?" Saint called from beyond the other door and I jumped off the bed, throwing my weight against it as he tried to open it.
"Kyan's sick," I half sobbed, but drew in a deep breath for my strength so the next words came out slightly steadier. Though when they did, they were so final that they resounded through to my soul. "He's got the Hades Virus."
I paced back and forth before the fire, clawing my hands through my hair as my breaths came hard and fast and I fought against the urge to scream my fury and frustration at the injustice in the world at the top of my damn lungs.
I wanted to reach out and grab the nearest thing and smash it and then grab the next and smash that too. An endless cycle of carnage to vent some of this hopelessness worming its way beneath my skin.
The entirety of the last three days had been like this, ever since we’d realised that our brother was infected and my world had constricted around me so tightly that I could barely even think anymore.
"Breathe, Blake," Saint commanded as he typed away on his damn computer like the world we knew wasn’t burning down around our ears. Like he actually believed he could research a way out of this.
"I knew this would happen," I snarled, still carving a path into the carpet as I spoke, unable to stop. It felt like if my body was no longer in motion then every atom in me might just tear themselves apart from each other just to avoid this crushing pain that was consuming me.
"Kyan is in the top bracket for recovery from this," he said calmly. Too fucking calmly, like he was a creature without a heart or a soul. And if I'd actually believed that he cared as little as it seemed then I would have been beating the shit out of him myself, but I knew this was just how Saint functioned. The more his body demanded an emotional reaction from him, the more the conditioning his father had put him through would force him to retreat into himself. When Saint was deadly calm, his face a blank mask and his words cold and calculated that was actually when he was closest to breaking himself. It was like the calm before the storm. "He's male, between the ages of sixteen and twenty five, has no previous underlying medical history of heart or respiratory conditions, he's strong and fit and healthy. Instead of the widely publicised mortality rate of sixty-three point four percent, someone in his bracket actually only has a forty seven point nine percent chance of succumbing to this virus."
"Only?!" I roared, losing my shit for the hundredth time today and Monroe pushed himself up off the couch, moving to intercept me as I started charging towards Kyan's door. "If it's so fucking low then I want to be in there with him," I demanded. "I want to face my fate at my brother's side and go with him if he leaves me."
"Don't be moronic," Saint hissed as he got to his feet too and snarled at me, standing shoulder to shoulder with Monroe to block my progress. "Forty seven point nine percent chance of death is in no way good odds and you know it. I was merely stating the fact that his chances are better than the publicised average. Are you really so afraid of your own grief that you would risk making all of us suffer it over you if you infect yourself and die from it? What if Kyan survives only to find he passed it on to you and killed you? Is that a burden you wish to place on his head?"
I gritted my teeth in determination and took another step towards
Kyan's room, but Monroe's arms encircled me before I could go any further.
"This won't help him," Monroe insisted, tugging me back a step. "Giving him reasons to worry about you will only mean he is less focused on fighting this thing. Is that what you want?"
My heart was racing and the pain spiking through my body was unbearable as I fought to draw breath. I was sucking air down hard and fast, the week leading up to my mom's death playing on repeat in my mind. I'd made three video calls to her and only one of them had included any actual conversation. After that, the doctors set it up to let us say goodbye twice. That was a cruelty in itself. After the first time I'd been crushed, expecting the worst and dreading the call to say it had happened. But then she'd made it through the night and the next night too, they'd told us she was fighting and I'd been fool enough to believe she would win. The second time they'd connected the video for us, I'd truly believed she'd be there, sitting up in bed telling us how shitty she felt and promising to be home soon. Instead they'd informed us that this really was the end and I'd sat beside my father, his hand wrapped so tight around mine that it felt like my bones would break as we watched her take her final, laboured breath and slip into oblivion.
"I can't go through that again," I choked out as I stared down the hallway towards Kyan's room and stopped fighting Monroe’s grip on me.
At least he had Tatum with him, looking after him, holding him, showing him that he was loved while he fought for his damn life. My mom had been all alone.
I still wasn't sure if we'd made the right call by not sending him away to hospital, but I knew as well as the others that there was no real treatment for the Hades Virus.
Saint had managed to get a supply of the recommended steroids and painkillers sent to us and he had a doctor consulting with Tatum on Kyan's at home care eight times a day and we’d all agreed that he was better off here getting full one to one attention rather than in an overrun hospital.
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