Thicker than Blood (44 page)

“One more thing,” he said, and grabbed my
neck, using his hold on me to bring my body flush against his. “A
lesson, if you will,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear.
Then he tossed me aside, much the same way he’d grabbed me, into
the arms of the same man he’d given my gun to.

Shrugging out of his denim jacket, rolling
his neck from side to side, E headed toward Alex, his hands
clenched into fists. Still being held at gunpoint, Alex showed no
emotion as E approached him, meeting him stare for stare.

“You make one move to stop me, Wildcat,” E
threw over his shoulder. “And I will kill him.”

“God, please, no!” Leisel screamed, bucking
wildly against the man holding her. “Please don’t hurt him!”

Alex squared his shoulders as best he could
considering the way he was being held.

“This isn’t exactly a fair fight,” Alex
ground out, his nostrils flaring.

E laughed in response, a bitter, twisted
laugh. “This isn’t supposed to be fair, boy. This is a lesson to be
learned.” And then he sent his fist straight into Alex’s gut.

Coughing, choking, Alex tried to curl in on
himself in an attempt to deflect the barrage of punches E was
throwing at him, but it was a useless effort. E continued to hit
him like a broken record on repeat, his heavy fist connected with
Alex’s face, ribs, and stomach over and over again. Blood poured
from wounds on his face, purple bruises appearing almost
immediately, one eye swelling almost shut, and through it all
Leisel was screaming, beating her hands on the roof of the Jeep,
yet unable to move.

Once Alex had been beaten into near
unconsciousness, his shoulders drooping, blood pouring from his
mouth and nose, trailing down his shirt, E gripped a handful of his
hair and used it to lift his face.

“You don’t come back for her, you hear me?”
he said, his tone venomous, promising only more pain. “She’s mine.
All fucking mine.”

Alex blinked up at him through one eye.
“Yes,” he managed to say between coughing gasps.

Drawing a wad of phlegm from the back of his
mouth, E spat in Alex’s face and released his head. It fell
forward, blood and saliva spattering.

“You see, Wildcat,” E said, turning back
toward me. “I always protect what’s mine.”

Taking my face between his bloodied hands, he
tipped my head back and pressed a hard kiss on my lips. “Do you
see?”

I nodded numbly. “Yes,” I said softly. I’d
seen it quite clearly, exactly what this “lesson” had been. This
hadn’t been just a lesson for Alex, or any other man who tried to
touch me, this was my lesson. I was owned, body and soul.

E stared at me a moment longer, watching me
intently through those black eyes of his, eyes that held so much
and yet seemed so empty. His features were hard, his lips pressed
tightly into a thin line, and suddenly time seemed to stop
altogether. No heat from the sun touched on my skin, no breeze
moved through my hair, even Leisel’s cries had grown quiet. There
was just E, myself, and the soft hum from the electric gates
reminding me that that I wouldn’t be leaving this prison, not ever.
Trapped forever in Purgatory.

Releasing my face, he turned away, then put
his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly. From a ways off, a
man appeared from behind a small platform near the gate. Waving to
E, he nodded and once again disappeared from view. All at once, the
fence’s humming ceased.

“Put them in the Jeep,” E ordered his men. He
turned to Leisel and gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. “You need
to hurry on out of here,” he told her. “Before anyone gets wind
that the gates have been shut down.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed, struggling against
the man dragging her. “I will kill you, I will find a way to kill
you, you monster!”

As she was shoved roughly into the driver’s
seat and Alex the passenger seat, E only laughed at her, turning
away from her shouts with a dismissive, sickening smile. The doors
were slammed closed, then a set of keys was tossed over the open
roof and into Leisel’s lap.

“Start it!” one of the men demanded, aiming
his gun through the window at Leisel’s head. Turning away, she did
as she was instructed, and the vehicle roared to life with a
healthy rumble.

Slumping back in his seat, Alex attempted
picking his head up, his one good eye focusing on me. Placing his
hand up against the window, he mouthed the words
I’m sorry
at me.

Nodding, I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my
gathering tears not to fall. I took a deep breath and reopened them
only to find E staring down at me, his upper lip raised in angry
snarl. Grumbling something incoherent, he spun away from me and
stalked toward the Jeep. As he gripped the knife he had strapped to
his belt, a flash of steel glinting off the sun as he drew it out,
I realized what was happening. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I
rushed him.

“No!” I screamed, throwing myself at his
back, wrapping my hands around his neck, my legs around his waist,
trying to force him to stop.

With an angry grunt, E grabbed my arm,
yanking me off of him. He threw me down on the ground, making my
head hit painfully against the gravel, then wrapped his hand around
my throat, pinning me in place.

“What did I say?” he growled menacingly.
“What did I fucking tell you?”

Nodding to one of his men, he tossed the
knife up in the air. It flew, handle over blade, the short distance
between the men, and the man caught it easily. Watching as the man
headed toward the Jeep, I gasped for air, finding it hard to
breathe, let alone speak with how tightly E had a grip on my
throat.

“N-no,” I rasped. “Please… He’s
not…mine.”

E’s grip on my throat loosened some. “What?”
he shouted, his black eyes opening wide. His face was an angry
shade of red, his nostrils flaring wildly as his features contorted
with fury, and I wondered if I hadn’t just made things that much
worse.

“He’s not mine!” I screamed hoarsely,
watching as the man yanked open the passenger door, caught Alex
before he could tumble to the ground, and shoved him back upright.
“We’re not together, E! We never were!”

The man thrust his hand forward, sending the
blade into Alex’s side. Howling in pain, blood spraying from the
wound as the man pulled the blade free, Alex slumped to his side
just as Leisel began to scream.

Using his hold on my throat, E pulled me to
my feet and glared down at me. His chest heaving, he brought us
nose to nose. “You were never with him?” he whispered darkly.
“Never?”

Trembling with rage, I shook my head back and
forth quickly. “Never,” I hissed. “He loves Leisel, you disgusting
fuck!”

“Get them out of here!” E bellowed to his
men, jerking his chin toward the Jeep. The same man who’d stabbed
Alex slammed the passenger door closed, and E turned back to me.
“I’ll deal with you later,” he said, his expression promising
nothing but pain.

The thought of Leisel out there unprotected,
of Alex injured and possibly dying, and me stuck behind this fence
with this madman, spurred me into action. I couldn’t stay here, not
with him, not without Leisel. Panic and pain driving me, I found
myself reaching blindly for the gun holstered at E’s hip. Yanking
it free, startling him enough to loosen his grip on me, I scrambled
backward, firing instantly, aiming for E’s heart, his head,
anything that would hurt him and stop this madness.

The first shot went wide, my panic enabling E
to duck and dodge sideways, and he made a run for one of the broken
vehicles. I kept shooting, shooting in all directions, causing his
men to scatter.

Shouting sounded all around me as bullets
cracked through the air, the noise and chaos bound to alert the
rest of the camp that something was wrong. Knowing Leisel and I
wouldn’t be able to fight off the entire camp, I ducked and ran for
the Jeep, throwing open Leisel’s door as she scrambled out of my
way and into the backseat. Pulling the door shut behind me, I
slammed my foot down on the gas, and in a flurry of spinning tires
and flying gravel, we shot off across the parking lot.

“
Turn the gates back on!” E’s angry voice
bellowed.

“Leisel!” I screamed, only to find her right
next to me, wedged between me and Alex. I tossed her my gun. “The
guard at the gate! You need to kill him before he turns the fences
back on!”

Gripping the gun, she took hold of the roll
bar above our heads and pulled herself upright. Though tears were
pouring down her cheeks and her chin was trembling violently, she
aimed and pulled the trigger, letting loose a flood of bullets. Her
aim was off, not helped by the violent rocking of the quickly
moving Jeep.

The guard must have realized his life was in
danger, that we were going to hit the gates whether electricity was
flowing through them or not, because I wasn’t stopping, not a
chance in hell. Instead of attempting to turn them back on, he went
running in the opposite direction. We flew past him and barreled
straight toward the fence.

“
Duck!” I screamed, pulling on Leisel just
as we hit the gate, our tires spinning only slightly as the Jeep
went headfirst into it. Groaning and creaking, the metal tore
easily from the ground, the section we hit ripping away from the
rest of it, then flying up and over our heads.

Gripping the steering wheel, I turned the
Jeep in a wide, tire-squealing arc toward the road. As I spared a
glance in my rearview mirror, I saw E running after us, his large
form gradually growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

I looked across at Alex, at my poor Leisel
cradling his head in her arms and sobbing. His blood was
everywhere, covering him and Leisel, and the entire interior of the
Jeep. The bitter tang of death hung thickly in the air all around
us.

The now-familiar scent that seemed to follow
us everywhere.

Leisel

“Help me with him!” I cried, unable to bear Alex’s
weight as he began falling from the open door of the Jeep. Evelyn
rushed around the vehicle to my side, and lifted up Alex’s arm,
slinging it across her shoulders. I did the same, and together we
managed to pull him somewhat upright.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, blood and spit
spraying from his lips. “I’m sorry…Lei…”

We’d driven as long as we could, until it had
become clear that Alex was losing far too much blood, and we had to
stop to try to dress the wound. There had been nothing for miles,
just long, empty stretches of wheat fields and overgrown grass.
Finally we came to the edge of a small town, where we happened on
the shell of a gas station and an old rundown motel situated behind
it.

I waited in the Jeep with Alex as Evelyn
checked the place out, finding that the rooms had been picked clean
long ago. There was no furniture remaining, and the structure was
full of rats and insects, but thankfully free from infected.

Using her shoulder to push the already open
door even farther open, Evelyn helped me settle Alex onto the dirty
carpet. I kicked several cockroaches out of my way before dropping
to my knees beside him.

“We shouldn’t stop here,” Evelyn said, her
eyes darting toward the open door. “What if they’re following us?
We can’t be all that far, only a couple miles at best.”

I shook my head, unconcerned if they found
us, only caring about Alex. He wasn’t going to make it, not if we
didn’t treat the wound. “Let them come,” I said bitterly.

Evelyn looked uncertain, but she didn’t voice
her feelings. “I’m going to see what’s in the Jeep,” she said,
turning away. “See if there’s anything we can use for him.”

As she hurried out, I gingerly lifted Alex’s
blood-soaked T-shirt away from his skin. On his bruised and
battered abdomen, the small wound was still bleeding profusely.
Beneath the blood covering nearly every inch of him, his tanned
skin had turned a sickly shade of gray, growing cold to the touch,
and his breathing was beginning to slow.

“Oh God,” I whispered, my eyes blurring with
tears. “Oh God, not again, not again, please, God, not again.”

Alex’s one good eye opened, focusing on me as
he tried to raise his arm. He couldn’t seem to manage enough
strength to do so, so I gripped his hand and brought it to my
face.

“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, my tears falling
faster, spilling onto his chest. “I’m so sorry, Alex, I’m so
sorry.”

“Lei…” he croaked, attempting to turn his
head. “You don’t… nothing to be sorry… for…”

“Don’t try to talk,” I mumbled, brushing my
hand over his hair, pushing the fallen strands from his eyes.
“We’re going to get you better, you’re going to get better, and
everything will be fine.”

A single tear that had welled in the corner
of his eye slid free down the side of his broken nose. I bent
forward and kissed it away, softly kissing his battered cheek, his
bloodied chin, and then finally, brushing my lips across his.

I hardly knew him, yet losing him was every
bit as painful as losing Thomas was. Alex, the hope he’d given me,
the unexpected love, it had brightened my ever-darkening world. Now
that small slice of sun that had only just begun to peek through
the dark clouds was dimming, fizzling out, leaving me like
everything else had.

And it was all my fault. Another consequence.
He saved me and because of that, he was dying.

“Worth…it,” he struggled to whisper, his
breath coming in short puffs against my lips. “You were…worth
it.”

Pulling away from him as more tears formed,
clouding my vision, I shook my head, knowing full well I wasn’t
worth it, I wasn’t worth this much death and destruction. No one
was worth this. “I love you,” I cried softly. “I love you,
Alex.”

I did love him in the sense that he held a
place in my heart, one that was solely and irrevocably his and his
alone. It might have been a different type of love than what I felt
for Thomas or the way I loved Evelyn, but it was love
nonetheless.