Blind the Stars (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 3) Page 11

  Pike rocks her and we all turn away. I want to run to him, but Vane still wields the gun. She is a murderer. She killed Delia.

  “You will come back with us to The Hollow.” Vane breaks the silence. Her attention is still on me.

  Pike wipes his eyes once more, gently lowers Delia’s head to the ground and gets up. As quick as ever, he is in front of Vane, his body up against the gun.

  “She’s not going with you.” His voice is steady.

  “I won’t hesitate to shoot you, like her,” Vane spits the words out. Pike is unfazed. The gun doesn’t falter either.

  “I’ve had enough of this! I’ll go with you!” I step away from Ezekiel and Christophe. Alex and Archer flank both sides of my body. I’m their captive. I’ll do what they want if it keeps Pike alive.

  Delia is dead.

  “Then it’s done,” Vane states. Stepping back from Pike who hasn’t moved even his gaze. She backs up to me and the twins, leading us out of the barn.

  The door shuts, cutting me off from everyone I care about.

  Delia is dead.

  Vane turns toward me and with the butt of the gun, jams in into my stomach. Not once, but twice, three times. I lose my breath and my vision blacks out for a brief second. Not long enough. I drop to the ground, spewing acid bile from my body. I can’t catch my breath. The last few minutes are a blur.

  “Get her up,” Vane orders and my limp body is lifted beneath the arms. The twins are surprisingly gentle as they drag me back to the cabin. They can’t be much older than fourteen or fifteen. Groaning, I clutch my stomach. I’ve never been hit like that before. The pain is hard to suppress and I cry upon every breath.

  We move into the cabin and Vane locks the door behind us. The man who takes care of the safe house opens the door to his room and Vane shifts the gun from me to him. He retracts into the room, closing the door.

  “Lock it!” she orders and with a click, the man locks the door from the inside.

  Vane closes the drapes and stands alongside the window, on-guard, with the gun.

  The twins lower me onto the couch and then one adjusts my body so that I’m not lying on my arm. “Thank you,” I whisper and one of them nods. It gives me hope.

  I am lying on my back.

  “You didn’t have to kill her,” I say, not bothering to look at Vane. Every exhalation feels like I’m being pummeled in the stomach all over again. My eyes burn as does my throat. I don’t want to swallow because it hurts too much. It makes me think of my feet, which have stopped hurting hours ago.

  “I’m not sorry for killing her,” Vane states, walking over to me. She sits on the coffee table. “But it was an accident. If her son didn’t grab me, she would still be alive. Or maybe she wouldn’t. I guess if she had gotten in the way-” As her tone changes, I become more infuriated. I sit up. Anger makes me stronger.

  We hear a door slam and a clank outside. Archer and Alex turn toward the window. The sound of metal striking the ground, crunching through it, and then striking the ground again. Dirt being dug up and then dumped. It sounds like-. I hold back the tears. I can’t bear to think of it.

  I turn to the twins. “How come you think your parents are inside? Didn’t you hear Leland? They’re not in there. They’re dead. So why would you ever go back in?”

  “They know they’re dead,” Vane answers for them. It’s annoying that they don’t talk. “But their parents are still inside.”

  I look at the twins, but don’t get any sort of reaction. What does that mean?

  “I’ll stand watch first. Go get some sleep. We’ll leave at first light even if we have to swim,” Vane tells one of the twins and he heads up the stairs to the loft.

  “I can’t swim,” I state. Maybe that’ll slow her down. “We’ll have to wait for the tide.”

  “Go get the bullets,” she orders the other twin and he hurries up the stairs behind his brother. I hear his footfall on each step, a bit lighter than Ezekiel’s.

  “There are only two left and I need at least five,” she says to no one in particular.

  “How did you know where the gun was?” I ask. “Ezekiel was looking for it.”

  “I’ve been watching you all,” she answers and says nothing more. A few minutes pass and the twin is back downstairs with the bullets. He hands them over to Vane. She counts them out. “One, two, three, four, five. Once I caught a fish alive.”

  She looks over at me and grins. I scowl at her. I have to think of what to do. She gets up, and walks over to the window, looking back out. The sounds of the shovel are still audible even from in here.

  I can’t bear to look at her any longer so instead I stare up at the ceiling, immobile. One, two, three, four, five. I gasp, and then clutch my stomach.

  Five bullets: Leland, Christophe, Ezekiel, Hara.

  And Pike.

  End Book 3