Page 34 of Saint of the Shadows

“St. James. Far on the Eastside. I swear you won’t burst into flames.” He stepped farther inside the room. His dress shirt was disheveled and stained with blood.

She was afraid to know whether the blood was hers or… even worse, Annie’s. “You should wear a clean shirt when you visit a lady.”

“Hey, you owe me a tie, kid. We were attached. It was the last good thing my ex-wife gave me.” He ambled around, looking everywhere but toward her bed. “You’re already a legend at the precinct, surviving that fall.” At the window, he bent a couple of blinds to peer outside; his back turned to her. “We’d been there for hours before we found you.”

“What’s up with that, man? I thought we had a thing going. I save you. You save me,” she teased, but it came out hoarse. Her savior had been too late.

He faced her, his eyes shining with tears. “I got you, though.”

“Annie? Is she?” Gunshots echoed in her memory.

“Gone.” His voice became a whisper.

Marisol closed her eyes as hot tears rolled out of them.

“I swear I will get him.” He brushed his fingers at the foot of her cast.

Within her mind, she saw the twisted tableaux again—the giant, the little guy, and the teeth. “There were three. Didn’t security cameras see them?”

“They were wiped. Did you recognize them?”

“No. I never saw them before, and the Bloodsucker, he was... in a mask. Looked like a sea lamprey.” Last night’s violence snaked through her brain, numbing her.

Tobias nodded his head, but his face twisted. “Shit.” He stuck his head out the door and scanned both directions of the hall. With a lowered voice, he turned back to her. “The Bloodsucker? Once he knows you’re alive, he’ll be after you.”

“Good thing I have you to protect me.” In fact, he felt like the only thing around keeping her from living in the unending feedback loop of blood, screeches, and teeth.

“It would be better if we move you to a safe house. Our department will probably put you in a bedbug infested hovel, but we should get you there after they discharge you.”

“Will I be able to go to Annie’s funeral?” She stiffened as she awaited the answer.

“I don’t know.”

“Her parents depended on her to translate for them. They’ll be so lost when they learn…” She hiccoughed. Her parents would be so defeated as they searched for answers. But there was only one answer. Someone murdered Annie.

“I’m sorry.” He sat on the edge of her bed and looked down.

Family. She gripped her sheets as a sob heaved in her chest. “I can’t leave. My dad will get himself in trouble, and my mom can only hold so much together. Without me—”

He held her hand. “I’ll check in on them. I’ll keep a special eye out. Just for you.”

Marisol rubbed her fingers across his calloused knuckles. She focused on his hand and not his face, afraid that he would see a heat of shame wash over her when she asked, “What about us?”

He cracked a weak laugh. “Probably couldn’t visit you, anyway.” He sighed, now serious. “So I don’t compromise your location.”

“What if you came in disguise?”

“You’re a funny one, kid.” He interlaced his fingers with hers. “I don’t know. I have a way of screwing these things up.”

These thingsbeing relationships, of course. “You, too, huh?”

“Even when I thought you stood me up, I never cursed your name. And knowing you were...” Tobias drew her hand to his lips and kissed the space between her knuckles.

Stood up?

Strange. As strange as the kiss on top of her hand. In a mask, he would’ve kissed the inside of her wrist.

The conclusion she’d been afraid of loomed like a knife in the dark. “Could you come closer?”

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