Page 65 of Love Under Siege

I struggle to focus my blurry vision, barely able to make out his silhouette through the blinding pain. His face contorts in horror as he sees me slumped against the wall, blood gushing from my wound.

"No, no, no!" He cries, dropping to his knees beside me. His hands replace Lana's as he applies pressure to the gaping wound. "Anya, don't you dare close your eyes! Stay with me!"

"Jacob..." I rasp, trying to speak through the searing agony. I want to tell him how much I love him, how sorry I am for everything, but the words are drowned out by screams of pain.

"Anya, please!" His voice is frantic, pleading as he begs me to hold on. But despite my best efforts, the darkness pulls me under, wrapping around me like a suffocating blanket.

"Stay... with... me..." Jacob's anguished voice calls out desperately as I slip away. And then everything fades to nothingness, leaving only the echo of his desperate cries in my mind before even that is swallowed by silence.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Jacob

Before we reach the front doors we hear screaming and I act on instinct, Fuck being quiet! We scan the first floor and just as I am about to head upstairs, I hear a sound all too familiar, a gunshot. The sound came from down in the basement. The sound of the splintering door barely registers as I kicked it open. My gun was drawn, my body running on pure adrenaline. Morrison and Connor coming in from behind me. My heart pounded as I scanned the room.

And then I saw her.

Anya was crumpled against the wall, her body limp, covered in blood. For a second, everything froze. The world just stopped. All I could focus on was her—her pale skin, her bruised face, the way her body slumped like she had nothing left to give.

I was at her side in a heartbeat, but the moment I knelt down, I saw something else. Lana. She was right next to her, her hands shaking, pressed against Anya’s side. There was blood—so much blood—and Lana’s eyes were wide with panic, tears streaming down her face.

“Jacob...” she sobbed, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I—oh my God—I didn’t mean to... I shot her. I was aiming for Adam, but—" Her voice broke, her words crumbling into sobs.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

“Anya,” I gasped, my hands shaking as I touched her face. Her skin was cold, too cold. “Anya, wake up. Please... please, wake up.”

No response.

Her chest was rising, barely, but her breathing was shallow. The blood pooling beneath her was more than I could handle.

“Lana, what did you—" I couldn’t finish. I couldn’t bring myself to ask. All I saw was Anya slipping away, and my mind refused to register anything else.

“I tried to stop him,” Lana cried, her voice breaking. “Adam… he’s dead. But when I shot him, I—I hit her too. Oh God, I didn’t mean to—"

Dead? Adam was dead? A part of me wishes it was me who killed the fucker but I couldn’t focus on that. All I cared about was the fact that Anya was fading right in front of me.

“Anya, stay with me.” My voice cracked, pleading, as I pressed my hands over hers, trying to stop the bleeding. “Don’t leave me, baby. Don’t you dare leave me.”

Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, just a flicker, and for the briefest second, I thought she was coming back to me. I thought she was going to fight her way through.

But then she went still.

“Anya!” I shouted, shaking her gently. “No, no, no. Don’t you do this! Don’t you dare leave me!”

Her head lolled to the side, and everything in me shattered.

The sound of Connor and Morrison bursting into the cabin barely registered. All I could hear was the pounding of my own heartbeat, the deafening silence where her voice should’ve been.

This couldn’t be happening.

I cradled her in my arms, my breath shallow, panic clawing at my chest.

She was slipping away.

And I was powerless to stop it.

Anya’s limp body in my arms felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. Her blood stained my hands, her skin cold to the touch, and the room spun around me. Morrison rushed in, his voice muffled in the background, shouting something I couldn’t focus on. I could only see her.

---