Page 87 of Heir of Darkness

“Please don’t be mad at me,” she whispered, her vulnerability peeking through. “I mean, you can be mad at me all you want, but please don’t leave me. I need you on my side. Please.”

“I’m on your side for the rest of our lives,” Valerio said, pulling her body into him. “I’m never leaving you. I’ve alreadytold you as much. I wish it was true that we were expecting, but now isn’t the time.”

“I would never announce it to you like that either,” she said. “You will be right beside me, finding out at the same moment I do.”

He gave her a small smile, leaning his forehead against hers. “We need to discuss what your father said to you.”

“And we need to discuss this war,” she added, taking in every ounce of his warmth. “Something has changed with my father, Val. I don’t trust him. I can’t.”

“We have some time now, as long as they believe this is true. My father, he’s not to be trusted either. Something has to be done about both of them.”

“What are you saying?”

“We’ll talk about it later, I promise. Just remember, we’re a united front,” he said. “For the rest of our lives.”

She pressed her lips to his, savoring the moment. It was their engagement party and they had yet to even share a kiss to celebrate. She’d destroyed the night and yet, here he was, holding her like she was going somewhere. She didn’t deserve him; that much was true. Maybe she never would.

She pulled away first, immediately missing his taste. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold.”

He nodded, letting her move first.

She had just turned her back when she caught the sound of something whooshing through the air. She watched Valerio fall onto his knees, his face filled with confusion.

Time slowed down when he held his hands in front of himself to stop the fall, but it didn’t seem to matter. Not when Luna saw the blood leaking through the back of his white button-up, falling like a waterfall down his back.

She let out a bloodcurdling scream, falling to the floor to hold Valerio so his face didn’t rest against the cold, dirty concrete ofthe balcony. She touched his back, trying to apply pressure as if she knew what she was doing.

“Dante!” she screamed and didn’t stop screaming even when everyone ran out to see what was going on. Cecilia dropped to the floor, ripping Valerio’s shirt off to see where he was hit.

Dante stood across from Luna on the other side of Valerio’s body, too stunned to do anything. Valerio’s eyes closing finally snapped him into action. He began slapping his brother’s face, begging him to stay awake.

Luna let out screams and cries, desperately wanting to see Valerio’s face.

“Don’t move,” Cecilia told her. “You’re the only thing stopping him from bleeding out right now.”

So Luna stayed there, pressing firmly to slow the bleeding despite how horrified she was at how much was coming out.

“We need an ambulance,” Gianna said. She took out her phone with trembling hands.

“There’s no time,” Finn told her. “We can transport him. As long as Luna keeps pressure, it’ll buy us enough time to get him there ourselves.”

“There’s a hospital a few blocks from here,” Allister said. “We can take him there.” He handed a pair of keys to Blair. “Go downstairs with Gianna and get the car pulled up to the back entrance. We’ll go through there.”

Blair nodded, pulling Gianna with her as they ran out of the room.

“I need you all to line up around his body,” Cecilia said. “Two to support his head and shoulders and two to hold his legs, especially his torso. Be gentle. I don’t know how close the bullet is to his spine.”

They did exactly what she said, slowly lifting him off the ground. A groan reassured Luna that Valerio was at least a little bit conscious. That had to be a good sign.

“Please stay with me, Val,” she begged him. “Please. Please.”

She stood along with them, keeping her hands pressed against his back, even while they walked out of the room and down the stairs. Luna’s mind was fuzzy. She had no idea how they got out of the library or into the car or even to the hospital.

The warmth she’d felt earlier was completely gone. All that was left in its wake was loneliness as she stood in the hospital hallway in her white engagement dress now soaked in the blood of her dying fiancé, watching him get wheeled away.

And she had never even told him she loved him.

THIRTY-THREE

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