Page 62 of Deathless
He pulled in another breath, clearing his throat as he composed himself. “How’d you guys do? I saw some bodies. You get ‘em all?”
“No,” I said on a big sigh. “Two vehicles got away. I ran out of ammo, heard Devin take fire behind me and I just...couldn’t keep it together.”
Santos’ head jerked toward Devin, as if noticing his injury for the first time. “You okay?”
“All things considered, yeah.” Devin tried hard not to grimace. “I’ll live.”
Santos returned his focus to me. “How many people total got away?”
“I think five. There were two in the first car we chased. Then I’m pretty sure there were three in the one after us.”
Santos nodded. “I’ll let Torr know as soon as...you know, as soon as he’s ready to think about something else.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I’ll see who I can call to get that looked at,” Santos said to Devin before heading into the house, no doubt to check on his woman who may or may not be lost for good.
I turned to Devin with a sigh. “Let’s find some clean gauze and alcohol until you can get some real medical attention.”
“Sounds great.”
We searched through the fighters’ house, going through the motions while the big picture situation began to sink in.
The Sisters of Bathory might not have their goddess anymore, but they would regroup and, eventually, retaliate.
And we just might have lost our best weapon against them.
20
TORRANCE
Rori wasn’t waking up.
I lost track of everything outside of her. It might have been a few days that had passed or a month. I didn’t know. When I didn’t keel over from exhaustion, I spent every waking moment staring at her face, willing those eyes to open, those lips to part.
I was only distantly aware of the movement around me. The club had moved back into the safehouses. I must have called them back at some point. Or maybe Santos did. It was all a haze outside of Rori.
Astarte returned in her dove form, as did Tezca as a jaguar. They often watched over her with me.
“Please tell me,” I implored the gods. “Just tell me if I’m getting her back or not.”
That’s her decision,Astarte told me helpfully.
“Decision? She’s fucking comatose; she can’t make decisions!”
She has the power to return. She only needs to find and seize it, Tezca added, only slightly more helpful.
“So shecancome back.” I said. “If she can, then she will.”
She is lost. She must find her way back.
I dropped my head into my hands, but that meant I wasn’t looking at Rori anymore, so I lifted it up again.
“Come on, creep.” I’d forgotten how many times I had repeated those words to her. “I know you heard me back then. Iknowyou won’t leave me.”
Not a single twitch of movement on her face. Time passed. Santos entered and left the room. Motorcycles roared in the distance. None of it mattered.
At some point, I felt the weight of someone’s hand on my shoulder, Santos’ hand.
