Page 353 of Eternal
I brush a damp strand of hair away from her face and smile. “Azra,” I say. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She nods, her breath catching, and for the first time since I came in, there’s a small softness in her eyes.
Then I feel it. A buzz. A faint vibration against my leg.
I glance down. My phone lights up in my pocket. “I’ll be right back, okay? I have a call to take.”
She doesn’t look startled this time. She gives a small nod, and opens the food.
I step out quietly, closing the door behind me pulling my phone out. It keeps buzzing in my hand. No number, only a masked caller ID.
I answer as I get out of the whole building.
The voice on the other end is cold, clinical. “You’ve been avoiding us,Viper.”
I say nothing. My fingers tighten around the phone.
I knew they’d call again. They’ve been trying for days. I’ve been dodging them. Even Lev stopped reaching out.
But I also knew I couldn’t keep running forever.
A sigh escapes me when no words come out.
Then the voice pressed impatiently, “What’s taking so long?”
My jaw tightens. “I’m handling it.”
I’m taking care of her now.
“That’s not what it looks like from where we’re standing.”
A pause. Then the voice hardens.
“It’s been almost a year,Viper. That’s not hesitation, that’s insubordination. You were sent to eliminate her, not…” Another pause, bitter now. “Not fuck her.”
I stare at the wet pavement, fingers clenched around the phone like I could crush it.
They’re wrong. Or maybe they’re right.
Maybe I did forget. Maybe I never cared.
“Say something,” he snaps.
“Lower your fucking voice. You forget who you’re talking to,” I reply, voice calm and low, “You called, I didn’t.”
“Alright,” he says, quieter now. In the background, a woman calls his name. He ignores her. “You’re compromised. And if you won’t do what you were sent to do, others will. But not with a clean exit. No bullets. No mercy. She’ll be taken. And slowly broken.”
My grip tightens until my knuckles go white. “Is that a threat?”
“No,” he says simply. “It’s the protocol. She’s too dangerous to leave roaming. You think we don’t know who she really is? What she’s capable of?”
I picture it, her being dragged away, screaming, thinking I let it happen.
My brain flashes through a thousand images, her curled up on the couch, her laugh when she steals my jacket, the way she flinched when I touched her for the first time.
She trusted me, and I brought her nothing but danger.
What the fuck am I doing?
