My laugh was fragile on the corners. “I'm just really happy right now. I thought... part of me was sure I was going to die tonight.”
Kite released me. Using a rag from his pocket, he washed my hand. It stung, but I didn't flinch. “I thought you weren't scared of dying?”
“I wasn't,” I said. “Not until you both gave me something I could actually lose.” Clutching the rag to my chest, I shivered. I couldn't stop, genuine relief had turned my muscles to jelly. “I had nothing. For so long, I just didn't care. No one else did, so why should I?” It was hard to see anything. Fuck, the tears were too much. “Then you two changed it. You changed everything for me.” Lifting my chin proudly, I challenged them to deny my words. “I didn't think I could love anyone, and here I am... caught up in you two at once.”
“You love us?” Kite's voice was husky. His hand still dripped a pattern of red.
“More than anything,” I said. I held my forehead, spreading bloody smudges and fingerprints from my wound. I was a mess, inside and out. It was their fault; they should have to witness it.
I was a woman who had given up everything, faced down death, and then realized that the one thing keeping me going was no longer an urge to kill...
But an urge to be with them.
My potential murderers.
My saviors.
And finally, my soul mates.
Jacob was a void, closing in on me until I saw just darkness. His lips were sweet, but his words were more delicious than anything out there. “You're connected to us, now. This blood bond... it's unbreakable. Our love will last as long as we all breathe.”
Kite pushed Jacob aside, his mouth demanding mine. Teeth and redemption, that was his flavor. “I love you, Marina. I'll love you beyond this life. Beyond whatever fucking grave waits for me at the end of everything.”
His promise was ink tattooing on my heart. The three of us had been brought together by death, by fury and hatred and vengeance. All of us were damaged, but together, we had become whole.
What a messed up love this was.
I wouldn't have changed it one bit.
On the river's edge, we sat and listened to the water running. Kite's knuckles, I finally grasped their meaning. This river was symbolic to him. It was the place it had all began. Here, Kite and Jacob had plunged down their murderous path.
They had done it to escape one life, but it had kept pulling them into the dark depths as they grew older.
Swim, his tattoo proclaimed. If you didn't swim, you would drown.
I'd stepped into their lives when they thought they had finally gotten away from here—out of the damn river. It was my fault they'd had to dive back in.
But if they hadn't... I would never have been free.
I wouldn't have gone on living.
They had saved each other, and then in the end, they had saved me.
With their warm bodies on either side of me, our pulse in sync with the cuts throbbing on our palms, I wondered if maybe... just maybe...
I had saved them, too.
- Epilogue -
Kite
––––––––
Shoving the groceries onto the counter, I wiped my brow and sighed. Did this girl really need so much hot cocoa? Screwing up my face, I packed the boxes away. I was beyond happy that I had a reason to buy this stuff.
I'd fill my apartment with it, if she only asked.
The bandage on my hand crinkled, shiny in the light of the sun that streamed through my window. It had been a few days since the confrontation on that back road. At times, my heart still bounced rapidly when I thought about how we'd sped after Marina through the night.
Waking, finding her gone and discovering the letter... it had been a blur of decisive moments. Jacob had watched me when I'd held the paper out to him, stayed silent as I ranted about how stupid she was to hand it to us. I'd paced and raved and cracked my knuckles.
I'd been furious that we were forced to make a choice.
The luxury of waiting was over with.
The part I hadn't expected... was Jacob.
He'd taken the letter, held it to my stove's burner. With smoke curling, he dropped it in the sink and watched it turn black. His words were flat, calm, and they rattled my brain.
“We need to hurry. It might be too late.”
Jacob was never rash. Something had snapped in him. With my GPS guiding us, we'd burned rubber. I still didn't know what we were going to do, or what we'd find.
A living, breathing Marina?
Or her dead body?
The shot he'd taken at Lars when we found him trying to choke her, it had been meant for the man's head. Jacob had planned to kill him, ignoring any promise we'd ever made to Marina.
His genuine distress had made him miss his shot. The first time in many years.
I understood his fury. Seeing her on the ground, struggling under that monster, had driven me mad.
But she'd deserved her right to exact revenge.