as he needed to heal and shit. Your blood seemed to turn him into a meaner version of you. That…” I shook my head and winced at the pain. “Are you okay?” I asked, trying to ignore my own pain.
“I’ll live. I don’t know. I saw you hit the SUV, and he was going to crush you or something, and I knew I had to…stop it.” He sighed. “Too bad I couldn’t stop him from killing Carter. I’m so sorry, Kaliya, Cassius.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Cassius said gently. “It’s no one’s fault he died. Kaliya’s plan could have worked. None of us could have foreseen…” He waved a hand at the fire.
I wobbled and nearly fell over. I touched my side and groaned, feeling the blood there.
“Cassius, how are we going to get home?”
He turned to me. I think he paled. Raphael sat up, his eyes going wide.
“Jesus,” the very-not-human gasped. “She needs a hospital.”
“I have service,” Cassius said, coming to my side. “Kaliya, hold on, and someone will get to us. Okay?”
“Yup. I’ve been more beat up,” I said, but my eyes didn’t want to stay open. I wanted a nap—a very long nap. “Tell when me the Tribunal gets here to reprimand us for the mess.”
“Okay,” Cassius promised.
“Don’t let her fall asleep!” Raphael cut in, moving toward me.
“She’ll be fine.”
I didn’t care to hear them argue, so I let my eyes close and let the blissful dark pull me away from the pain.
29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Waking up to darkness, I sat up slowly, groaning at the dull ache in literally every part of my body. I didn’t freak out. I knew where I was. I remembered everything. There was nothing to be freaked out about.
Everything had gone sideways with Sinclair, and now I was in my room at Cassius’s house. Raphael and Cassius made it out with me. Carter…didn’t.
That sent a sharp pain to my chest. I hadn’t grieved when it happened. I had seen heads ripped off bodies and had been able to disassociate at the moment. Now, it sank in, and tears flooded my eyes. I had known while Sinclair burned, that this moment was coming. As I looked at Carter’s body, I had known.
It still hit harder than I was prepared for.
All my fault. All my fault. All my fault.
The door creaked open, and I didn’t look up, curling my arms over my head to hide my tears.
All my fault. All my fault. All my fault.
“Kaliya, it wasn’t your fault,” Cassius whispered.
It’s always my fault.
I looked up and wiped my eyes with the back of my bandaged arm.
“He would have never—”
“No, he wouldn’t have been involved if not for you, but Sinclair got ahold of your phone. There was a chance he could have targeted anyone in your address book. Your plan to get everyone out was a good one, Kaliya. His death was…”
“My fault,” I whispered harshly. “It’s always my fault. Everyone I go near gets hurt. Look at Paden. Look at you. Look at my family.”
Guilt caused me to stop as a sob wracked my body.
It was always like this. Obsession drove me, guided me, and every time it happened, someone got hurt or killed. This time it was Paden and Carter.
And yet, I knew if something else showed up that might lead me to my family’s killers, I would do it all over again.
“Kaliya…There’s nothing I can say that will make you feel any better. What I can say is the healers promised you would be awake at this time for the Tribunal. They had questions for both of us, and a judgment needs to be made about the situation between Raphael and Mygi Pharmaceuticals. Mygi also needs to answer for Carter’s death because, in the end, it’s their fault. You were justified, going after and securing Raphael because they made a bounty saying he was human. They decided to hire Sinclair, and it was that monster who killed him. No one blames you, except maybe Imani.”
I cringed at the name of the Phoenix vampire Mistress. She was never going to forgive me for this one.
Then another realization hit me.
“She should have been protecting him better,” I mumbled. “He was a member of her nest. Where the fuck was she? She knew the meeting place to get Carter back. Why didn’t she send us any backup?” And I was never going to forgive her for that either. Carter had been one of her nest and she had failed him too.
“I don’t know,” Cassius answered.