Syn’s shoulder injury meant his second-choice hand was numb, some kind of nerve cut. So when he went for his gun, he had no strength in that hold, either.
Gigante’s progeny didn’t have that problem. Junior readily brought his weapon up again, and this time he had plenty of sight to go by. The muzzle pointed directly at Syn. A death shot, if there ever had been one—
The gun went off with a pop and Syn knee-jerked into his torso— but it wasn’t like he could stop the bullet. Gasping, bracing, trying to stay conscious . . .
The mobster dropped to the pavement, his weapon skittering away from his palm, the back of his skull cracking as it fell back onto that filthy, hard asphalt.
Syn looked down at himself in confusion.
“T-t-torso.”
He nearly tripped on himself as he wheeled to the voice of his female. “Jo?”
His beautiful, brave, extraordinary female was holding her double-gripped gun straight out with stiff arms. Everything was shaking on her, her legs, her shoulders, her head—even her teeth were chattering. But those arms and those hands were rock fucking solid.
“You t-t-told me . . .” she stuttered. “Aim for the torso. It’s the b-b-biggest target.”
Syn let out a strangled sound as he lunged for her. His body was full of lead and leaking like a sieve, though, so it was a messy reunion. Not that he gave a shit.
He disarmed her as he landed next to her on the ground and pulled her against him.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” he said as he held her to his heart.
“I c-c-can’t stop shaking,” she said into his throat.
“It’s over. It’s okay . . . it’s over.”
Closing his eyes, he allowed himself one brief moment of reunion. Then he got on his communicator and started barking out orders. When the responses came in, from Manny, from V—and especially from Doc Jane as she materialized out of thin air right next to Butch, he relaxed a little and pulled back.
Staring into Jo’s wide, shell-shocked eyes, he brushed her hair out of her face. “Are you okay?”
She was trembling so badly, her molars were castanets, and speaking was hard. “You weren’t going to kill me, were you.”
“What?”
“You weren’t. You were protecting me. You killed Gigante to keep me safe.”
Syn shook his head. “None of it matters anymore. As long as you’re all right—”
“You were trying to save my life.” Jo grabbed the front of his leather jacket. “I’m so sorry. I was wrong about you. I was so wrong—”
“Shh. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I do. Syn, I—”
“Everything is forgiven,” he said because he had the sense it was the only thing that would calm her, and he was worried about whether she’d been shot.
Plus, that was a true statement. He would always forgive her, even though, in this case, there was nothing to excuse. At all.
“I love you,” she said. “You and only you. No matter what the future is, I need you to know that. I need to say the words to you.”
As her miraculous statements registered, Syn lost his voice—or he would have spoken back to her what she had said to him. Lacking words, he touched her hair with awe, and as if she understood what he meant, she turned her face into his bloody palm and kissed it. Then she kissed it again. Then she—
The moan she let out was part relief, part starvation. And then her lips locked onto his bullet wound, the suction hesitant. At least for the first draw. For the second, however, she swallowed hard and moaned again, turning her whole body to the source of the blood flow, seeking sustenance.
Fuck. Her transition was here—
Rearing away from his palm, Jo let out a plaintive howl, her eyes confused and focused at the same time. “What’s happening? What’s . . . happening to me?”
“It’s okay,” he soothed her, “I’m going to give you a better draw.
” Biting into his wrist, he made sure the punctures were nice and deep, and then he brought the wellspring to her lips.
“Latch on,” he told her. “Drink of me so that I may give you strength.”
When he realized he had spoken in the Old Language, he nearly translated, but she didn’t require the vocabulary. She formed a perfect seal over his vein and started to take from him in earnest, her eyes frightened as they held his own, her trembling getting worse instead of better.