“How did it happen? I was being careful.” She was gritting her teeth from the pain. I wondered where the bullet had wound up inside her. God-fucking-dammit. If anyone should have gotten hit, it was me, gallivanting around outside.
“What have you done?” Luz was outside, standing in the rain, looking at the bleeding man. Her eyes went wide when she saw Catrina.
“Did you find her?” Catrina reached a red hand out.
“No. She wasn’t there—” Luz looked between the gangbanger and Catrina and made an assumption. She put her foot on his tattooed neck.
“No! He didn’t shoot her!” I yelled into the rain.
“So?” Luz yelled back. “He’s one of them!”
“Tell her he didn’t hurt you, Catrina!” I sank down to her level inside the car. “Tell her!”
Catrina’s eyes narrowed. It was clear she didn’t want to care.
“Catrina—” I begged.
“Reina—don’t,” Catina whispered.
“Bah!” Luz kicked the man and knelt down, holding his eyelids up with her thumbs and looking into his eyes. He woke up then, when he hadn’t before. Seeing her looming over him, he started to talk—I assumed she was using her glamour on him. She reached for the bandage I’d placed on his leg and pulled it aside. “He doesn’t know where she is. He says he’s never seen her. Let him bleed to death like he deserves to.” I reached out and fought her for control of his leg. “Whose side are you on?” she yelled at me, fangs out.
“The side where no one dies!”
Luz rocked back on her heels and laughed at me. “It is too late for that.”
Acid flushed through my stomach. “Where’s Hector and Ti?”
She smiled, showing fang. “Your zombie friend makes a very effective human shield. They’re slower than me, but I think they’re fine.”
“And she wasn’t there?” I asked again.
“No. All this, for nothing. And Catrina shot.” Luz looked into the car where Catrina was. I couldn’t read what was written in her eyes. “I wanted to save one person. That’s it. Just one. The rest of the world can go fuck itself, if I can save this one. And they still keep her from me. There was a pile of bones there—but no girl.”
“I’m sorry, Luz.” I didn’t know what else to say.
Catrina screamed from inside the car. I didn’t know if it was anguish or pain.
“We’ve got to—” I said, looking at Catrina. If I had to pick between her and the man outside, I’d choose her. “Do you have keys?”
“No. The doctor does.” She squinted into the distance. “He’s on the way.”
Hector and Ti arrived just as sirens started down the street, ambulances and police cars fighting through the rain.
“Who is that?” Ti asked.
“Oh, no—Edie—” Hector said, looking at the man and then at Catrina. He leaned into the car and quickly assessed her.
“She needs help—but he might die. He’s going into shock.”
Of course he was; he’d been bleeding out in the cold rain. Hector pulled his keys out and threw them at me. “I’m a local doctor. I can say I heard shots and came out to help.” He shook his hand, and I handed him his emergency bag.
“In the rain?”
“I know the police. They’ll believe me. Take my car—get Catrina to County. You know where to go.”
I didn’t want to leave him behind with this mess. There was no guarantee more Three Crosses members wouldn’t come out. I almost said his real name, and just barely caught myself in time. “As—Hector—be careful, okay?”
Asher nodded, and Ti put his hand out. I handed him the keys. I knew he’d been to County before.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Luz rode in the front seat while I cradled Catrina’s head on my lap and applied pressure to her side in the back. Was it a good thing there was no exit wound? I didn’t know enough trauma medicine to know. I petted Catrina’s hair with my free hand while she moaned.
“Can’t you just—” I asked Luz. She pulled her head back, as if I’d suggested something offensive to her. “Goddammit, Luz, it’s only a little blood.”
“If I give blood to her, I’ll wake up Anna—and if Anna takes me back, who will rescue Adriana then?”
“How do you think Adriana will feel if you kill her sister?”
“Don’t,” Catrina whispered.
“You stay out of it,” I told her. Her blood was seeping up, gluing her shirt to my thigh. “Ti—what happened in there?”
“Nothing good. Maldonado wasn’t there. And the girl we were looking for wasn’t either. They seemed surprised, so it wasn’t a trap, but nothing was gained.”
It was still pouring outside. Inside, the car smelled like humidity and rain, and blood—and rot.
“Did you get hurt?” I asked Ti.
“A few shots. Nothing I can’t heal.” He pulled us onto the highway, and the rain didn’t stop.
We were silent on our way to County. I wondered what was happening with Asher, if they would keep him for questioning, if they’d find other members of Three Crosses, and what they would say. Catrina had been quiet —her eyes were open, but I could tell she was thinking, watching lampposts go by, upside down, outside the window in the night. I watched her breathing, and my free hand held her wrist to feel the strength and speed of her pulse.
We pulled into the emergency roundabout, and Luz got out of the car. “I’ll go in with her. You two go on.”
I looked to Ti. He shrugged, and then I looked back to her. “Are you sure?”
“There’s still half the night to go. I can take her in and answer any questions—or stop them from asking them.” Luz tilted her head to indicate what, as a vampire, she could do with her mind.
“Is that okay with you, Catrina?”
She nodded and I relinquished her to Luz, who picked her up easily, although she gasped and groaned. Once she was in Luz’s arms, she looked up at the other woman. “You’ll search again tomorrow night?”
Luz smiled down sadly at her. “Of course.”
Ti drove me home. I didn’t know what to say, straight up until he put the car into park. I turned toward him. “Do you want to stay here? I’ve got a couch.”
“Sure.” He opened up his door and got out. I trotted up to my apartment and opened the door. Once he was in, I latched all the chain locks again. Ti looked bemused.
“Am I supposed to be keeping an eye on you, or are you supposed to be keeping an eye on me?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. Both, maybe? I need a shower, and I need to sleep. How about you?”
“Just the one. I don’t think I ever want to sleep again.” He waved the thought away. “No offense to people who need to.”
“All right then. Dibs on the shower, because it’s mine.” And because after a wounded zombie showers, there might be … clots. I got a towel out of my linen closet and threw it down on the couch for him. “Wait here.”
I couldn’t help but think about how in other circumstances, if our lives had been different, the chance to take a shower with Ti might have been sexy. Now—no. That door had closed. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, or how, but when I searched my heart, I knew it was true. Maybe because someone else was there instead. My heart always liked to bet on the darker, more damaged horse. I sighed and looked down—my ankles still had red marks
