“It gets easier. Passing Touch, dosing. All of it,” he said, trying not to let her see he was distracted.
Outside his closed door, he heard movement. For a second, he was almost sure he heard voices as Sullivan rolled away from him. “I meant you and me,” she said.
“Hey.” He took her face in his hands. “We’ll figure that out, too,” he said before his attention turned back to the sounds coming from the living room.
A cry from Eden. It’s the Bound. They found us. Jarrod vaulted up, over Sullivan. I knew I heard something! He chastised himself. I let my guard down. She’s in trouble.
The springs of the mattress creaked as Sullivan sat up. Jarrod turned to her, one finger over his lips for silence, the other pointing to the clothes she’d discarded last night. She moved to get dressed without questioning. He put his ear close to the keyhole. It took every ounce of resistance not to bolt through the door. He concentrated on any clues about how many were out there, if it was really the Bound, and then he recognized the voice yelling over Eden’s.
“What the hell?” Jarrod said as he swung the door open. Gabriel.
Gabriel, who’d found him and Sullivan in the park the night she’d been killed. Gabriel, who had gotten them back to the apartment. Who’d spied on Downstairs so that Madeline had known how to save Eden.
Gabriel, who now had Eden by the wrist.
“Bullshit I can’t leave!” she seethed. “If they won’t give him back to me, I’ll infect Upstairs with every Sider I can find!”
“Let her go right now!” Jarrod yelled as he motioned for Sullivan to stay back. What the hell’s happening?
Eden stopped fighting at the sound of his voice and took a step toward him. Gabriel released her, relief flooding his face.
Two black tears rolled down Eden’s cheeks. As soon as she was within reach, Jarrod grabbed for her hand and rolled it over. Ashes tumbled from her palms. Shit. A deep bruise circled one of her wrists. He kept his attention on Gabriel, backing Eden slowly toward Sullivan and his room. “What did you do to her?” he demanded.
Gabriel shook his head. “Nothing. You got here in time. She’s not hurt.”
Eden tried to speak, but coughing broke up her words, and Jarrod couldn’t make out what she was saying.
She sucked in with a wet, crackling noise. Her lungs sounded full of cellophane. “Slow breaths,” he commanded.
Without enough Touch to heal, her body was shutting down. He watched her throat convulse as she tried to swallow. An injury as simple as that bruise on her wrist was enough to tip the scales. “Sullivan, grab a glass of water. Hurry.”
Sullivan ducked into the bathroom, going for the plastic cup they kept on the back of the sink. He heard the water turn on.
Suddenly, Eden’s full weight dropped against him. This was going to get bad. Very bad. “Hey!” he said. Easing one arm around her waist, he tilted her head back into the crook of the other. “Focus on me.”
Her fingers clawed at her throat, her nail beds going pale and then blue. This wasn’t a mere tickle in her throat that water would fix. What Eden needed was a Sider, to take in their Touch, which would mean four flights down to the front stairs, where they tended to gather. She wasn’t going to make it that far.
He thought of the extra Touch Sullivan had passed him when they’d kissed. “I’m passing to you, okay?”
The little air Eden had left cut short. He heard footsteps beside him, could feel Sullivan’s stare. Did she understand? Did she know that he wasn’t getting off on this, only felt worry? Touch transferred from him to Eden with a tingle, and he pulled away.
“Water?” he said, holding an arm out behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Sullivan as she slipped the cup into his hand. He held it for Eden, watching as she took desperate gulps. Suddenly she knocked the cup aside and wheezed in a lungful of air as his Touch healed her lungs enough to stop more ashes from forming. It was a temporary solution, but it would tide her over until he could convince her to head to the stairs. He helped her down to the floor.
“Why isn’t she better?” Gabriel asked, something frantic in his voice. “I didn’t think she’d be so weak. She should have gotten better when she started sending on the Siders again.”
“Because,” Jarrod spat at Gabriel as he stood. “She didn’t start taking them out again. She didn’t want to get you in trouble!” He moved forward, putting himself in front of Eden and Sullivan. Gabriel was a Bound angel, and the Bound were trying to kill them. It didn’t matter if he had been Eden’s friend once. “You should leave,” Jarrod said.
“No,” Eden croaked from the floor. “The Bound—Az. Holding—he’s not—” A cough racked her as she got to her hands and knees. Black flecked the carpet.
Jarrod looked to Gabriel.
“He resisted becoming Bound once he knew I was cleared. But he’s locked up,” he said. “She thinks she’s going to kill enough Siders to strong-arm them into letting him go.”
Jarrod crossed his arms. “Well, if it gets her taking out the Siders again, I’m all for it.”
“If they’re not stupid, they’ll hand him over,” Sullivan added, slinking into the space beside him. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“It’s not Hell she needs to worry about,” Gabriel said. “The Bound aren’t playing games anymore.”
“So where does that leave you?” Jarrod asked.
When he looked at Jarrod, Gabriel’s irises were ringed in yellow, the rest bright purple. Eden had told him once about each color giving away how an angel felt. All Jarrod could remember was that yellow meant fear. Purple. What does purple mean? he thought.
Gabriel gave a subtle shake of his head, held his hands low, as if he wanted Jarrod to know he wasn’t a threat. “You’ve got to keep her safe. They haven’t figured out how to kill normal Siders yet, only those like Eden and Sullivan. They are close, though, Jarrod.”
Loyalty, Jarrod thought suddenly. Purple means loyalty. On the floor, Eden wiped at lips smeared with charcoal.
“You better?” Gabe asked her.
Jarrod glanced down at Eden. “She’s sick as hell,” he answered for her. But sick didn’t really cover it. If Eden didn’t start taking out the Siders again, she wasn’t going to make it. “Her Touch levels are so low anything sets her off.”
“Not an issue anymore,” Eden said with a rasp. “Get me downstairs. If the Bound have a problem with it, I’ll—”
“You’ll what, Eden?” Gabriel snarled, startling them all. “Kill them? Do you know how to kill an angel? Because every one of us knows how to kill you! It’s not going to be a challenge.” For just a moment, Jarrod saw Eden’s anger crack as Gabriel moved methodically closer. “You’ll be so easy to kill. You can’t even fight back. You don’t have the right weapons.”
So there is a weapon that can take out an angel. Was that a slip, or something Gabriel meant to say? Could I kill him if I had to? A quick vision hit him, his hand ripping Gabriel’s head back, a knife digging in, Eden screaming. He shook the image away. He’d do what needed to be done to get them through alive. No matter what.