Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) (2 page)

Diego’s head flopped back to center and he
closed his eyes. “Arrogant,” he murmured. “I was too arrogant.”

Hendrix let out a slow breath, “That seems to
be the moral of this entire saga.”

“He will kill me before he leaves,” Diego
gritted through a croaking whisper. “If my wound does not finish
the task first.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I couldn’t
exactly reassure him that everything would be okay when we both
knew that it would most definitely not be okay.

His soldier bent down and spoke fast Spanish
again. Occasionally Diego nodded along, but mostly he listened with
a disgusted look spread across his face.

“I am dead,” Diego announced after a while.
“I am a dead man. The infection smells. I can feel the life
draining from my body. Time is against me.
Everyone
is
against me.” He crooked a finger from his abdomen and I took it to
mean that he wanted me to come closer.

Without thinking too much about my decision,
I pushed off the wall behind me and moved to kneel next to Diego’s
bed.

“Nobody likes a pity party,” I told him,
attempting to lighten the situation.

I wasn’t sure if he understood me or even
heard me. He shook his head with his eyes still closed. Sweat
beaded on his forehead and slicked his thick hair to his head. His
skin had lost the rich, copper tone and faded to a sickly pale. His
infection
did
stink, really bad. I could see that the blood
still oozed. This was what a dying man looked like up close and
personal.

Not that I hadn’t seen one before. But I
could never quite get used to the look of death.

It was too personal. Too near. Too…
final.

“I have nothing left, Reagan, except her. Do
you understand?”

I nodded, before I realized he couldn’t see
me. “Adela.”

His hand slid up his filthy, bloodied shirt
and landed on his chest. He tapped at his heart with a weak finger.
“She is my heart.
Mi corazón
. I have loved her since I saw
her silky hair and whispered her name for the first time. Her
father tried to keep her from me, but I promised him a long time
ago that she would be mine.” He paused to suck in a rasping breath.
“For a while, she was.”

I shifted, settling in for story time. “She’s
not property, Diego. You cannot own her.”

He nodded listlessly. “
She
owns
me
.”

Somewhat shocked at his confession, I leaned
forward and tried to read his expression. Was he serious? He loved
her that much? His forehead smoothed out and his mouth stopped
frowning.

“Then why did you let her go? If she means so
much to you, why did you give her up?” My heart pounded in my chest
and I couldn’t help but feel like Diego was about to reveal all of
himself, to show me good, worthy pieces of his soul I assumed had
been erased a long time ago.

“I didn’t want to cage her,” he rasped. “I
wanted to keep her safe. Now she is safe. From her father… from my
enemies… from me.”

“Does she love you?” I whispered, shocked by
his words.

The hint of a smile played on his lips, “Of
course… But she is afraid of me too.” His head dropped to the side.
For a moment I thought he had died, but when I put my fingers to
his wrist, I felt his pulse beat with my own and watched the ragged
movement of his chest.

I fell backwards, in a daze. I had no idea
who Diego really was. He was as much of a mystery today as he had
been the first time I met him.

Watching him in his fitful sleep, I realized
something: This was the human condition. Right here.

For all of our murderous, power-hungry ways,
for all of our desperation to survive and keep surviving, for all
of the evil things we did in the name of good or in the honesty of
evil, we were nothing without love.

It was what separated us from the
Feeders.

We could be good or bad, nice or vicious, but
each of us was capable of something so far beyond ourselves that
often it didn’t make sense.

Even Matthias had loved Linley and his
children, in whatever sick, twisted way he could. Love had
transformed Kane into something better, something that deserved
better. Love had shattered Tyler’s hard shell and given Haley
something infinitely beautiful. Love had redeemed even Diego, had
given him a purpose beyond his own greed and ambition.

Love had rocked my world entirely. It had
drastically changed the person that I was and evolved my heart into
something I never thought it could be. All of us lived for a
purpose, whether we wanted complete world domination or we just
wanted to survive until tomorrow.

Something drove us.

But love
made
us. Love cushioned our
failures and righted our wrongs. It gave us hope when there was
none and determination when everything else had been stripped
away.

Love was the only incentive strong enough to
keep us moving through this world of endless danger and painful
disappointment. Love was the beginning and the end.

And I had it. I had it in spades.

That was how I knew we would win… how I knew
we would prevail over Matthias.

Matthias’s love had been twisted and tainted
with his poison. He had put his wife in a position where she had to
be murdered. He had pushed his son to the brink of rebellion. He
had abused Tyler and Miller since they were infants, all in the
name of family.

And now he had nothing. Now he was a
desperate man, fueled by vengeance and evil gain. But I had love. I
had the love of my friends and this family that had become my
own.

But most of all, I had the love of a man who
would never let me go, never let this world or our circumstances
pull us apart.

I would win because I had a greater weapon
than guns and fists. I would win because no matter what Matthias
Allen thought he lived for, it was not greater than what I lived
for. The future he imagined was nothing compared to the future I
would do anything to reach.

I stood up, turned around and threw my arms
around Hendrix’s neck. He had been standing directly behind me,
protecting me in any way that he could. I pressed my face against
his chest and inhaled him. He smelled like sweat, dirt and blood,
but there was something so much more to him, something that was
only him.

I dragged my fingers over the back of his
neck and plunged them into his matted hair. We were a mess, covered
in the gore of yesterday and the filth of this prison. Our clothes
were torn, our skin scraped raw and bloodied, our hair caked in
grime and worse things. But we were so much more than physical
appearance, so much more than our circumstances and situations.

“I didn’t expect that from the ruthless war
lord,” he mumbled against my ear. “Adela has to be at least fifteen
years younger than him.”

I smiled against his shirt. “I was just
thinking that. It doesn’t make sense, but everything boils down to
love, yeah? Love or insane evil, the two driving forces of this
world.”

Hendrix pulled back to cup my face with his
calloused hands. “That was pretty poetic.”

I shrugged, “I’m an apocalyptic
philosopher.”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “That so?”

“I mean, obviously. But you’re right. It’s
weird about Adela and Diego. Do you think he’s going to die?”

Hendrix nodded. “Unless we get out of here
fast.” He looked back at his brother and jerked his chin for them
to join us. “We need a plan. Harrison and King are going to come
back for us, probably with Nelson. But we need something in the
meantime.”

Vaughan nodded. “We need this cell door
opened.”

The wind rattled the blackened windows around
the building. We had a half window high up on the wall of our cell,
but the thick bars in enclosing it kept it from being useful. It
appeared completely black without any hazy sunlight to filter
through.

“If we get out of here, what are we going to
do? He has enough men to shoot all of us in seconds,” I
whispered.

“Hey!” one of Matthias’s guards yelled at us.
He threw a stapler across the room and it clanged against the metal
of the bars. Javi shouted back at him in Spanish, clearly not happy
with the now damaged office supply. The guard ignored Javi, “No
whispering!”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, guys, we wouldn’t
want to whisper our way out of here.”

The guard jumped to his feet and pushed to
stand in front of the bars. He stuck his hand through, pointing a
meaty finger at me. I had the strongest urge to bite that stupid
finger right off.

I managed, just barely, to withhold that
urge.

“Shut your mouth, bitch. You’re lucky I don’t
end your miserable existence right here.” His non-pointing hand
pulled a gun from the back of his pants.

“Do it,” I hissed at him. I hadn’t even
realized I started to move forward until Hendrix wrapped an arm
around my waist and pulled me back to his chest. “Do it!” I
screamed at him. “Shoot me. Kill me!
Do it!”
The guard
stared at me, steam practically whistling from his ears. His upper
lip curled with frustration and his eyes bulged from his head. He
couldn’t touch me and we both knew it. “Kill me,” I taunted. “I’ll
meet you on the other side.”

He jammed his gun back into his pants and I
prayed for a misfire. I would have loved that. Unfortunately he
wasn’t as dumb as he appeared. “I’m watching you,” he promised.

“Good,” Tyler threw at him. “That’s what
you’re supposed to do. Pretty sure Matthias would kill you if you
did anything else.”

His face turned red with fury. And when he
tried to speak spittle sprayed from his mouth and landed on his
sweaty brown shirt. “It’s not me he’ll be killing.”

Tyler and I shared a look and I almost
laughed. Clearly this man was unhinged. Did Matthias have any sane
men working for him? I doubted it.

“Can we go just like a half hour without a
death threat?” Hendrix chuckled. “Is that too much to ask?”

I lay my head back on his solid chest and
shook my head no. He should know by now that I had trouble making
friends. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Yeah,” Vaughan grunted. “This is all about
fun.”

“Well, it’s certainly not boring.” I smiled
at him to cover my despair. Truthfully, I would love boring. I
would love it if the next hundred years of my life were so boring
they brought me to tears. I’d had enough excitement to last several
last times. I couldn’t do this for much longer.

Then again, maybe I wouldn’t have to. Maybe
Matthias would change his mind about the long years of torture in
my future and shoot me before we stepped foot on American soil.

My stomach churned. I wasn’t afraid of death,
not after all of this. If the last three years had taught me
anything it was that death was not some scary unknown. Death was
relief… death was retirement. Death was freedom. There were so many
things worse than death on this earth. And I swore that I had met
them all.

A gust of wind shook the building. Plaster
dusted off the ceiling and the lanterns flickered. Javi took a
pleased breath followed by a slow clap. The guards looked around at
each other with raised eyebrows, gripping their guns tighter in
their fists.

Diego moaned in his fitful sleep and I was
surprised to feel relief. He hadn’t died yet. We would never be
friends, but I knew I didn’t want Matthias to be the reason he
crossed over.

Between the weather outside and our current
captivity, the world had never seemed more Apocalyptic. A chill
snaked through my bones and wrapped around my spine. The
electricity in the air danced on my skin, pulling my hair into
standing and raising goose bumps.

There was something about this moment,
something final.

I would never see America again. I knew that.
I knew it without having to be told or voicing it aloud. My days as
an American were over. I wouldn’t join the Colony. I would never
see the place of my birth again.

I’d chosen this path. I’d collected people I
could love and stay loyal to. And I had said goodbye to a country I
had never planned to leave before the infection.

The finality of this realization hit me like
a punch in the gut. I closed my eyes against sudden, surprising
tears. I had loved that land. I had never thought of myself as a
patriot before, but until now, I hadn’t let myself mourn the
country I left behind… only the people.

I hated Mexico. Honestly, it reminded me
mostly of hell. I didn’t really expect the rest of Central and
South America to get any better either.

But there was no other choice. Either we
managed to escape and I fled this place for a new home or I died
here. I knew that for certain.

In no way would I let Matthias put me on a
truck and force me back to a place he contaminated, to a place that
represented home for me, but would turn into endless years of
torture and pain.

I would die first. Matthias and his chamber
of never-ending pain was definitely one of those worse-than-death
things I hoped to avoid.

This was it. This was my moment of truth and
discovery.

I turned around and wrapped my arms around
Hendrix’s waist again. I couldn’t seem to stop touching him.

I never wanted to stop touching him.

I wanted the chance to touch him forever.

“We have to get out of here,” I said to his
chest. I brushed my lips over the carved muscle, feeling his warm
skin through the thin cotton of his t-shirt. “We need to do
something.”

“Piss him off,” Hendrix murmured.

I lifted my head and met his deep blue eyes.
This place was dark without light from the outside to help the
candles and lanterns illuminate us, but I could feel the depth of
his gaze. Like an ocean.

Like the sky full of infinite stars.

Hendrix held steady. His arms tightened
around my waist and his fingers dug into my hips. I felt his fear,
but his voice stayed constant. My fingers tracked the frantic beat
of his heart. He knew we were out of options. This was it. Kill or
be killed. “Goad him into opening the door and we’ll make a
move.”