Viktor is hurt, really hurt. But he’s still moving. His airbags have blown out against him, but I can see blood on his head through the rearview window.
This is it, though. The opening I was waiting for. And come hell or high water, I’m fucking taking it. I can hear Desmier’s bike not far away, so all I need to do is get to him.
While Viktor groans, I try to open my door. It takes me a few tries to push it open, but when I do, I don’t hesitate to get out.
My legs are weak, but I will myself forward with my mind on my baby and my love.
I move as fast as I can, following the sound of the bike. Desmier can’t be too far now. I don’t think he came the way we did, or he would have been just behind us.
“Stop!” Viktor calls out. Damn it, he managed to get out of the car, too.
I try to run but trip over a vine and go tumbling forward down the path.
Desmier’s bike approaches, so I decide to do the only thing I can.
“I’m here, Desmier!” I scream. “Over here!”
Viktor may be badly hurt, but he can still move fast. Faster than me.
My ankle feels twisted, so I start backing away.
“If I can’t have you, he can’t either!” Viktor yells, pointing his gun at me.
He stops and cocks the hammer. I look at the gun in his hands, and fright unlike any I’ve known seizes me. My brain can’t focus to get me to either keep crawling away or try to get up and run, no matter what’s going on with my ankle and the pain in my head from the beating he gave me.
Viktor laughs, and just then, Desmier’s bike launches out from the thicket of trees.
He shoots Viktor, but I know I hear two shots fired at the same time.
Viktor goes down, his gun still in his hands and blood coloring his white shirt. Desmier doesn’t give him a chance to recover before he whirls his bike around and shoots him again in his head.
Viktor flops down to the ground, but Desmier doesn’t stop there. He parks his bike by the tree, jumps off, and stalks up to Viktor to shoot him again in the same place.
It’s only when his hand falls limp at his side and he drops to his knees beside Viktor that I know something is wrong with him.
That moves me. My energy returns, and I get up, rushing forward on my ankle that feels like fire is burning me, but I don’t care.
When I reach him, he falls onto his back, and I can see he was shot with the bullet that was meant for me.
“My Valkyrie,” he mumbles.
I gather his head in my lap and look over the blood seeping through his shirt. It’s right near his heart.
God, no, this can’t be happening.
“Desmier, we have to get out of here. We have to get you to the hospital.”
He grabs my hand and squeezes it. “No, I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
My heart doubles over on hearing that, but still, I refuse to give up. “Desmier, please, don’t you dare leave me.”
In typical Desmier style, he smiles and reaches up to touch my face with his free hand.
“I’ll find you in the next life. I’ll be waiting for… you. Always you. Always, always you. I have loved you since first I saw you.”
“I love you, too. That’s why you can’t go anywhere.”
“I’m sorry, baby girl. I think I’m going to Valhalla now, to the halls of my father and uncle and all those who have gone before me.”