Chapter 7: Alexis

Chapter 7: Alexis

It was not humanly possible for me to react to the revelation that Lawrence was not who he said he was in the few seconds after he stated that he was working for my two worst enemies. How naïve was I to have fallen for the first charming man to come my way without questioning his intent? In a way, my death at his hands was a well-deserved punishment for my stupidity.

As he leaped across the room, his army knife extended in front of him, time stood still, which I recognized as the classic marker for one’s end-of-life moments. My life was flashing before my eyes. My parents. Fiddler’s Green. Will. Will dying—all of my life—a reel of pain and agony.

At that immediate moment, the skylight shattered, and Will crashed through it. He fell straight on top of Lawrence, confusing him. Will kicked away the knife and grabbed Lawrence by the neck, delivering a series of punches to his face.

“Are you okay?” Will asked as he threw Lawrence against the wall.

“What are you even doing here?” I asked as I picked up Lawrence’s knife and held it up.

“I had to make sure you were okay,” Will said, returning back to his fight with Lawrence.

What did that even mean? Hadn’t he gone back to Fiddler’s Green? Did this mean that he’d been lingering around like a stalker, ensuring that nothing would happen to me? As endearing as that was, it was equally creepy. Had he killed the five vampires? Was he the silhouette I had seen in the alley last night? So many questions—but why the fuck was I asking questions about Will when the real question I should have been asking myself was how gullible could I have been to let a psychopathic gun-for-hire sweet talk me into thinking that he was a well-wishing and compassionate man? And why on earth had I invited him to my apartment today?

Will was overpowering Lawrence by a mile, not even letting Lawrence take a breath as Will administered blow after lethal blow to his face, torso, and neck, bloodying him within seconds.

Then Lawrence quickly regained composure and threw Will out the window. Will crashed through the open window and hit the railing. I immediately went to him to help him up, but Lawrence blocked my path.

“I always do what I’ve been paid to do, sweetheart. You’re not coming out of this alive.” He wrapped his hands around me and began choking me. I plunged my knife into his chest, but to my surprise, the knife twisted upon coming into contact with him.

“You think I’m stupid enough to come to kill you without wearing Kevlar?” Lawrence spat, revealing black armor under his torn shirt.

Will re-emerged from the window and tackled Lawrence. The two men fell to the floor as I caught my breath. They grappled with each other, punching and wrestling on the floor, and all I could at that moment was how no one below had heard the commotion. Then it occurred to me that the bar was packed with Red Sox fans celebrating their team’s victory last night. They were all watching the highlights of the game presumably, and so busy creating their own ruckus that they weren’t hearing what was happening in my room.

Lawrence threw Will back yet again.

That’s when it happened.

The pain in my body. I could feel Will’s pain in my body. The bond hadn’t broken. We were still mates. How else was I able to feel him? How else could I hear him in my mind?

I cannot shift, he said.

What happened to you?

As the two men fought around the room, Will landing some blows and dodging others, Lawrence constantly overpowering Will, I continued my telepathic conversation with Will as I joined the fight to help him.

You never told me how you’re still alive, I said as I grabbed Lawrence from the back and held him steady to let Will punch him.

I didn’t die. Or maybe I died and came back. It’s unclear. I woke up in my grave. I had to crawl out of it. I think the mutations from Edward’s experimentations somehow made me immune to Wolf’s Bane. It was either that or the potion that Vince got me packed more punch than any of us had expected, Will said.

Lawrence reached around and pulled me. I still held the knife in my hand. I slashed at his hand and cut a deep gash in it. Will made use of this distraction to fling Lawrence out of the window. Lawrence crashed through the glass and toppled over the railing, falling down into the alley.

“Did you really mean it?” I asked.

“Mean what?” Will panted.

“That thing about you saying her name. Did you see her in some afterlife? Did you tell her that you had to come back for me?”

“I swear. I do not love that woman. I never loved her. It is you who is my heart’s desire. It is you whom I am mates with. My being here is proof of that. Saying that name meant nothing to me. It was a farewell to an old friend, if anything,” he said.

“I thought you had fucking died,” I said, reaching him and holding him by the shoulders.

“So you went ahead and decided to date some random man who turned out to be an assassin?”

“Date him? We hardly went out twice. I didn’t even touch him or kiss him or anything like that. If anything, he was just a distraction.”

“Next time, pick a benign distraction, like knitting or adopting a kitten. Don’t start with assassins,” he said.

“Are you one to lecture me? Really? Are you in that position? I thought you were dead. I was mourning. I needed some respite. Understand that I went through hell,” I said.

“Now’s not the time for this,” Will said, leaving the room through the window. “He’s gone!”

“No one really dies from a first-floor fall,” I said.

As we headed down the stairs, we looked around for signs of Lawrence. When we couldn’t find him, I said, “Let’s flatten the tires of his car so he can’t leave.”

We were just about to head out of the alley when Lawrence jumped from the roof and landed straight on top of Will.

“That’s how that feels,” Lawrence said as he knocked Will out. Then he took hold of Will’s neck and started wringing it.

“Will, wake up!” I yelled.

“Oh, he’s not going to wake up, sweetheart, but don’t worry. You two can have a nice reunion in heaven,” Lawrence said, staring at me while he choked the life out of Will.

“You think a bad girl like me can get into heaven?” I asked, flinging his knife at him.

Lawrence caught the knife in mid-air, but at least in doing so, he released Will’s neck.

“If you’re bad, then I’m the king of hell itself,” Lawrence said. “You’re just a countryside hillbilly who’s gone and stuck her nose in business that she didn’t have anything to do with in the first place.”

I could shift and end this within a minute.

“Go ahead,” Lawrence said. “Try it. Kill me. Morph into your wolf form. Everyone’s going to see you for the beast you are. Hell, with the bar being so packed and all and Bangor folk being so fond of their guns, how long do you think it’s going to take before they look at you and riddle your body with bullets?”

“What do you want?” I asked, raising my hands. “You want half a million dollars? Is that price for you to let us go?”

“I’m not doing it for the money. Well, the money helps a bit. I believe in the cause that Ralph and Blair are all about. But mostly, I like killing sexy young girls. I find their screams of pain very arousing. There’s something else I do right after I kill them. I….”

Before he could finish his thought, Will had gotten up. That’s what I had been counting on. Will kicked him in the balls and made him collapse on his knees.

“Finish your sentence,” Will said, holding Lawrence by his hair. “I dare you to finish that sentence you perverted son of a bitch.”

Lawrence swiped his knife back, slashing Will across his chest. It was not a deep gash, but it was still hurtful enough that Will recoiled and grabbed his torso, his face contorted in pain.

Are you all right? I asked as I saw Lawrence get up off the floor.

He just caught me by surprise, Will said.

What’s happened to us that just a few days ago, we were taking on hordes of men and vampires, and now we can’t even kill this one piece of shit? I asked.

I told you, I have seemingly lost my powers, Will said. What’s your excuse?

Overwhelmed. That’s my excuse. I was not mentally prepared. I thought he was just a man. An ordinary man. And not this deranged assassin. Also, I was not expecting you to show up. So that’s two counts of me being overwhelmed and surprised.

Lawrence stood in the middle, with Will on one side and me on the other.

“I have taken on worst odds than this. I fought in Afghanistan, you know. Come on. I can take you both. I guess that’s going to be a full million for me. They’re going to be surprised when they see that I’ve brought in the great Will Grimm. You know, they think that you’re still dead,” Lawrence said, holding up his knife.

“You know me?” Will asked.

“Of course. Ralph and Blair told me all about the havoc you wreaked and who you were. It’s going to be a privilege to kill you and bring your head to my masters,” Lawrence said. “I’ll start with you. Break your missus’s heart while I’m at it. She can see you die a second time, but this time, you’re going to die for real. No resurrections for you.”

Lawrence advanced swiftly, kicking Will in the chest and knocking him against the wall. He had his knife pressed against Will’s neck. Will was pushing back as hard as he could, but even I could see and sense that his strength had waned. Any longer, and Lawrence would indeed behead my mate.

In one quick step, I covered the distance between Lawrence and me, and before he could press the knife further against Will’s neck, I kicked Lawrence’s leg from behind, making him lose his balance and stagger backward.

As he fell, I grabbed him from the back, yanked his knife out of his hands, pressed it against his neck, and whispered, “This one’s for all the girls you murdered and for thinking that I’d be one of them.”

I slit Lawrence’s neck and watched as blood gushed down his white shirt. He writhed as his life escaped him, thrashing his arms and flailing his legs. I felt no mercy for him.

When he went limp, I let go of him and watched his lifeless body collapse on the ground in a pool of his blood.

Will was panting loudly, making me notice the gash on his chest. It wasn’t as light as I had expected. Blood was spouting out of it, and the wound was not healing itself.

“You need to come upstairs so I can stitch you up,” I said, holding Will by his arm and helping him climb the stairs.

“Thanks for saving my life,” Will said.

“Well, thanks for saving mine. I’d have been dead if you hadn’t dropped from the skylight,” I said.

“All I ever wanted to do was protect you,” he said. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“Thank you,” I said, not knowing what to say and how to go about pretending that things were normal between us. All I knew was Will’s chest hurt, and by extension, so did mine. The only way I could rid myself of this pain was by patching up my mate.