“Here!” Liam said, nearly pulling Sarah’s arms out of her sockets and placing them on Nina.
“What’s happening?” Sarah asked.
I finally joined them, crouching down beside them.
“Steve, Connor, get those chains off of her,” Liam said, as he reached out.
Nina’s eyes still stared dead ahead, and he tipped her head back so her mouth fell open.
“No, no, no, damn it!” he cried.
Nina was released from the chains and fell limp into Sarah’s arms.
“Here, do this.” He guided Sarah’s arms over her small body.
“Liam, what the hell is going on?” I interrupted at last.
Connor answered me, “The bottle you found in Nina’s hand is holy water. It burns if thrown into our faces, human or not. But ingested, it’s a slow agonizing death as it burns every single internal organ out. And because it’s not something that affects a normal human, we don’t heal from it. Perhaps Sarah can draw out the effects of it.”
My head swiveled to Sarah, who met my eyes. Nina remained motionless and slack jawed in her arms. Liam covered his face with his hands and Connor placed a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not your fault, Liam.”
“’Course it is,” he replied thickly. “I should have seen it coming.”
“Wait,” I said, trying to piece it together carefully. “Holy water… can kill you?”
“Yes,” Steve said at last. “Poor little girl.”
Suicide. The word nearly made my heart stop. I instantly felt guilty that I had not moved faster, not been as concerned. Maybe if I had run up the stairs, I could have helped her. But there she lay, clearly not returning.
“Jesus, what are we going to do?” Liam asked.
Steven shook his head. “She wanted to die, Liam, and I think there’s nothing you could do about it.”
“Are we such undesirable creatures that she would end an immortal life?” Liam roared at him, and all eyes turned to me, to fix the situation.
I rose carefully. “Liam, you couldn’t have known she was going to do that.”
“But I should have damn well figured out!” He was pacing, angry. “And maybe if you, Amy, had been nicer to her, none of this would have happened!”
“What?” Now I was angry. Liam and I couldn’t seem to get along lately, not for love or money. “How is this my fault?”
“Nina came to us for help, and she trusted me. She was afraid of the whole world, and she wanted a place to hide. I was the only person she trusted and every time she showed that trust, you had to show up and act like a teenage girl. How are you not self-assured yet, Amy, after all you’ve been through?”
“Liam!” Sarah said, still cradling Nina.
I watched Connor place a gentle hand on Sarah’s back and take Nina from her. He closed her eyes and pulled off his dress shirt to put over her face. I wanted more than anything to stop screaming at Liam for having treated me so poorly, but we were in too deep now.
“This isn’t going to help anything. Don’t yell at her.”
“We need to move on,” Steven said gently. “She’s gone, Liam, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll give her a proper burial, tell the others what happened, report her death to the elders, and that will be all. It’ll be alright.”#p#分页标题#e#
“And what if she was murdered?” Liam brought up. “Selene is crazy, and it’d be just like her to go after us one by one. She would know to prey on Nina, she’s weak. What if she dragged her down here, chained her up, and made it look like it was suicide?”
“Liam,” Steven said. “I’ve spoken to Nina about three times and I knew she wanted to die.”
“She wanted Selene DEAD!” Liam roared.
“So let’s make it happen,” Steven replied.
We all fell silent. I was still seething underneath. How dare he blame me for this, and then sit there and not apologize for it?
“Let’s make it happen,” I spoke up. “Because I promised you, Liam, and I promised all of you. Because Porsche was my friend too, and Selene deserves to die. But after that, I’m done.”
“What?” Liam whipped his head to stare at me. “What are you talking about?”
“All we do is fight all the time. I’m sick of it. We clearly can’t get it together. We clearly can’t trust each other. Hell, I’m probably cramping your style!” I really didn’t want to do this in front of everyone, but everything I had been feeling for weeks was finally bubbling to the surface and I was sick of keeping it quiet. “I don’t need to do a graduate year and you know it. My credits are in place and my storyline on Ranger will get extended. I don’t need stupid school plays and immortals who can’t figure out their lives hanging around me.”