Dead of Summer - Page 139

I watch as Shawn spits out the cracked remains of his teeth and wails out a sound that barely sounds human.

I watch as Kayde bends to pick up the discarded knife Grey gave me, and straightens to meet my gaze. “Don’t look away,” he whispers, and I’m sure the others have heard. But the words aren’t for them.

They’re for me.

I keep my eyes on him, even though I can barely see through the black spots in my vision and the spinning of my head. I don’t look away when he falls to his knees over Shawn, hand raised.

“Your first mistake, Shawn,” Kayde tells him with a coldness that should herald the beginning of winter. "Was ever thinking Summer belonged to you.” His hand moves so fast, that to me that it looks like a blur, and it’s not until Shawn screams that I realize Kayde has plunged the blade into his chest, just above his heart.

“Your second mistake?” He gently, almost fondly, reaches up to tangle his fingers in Shawn’s hair and drags his head back so that Shawn has no choice but to look at him. “Well, your second mistake, and arguably the most important, was touching what belongs to me.”

Shawn’s mouth opens, as if he’s going to argue, but Kayde moves too fast for that. He drags the blade across Shawn’s throat, blood spraying from the wound as Kinsley scrambles back from them, face pale.

My lips part, and I suck in a breath as arterial spray splashes Kayde’s shirt and face. I watch the pulses of Shawn’s heart send blood spraying upward, and I can’t take my eyes off of his face or his still open mouth.

He dies like that, with his eyes and mouth open as Shawn stares up at Kayde with disbelief clear on his features.

Shawn dies, and for a few seconds, everything feels too quiet. Too still.

Until Liza clears her throat. “Are you done?” she asks, unimpressed with Kayde or his murdering of Shawnathon. “Because if you are, I could use some help with her. Are the police on their way?”

“Paramedics too, according to Daniel.” Kayde moves smoothly, sinking into a crouch on my other side and surveying the damage.

Judging by the way his eyes darken, it’s not great. But thankfully, I’m too lightheaded and out of it to feel much of anything. That’s a bad thing, I know, rationally. It’s a terrible thing to not feel the wounds Shawn has inflicted. But right now, I can’t help feeling grateful over it, and grateful I’m not in the kind of pain I’d been in earlier.

“You know, I’m not dead yet,” I slur, feeling my consciousness coming into question. “You don’t need to look at me like that.”

Kayde snorts and accepts the t-shirt, which he presses over my collarbone. “Just admiring your pretty face, baby girl,” he assures me, leaning down so that he’s the only thing I can see. “And wondering what in the world you said to him for him to fuck you up this badly.”

Kinsley laughs at that, sounding hysterical, and I turn just enough to watch her sink down against my third favorite tree. “What didn’t she say to him?” She giggles, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Seriously, Summer. What the fuck were you thinking?”

Isn’t it obvious? My brows knit in confusion, and I look from her to Kayde. “I was thinking of saving you,” I mumble, more of my consciousness escaping into the ground along with my blood. “I’d do anything to save you, Kins. You, and Liza, and Kayde.”

My head spins, and when I try to blink up at Kayde again, his face is blurry. “Uh oh,” I mumble. “I’m uh, not feeling so great, Liza.” I know my words are slurring, but I can’t help it. “Maybe I won’t be able to stay quite so awake after all.”

“No, don’t you dare,” Liza sounds threatening, but her voice is distant. “Space out if you want, if you have to, but don’t you dare go to sleep.”

“Summer…” I hear Kayde’s voice, and I think I see his lips move, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what he’s saying to me.

Oh well, I think, eyes slipping closed. I can’t win ‘em all.

I don’t quite fall asleep. Not all the way, at least. I doze, maybe, and space out as Kayde scoops me up in his arms to carry me somewhere that isn’t here. There are voices around me when I come to next, and the loud wailing of sirens does more to drag me from my near unconsciousness than any of Kayde’s threats.

At some point, I’m laid on a stretcher. Unfamiliar voices talk about my vitals with Liza, and I feel hands on my face and shoulder, causing the pain to violently slice through my daze.

Last but not least, as the paramedics are lifting me into the ambulance, I distinctly hear Melody from somewhere near me, whispering to Kayde.

“Is she dying?” There’s a tremble in her voice I’ve never heard, and if I could, I’d open my eyes and tell her I’m fine.

“No.” Kayde’s voice is solid and firm, but underneath that, he sounds…unsure. “No, Mel. She’s going to be fine.” But if he doesn’t seem to believe it, then how in the world can I?

“You’re going to be okay.” The paramedic that speaks to me is a woman, and seconds later, I hear the doors of the ambulance slam closed. “We’re getting you to the hospital, Summer. You’ll be okay. Just stay with me, okay?”

But she isn’t Kayde, and her words don’t have the same pull on me as his. I try, I really do, but as the ambulance jerks into motion, the last of my consciousness flees as darkness fills my brain with a painless, dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

The first thing that tips me off I might not be dead is Kinsley’s voice filling my ears, along with the occasional beep of a machine.