Page 67 of Twisted Steel

Savage and Saint step out of the elevator behind him.Both look rough.Both alive.Saint has a split lip.Savage has blood on his sleeve and murder still simmering in his gaze.

Savage’s attention goes to Raven first.Her shoulder, the overturned cart, the man on the floor, and his face goes deadly quiet.

Raven points at him.“Don’t start.I’m fine.”

“That looks like fine to you?”He gestures toward her body and the chaos surrounding her.

“It looks like a regular Tuesday.”

“It’s Thursday.”

“Then I’m early.”

Savage’s jaw ticks, and Steel’s gaze snaps to the man on the floor.Then to the syringe in my hand.The air drops ten degrees.

“What happened?”he asks.

“Reaper sent someone for Dante,” I say.“Raven stopped him.”

Steel turns his head toward Raven.

Raven shrugs.“Your medic helped.”

Steel looks back at me.“Of course she did,” he says.

That shouldn’t warm me, but it does right before reality returns.

“Reaper?”I ask, and Steel’s jaw tightens.

“Gone,” Savage says.

The single word lands like a weight.Of course the monster who says my name like a threat survives the night.

Steel watches me absorb it.“We hit the trap, and took eight Vultures, but Reaper wasn’t there.”

“You killed them?”

The hallway goes still.I don’t know why I ask.I know the answer.I can see it on him.Smell it.Copper and smoke and something burnt into his skin deeper than soap will reach.

Steel doesn’t look away.“Some.”

My stomach twists, not because I’m surprised, but because part of me is glad.That’s the other ugly thing.The thing I don’t want to hold.The thing that has been growing in me since a man tapped on my window and I grabbed Steel’s card instead of calling the police.

Part of me is glad those men can’t come for me.

I step back and Steel notices immediately.His expression shuts down, but not fast enough.I see the hurt he tries to hide.

“Harper,” he says.

“I need air.”I turn before anyone can stop me.

The automatic doors open into the ambulance bay, and the night air hits my face hot and dirty.I walk until I reach the edge of the lot, then brace my hands on the low concrete barrier and try to breathe like a normal person.

I save lives.He takes them.Dante is alive upstairs because I refused to see a patch before a patient.Men are dead tonight because Steel saw threat before humanity.And Reaper is still out there.

The door opens behind me, and I listen to heavy steps approaching.I don’t turn because no one else would follow me out here except for him.

“Go away,” I say.