Page 42 of His Daggered Heart
They nod. Erica looks back at us over her shoulder, her still holding her nose, slowing the blood. I wink at her when she looks at me, watching as Kohen comes to me.Yeah, bitch, he is mine.
“Let’s go somewhere private,” Kohen says, leading us to an elevator. He pulls out his keys from his pocket and holds up what looks like a ring. The doors open up and we all step in. I’m looking at him like he is an alien because what the fuck? He doesn’t look at me, so I look at Levi and he nods, a smirk on his face as if to reassure me.
Don’t overreact,I hear his voice in my head.Breathe, Alex.
Chapter 29
Alex
Thedoorsopentoa huge room with seating, almost like a living room but it’s more like a loft with a balcony overlooking another ballroom-sized area. How big is this damn place?
Cora sits and Kohen begins to speak. “A lot just happened down there.” Cora is still crying, but at least it wasn’t as hysterical as when we were downstairs.
“You’re damn right a lot happened down there, what the fuck was all that?” I blurt.
He moves to me. “Let me explain everything, angel, please.”
His soul pleads with mine to hear him out and my mind races. I need to try and calm down. He takes my hands in his and I sit. Breathing in and out. My best friend was taken advantage of by a guy I called my friend. I feel sick to my fucking stomach. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Dizziness stirs, winding around my head like smoke. I hear Kohen talking but I can’t make out anything he is saying.
My feet move on their own accord and I go to my best friend, holding her. “I’m so fucking sorry, Cora. I had no idea, I’m sorry,” I say, tears falling, black dots hitting my thighs as my mascara runs. I am fucking devastated. I fucking knew it, I knew it back when we took her to the ER that it wasn’t just a cyst. I should have pushed.
She whimpers, “It’s okay, Alex.” Her grip around me is tight.
“I love you so much, Cora, and fuck him. I will fucking kill him, we got this. Me and you, we will raise this baby and it will be so loved.” I look at her, my heart desperate to be near her.
“And us,” Levi says.
“Yeah, don’t forget us,” Kohen agrees.
Cora giggles, “Yes, you two also.” She wipes more tears away. Clearly, she has come to different terms with some of this, but anger at X still floods my body.
“You knew,” I say to Kohen. “You knew it was him.”
“Yes, I knew,” he says, his head in between his legs. “I promised I wouldn’t tell you. I wanted to at the house when he had that movie night but it’s not my story to tell. It’s hers.” He nods Cora’s way.
“Don’t be mad, Alex. Kohen took care of me and protected me when Edward was being a dick. Kohen was there.”
Loud sobs leave me without permission, my soul aching. “I should have been.”
“No,” she exclaims, wiping her tears. “You couldn’t have been, everything happens how it was meant to and if you were there for me, you wouldn’t have met Levi.”
She’s right, but how does everything that feels so right also be so wrong?
“You have done so much healing, Alex, focus on that. I am so damn proud of you,” she says.
I slip off the seat and onto my knees, hysterically crying for my best friend. Strong arms wrap around me, holding me while I cry. The scent is familiar, my home. Levi.
“I got you, sweetness. I have you right here in my arms, just breathe. Cora is safe, you are safe.”
He knows me so well.
He tightens his hold as my body violently shakes. “Feel the cold air, breathe it in your lungs and out. The carpet here under you, feel it. It’s soft and plush. The scent of citrus in the air, do you smell it?”
I swallow and nod. I take deep breaths in, his voice guiding me. Grounding me.
“I love you, Alex,” I hear Cora say. Suddenly, the pain in my foot is at the forefront of my mind and it hurts. I stare at the pain and see blood staining the carpet. The adrenaline is long gone from my body. Every emotion and feeling floods my senses at once. I feel like Elena fromVampire Diariesafter she lost her brother. Cora is a sister to me, the only family I had before I met Kohen and Levi. And I didn’t protect her.
I failed her.