In Death I Live by Lindsay Becs

ZORA

I’m so cold.My whole body is shaking as shivers wrack through my body. I can tell I’m beginning to lose feeling in my toes, and my hands aren’t far behind, even with them sandwiched between my body and River’s.

We’ve been down here for what feels like hours, and the only reassurance I have is the fact that I can still feel River breathing behind me. I need him to wake up. I can’t get my hands free without his help.

Gritting my teeth, I sit up and move to his back, determined to attempt to free his hands before I lose all feeling in my fingers. Moving to lie back to back with him on our sides, I reach for his hands. They are ice cold, and I shudder as they touch my bare skin.

I blow out a quick breath. Come on, Zora, you have to pull yourself together and do this, I pep-talk myself. I’m relieved when I feel his hands bound by zip ties and not tape like mine. Although it’s going to hurt like hell, I know how to break them. Moving to his shoes, I unlace one and pull the lace out. It takes me longer than it should with my own hands bound and my fingers cold and losing blood flow, but I get it out.

Scooting back up, I loop the lace around his ties but then stop to think of how the hell I’m supposed to break them with both of our hands behind us. I can’t hold on and get the leverage I need to snap the plastic. Shit.

Tears burn my eyes, but I shake my head. I am not giving up that easily.

Crawling back down, I take River’s boot off his foot and push mine inside as I go back up to his back. Sliding under his arms so we’re back to back again, I bring my booted foot up and place it against his wrists, praying this works and I don’t cut his fucking hands up.

With a scream, I push as hard as I can with my foot until the zip tie snaps and my foot falls. I breathe a sigh of relief for a second before I reach for his hands to makes sure they are still attached to his body. They’re cut but not severed like I pictured in my head, because wouldn’t that just add to this nightmare I’m in. I rub them with my own hands, hoping to get the blood flowing through his arms better.

Then I hear the best noise… I hear River groan. Rolling him to his back, I put my face in his. Finding the edge of the tape on his mouth, I bite and rip it off. “River. Wake up. Please, River wake up. I really need you right now,” I cry in desperation.

“Angel?” He weakly says my name.

My head falls to his chest as tears fill my eyes again. “Yeah. It’s me.”

“What…what happened?” he asks through another groan.

“Slater and Kale. They took both of us. We’re in a cellar somewhere. I just got your hands free. Can you move your fingers?”

“Yeah… They got both of us? I don’t…” He winces, and I hate that he’s hurting.

“Shhh… it’s okay. You’ve been out for a while.”

“My shoulder,” he grunts. “It’s out of the socket. I need you to pop it back in.”

I take in a stuttered breath. “I can’t. My hands are still bound behind my back. I must have done it when I broke the ties. I’m sorry, River. I didn’t know what to do. I’m trying, but I don’t know what I’m doing,” I ramble as my emotions take over.

“Slow down, angel,” he says calmly. How he can sound that calm given where we are and the circumstances, I have no idea, because I’m starting to freak the fuck out. “Are your wrists zip-tied or tied with rope or tape or how are you bound?”

“Tape,” I answer simply, my throat dry, making me feel like I’m suffocating. “I don’t have my knives or anything. I’m practically naked. They took—”

“Zora.” He says my name firmly but still calm enough to help me stop panicking. “I have a switchblade in my boot.”

I shake my head. “No, I took off your boot.”

“The other one,” he tells me, and I hear him move with another grunt. Then I hear the sound of the blade being clicked open. “Good, they didn’t find it. Come here. Carefully,” he adds.

Slowly, I scoot back so he can feel my hands and slice through the tape. I sigh in relief when my wrists are free, rubbing to soothe them. “Wish I’d have known you had that sooner, then I wouldn’t have dislocated your shoulder,” I mumble.

“You did what you could, and it was more than most people would have thought to do,” he assures me, but it falls flat.

It’s my fault we’re here. That he’s here with me. It should have only been me they took.

“Now, I need you to pull my arm to pop my shoulder back in place.”

Inhaling deeply, I rise to my knees and wrap my arms around his, and pull, but I’m not strong enough. “I can’t,” I cry.

“You can. Don’t give up on me, angel.” His words are tense, and I know he’s hurting.

I should be comforting him. Get over yourself, Zora, and get our boy out of this mess, I tell myself. Then I shift and put a foot on his waist and pull his arm as hard as I can until he growls and it pops. The sound fills the dark space we’re in.

Dropping to my butt, I sigh. “Let me cut your feet free,” I tell him.

“Already done,” he says. “Do you know where we are?”

“Some house in the middle of nowhere maybe? They threw us down in this cellar a while ago.”

“They haven’t been back since?”

I shake my head. “No. I haven’t heard anything outside either.”

“Come here. We need to stay close to keep warm now that our adrenaline is going to die down.”

River guides me to sit in front of him with my back to his front as his arms and legs wrap around me. I sink into his warmth and let the slight bit of happiness that he’s alive and awake wash over me.

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for, angel?”

“That you’re here with me. That you’re hurt.”

“I was supposed to keep you safe. I’m the one who failed us, not you, Zora.” His lips press into the top of my head. “Did you try the door?”

“No.” I huff a laugh. “I was too worried about staying warm and helping you.”

He stands, and it’s then I realize I still have on his one shoe. “Wait. I have your boot.” I pat around the ground until I feel the lace I took out of it. With the slight bit that my eyes have adjusted to the dark and feeling with my fingers, I manage to somewhat lace the boot and hand it back to River. After he puts it on, he slowly walks to where I think the steps leading up the door are.

He pushes and hits it. Maybe even kicks the wood, but nothing. I hear his switchblade open and then metal hit metal. “Fuck,” he mumbles.

“What is it?”

“It’s not an old door or lock. They planned this. This is a new door with a new lock and new hinges to keep us here.” He sounds defeated when he says that.

“They’ll come back.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Slater loves me too much. Or is obsessed with me, I should say,” I deadpan.

“Slater?”

“Shadows. His real name is Slater.” Guilt assaults me. “I’m his possession and obsession in equal parts. He won’t leave me down here when I’m still alive.”

“Angel…”

“I need you to trust me, River. When they come back—and they will—I need you to trust me. Trust that I lo—” I pause and lick my lips as I think about my next words. “I love you. I love all you boys. Dom, Grey, Cruz. You.” He doesn’t say anything, and that’s okay; he doesn’t have to. “Just trust me. Okay?”

“Okay, angel. I trust you.”

* * *

I don’t knowhow long it was before Kale came back for us. It felt like days, but it could have been only a couple hours. With the cold reaching to parts inside my body, I could feel myself losing the battle to stay awake as it began to shut down.

“Stay awake, angel. Don’t give up. Stay with me a little bit longer,” River coaxed. But his own ragged and rough voice told me he was struggling too. Probably more.

He might have started with more clothes than me, but he shed his sweatshirt to pull over me, leaving him in only a T-shirt and jeans. On top of the cold, he was also contending with injuries that I’m sure are worse than he’s letting on.

When the cellar door creaks open, shining light down on us, we both wince from the muddy floor where we’re curled up.

“Aww…doesn’t this look cozy,” Kale says without a trace of emotion in his voice as he walks down the steps toward us. River sits up, pulling me with him, but doesn’t move to stand.

Kale, stopping in front of us with a perplexed look on his face, takes us both in. “Time to move. Let’s go, worm,” he says, gripping onto my arm and hauling me up.

Pulling against him with what little strength I have, I ask, “What about River?”

“He’s coming too. But I wouldn’t show Shadows how much you care about your little boyfriend if I were you,” he adds in a whisper when he pulls me against him to stop my fighting.

Like a bucket of ice water poured over my already frigid body, I stop fighting, locking eyes with River, begging him not to fight either. At least, not yet.

Kale yells at River to get up, and when he does, Kale pushes me toward the steps, making me trip and fall on my weak legs. Kale laughs behind me as River jumps to help me up, but he’s only rewarded with a kick to his side.

“Stop!” I yell at Kale as tears sting my eyes. “We’ll go wherever you want, and we won’t fight or try to leave. Just stop hurting him,” I plead as I help River stand again. Then, taking a chance, I look up at Kale with pleading in my eyes, hoping that the boy he used to be is still in there somewhere. “Please, K. Please.”

He stares back at me, his jaw grinding. “Move, worm!” he yells, gripping onto River’s arm and following me up the steps. “Get in,” he orders, nodding to the open door on the van that’s parked outside.

I climb inside as Kale shoves River forward, making him trip again. With a grunt, he gets inside but doesn’t fight against Kale, making me grateful he’s trusting me.

“Do I need to tie you up again? Or are you going to behave?” Kale asks with a raised brow. “You know how much I like tying you up, worm.” His lips curve up into a sickening grin, making my stomach revolt, but I push it down.

Shaking my head, I swallow down the rising bile in my throat. “You don’t need to tie us up.”

His gaze moves to River, who just nods through his own fierce gaze of hatred, both of them working their jaws as tension and anger vibrate through them. “Don’t fuck up,” Kale warns, looking back at me, then slamming the door shut.

“I hate him,” River mumbles as Kale rounds the front of the truck.

“Me too,” I agree.

We ride in silence as Kale drives. The only mercy is the fact that he turns on the heat inside the van and my body seems to be thawing, warming up from the outside in. The bad part of that is it made me feel all the aches and pains more, aware of each bruise and injury. By the look on River’s face, his pinched brows, tense shoulders, and hiss with each bump we hit, I know he’s feeling his too.

After a while, we come to a stop, and when Kale opens the door, I’m confused when I see another farmhouse in front of us. I’m even more confused when it looks like a bomb has gone off outside, causing damage to the front of the house. And it looks recent.

Kale’s dark chuckle as he comes around and sees where I’m looking doesn’t sit well. “We had to throw your ducks off,” he scoffs, making River tense next to me.