Chapter 35 Blood
Chapter 35 Blood
The courthouse smelled of old wood and fresh lilies, the kind of scent that should have felt like hope but instead tasted like a countdown.
I stood in the small bridal room, staring at my reflection in a cracked mirror that had probably seen a thousand hurried marriages and twice as many regrets. The dress was simple—ivory silk that skimmed my body without apology, the kind of dress you buy when you have exactly one hour and a heart too full to care about perfection. My hands shook as I fastened the last pearl button at my wrist. The ring on my left hand caught the light, the thin platinum band Damian had slid on my finger during our blood-smeared courthouse vows now feeling like a noose tightening with every pulse of poison Nadia had promised would bloom at midnight.
The antidote was supposedly in the ocean lab. We had six hours.
Damian stepped behind me, his reflection appearing over my shoulder, tall and devastating in the black tux that made his eyes follow him even when he wasn't trying. His bandages were hidden beneath the crisp shirt, but I could see the strain in his jaw, the way he favored his left side from the harpoon graze. His hands settled on my hips, warm and steady, and for a moment the world narrowed to just us—two people who had bled together, lied together, loved together in ways that would make sane people run.
"You look like the end of every war I've ever fought," he said quietly, lips brushing the shell of my ear. His voice was raw, scraped clean of pretense. "Like peace I don't deserve but will kill to keep."
I turned in his arms, my palms flattening against his chest, feeling the frantic beat beneath. "We're getting married again," I said, the words catching. "Properly this time. With cake and guests and no one trying to murder us for five whole minutes."
His laugh was broken glass wrapped in velvet. "Five minutes is generous."
The second ceremony was supposed to be our gift to the people who'd survived with us—Lena, Riley, Dad, even some of the feds who'd become reluctant friends. A real wedding. Vows that weren't whispered over gunfire. A moment to breathe before we dove into Nadia's final trap.
But the rings were ticking.
I could feel it now—the poison's slow creep, like frost spreading through my veins. My left hand had gone slightly numb, the kind of numbness that started in the fingers and worked its way inward, patient as death. Damian's pupils were blown wide, his own dose hitting faster, the stronger physiology of Apex heir blood no match for whatever Nadia had cooked up.
"We should have cut them off," I whispered, staring at the band that had felt like salvation twenty-four hours ago.
"And bleed out before midnight?" He lifted my hand, pressing his lips to the ring, then to the pulse point where the poison was already whispering my name. "No. We do this right. We get married like normal people, then we dive and we end her."
The knock came—three sharp raps. Lena's voice through the door: "Five minutes. And Ava? Riley says the dive team's ready, but we've got movement on the courthouse roof. Could be nothing. Could be—"
"Hybrids," I finished for her.
Damian and I shared a look that held entire conversations. The kind of look that only exists between people who've seen each other bleed and still chosen to stay.
The ceremony hall was packed more than we'd expected. Word had spread through our weird little network—feds who'd gone rogue with us, sponsors who'd stuck around despite the scandals, even a few classmates who'd shown up out of curiosity or loyalty or both. The benches were full, flowers everywhere, and for one heartbreaking moment, it felt real.
Dad walked me down the aisle, his arm steady despite the bandages, his eyes wet as he looked at me. "You grew up good, kid," he murmured, voice thick. "Your mother would be proud. Hell, I'm proud."
The judge—Riley's clean one this time—smiled as Damian took my hand, his grip almost too tight, like he was afraid I'd vanish if he let go.
The vows were simple. No poetry, no grand speeches. Just truth.
"I never knew what home felt like until you pointed at me in that gym and lied about dating me," Damian said, his voice carrying in the hushed room, rough with emotion. "You turned my world upside down and made it right-side up again. I will love you through every clone, every poison, every midnight timer Nadia sets. You are my beginning and my end, Ava Black."
I was crying before he finished, the tears hot on my cheeks as I squeezed his hands. "You saw me when I was broken and made me whole," I said, my voice cracking. "You took bullets for me, lied for me, loved me when I didn't love myself. I will fight for you until my last breath, Damian Black. You are my safe place in every storm."
The judge pronounced us husband and wife—again—and the room erupted in cheers, but the sound was cut short by the first scream.
The hybrids came through the skylight.
Glass rained down like deadly confetti as twenty perfect copies of me and Damian dropped from the ceiling, landing in perfect synchronization, their movements too smooth, too precise. They wore our faces but not our eyes—those were Nadia's eyes, cold and triumphant.
The guests panicked, chairs toppling as people scrambled for exits, but the hybrids were faster—syringes flashing as they injected the nearest targets, turning friends into enemies in seconds.
Damian's hand found mine, pulling me behind the altar as gunfire erupted—Riley's team engaging, EMP bursts lighting the room in electric blue.
One hybrid—my face, my dress—vaulted the podium, landing in front of us with a smile that was all wrong on my mouth. "Original obsolete," it said in my voice, syringe aimed at Damian's throat. "Nadia sends regards."
He moved faster than should have been possible with poison in his veins, twisting its arm until the syringe embedded in its own neck. The clone convulsed, circuits frying as it collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs that looked too much like my own.
More came.
We fought back-to-back, the way we always did—his gun, my knife from the garter (Riley's wedding gift), moving in that perfect sync we'd earned through blood and trust. A Damian-clone grabbed me from behind, its breath hot on my neck: "Wife-unit—assimilate." I elbowed its throat, spinning to drive the knife into its eye—sparks and blood mixing as it dropped.
Riley was a blur of motion, her platinum hair flashing as she took down three clones with precise shots, her scar twisting in fury. "They're upgraded—nano-shields!" she shouted, reloading.
Lena hacked the courthouse system from her tablet, lights strobing to disorient the hybrids, but one got through—morphing to her face, jabbing her with a syringe before she could react. Lena dropped, eyes glazing as the sleeper protocol activated.
"No!" I screamed, lunging for her, but Damian pulled me back as the Lena-clone turned on us, eyes glowing. "Sister—join or die."
The fight became personal—clones mimicking our loved ones, using our voices to break us. A Dad-clone grabbed Damian, whispering "Son—yield" in his father's voice, but Damian shot it point-blank, tears in his eyes as synthetic blood sprayed.
The master hybrid emerged from the shadows—our faces combined into one perfect monster, rings glinting on its fingers, Nadia's voice pouring from its mouth: "Vows complete—now the real marriage begins. To Apex."
It moved as one, Damian and I, love's final weapon—his hand in mine, guns raised, backing toward the exit as the hybrids closed in.
Riley threw us a grenade—"EMP—run!"
We detonated it mid-air, wave purging the last clones in a burst of light and screams.
But as the dust settled, Nadia's voice echoed from every speaker: "Poison blooms in T-minus ten minutes. The antidote? Never existed. The rings were the delivery system—the real weapon was always you, carrying my legacy in your blood."
The numbness spread faster, vision blurring.
Damian pulled me into his arms, kiss desperate, emotional—love's last stand as the poison took hold.
Cliffhanger: Darkness closing in, his voice the last thing I heard: "Ava—stay with me. The lab... the real antidote... it's in our blood. We have to..."