Scared to Death ✧Liam Dunbar✧[Book 1]

✧Death Changes Us✧

This gif kills me guys. It kills me.

Chapter 35 ✧Death Changes Us✧

Hesitantly, Braeden looked away from the bleeding Derek and up at me. I managed to hold her gaze but I still couldn't stop the tears spilling from my eyes.

"Can you shoot a gun?"

I looked at the weapon she was holding with wide eyes. I'd never held a gun and I honestly never planned on it. But then I looked back down at Derek who was still gasping for breathe, crimson blood starting to drip from his mouth now. Just as I began to nod my head, Derek cut me off.

"No," Derek said, still managing to sound firm despite his condition. "Give it to me."

"Derek, I can-"

My arguing was stopped short by Derek grabbing my wrist and squeezing it lightly. I shook my head weakly but definitely, not wanting to see him waste his last few breathes on protecting me.

"Charlotte, I-" Derek was cut off by his own coughing, causing me to choke on the tears I was just short of drowning in now.

"Derek, it's fine," I hushed him gently, taking a deep breathe to control my sobbing. "You don't have to protect me anymore."

"Char, I will always protect you," A beaten down voice declared.

Dereks determined tone reached his pale eyes that were staring straight at me. But despite their firmness, they were also soft, and loving. I almost laughed at the emotion they held because a year ago I never would've imagined Derek capable of such a thing.

"The day your brother came to me and told me your father was killed, I promised him something," Derek began to explain. My crying slowed down as I looked up at him carefully, I had never heard this story. "He was terrified of what was going to happen to you so I promised him that I would protect you with my life. I'm not going to break that promise now, Charlotte Lahey."

I let out a shaky breath, confused as to why Isaac had never told me that. Maybe he had wanted Derek to tell me himself.

"As moving as this is, we don't have time for it," Braeden cut in. Both Derek and myself nodded understandingly. Braeden then handed the gun over to Derek and pressed it firmly in his hands while saying, "Stay with me, Derek. You're going to be okay."

"It's a mortal wound," Derek grunted, "And right now I'm feeling pretty mortal."

"I'm not going to let him die," Braden promised me as she reached over Derek's body and put a hand on my shoulder. I nodded once more but didn't know what she could do to save him.

"You might just have to concentrate on saving yourself and Charlotte," Derek told her as she stood back up with her shotgun in her hands. I looked down, anger flooding through me as I tried not to hate how I was still the one being protected, the one in need of being saved.

Braeden slowly edged away from us, turning a corner around the old church and disappearing from my view. Within seconds gunfire filled the dusty air. It seems as though Braeden had found a Berserker.

My eyes closed tightly as the sounds of gunfire changed to a different pitch. It sounded like Braeden had changed out her weapons. I felt Derek squeeze my hand, his way of telling me that we were fine.

The thing is we weren't. One of the reasons Derek had been so hard to live with was the fact that he was so extremely insufferable. He couldn't seem to understand that he was actually important and that he didn't need to prove himself or anything.

He didn't understand that it was not okay if he died. I would not be okay if he died.

Suddenly, the gunfire stopped and as it did, I felt like my heart did the same. My breath hitched as I craned my neck in hopes to find Braeden but she was no where in sight. Something had most definitely gone wrong.