I pressed my hand to my side, trying to find the source of the pain, and my fingers came away warm and wet. And red.
Stunned, I looked up to see Tabitha aiming a pistol from the other end of the hallway. “Now he’ll know,” she mumbled. “Now you’ll all know.”
“Go!” I shouted, but my voice carried little volume. I couldn’t draw a deep breath. Each beat of my heart somehow hurt deep inside. But they didn’t go. “Claudio, get them out of here.”
I fell against the wall, and my hand left a bloody print.
Tabitha lifted the gun again, as I fell to my knees. “Run!” I tried to shout. Then the world lost focus.
Delilah
Something rushed out of the darkness of an open doorway, and Tabitha disappeared. I blinked, and my eyelids felt heavy. Tabitha’s legs stuck out of the dark room, her bare feet turned in by their own limp weight.
* * *
I heard a wet thunk and forced my eyes open. Tabitha’s head rolled to a stop next to her left ankle, her hair obscuring most of her face but little of the open wound her neck had become. Her arm flew out of the darkness to smack the wall to my left.
Gallagher stepped out of the room. He dropped Tabitha’s other arm and his gaze landed on me. Fury and pain swam in his eyes.
* * *
Gallagher lifted me like a child and cradled me in both arms.
“Press here.” He laid something over my wound and positioned my hands on top of it, and I realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
He pressed with his hands on top of mine. I screamed as pain ripped through my stomach.
“I know it hurts, but you have to keep pressure on it.”
* * *
I flew down the hall, bouncing in Gallagher’s grip. Claudio limped as fast as he could ahead of us, while Rommily helped with one arm around his shoulders. Ahead of them, Eryx ran for the door with Genni in his arms. Every step he took shattered the tile beneath his feet.
We burst through the door into the night, and the cold night air shocked me awake, in spite of both pain and blood loss. Behind us, the roars and thuds of the beasts’ battle still raged, punctuated by the occasional shout or rapid burst of gunfire.
“Head for the parking lot!” Gallagher shouted ahead to Eryx.
My eyes closed again, and sounds floated around me. Footsteps. An engine. The squeal of brakes.
Zyanya shouted something.
I opened my eyes as Gallagher wrenched open the rear door of a transport truck with one hand. He laid me inside, on the floor, and everyone else piled in around me. Zyanya and Lenore were in the cab.
The truck bounced as it drove, rocking crazily, but Gallagher kept pressure on my side. “Don’t worry,” he said, when I looked up into his eyes. “I’ve treated many battle wounds.”
Tears filled my eyes, and his face blurred. We both knew I’d need more than stitches. “Aaron.”
“What?” Gallagher said.
“Take me to Senator Aaron’s house.” I gasped from the effort it took to speak. “His wife’s a surgeon. She owes me a favor.”
“I don’t know where that is,” Zyanya called from the front seat.
I gave her the address I’d read on the mailbox at the end of the long driveway. Paper rustled as Lenore dug a map from the glove box.
“Only Gallagher goes in with me,” I insisted.
No one argued.
