Voodoo had been running through the forest for hours now, trying to avoid the guards that did indeed seem like cockroaches. They were everywhere, and several times he’d had to adjust his direction to avoid them, meaning they were miles away from where he wanted to be.
Unfortunately, the guards swarming the forest had found their vehicle and blown it up, it had been useless by the time the rest of his team got there, walking right into an ambush. If they’d been anyone else, they likely would have been picked off one by one, but instead, Lion had seen them, Blade had heard them, and Dragon had smelled them long before they’d gotten to the ruined vehicle.
Of course, his team wanted to head right for him, but he was the one who could hold them back so long as he was with Indigo, and there was zero percent chance of him leaving her behind despite her many insistences that he do just that. The last thing Voodoo wanted was forhis entire team to be recaptured by Dr. Gardner. They knew what would happen if they did, Whitney had told them. The doctor claimed to have a way to undo what he’d done, and that’s what he was going to do, then he’d study them and reinject them. Something Whitney didn't believe they could survive and given that the woman was a genius who had created the original version of the drug, he believed her.
That couldn’t be allowed to happen, and if necessary, he was prepared to sacrifice himself to make sure the others got away.
Although he’d been wiping out every guard they came across, there would be plenty of time for them to have realized who they were fighting against and called it in to their boss. There was no way Dr. Gardner would pass up an opportunity to try to get them back in his clutches.
Which meant more and more guards would come.
On his own, he could make quick work of getting himself out of the woods, but carrying around an injured woman who was in and out of consciousness slowed him down significantly.
Not that that was changing his mind.
Indigo was an innocent. He might not know yet how she’d wound up in one of Dr. Gardner’s labs, but she was one of them, and that made her family. Protecting her was already a done deal, but she needed more than just protection.
She needed healing.
Deciding he’d put enough distance between himself and the last lot of guards he’d seen, Voodoo found a small cave and headed toward it. After killing those first guards when he was pretty sure Indigo had believed he was going to do as she asked and leave her behind, he’d had to stop another three times to kill more of those cockroaches. Each time he used Indigo as bait, and each time it worked like a charm.
Now, though, he needed some time to examine her properly.
Once inside the small cave, Voodoo stooped and set Indigo down on the ground. It was cold and dirty, and he needed to get her into something warmer. Even with the enhanced ability to withstand cold he believed she had, she was sick, and he couldn’t take anything for granted.
First things first, though, he had to know if she’dbeen tagged.
Rifling through his pack, he brought out a scanner and began to run it up and down her body in search of a tracking device that could have been planted on her without her knowledge. He was pretty sure that if she knew she’d been tagged, she would have let him know before they left the facility or along the way. But since she was running a high temperature, he couldn’t guarantee she was thinking clearly.
Especially with how determined she was to have him leave her behind. And he wasn't even willing to think about the fact that she’d actually asked him to kill her.
What the hell kind of life had this woman lived that she could decide she’d rather die than go back to it?
A worry for a different day for sure. Right now, he needed to see what he was dealing with medically. He would have loved for there to be time to do a proper examination before now. He didn't like the pasty color of her skin, the sweat dotting her brow despite the freezing winter temperatures, or the way her breathing had worsened over the last few hours.
Sometimes when she woke, she was barely coherent, mumbling over and over again that she didn't want him to die because of her and that he should leave her behind. Voodoo had given up trying to convince her that wasn’t happening. All he could do for Indigo now was keep her alive, get her healthy, and then once she’d been debriefed and started to feel safe, dig into her past and find out who had hurt her to the point where she literally chose death over life.
When the scanner didn't indicate any trackers on her, he relaxed a little more. They might still be spotted, but at least he knew that no one was systematically working their way to this location because they knew Indigo was there.
Now that was out of the way, he touched his fingertips to her neck again to check her pulse. It was a hell of a lot faster than he would have liked, and he wasn't happy that he could hear each harsh intake of air with every breath she took.
Pulling the pair of pants he’d dressed her in down her legs, he tried to work carefully, to ease them down without causing her pain, but Indigo didn't even rouse. That was some hell of a pain tolerance the experimental drugs had given her.
Too bad they didn't prevent her from getting this sick.
He couldn’t do much for her leg without an X-ray to make sure the bones were in the proper place, so he focused on the cuts littering her skin. From the looks of them, he’d guess some were a few months old, meaning that was likely how long she’d been with Dr. Gardner.
Three in particular concerned him.
They were deep, and the stitches looked like they’d been put in by someone with no experience. Since he assumed Indigo was that person, he could mark off some sort of medical career as her job.
Pus oozed out of all three wounds, and the skin around the edges of the wounds was red and enflamed. There was no way these weren't going to leave horrible scars behind. But as long as he could get the infection out of her body, he doubted Indigo would mind.
Using what he had in his med kit, Voodoo moved from one to the other, cleaning them as thoroughly as he could, wincing every time he was sure he must have hurt her, only to find that the pain didn't even register. Once they were thoroughly washed and all rebandaged, he pulled out an IV bag. He’d add antibiotics to the fluids so he could both rehydrate her and work on making her better at the same time. Voodoo would also add painkillers. It didn’t matter that she seemed all but impervious to it, he wasn't risking it when she was weak and vulnerable, and they weren't someplace safe.
Once the IV was set up, delivering the much-needed medication, he rocked back on his heels and looked down at his pretty patient. Now that he had the time to look at her properly, he couldn’t help but notice that she was gorgeous. High cheekbones, pouty lips, a slim figure with just the right amount of curves to get his blood heating. While closed at the moment, he knew she had eyes the warmest shade of brown, and given that she’d been more worried about him than herself, he knew she was a good person with a big heart.
“You're safe now, Indy,” he murmured as he brushed his knuckles across the overheated skin at her temple. The nickname came easily, and something warm bloomed in his chest as he looked down at the unconscious woman.
