“Y-yes, but it won’t heal me.”
The older man smiled the coldest sneer she’d ever seen. “I don’t need it to heal you. I only need to how well it works on your pain. See if it slows the bleeding, as Anderson claimed. What more efficient way to cause pain and bleeding, than a bullet?”
Kat knew the second he decided to pull the trigger. It was the same second she moved to grab the glass beaker.
There was a loud bang before the bullet struck. At the exact same moment, Kat screamed as she threw the beaker as hard as she could, aiming directly where Bukhari was standing.
She flew back from the force of the bullet, landing on the floor as the entire room filled with a rush of incinerating heat. Her ears filled with a deafening ringing, making it impossible for her to hear anything but.
Overwhelming pain filled her entire left side. Its long, sharp nails digging their way through her abdomen, taking with them her ability to breathe.
Tempted to close her eyes and let the pain sweep her away, Kat’s memory wouldn’t allow it. A flash of the syringe she’d hidden in the toilet flew through her mind, and she knew if she had any hopes of surviving, she had to get to it.
Unable to hold back her groan, Kat pushed to her side, nearly losing consciousness from the trauma she’d just endured. She tried to keep her breaths even, but smoke filled her lungs every time she inhaled.
Coughing—which only exacerbated the pain—Kat miraculously made her way to her feet. Stumbling back, she fought against the spinning room to try and see where Bukhari had landed.
Through flames and dark smoke, she finally found him lying in a heap on the floor near the back. She could tell he was bleeding, though she wasn’t sure of the source. And he wasn’t moving.
At least I hurt the bastard.
Expecting his men to come rushing in at any second, Kat ignored the flames licking at her skin as she stumbled over the half-open door. The force of the blast had almost blown it off its hinges, and somewhere in the back of her muddled mind, Kat understood her falling backward from being shot may very well have saved her life.
Irony’s an even bigger bitch than Fate.
Shaking her head to clear the useless thoughts, and the incessant ringing, Kat kept a hand pressed tightly against her wound while using the other to support herself while walking along the hallway wall.
Warm blood oozed from between her fingers, and though she had no way of knowing exactly what damage the bullet had done, Kat knew if she didn’t slow the bleeding, she’d be dead before she ever got the chance to escape.
The serum. I have to make it to the serum.
Several muffled voices broke through the ringing. They sounded as if they were coming from behind her, but Kat refused to stop and check.
She thought she heard Bukhari’s strained voice barking orders but didn’t risk slowing down to see if he was coming after her.
“There!” Kat hear the muted voice from behind her. “She’s down there!”
“I’ll take care of her,” Bukhari shouted. “You gather what you can and get out. I’ll meet you at the estate.”
Someone said something she couldn’t make out, followed by Bukhari’s very clear, “I said the bitch is mine!”
With a quick look back, Kat was opening the bathroom door when she saw Bukhari fall as he tried climbing over the rubble at the lab’s entrance. Their eyes met, and he pointed the gun at her again.
Kat screamed as a bullet hit the bathroom’s doorframe as she slammed it shut. Locking it—which was a ridiculous waste of time given that the door was made of wood and the man had bullets—she stumbled over to the toilet.
Hands slick with blood, Kat grunted from pain as she lifted the heavy lid off and let it fall to the floor. The white ceramic broke instantly, splintering into two, jagged pieces.
She spotted the syringe and reached for it, her wet and bloody fingers fumbling to get the plastic end unscrewed. After dropping it twice, Kat lifted her soaked and sticky scrub top, exposing where she’d been shot.
With no needle, she couldn’t inject herself with the serum the way it was meant to be treated. Instead, she chose the next best thing.
Praying this worked, she bit her lip, took a deep breath, and pushed the end of the plastic tube directly into the wound in hopes of introducing it into her bloodstream more quickly. Kat was unable to hold back guttural sound as she growled against the pain.
The stinging she’d felt earlier when Bukhari had injected her was nothing compared to what she felt now. An enraged wildfire spread through the wound, taking over her entire internal core to the point she was sure she was dying.
But then, the impossible happened.
Within seconds, the burning began to subside. Her heart rate slowed back to normal, and Kat no longer felt the pain as she had before.
