JAKE
“Max?”I dragged myself over to him, ignoring the pain shooting down my leg. It was already starting to heal, but every movement made my bones grind, enough to make me want to throw up.
He shifted back as I reached him, his injuries looking so much worse without fur to hide them. I reached for his hand, gripping it tight. “Max,” I tried again, but his eyes fluttered closed, his fingers going slack in mine.
“What the fuck happened?” Elliot crouched down next to Max, gaze flicking back to me as he grabbed a blanket from the chair next to him and pressed it against Max’s wounds. “Why would he attack you like that?”
I slumped back against the sofa, still unwilling to let go of Max. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” He glared at me before glancing down at my leg. “Fuck, that’s going to heal wrong if we don’t fix it.”
Tying the blanket around Max’s chest, he then grabbed my jeans and tore the rest of that leg down the middle, exposing my broken bones. And yes, it was healing, but not how it should be, but Max’s blood was pooling underneath him and showing no signs of fucking stopping. I batted his hands away. “Help Max, not me. He’s fuckingdying, Elliot.”
“He’s not dying,” he said, but his words lacked conviction. He prodded along my leg, making me hiss in pain. “He’s not good,” he added, positioning his hands. “But he’snotfucking dying.”
“Not yet, but if you don’t—”
I roared as white-hot pain flared down the whole length of my leg.
Elliot sat back with a grimace as I struggled to get my breathing under control.
As the pain gradually subsided to a dull throb, I peeled my claws from the carpet and glared at him. “A little warning would’ve been nice.”
“Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry. “I thought it’d be better if I just did it.” And we were in a hurry. He didn’t say as much but he’d already turned back to check on Max.
Unwrapping the blanket, he grimaced at the amount of blood covering it. “Fuck.” His hands trembled as he traced the damage Xen’s claws had left on Max’s body. “They’re not healing as fast as they should.”
I fucking knew it.My heart dropped, fingers tightening around Max’s. The injuries Xen had inflicted were deep, too much for Max’s body to deal with all at once. Even shifter healing had its limits. I wanted to yell at Elliot for wasting time on me when Max was bleeding out on the fucking floor, but I swallowed it all down. That wouldn’t help anyone. “We need to close that wound or there’s a chance he could…” My voice faltered, the words getting stuck in my throat.
“I know.” Elliot quickly retied the blanket and stood, hands fisting his hair. His wild gaze flicked around the living room before landing on me. “But what the fuck do we use to sew him up? First aid kit?” he asked. He looked doubtful, and ordinarily I wouldn’t blame him. No shifter I knew kept a human first aid kit.
Except one.
“Max has one in the boot of his car. It’s got everything in it.” Because he’d wanted to be prepared to helpanyone. “Spare keys are by the door.”
He was gone before I’d finished speaking.
“Hang in there,” I whispered, smoothing the hair back from Max’s forehead. He was as pale as I’d ever seen him. Frighteningly so, and it seemed to take forever for Elliot to reappear clutching that fucking first aid kit.
Sinking to his knees, he gently pulled the blanket from Max’s body and tossed it aside. The scent of blood hung heavy in the air, and it took all my control not to react. The last thing my body needed right then was to shift.
“Here.” Elliot passed me a pack of antiseptic wipes. “Can you clean his skin while I get the needle and thread ready?”
It was awkward from my position on the floor, but I did as he asked, carefully wiping away the blood around the wounds on his chest and shoulder. “It’s not stopping.” I bit my lip to prevent a whine escaping.
“Shit.” Elliot fumbled the packaging in his haste. “Move back.”
I watched, helpless, as Elliot struggled to sew Max’s torn body back together. It was crude and ugly, and if Max was human would probably have done more harm than good, but as Elliot sat back on his knees a while later, I could already see a difference.
Colour had returned to Max’s face. Not much, but he was no longer the deathly grey that had terrified me.
“Goddess.” Elliot lifted shaking hands covered in blood and stared at them. “I never want to do that again.Ever.”
I never wanted to watch him do it either.
“I need to wash my hands.” He stood without another word and disappeared in the direction of the downstairs toilet.
I sat there and held Max’s hand as the enormity of what had just happened finally started to sink in.
