“Stay down,” she hissed.
The second operative from the SUV was circling wide, trying to flank them while the first kept them pinned.
The operative from the truck held back, waiting for a clear shot. She popped up, firing at the flanking operative, missed, and ducked back down. Return fire chipped the van’s side panel near her face.
“Reed, when I move, you run into the woods behind the station.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“That was an order. Not a request.”
The operative she’d hit was advancing again. Blood coated his sleeve, but his arm was still functional. She put two rounds inhis chest. The body armor absorbed most of it, but the impact staggered him.
The flanking operative was almost to their position.
“Reed, run!”
She pivoted and shot at the flanking operative. Reed didn’t run. He shifted. A massive grizzly appeared where the nerdy engineer had just been standing. The operatives froze for a split second. That was all it took.
Reed hit the operative flanking them like a freight train. His massive claws tore through the body armor like paper. The operative screamed and the sound was cut off abruptly. Siren used the distraction as cover. The operative she’d wounded was still distracted by the bear. She aimed and put a bullet through his skull.
The third operative near the truck pulled out a rifle and aimed it at Reed. Siren closed in, Glock held at the ready. Seconds before she was in range for a shot, the rifle fired. She aimed for his head, shot, the bullet cracking through his skull like a melon.
He fell as she whirled toward Reed. The bullet had pierced his flank. Blood gushed, spreading on the concrete. She ran to him as his body contracted, reshaping and becoming human again.
Reed fell to the ground, naked and covered in blood. A bullet wound slashed across his side.
“Reed,” she screamed, pressing her hand to the gushing wound.
“I’m okay.” His voice was rough. “I’m okay.”
The bullet had grazed him. It wasn’t so deep that it hit an artery, but he was bleeding freely.
“We need to get out of here,” she said, ripping off her sweater to press to his side.
The gas station attendant screamed at them from the doorway. Siren pulled Reed up from the ground, pressing the sweater to his wound, and helped him into the passenger seat of the van.
As she was rushing to the driver’s side, she noticed a phone falling out of a fallen operative’s pocket. She crouched, grabbing the phone before jumping into the van.
She drove off the road to get past the SUV and gunned it down the highway.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Everything was a blur.Police sirens blared behind them. The van’s engine roared. Siren’s hands were steady on the wheel, navigating through the back roads as they put distance between them and the carnage at the gas station.
Reed was in the passenger seat, wrapped in a blanket, Siren’s sweater soaked with blood against his ribs. He felt dizzy and lightheaded from blood loss.
“We need to find a place to stop to patch you up,” he heard her saying, though it sounded like her voice was underwater.
Siren kept driving through the rural county roads, the full moon bright overhead. Finally, she came to a stop on a dirt road, surrounded by trees.
“Where are we?” he asked, as she cut the engine and pulled off her seatbelt.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, helping him into the back of the van.
He sat heavily on the bed while Siren tore open the first aid kit. Her hands were shaking when she knelt in front of him.
