Page 83 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 2

Chapter thirty-five

The blast was deafening, and the heat seared along any part of my skin that was remotely exposed. My head was ringing and the weight of Victor’s body over mine had me panicking when he didn’t move as I wriggled out from under him. Dust and debris were everywhere making me cough and my eyes water. Rolling Victor over, I saw a mark where he must have hit his head when he fell, creating a dark bruise and bleeding as head wounds do. Pressing my ear to his chest, I could hear his heart beating steadily, putting me a little more at ease.

“Help!” a man screamed.

Sitting up, I scanned the area trying to figure out where the call was coming from. I spotted Lucian and Savo, who’d managed to get behind a crumbling wall saving them from the worst of it. Cris dropped next to me, grabbing my face and looking me over.

“I’m fine. Victor shielded me with his body, but I think he knocked himself unconscious,” I said, realizing that I was shouting at him with my ear still ringing.

He said something to me, but I couldn’t understand. I tried to shake my head, except he was holding me firmly. Then I realized the look on his face told me something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?” I begged, grabbing his wrists.

Petru stumbled over with one sleeve missing from his jacket and his arm exposed showing a terrible burn. Horrified at the sight of it, I started to hyperventilate.

“Sweetheart, you need to calm down,” Cris soothed. “The faster your heart beats, the more blood you’re going to lose.”

“What?” I gasped. “I’m not hurt, Cris. Where am I bleeding from?”

“You can’t feel it? There is no pain at all?”

“Tell. Me,” I pleaded.

Licking his lips, he moved one hand down my neck just above my clavicle. “You feel nothing right here?”

I was going to shake my head but clearly, he didn’t want me to do that. “No, I’m in no pain other than my head pounding. I’m pretty sure everyone is going to feel that way, however.”

“Lodged in this spot here is a chunk of metal. It looks pretty deep, so I don’t want to remove it when I don’t know what damage it’s done,” Cris explained.

“Danella,” Lucian called, as he and Savo reached us. “Oh fuck,” he gasped at seeing my neck.

“Cris, what do you need to deal with this?” Savo asked.

Looking over at the Alpha, he let out a huff of laughter. “Any chance you got a way to fly us back to the South so I can get her to our medical facility there?”

“Done,” Savo stated.

That shocked us all.

“You have working helicopters?” Sorin demanded. “Why are you telling us this now? Do you know how much that would have changed the game if we’d been able to use those?”

“Yeah, which is why we never offered them,” Savo stated as he pulled out a satellite phone. “Marius, we need the fleet of medevac helicopters to Stalhold City now. The fucking bastard set off a bomb he hid in his wheelchair. I’ll need to take one so we can get Danella to the Med Center in the South, and the rest can go back to our hospitals.” There was a pause and a few exchanges of yes and no answers then he hung up. “They should be here soon enough. Do you have what you need to at least make her stable enough until they arrive?”

Cris nodded and started to pull things out of his pack. “Once I get her situated, then I’ll start checking on others. Can one of you coordinate an area to put everyone?”

“On it,” Petru said and started to walk off.

Lucian grabbed his uninjured arm. “Whoa, you stay with Dani once he’s done with whatever he needs to do for her. That arm of yours isn’t going to allow you to be much help to anyone. I'll coordinate a triage area.”

Petru accepted the reality and stayed with me. Once Cris wrapped the piece of metal to make sure it was secure, he was off to help others. Savo had brought five other medics along, but none had the experience that Cris did, so he needed to give them a fair amount of guidance. I was carefully moved to the triage area near one of the blasted holes along with Victor, who’d woken up with a pounding headache. Petru joined the efforts to search the site under the condition he wouldn’t lift anything. Toma and Sorin were relatively unharmed, just battered and bruised with some cuts on any exposed skin. Out of all of us, I was the one who’d been hurt the worst.

They’d managed to get everyone accounted for by the time the helicopters arrived and landed outside the city. Men with stretchers started to carry everyone out with instructions from Cris. Some had started IV bags and pain meds given for transport now that we had the supplies. Then it was my turn.

“All of you go. I will stay here until you guys get back,” Savo promised. “Just worry about your family, Lucian. No one will be taking this city from me. Rick will be on his way with the rest of your troops.”

The two clasped arms in a manly hug and Lucian jogged to catch up with us. Getting strapped in and flown out of the city was a wild experience. One I’m not sure I’d like to do again. I preferred my feet on the ground, but the guys seemed to enjoy it. My bigger fear though was what would happen when we landed outside the Mraz Command outpost.

Here we are in an Oscadian helicopter, something no one has seen in their lifetime, with the new leader of the North and their bonded Omega no one knew about. Oh, and then there was the fact that Sorin and his unit had disappeared for over two months without communication. This wasn’t going to go well. The second we touched down, the helicopter was surrounded with shouts for them to turn the engine off and put their hands up.