Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  I wrapped his whole upper arm in a strip of press-n-seal plastic wrap that would hopefully keep it somewhat protected. “I wish I could suture it, but I really need more light. Plus I’d rather have Tai do that, I’ve only ever stitched myself up and I’m not sure I could handle shoving needles into your wounded arm.”

  “I’d be concerned about how fast you did that — practically one-handed and in the dark — and how you just carry all that stuff with you, and also you stitching yourself up, but I know you getting cut is a big deal,” Sev whispered in my ear from behind, and I shivered, “so I’m just going to block this all out.”

  “Wonder Woman,” Spider rasped out, bobbing his head. His fingers slipped from the bar overhead from the movement, but he caught himself, and we stared at each other, wide-eyed and scared.

  “We gotta get out from under here while you still have some strength,” I said, and Spider nodded slowly. “Don’t even think about it. I mean it: you drop, I drop. And I know Sev will follow. So get that out of your pretty little head.”

  “I’m going to climb up,” Sev said gruffly. “Az, get your bag back into place. I’ll hold you while you swing your legs around to sit like I’m sitting, and then you’re going to use your legs to hold him up, okay?”

  I nodded, already closing my pack up with stiff fingers and hands sticky with blood — Spider’s and my own. I’d scraped my palm on the sidewalk, and I think he broke the skin when he bit down on my other hand. I untwisted my pack straps and wiggled it around to my back again. Sev helped, one-handed, to get my straps back over my shoulders where I caught them and clipped them in place, and I checked all the fastenings again before holding onto the railing with one hand while Sev helped guide me into place on the beam.

  “This is unbelievably uncomfortable,” I hissed as I straddled the beam.

  “Try it with a twig and berries,” he muttered, showing me where to place my feet to give my ass and thighs some respite from the metal bar shoved up between my legs. “Get your knee behind his back, yeah, like that. And if you hang on here, that angle should help brace him up. Good. Okay, hold on kids. I’ll make sure the coast is clear then we can climb out of here.”

  Sev uncoiled and seemed to ripple up and around the side of the bridge like a snake, like every muscle was under his full control and could act independently. If I didn’t think it was a thing of beauty to watch, I’d be mad at him for making it look so easy.

  Spider’s hand slipped again as Sev’s feet disappeared above us. I cursed and squeezed my legs together, locking them, as he fumbled to get his grip, then realized this was our very best chance of hanging on because my arms might not be strong enough, but my legs were long and decently muscled from all the biking I did. I scooched my ass forward even more, carefully moving my grip on the pipes, until my left knee was butting up over his thigh.

  “Hold on, love,” I said softly, then wriggled around until I had my legs wrapped fully around his waist from the side, my ankles locked together, and my chest pressed up against his bad arm. Both of my arms were stretched up, and I was holding onto the bars above with both hands. “Sorry for this, but I can’t let you fall,” I apologized when I saw him wince at the contact, and he nodded. The relief I saw — he didn’t want to fall anymore than I was willing to let him.

  “You are, you know.” I said, conversationally. He tilted his head back and looked at me with a wrinkled brow. “My love. Not going to let you go, Spider, not ever, not as long as I’m breathing. You understand? I’ve got you.”

  He nodded, and my eyes stung a bit as I saw how hard he was trying to hold on.

  “It’s okay, baby, I’ve got us both,” I promised, squeezing my legs around him, “you can let go, rest your arm for a bit.”

  “No,” he rasped out, “I’ll get unbalanced. I’ve got an idea. Can you tilt your pelvis towards me?”

  I did, arching my back, and he fumbled with his bad arm but managed to undo my belt buckle, and drag my belt out of the loops. Once it was free, he lifted that arm up, groaning at the pain, and tossed the buckle end through the railing. It looped through on the first try, thank God, and he rebuckled it so it formed a ring of leather around the bar. Sliding his good arm over and into it, he twisted it around his wrist and hand a couple times before gripping the bar again.

  “That should help,” he said, going for his own belt next. “Gonna make one for you too.”

  “I love you,” I said, tears prickling my eyes as he used his injured arm to free his belt from his pants, loop it around the railing, refasten the buckle, and slide it closer to me. From just that little extra bit of support, the relief on my shoulders was immediate and profound; I finally believed we might make it out of this situation alive.

  “Gotta admit,” he said, sounding drunk, “not how I imagined getting you tied up with your legs wrapped around me.”

  “Yeah?” I said. “Me neither. Though this soreness in my ass seems about right.”

  “I love you back, Azzie. You’re my everything.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Azzie

  It took all four of them to get us out of there.

  It was maybe about five minutes from the time Sev left before he and Luka were climbing back down to us — Sasha and Tai were up on top on lookout and lifting duties — and they told us that all the helicopters had moved north and west of the school, into the neighborhoods surrounding it. It looked like the ground troops had everyone that had been in the parking lot contained and were searching the school. There was no other gunfire. We had a very short window to get off the bridge into what appeared to be a park to the south of us.

  Luka took our packs up first while Sev rigged an elaborate harness around Spider’s chest with a shank of rope from his pack — because every good player knows you don’t go on any adventure without fifty feet of rope at least. With that in place, Sev took the end of the rope up top and then, with their assistance, Spider was able to climb up the side of the bridge one-handed.

  Sev was back within a minute of Spider’s feet disappearing up above — I know because I counted— and then he was rigging me up in a similar harness, and it was amazingly comfortable. It wrapped above and below my breasts, with a diamond shape of rope in between them, and he even looped it around my hips and between my legs so I was almost wearing a bikini made out of rope over my clothes. And he was so fast, the rope was woven and twisted and knotted up quicker than I could even follow.

  “You’re really good at this,” I said, running my hand over the rope web that circled me. “This is actually really comfortable and secure feeling — is it weird that it makes me feel safe in a way?”

  He bit his lip and shook his head. “Nope,” he said, gruffly, and cleared his throat. “No, that’s good. It’s good you like it.”

  “You’ve done this a lot? Were you, like, a boy scout or something?” I was beginning to feel weirdly spacey and light. Peaceful. The way the rope was sliding, even over my clothes, was a bit, umm, stimulating between my legs and over my breasts.

  “Something like that,” he leaned in and kissed me, then took our belts and the end of the rope and did his snake-thing to flow up the side. I moved to climb after him and he stopped me. “Just give me about twenty seconds to get up top. I’ll give a tug on the rope when you can start climbing, okay? I want to make sure it’s secure before you move.”

  I nodded, not at all sad to have a few seconds alone with the sensations the rope was giving me. I squirmed a little, making it rub, and then shivered at the pulse of pleasure coming from between my legs. Almost too soon, I felt a tug on the rope — oh my gawd! — and shook off the weird malaise that had gripped me.

  I got my feet underneath me, crouched and off-balance, reaching for the next bar above me to help me stand up on the beam, when my hand slipped. I’d forgotten my palm was still bleeding. I fell forward, missing every single handhold, and ended up dangling from the rope, staring down at the black water below with an almost bemused detachment. It was
so pretty and peaceful here, I felt like a bird—

  “Azzie?” That sounded like a worried Luka calling my name.

  “AZZIE—” the louder voice could’ve been Sasha?

  “She’s in subspace,” I heard Sev’s voice explain, but the words didn’t make sense. “She slipped in almost immediately when I got the ropes around her, serious to Christ. We’re going to have to dead-lift her up, she’s not focusing very well.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I think that was Tai. Or Spider? Mmm… Spai.

  “She’s exhausted, hasn’t eaten, and her adrenaline crashed, so yeah.”

  It sounded like Luka was laughing as the rope jerked and I moved up in the air.

  “Azzie,” Sev said in a firm, commanding tone. I lifted my head and looked up over my shoulder. He was staring down at me from over the side of the bridge as I slowly rose towards him. “You need to catch hold of the bridge when you get close, don’t let yourself swing freely, you’ll scrape against it and hurt yourself. Understand?”

  “Y-yes,” I said, wanting him to know I heard him and would do what he said, so he’d be happy with me.

  “You’re doing really well, just another few seconds and we’ll have you up here with us.”

  I nodded. The side of the bridge was getting close. The rope jerked and I swung a bit, but held out my arm and stopped myself from hitting it.

  “Perfect, Azzie, you did exactly what I said. As soon as you can get a handhold, you have to try to climb, okay? Yes, just like that, now get your feet in place— I got you!” He was gripping my forearm, and I had ahold of his, and then Sasha had my other arm, and I was being lifted up and over the railing and standing on the bridge.

  Tai was over by the abandoned car, rewrapping Spider’s arm, saying I did a good job on it and it would hold up until we were safer. I beamed up at Sev who held my cheeks between his hands, leaning down to kiss my forehead and murmur words of approval, while Sasha and Luka unwrapped the rope from around me, both kissing me on the forehead as well, and Sasha even gave me a quick cuddle.

  Spider collected his rifle from inside the car where he’d tossed it, we got our packs in place, gear in hand, and then Luka took Mouse’s pack from me and handed it to Tai. He lifted me up and told me to wrap my legs around his waist and arms around his neck, then started running again, with my pack of Vikings and commandos trailing slightly behind and falling back farther as Spider slowed.

  “It’s faster,” he said, chuckling. “Even with your backpack throwing me off balance. Just until we get to the woods then you can walk again.”

  “Was I complaining?” I asked, really not sad about being carried at all. “Do you think we’ll be able to actually rest for a bit, once we get into the trees? I’m so tired, and I need to eat something.”

  “Yes. We’ll have a few minutes while Spider spies on the school, but then we’ll have to keep going. I can carry you if I need to, you weigh almost nothing, Az.”

  “Blah blah blah… you know that might change now, right? Now that I’m not overdosing on iron,” I hadn’t wanted to say anything, it seemed foolish to pin so many hopes on something that might not matter at all, but I had been feeling better. I’d managed all of this without passing out or turning into a gelatinous cube — maybe I couldn’t run as fast, but I’d kept Spider from falling under that bridge, and that wasn’t nothing.

  “Haven’t wanted to say anything, but yeah, that’s been on my mind,” he sounded weird, almost… tender? I tilted my head back to see his face, and he was smiling at me, and there was a little shine in his eyes that I didn’t want to think about. I rested my chin on his shoulder again. “I’m — we’re — really hopeful, getting more so every day you’re out here, busting your ass more than we ever thought you could.”

  “Me too, Luka.” I snuck a quick peck against his temple and felt him smile against my cheek.

  We’d reached the other side and were heading towards a line of trees that seemed to indicate a park or nature area running along the side of the five lane road that continued over the bridge. Opposite us, on the other side of the street, was a squat, brick building surrounded by a parking lot and then more trees and green space beyond that. I only had a small amount of time before we stopped and the others caught up, so I seized the opportunity.

  “Luka, what’s subspace?”

  He stumbled a bit but recovered, hitching me back up in his arms. “You heard that, didja?”

  “I did.”

  “It’s, uh… something that makes my brothers really happy,” he teased. I was beginning to get the idea.

  “But not you?” I asked, coyly.

  He chuckled. “Not really into that myself, but it certainly doesn’t make me unhappy.”

  “It’s a sex thing, right?”

  “Mmhmm.” I could feel him laughing again even though he had his mouth squeezed shut.

  “Well, if it involves ropes again, I’m in. That was— I liked it.”

  He let out a hiss of breath, laughing weakly. “Oh, Azzie-pie, you’re going to make Sev so happy.”

  “Just Sev? I thought you said brothers, plural.”

  “Sev likes the ropes, Sasha likes… other things.”

  “Oh. Like what?”

  “I’m not ruining the surprise.”

  I bent my head and growled “Tell me!” in his ear and bit the lobe, and then my legs were dropping down because he’d let them go to grab my face, and we were kissing again, and again it was full-throttle from the first second, tongues battling it out inside my mouth, then his, then mine again, lips bruising from the force of it. I tried climbing back up him but couldn’t do it on my own, so instead I was going to drag him down to the ground with me — that was working really well before— gotta get some of these clothes off—

  “Seriously, guys? AGAIN?”

  I was hauled off Luka by my backpack, again, and turned to lay a beating on whoever it was that interrupted us, but okay… it was all four of them, and they were all looking upset and disapproving and maybe a little frustrated, and I took a deep breath instead.

  “Is this going to happen every time Luka carries you?” Tai asked, and he sounded angry but then his mouth started curling up and he had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. I narrowed my eyes at him, and looked at the others more carefully.

  Yeah, they all had super serious and/or angry expressions, but it was totally fake! Sasha’s eyes were all crinkled up like he gets when he’s laughing, and Sev had to look away because he couldn’t maintain his mean-mug when confronted head-on, and Spider— well, Spider was looking a little pale. Amused, yeah, but also like he really needed to get some rest and have that arm looked at.

  I glanced around. Yep, we were well inside the tree-line.

  “Spider, sit down before you fall down. Sev, get him some water and something sweet and carb-y for the blood loss — if you don’t have anything, I’ve got more protein bars in my bag that I can’t eat because they’re the kind loaded with iron. Sasha, you and Luka take the binoculars and go check on the school. Tai, we need to get Spider’s arm stitched up — I think the edges are too ragged for superglue, but I’ve got a few pre-threaded sutures—”

  “So bossy.”

  “She’s not wrong.”

  “Why do two of us need to go look at the school? I can stitch up Spider’s arm!”

  “Like you stitched up Nik’s teddy bear?”

  “It wasn’t leaking stuffing, was it?”

  “You sewed its arm to its ear to cover a tiny rip.”

  “And it always gave her high-fives after that, didn’t it? That’s called being supportive and celebrating the wins.”

  “You aren’t touching my arm.”

  “Fine!” I hissed. “Luka, go scout ahead, make sure we’re not heading right for an outpost or something.”

  They scattered, and I bit back my smile right up until I got to Spider, who was grinning openly. “You love bossing us around, don’t you.”

  “I do. I really,
really do.”

  We’d been concealed in the trees for fifteen minutes.

  I know it was that long because Spider kept obsessively checking his watch — a massive steel and leather thing that looked super sexy on his wrist… and I thought maybe my hormones were way out of control if I was drooling over the way his watch looked against the veins and tendons and muscles of his forearms.

  “We need to go,” he said for the twentieth time as Tai continued to methodically clean, stitch, and bind his wound, ignoring his brother. The others had returned, and Sev was helping me clean up my hands while Sasha and Luka examined the map using the bare minimum light from our signal flashlight, their faces lit up and weird looking in the green glow reflecting off the paper.

  “Eat another protein bar,” I whisper-shouted at him, digging one out of my bag with my free hand as Sev finished bandaging my palm. Spider had broken the skin in two places on my index finger and the area between my thumb and finger, and that had taken a lot of time to clean thoroughly with wipes since I’d used all my liquid alcohol. It also hurt really bad — I never realized how much worse a bite was than other puncture wounds, it felt like every tooth had left an individual bruise.

  The bandage covering my index finger read “SPITEFUL GASH” and the one over the webbing on my thumb said “CROTCH GOBLINS.” Those girls… this was a gift that just keeps on giving.