by Jeff Hale
I didn’t know how long I lay there screaming, but eventually I no longer had the strength to continue, the sounds dissolving into whimpers, tears running down my face.
Get a grip, girl, just breathe! You’re out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, there’s no one to help you but yourself!
I took a deep steadying breath, trying to move, gasping as pain radiated through my head, but managing to roll onto my stomach. Stars danced at the edge of my vision, nausea welling into my throat.
I clamped my lips shut, willing the nausea away. No way did I want to puke and possibly end up with my face in it. I felt a strange prickling sensation in my head and the nausea receded some, but I didn’t think I would be up for anything strenuous any time soon.
Bits of light glinted off something just a little bit up the hill from me. I lifted my head, my vision wavering briefly before it dawned on me that it was the bike. Its handlebars had caught against the trunk of a hemlock tree.
I began to crawl toward it, wincing at the tenderness in my left knee. I could still move it, it wasn’t broken, but it hurt like a bitch. I seemed to have lucked out with the rest of my limbs; they were sore and ached, but they worked. I had to dig in to make sure I didn’t slide any further down the hill. My knee didn’t like it, the strain making my head swim, but I finally managed to get myself up to the bike. I almost wished I hadn’t. Hysteria began to bubble up in me and I could feel myself start to hyperventilate.
He was on his back, trapped underneath the rear half of the bike and he wasn’t moving. Dark wetness covered his face and the entire upper left side of his body. I couldn’t hear him breathing.
“Darien?” My voice was high, breathy, a little on the frantic side. “Darien!”
I pulled myself closer, reaching out to lay a hand on the unbloody side of his neck, trying not to sob when I didn’t feel a pulse at first. And then there it was, a weak little thump against my fingers, followed by another. He finally took a shallow ragged breath.
High pitched laughter broke from me, I couldn’t help it, and I stroked the side of his face, more to soothe my own nerves than anything else. I wasn’t sure what to do. I might be able to crawl up to the road, but I doubted it, and I didn’t want to leave Darien down here by himself. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to get both of us up there. I sagged into the ground, trying not to panic again, shifting when my phone dug into my chest.
I almost started laughing again. My phone. It was in the inside pocket of my jacket. I just hoped it hadn’t broken in the fall.
I rolled onto my side, pulling down my jacket zipper and fumbling for the inside pocket. My fingers closed around it, pulling it out and flipping it open.
Please work!
I sighed in relief as it lit up, immediately pressing the nine key. I hesitated on the one, not sure why, but some instinct was warning me that dialing those three numbers was not what I wanted to do. A wave of dizziness passed over me and I suddenly felt so very tired that all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go to sleep. I quickly hit the speed dial for Kris’s cell phone. It rang three times before Kris answered it.
“Heya, Kat, what’s up?”
I breathed into the phone, trying to form words as it became harder to draw in air, and heard her laugh.
“I can guess what’s up,” she said.
She must have thought that maybe the phone had dialed by accident while Darien and I were… busy.
“I’ll let you go then.”
“No, wait…” I choked out.
“Are you okay, Kat?” There was sudden concern in her voice and I could hear voices asking her what was wrong.
“No… we… was an accident… need help…”
“Oh, God! Where are you?” Kris’s voice rose in alarm.
“Old scenic highway… not too far from Netarts… I’m not sure…” My voice was a hoarse whisper and I realized that it was getting harder for me to talk. The air seemed thick and blackness was closing in.
“Shit, I don’t know where anyplace is out here! Matt! Hold on, Kat, here’s Matt!”
“Kat?” It was Matt. “What happened?”
I panted into the phone for a few seconds. “Gunshot… off the road… old scenic way…” The sentence took the last I had out of me and I felt darkness envelope me, my name coming from the phone the last thing I heard as the world went black.
____________________
I awoke to hushed murmurs, the softness of a mattress beneath me as I lay on my back. My left hand was being held by someone and as I tried to pull away the grip only tightened, followed by a noise of protest.
I opened my eyes, struggling to sit up, a single word coming from my lips. “Darien!” Pain spiked through my knee and I collapsed back down to the mattress, the light from an overhead fixture stinging my eyes. I knew I was in a bed, but when I glanced around it looked like we were in a small dining room and that the bed was actually a very comfortable hide-a-bed.
“It’s okay, just lie still.” Kris sat next to the bed, looking worried and tired. She perked up when she saw my eyes were open. I heard Matt talking in the background, what sounded like a phone conversation.
I inhaled, realizing that it felt easier to breathe and move now, but I knew what I had felt and tasted earlier. Shock must have just been masking my injuries.
“Okay, Kris. How bad is it?” I whispered it, but she smiled at the sound of my voice.
“Oh, it’s good to hear you talk.” She patted my right hand. My left was still trapped. “Actually, not too bad, all things considered. You’ve got a few cuts here and there, some really pretty bruises, a big ole goose egg on the back of your head, and your knee’s swollen up some. Other than that, you’re fine.”
I shook my head. It was a bad move. Little stars danced around my vision and my stomach felt icky. “Don’t BS me, Kris, I know what I felt earlier. I could taste blood. Lots of it.”
She was silent a moment, then took a deep breath. “Relatively speaking, you’re still fine, Kat. I don’t know how any of the shot missed you. The blood… the blood was Darien’s, you were covered in it.”
The air caught in my throat. “Is he… is he okay?”
“I don’t know, Kat, I really don’t know. It’s kinda complicated.” She looked over me, towards the opposite side of the bed. “Alex! Kat’s awake.”
I turned my head carefully toward the other side of the bed and gasped.
Darien was lying next to me, stripped down to his jeans. His right arm was toward me, his hand still grasping mine. The blood had been washed away but I could see where the shot was still in his skin, the myriad holes in the left side of his chest, upper arm and left shoulder, some in his neck, all of the holes still oozing blood heavily. The rise and fall of his chest told me he was still alive. His face was red and he was sweating, as though he were running a fever or trying to fight off an infection.
Alex lay along the edge of the hide-a-bed on Darien’s left side, with as much of his body touching Darien’s as possible without touching the injured areas. It took me a moment before I realized that there was nothing sexual in the touch, just the comfort of a familiar body, as though Alex were trying to share energy with him. I tried to reclaim my left hand again and Darien murmured restlessly.
“Kat.” Alex looked at me with worried eyes. “Don’t. He needs to feel that you are here.” He saw the confusion on my face and shook his head. “I’ll explain later. Just don’t let go of him, okay?”
Don’t let go. I heard the voice in my head, a whisper, and I nodded. I turned my gaze back to the ceiling, staring at the light fixture for too long. A sudden thought occurred to me and I inhaled sharply.
“Mom!” I turned my head back toward Kris. “Shit! She’s probably worrying herself into a tizzy. If she’s awake. Crap!”
Kris shook her head. “I called your mom. Not sure if she bought what I told her, she probably thinks we’re doing something we shouldn’t be, which, well, we kinda are, but
she knows we’re safe. No clue as to what happened.”
I nodded absently. “Safe, yeah.What did you tell her?”
Kris just shrugged. “That we had run into some old childhood friends of yours at the theater, that they invited us to come hang out and it looked like it was gonna be an all-nighter.”
“Yeah, that’ll work. Of course, she thinks we’re getting drunk with some friends, but that at least we’re being smart enough to not drive or walk home afterwards, but that’s better than ‘Hey, Mrs. Newall, yeah, Kat and this guy she met were shot off a motorcycle…’” I went silent, closing my eyes and hearing the gunshot again.
Kris chuckled.
“Heya, Kris, help me sit up, will ya? I would do it on my own but I’m kinda one handed at the moment.”
She nodded, helping me to get leverage to sit up against the couch back, a pillow tucked behind me. My head swam for a second or two then cleared up. I took a quick glance down my body to make sure Kris hadn’t lied to me about injuries and realized she was right, I was only mildly hurt, and that I was not wearing my clothes.
I wasn’t naked; I was wearing an overlong short sleeved t-shirt that covered me like a nightie, and my left knee had been wrapped tightly in an ace bandage. I gave Kris a questioning look and she pointed toward a white garbage bag against the wall that looked like it was just holding a jacket and t-shirt. I could easily see the bright red stain that showed through the plastic.
“Thanks, Kris. I don’t think I could have stood to have those on with all the blood on them.”
“Uhm, sure… but, uh, I didn’t take them off you. I’m still not sure what’s going on, but something about Darien’s blood, anyway they didn’t want me to get any of it on me if at all possible.”
I groaned. “Oh, shit, maybe he has a disease or something, dammit and I know I swallowed a good mouthful probably, great I’m gonna get sick and die in a couple years!” The fact that either Alex or Matt had seen me naked hadn’t sunk in, or was less important than the fact that Darien had some blood disease that I was probably going to come down with.
Kris gave me a small shake. “No, no, nothing like that. They’re being cagey I guess, won’t tell me a whole lot, but enough to know it’s not like AIDS, or hepatitis or anything like that. I dunno. Hey, Matt, can you please explain to us what’s going on?” She said the last over her shoulder, raising her voice a bit.
Matt came over to the side of the couch, but he was prepared for more than talking to us. He had a pair of heavy duty tweezers in one hand and a small bowl in the other. He gave both Kris and me an appraising look as he strode over to the side of the hide-a-bed that Alex was lying against and leaned down to talk to him. “Alex, I need you to move so I can get that shit out of him.”
“He needs me here, Matt. If I’m not here, he won’t weather it as well.” He didn’t budge.
Matt nodded. “I know, Alex, I know. Move to the other side, you’re in my way over here. I’m not asking you to leave him, just move.”
Alex nodded, standing up and moving to the foot of the bed, his eyes on the space in between me and Darien. He looked at me, a pleading to understand in his eyes, as he crawled onto the mattress and wormed himself up between us.
“Alex! What the…? My arm is across there!”
“Kat?” Matt had pulled up a chair and settled himself in on the other side of Darien. It occurred to me then that he was getting ready to start removing pieces of shot.
“Matt? Uh, why isn’t he in the hospital? Should I be in the hospital? Why are you going to do this yourself? What about infection?” It sounded like I was babbling, maybe I was a bit, but it seemed rather backwater to have someone remove the shot in a dining room when I knew there was a perfectly good hospital with an emergency room in town. In fact, I might have felt more comfortable there myself.
“Kat.” Matt’s voice made me focus. “Believe me when I tell you that we can’t take him to the hospital. If you’d feel more comfortable with real doctors, Kris is more than welcome to borrow my car to take you, but Darien needs you here.” He saw the worried look on my face and smiled at me. “If I honestly thought that the hospital could do any more for you than I already have, you’d already be there, and I was under the impression you wanted to keep this from your mother. There’s more here than what you know, I’m not sure how much I am at liberty to tell you,” there was a hurried cough from Alex, “but I’m sure all will be explained in time. For now, I need to get this crap out of him; it will kill him if it isn’t removed soon. He wouldn’t be doing even near as well if not for both your and Alex’s presence.” He pulled a lamp up to sit on the arm of the couch and adjusted it to shine straight down on Darien’s chest and shoulder. “And, Kat? I need you to not get squeamish about Alex’s presence next to you, if you could get as close to Darien as possible as well, it would be even more help.”
He wanted me to get all cuddly with Alex, on a bed, who was getting all cuddly with Darien? I heard Kris muttering something to that effect under her breath. Why does this just not sound right? Some of what I was thinking must have shown, because Matt laughed.
“My poor Kat. How confused you must be. No, we’re not some weird kind of, perverts? Maybe Alex can explain better, as it really isn’t my place, but what we are asking will help Darien recover better.”
Alex turned to look at me, his hazel eyes pleading. “Kat, he needs to feel me, us, around him, to hold on, to give him strength. Those who are close to him.”
“Close to him? What, are you related?” They looked nothing alike, but I had already noticed that Alex’s attitude toward Darien was platonic so it had to be some type of family thing.
“Sort of, family by choice. And he’s chosen you as his mate.”
“What?!” What in hell? I had wanted a boyfriend, yes, but, well, mate sounded so much more permanent. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.
Alex continued on, “And he needs us both, so, hey, can you switch arms? I know he won’t let go, here turn toward me and give me your right hand.”
I did as he suggested and he pried mine and Darien’s hands apart. There was a tortured sound from the other side of Alex as my fingers left Darien’s and Darien began to move about on the bed restlessly.
“Alex!” Matt’s voice, harsh with concern.
“Working on it!”
Alex pressed my right hand into Darien’s. Darien’s fingers clamped closed, tight enough to make me wince. He quit moving, a deep ragged sigh coming from him.
“Okay, now I’m going to get under here,” here was under my right arm so that my arm was draped over top of Alex while still grasping Darien’s hand, “and scoot up closer,” he pressed himself against the side of Darien’s body, “and you,” his right arm reached behind him toward me and grasped my hip, pulling me toward him so that I was spooned against his back. I heard a muffled gasp and giggle from Kris.
“Kris, so help me…”
“But you look so cozy. Oh, I know, I know, this is not a funny situation, but I suddenly feel a bit jealous.” She sounded a bit pouty, then laughed.
“Well… ah, shit, never mind. Can someone get me some Tylenol, or Advil, please? My knee hurts.”
I gave up trying to feel indignant about being in bed with two guys. I heard Kris dig through her purse, then water running and she brought me back four little white caplets and a glass of liquid. I couldn’t exactly handle them on my own, so she popped them into my mouth and held the glass to my lips. I swallowed the pills down, gulping the water thirstily until the glass was empty.
“Thanks, Kris.” I wiggled a bit to get my head up over the side of Alex’s, lying my face along his ear so that I could see what was going on better. Alex sighed, relaxing, as though my body against his was helping him as well.
Darien’s breathing was almost non-existent. Aside from the protests at Alex and me moving about, his chest barely moved. Perspiration beaded his skin, which had an angry red tinge to it. Matt took the tweezers and dug them into one o
f the shot holes, probing gingerly. Darien’s body tensed at the intrusion, but at Matt’s murmur of success and the extraction of the small BB size piece of metal, Darien relaxed again. Matt gave the silvery piece of metal a suspicious glance, before holding it closer to his nose to smell it. His eyes narrowed as he held it out to Alex.
“Am I smelling what I think I am?” he asked Alex, his voice low in worry.
Alex didn’t move much, took a deep inhale at the chunk of metal, then shuddered. “Bloody hell, yes. They coated the shot with wolf’s bane, get that crap out of him as quick as you can!”
Matt nodded, dropping the bright piece of shot into the bowl, where it tinked against the glass. It was after the third one had been removed that it dawned on me, that despite being covered in blood, those little pieces of metal were awfully shiny.
“Not that I have much knowledge in this field, but I didn’t realize that buckshot was so, well, silvery,” I whispered in Alex’s ear.
Kris sat down on the mattress behind me, probably better to hear my conversation with Alex as well as see what Matt was doing.
There was a second’s pause, then Alex whispered back, “This stuff is silver.”
I thought a moment, confused again. “Why in the world would anyone want to waste silver on buckshot? I mean the only thing I’ve ever heard anyone using silver for weapons was for…” Alex’s hand on top of mine and Darien’s squeezed mine, cutting me off as Kris gasped behind me.
“Leave it there, Kat,” he whispered. “For now.”
But my brain wouldn’t, and obviously neither would Kris’s as she muttered “Oh, shit, oh my God” behind me.
Silver shot. Silver bullets. According to myth and legend there were only a few things out there that could be hurt by silver. Had I been hit on the head that hard? Things like that just didn’t exist, not out of fairy tales and movies anyway. But Alex had told me to leave it, and for once in my life I listened. I had to, since I had no other way to deal with it.
