Revolutionary

by LeAnn Mason

  On the cement stoop of the police building, our escorts paused. “Thank you for seeing us this morning, I hope that this is not our last meeting. I feel like your group could be an invaluable asset in this world. I also feel like you will be needed once the Enhanced begin to integrate into society.” The chief extended his hand toward Devlin with sincerity before shaking hands with the rest of us. He’d determined, correctly, that Dev was our true Captain.

  As his hand extended toward me, a loud crack reverberated and a forceful impact spun my body into the person on my right. Arms immediately enfolded me in a strong embrace, keeping me from hitting the pavement with the severity of the punch. Return fire came from the men we’d been parting ways with, each percussion feeling like another physical blow. The ringing in my ears did a fantastic job of drowning out all other sounds that wanted to push their way inside my head. The screaming of random onlookers, the yells and direction of the men around me, none of it penetrated as the pain finally registered.

  I was getting light-headed, my vision fuzzing and collapsing with blackness at the periphery. My left hand moved slightly to adjust my position on Holden’s chest—about the only movement I could muster from that arm at the moment—something warm, wet and sticky running down my back like a thick paint as I did so. I drifted my unfocused eyes, as well as my right hand, toward the throbbing pain literally bleeding through the new addition to my body. It appeared I had been shot.

  Well, shit.

  CHAPTER 18

  Terrified silver eyes broke into my vision, becoming clearer as I forced myself to focus on them and away from the numbness threatening to take over. I couldn’t let this beat me.

  NAT! Please talk to me. Focus on me, Holden’s frantic voice begged of me.

  “What the Hell?!” I groaned, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear my eyes of the gathered moisture the burning wound was forcing out. I hoped it would persuade the nothingness to recede, too. I pushed out of Holden’s punishing grasp, so I could take in the scene before me.

  A melee had ensued in the moments I had been incapacitated. Our ninny detail had finally decided to do something semi-useful and was now acting as a first layer of defense for our group—guns out and ready. A wave of blue had also descended and created a second layer, establishing a larger perimeter where they kept the gathering of tittering, videoing onlookers at bay. Seeing all the people opened my mental floodgates and floored me a third time. There was so much intense emotion and worry flooding off of my team that it took me aback. I wanted to close my mind, put up my brick wall, but this was the perfect time to use it. The pain was making concentration much more difficult than usual, though.

  I’d just been shot. I needed to keep my mind on my surroundings, glean whatever I could to keep the rest of my team safe. “Well that was a telepathy fail,” I groaned pitifully while attempting to breathe through the pain.

  “He was too far out. It was a protective detail fail… hard,” Devlin returned—snarled, really—without taking his focus off our surroundings. He was in full enforcer mode, looking for any additional threats that could come at us. His mind was a whirlwind, his focus mainly looking to any place higher than us with a direct vantage point, working to ensure we were not taken by surprise again. “They’ve taken down the shooter and called for a bus. Help’s on the way, Nathalee. Stay awake. Holden, get pressure on that wound. We need to stop the bleeding—now!”

  Can you heal this like you did with the gash on your cheek the other day? Devlin mentally rushed.

  It was a great question, one I didn’t have a definite answer to. Considering the velocity of a bullet and the fact that it was center-mass, not to mention that I was still bleeding and felt so much worse than after being hit with that pithy rock, I doubted it. “I’m not sure, but with how I feel, I’m going to go with no. I will not be spitting out a bullet like in the movies.”

  Through a hole in the guarding bodies, I watched as two men in local police uniforms rolled a plain-clothed man from where he’d apparently collapsed after the chief and his subordinates returned fire. As the downed man came to lie flat on his back, his arms and legs writhed with forced movements, a movement indicative of immense pain. Slowly, the agonized moans and murmurs made their way to my buzzing ears.

  This is going to hurt, Love, but we gotta do it to stop the bleeding. Are you having any trouble breathing? Holden was saying, forcing my attention back to him and those immediately surrounding me. In his hand was a giant… pad? Looked like a period pad, but I guessed it was what they were going to use to help stanch the blood, which was currently leaving my body as if the zombie apocalypse was running rampant within me and escape was the only option.

  I nodded, then amended when he began freaking out thinking I couldn’t get air, “I can breathe.” I panted. “But I can’t move my left arm. The pain is… intense.”

  Holden nodded and looked over my shoulder. I felt a pressure build at the location of my wound until it felt like the fires of Hell were upon me. Trent was there, pushing that pad thingy onto the open wound in an effort to keep the rest of my blood from following what had already fled.

  “Sorry, Nat,” Trent tittered nervously when I gasped and flinched away from the added pressure. The movement only pushed me further into Holden’s strong body. From somewhere I couldn’t see, Jade squawked at him to press harder before I heard the tell-tale sound of her inhalant being administered.

  There were so many eyes on one man, a man who was probably dying. I needed to get closer and see what I could learn. There were so many questions. The bastard shot me!

  Screaming sirens broke the moment, forcing my attention toward the street where a white ambulance rushed toward the gathered crowd. Let’s get you to the hospital, Nat. Holden’s voice pushed into my head as he moved swiftly toward the curb where the vehicle was coming to a halt. He’d tried to keep his voice steady, to keep the worry from coloring his tone. It didn’t work. Even if it had, his eyes gave him away.

  “With two injured persons in critical condition, I can’t transport anyone else in the van, guys. Anyone else who wants to go to the hospital will have to meet us there,” a female paramedic insisted as she held up a hand in the universal “stop” signal before moving to relieve Holden of my bullet-riddled body. She stopped a moment to inspect my wound as well as the dressing before assisting me into the cavity and to a bench seat along the side. I wasn’t deemed “critical” enough to warrant center stage, so the honor of the full-on gurney was reserved for my assailant.

  My team had followed in Holden’s wake toward the idling van, its red and blue lights alighting on their faces in a rotation as two more medics took to strapping my assailant securely to a gurney. Looks like I was going to be traveling to the hospital with the very man who shot me. Lucky fucking me.

  Holden was too flustered to write anything down at the moment, and I wasn’t entirely sure he even had the materials on him anymore. “Find out what you can. I’ll be fine.” I shot a meaningful look at my team as I said the last. They knew just how fine I’d be. There was no need to worry now that we knew the wound wasn’t fatal, though I’m sure I was in for a treat while they attempted to remove the bullet. Did they do that? “Let me go get this cleaned up, and I’ll meet you guys in that guy's hospital room. He better make it. I have too many questions for him, if I manage not to kill him. He's going to wake up to Hell, assuming he survives. I'm going to dig deeper than that asshole ever knew was possible.”

  “We’ll meet you at the hospital.” Dev held up his hand to stop the retort he knew was coming from Holden. “If they give us a crack at him, we’ll take it. But you know you’re our best weapon here. Go get fixed up. We’ll see you soon.”

  The back of the gurney carrying the limp and patched assailant bumped into the floor of the ambulance and then, with a clatter and another jostle, the legs collapsed, letting it slide into the hull of the vehicle to be situated center stage. Medics bustled between their two patients, trying to keep us
both alive and as steady as possible for the duration of our trip.

  The rear doors closed as my distraught team waved feebly at my bleeding form. This would not deter me. I would get looked at, remove the bullet if able, and then haul butt back to wherever I was needed. I’d get my answers, but for the moment, I’d let my eyes close. Let the fog take me under so that I didn’t resent the efforts the paramedics expended in keeping the man who’d shot me alive. I reminded myself that I wanted him that way. It was the only way I’d get any answers out of him.

  “Miss Dae?” A polite shake accompanied the query, both asking nicely for me to return to consciousness. I obliged reluctantly, peeling open my eyelids to see the pretty little female medic seated next to me against the wall. Another counterpart was still working at setting up the proper drip for the unconscious and much-more-wounded assailant. “I need you to stay awake if you can. When you pass out like that, it makes me worry about you and the amount of blood you’ve lost. Your wound doesn’t look to have done too serious of damage, and I don’t have reason to believe that anything vital was hit, but we’ll get you looked at much more thoroughly once we get to Regional, okay?” Big, kind brown eyes looked at me for understanding. I nodded briefly, which garnered a small smile in return from my attending. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, okay? Help me give the hospital staff a little more information. Do you know the man who shot you?”

  I shook my head again. “I’ve never seen him before.”

  “Is there a reason someone would target you?”

  That was a loaded question if I’d ever heard one. I wondered if she knew what I was. Her thoughts at the moment were purely work-related. She was trying to assess my mental state and that of her other patient. Maybe my answer would give me more insight… “I’m Enhanced,” I groaned. “Wow, this freaking hurts.” I leaned my head against the hide of the beast, hoping the vibration would ease my now-raging headache and the epicenter of all my physical pain—my shoulder region.

  “I’d love to give you a little something for the pain but not knowing your history, and with the hospital only a few minutes away, we’ll have to make do.” I got no malice from her thoughts. She was a healer, through and through. I returned to my position next to her. “Okay. But why can’t I just take a pill or something?” I grumbled begrudgingly at my nursemaid. Couldn’t let the pain make me a total B.

  “Just hang in there. We’re pulling into Emergency. We’ll let my guys unload him, and then I’ll get you situated in there with the staff. They’ll take good care of you. Promise.” Those were famous last words if I’d ever heard any, but I just nodded. When the van slowed and then stopped, I waited for the rush that accompanied our arrival and the offload of the truly critical patient before I made my way to the opening, my medic hanging on to me as I carefully made my way down from the raised flooring and was secured, face down on a gurney, because that wasn’t awkward at all.

  I’ve got you. Of course, Holden would be there waiting for me, though I wasn’t sure just how they’d managed to stay so close. I made our detail bring me. He went lights and sirens, right behind the ambulance.

  Well, that answered that. “Sometimes, I think you’re the telepathic one,” I grumbled as I was rushed toward the automatic glass doors which heralded the regional hospital I’d been ferried to. “Man, I hate hospitals. Did I ever tell you that?” He just laughed at me as the rest of the team surrounded us, making us their protected center. Our seemingly useless babysitters fanned out wider. My guys were all acting like watchdogs, with me and the medical staff at the center, looking at every person we came across like they would be torn apart if a wrong move was made. Even Trent and Steve had donned badass hats, and, in spite of the shitty circumstances, I was proud of how they rallied. My team was there for me. “I love you guys,” I slurred as we breached the doorway and landed in a bustling and overstimulating hub of activity.

  “Now we know she’s out of it. She doesn’t love you guys every day,” Jade quipped, attempting to lighten the oppressive emotions weighing her down. It’d only get worse within these halls, and I was simultaneously happy and miffed that the shock had started taking the edge off. Happy because my pain was less, but annoyed because that only allowed for all the yelling voices of the hospital occupants to crowd into the minted space.

  “The staff has been apprised. I’m going to move ahead and find out where we need to go.” With that said, Devlin marched toward the intake desk to get the particulars.

  A moment later, a short nurse in a very pink, very kitten-covered set of scrubs ferried us through a corridor and into a large room, divided by flimsy fabric curtains, each encircling a hospital bed, before Jade piped up. “Um, ma’am? I’m sorry, is there anywhere else she can be seen? She has a… complication… when there’s so many people around. It will make your job much more difficult, I believe.”

  With the added nod from Hamm, who’d played chauffeur to Holden, the nurse hurried into another, smaller area with only a couple of divisions. Everything still reeked of blood, sick, and bleach. Not a good combination but one universal to hospitals, all the same. The floor was white with little grey flecks for variation, much like the ceiling. The walls were white and unadorned. The only splash of color—if you could really call it that—were the fabric dividers. Those were a very light blue and acted as delineation for the separate patient areas.

  It was loud, very loud, with all the doctors and nurses scurrying around. I couldn’t help folding in on myself a bit in a pathetic attempt to escape. The movement only aggravated my injuries, forcing a pained hiss through my teeth and my head to the pillowed gurney in defeat.

  “If you don’t want a random group of Enhanced milling around your waiting room, worried—and unpredictable—I suggest you get us in a room where we can stay with her. We’re not leaving her, and here, we’re liable to just be a hindrance,” Devlin said with false sweetness, letting the nurse know that it was in everybody’s best interest to give us somewhere secluded for examination and extraction. The small woman’s eyes grew two sizes larger with the new information, and she nearly tripped over her feet while trying to put some space between our group and herself.

  “Oh, um, this way,” she sputtered before scurrying past the doorway from the communal room, catching a doctor on her way out, to whom she relayed our information.

  We continued past and finally came to a small, single patient room, where the nurse left us all to file in and informed the doctor she’d snagged that “They are Enhanced and the female has been shot through the upper left quadrant of the back, no vital organs hit and no arteries severed.”

  This room looked the same as the others we’d passed through. The perk was that it didn’t yet smell like blood or sick, though with my entry, the former wouldn’t last long. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be throwing up anytime soon and could keep that scent from assaulting my senses. I allowed Holden to maneuver me to sit on the patient bed situated in the room near the far wall. There were no windows; we must have been in an internal room with no access to natural light. Bummer.

  As I’d perused the room, a rather enthralled-looking man in a long white coat over green scrubs shuffled through the door, spluttering about being happy to meet us. He continued his smitten ramblings, saying that the Enhanced were a medical and scientific marvel and he’d wanted to examine one for years. The dude was smiling like it was Christmas. Not. Cool.

  Holden’s hand snapped out to ensnare the doctor’s as he dazedly reached toward my arm. The stormy look on his face warned the doc not to get carried away, even without the use of threatening words.

  “Doctor, I suggest you get your game face on. I am not here as a science experiment for you. I have been shot. Attend to my wounds, please, or find someone capable of the job.” I couldn’t keep the venom from my voice. Was the guy confirming my fears? Was I going to be experimented on? He didn’t even know the most fascinating thing, and I prayed he never would, but that meant I needed to get out of there as
quick as humanly possible. Pun totally intended, again. This guy was definitely a zealot.

  “What? Oh, of course. They said that you were shot from behind, the bullet entering just left of the spinal cord without exit. I’ll need to remove your shirt, we’ll cut it off,” the arguments spewing from my guys caught the doctor by surprise but he recovered quickly. “There is a gown just there—so that I can see the area without impediment. The next step will be to clean the area and assess what can be done further.” He stood there, a small quirk to his lips and one hand clasped to his opposite wrist, making no other move to vacate.

  Realizing that was the extent of the good doctor’s intent, Devlin stepped forward, put his hands to the doctor’s shoulders, and began steering him out the door. “Let’s give her a minute to change. We’ll wait outside the door. Guys?” He motioned with his head for the rest of the team to follow him out.

  “I’m keeping Holden. I think I’ll be needing some help getting changed. I can’t really use my left arm, and I’m really tired.”

  I was right. I needed Holden’s aid both in removing my shirt and bra and getting into the “gown.” Though, even with the rear opening, the wound would be impeded by the edge of the garment. After it slid over the wound, causing a pained hiss to escape my tightly pressed lips, I took to holding it away from the area. I’d totally flash a boob at my team before feeling that again, if I could help it.