Page 87 of Resisted
“You’ve. Noticed,” I said, repeating his words before griping his shirt with both my hands. “You are fucking bleeding everywhere and you noticed?!”
“Bella, it’ll heal quickly enough.” He looked at his shoulder for a moment. “Plus, the fucker is dead now. I can’t be too angry after his head split open like a cantaloupe from that fall.” I cringed at the imagery. “I hope he was awake for that though.”
“We’re wasting time,” Gage interrupted. He wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t know how to do it. I wasn’t like they were. I couldn’t just bounce back from seeing a man I—my thought froze for a moment before continuing—a man I loved getting shot. Plus, watching a living being’s head split open, brain matter splattering in all directions, was something that would take any normal person more than a minute or two to recover from. Gage’s eyes fell to mine. “Once shots are fired, the silence is broken, the seal disturbed. More will come.” He paused before shrugging. “I mean, probably.”
“Probably?”
His brows creased. “Probably. Maybe shots are common out in the middle of an island.”
I doubted that. Was there a place that shots were common? The moment I thought that, I realized I didn’t want to know. My perception of this world was already so skewed, and I wanted to believe that there was a good corner of this earth, a corner where weapons didn’t exist and my people weren’t hunted.
Vincent’s body straightened, his body held taut, and though he was in pain, I knew he would heal. “Bella, stay behind me. Use my body as a shield if need be, but do not, under any circumstance, get yourself hurt.”
I resisted the urge to cling to his shirt, though I wanted to. I wanted to hold on to him as tightly as possible for fear that he would disappear into the night and it would be the last time I saw him again. But I sucked it up. “I’ll do as you say.”
Just this once. But I left that part out.
He made a sound of satisfaction in his throat, then he moved forward, his weapon raised, his eyes on alert as he scanned the area, looking for a threat that could be hidden anywhere. He stepped through a hole in the stone wall, and I assumed during better days, that hole once held a window. Now it was just a frame of stone, with rubble backed up against it to hold it up. When his boots hit grass, he reached a hand out for me, his eyes never leaving his surroundings. He’d made one mistake, and it had gotten him shot. By the set of his jaw, I knew he wasn’t willing to let another mistake slide.
He moved forward, and I followed, Gage splitting from us as we got to the lighthouse, thankfully taking the part of the lighthouse where the dead body lay. We moved around it, checking the surrounding area for people and finding none, before meeting up with Gage at the door. Gage and Vincent made eye contact for a moment, having a silent conversation that only a friendship that spanned more years than my lifetime, then Gage reached down and tried the knob on the door. When it didn’t open, he backed up, using the power behind his legs and all the strength of his wolf to kick in the door.
The sound echoed into the night, and I heard both men curse before Vincent said, “We were trying to be quiet, but with the shots fired, I suspect they know we are coming anyway.”
“I thought they would have more manpower,” Gage mused as he stepped into the cylindrical space. “I would have had more if I were human. But then again, I know how fucking powerful we can be.”
Fates, I hoped he didn’t jinx anything.
He cleared the bottom floor of the lighthouse with a quick sweep of his eye before hitting the stairs with Vincent and me followed him, not sure what was waiting for us above. I stayed sandwiched between them with strict instructions to ‘duck if I saw anyone at all.’ Which Vincent then corrected to ‘anything,’ because you never could be too safe around flies and the likes, apparently.
We made it to the top without a single thing, human or otherwise, crossing our paths. Gage pushed open the latch of the door, swinging it up and back before pushing his body through, and for a moment, there was a selfish part of me that was thankful that Vincent’s best friend took the lead, because if Vincent got shot again, I didn’t know if I could handle it. Hell, I hardly handled once, even knowing it wasn’t a fatal wound.
Gage disappeared through the hatch door without looking back, and though I internally screamed because I didn’t want to go up, I didn’t know what was above, I pushed my body through and followed. The wind and mist hit my face instantly, and when Vincent’s hand touched my hip from behind me, I nearly jumped. I hadn’t heard him come through, but then again, I guessed he was skilled in stealth.
“It’s just me,” he whispered so close to my ear that the chill of my skin and the goosebumps that rose had nothing to do with the wind and mist any longer and everything to do with the man and his touch. Shit. I knew I needed to focus, but it was so fucking hard when he was around. When any of them were around, actually. Next time, I was requesting to go with Roth. Damn near anyone could resist that man, and I was no exception. Wouldn’t it have been easier to stay safe if I weren’t lusting after my teammates?
“Follow Gage around. I’ll meet you two on the other side,” Vincent whispered before he turned, stepping over the hatch to walk around the top of the lighthouse. I did as he ordered without question and followed close behind Gage, who was looking in all directions with his gun raised as he walked along the lighthouse windows. The floor under my feet was slick. The walking space was only a few feet between the glass windows and the safety rails, so it took nearly no time until we met up with Vincent on the other side.
“Seems clear. Think the others are waiting at the rendezvous?” Vincent asked.
“Rendezvous?” Gage snorted. “This isn’t an orgy.” He paused. “Though, I’m always up for one.”
“Gross,” I muttered because, as hot as Gage was, I couldn’t picture any bedroom activity with him, nor did I ever want to. Though the thought of Vincent, Boyce, and Silas together in bed made my lower region tingle in the most delicious of ways.
“Bella,” Vincent warned. The sound made me bite my lip, which didn’t help the tingles any. “We are on a fucking island getting shot at.”
“And I haven’t lost focus,” I gritted out. “I know what we’re here for, and I don’t want to waste a single second of time.”
“Then stop thinking about whatever it was you were thinking,” Vincent demanded.
“My guess is it involved Vincent, Boyce, and Silas sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G somewhere definitely below the waist.”
Gage’s guess would be correct, though I would never tell him that. Instead, I rolled my eyes and took a step back toward the hatch door, only to hear a shot fired and glass breaking the moment my foot stepped on ground. I took no chances on what or where it came from, I just ducked, covering my head as glass shattered around me, and waited. No other sound came, so I braved a look up, only to see Vincent smirking.
“Got him,” he stated.
Gage groaned. “You know we have to step over that mess on our way down. Did you have to go for a headshot?”
A headshot? Fuck. That guy didn’t even have a chance before Vincent got him. Which I was thankful for, because if he’d raised his weapon, I would have definitely been right in the crossfire, closer than I wanted to be. Vincent took a step over me before I gained the will to stand, then I followed close to him as he walked along the pathway, stepping over chunks of brain matter and splatters of blood as we went. It didn’t make a difference. Blood was splattered everywhere, sprayed heavily onto the bars and glass and running in rivulets down the door hatch.