Page 49 of Blade
She coughed and blood sprayed from her mouth and nose but she didn’t move. Her gray eyes stared at me, filled with confusion. Each breath was a struggle and I didn’t like how wet it sounded.
I knew I was babbling words, but had no idea what I was saying. Squirrel approached, but I didn’t hear anything he said.
On the verge of going off the deep end, I held Eliska’s broken body close.
She coughed again and her lips moved but no words came out. Her eyes were rolling and in my guts I knew she wasn’t going to make it. An anguished roar unlike any sound I’d ever made burst from my soul, ending in a sobbed litany of fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Let me see her,” I finally heard Angel say and impossible hope blossomed. So lost in the unfolding horror, I’d forgotten he was here.
“Help her,” I begged. “Fuck, brother, help her and I swear I’ll leave her alone.”
“Blade,” Squirrel said, as if in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“This is why I don’t deserve to be happy!” I shouted. “I ruin everything I touch. Everyone I care about dies and it’s all my fault!”
Voodoo got to his feet from where he’d been crouched over a body I hadn’t noticed before. “Brother. Stop! This isn’t your fault!”
“Don’t you see? It is. Everything is my fault! Sage getting beat within an inch of her life after enduring Luis’s evil, my mother being killed because I took Sage from him, now this….” I leaned against a stall front as Angel’s hands hovered over Eliska. Elbows on my knees, I grabbed my hair and tugged. “I promised her she’d be safe with me,” I whispered to myself.
The little bit of my remaining humanity was crumbling. If she didn’t make it, I doubted there would be any of it left.
“We need to get her back to the clubhouse,” Voodoo muttered as he looked around with unease.
“What?” I asked.
“Something isn’t right here,” he muttered. “We need to go.”
“You noticed it too?” Squirrel’s gaze was darting around as well.
“What about that guy?” I asked as I motioned to the dead man lying in a pool of blood.
“Leave him. Help us get her in the truck,” Voodoo quietly instructed. “Leave the bikes here.”
Between the four of us, we carefully maneuvered her out the door. I was shocked to see the sky was full of dark, churning clouds. Lightening cracked as it flashed from one cloud to another.
The wind picked up and blew dead leaves and dirt around us. Our hair whipped around like it had a life of its own. Voodoo stopped in his tracks with a blank look on his face.
“Voodoo!” I shouted over the gusts.
It took a moment before he shook out of it and we started moving again.
We got Eliska in the back seat with her head resting in my lap and her legs folded up and propped on Angel. Still unconscious, her body was boneless and I had to feel for a pulse and see if she was breathing. When I looked over at Angel, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the way his usually tan skin appeared bleached. He was drained.
“Wait! Where’s Raptor?” I asked unwilling to leave our president behind.
“He said he’ll meet us back at the clubhouse before he flew off after that helicopter,” Voodoo quietly explained as he cast nervous glances out the window from the front passenger seat.
Squirrel was already backing the truck up to turn it around.
“Hurry,” Voodoo urged Squirrel, who shot him an incredulous stare.
“This fucked up driveway will rattle our teeth loose and possibly hurt her,” he motioned toward the backseat with his thumb.
“Better hurt than dead.”
“What?” I shouted, then winced as I checked to see that I hadn’t upset Eliska. She was still out.
Squirrel gunned the truck. How he managed to dodge the majority of the ruts and holes was crazy. I gently braced Eliska the best I could.