Chapter 38 – Corvus
CORVUS
I pressed my bloody fingertip to the boulder, coming away with rock dust from where my Sparrow had carved an X in its face. “This way!”
My gaze dragged to a bush, where fresh blood-splatter painted the leaves crimson. I heard my brothers crashing through the forest toward me and hollered. “Bring the vet! She’s hurt.”
Not knowing how badly was making it harder to breathe as I picked my way around the boulder, finding a trail concealed in the darkness. I dropped to one knee, feeling out the tracks.
Rook came up behind me. “Grey’s gone to bring the vet, which way?”
“She was fucking chasing him down,” I gritted out through clenched teeth, sizing the two distinctly different prints in the dirt.
“It’s okay, Bro. We’re right behind her.”
…except we weren’t.
There had been so many of them. So many more than we’d planned for.
How they’d managed to conceal such high number for so long was beyond me, but I was willing to bet it was something to do with the bastard my Sparrow hunted.
It took us forever to cross that stretch of pavement and get to the trees.
We’d had to fight the whole way. Steamrolling Kings, cutting through muscle and bone.
I checked the gun I stole off a King a ways back.
There was at least half a mag left. It would have to do.
The sounds of the ongoing battle raged behind us, but Diesel and the others had it.
There weren’t many left out front, and I suspected even fewer still lingering inside the building.
I’d pointed to the tree line and shouted Carson when he’d shouted over the gunfire to demand to know where the fuck we were going.
With any luck, he and the others wouldn’t be far behind, and no matter what happened when we found Carson Bates, he wouldn’t be leaving this forest in one piece. He’d either be dead, or preferably, a prisoner.
Rook and I raced down the trail, each of us pointing out the trees where our girl marked her path, telling us we were on the right track.
The unmistakable echo of a gunshot shook the forest and both of us cursed, breaking out into full sprints.
Rook growled next to me, keeping pace despite his leg.
Three more gunshots rang out, nearer than before, and I knew what we were about to find before we crashed through the trees. The cellar doors hung open, and Rook and I skidded to slow down as we soared over the edge and onto the staircase headed down.
Two more shots fired off in rapid succession and my blood sizzled, something in my chest snapping as we blew through a metal door into a long corridor… and watched Ava Jade’s body slump to the ground.
“Sparrow!”
Carson pushed himself up, gun raised.
I fired first, and red exploded where the gun had been. The shot knocking it from his hand and taking two fingers.
“Ghost!” Rook was already halfway to her, but I couldn’t seem to keep my burning eyes from Carson. He bared his teeth, hissing as he dragged his legs from beneath Ava Jade’s limp ones, reaching for his weapon with his other hand.
Rook reached my Sparrow, and it was the panic in his voice that finally broke me. “ Ghost, wake up!”
I charged forward, crushing Carson’s reaching hand under my boot until he screamed. I kicked him onto his back and emptied the entire clip into his chest, his body jerking and convulsing with each heavy hitting blow.
It took longer to register than it should’ve that the trigger was clicking uselessly. There were no more bullets to be used. I couldn’t see Carson through the haze of tears as I tossed the gun aside and turned to face my blackest moment.
Rook pressed his hands over Sparrow’s chest, but it was no use, blood welled between his fingers, streaming down. Her pale face rolled to one side, eyes lidded at half-mast. Lips rapidly turning blue.
I looked away, my stomach turning.
No.
No.
She didn’t get to die.
I wouldn’t let her.
“Move,” I growled, shoving Rook back. I unzipped her vest and yanked it open, exposing the wound to her chest. It was on the left side. Maybe a little too far to the left to have hit her heart?
Please.
Please.
“Put pressure on it,” I ordered and Rook tore his shirt clean off his chest, balled it and pushed it against the wound. I wasn’t going to sit here and do nothing like I did last time. If it weren’t for Rook, Becca would’ve died. But he saved her.
I could save my Sparrow.
We could.
Rook put his ear over her mouth as I positioned myself, starting compressions, crushing Rook’s fingers in the process.
“She isn’t breathing!” he screamed, and I could see he was losing it. Becca was one thing, but this was our girl.
He pressed two fingers to her throat and let out a relieved cry. “I think I feel a pulse!”
Then there was a chance. As long as we were here to fight for her.
“ Don’t let up on that shirt .”
I lost count of my compressions and cursed, bending down to pinch her nose, tipping up her chin so I could blow into her mouth. Wishing I could push my own life down her throat.
Take it, I wanted to scream. I don’t want it without you.
“ Come on ,” I urged, re-starting compressions to the point where I was sure I was breaking fucking bones. “ Come on, Sparrow! ”
Heavy swift footsteps descended the stairs, and I heard Grey call, “Here! Down here!”
But his tone changed entirely a moment later. “AJ?”
His footfalls slowed in the corridor, and he vomited, the sound far-off, background noise for the incessant beating of my heart in my ears.
“Where’s the fucking vet?” Rook demanded in a lethal hiss.
As if on cue, the vet tripped down the last three steps and Rook grabbed Grey, dragging him down to the floor to place his hand on top of the cloth. “Keep pressure.”
Grey choked over our girl, his knuckles white as he pressed hard into her wound, tears spilling onto her chest as I continued compressions.
“ Move your fucking ass ,” Rook shouted and somewhere behind me the vet yelped, and I heard the scrape of something being dragged over the concrete before the thin man was unceremoniously deposited at my side. “Help them!”
“K-k-keep compressions,” the vet said, fumbling with the Velcro on his field medical kit.
“The fuck do you think I’m doing?”
“The wound. L-l-let me see it.”
Grey pulled the fabric back and on my next compression, a fresh well of blood gushed out, and I pulled my hands back.
“We need to stop the bleeding,” the vet said, sounding more sure of himself. He pulled out a green packet and tore the top off with his teeth. The quick clot gauze toppled onto her chest and he grabbed it with shaky fingers. “Remove the shirt.”
Grey grabbed it through the hole and tore it wide, giving the vet the clearance he needed to start packing the gauze into her. He stuffed it into her bullet wound like he was pushing magicians ribbon into a fucking hat.
She should’ve woken up.
There was no way you didn’t wake up when someone was packing foreign objects into your ..
No way.
Rook paced behind me, cursing, hitting the side of his Browning against his temple as he muttered to himself, a low whine in his throat.
“Rook? Rook!” Grey was calling to him, trying to get his attention.
The vet put his fingers to her throat and cursed.
“What?”
“We’re losing her. She’s lost too much blood.”
“Well, do something!”
He peeled her eyelid back and tugged on her blue lip. “She’s not getting enough oxygen.”
Heat sizzled up through the balls of my feet as I pushed to standing, reaching over the vet to snatch Rook’s Browning from his hands and put it to the vet’s temple.
“ Save her .”
He stilled.
“Darryl, so help me god, if you don’t start doing something useful, I will blow your goddamned head off.”
The vet dug in his kit, coming up with a portable defibrillator and an ambu bag.
They rattled against the concrete in his rush to get it all apart, wiping down her chest to place the pads where they needed to be.
He shoved the bag at Grey. “Put that over her mouth, start slow compressions on the bag. Even if I can re-start her heart, she needs air.”
My vision blurred, doubling, and I had to bend over my knees to keep from passing out.
Re-start her heart. Did I hear that right?
No.
“Stand clear.”
Grey removed his hands from the bag, and the vet initiated the shock. Her torso lurched. He felt for a pulse and cursed.
I put the gun back to the vet’s head. “ Again .”