Chapter 23 Blended Unit #2
All the men shifted, turning their attention toward her, and Lance broke into a run. It took him under five seconds to cross the distance that had separated them, and his eyes took in Billy’s bloodied form before his brain could process it.
Billy’s shirt had been ripped aside, most of the clothing stained red.
His skin was stained and smeared with blood that hadn’t perfectly wiped off.
Yet more blood continued to ooze from a nasty gash, as if a large round had clipped him above his hip.
The man’s chest heaved too hard, too fast, as he lay there, allowing a veritable stranger to work on him.
Lynn’s fingers were covered in blood and her face was taut, brow pinched, as she looked up to Lance. “It’s not ideal, but I need you to cauterize his wound. You can do that, right?”
Herb muttered an expression of discomfort.
Lance studied the wound itself for another beat, then shrugged off both stolen weapons and tossed them to the nearest guy. “Yeah. Short and hot?”
“And not too deep,” she said. “Destroying some surface tissue might actually be a good thing, but we want to only do enough damage to encourage fresh growth.”
“Got it.” He flexed his hand out of habit before stretching his palm out to hover over the area that continued to bleed. His eyes flicked up toward Billy’s face and his hard-clenched jaw. “Sorry, bud. Try not to bite off your tongue.”
Billy groaned something that sounded like “fuck you.” That was fair.
Lynn shifted on her knees and lightly backhand-swatted Billy’s upper arm.
“No more talking. Just steady breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.” She turned her head to catch Lance’s gaze and dipped her chin in a nod, but didn’t stop talking.
“I’ll breathe with you and we’ll count them out, okay? ”
Lance exhaled and allowed the energy to mount within him for a moment as he listened to Lynn work her magic.
He let her get Billy under her thrall, up to the count of four just for kicks, then aimed a tight arc at the bleeding site beneath his palm.
He was careful to keep his physical hand off of Billy’s flesh, not wanting to risk unnecessary contamination.
Billy let out a strained, almost breathless moan, his body twitching unavoidably, and Lance ground his teeth harder.
It only took a few seconds to do what Lynn had asked for, but he was sure from Billy’s perspective each second was an hour of agony.
As soon as he was done, Lance sat back and let his hand drop to his side. Steam rose up from the freshly charred, no longer bleeding skin.
“Thank you,” Lynn said, already leaning in with some folded gauze to pat over the wounded area.
“Both of you. You did great.” She flashed Lance a quick smile before returning her focus to her patient and patting Billy’s arm.
“You try to relax. I just need another minute to close this up until you’re well enough to be moved. ”
Billy blew out a hard breath. “Fuck. Shit. That hurt worse than my leg. Fucking shit.”
Lance managed a smile, reached down, and poked at the thigh in question. “And your leg’s doin’ fine now, right? So, this is just the next shitstorm you gotta make it through. One breath at a time, brother.”
Lynn spoke up, directing her words to Billy as she worked, capitalizing on Lance’s point and saying something about Billy’s kid.
Lance rocked up to his feet and moved out of the way, but his gaze lingered as a wild idea flared to life in his brain. He didn’t know if she’d go for it. Or if the notion he was thinking of was really a thing. But hell, it made sense to him. Maybe they could just make it one.
Jon stepped up to his side while his brain buzzed and spoke in a low tone. “Get anything out of that guy who pulled you aside?”
Lance sighed as their immediate reality settled back around him. “Not so much,” he said. “Dumb fuck thought he could recruit me, or at least pretend to, to lower my guard. But he wasn’t quite dumb enough to take me to his boss.”
Jon grunted and folded his arms. “Scouted by a cartel. Congratulations, Master Guns, you’ve outdone me.”
“Shut the fuck up.” They stood in silence for another minute, Lance paying more attention to the pretty auburn-haired nurse-in-a-dress than his actual surroundings, before he finally spoke again.
“Think we’ll need a medic? Or whatever the appropriate term would be.
You know, for your new rescue endeavor.”
Jon was quiet another beat. “You want to hire your girlfriend?”
“I was thinking more like ‘bringing her onboard’, but yeah.” Lance shrugged. “She did happen to lose her last job recently. Timing works out.”
“You realize we’re not anywhere near a real business right now?”
Lance grunted. “We’ve got pensions.”
“And I’ll be using mine for my family,” Jon replied. “Jenna’s apartment is too small and too vulnerable, obviously. Plus, she might need help affording repairs to her bakery.”
Lance didn’t bother biting back his grin.
“From perpetual bachelor to family man in like a week, huh? I’m impressed.
” He waited for the audible cue of Jon’s frustration, then continued.
“Of course, I don’t want your money. I earned my own.
” Granted, unlike Jon, he had not come into an unexpected inheritance.
But that was fine. “We’ll figure something out ‘til the business is up and running.”
Jon sighed. “And you think she’ll be interested?”
“I think it’d suit her way better than a stuffy hospital.”
“Hm.” Jon shifted his weight. “Talk to her about it, then. Later.”
Lance let his gaze turn to the side, moving more directly to the hard-to-miss bird of prey that perched on a mostly barren tree limb a few yards away. “You noticed it, too, then?”
“That’s fucking offensive.”
Lance grinned. “If Pretty Boy’s connected to these birds he keeps taunting us with, he’s probably figured out that some of us have our own gifts.”
“Doesn’t mean he knows what’s coming.”
“But do we?” Lance frowned as he tried to imagine what other tricks might be correlated with the ability they’d witnessed. They hadn’t witnessed much, though, and that made it difficult.
“We know how to figure it out,” Jon replied. Then, finally, he raised his voice for the others. “Listen up. Our target’s still in the area and our mission’s still not done.”
Alex looked over at them. “You mean you don’t think that bird’s watching us for shits and giggles?”
Foxe snorted.
Lynn sat back on her heels. “Billy’s ready to move, but he’s out of commission as far as combat goes.”
Jon nodded. “Then we get moving. If we hustle, we can catch up to Pretty Bird before he realizes he’s overplayed his hand.”
“I can still shoot,” Billy protested, voice strained.
Lynn moved aside to allow someone else to help Billy up, simultaneously brushing off her skirt. “A handgun, maybe. And that would still be heavily ill-advised.”
Without warning, the bird that had been watching them let out a splitting screech and dove off its branch. Aimed straight at Lynnette.
Herb and Alex moved, guns raising, but their reactions would be too slow.
Jenna let out a startled cry.
Lance processed the sight of water rising up off the ground in slow-motion in his peripheral vision, but he was already moving.
They didn’t know how precise their enemy’s control over these birds was.
They didn’t know for certain if the birds could be jarred free.
What they did know was that the bastard had his sights set on Jenna, for some reason, and Lynn had pissed him off in the process of being a damn good friend.
Lance’s boots dug into the dirt as he came to a sudden stop directly between his girl and the descending bird, and he snapped out a hand, electricity still crackling around his body even as his fingers curled into the creature’s feathers.
Of course, regardless of influence, it was still a wild predatorial raptor.
The creature did not appreciate his capture of it.
The bird squawked fiercely and thrashed in his hold, spreading its wings like it could fly from the hand clenched around its torso. It tried gouging out the underside of his arm with one nasty talon, but succeeded only in scraping the edge of his skin.
Herb muttered something too low to be heard over the commotion.
Lance glared at the creature. “Nothin’ personal.
” He let a trickle of power arc from his fingers, slicing it into the bird’s system like an invisible knife, and with a final strain of resistance the poor thing went limp.
He relaxed his grip and knelt to set the sleeping bird on the ground without further damage.
“Did you…?” Jenna’s question was soft and hesitant, like she wanted to know but also didn’t.
“No,” Lance replied. “Just stunned it.” What he didn’t articulate was that the choice had been a test. If Pretty Bird’s control ran so deep that the bird continued moving anyway, they’d have learned something new.
And then he would have had no choice. He turned to study the woman whose perfect face had been on the verge of being clawed out by the possessed raptor. “You okay, sweetheart?”
She raised both brows at him like he was being ridiculous. “It seems my boyfriend can leap moderate distances in a single bound, so yes, I’m fine.”
His friends laughed.
Lance grinned and tugged her up to him, pressing a kiss to her forehead before adjusting for the walk they needed to get started on.
“That’s not exactly how it works,” he said, “but also not as far off as you probably expect, either.” While Jon called everyone into formation and gave them direction, Lance held up his free hand and drew Lynn’s attention to a spark he lobbied between thumb and forefinger.
“See how the electricity jumps from origin to destination?”
She nodded. “That’s an arc, right?”
Pride bloomed in his chest and he let his hand fall.
“That’s exactly what it is. Scientifically it involves electricity jumping between two separate conductors or some shit,” he said, “but how it works for me is more psychological.” He tapped his chest. “I’m the point of origin, and whatever location I identify is the point of destination—the second conductor, if you will.
Then it’s just a matter of how much I’m moving. ”
“And somehow that means you can move your entire self in the blink of an eye?”
“More or less.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze.
“I can’t jump to a point I can’t identify in real-time, so it has limits.
” He left unspecified that he’d learned to stretch that to a very literal definition by using binoculars and telescopes.
He didn’t exactly need a large window to work in, but the larger the in-between space, the harder a toll it took on him.
Lynn leaned into him as they walked, her voice quiet and teasing. “My hero.”
He chuckled. “When you’ll let me be, anyway.”
“Target’s on the move,” Jon said, throwing his words over his shoulder in a familiar, sharp tone.
Dammit. That was the other thing about Lance’s power. He generally just moved faster than the average person. So, when it came to a foot race, he was usually the guy on tap.
“Fortunately for us, it looks like he’s going home.
And he’s not cutting through town to get there.
” Jon motioned wide. “Lance, keep to this side of the creek and you’ll come to a road.
Turn left off that road onto Leeland Drive—everything past the first row of shrubs is his property. Be careful. We’ll meet you there.”
“Wait,” Lynn said, her confusion evident.
Lance gave her another squeeze. “It’s all right, sweetheart.” He pulled them to a stop and turned her to face him. “We just can’t afford to lose this lead. You stay with the guys and let Jon be bossy this once, please. We’ll wrap things up ASAP.”
Lynn frowned. “I don’t like you going after the enemy alone.”
“I’m just taking lead. Backup won’t be far.” Lance leaned in and stole a kiss from her scowling lips but didn’t let himself linger. “But I gotta go,” he said quietly. “Be safe, Lynn. I’ll see you when it’s done.”
She pursed her lips, displeasure shining in her eyes, and nodded. “If you don’t come back, I will never forgive you, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”