Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Luke heard the popping sounds that could only be gunshots. His heart pounding, he knew instinctively it was for Sorcha.
Using his powers, he slowed down the bullets and teleported to the sidewalk where she stood.
Without hesitation, he wrapped himself around Sorcha and turned so that she was facing the building and his back was to the bullets.
He felt the impact in his back, near his right kidney, and one to the spine. Hissing in pain, he wanted blood for the attack.
Just as he was about to pursue them, he realized that Sorcha wasn’t taking her weight back from him. In fact, she’d surrendered all her weight against his body.
No…
Looking down, he saw the blood spreading over her white blouse from multiple bullet holes. “Sorcha?”
Her blue eyes glistened with tears. Her breathing ragged, she clutched her chest where she’d been shot.
He heard one of the unis call into his radio, “Shots fired! Shots fired! Officer down!”
“Kyle!” Reyes went running back inside while Bernadette helped him lay Sorcha down on the sidewalk.
Chaos erupted around him. Officers in pursuit, others crouching behind vehicles. But Luke had eyes only for Sorcha.
Blood oozed from the wound in her chest and shoulder. He used his powers to manifest a cloth and tried to staunch the flow of blood as Bernadette applied pressure to Sorcha’s shoulder.
He was stunned by the pain he felt in his heart. Other than rage, he never really felt any emotion. Fury was comfortable. It sustained him.
But this tenderness he felt for her…
It hurt more than any torture he’d ever endured.
The color drained from Sorcha’s face as her breathing lessened.
He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t.
Finally, that tenderness vanished beneath the rage he was so familiar with. Pulling her against him, he used his powers to force the bullets from her body.
Gasping, she tensed against him.
“Breathe,” he whispered in her ear as he carefully healed her.
As he returned her to the ground, she scowled up at him. “Luke?”
“It’s okay.” But was it? He’d never done this for anyone before. Especially not a human. His father would die to know he’d used his powers to heal a mortal.
What choice did he have? She was his partner.
No. She was much more than that. She was his friend. The one who watched bad movies with him. Who laughed at his stupid jokes.
The only one who danced with his demons.
And those thoughts brought another huge swell of emotion he couldn’t even begin to identify.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to.
“Did you just heal her?” Bernadette asked with wonder that was edged with a little fear filling her voice.
Luke cut her a quelling look. “Not a word to anyone.”
Bernadette jerked a quick nod.
Kyle and Rory came running out with Reyes right behind them.
Rising to his feet, he stumbled back so Kyle could examine her. No longer feeling useful, he ran his hands through his hair and tugged at the roots. She had to be all right.
Using his magic, he made his shirt reappear on his body, sans blood.
A hand appeared on his shoulder.
What the hell?
Luke turned with a hiss to find Remiel beside him.
“Steady.”
Steady, my ass… “Screw you.”
Remiel took that in stride. “She’ll be fine.”
“I know.” A fierce anger coated his words, and he tried to rein it in, reminding himself that Remiel wasn’t the enemy. It was whoever had squeezed that trigger.
“Do you?”
“Don’t play this with me, Remi. I’m not in the mood.” And he needed to find the one who’d done this to Sorcha because if he didn’t, he feared for everyone around him. In this moment, he was explosive, and shocked that his eyes hadn’t turned blood red from it.
Remiel gave him a stern frown. “You need to stay with her.”
He growled low at the order. “Like hell, I do. I want the throat of the one who took those shots.” It was imperative he find them and eviscerate the idiot. Immediately.
Kyle approached them slowly in a ridiculous getup. “Sorcha said she thought Luke had been shot, too.”
Luke shook his head. “I’m good. It grazed my side.
Nothing more. Didn’t even damage my shirt.
” Completely untrue, he’d used his powers to repair the damage and clean the blood.
Last thing he needed was someone as paranoid and conspiracy-oriented as Kyle to find out how different his body was than a human’s.
Kyle nodded. “Okay. I’m going back inside, and paramedics are en route if you change your mind.”
Luke waited for Kyle to leave before he turned back to Remiel. “This stops now.”
“Wait…”
He didn’t. Luke teleported out, not caring who saw him.
Sorcha had hunters after her, and one of them had decided to end her life. It was time for him to go on the extreme offensive.
And make a point.
That was the one lesson he’d learned from his father. Anything worth doing was worth overdoing.
Especially when it came to bloodletting.
Sorcha was still trying to understand what had happened. One moment she’d been heading back to their office.
The next…
Luke had surrounded her with warmth and that incredible smoky-sweet leathery scent. Now, she didn’t see him anywhere. And every time she tried to get up from the stretcher, they made her lie back down.
“Where did Luke go?” she asked Elana.
“I don’t know. He was just here.”
“He said to tell you he’d be back,” Rory said.
She turned her head toward Rory who was, being unusually kind about Luke. No sneer, nothing.
That scared her more than being shot out of the blue. Where could Luke have gone?
Had he seen her attacker or was it demon related? She had no idea.
But the one thing she knew, Luke had healed her. She’d felt several bullets strike her body. One in her shoulder. One in her chest and two in her back when she’d spun around after impact.
Sorcha had barely been conscious when she felt him jerk after two more rounds had been fired.
The next thing she knew, she was on a stretcher inside the blue murder house, with Kyle standing over her.
“I’m really fine,” she insisted, but no one was paying attention to what she said or what she wanted. She didn’t even feel bruised.
Honestly, she couldn’t blame them. She wasn’t really fine. The last thing she wanted to do was call her parents and tell them what had happened.
I’ve been shot…
They wouldn’t be able to handle it. They’d barely survived her sister’s death, and they hated what she did for a living. While her father at least pretended to be supportive, her mother constantly told her that she wanted Sorcha to quit.
The whole time she’d worked in New Orleans, her mother had been near hysteria. At least at Infernal Affairs, she wasn’t supposed to be a target.
It pained her that she couldn’t explain to them who her partner was and why she was safer now than she’d ever been in her life.
Case in point, she’d be dead right now had Luke not been here. She had no idea why he was so protective of her. God knew, he hadn’t been like that with his last partner. A man he’d driven off.
Still, she loved and adored him.
No. She needed him, and that was what terrified her.
Luke was becoming an integral part of her life.
“Can I please sit up now?” she asked.
They all looked at Kyle who’d finally pulled the respirator from his face. “Yeah, sure. You seem to be fine, but you should let the paramedics look you over, too. I don’t normally have to worry about my patients’ health improving.”
That made sense.
As she got up, she saw Helly quietly standing in the corner of the living room in a ghostly form that the others didn’t seem to see.
The imp smiled at her and held up two fingers to her eyes to let Sorcha know she was watching out for her.
Luke.
She should have known he wouldn’t have left left her.
As soon as she was upright, Reyes scowled at Sorcha’s shirt. “It looks like bullets went in.”
Sorcha looked down, noting the pointed lack of blood on her shirt. She tried to make light of the experience. “Can’t explain it. Sounds like most days on our job.”
Reyes looked less than amused.
“Well, this was a lot more exciting than I wanted it to be. From nightmare beginning to this horror.” Bernadette let out a long sigh. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
So was Sorcha. Last thing she wanted was to die. Especially before she had a chance to slap handcuffs on the bastard who’d killed her sister.
Sorcha brushed at the holes in her shirt. “I need to get back and change my clothes.”
“Not until we check you out.”
She growled at the paramedic. “Fine. Can you make it quick?”
“Sure.”
They might have agreed to that, but the little bastards took their time. It wasn’t until they finally finished that she realized why.
They didn’t want to take Karen to the hospital. Even with her handcuffed, the paramedics were scared of her.
Honestly, Sorcha couldn’t blame them.
Knowing what the woman had done…
The fact that she sat handcuffed in the corner opposite Helly, still singing that Partridge Family song while she rocked…
It wasn’t something Sorcha would forget anytime soon.
Or ever.
The saddest part? While her actions were definitely disturbing, they weren’t as bad as some of the cases she’d worked in New Orleans. As Luke noted, it was terrifying what people were willing to do to each other.
At last, the paramedics let her leave. Reyes, Bernadette, and Ryan had already returned to their office.
Rory helped her up. “I’ll walk you back.”
“Don’t you need to finish up?”
“It’s pretty…” Rory’s words trailed off.
She imagined he was about to say ‘cut and dried,’ but given the gruesomeness of the murder, she understood why he didn’t want to go there.
“Wrapped up with a bow?” Sorcha offered.
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Sorry. I’ve been hanging out with Luke too much.”
Rory shook his head. “I won’t say anything to that. You know how I feel about it…and him.” He let out a sigh. “Sorry I wasn’t honest with you.”
“About being a Nephilim?”
“Yeah.” He opened the door to let her outside. “It’s not something I usually tell anyone.”
“For an obvious reason. But you could have told me why you were so hellbent against Luke.”