Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
Panic nudged him out of unconsciousness.
A horrible clawing panic that felt like something was trying to carve his chest open to get out.
For a long moment, Lion couldn’t remember the cause of the panic, only that something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Kate and Ariella.
They were in danger.
It was important he remembered why. How was he supposed to fix it, protect them, if he didn't know what he was supposed to be fixing, or what they needed protecting from?
Failure.
The word rang through his mind, making him wince.
The last thing in the world he wanted to do was fail his girls.
He’d already failed them in a major way by not being there for them when they needed him.
But he was there now, and from the moment Kate had shown up at their place, he had vowed that never again would he allow anything to hurt them.
But something had.
He knew it even if the details were a little fuzzy.
The last thing Lion remembered was … the plane. Kate was upset, blaming herself for their having to leave the mansion because it had been potentially compromised. He’d been trying to convince her that she was wrong, that even if someone had followed her, she still wasn't to blame.
Maybe he’d convinced her of that because he remembered her kissing him.
Then the next thing he remembered was putting her in her seat, doing up her seatbelt, and holding his girls’ hands as …
The memory flitted just out of reach, and Lion was just about to give up, sink back into oblivion, when suddenly the truth came roaring into his mind with a strength that momentarily stole his breath.
Crash.
Plane crash.
One second, they’d been flying toward safety, the next, Thunder was yelling at them that they were going down.
Now that his memories had unlocked themselves, the pain came raging in.
Filling his body until it was too much and a strangled scream fell from his lips.
One of the enhancements his body had received with the drugs was an ability to heal himself faster than a regular person’s body could heal, but it couldn’t save him from everything.
Couldn’t stop him from dying.
Is that what was happening to him now?
Felt like it was. The pain was so all-consuming that it wasn't hard to believe that he would take his last breath at any second.
No!
The word screamed through his head. He couldn’t die now, couldn’t leave his girls behind.
What if they were the only ones who had survived the crash?
What if everyone else was dead, and if he gave in to the pain, let it devour him, it would leave them all alone?
Someone must have messed with their plane.
It had to be River Gardner, which meant she might be tracking it, might come for them.
What would she do with his girls if she got her hands on them?
Going after the woman was one thing, letting her come after them when they were injured and vulnerable was quite another.
Had to get to his girls.
Had to get to them.
Shoving aside the pain, Lion forced his body to cooperate. Somehow, he managed to blink open his eyes, only to find himself staring at the wall of the plane. From the outside.
When they crashed, a hole must have been ripped in the plane’s side, and he must have fallen through it.
It wasn't until this moment, when his head pulsed and his vision swam, when blood streaming down his face obscured his vision, and when his eyesight faded in and out of consciousness, that he realized how heavily he had come to rely on his enhanced vision over the past ten years.
Now when he needed it the most, it was failing him.
Planting his hands against the wall of the plane, Lion used it to leverage himself up and into a semi-standing position. If he couldn’t use his enhanced vision to find his girls, he was going to have to find them the old-fashioned way.
I'm coming, Katie-Bear.
I'm coming, Ari-Bear.
I won't ever not come for you.
No matter how much distance is between us, I will tear the world apart to find you.
Still, despite his determination that he would do whatever it took to get to his girls, Lion made it only a step before his knees buckled and he went down hard.
Pain spiraled through his skull, and it was everything he could do to just keep breathing through it and not let it drag him under. Couldn’t pass out again. Had to get to his girls.
If he couldn’t stand and walk, then he’d get on his hands and knees and crawl.
Whatever it took.
Nothing was going to stop him from getting to them, saving them.
They were counting on him, and he wasn't there. No one else was out there, at least not close by to him. It was a miracle that he’d survived, unlikely that anyone else had, but he couldn’t accept that his girls were gone.
Not without seeing them, touching them. Until then, he would believe that they were alive and waiting for him.
Crawling didn't turn out to be much easier than walking, and he made it no more than a yard before his arms and legs shook so badly that he collapsed onto the hard ground, the pain inside his head more than he could handle.
Which was saying something, because his tolerance for pain was high, and his enhanced healing ability should already be kicking in.
Lion tried to move.
Couldn’t.
There seemed to be no strength left in his body. Try as he did, he couldn’t make it do what he wanted.
A howl of despair fell from his lips.
Lips his Katie-Bear had been kissing right before the plane crashed. Now she might be lying just on the other side of the plane wall, dying, waiting for him to fulfill his promise and come for her.
“Thought I heard something,” a voice said.
It sounded so far away.
It was a male voice.
Not Kate’s.
But someone.
Someone who might be able to help him get to Kate. Get to Ariella. Make sure they were okay. If he were dying, he wouldn't fight it, so long as he could ensure his girls were okay first.
“Outside,” someone else said.
“Must have gone through this hole in the wall,” another person added.
Softer, more muffled voices spoke, but he couldn’t make out the words through the rushing in his ears. It was like water, but he wasn't wet, so they hadn't crashed into the ocean, or a lake or a river.
Whatever strength he had left was fading fast.
The world pulsed in and out of focus around him.
Despite his need to get to his girls, he couldn’t seem to fight through the fog. Couldn’t get his body to cooperate.
Still, if he couldn’t stand and he couldn’t crawl, then he’d drag himself along on his stomach. Digging his fingers into the dirt, he dragged. And dragged. And dragged.
Seconds felt like eternity, and while he would never give up, he was starting to lose hope that he could get back inside that plane and find his girls.
Then there were boots.
Black ones.
Three sets.
Running across the ground toward them.
Threats?
His vision was too blurry to make anything out, and even if they were River Gardner’s people coming to get them, there was nothing he could do to protect either himself, his girls, or his team.
Failure.
Lion reached for his weapon, determined to do something even if it wasn't much. Maybe a split second would be enough to save the people in the plane if he could get off a shot.
But there was no weapon to grab. He must have lost it in the crash.
“Hey, man, you're okay,” someone said. No, not someone. Voodoo.
“Is he?” Blade asked. “Because he doesn’t look it.”
“You can hear him breathing,” Voodoo reminded their teammate. “He has a nasty concussion. Can you hear me, Lion?”
“Yeah,” he managed to croak, blinking in an attempt to clear his vision. “Kate? Ariella?” They were what he cared about right now, not the blinding pain between his temples.
“Both alive. Ariella was unconscious, but she’s woken up. We’re working to get her clotting. She has a bang on her head, too, but it’s not as bad as yours,” Voodoo explained.
“And Kate?”
“Broken ribs, but she’s conscious and worried about her daughter and you,” Voodoo replied.
Alive.
Relief rushed through his system.
His girls were alive, injured, but there was no way they could have survived the crash without at least some bumps and bruises. They weren't dying, and it seemed like he wasn't either, although the concussion was making him think death couldn’t be such a terrible alternative.
Voodoo said something else.
Or maybe it was Blade.
While he might not be dying, it seemed he was losing his battle with consciousness. Because the world turned black around him, and he was powerless to stop it from happening.
March 17th
8:59 A.M.
Kate’s heart felt like it tumbled right out of her body when she looked over to see Blade and Dragon carrying a limp Leo between them through the plane.
“He’s dead,” she said, surprised her voice came out faint when inside her mind she was screaming so loud it hurt her ears.
Dead.
Leo was dead.
She’d waited too long to come to him to seek answers, waited too long to reconcile. Waited too long to make herself see the truth that she had always been in love with him even when she’d hated him.
Now it was too late.
Leo was gone.
Somehow, she was on her feet, although she would have sworn her legs weren't strong enough to hold her up, especially since Ariella was in her arms.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one who thought that. Thunder, who had been sitting beside her, rose with her. The man swept her daughter out of her arms, depositing her in Maya’s, then wrapped an arm around her waist, steadying her.
Voices were speaking, but she couldn’t make out the words.
Leo had left her again, and this time it was permanent.
“Mommy!”
That word, screamed by her barely conscious and bleeding daughter, was the only thing she heard as the world seemed to close in around her.
Then warmth spread through her, and the stabbing agony in her chest receded just a tiny bit, although the pain in her heart didn't. She was sitting again, and Voodoo was on his knees in front of her, his hands framing her face, squeezing just hard enough to grab her attention.