12. Rena
Rena
“The most wounded first,” Alice reminded us as we entered the room.
Vampires had already cleared the warehouse of threats, but my neck still prickled as I hurried through the beds, watching for a Vampire or mate who hadn’t risen.
Most of them were seated, their legs dangling off the sides of the beds.
Some were standing, frozen, like they didn’t know what to do.
Others were ripping at the bandages they wore and tearing the IVs out of their arms and necks.
There were missing limbs, large wounds, and mutilated bodies in every direction I looked.
I nearly screamed when a hand with torn-off fingernails grabbed me firmly by the arm as I passed.
“My mate,” the Vampire said, letting go of me quickly. “She has short brown hair?—”
“We’ll find her,” I choked out. “Stay here and wait for directions.”
There was so much suffering around me that I had to ignore it as I paced the aisles, looking for the wounded who needed Alice the most. As long as a Vampire was conscious and upright, I moved past him.
Then I found her.
She was petite, and it looked like someone had taken a pair of scissors or a knife to her hair, cutting it so short in places that they’d left little wounds on her scalp.
The uproar around us hadn’t roused her, but her chest rose and fell in brief, shuddery bursts.
Looking her over, I tried to see where she was wounded and why she wasn’t waking up, but I couldn’t find anything.
I wasn’t fucking trained for this. I had no business being in this place.
“We’re here to help,” I told her, gripping her hand. “Wake up.”
Nothing. Not even a twitch.
“Wake up,” I called again, a little more desperately. “Wake up.”
Frustration balled my insides into a knot as I shook her arm.
I looked her over again, lifting up the hospital gown she was wearing to see if there was some kind of wound beneath it. There was nothing.
Lacking any other clues, I loosened the tape on her arm and pulled the IV out, pressing one of the bandages Alice had given me against the small wound. “Sorry,” I mumbled, patting her arm gently.
“What’ve you got?” Alice asked as she hurried toward me.
“I don’t know, but she’s not waking up,” I explained, moving out of her way. “I took the IV out.”
“Good job,” she said, raising the earpieces of a stethoscope to her ears. “Go find me another.”
I hesitated for a moment, strangely uncomfortable with leaving the stranger behind. Then, I was on the move again, making my way through the wounded. Vampires and mates on both sides of me called out for help. They asked who we were, asked for their mates, and cried incoherently.
I reassured them as well as I could, but I was on a mission. Near the back wall of the warehouse, a large Vampire caught my eye. He was trying valiantly to rise, but every time he got his arm under him it buckled, and he fell to the bed again. He’d done it three times by the time I reached him.
“Stop,” I ordered, reaching out and then pulling my hands back. I was not a doctor, and it was highly offensive for me to touch a mated Vampire.
“My mate is over there,” he said, jerking his chin toward the center of the beds. “Need to get to her.”
He lifted himself, and I almost thought he’d make it before his arm gave out once again.
“I’ll get you there as soon as I can,” I assured him, looking around desperately for a Vampire to help me. “But you’re going to hurt yourself worse if you keep doing that.”
He huffed out a dark laugh and lifted his arm, showing me the open wound that was oozing blood and God knew what else onto the mattress beneath him.
“Jesus wept,” I whispered, pulling the stack of bandages out of my hoodie sweatshirt.
“Your timing could’ve been better,” he rasped with a hiss. “Hadn’t closed me up yet when your friends entered the building.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied automatically, searching the room again for some help.
More mates were pouring into the room, and I recognized Helen and my best friends among the crowd. What the hell were they doing in the lab? I thought the other groups were going to the cells?
The closest Vampire was halfway across the room, helping one of the wounded across the floor.
There was nothing for it.
“I’m going to have to touch you,” I said firmly, meeting his eyes. “I apologize, and I’ll try to hurry.”
“Do what you have to do,” he said solemnly.
His entire body arched off the bed as I jammed the bandages against the wound on his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
My hands burned like they were on fire, and I could only imagine how it felt for him.
“Put your arm down,” I ordered, blinking sweat out of my eyes.
He instantly did what I’d asked, trapping the bandage against his ribcage as I shook out my hands.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, watching me.
“If only it was actual fire,” I said nervously, glancing over my shoulder. “I could’ve cauterized it.”
He let out a wet chuckle, and as I turned back to look at him, I realized he had blood coming out of his mouth. He coughed, spraying it across himself and the sheet beneath him.
“I’ll go get her,” I said quickly. “Your mate. What’s her name?”
“Suzie,” he choked out, spitting. “I’m Zack.”
“Rena,” I replied, pointing at myself. “What does she look like?”
“She’s tall. Brown hair.”
I just looked at him. He could’ve been describing any number of mates in the warehouse.
“She has a beauty mark,” he said, pointing to his cheek, leaving a small smear of blood. “Can’t miss it.”
“Got it.”
I turned back in the direction I had come and waved my arms. “Alice!”
Alice’s head jerked up, and she scanned the room before stopping on me.
“Here,” I yelled. “Hurry!”
She nodded and went back to what she was doing.
“That’s the doctor,” I explained to Zack. “I’ll go get Suzie.”
He nodded as his eyes drifted shut.
I searched for about three minutes, looking for a mate with brown hair and a beauty mark, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.
The longer it took, the faster I moved. I jogged between the mates I’d come with, looking past them at the wounded women they were helping.
I was so intent on searching every face that I nearly slammed into Lucy.
“What?” she asked quickly, stopping me with both hands.
“I’m looking for a mate,” I replied quickly. “Brown hair and a beauty mark right here.” I pointed to my cheek. “Her name is Suzie.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Okay.”
She spun in a circle, then stopped. “Mom, have you seen a woman with brown hair and a beauty mark?”
Mattie shook her head from two rows away.
Lucy dragged me forward.
“Anyone?” she called out. “Brown hair. Beauty mark!”
More head shakes. We kept moving.
Finally, I stopped. “Suzie,” I bellowed, turning from side to side. “Suzie, mate of Zack?”
It felt like slow motion as an arm four rows away rose into the air.
I rushed toward her, my heart thundering. When I reached the bed, her arm was still in the air.
It wasn’t until I’d almost reached her that I noticed her hand was gone.
That was also when I realized why no one had noticed her beauty mark. My heart felt like it was in my throat when our eyes met. Suzie had bandages covering most of her face and down her neck. Her lips were chapped and bleeding.
“Zack needs you,” I said softly. “Can you walk?”
She nodded and pushed up onto an elbow.
Lucy and I helped her from the bed and braced her wobbly steps as we made our way back across the room. It felt as if every raspy breath she let out was whispering hurry, hurry, hurry. By the time we reached Zack, he’d passed out.
“How long have you been mated?” Lucy asked as Suzie reached out to touch her mate’s face.
She looked over at us as if she was going to answer, then closed her mouth again and lifted two fingers.
“Two years?” I asked.
Suzy’s head gave a short shake.
“Two months?”
She nodded.
“Thank God,” Lucy said. “Your mate will be fine. We’ll send the doctor over as soon as we can.”
We turned away in search of the next patient to help, just as a blood-curdling scream filled the air.
The mate that I’d directed Alice to was panicking, and we watched as she fell off the side of the hospital bed, knocking over the IV pole next to it with a crash.
Alice was trying to move the bed so she could reach the inconsolable mate, and I hurried forward to help, but before I could reach her, the Vampire with missing fingernails that had grabbed me earlier came up behind her.
I watched in horror, my feet unable to reach her fast enough, as he grabbed Alice by the head and wrenched it sideways.
Ringing filled my ears as she dropped, boneless, to the floor.
“No,” Lucy screamed, the word sounding like it was torn from deep in her chest.
The Vampire jumped over the bed and landed next to the screaming woman, and I could just barely see the top of his head as he attempted to comfort her.
Then, I couldn’t see anything, as four Vampires in tactical gear got between the mates and us.
It all happened in a matter of moments.
“Don’t touch her,” Sven boomed as he came running.
I’d fallen to my knees in shock at Alice’s side. She was completely still.
“Wait,” a woman called out, rushing toward us. “I saw what happened. Don’t move her!”
Lucy pulled me backward, but I couldn’t get my legs under me. I was frozen, staring at Alice, who had just been standing there, trying to help the poor, screaming woman. Was she dead? Mated Vampires couldn’t die, right?
“I’m Maria,” the woman who’d run to help told Sven. She was holding her hand out as if to stop Sven, but she wasn’t touching either of them. “I was an emergency room nurse. I have a neck brace.”
She turned, searched through the bag she was carrying, and pulled it out. With a questioning glance at Sven, she carefully wrapped it around Alice’s neck.
All the while, the Vampires behind us had controlled the Vampire and his mate. Without any other options, they’d cuffed both of them and were in the process of ushering them out of the room while the woman wailed.
“Come on,” Lucy whispered, yanking at my arm. “Come on, we need to help.”