by K. N. Banet
There was nothing else anyone could do except believe. Mischa stepped back and Changed back to her human form to begin directing us.
“Jabari! Is Zuri stable?” she asked first.
He looked back and nodded his head. I turned to see Zuri still slowly breathing, the metal still deep in her chest. By my best guess, it had punctured a lung, but if she didn’t move and no one removed it, we had a chance to save her. It worried me that we couldn’t do anything for her and try to find Niko and Hisao at the same time.
“I can help her,” I said to everyone. “Make sure she remains stable.”
“Do it,” Mischa snapped. “Now.”
I left the rubble and went to my oldest sister, Changing back. She lifted her head, which was a good sign.
“The explosion did this to you?” I asked, knowing it was probably a yes.
Her big head nodded, and I saw her body convulse from the pain of the movement.
Open pneumothorax caused by the rebar. Depth unknown. Bleeding slow. Patient, supernatural. Healing factor, moderate. If that rebar is moved at all, she’ll suffer possible catastrophic damage. No sign of fluids in her lungs yet.
It had been a long time since I entered EMT mode, assessing my sister.
“Can you feel all your toes?” I needed to know if she had broken her spine. “Blink once for yes, twice for no. Don’t move again.”
She blinked once. I sighed in relief and began to feel her side. Her breathing was a little shallow, but her pulse was still strong.
“Did you know not to move?”
She blinked once.
She was a damn good patient, especially since she’d had to lie here while everyone was fighting.
“We’re going to have to call for a medevac,” I called out. “There’s no way we’re moving her in this form with the bar in her, and we can’t take it out.”
“Keep her safe, then,” Mischa answered. “We still have the packs. We can call for help. That’s not a problem.”
I nodded. Everyone else was still in the rubble of the house. I was losing hope for Niko and Hisao, but Zuri was my patient, and I had to stay with her. She was vulnerable, and who knew what could happen at this point. Lani was still out there, and Zuri was an easy target.
Someone roared in the house. Mischa looked over to me.
“Never mind. Get in there. They might need you.”
I didn’t pause to think about the debris, the smoldering pieces of the building, or my bare feet and bleeding injuries. Everything done to me was superficial in comparison to Zuri, and I could suffer through them. Suffering through things was something I was getting surprisingly good at.
I climbed down into a hole my family had made, Hasan waiting at the bottom, positioning himself so I landed on his back.
“Thanks,” I said, coughing as the smoke in the basement filled my lungs. It was awful. Waving it out of my face, I tried to focus and see through it.
“Oh fuck,” I gasped. “MISCHA! CALL FOR HELP! NOW!”
24
Chapter Twenty-Four
I ran for the cell and tried to get through the bent, mangled door. Hisao’s eyes opened, and he growled. That kept me from looking at Niko. Hisao would need to move before I could help Niko, anyway.
“It’s me,” I snapped. “Let me see.”
He tried to stand but groaned, falling back down. His front leg was broken. From what, I couldn’t tell, but I could reasonably guess Jabari and Hasan had already moved it.
“Blink once for yes, twice for no. Are you bleeding?”
He blinked twice.
“Can you feel your back legs and toes?”
He blinked once.
“Do you think you can try to stand and move away for me? Limp if you have to. I need to see Niko, Hisao.” I needed to see if what I thought I saw was real, but I needed the massive, dark cat out of my way.
Jabari came forward and gently grabbed the back of Hisao’s neck without giving him a chance to answer. Ever so slowly, he helped Hisao up onto three legs and began to walk as far away as they could get.
I put a hand over my mouth, blood and smoke making me want to choke and gag.
Hasan growled behind me.
Niko was pinned down by a large beam. His back was broken. The only reason I knew he was somehow still alive was the very slow and low rise and fall of his chest.
Plus, death had a distinct smell.
“Niko…” I whispered. “We’re going to get you out…Hasan…Can we fix this? Can we…” I fell apart. I should have been solid and steady, the one trained in these sorts of situations, but he was a brother I liked, and there was Dirk to think about.
I should have been grateful they were alive, but I was heartbroken by the sight. I walked closer carefully, wincing as I stepped on hot pieces of metal and wood. Splinters entered my feet, but I wanted to get next to him.
I gently touched his forehead. He was unconscious. Hisao might have somehow stayed awake even through the smoke, but Niko had no idea we were there.
Bones cracking behind me, along with a pained grunt, made me turn. Hisao was Changing back into his human form. When he was done, I stared at him incredulously.
“What the hell are you doing? You know that sped up the healing in your arm, right? It’s definitely going to need rebreaking now!” I wanted to strangle him.
“It’s fine,” he said with another grunt of pain. “How’s Niko?”
“You don’t—”
“Answer me,” he demanded. I looked around him.
“Get him out of here,” I ordered. “Now. I don’t need him breathing down my neck.” When he tried to interrupt, I changed my tactic. “Plus, you can help Mischa watch Zuri.”
“What happened to Zuri?”
“Rebar, punctured lung. It has to remain in, but someone should be monitoring her. Mischa needs to call for help if she hasn’t already. Now. If she can’t get anyone, have her call Heath.”
“Why the wolf?”
“He might be able to use some of his contacts with the Dallas pack he used to be the Alpha of. We need helicopters or something, and they need to already be on their way. Now go! I’ll stay with Niko. You’ve been down here long enough; I’m worried about lung damage.”
He stepped back and nodded. Jabari moved toward him, and Hisao carefully climbed on, favoring his right arm, which was bent in the middle.
Fucking idiot just wanted to fucking talk, and now, his arm is going to be fucked up, goddamn it.
Hasan didn’t leave, coming up close behind me to sniff his youngest son.
“He’s alive,” I whispered. “Hasan…”
A large chin touched my shoulder.
“His back is broken,” I finished.
I had never heard Hasan whimper. He didn’t for this, even if I did as I finished the words. He stayed solid as we watched Niko breathe. With Jabari and Hisao gone and knowing there was nothing I could do for Niko yet, I looked around the basement. The cell bars were holding up a large portion of the wall, and though they had bent, they didn’t collapse. That was probably what saved them in the end. They must have been in the basement already, looking at where I had been kept, starved, beaten, and nearly tortured. I saw other, small timbers that had come down from the building above. One must have hit Hisao and broken the leg, but he had been closer to the bars and more protected. Niko hadn’t been so lucky. The beam wasn’t crushing him, but it was holding him down and had probably hit his back, causing the break.
“We can fix that, right?” I asked softly.
Hasan nodded slowly.
That was good. It calmed me a little. I had no idea how we were going to get Niko out, but if we could fix him, make him better, it would be worth it, whatever we had to do.
“Medical teams are on their way!” Mischa yelled. “Zuri is still stable!”
“Thank you!” I kept my eyes on Niko, sad the yelling didn’t wake him. I touched his cheek, feeling his coat and pulling bits of debris from it.
It
felt like forever, but his breathing changed, and I knew he was going to wake up. There was fresher air in the basement as the smoke rose up and made it out. There was too much dust in the air, but that was okay.
“Hey, Niko,” I said gently. “Don’t move. You’ve been injured, and help is on the way.”
His eyes opened slowly, and saw me, then saw Hasan behind me.
“We won,” I told him. “We just need to get out of here now.”
And once we were out, I was going to hunt down that bitch, Lani, and make her pay for all of this. She was the last, and I wasn’t going to let her hide for long.
Both must have smelled my anger. Hasan stepped away and looked down, almost as if he was protecting Niko from me.
“Lani got away,” I explained. “Once everyone here is safe and healing, I’m going after her. I won’t let her get away with any of this. Maybe if it was just me, but not this.”
He nodded and stepped out of my way again.
When help finally arrived, Niko was sleeping again. The damage done to him was too much for him to try to fight the pain to stay awake. It only took ten minutes of comforting him to get him to close his eyes again.
The help came in the form of a helicopter at first.
“Take Zuri!” I yelled up. “Take her!”
When the helicopter left, Mischa’s face appeared in the giant hole above us.
“They took Zuri, Jabari, and Hisao,” she called down. “An ambulance is on the way for Niko. The rest of us need to get back to our vehicles on our own. Hasan, they’re going to take them to the airport in Dallas, then fly them to Minnesota.”
I had no idea what was in Minnesota, but I was guessing a hospital. It seemed far, though. Too far to make me comfortable, but then, I had no idea who ‘they’ were and why we were trusting them with our family. Those were questions I intended asking later.
When the ambulance came, Mischa called down again to tell us we needed to get out of the way. I climbed onto Hasan’s back and let him carry me up, instead of Changing.
When we were topside again, I didn’t blush or try to hide my nudity from the humans. They looked at me and the rest of the group with wide eyes.
“He’s in werecat form. Are you strong enough to carry him?”
“They aren’t, but we are,” a man said, coming out of a second car. I didn’t catch a scent, but I knew a vampire when I saw one now. I snarled, and he lifted his hands. “We’re employees of Isaiah, the male vampire of the Tribunal—”
I snarled louder, and Hasan stepped in my way. Mischa grabbed my shoulder and pulled me aside.
“They’re here to help,” she snapped. “Do not attack the help. They’re strong enough to get Niko out and help the humans. We need them, and it was a big fucking favor to call in to get supernatural-sensitive help. Isaiah even offered his plane, so we can take ours to follow. Don’t ruin this.”
I fell silent and watched intently as the two vampires jumped down first, two humans following with a stretcher designed for the safety of obese patients.
Hasan Changed back to his human form next to me, and Davor walked to Mischa’s other side. We were the last of the family left, waiting for Niko to come out and get to the hospital.
“What’s in Minnesota?” I asked as I heard them talking in the basement about the beam and how best to free Niko.
“One of the best hospitals for supernaturals, Mygi Hospital. Most of their staff are briefed on our kind and heavily watched to make sure they don’t leak anything. A lot of the staff are supernatural as well and experts in healing our kind. It’s attached to a supernatural pharmaceutical company. The pharmaceutical company has had a lot of very troubling problems recently, but the hospital remains the best place for Niko.”
“That’s good. I didn’t know we had a supernatural drug company.” I was trying to distract myself as Niko’s cry of pain made tears well up in my eyes.
“It’s…” Hasan sighed. “Tribunal business. If you ever wonder what gives me more headaches than you, my children, it’s the Tribunal and the other supernaturals I have to keep an eye on.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Aside from that, it’s the hospital I would have sent you and Jabari to after the vampires in Washington. I trust it more than any other place on Earth when it comes to healing. Everyone there is very dedicated and has magics no other hospital has access to since they’ve pooled it all into one place.”
“Will everyone be safe?” I couldn’t bring myself to trust anything. If I had learned anything over the last month, it was that paranoia was a close friend.
“Politics are left at the door,” he said gently. “That’s enforced by the Tribunal.”
“Good.”
Another cry of pain and I was forced to turn away. Mischa wrapped an arm around me.
“I thought you used to be an EMT,” she teased gently.
“You didn’t see him,” I whispered. That made her wince.
I was able to collect myself and turn back to see them bring him above ground. We all huddled around the stretcher for a moment until one of the vampires held up a hand, indicating we needed to back off so they could load him.
“We should go,” Hasan said as the ambulance began to move.
Together, we Changed and started the long run back to our vehicles. The next time we planned to see any of our family would be in Minnesota at the Mygi Hospital.
I already knew how I was going to spend the trip.
Plotting how to find and kill Lani.
25
Chapter Twenty-Five
The trip to the airport was a blur. The flight to Minnesota was a weird mix of restless napping we all needed and eating to keep our energy up. I was the worst of the group who didn’t get taken. The bruises from the beating were fading well, and my muscles didn’t scream, but there was still the terrible toll my body had taken over the last eight days. Mischa sat next to me on the spacious plane, curling an arm around me, Davor on my other side. Strange, since he and I didn’t like each other, but it helped me feel a little safer, and I figured that was the point.
When the plane landed, we practically ran to get into the cars waiting for us, and the trip to the hospital was at illegal speeds.
“How are we not getting pulled over?” I asked.
“You need more exposure to the supernatural world at large,” Davor said, shaking his head. “Fae spelled vehicle. Called a Look Away spell or something. It keeps humans from looking too closely at something and makes them forget about what they might have seen. It keeps human cops from taking much interest in us. I take it you don’t have any fae you know outside your territory to get it done on your vehicles?”
“Nope,” I said. “Only the one who…” I tapped my head. “And that was enough fae for me for a lifetime.”
“Well, thank the gods you’re going to live longer than a lifetime,” he said, giving me a look. “Meet some friends, get some better work done. You have enough money. If Hasan let you leave his home, you’re probably incredibly wealthy, and you live like you aren’t, so you probably still have most of it. Use some of it and get with the times.”
I sighed. “Back to the asshole.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, looking away. “It’s just…the supernatural world has a lot to offer, and you just ignore it all. You ignore a lot of things. I know Hasan probably taught you much of this, but you seem like you’ve forgotten it.”
“I mean, probably,” I said, admitting I didn’t retain nearly enough of what he taught me. I kept a lot of the important stuff, like anything having to do with werecats, but I never wanted to dive into the deep end of the supernatural world, so there were a lot of little things I didn’t keep. That had been proven in Washington when I forgot the all-important detail that vampires don’t have scents and are hard to feel in a werecat territory. I should have started brushing up on my knowledge after that.
“Do you practice the runes?” he asked.
“Sometimes.” Not enough.
“At least t
here’s that,” he said, shaking his head again.
“Can you stop? I’m worried about Niko, and I don’t need this from you. This might all be over for you, but it’s not for me.”
He looked back at me, frowning.
“What?”
“Lani got away,” I snapped. “That…bitch ran off when Jabari killed another one of them, after I killed Fiora. She realized they were losing and ran like a fucking coward. Once I know Niko is okay, I’m going after her and fucking ending this. I don’t need you…”
He reached out and grabbed the hand I was waving at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said more genuinely. “If you need it, I’ll go. Or any one of us. We’ll do it. I know she used to be your friend, and that’s not going to be easy.”
The unexpectedness of the offer caught me off guard. I gently pulled my hand away.
“I’ll handle it,” I promised. “But, thanks.”
“You’ll need to pick one of us to go with you, anyway. Hasan will probably make sure of it. You’re younger than her, so having backup in case you fall is mandatory.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll decide who to take after we see everyone together again.”
“Okay. And Jacky, we don’t like each other, but I am your older brother. I’m going to give you a hard time because it’s how I’m built, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rely on me for help with these kinds of situations. This is our family, and if one of us falls, we all fall. I was alongside everyone else, prepared to reveal werecats to the world to save you from a Tribunal Execution.”
“That means a lot,” I said, trying to smile. I had never really thought of him waiting to do that on Hasan’s order. Most of the rest, sure, but it really had been all of them.
“You shoving me made me realize I might not have ever made that clear to you,” he said, rubbing his hands together like he was getting antsy.