Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Azzie

  I crossed the road and looked down the bank towards the river. It was a thirty foot drop or so but not a terribly steep incline. The river was wider and flowing faster than I expected; we’d have to use the bridge. I set down both packs, taking my rest where I could get it.

  From what I could see, the bridge was five lanes across, inexplicably — why would you need a turn lane on a bridge? — and it arched high above the surface of the river. There were wide sidewalks on either side, a solid looking rail between the pedestrians and a plummet to their watery grave — okay that might be an exaggeration but it was a pretty good drop into mystery water that flowed past me like black ink, impervious to light.

  It was actually a really nice looking bridge, they’d taken pains to make it attractive — it wasn’t just a nondescript span of cement and pilings: the railing was sections of evenly-spaced black metal pipes, the whole length of the bridge had a brick facing, and the space underneath, between the concrete supports, was an intricate web of beams, pipes, and girders. It looked— it looked almost sculptural, industrial or maybe even steampunk, and I imagined anyone canoeing or kayaking along the river would find it lovely.

  I was staring up at the bridge as I felt the others surround me, slightly winded and radiating heat, smelling like fresh cut grass and sweat. “Get it out of your systems?”

  Sasha grunted.

  “Az—” Tai started, and I knew I was about to get the talking to I mostly deserved, but I wanted some acknowledgment that I wasn’t totally stupid. I turned to him and held my hands out in a whaddaya want? gesture.

  “What do you think we’re going to do out here, Tai? Open up a storefront and have people come to me? Not tell anyone why we have the vaccine and keep perpetuating these bullshit secrets? These are the people I’m out here to help.”

  “You can help them without telling them your life story.”

  “And I didn’t, I kept it vague.”

  He nodded, rolling his eyes. “Yeah… this time.”

  “It’s going to have to be a judgment call, every time, who gets told what—” I said and Spider interrupted me.

  “You need to listen to us when we’re trying to protect you,” he growled.

  I knew that was coming. I’d screwed up. “Yeah, I know I fucked up,” I said, and he looked startled. “What? When I’m wrong, I’m wrong. It happens. Not often, but it happens.”

  He sighed, pursing his lips and shaking his head. “Right.”

  “I was thrown off by all the shotguns and Omar going from gentle, smiley helpful guy to badass leader dude. I felt like I needed to defuse the situation quickly.”

  “That was a little shocking,” Sev agreed, picking up a rock and throwing it at the water. It hit, sending out ripples that were quickly swallowed by the current. “Ultimately it was the right call, but I’m with Spider, you can’t do shit like that. This could’ve easily gone very badly.”

  “Still could,” Sasha bit out. “Not happy with this situation.”

  “I know,” I agreed, and then decided I’d been untouched long enough. I edged over to Sasha and pushed at his crossed arms. He stared down at me, brow furrowed. I ducked down and nudged with the top of my head, and he sighed, loosening his arm lock. I snaked in between his bands of steel and his chest and burrowed against him, humming contentedly when he relocked his arms but around me this time, and planted a kiss on the top of my head.

  “I am sorry,” I said into Sasha’s chest but I think they all knew it was universal. “I knew immediately that I should’ve waited and let you handle it, I just got surprised and then scared. You all surrounded me like human shields, and they had shotguns.”

  “It’s our job to protect you,” Sasha grumbled, and I felt it in my bones.

  “Well, it’s a shitty job,” I said. “Low pay, terrible retirement plan. No benefits—”

  “Wouldn’t say that,” Luka sighed. “And they keep getting better.”

  I giggled, blushing, feeling all kinds of weird — same sensations I get every time they talk about being with me, physically, when we’re all together. I was strangely shy, like I wanted to hide my face but at the same time, I wanted more. And it made my stomach flutter, and other stuff was all tingly.

  “She doing it again?” Tai asked somewhere to my left.

  “Oh yeah,” Sasha murmured. “Even got her eyes closed like if she can’t see us, we can’t see her.”

  “Fuckin’ adorable,” Luka muttered, then louder, “Sweetpea, you’re fuckin’ adorable when you get all shy like that.”

  “Makes me want to dirty her up,” Sev agreed. “She squirming too?”

  “She is now.” Sasha was running his hand in circles on my back, and the other hand slid down to cup my ass. I jerked into him, feeling him harden against me. “You like that idea, huh? Sev dirtying you up?”

  I nodded into his chest, tightening my arms around him, pushing my hand up under the hem of his shirt so it rested on the hot skin of his lower back, coated with a light sheen of sweat.

  “Not long before we get to where we’re going,” he whispered, “meet up with the club. Once we’re safe, get some privacy, we’ll have plenty of time for gettin’ dirty. Okay, babydoll?”

  I swear I was going to burst into flames, either from my burning cheeks, or whatever inferno was building in my pants; Luka had started the conflagration, and now Sasha was feeding the fire. I nodded again.

  “I know you started calling me babydoll because I told Ryan not to,” I mumbled into his chest, “but it turns out I really like it. Coming from you.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t even know why.”

  “I do,” he said, into the crown of my head as he squeezed me tighter. “Because you know it pleased me that you told him not to call you it, but didn’t say a word when I did, and you like pleasing me. You also know I say it with affection and respect, not condescension. You’re my babydoll, because you’re precious to me, not because I think you’re child-like or an object.”

  “Yeah, that’s why,” I breathed in his familiar scent, down to the faint smell of corn chips that had lingered on his sheets, and basked in the heat pouring off him like a cat in a sunbeam. I needed this, all the time, and maybe it concerned me just how dependent I was growing on their affection and attention, but I was willing to push those worries off for future me to deal with. I was allowed to enjoy being close to other people. And if I kept telling myself that, maybe eventually I’d believe it.

  “I’d like to cross to the other side of the river tonight,” Spider said, and even he was starting to sound exhausted. “The bridge will be safer at night, it’s really exposed up there, and I’d like to have the river between us and the school. I don’t trust them not to come after us even if they think the vaccine is fake.”

  “Agreed,” Sasha said, and I nodded as I heard Sev, Luka, and Tai all express the same concerns. “I think three of us should go over first, make sure there aren’t any tripwires or traps, and check that the other side is safe. Then the other two and Azzie follow once we’re over.”

  “Sounds good,” Spider agreed. “How about you, Luka, and Tai go over first? Sev and I will stay with Azzie. I’ll have my rifle and watch the school until you signal, I should be able to see them coming from pretty far out. If you can take most of the gear, once we’re clear we can run it.”

  Things got sorted out pretty quick. We moved about halfway down the bank towards the river so anyone watching from the school, even from the roof, wouldn’t be able to see which direction we went, and then redistributed all of our gear so Sev, Spider, and I were left with just our packs and one rifle. Tai was doing most of the sherpa duties, with Mouse’s pack strapped to his chest and his own on his back, plus the gun bag hanging off one shoulder and one of the duffels of vaccine and supplies in his other hand. That left Sasha and Luka with their packs and a bag each but Sasha took Luka’s bag too.

  “He’s the fastest,�
� was all he said, and I wasn’t sure if Luka was going to be running from or towards any danger.

  We made our way along the sloping river bank to where the bridge cut into the hillside, where the three of us would wait, out of sight, while the others crossed. Once they made sure it was safe, they’d come around the end on the opposite bank and use the signaling flashlight: green for all clear, blue for stay hidden, and red for run like hell.

  I made everyone wait until I kissed them each, thoroughly. I didn’t say anything, all three knew how I felt, and they didn’t need to say it either.

  I kissed Sasha, then Luka, then Tai, lingering as long as I could with each, before they disappeared around the stone and brick pillar that decorated each corner of the bridge. I craned my neck, listening, until the last of their footsteps faded. Spider crawled up to lay along the base of the pillar so he could watch the school through the scope of the gun while Sev and I stayed farther down the slope, holding hands and watching the other side of the bridge.

  It took fifteen minutes, some of the longest minutes in my life, before the green light pulsed on the other side and I could breathe again. I blinked, realizing my eyes had gotten dry and sticky, and dug out my eyedrops — cursing myself for being an idiot — while Sev checked in with Spider. A couple drops in each eye and I was good to go although my eyes stung and watered a little, blurring my sight, which is why I tripped at the top of the bank and stumbled forward towards the edge of the road, face-planting right onto the pale white sidewalk.

  I heard a loud cracking sound in the distance, like thunder but sharper, and I looked up at the sky as something pinged off the sidewalk right next to my elbow, digging a shallow trench and throwing off shards of cement shrapnel that bit into my arm and face.

  “They’re shooting at us! Get her out of there!” Spider yelled, and I realized that sound wasn’t thunder.

  Sev cursed loudly, rushing forward to grab me up by the pack and half-carry, half-drag me around the pillar marking the edge of the bridge as Spider melded into the shadows alongside it and raised the rifle up.

  The sound was unbelievably loud over the water, echoing and rebounding, but whether he hit the shooter or the fact we shot back dissuaded them, no other fire was returned. A few minutes passed, then Spider appeared around the edge of the pillar and motioned us forward.

  “Stay as low as you can, the railing should hide us. I’m going to stay here, watch for them. Wait for me at the second car on this side, okay? Just get behind it and wait for me. Once I see you’ve made it there, I’ll follow. Okay? Love you,” he whispered, leaning in to peck my on the lips. “Go fast, stay down.”

  “Be right behind us, okay?” I ran my hands over his face, and the velvet fuzz of his hair. “Don’t be a hero, I need you.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, and kissed me again, softer this time. Tender. My heart raced and fluttered like a hummingbird in my chest.

  “I love you,” I whispered into his mouth, and turned to take Sev’s hand. Crouching low, we ran.

  Another bullet pinged off the iron railing behind us, but Spider didn’t return fire. We stayed low, and we moved fast, and made it to the second car on our side, one that was partially blocking the sidewalk. Sev and I circled the hood and collapsed to the ground, the run taking way more out of me than it should. My legs were shaking, and I felt hollow and strained, like a rubber band stretched too far and trying not to snap. Sev crouched beside me and peeked over the hood of the car. “He’s coming,” he whispered, followed by an “Oh, FUCK!” way louder than it should be.

  “What?” I hissed, trying to pull myself up enough to turn around and look.

  He pushed down on my shoulder. “No! Stay down!”

  I heard the footsteps running towards us, too fast to be someone crouched down, and Spider cornered around the car and caught me under the arm, lifting me up between him and Sev. “Let’s go!” he cried, and we started to run, the two of them holding me between them.

  I looked back, over my shoulder, which anyone who has ever seen a horror movie will tell you is a Very. Bad. Idea.

  Lights. Lights and trucks pouring down the road, and into the driveway to the school, a whole convoy of trucks, and even from here we could hear gunshots and people screaming as the military rolled up. Helicopters circled overhead, shining spotlights down, as another convoy came from the road along the river, stopping not far from where I’d been hugging Sasha, and soldiers poured out and began to swarm over the field where Luka and I had kissed, heading off any runners from the school.

  Before we crested the peak of the bridge, I saw one of the helicopters break away, heading in our direction and shining their spotlights.

  “Copter coming this way,” I panted.

  “Over the side,” Spider ordered even as he tossed the rifle into the hollow husk of a sedan, swerved us to the side and began to lift me up to the top of the railing. “Climb down and stay on the support beams under the bridge — if we try to hide in a car, we could get trapped, at least this way we can jump in the water if we need to.”

  Sev went over first, getting in place and holding my legs until Spider couldn’t reach any further and I had to let go, grasping for finger-holds between the bricks as Sev helped me lower myself down to him and onto a narrow beam of steel that was the only thing between us and a fifty foot drop into unknown water. Spider appeared right behind me, ducking under the edge of the bridge just as the sound of the helicopter blades cutting through the air reached us, the spotlight slicing through the darkness in erratic arcs. We balanced on the beam, legs dangling, holding onto the network of decorative metal bars above our heads. It was awkward, the beam was too narrow to be comfortable, and the bars spaced too far apart so I had to stretch to reach them — what had looked so tightly woven from a distance was actually widely spaced up close.

  It was in the residual light of the spotlight passing by that I noticed the blood.

  Not from me — the cement chips had scratched me, I’d scraped my palms on the sidewalk (but only one spot drew blood), and I was definitely still oozing a bit from shallow cuts on my face and arm, but these were all minor and would take awhile to really impact me. I knew about those already, no, the blood was coming from Spider.

  “You were hit?!” I whisper shrieked when I saw one arm hanging uselessly, the dark patch surrounding a new tear on his sleeve was actually spreading, and blood was welling out from under it and trailing down his hand, beginning to drip.

  “Just a graze,” he said, weariness thick in his voice. “Ricochet off the sidewalk when you fell. Didn’t think it was that deep, but I seem to be losing a lot more blood than I thought or I would’ve bound it up immediately. It might’ve chipped the bone too, hurts like a motherfuck. I’m woozy too but I think that’s more the adrenaline crash.”

  “We gotta take care of that,” I insisted, knowing damn well he’d fight me. “You can’t be leaving a blood trail, Spider.”

  “I’m not climbing out from here with this,” he said quietly, resigned. “I’ll hold on as long as I can, and help Sev get you up, then I’m going to take my chances in the river. I’ll try to get to the south bank, but if I can’t — look for me on both.”

  “The fuck you say?” Sev hissed and I held up my hand to him, stopping him from saying anything else.

  “No.” I said it as firmly and plainly as I could. “That’s not happening, and don’t you say another fucking word, because if you drop, we drop with you.”

  I wrestled one-handed with the straps to my backpack, leaving the belly band in place but detaching the chest strap and the bottom of the shoulder straps so it was hanging only around my waist like an obscenely large fanny pack. I dragged it around to rest on my lap.

  “Sev, hang onto me,” I said, trusting him implicitly. “I need both hands.”

  “Gimme a sec,” he said, and I realized he’d twisted around to straddle the beam, facing me, scooting over until his legs cradled me on either side as I angled towards
Spider. Sev was hanging onto the railing with one hand and the other was looped around my middle, and I felt totally secure letting go completely.

  I leaned back and fished the shark-tooth knife out of my waistband, then leaned forward to cut and rip the sleeve of Spider’s shirt, splitting it from wristband to shoulder seam. It wasn’t a graze, there was a fucking bullet hole in his bicep, a visible path where it travelled through his arm, and a longer, wider exit wound about five inches away.

  Blood continued to well up and stream out of both ends of the bullet’s path through his arm at an alarming rate. I cleared the fabric away, cutting it off completely, and I fumbled with slick fingers on the side zipper of my pack to get to my water bottle.

  “Sorry, but there might be some backwash in this water,” I said as I tried to wash away the blood to see what I was working with. It was ugly, the edges of the wounds torn and almost singed looking, and the bullet’s exit sliced right across the registration mark for his vaccine though it didn’t obscure the code that branded him as mine. I was perversely glad of that.

  “Baby, you got magic blood, your spit will probably give me super powers.” Spider was slurring his words a bit, and I hoped this was the only wound because I doubt I could reach any other parts of him.

  “It’s true,” I agreed, returning the water bottle to my bag and rezipping it. He needed more than just a superficial bandage, and I needed my first aid kit. I turned my pack over in my lap as far as I could — as far as my waist would allow the strap to tighten as it twisted up — getting it onto its side, which was good enough though the strap was biting into my bottom ribs really uncomfortably. I opened only as much as I needed to, cracking open the first aid kit and digging around by feel for the items I knew were in there.

  “This is going to sting a little,” I said, as I poured my entire bottle of isopropyl alcohol on his wound as I shoved my hand over and partially into his mouth by accident. He bit down, hard, and I gasped but didn’t let go as he howled in agony as the alcohol burned in his wound. As soon as he relaxed his jaw, I yanked my hand away but didn’t look at the damage. “And this is just going to sting your manly pride,” I said through my wince as I expertly unwrapped two sanitary pads and pressed them against the wounds, the thick material designed to absorb blood. I held them tightly in place while I dug out the flexible, self-adhesive bandage that would secure them until we got to where we could treat the wounds for real, using an entire roll and wrapping it tight, hoping it would help slow down the bleeding.