But before he handed the cases over to the authorities, he was going to save Vicki. He figured it was his right to save his lifemate first, since he had been the one to go after the Dark Warriors and recover the cure. Surely, no one could blame him for being a little bit selfish in this situation.
Mitch landed hard in the parking lot outside the flower shop. He didn’t have the strength to come in for a slow, smooth landing, and he’d given all of his energy to making sure that the cases themselves weren’t smashed on landing. As soon as his feet were on solid ground, he began to shift back to human form. Doing this sapped him of the last of his energy, and caused the gashes in his side to split open and start bleeding anew. He had never been so exhausted, lying there on the rough concrete of the parking lot, naked from shifting with blood and dirt everywhere on his body.
Once again, he did not allow himself to think about the pain, though. He only thought about Vicki. He stood unsteadily to his feet and picked up the cases of medicine. Swaying wildly as he walked, he stumbled toward the flower shop’s front entrance.
Everything looked exactly as it had when he’d left. The shreds of clothing he’d lost when he’d shifted were scattered around the sidewalk that ran in front of the store. There was his cell phone, tossed aside in the bushes. Glass from the front door once again crunched under his feet as he walked, this time cutting into his bare skin since he had no shoes on. He didn’t notice the pain, though. The cuts on his feet were just one more scratch on top of all of his other wounds.
He made it into the flower shop and somehow managed to hoist the two cases of medicine up onto the front counter. With shaking hands, he pulled out one of the vials and crawled around the counter to where Vicki still lay. She had barely moved since he left her, and he checked her pulse with a heart full of trepidation. She still had a pulse, and she was still breathing, although her breath was coming in infrequent, shallow bursts. It didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that she was still alive. It wasn’t too late for her. Mitch knew that it wouldn’t take very long after he gave her the medicine for her to feel better. It had worked almost immediately for him, which had been a very good thing because he never would have made it all the way back to Torch Lake if he’d been dealing with weakness from the virus on top of weakness from all his injuries.
“Here, Vicki. Drink,” Mitch said. Vicki only moaned in response. She was unconscious or delirious. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t notice or acknowledge Mitch’s presence. He sat beside her and held her head up in his arms, wincing at how hot her skin was. The fever that came with this virus was no joke.
Holding the vial of medicine as steadily as he could in his trembling hand, he held it up to her lips and poured it down her throat. He watched to make sure she swallowed it before gently lying her head down on the floor again. And then, with the knowledge that his lifemate was safe at last, he finally let himself collapse on the floor. He reached over to grab her hand, feeling the fire in her skin already starting to cool to a normal level.
And then, mercifully, he felt himself slip into the oblivion of unconsciousness, where the searing pain in his body could no longer reach him.
Chapter Eleven
Vicki blinked her eyes open, wincing as the bright light hit them. The floor beneath her was cold, but something warm was covering her hand.
Disoriented, she lifted her head slightly, trying to see where she was. This left her even more confused. It looked like she was on the floor of her flower shop, but how could that be? Why in the world was she lying on the floor behind her front counter? She looked down to see what was covering her hand, and then shrieked in dismay.
The warmth was coming from Mitch’s hand, which was holding hers. But the fact that he was holding her hand wasn’t what made her shriek. Rather, she was startled by the sight of blood. It was everywhere, covering Mitch’s naked body from head to toe. It looked like he had left a trail of it going around the front counter and back toward the main lobby. For a moment, Vicki feared that he was dead. She tried to remember her first aid training, but it had been years since she took the class. Gingerly, she checked his pulse, then nearly sobbed with relief. He was still alive. A finger under his nose confirmed that he was still breathing, although barely. Vicki had no clue what had happened to him or how he had ended up here, on the floor of her shop. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. All she knew was that he needed to get to a hospital.
“The hospital!” she exclaimed. Thinking about the hospital jarred her memory, and the events of the entire morning came rushing back to her. The flower orders, the virus, Mitch begging her not to go to the hospital, and then, the last thing she remembered, starting to not feel so well herself and emailing Mitch.
“I emailed him, and he came,” she whispered. “But why is he so bloody?” She tried to see if there was a specific wound where all the blood was coming from, but he was such a mess that it was impossible to tell. She needed help—that much was certain. Her cell phone was still within reach on the floor, so she quickly grabbed it and dialed 911. When the operator answered, she started frantically asking for an ambulance, but the operator seemed unimpressed.
“Is this a case of the virus, ma’am? Because the hospitals are overrun and we are not sending out ambulances for virus victims. There’s unfortunately nothing we can do for them.”
“No! It’s not the virus. It’s…he’s covered in blood like he was in some sort of awful fight. He’s lost consciousness and I think he’s still losing blood. I don’t know what to do. I think he’s going to die if he doesn’t get stitched up or something soon.”
There was a long pause, and Vicki could hear the operator conferring with someone else in low tones. The other person must have made the decision that Mitch’s condition met the definition of a real emergency, because the operator came back on the line sounding much friendlier.
“Alright, ma’am. We’re sending an ambulance out right now. We’re tracing the location of your call, but can you confirm the address?”
Vicki choked back tears of gratitude as she gave the operator the address, and took simple instructions on what she should do for Mitch until the paramedics arrived. There wasn’t much she could do, except hope and pray that he would be alright. The operator told her not to move him if at all possible, because of the danger of internal injury. So Vicki sat and waited with him, every minute that ticked by feeling like an eternity.
As the fog of sickness and panic began to clear, she suddenly realized that she wasn’t sick herself anymore. She’d been so startled by Mitch’s condition that she hadn’t had time to realize that she had no more fever or exhaustion. Had it all been in her head? But no, she’d been passed out on the floor. Surely, she must have been suffering from something. She stood, then, trying to wrap her head around what was going on. Her feet were somewhat unsteady, but she grabbed the edge of the counter to balance herself. Then she gasped again at the sight before her.
The trail of blood from Mitch went all the way out to the parking lot. He must have smashed in through the front door, because it was shattered, with shards of glass spread all over the room. On the counter in front of her were two black cases, one of which was thrown open and was filled with small glass vials. Furrowing her brow, Vicki picked up one of the vials and looked at the label. It read “Virus Treatment – One Adult Dose.”
“Oh my god,” she said aloud with a gasp. “Did he somehow get the cure they thought the Dark Warriors had?”
She looked down at his bloody form again, and realized for the first time that a small glass vial had rolled a few feet away from him, coming to rest against the dusty bottom of her front counter. Even from here, Vicki could tell the vial was the same as the ones in the case. Mitch had saved her life. She had had the virus, but he’d brought her the cure. She felt a rush of emotion, and tears filled her eyes. She wasn’t quite sure if what she was feeling was love, but it was definitely something more than she would ever feel for a one night stand.
> “You promised to take care of me and protect me, and you did. Even when I pushed you away.”
There was, of course, no response from Mitch. But outside, Vicki heard the sudden pounding of boots. A tall, muscular man was running across the parking lot at full speed. He was wearing a Torch Lake military uniform, and his face, although handsome, was drawn and pale.
“Is Mitch here?” the man asked as he came storming into the store, glass crunching beneath his boots.
Vicki nodded and pointed behind the counter. “He’s here, but not doing well. An ambulance is on the way already.”
The man ran around the counter, bending down to check on Mitch. “Shit! Hang in there buddy. We’re gonna get you fixed right up I promise.”
Vicki peered over the counter. “Are you one of his dragon shifter friends? He brought this medicine, I think. I’m not sure how to best get it to the hospital. I was thinking the paramedics could take it.”
As if on cue, the sound of ambulance sirens could suddenly be heard in the distance. The man looked up at the cases. “Yeah, the paramedics are our best bet. And yes, I’m one of his dragon shifter friends. My name’s Hugh.”
“How did you know Mitch was here?” Vicki asked, watching with her heart pounding as Hugh checked Mitch’s vitals. He obviously had a much better grasp of CPR and First Aid than Vicki did.
“We weren’t sure, but this was the last place we knew for sure he’d been before he left to get the cure from the Dark Warriors. We figured it was a good place to start looking.”
The ambulance was pulling into the parking lot now, and paramedics were already flying out of the back with a stretcher at the ready.
“So it was him? Who got the cure from the Dark Warriors, I mean?” Vicki asked, looking down at Mitch with wonder.
Hugh looked up at her with an almost amused look in his eyes. “Yes, it was him. It’s quite a story actually. Once he’s safely on the way to the hospital I’ll explain.”
The next few minutes were a blur. The paramedics came and strapped Mitch onto the stretcher, then carried him out with some difficulty. He was a big man, with big muscles. Not easy to carry at all, but they managed quite well when they all worked together. One of the paramedics asked Vicki a series of questions about what had happened to Mitch, but she wasn’t very helpful since she’d been unconscious during whatever event had caused his injuries. Hugh told them that he knew Mitch had been fighting Dark Warriors, and that he was sure many of the wounds were from attack spells. This seemed to help the paramedics out quite a bit, and they started yelling something about cleaning away magical residue.
Vicki watched helplessly, wishing there was more she could do, and wishing she could tell Mitch she was sorry for the way she had acted.
Most of all, she wished for another chance.
“Please, please, please,” she whispered as the ambulance pulled away. “Just make it through this, Mitch. I have to have a chance to make all of this up to you, and to tell you I was wrong to push you away.”
And then, her lips trembling as she spoke, she managed to say aloud the words that had been swirling in her heart for the last several minutes.
“You have to make it through, Mitch. I love you.”
Chapter Twelve
“Wow,” Vicki said, not sure that there was another word that would accurately express how she felt about everything she’d just heard.
“Wow, is right,” Jasper said. “Mitch made himself into a hero today.” Jasper was the only one of the dragon shifters that Vicki had recognized easily, since he was somewhat famous and his face had been used a lot in the public relations campaigns the Torch Lake High Council put out. He’d also visited her shop once before, when he was trying to impress a beautiful wizard with a large bouquet of flowers.
The other dragons standing around the front counter weren’t as famous, but they were no less impressive. They all stood tall and had remarkable muscles. Not to mention their handsome faces—although none of them were as handsome as Mitch. Still, Vicki was a bit in awe of the fact that her flower shop was currently filled with ten dragon shifters. They had all gathered to thank her for saving Mitch, which she found rather funny since Mitch had saved her first. In fact, he had probably saved all of Torch Lake—possibly all of the shifters and wizards in the world.
Hugh had just finished telling Vicki the story, and she was nearly in tears at the selflessness Mitch had displayed. He’d put his own life on the line, over and over again, to get to the cure. And then, the first thing he’d done when he got back to Torch Lake was run here to make sure Vicki received one of the bottles of medicine. The other dragon shifters were a bit exasperated with Mitch for not taking the medicine directly to the hospital. That would have made the most sense, since Mitch needed medical attention, and since the hospital was where the medicine would need to be distributed.
But Vicki didn’t care what they thought. She found it incredibly romantic that Mitch had come to rescue her first. She realized it was somewhat ironic that she railed against romance, and yet was falling head over heels for a guy because of a romantic gesture. But hey, it wasn’t a cheesy romantic gesture, like flowers. Sacrificing your life for someone was a pretty big deal. What girl wouldn’t have been swept off her feet? She didn’t say any of this to the dragon shifters, of course. They would probably all think she was crazy if she started swooning about Mitch. But they must have realized that something was going on between her and Mitch. After all, it wasn’t every day that a man flew off to nearly certain death to save a woman.
Hugh cleared his throat, interrupting Vicki’s thoughts. “Anyway, that’s the whole story. I’m sure Mitch can tell it to you in much more detail once he wakes up.”
“Do you…do you think he will wake up?” Vicki asked. She was almost afraid to put the question out there, but she had to know what they thought. She hadn’t been allowing herself to dwell much on the what-ifs over the last hour, but she couldn’t quite push away the worry of Mitch never coming home from the hospital.
Hugh, however, seemed unconcerned. He laughed, as did all the other dragon shifters. “Don’t worry. He’s a dragon. He’s going to be just fine.”
Vicki’s face must have betrayed her confusion, because Hugh explained further. “Dragon shifters are able to heal relatively quickly. All shifters are, actually, but dragon shifters especially. Mitch is going to be just fine, I promise. And I have a feeling you’ll be the first person he calls when he regains consciousness. He’s going to want to know that his lifemate is okay.”
Vicki felt her cheeks heating up with embarrassment. “He told you I was his lifemate?”
Hugh laughed. “No, he didn’t tell me. But some things are obvious.”
The rest of the group laughed, but Vicki felt her cheeks warming even more. She still didn’t understand this lifemate stuff very well. Part of her wanted to ask why it was so obvious, but part of her just wanted to be alone. So when Hugh offered in the next breath to help clean up the glass that was all over her shop’s floor, she declined.
“No thanks,” she said. “I can handle it myself, and I’m sure you guys have more important things to get back to.”
“I don’t mind, really,” Hugh said. “We do need to get to the High Council, but the rest of the guys can go ahead and I can catch up with them a few minutes late.”
Vicki declined again. “I think I just want to be alone for a bit,” she said.
Hugh and the others seemed to understand that, so they left, telling her to feel free to call if she needed anything. When they were gone, she just stood there for a long time, staring after them. She felt like she’d just gained a whole family. They saw that Mitch accepted her, and they immediately accepted her because of that, no questions asked. Vicki couldn’t help but smile at the realization. It had been a while since she’d felt like she had a family. She’d begun to think she would never have one again, since she’d been shying away from romance so much ever since moving to Torch Lake.
B
ut there was no shying away from Mitch. Not anymore. Now that she’d admitted to herself that he was a good match for her, she realized she’d been holding back a lot of very strong feelings for him. No wonder the thought of him being with other women made her jealous. Even though she couldn’t be mad at him for being a player before they’d even met, she still couldn’t stand to think of him looking at anyone else with any kind of feelings, even if those feelings were merely lust.
She began to slowly sweep up the glass on her shop’s floor. It was everywhere. It didn’t seem possible that one glass door could produce that much glass, but somehow it had. She would have to call up someone to fix the door, but that could wait until tomorrow. Business hours were nearly over now, and, besides, the dragon shifters had said the whole town was pretty much shut down. The High Council had asked everyone to stay home and away from public spaces as much as possible so that the spread of the virus could be controlled.
Vicki would have to officially cancel all the orders she’d taken for flowers this morning. She hated to lose all that business, but she would never be able to get them all done in the next hour. She was sure that everyone would understand when she explained that she’d contracted the virus as well. Everyone was surely too interested in news of the cure right now to care that much about bouquets of flowers, anyway.
Dragon Battling (Torch Lake Shifters Book 10) Page 8