Page 2 of Midnight of Ashes
If I’d been with it, I would’ve recognized that Maddox was packing my wound, trying to stop the bleeding until help arrived.
My mouth wanted to pull down in a frown. Would help even come? I’d been hit with a blast of dragon fire. I didn’t know if there was any coming back from that.
“Press here,” Maddox ordered Knox.
Knox’s face blanched, but he nodded. He pressed down on the gauze. I didn’t feel any pain at the contact. That had to be bad. It should hurt like the fires of hell.
“Cáel, the IV,” Maddox barked.
That was when I saw my Viking warrior for the first time. He struggled to breathe as he pawed through a medical bag, finally shoving some sort of tubing and a sealed packet to Maddox.
His eyes came to me. The pale blue was almost absent of color now. There was so much pain there. And more than that, terror.
The urge to comfort him was so strong. I thought it might be enough to give me the strength to get up off the pavement and simply wrap my arms around him. But it wasn’t.
“Small pinch,” Maddox whispered.
That hurt. The tenderness in Mad’s voice. The way he was still explaining everything he was doing, even though I knew I was halfway gone.
I didn’t feel the needle go into my skin, didn’t feel it when he inserted the thin tube. But I did feel a wash of cool liquid hit my veins. Drugs. Something to ease the agony.
Maddox didn’t know I’d already gone numb, and this was the only thing he could do to help. The world went a little blurrier.
Cillian’s large form hovered above him. “They’ll be here in under five minutes.”
Maddox looked up at him, his expression going completely blank. “I don’t know if she’ll make it that long.”
2
EASTON
I couldn’t stop staring down at my hands. It wasn’t as if they had never been covered in blood before. They’d been stained this reddish-brown more times than I could count. But it was like I’d never experienced it before. Because it was her.
Guilt swamped me. But it wasn’t a passive, sluggish emotion. This guilt was brutal, surging through my veins and burning everything in its path. It had gone completely feral.
Even after everything I’d done, especially tonight, Hayden had stepped into the path of dragon fire for me.
Why?
The question swirled round and round in my brain.
“You’re going to make her hold on,” Cillian growled.
The alpha waves in his voice jerked me out of my haze. Cillian was glaring down at Maddox, who was working on Hayden. Mad had packed her chest full of gauze and inserted an IV. God, I hoped he’d given her something to take the edge off.
I’d hear Hayden’s scream when I tried to stop her bleeding for the rest of my life.
“I’m doing everything I can,” Maddox said. His voice was completely empty, void of all emotion. As if he’d gone dead inside.
“Mad!” Knox shouted, panic digging into his tone. “I don’t think she’s breathing.”
Maddox cursed, bending so that he was hovering over her. “We need to start CPR.”
But Hayden’s chest was already shredded. I didn’t think CPR was going to do a damn thing to help. Still, Maddox began compressions while Knox executed rescue breaths.
Cáel’s massive form filled my vision. “You. This is on you.” He shoved me hard, but I didn’t try to stop him. “This is what you wanted from the beginning. Are you happy now?”
Cillian grabbed him by the back of the shirt, tugging him back before his fist could connect with my face. But I wished our alpha hadn’t stopped him. I wished Cáel’s fist would’ve crushed my jaw. Then maybe I’d have a slight distraction from the agony swirling in my chest.
