Page 68 of The Gathering
“How long has she been seizing,” Patches demanded.
“Fuck, maybe five minutes, what the fuck do I do!”
“Holdyour shit together and time it. Protect her from hurting herself. Keep her airway clear till you hear air support over your house. I’m heading to the North Swamp, but you’ll get there before I do. They’re plenty equipped to help her, oui?”
“Oh fuck, it stopped, it stopped!”
“Okay, don’t move her,” Patches ordered, the second before he touched her. “Give her time to come around. Tell me what you’re seeing, help me see, brother, is she breathing?”
“Yes, she’s breathing but it’s… it’s uneven.”
“Okay. Air is moving and that’s good. Is she limp or locked up?”
He carefully lifted her arm. “Limp,” he gasped, fighting to hold his shit.
“Okay, that’s good, limp is better than locked. Watch her breathing, tell me when or if it changes in any way. Keep her mouth down. Try and say her name once.”
“Cat,” Ethan called, his voice breaking as he fixed his gaze on her angelic face. “Cat, can you hear me?”
“Look for eye movement, twitching, swallowing, anything at all.”
Ethan nodded, petting her head. “I’m so fucking sorry,” he gasped.
“Talk to me, brother,” Patches said, sounding like he was out of breath. “I need to know anything and everything that might help us know what happened.”
His chest turned to cement as he forced the words out. “I fucked up, I fucked up bad,” he strained.
“Tell meeverything. It’s about to get loud, I’m starting my Dragon.”
Ethan fought to find the fastest version. “Big G and Al neuro-synced with her, they’re in her fucking head and I think that’s why this happened, it was too much for her,” he strained around his fucking rage.
“Holy fuck, she’s definitely headed to the right place for this, brother.”
Ethan’s heart lurched at the shaking growl above his house. “Fuck, they’re calling me,” he saw on his phone.
“I’ll see you soon.”
Ethan hung up and answered. “I can hear you, can you see the house?”
“Roger that, Code Breaker. You’re in my sites.”
Hearing his favorite Creole brother nearly dropped him to his knees. “Skul,” he croaked, back on a ledge. “I fucked up.”
“Do not move her, brother, we’re coming to you.”
Hand Jobs
Seeing Ethan shirtless and pacing in the hall hit Bishop hard. Half the brothers were there, the other half on their way. Patches spotted him and signaled to Ethan.
Ethan spun and hurried toward him, making Bishop brace for impact.
Bishop was sure it was guilt that kept his gaze lowered as he came. He never looked up and didn’t stop till he had Bishop in a bear hug.
Bishop held him back tighter, feeling the quake in his muscles. He wasn’t breathing. And he couldn’t say a fucking word.
But fuck, Bishop needed an update, something, anything. He was behaving like a man who’d lost something he couldn’t live without and it had Bishop on a fucking ledge too.
“Talk to me, Ethan,” he finally said. “I need to know what’s going on.”
