Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(63)
A dead vampire lay on the ground next to them.
I turned to see Tessa wheezing, trying to catch her breath. She wouldn’t be able to run and get help. Oliver was holding Jayden’s leg together.
“I’m getting a medic,” I said to Oliver, and he nodded. His face was drained of color, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Turning to Tessa, I gave her a serious look. “Guard them with your fucking life.” Tessa was born into privilege, never went through the culling, and before Blake had never killed anyone. But I needed her to be a badass right now.
Tessa nodded, clenching her jaw, and tightened the grip on her gun, standing in front of the café door like a sentinel.
I didn’t wait. I took off running.
I was the fastest runner I knew, other than Ryder. I WOULD get to a medic. I WOULD get some fucking blood and I WOULD save Jayden’s life. He’d bled a lot during the culling and he’d survived, I told myself. He could survive this.
Fuck! I forgot about the sniper. Bullets snapped all around me as I ran in a zigzag back to the place where the medical triage had been set up. In the end I tapped into my center, letting the heat take me over as I soared close to the medic building.
“Charlie!” Ryder’s voice came to my left, as a bullet nicked my shoulder and I tripped over my legs. Tucking down my left shoulder, I braced for the fall, rolling with it, before quickly popping up to find Ryder at my side, shooting the shit out of the guy on the roof.
“Jayden is dying! Needs blood,” I shouted to him, and took off running again. He kept pace with me easily, guns out, firing at anyone who got in our way. We dashed into the building. I ran right up to the first person I saw.
“I need to do a blood transfusion STAT!” I all but shouted in her face.
She was in the middle of bandaging someone’s neck, so she motioned over to a cooler. “Blood pouches in there. IV lines on the on table. Help yourself.”
Okay. I could do a blood transfusion. How hard could it be? My mom was a nurse. I threw open the top of the cooler and grabbed three bags labeled AB-negative. I grabbed two IV lines and took off running again. Ryder was right with me the whole time; he was my muscle, shooting any remaining vamps down.
Once I had time to think, I’d realize how damn happy I was to have Ryder close to me again. As a team we kinda rocked. Plus, knowing he was alive was everything. Couldn’t focus on that though, I had a BAFF to save. I’d already lost one friend tonight, and I would not lose another.
I was back at the café in record time and nearly got my head blown off by a trigger-happy Tessa. She pulled her hand away at the last second and shot the ground.
“Jesus, Charlie. Announce yourself!” she barked.
“Sorry!” Damn, she took the protector role seriously. Good girl.
Oliver was shaking; there was too much damn blood, pouring everywhere, coating the floor around them. How was it possible to lose that much blood and not be dead? Jayden had better not be dead.
I sat in the blood, getting as close as I could to my BAFF.
My hands shook as I ripped open the IV lines and attached the blood bag. I felt Ryder’s hulking mass behind me, and when I brought a shaking hand down to my best friend’s arm, Ryder placed his hand over mine to steady it. I took in a deep breath, and then with more focus I placed the line with Ryder’s help. He’d had to do this a few times in the field with his men, so he was actually a massive help.
Jayden’s veins were nearly nonexistent with the blood loss, but we got one. Standing, I held the blood high so it could drip down into his body. Ryder must have grabbed a med kit at the triage center, because he was ripping open packages, his hand steady as he began suturing Jayden’s leg wound.
I tried not to think too hard. My mind already felt stretched so thin it was barely lucid. I held Jayden’s hand; Oliver had the other, and we waited. The longest goddamn wait of my life. My eyes were trained on the very shallow and minuscule rise and fall of Jayden’s chest. If he stopped breathing, I would die. I would literally give up on life. Jayden was someone I couldn’t live without. Thank God he was an ash; a human would have been dead long ago.
We must have stood there in silence forever. But after the gunshots died down, we heard a van drive by, loudspeakers blasting a message: “Vampires have surrendered. It’s safe to leave your homes. Get your wounded to a local triage center.”
“Did you hear that? Get my ass to a triage center.” Jayden’s weak voice filled the silent room and I broke down in tears. I didn’t realize it until now but my arm holding up the blood bag was completely asleep. I let it drop, leaning forward to gently hug Jayden.
Oliver was openly crying, and even Ryder’s eyes looked a bit damp.
“That didn’t exactly go as planned,” Sam said from the doorway, and we turned to see him with Jared, Markus, and Kyle. Kyle’s shoulder was bleeding, but he looked okay. I was just opening my mouth to ask about Carter when he walked in after them, looking like he’d just been to a day spa. Despite his efforts, which most certainly had saved a lot of lives, he had not a hair out of place. I blew my father a kiss, and then all the enforcers.
They were alive. Thank you, God, Jesus, and all the saints. They were alive. My family was alive, and with a bit of luck the cure was working around the world. Vampires’ numbers were decimated.
I couldn’t contain my joy, laughter spilling from me as my eyes continued running across my family. There was a small part of my heart that mourned for Lucas; the fact that he didn’t make it would haunt me forever, but I was determined to remember that everyone else was alive and I would count my blessings.