Forged in Smoke (Red-Hot SEALs #3)(59)

She meant dead. How long had she been dead?

Too damn long.

“I know.” He forced his palms to relinquish their claim on her chest and sat back, watching Kait’s slender hands with their long, tapered fingers replace his as Faith’s guardian against that silvery, transparent world he’d escaped.

“Cosky. I need you on this,” Kait said, settling onto her knees and pressing her hands against Faith’s still chest.

A vague memory stirred in Rawls’s mind. Kait’s voice.

“The odds are much better if we wait until Cosky returns. His touch amplifies my healing. Together we can heal injuries much faster. That’s how we managed to save you.”

His mind warped back to that eerie otherworld. He hadn’t been simply injured. He’d been dead. Kait and Cosky had dragged him back. Why not Faith as well? Hope swelled as he shuffled to the side and pulled back, making room for Cosky’s taller, wider frame.

Abruptly he remembered Faith’s dislocated shoulder. Best to fix that before Kait got cranking so the healing could work its magic on her joint as well.

“Hold this,” Cosky said as soon as Rawls had taken care of Faith’s shoulder. He handed over a flashlight and knelt across from Kait, covering the top of her hands with his palms.

Rawls directed Cosky’s flashlight toward the drama taking place on the ground. The beam from his own flashlight, still upright and propped against Faith’s knee, ricocheted down from the tunnel’s ceiling, intensifying the spotlight haloing Faith’s prone form.

His mind flashed back to his stint on the ground, with Cosky and Kait hovering over him. Beneath the backdrop of a gloomy liquid night, they’d been glowing. A bright current of white running from their arms into their hands and plunging into his chest.

He frowned, the tension expanding, pressing against the hope. The flashlights were so bright they drowned any supernatural glow. If Kait and Cos were glowing, he couldn’t tell.

“Is it workin’?” The question finally burst from him.

“I think so.” Kait sounded drugged.

Another minute ticked past while Kait’s face and Cosky’s hands turned redder and redder. He stared at Faith’s chest so hard his eyes burned. No movement. At least none that he could see.

Come on, baby. Come on.

He concentrated, willed life into her.

Still nothing.

The dullness from earlier returned, started to compress the hope.

Come on, sweetheart. Come back to me.

Cosky’s hands lifted slightly. Rawls’s gaze locked on them, his breath caught in his tight throat.

Come on, come on, come on.

Had it been his imagination? Wishful thinking? But no—there. Another flutter of movement and then a steady rise and fall of hands and chest as Faith’s heart and lungs went to work again.

The breath locked in his throat escaped in a whoosh.

She was breathing. Breathing on her own.

The seconds ticked on again.

“That’s enough.” Cosky pulled Kait’s wrists away.

“What the—” Rawls jolted forward. Faith needed more time beneath Kait’s hands. While it looked like the combined healing had healed her heart, what about her brain? Had it reversed the damage caused by oxygen depletion? “Let her keep goin’.”

“No,” Cosky snapped, still holding Kait’s hands. He rose to his feet, taking Kait with him. “She’ll drain herself completely trying to help.”

“Maybe you should let her make that decision,” Rawls snapped back, shooting a quick look at the easy rise and fall of Faith’s chest.

“I said no. Kait’s done.” Cosky’s voice hardened.

But Faith needed more time, damn it. He crowded closer to Kait and rustled up a coaxing tone. “Darlin’, just a bit more . . .”

His voice trailed off at the sight of her face.

Her brown eyes were glazed. Exhaustion carved deep crevices into the hollows of her face.

She looked as drained and sick as she had way back in the parking lot when she’d healed Cosky’s trashed knee. The memory morphed into déjà vu as her legs folded and she started to collapse. He leapt forward, catching her before she hit the ground.

“Son of a bitch.” Cosky’s voice rose grimly. He all but ripped her from Rawls’s arms. “You take care of your charge. I’ll take care of mine.”

Rawls surrendered his grip, guilt rising. Cos had been right. Kait wasn’t in any condition to continue the healing. He could only hope that Faith had received enough of whatever magical elixir flowed through Kait’s hands to heal her brain as well as her heart.





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Chapter Twelve




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THE HUB WAS exactly as Mac remembered it. Jagged rock walls, bumpy rock floor. Fifteen by twenty feet in diameter. The tunnels fed into each other, until eventually, a single corridor spilled into the hub. At the moment, the rendezvous point looked smaller than it actually was. But then, a multitude of clustered bodies and flickering flashlights tended to have that effect on any given space.

Mac scanned faces as he entered the cavern. As Cosky had indicated, everyone was accounted for except Rawls and the doc. He frowned. He hoped like hell Cosky had found the pair, and not under the dire circumstances they’d both assumed.