Skins & Needles (COMPLETE)

The Luckiest Shot Part 1

Arsen

I was in the water pulling Charlotte out before I knew I was jumping into the pool. Adrian helped me get her to the edge, where we rolled her onto her back to check if she was breathing and what damage there was.

The exit wound was clear, and sat what looked to be below her lungs. That was the upside.

The downside was, she wasn't breathing.

"Her body probably seized up when the bullet hit," Kase was saying behind me. "She inhaled too much water. Do you know CPR?"

I started pumping her chest before he finished speaking.

"Come on, come on, come on," I muttered, panic seeping into my veins with each second she didn't wake up. I'd barely known this girl for a week, but the need to save her was overwhelming.

Overwhelming enough that I would have considered using my Gift if I could have. And that thought alone was terrifying.

On the third breath, when I pressed my mouth to hers to fill her lungs with air, she came alive, coughing and spitting water, before crying out in pain and grasping her side. Relief washed through me and I let out a shaky breath.

"Oh, fuck," she gasped, blinking up at me with eye makeup streaming down her cheeks. Somehow her glasses had remained on during the whole ordeal, but they were speckled with pool water. "What the hell—"

"She needs to be taken and held," Thane snapped behind us, and I gritted my teeth.

"She needs a fucking doctor first," I snarled back, helping her to her feet. She was bleeding everywhere, red-tinged water pooling at her feet.

"I called the car," Adrian said. "Can you walk, Charlotte?"

As if on cue, her knees buckled, and I barely caught her before she hit the pavement.

"I— my head—" she was trying, but she was getting dizzy from blood loss, and I wasn't sure how much longer she'd be conscious. She kept one hand firmly pressed to the exit wound, but blood seeped between her fingers. Luckily, Thane's gun had a silencer, so we hadn't attracted the attention of the entire event. We just had to get her out the back gates to the limo.

Behind us, the doors knocked open, and a man I recognized from the tattoo shop walked out. Upon seeing the carnage before him, he paled, and then his expression shifted to one of rage.

"What the fuck happened here?" he demanded, rushing forward to check on Charlotte, who was slumped in my arms fighting to keep her head up. "What have you done? She needs an ambulance!"

"We're taking her to our trusted doctor," Kase explained. "We didn't realize she was out here and fucking Thane overreacted."

"She overheard—" Thane began, but the man wasn't having it.

"She overheard what?" he interrupted. "She doesn't even know. How could she have overheard anything important enough to shoot her?"

"Is the car here?" I asked, my mind on anything but what Charlotte might have heard.

"Almost," Adrian replied. "You'll have to carry her."

I maneuvered Charlotte into my arms the best I could without disturbing her wound, and she put the hand not holding her abdomen on my shoulder.

"I might be out of work for a few days, huh Jer," Charlotte told the man in a forced light tone.

"Jesus, Charlotte," he said, rubbing his forehead, before looking at me. "If you let anything happen to her..."

"I won't," I promised. I'll do my best.

"We'll need to hold her for a week or two," Kase told him. "To make sure she didn't hear anything and won't speak of what happened here. Just customary. You understand, Jeremy."

"I know," he grumbled. "I just... I shouldn't have let her go off alone."

"The car is here," Adrian interjected. I nodded toward Jeremy once, and then followed Adrian to where the car waited.

"You'll be in charge of her until all this is over," Kase told me as I climbed into the limo with Charlotte.

"What? Why?" I was ranked second in command in our pack. As much as I didn't mind the delegation, it was one that would usually be given to someone lower ranked.

"For one, her scent was all over you when you showed up to the meeting," Kase jabbed, but I could tell he was teasing. "And two, you know the protocol on making sure prisoners are safe to release. Now go get her patched up. I'll finish the meetings with Adrian and Nathan."

He shut the car door, and our driver immediately sped off. I sighed heavily, hoping to release some tension, but it was hard when Charlotte was still bleeding out in my arms. I had faith she would live, but just barely.

"My scent?" she asked, and I looked down to see her watching me sleepily, but still managing a taunting smile. "Us plebeians say 'perfume.'"

"Kase is just weird," I dismissed, but made a mental note to tell Kase off later for slipping up.

"Did you do CPR on me?" she asked next, her cheeks finding some slight color even with blood loss.

"I did," I replied, finding it my turn to smirk. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, you know," she said arily, "most people prefer to be conscious for their first kiss with someone. Just common courtesy and all."

"I guess I'll just have to make it up to you." I almost kissed her for real then. I wanted to so badly it hurt. She was so close. Close enough that I could smell the hints of red wine on her breath. But I already found her too fascinating. Too fun. Too deep.

If I kissed her, I would drown.

I had a responsibility to my circle, my pack, and above that, shifters as a whole, and right now, Charlotte was technically a liability in the eyes of our leaders. I had to focus on getting her back on her feet and cleared, and then I had to focus on keeping sorcerers out of Lycan.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Charlotte was saying, and I noticed her eyelids drooping as her head rested heavy against my chest. It would be a sight I relished if we weren't both soaking wet and covered in blood.

"You were there before we were," I sighed. "We should have been more careful. It wasn't your fault."

"I should have said something, or moved or..." she trailed off with a shaky sigh. "Getting shot sucks. I think only a couple of my ribs are broken, at least."

"Have you had a broken rib?" I asked, wondering how she sounded so sure of this.

"A few." She didn't elaborate, but it made me want to ask more. I wanted to know her, where she had come from, why she related to the poem "Invictus" enough to get it tattooed.

I needed to get her back in her own world as soon as I could.

---

If I kissed her, I would drown.

One of my fav early-book lines.

Happy reading!

-Haybails

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