Waters of Lethe, Book 2

64. Unsteady

Over the past few months, our training to secure targets focused on one primary rule: make the target safe. Because a dead target was a waste of our time, a waste of Scott's time. Although the thought crossed my mind to make sure Arabella was safe and sound, it wasn't the first thing to pop into my mind. I looked at Jai.

We were all standing, Alex, Jai, and I facing the four men who were moving forward to Arabella, who had become as still as a statue. I immediately noticed the look on her face, knew it was shock, knew she wasn't processing a damn thing. Her parents had just been killed in front of her, out of the blue, by four seemingly normal men in the most random place ever, Egypt. 

I didn't know when they'd done it, but Alex and Jai had pulled their guns as well and were pointing them at the men. "Put the guns down," one of the men said, spacing out each word as if he thought we'd understand better. 

I stepped in front of Jai, out of the need for him to be safe, out of the need to not be separated again. The men all looked at each other, eyes questioning. Then one man laughed, which sent them all into a chorus of taunting laughter. My blood boiled.

I launched myself at the one who began the laughing, pulling a fist back to lay into his jaw, when I heard Jai call my name from behind me right when I heard three of the four guns held at us fire off a round each.

Pain blinded me, and the world fell out from under me all of a sudden. The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back, looking up at the ceiling, the beige color and bright lights becoming too much for me. I closed my eyes, hearing several people call my name. It was a choir of voices, a mix of crying and screaming and yelling and I couldn't take it. My eardrums couldn't take anymore.

I opened my eyes to see what the hell was going on, wanting it all to be over with. I focused on the ceiling, then on Jai's face as it got closer to mine. Two of the four men were also at the edge of my vision, pointing their guns at Jai. One smiled.

I tried to tell Jai to turn back, tried to tell him I didn't need his help, tried to tell him not to leave me, when all of a sudden every one of their heads snapped to the side, to where I thought the doorway was. I could have been wrong, however. Everything looked twisted from where I lay, tangled, and I didn't want nor have the energy to put the puzzle pieces back together. 

Once I heard gunfire, I knew something was off. Maybe the police came in and saw that the four men and Alex had guns and began firing at them. It didn't stop Jai from trying to cover every inch of my body with his, sending new tendrils of pain through my core, through my chest, through my right arm when his body slammed against mine in an attempt to protect what little bit of me was left.

"Hold on," Jai said to me, his hands clasped to either side of my head, his mouth brushing the side of my face. I forced myself to look over just in time to see one of the other men falling by me, his head landing near mine, his face slack with lifelessness. I turned my head away, back up to the ceiling so it was completely under Jai again. 

Soon after it started, the gunfire stopped.

Ragged breaths escaped from Jai and I both as he struggled to look up and around, eventually trying to stand. The pale color that took over his face was unmistakable as he knelt by me, studying me, then turning his head back behind him. My eyes stayed on his face as his eyes watched someone as they made their way over to us. When his face came into view, bald head, AC/DC t-shirt and black jeans, I was happy. So happy that I could feel myself smiling.

"Well, what in the world have you gotten yourself into this time?" Audi said as he knelt by Jai and I, shrugging his jacket off to lay over my now shaking shoulders.

I managed to get out two words. "Good question." Because I didn't have a clue.

Jai began talking fast. "Audi, she's not... We have to get her to—"

"I know, son. El, we need to roll you over so we can see if... if the bullets went through. We're going to have to assess."

"Like with a patient. Except I'm your patient now," I got out, almost laughing at how the tables had turned and how I was now the patient instead of the nurse.

"Exactly, my dear," Audi agreed, rolling me over onto my side without a warning. I let out a cry of pain, wincing, trying to swallow back how bad every inch of me hurt like hell. "Call an ambulance," Audi instructed. To who, I wasn't quite sure. He rolled me onto my back again and yelled louder, "Call an ambulance!"

"We don't have time!" Jai yelled at the man. "There's gotta be a... there's gotta..." Jai was borderline incomprehensible, becoming too distressed to talk. He looked around, looked back at Audi. "There's... t-there's a hospital down the street," he said. "If we can get her in the car and call the hospital on the way to let them know we're coming..." His voice was unnaturally high for him, but I didn't want him to stop talking. I was drifting off to a nice, peaceful place, one that I wanted him to join me in. I closed my eyes. 

"No! Ellie!" My eyes popped back open to Jai as he slapped me on the cheek a few times, not hard, but with just enough force to bring me back out of the darkness that I was fading into. "Focus on me! You're going to have to stay awake!" He was the only one in my line of sight now. I looked around, seeing Alex crouched on the floor beside a still pale, nonspeaking Arabella, who must have fallen out of her seat. Her parents lay a few feet from them. Alex looked at Jai and I with confused, wild eyes, the front of his shirt stained with red. 

Jai followed my gaze and told Alex to come with us, to bring the girl.

"No," he said in a small voice. Other voices carried through the room, but I was focused on Alex and his wound. 

"Jai, bring her!" someone called from behind us.

"Al, you have to get help," Jai said as he picked me up in his arms, my body screaming with pain. Black splotches filled my eyes, polka dotting the pretty restaurant. "Come with us. You can leave after you're treated, if you want. You both need help." Jai didn't waste time on Alex and seeing if he had followed with the girl, which I tried to protest, only to fade out for a second. "Stay with me," Jai told me, over and over and over again. "Please, God, stay with her." I gripped the front of his bloody shirt, stunned when I saw that the blood wasn't his.

We rushed past door after door as we made our way outside, red and blue lights flashing everywhere, filling the night sky with color. Audi was motioning to us, trying to get us to get in a black van that waited on the curb among all of the police vehicles. "Almost there, sweetheart," Jai whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. We slid in the backseat, Jai holding me the entire time. He didn't have the door shut entirely before we zoomed off, leaving my stomach behind. When my stomach finally caught up to us, I began to puke. Everywhere. My vision became worse than it was before I started throwing up bright red. Now, it was if I were drunk, trying to see through hammered eyes. Colors swished and swayed in front of me. Voices drifted in and out. The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees in five seconds and I suddenly wondered where Audi's jacket had gone, as it was no longer on me.

"She's losing a lot of blood."

"God..."

"Go faster!"

And then, we were thrown sideways. I slipped from Jai's grasp and went tumbling to the left, the jolt originating from the right. My head and shoulders slammed into the door, sending me under further, making me wonder how much deeper I could go before it was too late to turn back.

Gun shots filled my ears again. Three loud pops and we were moving once more. Jai brought me back into his lap, cradling my head. 

I took one more glance up at him, at his beyond worried face staring down at me. Jai is alright, I told myself. Jai is okay.

I closed my eyes again, praying for the darkness to come. I was jostled, shook, slapped on the cheeks with shaking hands, but I got to a point where it didn't bring me back anymore. I was comfortable how I was, in the dark, being held, loved.