Storm and Sea - Book 1

Chapter 7

"Luca! Al!" She called over the crashing of the waves and the call off the seagulls. She ran up and down the beach, scanning every rocky cliff as she went.

"Where are they?" She said out loud, the wind pushing her hair over her face. She looked down, thinking hard. But then froze. The waves were lapping over her bare feet. But they were red. Her head shot up. A steady path of red leaked down the beach. She followed it at a run.

Giulia gasped as she arrived at its source. Two figures lay motionless on the sand: one purple and one green.

"Help!" She cried as loud as she could. "Help, I found them!" She fell to her knees in the blood-stained water. Alberto's arm lay limp across Luca's shoulders. Luca was covered head to toe in a steel net. It was wrapped around his tail so tightly that the end of it was turning blue.

She shook them both, but they remained motionless. Cold and motionless. They both had hundreds of tiny scratches all around them. Alberto's shirt clung to him in tatters. She quickly found the source of the majority of the blood. Luca's thigh had been sliced wide open. Scaled skin and muscle lay torn and exposed. It opened wide enough to reveal the white bone beneath.

Giulia couldn't stand it. She crawled away and wretched into the sand.

Footsteps raced towards her. Massimo placed a hand on her back as she threw up the contents of her stomach. He looked up and saw the boys.

"Madonna Santa!"

The villagers crowded around them. Massimo lifted Luca, net and all, into his arms.

"Get Alberto! Veloce!"

It took two other villagers to carry Alberto's heavy unconscious form. They ran down the beach, where a van stood waiting for them. They gently lay them on blankets while the van raced to the hospital.

Giulia crouched beside her brother in the van, too shocked to cry. She clung to his hand.

"Please be ok."

Alberto POV

The last thing Alberto could remember was battling the storm and being surrounded by Luca's blood.

The deepwater where the rest of the villagers hid was close, but Luca needed a hospital. And fast.

Luca cringed and cried out as he tried his best to swim, one leg dangling uselessly at his side. Alberto held him, half dragging him through the water.

"It's going to be ok, Luca. I've got you. It's going to be ok." He kept saying over and over.

It wasn't long before Luca's kicks became week and feeble. Then he went slack in Alberto's arms. He had lost too much blood. Alberto sped up his already exhausted body, his muscles screaming with agony. The waves crashed around him, forcing him to fight harder.

Then..... it was over.

The next thing he knew was pain. Everywhere. His entire body hurt. Every breath was torture. Slowly the memories came back to him.

His eyes flashed open only to be blinded by brilliant light. In a panic, he thrashed, lashing out with his talons only....he didn't have talons. He flexed his hands to feel very human fingernails.

"Eh basta Alberto! Calmati, calmati!" Someone shouted nearby. Alberto heard the clatter of metal instruments hit the floor.

Blinking furiously against the hospital lights, Alberto's eyes focused on the room around him. A doctor with shoulder-length curly brown hair held one of Alberto's arms down. He wore a long white lab coat and had a slightly unshaven beard creeping up his face.