"So you... plan to leave me here? Like a fucking kabob?" Extreme pain threw any desire to be polite out the window.
"Of course not." His brow furrowed, his lips pressed in a thin line as he concentrated.
The pole jostled from the impact of condensed slices of wind sawing into the metal, vibrating within the confines of my flesh, my muscle and bone, each subtle movement a fresh agony.
After the fact, I found out that I fainted, only because I awoke again in an entirely different location with no memory of getting there
Tempest left only a few inches of metal peaking out either side of my shoulder, and deposited me with my back leaning up against a car tire in order to help Will-O-Wisp overtake Shade atop the school.
My breathing ragged, I tried for my feet, stumbling to the point of near collapse. My vision flashed dark for a moment when what felt like all the blood left in my body rushed down to my legs. I blinked hard for my sight to return to me, the hand of my uninjured side leaning heavily against the car's hood. My blood smeared across the light gray vehicle in rust colored streaks,
Leigh was still up there amidst a fire-fight between three Supers, cornered to the furthest point away from the stairs the exact way I had been a minute prior . She needed help, my help. She sprinted in after me, and while I couldn't sprint after her in my current state, I would crawl if I had to.
One foot in front of the other. Not so hard, right? Again. Again. Again. Gradually, my steps grew faster, the world blurring at the edges as I moved, mind disconnected from body. The world took on a fuzzy film across my vision, due more to blood loss than haste.
"Whoa there." A gentle breeze whirled through the common, a caress over my feverish skin. "Where do you think you're going?"
The direction of the voice came from above, from Tempest who balanced lithely in the air over me, Leigh clutching his arm like her life depended on it. He lowered her to the ground quickly, though not without care, before shooting back toward the roof and the storm of fire and ice colliding therein.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat. "I thought I was going to have to rescue you."
"You?" Eyebrow pointedly raised, Leigh rushed forward to give me her shoulder. "What the hell could you do in this state? I thought I was going to have to scrape you off the pavement with a spatula."
"Charming, as always. Where —" I coughed, and it hurt. "Where's Lexi?"
"Lexi!" Leigh's voice cut above the din, the gathering crowd of children, families, and passerby's. "Lexi!"
"I'm here," came a tearful voice, growing louder as she moved in close. "Is she gonna die?"
It took a moment too long to realize she meant me.
"Of course not," I forced myself to say, an unconvincing hiss.
"Get in my car, both of you!"
Oh. It had been Leigh's car I'd bled all over. I should have noticed earlier, but I wasn't about to refuse an offer to ruin the interior as well. Her parents could pay for the damage, easily.
I fell into the back seat, trying to lay myself out across the bench. When that proved too painful an enterprise, Italian leather pushing the steel further through my back, I sat up and bent forward, cradling my head in my hands, elbows resting perched atop my knees. Then, I did black out, a full fade to black, to fade in again moments later, except it wasn't mere moments at all. Leigh swerved through traffic with a generous interpretation of speed laws, cutting people off and speeding through orange lights.
I blinked rapidly, craning my neck up to watch the road. "Where are we going?"
Leigh met my eyes briefly in the rearview mirror, quickly flitting away. "The hospital, obviously."
"Which hospital?" I gasped out. "Which hospital are we going to?"
"Not important."
"Please, not Birch View... not there... anywhere — anywhere else."
"Too late," she muttered, making a sharp turn at unrecommendable speed into the hospital parking lot, and I swore at least one wheel flew up off the ground.
The abrupt right turn sent me crashing into the passenger side door, head only barely managing to avoid colliding with the window.
"Let that be a lesson to you for not wearing a seatbelt," Leigh said, slamming to a stop in the ambulance parking just outside the hospital automatic doors.
The car barely entered 'park' before both front doors slammed shut, with Lexi sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her inside. I recognized the the building all too well, despite never having officially been a patient.
"I'd really prefer another hospital," I whispered. Anything louder felt impossible.
Leigh flung my door open and began the thankless job of virtually carrying me out. "You'll bleed to death."
"I'm willing to take that... that risk."
Speaking proved more difficult as we moved, every moment a little more breathless and less able to hold on to a thought.
"Grow up," she replied.
The doors slid open smoothly, and we were assaulted by the antiseptic hospital smell. My eyelids drooped. I couldn't remember what we'd been talking about long enough to conjure a sarcastic response, so I stayed silent, my weight sagging to further Leigh's burden. Then, I felt the coldness of the floor, disgusting hospital linoleum. I didn't notice the fall until I hit the ground and even that barely registered.
Leigh cursed violently, a string of words I was certain she'd never learned from those fancy tutors of hers. The blood running down my limbs made me slippery to the touch. Leigh struggled to maintain a hold on either of my arms, skin sliding across skin, and I certainly wasn't helping by going utterly limp.
"What the hell happened?" demanded a male voice. "Help me get her on a gurney. Leigh, watch Alexia."
He called out rapid fire orders, and several pairs of hands worked to obey. I couldn't tell the difference between the ground and the hospital gurney, other than the fact that the gurney was the louder of the two. Squeaking wheels, straining metal.
Words like "acute blood loss", "prep for surgery", and "transfusion" got tossed about all around me, their meaning lost somewhere between my ears and my brain.
"Lily, you need to stay awake for a little longer, okay? Just a little longer. Do you understand?"
When, after a monumental effort, I managed to crack upon my eyelids a sliver, Adrian's face greeted me, expression severe. As usual, he didn't wear his lab coat, but he had his ID badge and a stethoscope wrapped around his neck.
Despite my earlier protests about being taken to the hospital where my parents worked, gratitude seeped through me in a slow swell, because I found I only wanted one thing, and searched for the strength to form the words.
"Where's my dad?" I murmured, and then I knew no strength. I knew nothing at all.
YOU ARE READING
Super•Villainous
Fantasy"I've been looking for you." There was an unexpected rasp to his voice, a hint of desperation. He stretched out one hand, as if to brush it across my cheek, or perhaps wrap it around my throat. Oddly enough, I didn't know which option frightened me...
