Tiger, Tiger

Tiger, Tiger: Chapter 18

If he were a human, I knew that the glass would have had to stay in, possibly the only thing between severed arteries. But his shifter body was so far from that, already healing itself around the glass. If I were to leave it in that it would only cause immeasurable pain and complications later. I had to grit my teeth, pull it free and pray that I could stem the blood flow until his body could cope with the rest.

“Alexis,” he groaned as if he’d had too much to drink, “Alexis.” His eyes rolled under his eyelids and I stroked his cheek with a shaking hand, streaking blood across it.

‘I’m here,’ I whispered into his mind soothingly, ‘Don’t you dare leave me. Don’t you dare.’ I would not lose this boy without even getting a chance to really know him. He already meant too much to me. Just the thought of it made my heart hurt.

I tightened my jaw and wrapped my fingers around the piece of glass. Blood and sweat made my hands slick and I struggled to keep a hold on it. I gripped the jagged shard again and pulled. Alexander writhed in my lap as the glass shifted and stuck. A look of agony crossed his pale face, mirroring my own. Had he have been fully conscious, what I imagined would have been his scream left my own lips, as with a final pull, the glass tore free. The sound was horrific; one I would never forget. 

Instantly I threw the great piece of glass aside and grabbed his discarded shirt, pressing it down onto his wound. He flinched and writhed under the pressure on the injury. Warmth crept up through the thin fabric within seconds and onto my hands. The unmistakable metallic scent of blood surrounded me, making my stomach churn. There was just so much of it, thick crimson snakes streaking across his skin and pooling on his stomach.

I just about tore my eyes away from all the blood as another explosion rumbled from deep within the labs. The doors and windows were blown completely out and I quickly threw myself over Alexander’s prone body to shield him from the debris that hurtled towards us. Desperately, I tried to keep pressure on the wound as pieces of glass and metal ricocheted across my back, leaving burning cuts in their wake. I shivered at the thought of the people trapped inside.

The great rumbling quieted for a second and I tried to push the sickening thought from my head. Crouching, I hooked one arm under one of his and kept my other hand pressing the soaked rag to his abdomen. It was difficult to keep a hold of him, but I managed to move us further and further away from the burning building. Bits of sharp rubble scuffed and cut his back and I had to grit my teeth to keep on pulling.

Suddenly I was being yanked up and away from Alexander by my hair. I screamed like a banshee, half at the pain and half at the fact that my hand had been pulled away from his wound. Blood spilled more freely now, even if the cut was smaller than it had been before. He didn’t move at all, but I began to thrash wildly. The cloth fell from my blood covered hand with a sickening squelch.

Just as I span around, my attacker spoke. “He won’t make it,” he snarled. It was Jimmy. His face was contorted with anger. I wanted to hit him more than anyone else in my entire life.

“Get your hands off of me!” I screamed, thrashing, “He will make it if you let me go!”

“Not a chance. He’s lost too much blood.”

“This is your fault,” I growled and then scratched at his arms with my now jagged nails. The little red lines closed over themselves almost instantly. “You caused this.”

“My fault? I saved us, saved our secrets,” he spat, not releasing his grip on me despite my fighting.

“You complete and utter idiot.” Rage flared through me with an intensity I didn’t know I was capable of.

My tiger growled and I threw a right hook that caught him on the chin. Alexander’s blood smeared across his rough, stubble covered jaw and his head whipped to the side with a crack. Off balance, he stumbled and I took my chance to pull from his grip. I lifted my knee and hit him right in the crotch with as much force as I could muster. With a pained groan he fell to his knees.

I leapt back to Alexander’s side and into a spreading puddle of his blood. My stomach lurched. I took another piece of glass that lay at my foot and ripped off the bottom half of my trouser leg with it. As I pressed that against Alexander’s still healing side, Jimmy began to push himself to his feet. He’d pull me away again, try to fight me, and Alexander would his.

“Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. The pack must have been somewhere nearby, surely. I needed their help. I need them. “Help me, please! Help!”

There was a moment of terrifying silence from the trees. My heart hammered in my chest and Alexander’s breath was nothing but a rasping whisper. I laid my cheek against his chest, eyes closed. No one was coming to save us now.

A familiar voice shattered the quiet. “Alexis?” Sam bellowed nearby, “Hold on! We’re coming!”

“Please, quickly! Help me!” I screamed as Jimmy froze where he stood. My voice was thick from the panicked tears that rolled down my cheeks and pattered on Alexander’s blood slick skin. A single piercing scream echoed in my ears: Sally.

I pulled my head up as the pack burst from the line of trees close by. They were panting and flustered, some even in animal form. Sam’s jaw clenched as he saw Jimmy standing over us covered in the blood that I had smeared on him, and Alexander lying on the floor beside me. Through my blurred double vision, he ran right up to Jimmy and punched him so hard in the face that he dropped like a stone. There was a horrible crunch as he hit the ground and blood trickled from his nose.

Suddenly I was surrounded by a blur of activity and voices, shapes and colours, but I neither saw nor heard any of it clearly. I was wrapped in a cocoon of cling film, trapped but looking out. My head and body were light as hands pulled my own blood-soaked ones from Alexander and he was lifted away. His blurred form hung limp in someone’s arms.

My fingers reached out for him and I croaked, “No, don’t take him away. I have to save him.” The words were drunk, not my own.

The world was swaying.

The blackness wrapped me in its arms.

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