Page 10 of Night Fury
Five minutes later, he pulled into the circular driveway of his home, and then he was out, dashing over the gravel and grass. He ran, using every ounce of his speed until he reached the back of his property where the pull was the strongest.
Luke’s panicked state had him looking around for a standing human being, and then lower, scanning. The still air suddenly moved, and beneath the smell of flowers from his garden he finally scented her blood, and then he saw her.
Luke rushed to her, a gasp leaving his lips at the sight of his mate. In all his years, he had never seen someone so sullied and broken. He cradled Johanna in his arms, scanning her skin and taking in her injuries. Strands of her long, blonde, wavy hair were stuck to her face, covered in blood and other matter he could smell and feel beneath his fingertips. Her lips and nails were blue. There were finger marks, bite wounds, gashes and rope burns around her neck. Her clothes were tattered and shredded, and beneath them her skin hung drastically from starvation, caked in the same substances as her face and hair, making it difficult for him to take in all her wounds. Each breath she took was too shallow, too fast. Looking down, Luke watched as blood poured from the stab wound in her side.
He didn’t want to move her in case her spinal cord or organs had been punctured, but he had to get her inside and laid down for Mya to assess and heal her body properly. As gently as he could, Luke picked Johanna up, cradling her head to his chest. He lifted his foot to kick in the door, not wanting to spare any time, but then he paused. Only the inner circle knew where he lived, and each of those members had met earlier to raid Zachariah’s locations. How exactly had Johanna found her way to his home?
Luke turned back to scan the distance, but he didn’t see anything. He took a long, deep breath, trying to see if he could smell another being, but it was only them. The only other living scent was a family of deer beyond the tree line, and they were no more interested in him than Luke was in them.
Despite that, he did have to agree that this would be the perfect trap. Johanna’s state and the pain he fought against through their bond, even now, had blinded him from checking his surroundings or even his home. He decided that it didn’t matter. Even if this were a trap, he had to save Johanna. Greg, Daniella, and Mya would be here soon, and even if he lost his life in the process, he refused to lose hers. He would need to be cautious though, to force his mind into overdrive even though his body and heart were breaking apart.
Luke shifted Johanna slightly to pull his keys out from his pocket and put them in the heavy, wooden back door. He turned the knob and twisted his body so he would get hurt in place of Johanna if someone were waiting for them or had planted a trap. When he slowly opened the door, nothing happened, and when Luke took another whiff of his space, searching for any being’s scents that did not belong, he couldn’t find any.
Satisfied, he moved to the nearest flat surface—his dining room table—and shoved everything off so he could lay Johanna down as gently as possible. She didn’t groan, didn’t make a sound as he adjusted her, and that scared him even more. He fixed her legs onto the table, being mindful of their gashes and split open flesh, then he looked her over. Her state of nakedness dawned on him, but he pushed the thoughts away as his eyes landed on her wound. He knew he would need to get clean blankets and a towel to hold against her side. He didn’t want to leave his mate defenseless when she needed him the most, but he knew he had to while he still could. The pain in his body was growing, causing his muscles to clench and spasm, and he was worried that it may incapacitate him entirely.
Luke shrunk to his shadowed form, finding the fluidity easier to move in. He raced, slithering under baseboards and across rooms to grab blankets and towels before rematerializing beside Johanna. He pressed a towel to the wound at her side. With his other hand, he covered her. Even in this state, even with pain and fogginess marring his brain, Johanna was still beautiful to him, and he wanted to be the only one to see her body.
His fingers shook as he picked up his cellphone and called Greg. He waited for him to answer before saying, “Kitchen.”
Greg grunted in response, his focus clearly on the road. “We’ll be there in three minutes.”
“Hurry, please.” Luke swallowed, his voice sounding weak even to his own ears. “She’s bleeding out.”
Tires screeched in the background. “We’re coming, hold on for me.”
“Stay on the phone, Luke. We need to make sure you stay with us too,” Dani said.
“Okay,” Luke responded, but he wasn’t really speaking to them. He couldn’t seem to focus. Instead, he leaned down, his forehead touching Johanna’s as he rubbed her cheek softly. Luke closed his eyes, breathing her in, not the blood, the sweat, the shit, or the other scents, but the essence of her that was hidden underneath it all.
“Johanna?”he called to her through their bond.“You spoke to me like this once, and I’d give anything to hear your voice again.”
Luke paused in his stroking of her skin, grimacing as another lash of pain went through him.“Was that you? Are you mad at me for not rescuing you, sunflower? Although it seems you didn’t need me in the end.”
Another slice of pain, this one harder, sharper.“Would you forgive me if I told you I’d give my life for yours? That I’d switch places with you if I could?”
A lightning bolt of pain followed, so strong it left him gasping. His hand clenched the table as he breathed through the feeling, a broken smile forming at his lips.“So it is you. Remind me not to make you mad in the future.”
The pain was still present and debilitating, but less intense.
“I know we didn’t have the greatest beginning, Johanna. There are so many things I wish I could go back and do differently, but I don’t believe this is our end. Please, give me a chance to show you what we could have together. Don’t give up on me before we’ve even started.”
The door to his house slammed open followed by a stampede of footsteps.“The calvary is here, sunflower. I know this all must hurt so, so much, but please, just a little longer. I’ve been searching for you for such a long time. I can’t lose you, not yet. Stay with me, please.”
Luke pulled back from her just as Greg, Daniella, and Mya came into the room. They paused for a split second, Daniella gasping while Greg and Mya cursed at Johanna’s state, and then they flew into action. Mya and Daniella took turns at the table while Greg searched Luke’s cabinets. Luke moved to help Greg, but he stopped him.
“Stay there, she needs you.” Greg pulled out a bowl and cup, then began to fill one of them with water.
Luke nodded. “Okay. Mya, she has a stab wound on her right side.” He lifted the blanket to show his cousin, who cursed again.
Daniella fished around in the drawer before handing Mya a sharp knife. Mya nodded in thanks and then slit a deep gash into her palm. She clenched her fist once, twice, before sliding her hand into the wound to speed its recovery.
“Would you do my other hand for me, please?” Mya asked Daniella.
Dani hummed in response, cutting into Mya’s other hand. Greg brought the cup to her and laid in on the table. Mya put her hand on top of it, letting the blood drip into it while Greg and Daniella went around washing whatever cuts they could without raising the blanket further than was necessary. Once enough blood was in the cup, Mya handed it to Greg.
“Put it on whatever wounds you find so we can heal as many areas as possible at the same time,” Greg instructed Daniella, and they set off working together.
Luke continued to run his fingers over Johanna’s cheek, taking in her appearance and looking for changes. Her lips were still blue, her skin still pale and clammy. “Is she accepting your blood?”
