Chapter 455
The monster’s knees buckled, and he fell to the ground. Brandon winced when his broken leg contacted the earth, but then the giant of a man rolled over on top of him, and any sort of scream was choked off. I realized I was watching my boyfriend throw up all over the place because of the pain he was in and had to switch my IAC to someone to else for a minute—anyone else—not just because it was gross but because I was certain he’d want some privacy for that. I knew I would.
When I switched over to Lex, it became evident why the Vampire had weakened. Heather had managed to get the shield up. All around the battlefield, the tide shifted, and the LIGHTS members were easily able to cut down their assailants.
I went back to Brandon to see Dax kneeling over him. The Vampire was gone, and Brandon was covered in ash—and a little bit of puke—and lots and lots of blood.
The other Vampire, the one who’d been hollering a minute ago, decided he would try his hand. That didn’t last long. One titanium bullet from Dax’s Glock and he was gone.
“Are you doing this, Cass?” Brandon asked me.
“No. It must be Heather.” I was proud of her. She’d done what she needed to do. Now, I was just hoping the two of us got along well because I had a feeling we could learn a lot from each other.
He glanced back over to where Heather was still kneeling next to the wounded Hunter. Another person was there now, and it looked like he must be a Healer. Heather’s mouth was moving. Maybe she thought it was necessary to keep chanting whatever she was saying in order to keep up the shield. I didn’t care, as long as it kept working for her.
“Shall I go tell her she can stop?” Dax asked, looking around. The few Vampires that were left were headed back out of the building, and hopefully as far away from my boyfriend as they could go.
“Yeah. Tell her she did it,” Brandon replied. I wasn’t all about turning it off just yet, but I figured he was there and knew better than I did.
Brandon followed Dax with his eyes, and I noticed the Healer next to Heather shaking his head. My heart broke. I didn’t know the Hunter he was trying to fix, but it still made me sad to know we’d lost a team member in this operation.
Once he had himself together, the Healer jogged over to Brandon and dropped down on the ground, careful of where he put his knee. “Hi, sorry I couldn’t get her faster. I’m Antonio.” His accent indicated Italy was his native land. He resembled some of the statues I’d caught a glimpse of while Brandon was falling. “Let me take a look.”
Brandon gestured at his leg, and before Antonio even touched it, I heard him grimace. I didn’t really want to see it, but I looked anyway. It was mangled beyond recognition. It didn’t even look like a leg anymore. Just fragments of his black pants, some scraps of tissue here and there, and his shoe. I felt like maybe I was going to throw up, too.
Antonio hadn’t touched it yet, and I didn’t understand why. He was a Healer, wasn’t he? He said, “This is not good. I will see what I can do, but you may need a surgeon.”
“You’re not a surgeon?” Brandon’s question echoed my immediate thought.
“No, just a Healer. In my former life, I was a dentist.”
I heard Brandon mutter, “Oh, great,” before he asked, “What about the other Healer on your team?”
“I’m afraid Gia has already passed out. She falls asleep when she is depleted. You know, like Jamie? You know Jamie, yes?”
My eyes automatically rolled to the back of my head. Who was this guy? “I know Jamie.” Brandon’s tone wasn’t as sarcastic as mine would’ve been. As Antonio prepared to attempt to heal him, he added, “He’s in the portal.”
Antonio looked up, surprised. “Oh. That’s terrible. Jamie is a big hero for me.”
“Me, too,” Brandon agreed. I was missing our friend more than ever now. He could’ve fixed this so quickly. We needed to get more Transformation serum to the rest of the Healers to see if they could all shoot balls of blue light out of their hands.
The Healer ran his hand lightly over Brandon’s leg, and I thought he did seem to be a little more calm, as if it had taken the edge off of his pain. “I will go get my medical bag from the car.”
“I... uh....” Brandon stammered, but there wasn’t anything he could say. Why in the world hadn’t Antonio brought the bag with him to the battlefield?
I didn’t get a chance to say anything to him. Heather was there. “How ya doin’ cowboy?” I couldn’t believe the giant smirk on her face.
“Dandy,” he replied, as if he were the cowboy she accused him of being. “You... were amazing.” A pang of jealousy hit me in the gut. I don’t know why.
“I was, wa’n’t I?” She laughed like a little girl and then glanced around. “Do you think they all know I done that?”
“I’m not sure, but we’ll make certain to tell them.” I hoped he did tell them because I wanted her to get the credit. I had bigger plans ahead.... I hoped.
Lex was there now, and I noticed for the first time he had one of those strikingly handsome Italian faces with the perfect nose. Another pang hit me—this one of guilt for checking out another guy while my boyfriend was in so much pain.
“You okay?” Lex asked. When he spoke, his accent was soft, like maybe he hadn’t always lived in Italy. I remembered that Aaron had an Irish accent sometimes, too, but I hadn’t really heard it for myself. Why did everyone want to sound American?
Brandon nodded. “I’ll live.”
“Good. I know Cadence wants as much information about the portal from you three as you can give her, but I’m sure she’ll understand that that can wait since we need to get you back to headquarters. We’ll get you transported as soon as we can and then see about getting that leg fixed.”
“Okay.” He sounded so tired, like he was about to pass out, and I felt awful for him. At least he was home.
