Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga) (35 page)

     I stiffly nodded and took a few steps back into the room. “I really appreciate the help, Walter, but I need to get Rush back into bed and he’s not going to as long as you guys are here.”

     Walter looked past me at Rush and whistled.  “You must be one hell of a wolf to keep him on two feet through all that.  No problem, we’ll be right outside the door.”

     “I’m not,” I sighed.  “But he is.  Rush is a stronger wolf that I’ll ever be.”  I felt Walter’s eyes on my back as I turned and went to stand by my brother's side, staying close as he carefully walked back around the bed, so no one was paying the human guard any attention.  Hell, we didn’t think we had to; most Extras dismissed humans as threats.  We were stronger, faster, and a lot of us had abilities that negated any advantages humans thought they had over us.  But there was one thing we were helpless against.  Surprise.

     I didn’t hear a gun cock, or the click of a safety disengaging.  I didn’t hear anything.  The only thing that alerted me to the gun going off was the quiet pop the round made as it left the silencer.  I didn’t hear it, but Rush did.  My brother’s clawed hands gripped my shoulders and threw me into the wall as he moved in front of me.  Everything happened so fast I didn’t realize what was going on until I was bouncing off of the wall and into a tray of instruments.

     I screamed my brother’s name as the wall behind him turned red with a spray of blood as it flew from a hole in his stomach.  After all the shit I’d gone through to get to him, after the energy pull from both me and the shifter to help keep him whole, this was not happening.  My brother had been shot.

     Whatever kind of round it was, it did more damage than I would have expected a rifle to be capable of.  I heard Walter and the Sentinels behind me roar at once.  The scuffle of boots was next, then the thump of bodies as they tackled the gunman.  I heard humans screaming, and a stampeded of footsteps as they ran for cover.

     From the moment I set foot in the hospital till now couldn’t have been more than ten minutes total, but it felt so much longer than that.  It had to be.  My world couldn’t have changed so much in just ten minutes.  My big brother had a hole blown in his stomach the side of my fist.  I choked back a howl as my wolf, and I moved forward as one.  Both of us were in charge as we scrambled on our knees to grab Rush, and pull his battered body into our lap.

     We didn’t have words for the agony that swelled in us as we looked down at him.  Rush looked up at us with his amber eyes glowing as he gasped for breath.  He tried to call our name, but couldn’t get past the mouth full of blood that was choking him.  This wasn’t happening.  It was a bad dream, and as soon as I pinched myself, I was going to wake up safe and sound in my bed with the latest playmate beside me.

     Tears rolled down our face as we pleaded with Rush to stay with us but a despair so solid filled our heart…we knew he was leaving.  I ran a shaking finger over the spidery web of silver that crept out from the edges of the wound.  Even if Rush hadn’t already been so badly injured, he wouldn’t have survived the gunshot.  The rounds were filled with some type of liquefied silver and the deadly metal was in his bloodstream.

Gruff voices yelled for a doctor and crash cart as a wolf ran into the room and slid to his knees beside me.  He said something as he leaned forward and pressed his hands to the wound trying to staunch the flow of blood, but I didn’t hear a single word he said.  I was staring at Rush with horror.  Despite the tremendous damage to his body, my brother was starting to shift.