Retrieval (21 page)

He lifted slowly, placed her head gently against the gurney, and smoothed her hair back. How long he stood there he couldn’t have said, but as his loss began to hit home, a drop fell from his cheek to hers, then another, and his shoulders shook.

“Seb?” Rover asked in a whisper from his side. No response, but he continued on anyway, “Morrissey found the sisters, and he informed them of what’s going on. They’re on their way here now, but Raina wants to speak with you.” Still no acknowledgement. He said in a firmer voice, “Seb? Raina is demanding to speak with you.”

Slowly, Sebastian placed the sat phone Rover was holding against his ear and in a voice hoarse with pain, said, “Yeah?”

“Sebastian? You have to listen to me. Are you there?” Raina demanded.

“Yeah, I’m here.”
But Sky isn’t.

“Yes she is. She just isn’t
there,
” Raina said cryptically.

Sebastian took a deep breath, felt like he was suffocating.

“Sebastian?” Raina continued to call to him through the phone.

“Seb, man, answer her,” Rover urged him.

“Raina, I’m sorry.” Sebastian’s voice was a hoarse whisper.

“Sebastian, dammit. You’re making me cuss, and that’s just gonna piss Sky off if you keep it up. Listen to me. She isn’t dead. Her body is in a state of torpor right now. She used up too much of herself when she played superwoman. Sebastian?”

Nothing was getting through, until—

“Wait, did you just say she’s in a state of torpor—like what? An amphibian?” Sebastian asked. Hope tinged with disbelief crept into his voice.

“Yes. Hallelujah, he’s listening guys,” Raina said.

“So what do I need to do?”

“You need to get her body out of there ASAP. Smythe-Ward will be there soon to claim her body, so you need to get her out there now. We’ll meet you…” then silence before, “where the hell are we going anyway? Oh. Sebastian, we’ll meet you wherever Morrissey takes us, but we need to be with her soon. She’ll slip away from us if we can’t get to her in time. Sebastian?” Raina’s voice communicated the direness of the situation, but her calling his name brought him to quick attention.

“She’s alive?” he finally asked, afraid to believe, afraid to hope.

If she’s gone…

“Sebastian, yes, she’s still alive. Get her out of there, and Sebastian? She’s going to need all of us to heal her.”

Sebastian didn’t wait for any further instruction. He handed the phone to Rover and picked her tiny, limp and seemingly lifeless body up off the gurney. Then he turned and walked out the door with her.

“Sir!” someone yelled at him.

“You can’t do that, sir!” A woman in scrubs ran toward them.

He didn’t look back at any of them. He moved her as high as he could on his chest, held her with his left arm and pulled his weapon with the other.

“Seb, they called security, so we need to get out of her right now,” Rover said as he alternately ran to keep up with Sebastian and slowed to protect the man’s back.

“This way,” Bleak yelled from the doorway at the end of the hall they were running down.

“Fine time to get your shit together, Bleak. Fine time,
mon frère
.” Rover breathed out heavily as they pounded their way to the door where their friend was.

“Smythe-Ward’s in the waiting room. He told the nurses he was here to claim his daughter’s body. We got to move,” Bleak said hastily.

Sebastian was silent. He held her as close to his chest as he was able to keep her from bouncing around. She wasn’t dead. It was a litany in his brain, something for his heart to hold onto.

They’d just barely made it out of the door when the ping of bullets hit the wall beside them. He ducked to avoid any chance of a stray bullet or shrapnel hitting Sky. He smoothly turned enough to point and fire his wicked looking Desert Eagle handgun. The man who’d fired on them from the roof above gave a sharp cry and a dull
thud
as he hit the ground.

“Get in,” Bleak yelled as he too fired above them.

“I’ve got them! Get her out of here, Seb. I’ll meet up with you later,” Rover said as he gave a look to Sebastian that assured him they’d be covered as they left.

“Stay safe. You know where to meet us,” Sebastian said as he maneuvered Sky’s deadweight into the Suburban Bleak had stolen for them.

“That’s no fun
mon frère
, no fun at all!” He gave a maniacal laugh as he turned to begin covering their exit from behind the hospital.

Sebastian hustled in beside her, covered her when the back glass exploded and showered them with glass. He popped off a couple of shots, and then their vehicle turned a corner. He pushed her against the seat and waited for Bleak to get them off hospital grounds.

The sheet she’d been covered in had fallen down, and Sebastian had to close his eyes against the sight of her face so still, as if death had stolen the life from her. Raina had assured him that wasn’t the case. He took a deep breath and held onto the slim hope that she knew what the fuck she was talking about.

“You know where we’re going right, Bleak?” Sebastian asked. His voice was hoarse from his earlier brush with insanity.

“Yeah, Mo hit me a few minutes ago. I’m sorry, man.” Bleak shot Sebastian a look full of remorse in the rearview mirror.

“No, it’s me who’s to blame. I shouldn’t have left you alone. Goddamn it, I knew better. I underestimated Smythe-Ward’s contacts and ability. It won’t happen again. Are you okay?” Sebastian spoke to Bleak but looked at Sky. He tenderly swept a lock of hair from Sky’s face.

She was so damn cold.

He grabbed her closer, pulling the sheet from in between them, and then pulling his own T-shirt off, so he could press against her flesh to flesh. She was bare skinned. The only thing the ER staff had left on her was her skimpy lace underwear, so once he’d pressed her against his chest, he wrapped the sheet around them both. The leads from the EKG machine still dotted her skin. He carefully removed them. Was it even okay to operate machinery of that nature on her? Had they inadvertently hurt her more in their attempts to restart her heart? So many damn questions, yet he held on to that hope Raina had given him.

She’s not dead
. Just in torpor—whatever the fuck that meant.

He’d been in countless battle situations. He’d watched men fall and not get back up. Death wasn’t a stranger. But the thought that this woman might not wake up made him shake with fear and rage.

“It’s all right, Sky. I’ve got you baby. I’m going to get you to your sisters, and we’ll get you well, baby. Okay?”

“I don’t know what they hell they are, Sebastian, but if what Morrissey said is true, they’ve got the cure for what ails her. We’ll all be there too if she needs anything,” Bleak assured Sebastian.

He didn’t respond. He was too far gone over the woman he held so tenderly against his chest. After a few more minutes of the only sound being Sebastian’s whispered phrases to Skylar, Bleak spoke back up.

“Smythe-Ward isn’t going to stop, Sebastian. You didn’t see what she did man, how she took out everything in her path, except for her dog and me. I don’t know how, or if, those other men got out in time. If I hadn’t been there I wouldn’t believe it, hell, I still don’t believe it. Let me tell you what went down…”

Chapter 14

People whispered above her. The sibilant sounds tracked from different locations. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but there were others close. Everything was blurred and muted. The only thing real was a need she couldn’t define. She couldn’t lift her eyelids, and when she tried to move her extremities the heaviness and weight in her limbs prevented it. She tried to scan and was stopped by that oppressive muting and heaviness. Who was calling her? She’d been infinitely safe where she was.

“She’s coming to,” a feminine voice murmured.

The words were a jumble, but the tone and color of the sound in her mind was familiar.

“How do you know?” a deeper, sinfully dark voice asked.

That first voice triggered an instinctive recognition. The second voice pulled at her soul and demanded she acknowledge a need she couldn’t understand. She tried to reach out to the voice but encountered a pain so intense her mind withdrew to avoid the agony.

But her soul refused to let her pull away and drew her instead toward the voices. She gave a wordless gasp as her entire body bowed. Her muscles locked her body into a position that bent her backward.

“Piper.”

“I’m on it.”

“Sebastian, crawl up there with her, and do whatever you must to keep her tight against you. She’s going to break her back if this continues.”

Sebastian? Who was Sebastian? Was he the voice that brought her awake? Had he called her from her rest? And why had he done that? It’d been so damn safe where she’d sent herself.

“Kinsey, get ready. Sebastian? Hold her close man. Through her contact with you we’ll be able to draw on your energy too. Bleak? Morrissey? Let Kinsey tap into you. Kinz when you’re ready, I’m ready. Piper, shield us,” a soft voice ordered.

“Wouldn’t it be easier for us to put our hands directly on her?” a man asked.

“No!” Three female voices this time, all yelling.

“Geesh, okay, calm down,” the man shouted back.

*

Sebastian’s breath locked in his chest. He couldn’t focus on anything but the sight of Skylar’s body racked by tortuous muscle cramps. She was bent backward at such an angle he’d heard the popping and cracking of her spine. Her eyes were wide open, but her stare was vacant and black. There was no amber light to her orbs.

Her body trembled violently, and even with his strength he struggled to hold her close.

“Take from me, baby. Whatever you need, I’m here,” he whispered urgently against her ear.

He watched as her sisters and his men prepared to become conduits for the energy that she needed to heal. He in no way, shape or form understood any of it, but Raina had told Sebastian he was a prime source of energy, and that’s what Sky needed. If the other men touched her directly, they’d interrupt the flow of that energy. Sebastian had a bond with Skylar that Raina didn’t question, she sought only to utilize. After that it’d been semantics. Her pain was a living, breathing dragon inside of her, and he wanted only to slay it.

*

Oh, that voice whispered such sweet words. It called to her in her blurry and blackened world of pain, but could she trust it? The fight before had been so hard. She’d given so much of herself to save others that she didn’t know if she could make it back or not. Why wouldn’t they leave her alone?

A woman said, “Now,” and Sky’s world lit up with every color of the rainbow. The black was pushed back, and even as she shrank from the ambiance burning through her body, she gravitated toward that one voice that refused to let her give up.

“Come back, Skylar,” it demanded roughly. “Come back to me.”

Energy rushed through her cells. What had been damaged was being repaired. The reparation brought mind-boggling pain, but the claws that ripped her apart were nothing compared to the hurt in that voice that begged for her to just come back.

Her consciousness was infused with the life-giving succor of pearl-colored energy. It caused the blood to rush through her veins and made her heart stutter back to life. The door she’d been trying to permanently close was thrown wide open by the force of will of the people around her.

In a single second of clarity she was wrenched away from oblivion and flung headlong into the lucidity of the present.

Agony pierced her as she came to in a searing flash. “Sebastian.”

“I’m here.” Sebastian whispered as he held her tighter, closer to his warmth.

*

Skylar’s body quaked in the aftermath of her ordeal for a few seconds, and then she immediately passed back out. The warm wash of her breath, the rise and fall of her chest assured Sebastian that she was alive.

“Oh, shit,” Piper said as she slumped against her sister Raina.

“Yeah, that,” Raina said holding a hand across her eyes as she rubbed her temples slowly.

“That was phenomenal,” Kinsey said breathlessly right before she turned toward Morrissey, who sat stunned on his ass beside her. She placed a smacking kiss right on his lips.

“You guys are loony. What the hell are ya’ll?” Morrissey asked. Shock ran through his tone and marked his face.

“I’m so tired, not even you, Morrissey, can piss me off,” Piper’s rejoinder was made in a fading whisper.

“Bleak?” Raina asked softly.

No answer came from the man. He was slumped against the edge of the bed, but his chest moved. He was breathing.

“Poor guy. We probably took too much on top of what Sky took earlier. Hey Morrissey? Get him in a bed will you?” Raina seemed to peer intently at Bleak.

“Is she going to be okay?” Sebastian’s voice was a gruff growl from his place beside Skylar on the bed.

“Let her sleep. We’ll know more when she wakes up,” Raina answered.

For the moment, that had to be enough for Sebastian. Morrissey grabbed Bleak under the arms and dragged him out of the room. Raina, Piper, and Kinsey all placed kisses on their sister’s forehead. Then he settled down to watch Skylar. He needed to reassure himself that she was breathing and alive.

It was a long time before sleep claimed him.

* * * *

Skylar awoke to the feel of wet heat moving languidly up and down the side of her face and neck. She pried her eyes open and was confronted by a beloved pair of bluish-black eyes that stared at her as if the world began and ended with her.

“Ruff,” she whispered, though it was more of a noiseless sound that came out of a throat made dry by days of silence.

King swiped his tongue down her face once more then hopped lightly off the bed to head somewhere only he knew. Where was she now? Her eyes were gritty, but once she was able to focus everything that had happened to her rushed back.

She looked around, forced to move her head slowly because of the hammer driving nails through her skull. The wood-paneled walls of her room were bare. There was nothing to identify her location, or who had her. Had her attempt to destroy Goolsby and his men failed? King was here so she knew she’d protected at least him from death.