War Bringer (20 page)

One of the medics jumped out and came over to them. “You know what she’s on? Did she OD?”

Kelan shook his head. “She was drugged, but with what, I don’t know. Is she going to be okay?”

“Yeah. We’ll get her to the hospital, get her detoxed.” He started to close the doors to the ambulance.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Kelan pulled him away from the door. “What are you doing?”

“Taking her to the hospital.”

“I’m going with her.”

“Follow in your own vehicle.” He told Kelan which hospital they were going to.

“No. I’m not leaving her side.”

“Kelan—” Kit tried to pull him back.

 
He faced his team lead, and said between clenched teeth, “I don’t know these guys. They could be working for King. I’m not fucking leaving her side. If I have to drive her to the hospital myself, I will.”

Kit sighed. He said something to the EMT. The other EMT got out of the back, vacating his spot so Kelan could go with Fiona.
 

The first medic faced Kelan. “You need to disarm yourself before you get in my ambulance.”

Kelan didn’t fight that order. He handed Kit the weapons he’d collected during the night. He felt a bit like Val handing over his MP5, three pistols, several knives, and all his mags and zip ties.
 

“I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Kit told him.

“We’re good. Stay here and help Lobo sort this out.”

Kit shook his head. “I’m gonna make sure you get settled, then I’ll come back. I want them to check you out, too. And I need to talk to you anyway. See you at the hospital.” He nodded to the EMT, who shut the door, leaving Kelan alone with Fiona.
 

Chapter
 
Eighteen

Kelan sat on the hard bench in the sterile cavern of the ambulance. He leaned close to Fiona and held her hand the whole way to the hospital. Their ordeal was close to being over, but until he and Fiona were back at Blade’s, he couldn’t let his guard down.

The ambulance sirens were loud, and the cab swayed perilously. Kelan held her hand, rubbing it between his. Five minutes into the ride, her fingers tightened on his. His eyes shot to her face. She was trying to look up at him. He moved so that he was crouched over her, making it easier for her to see him. He touched her face, smiling with relief.

“Fiona, can you see me? Can you hear me?”

Mangled sound came from her mouth. She didn’t yet have use of all her faculties. He touched her face. “Just blink if you can hear me.” Kelan nodded as he made that suggestion. She did blink, very slightly. Again he laughed. His relief was enormous.

“We’re on the way to the hospital. They’re going to check you out. I won't leave your side. Do you understand?”

She blinked.

“You’re safe now. You're out of the tunnels. The team’s on site. Including Lobo and half the Denver police force. Kit’s following us to the hospital. As soon as we get you checked out, I’ll take you home. Everything’s going to be all right now.”

Fiona closed her eyes at that. A tear slipped down the side of her face.

The ambulance pulled into the hospital and the sirens went silent. The back doors of the ambulance opened, and Kelan stepped out to help the EMTs pull Fiona’s gurney out of the ambulance. He hurried with them into the hospital. They rushed her to the emergency ward. As they transferred her from the ambulance gurney to a hospital bed, the EMTs debriefed the medical technicians. They drew the curtains over the medical cubicle that she was in, separating her from Kelan. He stayed outside the curtain listening to the medical jargon being thrown about.
 

When the EMT guys came out from behind the curtain, one of them nodded at him. “You should get yourself checked out, man.” Kelan looked down at himself, recognizing the pain his own body was in.
 

When Kit arrived, he said the same thing as the EMT. “Look, I’ll stay with her,” he said. 

“I’m not leaving until I see her.”

A nurse pulled back the curtain. Fiona was sitting up in bed. She was wearing a hospital johnny, and actually smiled at them a little bit.

The nurse told him they’d drawn blood to see what was in her system, and that in the meantime they had her on an IV to help flush it through.

“Why don’t I put you in the bed next to hers so that we can check you out too?” the nurse asked.

“Not until I’ve had a chance to talk to her. Give me a minute, please.”

The nurse went to prepare the next station over. Kelan moved next to Fiona’s bed and took her hand. The blanket that they put on her was nicely warm. “Are you feeling all right?” 

Fiona nodded. “Can’t talk much,” she said, her words still slurred.

“That’s okay. The effects of whatever they gave you are wearing off.” He looked over at Kit, who stepped up to the bed and took her other hand. “They want to check me out. I’ll be just in the next bed over. Kit’s going to stay here with you.”

Fiona nodded. She moved her head slightly and smiled at Kit. Kelan gave Kit a hard look, making it clear he expected his team lead to stay with his woman until he could resume his post.

Behind the curtain in the next cubby, Kelan shucked his boots, cargo pants, and tee, then sat on the hospital bed. The nurse brought over a warm blanket to cover his legs, then wheeled him off to have some x-rays done. A half-hour later, they confirmed he had a couple of broken ribs. Some of the cuts on his face and chest were stitched up. And his bleeding knuckles were disinfected and bandaged.
 

When he was brought back to his cubby, he dressed. Kit came in. Fiona was being processed with a rape kit. “She’s going to be a few minutes. How about you bring me up to speed on everything that happened after you left the biker bar?”

Kelan sat on the edge of his bed. Kit stood next to him so that his words wouldn’t carry. “What day is it?”

“Saturday,” Kit said.
 

“Val told you what happened at the bar?”

“Yep.”

“I was taken to a warehouse. Fiona was laid out on a table—a gurney, I guess. They’d changed her into some kind of a revealing dress. Put makeup on her. She wasn’t conscious. Two guys came into the warehouse. We fought. I killed them. While we were fighting, another guy wheeled Fiona into what I thought was another room, but it was actually the back of an eighteen-wheeler.”

“Yeah, we found the truck.”

“I was held in the loading dock area while they got her situated in the truck. Some guy said through a speaker that I was the War Bringer they’d been told was coming.” He frowned as he looked at Kit.

“What does that mean?”

Kelan shook his head. “I don’t know. They hadn’t seen my ink at that point; they couldn’t have known I have it tattooed on my arm. The guy who was on the speaker was a shot caller. He took us to an arena. It was some kind of fight club setup in there. That same guy later took us to King’s Warren.”

“We found the arena. Is King’s Warren where they had Fiona?”

“Yeah. I don’t know who that guy was, but he was the one who pulled me out in the morning. No idea whose side he’s on, but it feels as if he was helping me. They had Fiona sit on a throne and watch the fight. Whoever won was to become her champion and get sucked into King’s world. The audience was chanting ‘War Bringer,’ like it meant something to them, too. The last guy who came up to fight me was the same one I killed in the rotunda.”

“So this shot caller pulled you out in the morning? What happened to you then?”

“I was tranqed and left out on the prairie. But they made it easy for me to find my way back to the garage with the lift, which is where I was when I called Max.” He looked at Kit. “I left some bodies there, too.”

“Yeah, we found them. Kind of a bloody breadcrumb trail you left for us. And the next time Max says to wait, you better fucking wait.”

“I couldn’t. The guy from the arena said that he couldn’t save Fiona, that only I could. I had to get back in there. There was another guy in the warren who took me to a cell and tried to kill me.” Kelan grinned at Kit. “Didn’t work.”

“I see that.” Kit looked at Kelan’s bruises. “They came pretty damned close, though.”

“When I got out of the pen, Rocco was there. He knew where the rotunda was from his tour of the site earlier with Jafaar. We found Fiona, then you guys caught up to us.”

“You think you can describe the two shot callers well enough for a sketch?”

“Oh yeah.”

The nurse came in and said that Fiona was ready for him to return. Kit went to sit in the waiting room so he could watch for Angel. Kelan held Fiona’s hand as the doctor told them she had no injuries or bruises that would indicate she’d been sexually assaulted, but they had collected some samples and were sending them in for tests to confirm.
 

“She’d been drugged with a date-rape cocktail of ketamine and Rohypnol. Give her lots of fluids to get it out of her system. If you notice any odd aftereffects, contact us or your primary care physician. We’re going to keep her here until she recovers her mobility, just to make sure she doesn’t have any seizures, then we’ll release her.”

Fiona nodded, then began to weep, the relief too overwhelming. Kelan climbed onto her bed, resting on his good side. He pulled her close. “I’m so sorry. I should have done something different, tried harder to keep you safe, Fiona.”

“Nothing you could have done, Kelan. Can’t outthink my father.”

Her voice was getting back to normal. What a relief. “Your father isn’t going to win.”

“Not the war, perhaps, but a lot of the battles.”

“Not for long.” He kissed her forehead. “Let’s shut our eyes for a bit until they release you.”

Kelan closed his eyes. He must have dozed off for a bit, because he startled awake when she started to stroke his arm. She turned her head toward him, and he heard her whisper his name. His arms tightened around her. He spread his fingers into the hair at her temple, tilting her toward him for a kiss.

“I saw him. King.”

“When?”

“He came to my room.”

“What did he look like?”

She shook her head. “He was covered head to toe. I can only tell you he was almost your height.”

“What did he say?’

“A lot of things. That he’d watched me grow up. That he’d killed a boy I dated for a little while last year. And my mom, too. And that you were on his hit list.”

“That’s fine. He’s on mine.” Kelan kissed her forehead again. “I’m sorry about your mom and your friend. You said you thought she’d been killed that first night you were with us.”

“He said you had no right to call yourself the War Bringer, that he had selected the true bearer of that title.” She looked at Kelan. “He’d picked the satyr to be his War Bringer.”

Kelan shook his head. “I have no idea why a term I picked for my own use has any meaning to them.” He frowned as her words sank in. “A satyr?”

“The guy who almost raped me. He was a satyr. He was the fourth guy in fight, the one I tried to stop.”

“That’s just the drugs distorting what you saw, honey. And he’s not going to be hurting anyone ever again. He died in the rotunda.”

* * *

Angel arrived about the time they were ready to release Fiona. He brought with him a shopping bag of clothes for her and another with some blankets. “I didn’t know what size she wore, so I just guessed. It should be good enough to get her home at least.”

“It will be. Thanks, Angel,” Kelan said.

Kit came over to say goodbye. He took Fiona’s hand and gently squeezed it. “You’re going to be okay, Fiona. We gotcha now.” He looked at Kelan. “I’m going to talk to Angel, then head out. He’ll drive you home. Get some rest. We’ll have a full debriefing tomorrow when you get up.”

Angel set their bags down in the chair. “Let me know if you need help. I’ll just be out front with Kit.” He paused and looked back at Kelan. “Oh—your stuff’s in the bag, too.”

“Thanks, Angel,” Kelan said. He got off the bed and pulled the curtain for privacy. He couldn’t wait to get back to the house and take a long, hot shower. He looked at Fiona, imagining she felt the same way. He lifted out her clothes from the bag and set them on the bed, then removed the tags.

“We’ll get you dressed, and then we’ll get out of here.” He helped her sit up in the bed. She let her bare legs dangle over the edge
 
so that he could pull her panties on. She was so petite and frail that his hands shook. He helped her to her feet, then finished pulling them all the way up. There was no bra in the bag, but there were a couple of tees along with a pink workout set of pants and a zip jacket.

“Kelan!” She grabbed his arms. “What happened to my cape?”

He nodded to where it was folded on the floor. “I was going to have them throw it away.”

Fiona’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “Please, hand it to me. There’s something I need to get out of it.”

“Let’s finish getting you dressed first,” he said. He helped her into the tee, then into the stretchy pants and jacket. He had her sit on the bed again as he put her new socks and slippers on.
 

Kelan grabbed the red cape and set it on the bed next to her.

“I need scissors. Can you find me some?” 

Kelan opened one of the drawers in a bank of cabinets. He handed her a pair. She cut into the velvet fabric and pulled out some white envelopes. Setting the scissors aside, she handed him the envelopes.