The prompt for this week is: I'm having the time of my life.
The smaller rocks hurt, but it was the
large rock I’d stumbled over and the ones that pummeled my body as I lay dazed
on the ground that had done the most damage. Sickening pain radiated from my
lower leg. More blood dripped down my face to mix with the dust coating my skin,
and the iron tang filled my mouth when I licked my lips. The rough tunnel was
crumbling, and I cringed to think what had happened to that underground facility
if the damage was this bad outside of that building. I was glad I’d sent Ritch
ahead with the others while I made sure nothing followed us.
I held on to the wall, though the rocks
shifted and more fell every time I had to take a hopping step forward. A light
danced in the darkness, and I wasn’t sure if it was real or something my
rattled brain was imagining.
“Park?” Ritch’s tentative voice startled
me. He was wheezing, but I could make out his face through the thick dust. He
looked okay—or at least not worse than he had in that room. “Are you okay?”
“What are you doing? You need to get the
hell out of here. Some of those things might have escaped!” I took a step
forward with my broken leg and cried out as bone ground on bone and the scent
of fresh blood filled the air. Dizzy waves crashed over me, and I fought back
the urge to vomit “Fuck!”
“Are you okay? What happened?” Ritch
slipped under my arm and took my weight as he wrapped his arms around my chest.
I coughed, and he eased his hold.
“Broke my leg.” We hobbled out of the
tunnel and into the basement of the house. A werekin swept a bright light
through the darkness. It seared my eyes, and I snarled. “Watch it!”
“Sorry. Had to make sure you weren’t one of
those feral things.”
“We’re not. Where is everyone?”
“Made it out. Alpha asked me to make sure
you got out when your mate insisted on going back in for you.”
“I’m not his—”
I cut Ritch off. “Take my left side.”
“Oh, shit, of course.” The guard came up on
my uninjured side. We made our awkward way through the basement and to those
rickety stairs which were still standing. Thank the fucking gods for small
miracles, at least.
Of course, they were narrow, so we ended up
going sideways, each of us on a different stair. My foot knocked into one of
the boards, and I promptly leaned over and vomited, unable to hold it in as the
pain stole my control over my body. I’d have fallen if I didn’t have two sets
of arms holding me up.
“We can try to lift you,” Ritch suggested
“I’ll be fine. Go. Another one.” After an
eternity, we made it up and out of that underground nightmare. Werekin were
moving around the room, but I could smell the acrid stench of Deke’s fear and
anger. He hovered over Kraig while someone cleaned him up with a first aid kit.
“We need help over here,” Ritch shouted.
One glance down at my leg told me exactly where the panic in his voice came
from.
The break was as bad as I thought it was,
and pieces of bone were sticking out of my calf. The wound looked like raw
meat, and I was filthy. Werekin are sturdy and heal quickly, so we rarely had
the need for medical care beyond basic first aid, but this was going to hurt—a
lot.
Doctors were rare, hence the reason the
bastard who’d held Kraig captive had been able to gain access to so many clans,
but there was one with us who was trustworthy. Good thing, because I was
definitely in need of her services.
“Is he okay?” I asked Deke, nodding toward
Kraig.
“Oh, I’m having the time of my life,” Kraig
said. He hissed and cringed away when the claw marks on his neck were swabbed.
“Physically, he’ll be okay.” Deke’s voice
was grim. He rubbed his chest.
“Are you okay?” I sank down gratefully in the
chair someone dragged over to us, but I was having a hard time staying upright.
I leaned against Ritch, nuzzling his side. For those few seconds he’d been held
by Trein before the ferals attacked, I’d feared the worst. Sending him ahead of
me in the tunnels had been gut-wrenching, but I needed him to be okay first and
foremost. I knew Deke felt the same way about my brother.
“We lost her, Park. I felt it when the
connection snapped. Your father’s soul too. I’m so sorry.”
Kraig looked up. “Don’t be sorry about that
bastard. He’s the one who betrayed us, betrayed Mom. Dad’s soul was corrupt
from the betrayal of his kin and streak, and that same evilness was in the man
they put it in.”
It had to be true, because Ritch had told
me stories about his cousin, and he’d been a good man. And clearly Kraig was
still himself, the same honest and caring brother I’d grown up with, even if
the suffering he’d endured had aged his spirit and put shadows in his eyes.
Other werekin were in the kitchen, moving
in and out. I think it was a triage area because most of them were hurt; claw
marks and bites, even one guy who looked like he had a venomous stinging wound
surrounded by necrotic tissue.
This wasn’t the place to ask more
questions, but I desperately needed to know how Trein had taken Mom, Ritch, and
Kraig. “Is the area secure?” I asked.
Landon entered the room just then. “It is.
We’ve posted men at the entrance to the facility through the basement here and
at the other end of the tunnel that was in a building on the far side of the
property. The werekin who surrendered are under guard.”
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