Page 87 of After 5
“I’m yer defender, and I order ye to go home!”
“Not anymore. You can’t play that card.” I held my ground.
“Bloody hell. Why did Agent McCoy send ye onto the battlefield?”
“He didn’t. I landed here. I had business.”
“Cripes.”
A branch broke behind me, and Marco stepped into our hidden cluster of brush, his face flush from heavy breathing and his musket pointed in our direction. When he saw Caiyan, he lowered his gun.
“Thank God, I didn’t know what happened to you and I heard you shout.” Marco said, placing his hand against the tree trunk to catch his breath. “I see you found the brigand.”
“Yer supposed to be watching oot fir her.” Caiyan yelled at Marco.
Marco straightened and growled at Caiyan. “I’m keeping her bed warm, isn’t that what you did?”
Caiyan’s face dropped for a moment, then anger replaced the shock.
My mouth hung open. I couldn’t find the words to explain.
Caiyan’s face flushed a savage red. He waved his gun in the air. “Ye take her home now!”
“I can’t—” Marco started, but Caiyan cut him off.
“Ye weel,” he pointed his revolver at Marco and shot him in the leg. Marco fell to the ground, holding his thigh.
“You crazy sonofabitch! You shot me!”
I rushed to Marco’s side.
He held pressure on his thigh with one hand and scrambled for his rifle with the other. I pushed it out of his reach as Gertie stepped into the area.
She gasped when she saw the blood oozing from between Marco’s fingers.
“What happened?” she asked me.
“Caiyan shot Marco,” I answered.
“Why would you do that?” she hollered at Caiyan. She bent down over the two of us.
While I applied pressure to his bleeding leg, Gertie fumbled through the pack Marco had stolen and came up with a tourniquet. “Here, let me use this.” I moved aside, and she knelt to apply the contraption.
“These guns don’t have good aim. You could have killed me,” Marco shouted at Caiyan, following up with a string of profanities.
Caiyan walked over. He tapped Marco with the edge of his boot, “’Tis only a flesh wound. Now she must take ye home. And dinnae come back! I willnae be here much longer.”
“I can’t!” Tears threatened as my anger spewed. “I can’t summon my vessel.”
“Dinnae mess wit’ me, Sunshine.”
“General Lee went inside my outhouse and it left. I tried calling it back, but it won’t come.”
His gaze fixated on me, and for the first time, I noticed his weary, bloodshot eyes.
“She’s telling the truth,” Gertie said.
He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was trying to control his internal beast from strangling me. Removing his hand, he glared at Marco. “For fuck’s sake, don’t die.”
