Page 100 of Claimed By the Damned
"No shit!" I yell back. My gaze locks on the inferno where Ethan's SUV crashed. He could be dead. Or worse, alive and burning. I feel utterly murderous. I owe him. Weallowe him.
"Theo, on me!" I bark, making a split-second decision. "Bastian, Grim, suppressive fire! Cover our approach to the wreck! Lila, stay the fuck down, get into the footwell, don’t move, don’t make a sound!"
Her eyes, wide and terrified, meet mine. A tremor shakes her small body, but she nods, pressing herself into the footwell. Good girl.
Theo scrambles back slightly, his face a mask of anguish and fury. "Ethan…"
"We are getting him out," I say, my voice a low growl. "Dead or alive. Nowmove!"
I kick open my door, the metal groaning in protest. Hot air and the acrid smell of burning fuel, rubber, and something sickeningly metallic wash over me. Rounds crack overhead, uncomfortably close. I hit the ground, rolling, taking cover behind our battered SUV. Theo tumbles out beside me, gun already blazing.
Lila
Ryker and Theo are gone, disappearing into the maelstrom of gunfire and smoke. My breath hitches. Bastian is leaning out his window, firing methodically. Grim has somehow managed to angle the SUV to provide a sliver of cover for them, but rounds still thud into our vehicle with terrifying regularity.
I press myself against the footwell, my hand instinctively going to my stomach.The baby.The thought is a fresh wave of terror. I can’t lose them. I can’t loseEthan. But I'm useless, trapped, a liability, as the inferno rages. My eyes are fixed on the burning SUV. A part of me screams to run, to hide, but another, fiercer part, the part that found strength with these men, aches to help. Ryker’s words echo:Stay the fuck down.
Heart hammering, I see Ryker and Theo dart between pockets of shadow and fleeting cover, moving towards Ethan's car. They move like wraiths, deadly and focused, but the sheer volume of incoming fire is overwhelming. How can they possibly reach it?
Suddenly, a new, heavier staccato joins the fight. Grim is out of the driver’s seat, a heavy-duty assault rifle already barking in his hands. Then, with a practiced, almost casual motion, he slings it over his shoulder and from a compartment at his feet, produces a short-barreled grenade launcher. He stands like a fucking mountain, unmovable, aiming the launcher with deadly calm. Thethump-CRUMPof a grenade exploding among the attackers’ vehicles echoes a moment later, briefly silencing some of their fire and drawing their immediate, panicked attention.
It gives Ryker and Theo precious seconds.
Ryker
Grim’s covering fire and the chaos from his grenades are a godsend; it buys us the critical window we need to get to Ethan's SUV.
"Go, Theo, go!" I yell, shoving him forward. We sprint, low and fast, towards the wreckage. The heat is biblical, scorching myskin even through my clothes. The rear half of the SUV is an inferno, flames greedily consuming the metal, sending plumes of acrid black smoke into the night. The fire is spreading, licking its way towards the front, but the front cabin, for now, is mostly just choked with that thick smoke.
The driver's side is a mangled mess, crushed against a thick pine tree, the flames already starting to creep closer to it. "Ethan!" Theo screams, clawing at the buckled door. It won’t budge.
"The passenger side!" I shout, circling towards the less engulfed front end. Lead chews the dirt around us, kicking up bark. The attackers are shifting their fire, trying to pin us downhere.
The passenger door is partially open, jammed against the ground from the rollover. Smoke pours from the cabin, thick and black. It's not on fire in here yet, but the intense heat from the rear radiates through the metal. "Ethan! Can you hear me, man?!" I yell, coughing as the smoke burns my lungs.
A choked groan answers from inside.He’s alive.Relief, fierce and jolting, cuts through me, immediately followed by the desperate urgency to get himout.
"He's in there!" Theo is already trying to shoulder the door further open, grunting with the effort. "Help me!"
I join him, bracing myself against the hot metal of the doorframe, it’s already almost too hot to touch. Together, we heave. The door groans, bends, then rips partially free with a screech of tortured steel. Dark, oily smoke billows out, making my eyes water.
And there he is. Ethan.
He’s slumped against the deployed airbag, blood matting his dark hair, a horrifying gash across his forehead. His left arm is twisted at an unnatural angle, and a dark, rapidly spreading stain of blood blooms over his tactical vest on his right side, near his ribs. His face is pale, his breathing shallow and ragged. But his eyes, those ice-gray eyes, flutter open, trying to focus.
"Geez… you guys… were slow," he rasps, a bloody smirk attempting to form on his lips.
Fucking Mercer. Still a wiseass.
"Save the jokes for later, pretty boy," I grunt, reaching in. "We gotta move. Now." The smell of gasoline is overwhelming. The fire is closing in; this whole thing could become a fireball any second.
Theo is already unbuckling Ethan’s harness, his movements frantic but surprisingly gentle. "I got his legs," he says, his voice thick with emotion.
"I’ve got his torso. On three. One… two… THREE!"
We pull. Ethan cries out, a raw, pain-filled sound that tears through me, as we drag him through the narrow opening. His body is limp, heavy deadweight. The heat from the flames is intensifying, searing us.
More bullets slam into the wreckage near us, closer this time. They know we’re exposed.
