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“No!!!” Malevich’s mother screamed as her son dropped to his knees and fell face down on the floor, a bullet through his heart ending his life. She bent beside him and then desperate eyes rose to meet mine. “Heal him!”
“I...I...can’t. It’s too late.” My hand stung from the recoil of the gun and my ears rang. A sick sensation rolled through me that made me want to vomit and I dropped the gun as the woman sobbed over her son. I’d taken his life and there was nothing I could do to change that. Not for her...and not for me.
In the periphery, I heard Zeph crying too. I turned my attention back to him. He held Beth on his lap. There was so much blood.
“Can you save her?” Zeph pleaded. His dark eyes were red rimmed and tears flowed down his cheeks. Desperation and love poured from his heart.
My eyes shot to the clock as Mrs. Malevich stumbled onto the elevator, her eyes glassy and cold as she turned to face front and poked at the button to close the door. With only a minute left before the ship was set to launch, she would escape if no one stopped her. Once in space, she would launch the nukes and destroy us all. Torn between saving Beth and going after the woman, I knew I had no choice. If I took my hands off the girl now, she would die.
As the elevator doors began to close, Joe Johnson appeared. He slammed his hand between the crack and slipped through. Glancing back at Tyler and Luke with regret lining his features, he said, “I’m sorry, boys. I have to do this.”
Then the doors closed and the elevator dropped into the bowels of the earth.
∞∞∞
Tyler called out to his father, ran to the elevator doors, and pounded his fists. “Dad! You can’t go.” His brother was beside him, both of them shouting.
My heart ached for Tyler and Luke, but more pressing was the girl’s life beneath my hands. Mercifully, she’d passed out from the pain. A bullet had grazed Zeph’s upper arm, but he didn’t seem to be aware he’d been hit.
I held my hands over Beth’s wound and focused every ounce of my healing energy into her, stanching the blood flow and assessing her damaged liver. A single bullet had nicked the organ, and blood was filling her insides. I turned her over, looking for an exit wound. The bullet was lodged in the deep muscles of her back. Fueled by adrenaline, I healed the liver laceration and sealed the entry wound in no more than a few seconds of concentrated effort—faster than I’d ever been able to heal such a serious injury before. But with a bullet still in her body, healing over the wound could leave her open to infection and the blood pooling in her body would kill her. I rolled her on her side and traced the bullet embedded in the muscle just under the skin, dangerously close to her spine. If I left it in and moved her, I risked paralyzing her.
By this time, the guards had been subdued, and Dalton and Agent Simms had things well in hand. Sam came and knelt beside Zeph.
“We need to get of here.” He took his handkerchief from his back pocket and tied it tightly around Zeph’s bleeding arm, the two exchanging a look. Zeph’s sad, dark eyes translated to a moment of asked forgiveness and Sam smiled—a granted redemption. My heart overflowed with the impact of the moment and I searched for the one person I most needed to see.
“Where’s Will?”
“I’m not sure,” said Sam, his expression dark. “He took off when the elevator doors closed.”
My heart sank. He’d gone to find his father and his aunt. I glanced at Malevich’s body. Another wave of nausea rolled through me, but a sense of relief also took hold. I had done what I had to do to save the people I loved, and I couldn’t regret it. I took a deep breath and released it, willing my pulse to steady. Then I dug my knife out of my boot and popped open the blade.
“What are you doing?” asked Sam. He glanced from Zeph to me and back. “We don’t have time.” The rumble from below had grown to a deafening roar and the room shook as the spacecraft lifted off. The lab was equipped to handle the launch, but the floor and walls vibrated with strain.
“I have to,” I yelled. My teeth chattered and my hands shook—not a good sign if I was going to dig for a bullet. I still needed antiseptic for both the knife and the wound. A thought came to me and my eyes landed on the purse Malevich’s mother had been carrying. She’d dropped it when she’d run to her son’s side. I called out to Tyler, who gaped with a lost expression. When he met my gaze, his eyes widened and he read my thought. He retrieved the purse and dumped the contents onto the floor. Inside was a half pint of whiskey, only a few sips taken off the top.
Tyler handed me the bottle and I poured it over the knife, the wound, and then my hands. By now the spacecraft had cleared the building and the rumbling died down to a dull roar. The vibration still shook my insides, but at least my hands were steady. With only a moment’s hesitation, I sliced into the red, swollen area of the paraspinal muscle where the bullet was lodged in Beth’s lower back. Blood gushed to the surface. I carefully angled the blade away from the nerve roots coming from the lumbar spine and used pressure from my fingers to push the bullet toward the surface. It took only seconds to remove it. I splashed another two ounces of the whiskey over the wound and covered it with my hands.
Thick red blood seeped between my fingers, my hands grew hot, and light glowed around us as Beth’s body began to heal. Zeph released a breath for the first time in minutes.
“Thanks, sis. I owe you one—or maybe a hundred and one,” he added, ruefully. Sam and I helped him to his feet while Dalton lifted Beth in his arms. The girl groaned and opened her eyes.
“What happened?” she asked.
“No time to explain,” said Sam. “Let’s go.”
Dalton and Agent Simms had retrieved Byter from the comp-control room where he had successfully downloaded the research files. With Beth in Dalton’s arms, Byter and Agent Simms at their heels, and Sam and Zeph pushing Luke and Tyler through the doors directly ahead of me, we made our way into the stairwell and headed for ground level. If Malevich was telling the truth, this place would be turned to rubble in the next few minutes.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Will. Where was he? I reached out to him in my mind and hit a wall. I pressed harder and discovered a thread—a tiny link that he couldn’t shut down between us—a connection that couldn’t be severed. As the group ahead rounded the next landing and burst into the main lobby, I turned back.
Will needed me, and I couldn’t leave him behind.
