“If it helps, I plan on cuffing him,”Harding interjected.
“Are you kidding me?” Maggie blurted.
“No.”
“So we won’t be able to roll him. He has togo on his back, and if we have any chance of saving him, we have toget him out of here, now,” Roger said.
“Shouldn’t we bandage him or pack the woundor something?” she asked.
“With his spine the way it is, I’m notrisking putting anything in there and causing more damage. Besides,I think it’s best if we just get him out of here, instead of takingthe time to bandage him.”
“I agree with getting him out of here,”Harding said.
Maggie sighed in resignation; Roger wasright. The longer they stood here and debated a situation they’dnever been trained for—because no one ever could have preparedthem, or thought to prepare them, forthis—the more likelyit was they would never get this guy to the hospital alive.
Together, she and Roger lifted the man andplaced him onto the stretcher. She winced for him as his weightsettled on his back. If he had enough sense left to register pain,this had to be agonizing for him.
She nearly shrieked when the man groaned. Ifshe’d been a gambler, she would have bet money on this guy nevermaking it to the hospital, never mind making a sound again. Hereyes shot to Roger, who gazed back at her with a dumbfoundedexpression she was sure matched hers.
She couldn’t stop her hands from shaking asshe strapped the man down. Harding stepped forward, captured theman’s wrist, and handcuffed it to the stretcher.
A vaguely familiar, sweet odor pushed asidethe stench of garbage and blood clogging Aiden’s nostrils. It tookhim a moment to place the scent as butterscotch. There had been agirl in his high school who sucked endlessly on butterscotchcandies. The scent made him recall how sweet butterscotch tasted onhis tongue.
That high school girl had been the first onehe kissed and felt up. She might have become his first everythingif her family hadn’t moved to England. She existed back in the dayswhen he’d dreamed of living a relatively normal life for a vampireresiding amongst humans. He’d gone to college for a time, back inthe day when sports and video games had still been fun andimportant to him. However, he soon realized he’d been a fool forbelieving he could fit in as his father and the Stooges had incollege.
His father and the Stooges were turnedvamps. He loved them all, but they didn’t have a clue whatpurebred, male vampires endured when they stopped aging. He hadn’thad a clue either.
But none of that mattered right now. Thatwas the past. Something was happening in the present he had tofocus on.
Why was his mind so jumbled? Why was hethinking of a girl he’d completely forgotten until now and collegedays he’d given up?
If he was in this much pain, he was indanger. Hands gripped him, lifting him and rolling him ontosomething. He was jostled again, and then someone grabbed hiswrist. Cold metal enclosed his wrists; he tried to jerk away, buthe didn’t have the strength.
His body felt like he’d been stretched on arack before being repeatedly sliced open by Carha’s whip. Why washe so weak?
Bits and pieces filtered through his mind.Had Carha just chained him? He’d kill the bitch if she had. Itdidn’t matter if she was the only one willing to flay him open ashe needed, he’d warned her not to play games with him.
Then he heard the butterscotch woman speakagain. Her voice dragged him back toward full consciousness.Despite the tremor he detected in it, strength resonated in hertone. His hand jerked against the metal before someone clasped hisother wrist. He turned his head toward the voice and tried to openhis eyes. He didn’t like the fear he sensed in her, and if he couldlook at her, if he could see where he was, then maybe he couldremember.
“I really don’t think he needs to becuffed,” Maggie said to Harding. The metal handcuff rattled whenthe man’s hand jerked against his restraint.
“Until we know what happened here, this manis also a prisoner,” Harding said briskly as he walked around thestretcher to cuff the man’s other wrist too.
“In case you haven’t noticed, he’s notexactly in the condition to jump up and run off on us,” sheretorted.
“Don’t care.”
“Officer Harding—”
Her words broke off when Harding’s eyes methers, and she saw the wariness in them. It hit her that Hardingwasn’t handcuffing their patient out of concern the man might makea miraculous escape; Harding was doing it because he worried forthem.
What have we walked into here? Shewondered for the hundredth time since entering this alley.
“Let’s go, Mags,” Roger said.
Without speaking, the two of them lifted thestretcher and started to carry it out of the alley. There was toomuch blood to wheel it out of here. She and Roger would bescrubbing the ambulance for hours afterward if they attempted towheel it, and she wanted as little to do with this whole mess aspossible.
When she got the chance, she was going toscrub her skin raw. Until then, she would have to be content withgetting out of here, getting this guy to the hospital, filing theirreport, and forgetting any of this happened. Tomorrow, she andprobably all the others who’d been here would feel foolish forbeing so creeped out, but right now all she felt was the impulse tobolt like a rabbit.
