It was worse than he’d believed. He had no feeling in his fingers, his broken collarbone jutted out through his flesh, and only a few ligaments had kept it from being severed. He didn’t know if he’d keep his arm if he made it out of here alive.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was getting Brie out.
She absolutely wouldnotbe another trophy in this monster’s sick game. Forming an image of her in his mind, he used it to fortify his strength before pushing away from the wall and sprinting across the cave.
He had to grip his arm as he ran to keep it from flopping uselessly around. Another shot hit the ground so close, one of the pellets tore off the back of his sneaker.
When the man exposed himself again, Brie lifted her gun and aimed at the shadow behind the flashlight. She fired off two rounds. One struck off the cave and rebounded a few times before going silent. The other struck soft flesh, and the monster shouted before ducking back again.
Then the gun poked back around the corner, and Brie threw herself to the ground as fire erupted from the end of the shotgun. She was struck in the head.
CHAPTERFORTY-THREE
The small clickfollowing the last shot was what Asher had been waiting to hear. He pushed himself away from the wall and tried not to think about Brie as he sprinted across the remains.
He’d seen her fall after the last shot but didn’t know if it was because she’d thrown herself down or been shot again. He couldn’t stop to check on her; he had to get to this guy. He would love to fire as he ran at the hulking beast, trying to reload his gun with his flashlight between his lips, but he couldn’t let go of his arm.
The man slid another shotgun shell into the gun when Asher lowered his good shoulder and slammed into him. The impact knocked the man back a good five feet but didn’t topple him into the remains surrounding them. He was too big for that, easily a good five inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than Asher.
Under normal conditions, Asher still should have been able to knock him down and beat the shit out of him, but blood loss was weakening him faster than he’d realized.
The man started to raise the gun toward him, but Asher was prepared for it. Releasing his weapon, he grasped the end of the shotgun barrel. He ignored the heat searing into his palm and shoved the gun upward.
More buckshot struck the top of the cave and ricocheted. Rocks and debris rained down on them; it pelted his head and shoulders and fell around his feet, but more of it battered the man as it had struck directly above his head.
The man released the gun and threw his hands up to protect himself. Asher ripped the weapon away and flung it down the cave. Metal bounced against the rock as it skittered into the shadows.
Asher didn’t give the man a chance to recover before he snatched his gun from the ground, took aim, and fired a single shot into the stranger’s forehead. He may not have been the best shot with his left hand, but he was deadly accurate from less than a foot away.
The impact snapped the man’s head back, and he toppled to the ground. His body and arms flopped against the rocks a couple of times before he went still.
Asher slid his gun back into its holster and faced the cave. The movement staggered him to the side, and he nearly went down as his head spun. The effects of his blood loss were getting worse by the second. His bad shoulder crashed into the wall, and he grunted as fire flashed across what remained of the nerve endings in it.
Shaking and with sweat pouring down his forehead, he closed his eyes as he worked to keep himself from passing out. Hunters healed fast, but he feared he was beyond that point.
“Brie?” he croaked. “Brie, where are you?”
“Here,” she said in a low, husky voice as she stumbled out of the darkness and into the glow of the man’s flashlight lying by Asher’s feet.
Something inside Asher broke when he saw the blood coating her shirt and belly. A chunk of flesh and some hair were missing from her head. The buckshot must have torn across her scalp.
“Are you okay?” he demanded as he remained leaning against the wall while she approached him.
“I’m fine; it just knocked me out.”
Her fingers went to her head and came away coated in blood. She scowled at them before shifting her attention back to him.
Terror replaced her irritation over being shot as she rushed to his side. Some ghosts possessed more color than him; blood soaked his clothes, and his arm hung at such an unnatural angle she couldn’t tell what held it on.
“What about you?” she demanded as she grasped his good arm. “Oh, Asher.”
Her fingers tenderly caressed his cheek as fresh tears burned her eyes.I will not lose him. I will not fail him. But no matter how much she told herself this, the unsteady beat of his heart told her a different story.
“I’m fine, but I’m ready to go,” he told her.
He wasn’t fine, and they both knew it. “You’ve lost so much blood, and your arm…”
“We’ll get it fixed once we’re out of here.”
