Chapter 31
Mike raced to the stage. His training dictated that he should go after the shooter and catch them before they could escape or harm anyone else. But screw training. He had to get to Aiden. Mike’s single-minded focus was getting to Aiden, but he managed to yell information to the team on the comm link in between shouting at people to get out of the way.
“Shooter was in the northwest quadrant near the food stalls! Long range weapon—some type of laser gun. Did not observe any other hostiles.”
Directly in front of him a knot of frightened people huddled together. “Move!” he shouted as he plowed right into the middle of the group in his path. They scattered and Mike continued to sprint through the screaming, fleeing crowd. He leapt over lawn chairs, jumped the crowd barrier, and ran up the steps to the stage. He didn’t stop until he reached his fallen lover.
Aiden lay on his back, sprawled in a tangle of bent limbs like a broken toy tossed aside by a careless child. His eyes were open but dazed and he was deathly pale, his lips bloodless. Beneath him, a pool of blood steadily grew bigger, spreading across the stage, leeching away his life force.
“Oh my God,” Mike choked out when he got a look at the wound. Whatever that weapon was, it had ripped a hole in Aiden’s shoulder, leaving the skin around the entry point an angry glowing red. If the shot had hit a few inches lower it would have destroyed his heart, and Aiden would already be gone.
Now, Mike let his training take over. His first priority was to stop the bleeding. He dropped to his knees, yanked open one of the pockets on his belt, and pulled out a packet of clotting agent. Quickly tearing it open, he poured the entire contents over the hole in Aiden’s shoulder. Then, he pressed thick squares of gauze to both the entrance and exit wounds.
Aiden stirred when the pressure was applied to his shoulder.
“I’m shot,” he rasped in a barely there whisper. “Fell.”
“I know. But you’re going to be okay.” Mike didn’t know if that was true. But he had to say it for both their sakes. He didn’t want Aiden to become stressed and as for himself...he refused to entertain the thought that Aiden wouldn’t survive this.
There was apopbehind him. His instincts on high alert, Mike threw his body over Aiden to cover him from any threat. He looked over his shoulder, ready to hit the enemy with a blast. But to his relief, it was Sonica teleporting in.
Her eyes went wide with shocked horror as she stared down at Aiden laying there in a pool of his own blood. “I can get him to the hospital immediately. But I can’t take two people at once. You’ll have to let him go.”
Take his hands off Aiden? Let him out of his sight when he needed to protect him? What if he died while they were separated?
“Mike!”
Sonica shouted his name. Mike blinked and realized she’d called him more than once.
“Do you want to wait for the ambulance or do you want me to take him?”
Sonica taking Aiden was the fastest way to get him medical attention. And he’d already wasted precious seconds spiraling in fear. Sonica needed to get him to the hospital immediately. In his head he told her to take Aiden but nothing came out of his mouth. Not wanting to waste any more time, he gave his answer by taking his hands off Aiden and backing up.
Sonica dropped down next to Aiden and put her hands on his uninjured arm.
“I’ll come right back for you.”
Mike nodded, again without saying a word. She was gone before he drew in his next breath.
He was still kneeling, his hands slick with his lover’s blood when Sonica popped back in. She touched his shoulder and the festival disappeared. For the length of three heartbeats, everything was gray and spinning, then suddenly he was kneeling on the floor in a hospital emergency room lobby.
Medical staff had already jumped into action, Aiden lay on a gurney, with people rushing around him. Mike got his bearings and rose to his feet in time to watch them start running, pushing the gurney with them as they burst through a set of swinging doors. His eyes stayed locked on the doors long after the med staff was gone, hoping, praying that Aiden would be okay.
∞ ∞ ∞
Aiden came to slowly. His sense of smell kicked in before he opened his eyes, that familiar and distinctive hospital scent assaulting his nose as he drew in a breath. Eyes still closed, he did an inventory. His head pounded. The bones in his right wrist and arm throbbed mercilessly. And his shoulder burned as if someone had jammed a hot poker through it. He was in so much pain that even the simple act of breathing hurt.
Aiden finally opened his eyes. At first, he saw nothing but blurry moving colors. Then his vision sharpened and solidified. People in masks and hospital scrubs rushed around him.
It all came rushing back. He’d been on the pole in the middle of his performance when a sudden searing pain ripped through his left shoulder. He’d fallen off the pole, crashing to the stage. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was Mike’s panicked face hovering over him.
“Mike.” His voice was a hoarse whisper so low it didn’t manage to rise above the noise in the room. No one heard him. He tried again. “Mike.” One person paused to look at him then immediately went back to whatever they were doing.
Aiden silently cursed in frustration. He needed to get their attention, damnit. Bracing for the pain he was about to cause himself, he pulled in a deep breath in preparation for a yell. “Mike!” He didn’t quite manage a shout. But he was loud. And a machine started beeping faster. More than one person stopped.
A nurse came up to him and lightly touched his non-injured shoulder.
“Sir, you’ve been shot. We’re prepping you for surgery.”
