Page 272 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

His eyes are open, breath coming shallowly through parted lips, but the rest of him lies horrifyingly still. Dust cakes his eyelashes. Blood runs from his hairline, cutting clean tracks through the grey covering his face.

He’s still facedown.

‘Lachlan.’

His mouth moves a little, but no sound comes out. Kade lifts his head carefully and keeps his broken wrist tucked uselessly against his own chest. Lachlan’s muscles are weirdly tense beneath his hands.

It’s like trying to shape clay around steel.

Once he’s facing upwards, Kade searches for the injector site. Not like finding it will do anything. He just needs to see what was done to him.

‘K-Kade.’

It’s frail. So fragile.

Kade bends over him, touches their faces together and presses a shaking kiss to his cheek. ‘I’m here.’ Not since he woke up in Riley’s arms seven years ago has he felt this much pain. ‘I’ve got you, Bodyguard.’

Lachlan tries to blink. ‘Need to… m-move.’

‘I’ll protect you,’ Kade whispers, dizzy.

Gunfire erupts behind him, and Kade instinctively covers Lachlan as rounds tear through metal somewhere across the space.

‘NE STRELYAT’!’

Blaire’s Vox strikes like another punch to the ears.

Kade winces.

The gunfire stops.

‘S-stop… don’t—’

‘I’ve got you,’ he tells Lachlan, foreheads pressed together. ‘Won’t let anyone take you. Anyone.’

‘Can’t… hurt me, baby,’ Lachlan manages. ‘Bullets won’t…’

‘Do you need blood?’ Kade offers, tapping into some strange instinct that’s probably wildly off base, but he can’t help offering. ‘My blood?’

‘Kade, you—’

Something large cuts through the air behind him and the impact lands with a splintering crash that sends a body rolling onto the concrete beside them, stopping close enough for Kade to smell the blood and sweat. The dark-haired man lies on his back, blood pouring lightly from his mouth, eyes closed at last.

But breathing.

This motherfucker is still breathing.

Kade goes cold with a kind of anger he’s never felt before.

He raises Kestrel above the man’s exposed throat, preparing to drive it all the way down for Luca, for Lachlan, for fucking Seth even. Kade draws his arm back to gather momentum when Lachlan gasps.

‘Wait.’

Dreading the arrival of something worse, Kade casts around.

Vasily’s people are helping him to stand. One of them drops a beam and mutters something to Vasily as he pats his shoulder, shaking his head. Vasily Sorrenko looks like he’s trying not to cry. Behind him, Blaire is crouched by Riley, who stares at Kade from across the dark space.

The urgency is gone for now.