AllFreeNovel
Share Us
36
“Saint!” I call his name, but he’s in so much pain he can’t respond. “You mother fucker, stop this!” I snarl, holding the man I love as he gets lower to the ground.
“I could, but I think I may just let the meat rot.” This man that claims to be la Familia stares down at me. He’s too far. I need him to get closer. His head cocks as I reach for Saint’s gun.
Bam!
I’m kicked in the face, and my head spins. This man is a monster.
“I thought you wanted a fair fight?” I sputter, taking a breath to control the pain. I stand and square my shoulders. “Take me on,” I say with every ounce of my being.
He laughs. “You are your mother’s daughter. Changed your name, your body, but you cannot change your nature. We are killers. Bred for it, like those yappy little dogs, we can sniff out the rats and watch them bleed.” He takes a step toward me, “Do you think yourself worthy? Your mother once thought so, and she regretted it.” His hand traces his left eye. My mother is partly blind in that eye. She once told me it was from tussling with an endemic rat.
The bastard lunges toward me, pulling a huge knife from his back. Well, two can play that game. I try to back off, but his reach is longer than I realized. He grabs me and pulls me into him. My back to his chest. The knife at my throat. I struggle, but he holds firm. “Should I end the line?” He looks down at Saint. “Oh, look, the bleeding has begun.” He leans us forward, it isn’t much, but it gives me the opening I need.
Space between us. I’m going to need an emergency room after this, but it won’t matter much if we are all dead. I twist, getting my hand between us. I manage to get the scalpel and, in ripping it from between us, feel it slice through my back. I cry out, and he stumbles as I jab backward. I spin, seeing the scalpel stuck in his pectoral. I don’t think. I don’t have the time. The look of shock on him as I rip the blade from him and shove it into his fucking smug face is almost orgasmic. Down we go. As he grabs me, I keep stabbing, slicing, and gouging. I flail as I’m pulled back, kicking and sobbing.
“Toney, please, he’s fucking dead!” Finn cries. “They guys—we gotta help them. I don't know what to do. You're the Doc—you gotta know!”
Bleeding-what counters bleeding? “Vitamin K.” I say aloud, “a subcutaneous injection.” I scramble to my feet. “Follow me. You will have to help.”
I want to stop and kiss Saint, but I don’t have the time to comfort him if I want to save him.
“What are we doing?” Finn asks, following me. “How do you know what to do?”
“He said it, he kept saying it, my mother too. Rats. Fucking rats!” I go to the medications closet, “Fuck, no keys! Son of a bitch!” I cry. I don’t have any idea where my keys are. I slam my hands on the cabinet, which makes the pain in my back even worse. I’m pulled back again.
“Let me—” Finn reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little case. “My sister used to like to lock up my game systems. I had to learn to improvise.”
It only takes him seconds to crack the lock, and I’m in the closet. “I have vitamin K to help stave off bleeding in patients. If I’m right about what I think this is, it will stop the bleed and give us time to get what we need to save them.” Grabbing the right syringes and the bottle of K, I start filling them. I have to guess the dosages as I don’t know what these guys weigh. I can only hope I give enough.
***
“Will he be okay?” Delia asks, biting the side of her thumb. From the state of her fingers, I can see that this was a habit that often drew blood. “He hasn’t woken up like the other guys.”
“I have him under sedation. He has more poison in him than Sully or Monroe.” I look at Drysten, who is already trying to sit up. “His size helped, but what saved him considerably were the hotdogs he stuffed himself with at the truck stop. Specifically, the hotdog rolls and the apparent slaw topping Finn just finished moping off my floors. Both are jam-packed with K.” I gently touch Saint’s face. “He’s feverish, but the bleeding has stopped, and as he is now, he’s not feeling any pain.” I finish softly.
As I was administering the K, I heard the sounds of the bikes, and Delia was apparently on a comm in Saint’s ear. She came rushing in with Lachlan and a half dozen patches from the club. They helped us get the guys into recovery beds while I contacted poison control and a specialist I knew in New Mexico. He was an expert in anti-venoms, and we often consulted on ways to repair necrotic tissue. Being from Hait, he knew the little rodent responsible for this nightmare as well as I did. The Vipera rondntus rex or King Ratviper was an endemic species thought to be extinct but rediscovered about twenty years ago by a local scientist. When his chickens kept dying, he thought someone was poisoning them. Turned out this two-pound rat was the culprit. It was one of only two known mammal species with venom. It was too small to actually bite a human with enough to kill, but apparently in high enough doses… The anti-venom will be here in a few hours, and between that and the K, the guys will be just fine.
I lean down and kiss Saint softly on the lips. Suddenly his hand laces into my hair. I jump from the unexpected touch, but only enough to separate our lips, as I look into his eyes.
“What’s up, Doc?” He groans easily as I start to cry.
“Miracle three,” I whisper as he smiles and pulls me back into him. His first was for my pleasure, the second made me fall in love, and the final restored my faith.
“You really are my Saint.”
~The End~
