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Time stood still for a second as I parsed through the chaos in my head. I was angry–angry at Bash for putting us in this situation.
If Zane died…if Zane died, there would be fucking hell to pay.
But I moved past it, focusing on what was right in front of me–Zane, bleeding out. Bash rushed toward us, eyes wide.
"What happened?" he demanded, dropping down next to me. His eyes darted from Zane's slackened face to the red seeping through my jacket, and then to me.
"He's been shot," I said, barely able to get the words out.
"We need to move him," Justice added urgently.
Bash nodded and, without another word, slid his arms underneath Zane and hoisted him up as if he were weightless. I rose with them, keeping pressure on the wound. Every second felt like a lifetime as we moved as quickly as possible without jostling Zane too much.
Suddenly, the world outside seemed eerily quiet compared to the chaos in the venue. Our car was no longer where we left it, and the only sound was the faint echo of sirens far in the distance.
“Bash,” Justice said, her voice trembling but her expression resolute. “Take him to your car. We have to get him to a hospital.”
He started towards his car, parked across the street. I stayed by Zane’s side, my heart pounding as I watched his chest rise and fall unevenly. His face was tinged with an alien grayness that made my stomach turn.
“Help us,” Justice ordered, pulling me out of my stupor. I moved, assisting Bash in maneuvering Zane’s limp body into the back seat of his black Mercedes.
“Get in,” Bash said to me, not unkindly.
I nodded and climbed into the backseat, my hands still pressed firmly against Zane's wound. His normally vibrant eyes were glossed over and his breaths were coming in shaky, too shallow to be normal. Bash slid into the driver's seat, his face tight with worry as he started the car.
Bash and Justice climbed into the front of the car.
"Stay with us, doc," I whispered to Zane, my voice choked with emotion. "You're not allowed to clock out yet."
Justice was sobbing, her small frame shaking with wracking sobs as she tried to keep it together. Bash's knuckles were white on the steering wheel, his every instinct focused on getting us to the hospital as soon as humanly possible. "Where's the baby?" Justice asked. "Is he..."
"Safe," I reassured her, my confirmation serving to settle her chaotic tears into silent sobs. "Hassan took him. They're safe."
The car fell silent except for the sound of tires on asphalt and Justice's quiet sobbing. The seconds turned into excruciating minutes as I watched Zane's face get paler, his breaths getting shallower.
"Zane, hang in there," I pleaded with him. My hands were slick with his blood as I kept up the pressure on his wound. "You're not dying today."
His lips moved, whispering something I couldn't hear over the pounding in my ears.
"No," I told him firmly, refusing to let fear choke me. "You don't get to say goodbye."
He said something else, his lips barely moving. Leaning closer, I strained to hear him over the sound of the car and Justice's continued sobs. "...love...you..." He breathed out, his voice barely a whisper. My heart clenched at the words.
"I love you too, Zane," I told him, my voice choked with unshed tears. "We love you. And because we love you, you have to fight this." His lips twitched in what might have been a smile, but his eyes were growing glassier by the second.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced up to meet Justice's tear-filled gaze. Her face was a mask of devastation, but in her eyes I saw the same determination that had carried us through countless battles before. "We're not losing him, Skylar," she said, her voice steady despite her sobs. "He's going to make it."
"Yes," I agreed, turning my attention back to Zane. "You hear that? You're going to make it."
We pulled up in front of the emergency entrance, Bash barely slowing down enough for us to jump out before he was off again, searching for somewhere to ditch the car. Justice was already shouting at hospital staff, commanding their attention in a way only she could. Before I knew it, they were swarming us, lifting Zane onto a gurney and whisking him away.
"No!" I tried to follow them but a nurse blocked me. "I need to be with him."
"You can't go further," the nurse said, her expression sympathetic yet firm. "They're doing everything they can."
I fell against the wall, sliding down until I sat on the cold tile floor. Everything felt surreal. The white walls, the smell of antiseptics...it was all too much.
The last thing I heard before they disappeared was Zane’s ragged sighs, a ghostly anthem of the night's events that continued ringing in my ears long after they were out of sight. My blood-soaked hands felt heavy with the weight of Zane’s life, the red stains seeping into the white fabric of my shirt, a stark reminder of what we might lose tonight.
