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They landed hard, as was expected, but their healing abilities quickly took care of things. I locked eyes with one as he stood forward, a hulking brown bear shifter with a truly impressive frame. The enemy had found a way to bring the battle inside our walls—something that hadn’t happened since before I was born—but then the bear shifter’s gaze shifted to the limp Darla and Medic Everton, his nostrils flaring.
No, that wouldn’t do at all.
Growling under my breath, I bolted forward to defend Ayla.I made it to her in a second, maybe two, just as thick, furry arms burst through what was left of the window. I had to hand it to the bear, he certainly hadchutzpah,barreling forward without a moment’s hesitation.
I almost didn’t think he'd get that far considering his girth. But no, this shifter clearly had experience under his belt, because hede-shifted just far enough to yank himself through the window.
He didn’t land too gracefully, but he didn’t need to. He got in and was back on his feet in the same instant. At the same time, I ditched my own human form, letting my inner wolf burst from our body.
A howl punched its way out of me, and I tackled the offender with all the force my lupine body could muster in such a small space. We collided with enough force to send me bouncing backward off his thick layers of protective fat, but I got my feet under me in just enough time to not be disadvantaged.
Luckily, he really was staggered by my impromptu assault. I could see by how his body recoiled that I'd surprised him, putting his weight onto his back foot. However, he recovered quicker than I expected, and I wasn’t able to press the advantage I’d made. One moment he was off kilter, the next he was drawing back his clawed hand, ready to strike my face.
I wasn’t about to let a bear get his paws on me. They were surprisingly dexterous, which too many of their prey didn’t realize until it was far too late, and I didn’t feel like having a chunk of flesh ripped out of me.
Instead, I ducked, darting through and charging the opposite wall so I could use it as a springboard and quickly turn. I knew from experience that killing my momentum and going into a controlled turn would leave my back far too vulnerable with any worthy opponent, so being quick and agile was the name of the game.
The bear pivoted once he realized his attack missed, but his mass slowed him down enough for me to secure my jaws around his offending arm.
He bellowed in pain, trying to shake me off, but I let my teeth sink deep into his flesh. I snarled, the wolf part of me high on bloodlust as the crimson red of his life-force spilled into my jaw.
I liked to think that I was a fairly civil and self-aware person, but the truth was that my inner wolfreveledin violence, in power, in the thrill of battle, and the rush of fighting for those I loved. I did try to control it, to not let my beast half bleed too far into my human side, but it sure was a great asset in a fight.
The bear had no choice but to partially shift out of his beast form to try and slip out of my hold, except I’d expected as much, and I snapped my jaws even tighter, getting a secure enough hold that I could use my sizable bulk to slam the now mostly human shifter into the wall.
He let out a furious shout, and I could feel his arm thickening right up again in my mouth, so I jerked him back and slammed him down again. Then again. The repeated cerebral calibrations, as I liked to call them, were enough to rattle him completely, so I swung him around and threw him into the opposite wall. I pounced on his back, putting my paw on the back of his head, then slamming it into the ground as hard as I could without thumbs.
Finally, he let out a shudder and went still. I could tell he hadn’t stopped breathing, but if he had any sense, he'd stay down.
Once I was sure he wouldn’t rise and launch into a surprise attack, I rushed over to Darla and Ayla. I clenched my jaw when the hot, metallic smell of non-shifter blood hit my wolf senses like a brick wall. Had Darla hit her head so hard that she’d cracked it open?
No. It was worse.
It wasn’t enough that one of our most talented psychics had been blasted into a wall by enemy artillery, and it also wasn’t enough that Darla had suffered a pretty severe blow to the head.I had no idea how that would affect her, as her magic was entirely based in her brain, but only time would tell on that one.
If shehadthe time… because the poor woman had a sharp pierce of glass shrapnel from the window sticking out of her throat.
What God had she pissed off in a past life?
I stood there for a moment, shocked by the sheer level of damage that'd happened to Sargent Khan while inside the fort. Wounds and battles were supposed to happenoutside, not within.
While I stood there, though, Ayla was already fast at work. She didn’t remove the piece of bloody glass. Instead she ripped open Darla’s uniform to get at her plain, black undershirt. She then cut the bottom off and wrapped it around the psychic’s throat, applying pressure.
I was duly impressed with Ayla’s skill. Despite my lack of magical ability, I could feel Medic Everton funneling her healing energy into the psychic. It wasn’t something I was overly familiar with, but the bubbling, fizzing energy was so virulent that I felt tremors, the lingering vibrations sending soothing, cool, and invigorating sensations along my arms.
“Do you need me to get her to the infirmary?” I said, crouching next to Ayla. Her face was mostly completely placid, but I noticed determination there as well. I could see why the head of the medics had been so avid in their praise of the young healer.
But even with Everton’s concentration, the sheer amount of blood loss was startling, even for someone like me who’d seen combat. As far as I could tell, though, the bleeding was indeed slowing down. Khan’s wounds were closing like she was a shifter, the inner veins and muscles stitching themselves together before the skin.After a few moments, Ayla let go of Darla’s throat, removing the ripped-up shirt in the process, andI watched as the glass shard was pushed up out of the psychic’s neck, bit by bit, until it fell into Ayla’s awaiting hand.
Miraculous.
I couldn’t believe that I’d basically just watched our medic bring a soldier back from lethal injuries. All of that blood lost in, what, less than thirty seconds?Yet Darla was now groaning slightly, her eyelids fluttering as she came around.
As amazed as I was by Ayla’s skill, I was also horrified. I clenched my fist, realizing just how close we’d come to losing an incredibly valued member of our ranks. If Ayla had followed my orders, then Sargent Khan would be a corpse.
There was a cold knot in my stomach at the thought, and I'd be a liar and a fool if I didn’t admit that there were likely other soldiers on the battlefield who’d also only be saved if a medic could get to them and stabilize them enough.
“Wouldsomeonehelp me get her to the infirmary?” Ayla snapped.
