Page 47 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Ryker

“What happened?” I demanded as I fell to my knees beside Tucker.

I couldn’t see any wounds, but the pool of blood beneath him was growing.

FUCK!

Not Tucker. I can’t lose Tucker.

We’d come too far and endured too much together for it to end like this. Panic fueled my frantic movements as I searched for an injury. Tucker’s eyes bounced around, but the rest of him remained unmoving.

His fingers didn’t twitch, and while he seemed to be trying to say something, no sounds emerged and his lips didn’t move. His sea-blue eyes were frantic when they landed on me; desperation radiated from them.

Ianto dropped to his knees on the other side of him. “I think one of those things got him in the back.”

Placing my hands against Tucker’s side, I tried to gently turn him over, but he was as stiff as a board and difficult to move. With some help from Ianto, I got him onto his side; his arms didn’t move as they remained rigid at his sides.

What the fuck?

But the mystery of his frozen state would have to wait as I discovered the gaping hole in his upper back. One of those things had driven their stinger into him and most likely injected him with their poison.

“Keep holding him,” I commanded Ianto. The giant’s hands tightened on Tucker’s shoulder as I unbuttoned my shirt. “Is the poison lethal?” I demanded of Farley.

“I don’t know.”

My eyes shot to the poltergeist who hovered over Tucker’s frozen body. The creature had his hands up by his face as his eyes remained riveted on my friend… my brother in arms, blood, and life.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” I snapped.

Farley looked up at me, and while I never thought I’d ever see such an emotion from a poltergeist, sorrow filled his eyes. “I’ve never seen anyone survive a cordou attack. After they’re stabbed, they’re eaten.”

“Shit,” I snarled.

Dropping my shirt on the ground, I pulled my dagger free of its sheath and cut away Tucker’s shirt. It took some time, but I managed to pull the material free from inside Tucker’s back.

When I succeeded in tearing the shirt away and spotted the black veins flowing away from the hole, my heart plummeted. They spread across his back as they followed his blood flow up to his shoulders and down to his waist.

He still didn’t move when Ianto maneuvered him so he was face down on the ground. Ianto grasped his head and turned it so Tucker wasn’t breathing in dirt.

Leaning forward, I placed my hands against Tucker’s back and pushed the black in his veins toward the large hole the cordou had created. There was too much blood to see his spine, but I suspected the wound went that deep.

I kept my focus on getting the poison out of him, but I was well aware of the scars crisscrossing his back. I’d been with him when he received most of them; if he’d survived the ophidians, he would survive this.

As I worked the poison away from his shoulders, Ianto pressed on his lower back and pushed the spreading black back toward the hole. I would try to suck the poison out, but it had spread too far for that.

Black ooze started to mingle with the blood as it bubbled out of him. It filled the air with the stench of tar burning but didn’t scorch his skin; I hoped that burning wasn’t Tucker’s veins.

It flowed down his sides to coalesce with the pool of red beneath me. Tucker remained unmoving, but our efforts were working as the black seeping across his back retracted until it didn’t stain his skin anymore.

Despite looking clear, I continued pushing more pure red blood from him for another minute to ensure all the poison was out of his system. The red blood washed away the black.

He’d lost a dangerous amount of blood, but with time and rest, he would survive that. I wasn’t sure about the poison.

When I was certain we’d gotten most, if not all, of the poison out of him, I picked up my shirt and stuffed it into the hole in Tucker’s back. It wasn’t a great bandage, but I could do something better for him later; now, I had to stop the bleeding.

When I finished, Ianto and I turned Tucker back over. We’d gotten at least most of the poison out, but his eyes darted back and forth while the rest of him remained unmoving.

Waving my hands, I opened a portal a few feet away. “Help me get him up,” I ordered Ianto.

I grabbed one side of Tucker and Ianto the other. With Tucker between us, we carried him into the portal.

Tucker’s eyes flicked over the trees we walked beneath. The sun filtering through the leaves shifted across his pale features to create a patchwork of light and shadows over his features.

I buried the uneasy feeling in my belly as I stared at my unmoving friend. We’d gone through hell together and somehow survived. I couldn’t lose him now.