Page 38 of Eternal Light

“Emergency services.”

“Enigma alpha down in the rear lot of WRBY 88.1—high-powered GSW. Hurry.”

“Dispatching now.”

He hangs up and dials Finn, only to let the phone drop to the ground beside Jay’s pale face.

Gideon tries not to think about how he can hear Jay’s heart rate slowing to a few short, intermittent beats.

“Jay, come on,” Gideon whispers. “Stay.”

“Gid,” Jay whispers, and then his eyes slip closed.

Gideon wastes no time before starting chest compressions, using his knee to hold pressure on the wound.

One and two and three and four and five…ten…thirty…breath…breath…again.

Gideon can’t think about how this might be the last time he feels Jay’s mouth under his—or that there is blood on his hands, marking Jay’s t-shirt, or about Melody’s scream from behind him, or how her small hands take over putting pressure on Jay’s wound so he doesn’t bleed out while Gideon keeps Jay’s heart pumping.

When her sobs are replaced with the loud sirens from the ambulance pulling into the parking lot, rough hands are pushing him away, and his wolf rounds on the EMT with bared fangs.

She stumbles back but grits her jaw and tries again.

“Step back. I need to help your alpha.”

As he steps away, picking up his phone as it rings, he answers reflexively. Hadn’t he called Finn? He can’t remember.

His heart is pounding so hard he’s lightheaded; he bends at the waist but doesn’t take his eyes off his mate as the EMTs tear off Jay’s shirt so they can take over CPR and use the AED.

Jay jolts with shock, his body bowed up.

Three times, they go again…until the brave EMT from before says, “Yes! We got a shockable rhythm and a pulse. Breathing on his own now. Vitals are BP 60/35, heart rate 128, O2 88. Let’s get him stabilized and ready for transport.”

“You hear all that?” Gideon whispers, but Finn doesn’t say anything. “Meet us there.”

“Gid—” Finn starts, but Gideon disconnects. He can’t face them right now.

The fear roiling in his gut hasn’t lessened with the near miss. He’s not naïve enough to think Jay is in the clear.

Jay is rolled into the back of the ambulance, and it pulls away, sirens blaring and lights flashing.

As he’s climbing into the Buick, he catches Melody’s eye and gives her a nod of thanks.

She raises a bloody hand at her side in a wave to let him know she sees him. She intercepts the police, and Gideon lets them slip from his mind so he can follow the ambulance as close as he dares.

It’s not like they won’t show up at the hospital, eventually.

The entire trip to the hospital is made under full sirens, and as Gideon flies through the lights, tight to their bumper, he’s only thinking about Jay.

The moments before that bullet took Rhodes’s heart out of his chest play over and over again in his mind. He sees that last minute when Jay had changed places with his father—how that small dance for dominance had changed their places.

For one sickening second, Gideon sees that red bloom over Jay’s heart, not Rhodes’s, as the image sears itself into his mind.

It had been fucking chance. It hits him then—how he’d been a fucking fool. Why had they thought Carnell wasn’t dead fucking serious? They’d been so sure—he’dbeen sure—he’d have wanted Jay alive for leverage.

Except, when in Gideon’s life hadn’t Carnell wanted something to hurt as much as possible? To Gideon and Jay, that had meant separation and torture.

Not for the faint of heart, for sure. Even so, as long as Jay was alive, Gideon wouldn’t rest until he was free.