Page 17 of Helsing: Demon Slayer (The Dragon’s Paladins #1)
E xcept for Germaine’s soft moaning, silence gripped the interior of the Range Rover, whose acoustics shut out sounds from the engine and road.
Or rather, her friend’s moaning and Dianne’s pounding heartbeat, but she was pretty sure that only she could hear that .
It amplified Germaine’s pain against a rushing background of white noise.
Dianne glanced down at Germaine’s thigh on the seat next to her, unable to keep her gaze from the glistening white bone protruding through the flesh of her best friend’s bare thigh.
Hot acid burned the back of her throat at the sight.
She swallowed hard, trying not to get sick.
They didn’t need the contents of Dianne’s stomach spewed onto the SUV’s luxury leather while they raced for their lives from the hellish scene behind them.
She dragged her gaze back up and caught Ryan watching her. The myriad cuts on his face had stopped bleeding, except for one high on his cheekbone. Dianne had the insane urge to rise up onto her knees and swipe her thumb across it.
“We’ll stop as soon as we’re clear of the harbor,” he said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. “Markos has extensive battlefield medical training.”
The dark-haired man in the front passenger seat shifted and looked over his shoulder, but Dianne only saw the side of his face.
“Don’t worry. It looks worse than it is.
” Despite his reassuring tone, Dianne saw a look pass between him and Ryan.
“I’ll give her some morphine. She won’t feel anything for the rest of the trip. ”
The driver threw a glance over his shoulder. “How’d it happen?” he asked in a gritty voice, his eyes meeting Dianne’s in the rearview mirror.
“One of those—those—” Dianne couldn’t bring herself to say daemon regardless of the evidence. “He broke it with his hands.” She heard the disbelief in her voice.
The driver whistled. “Damn! Know how strong you’d have to be to do that? Her leg’s not that big, but the femur is the strongest, densest bone in the body.”
Despite his words, he didn’t sound all that rattled.
Dianne wanted to scream. Instead, she struggled to push her rising anxiety down. For a moment, it strangled her until she managed to shove it into a hidden well inside her chest she didn’t even know existed. Something, a lid, a door, slipped into place and contained it.
She inhaled and looked out the window next to her at the glistening Adriatic. How was it that the sun still shone? Shouldn’t it be covered with black swarms of locusts? Shouldn’t the cerulean water be transformed into blood red?
Then she looked back at Ryan, who was still watching her. “I suppose this is all just another day on the job for you? You’ve probably seen worse injuries on the battlefield.”
He didn’t sugarcoat his answer. “A lot worse.”
“Are they—those people back there—are they dead?” she asked, her trembling voice barely above a whisper. “The people on the cruise ship, too?”
Ryan lifted a shoulder, careful not to jostle Germaine, whom he cradled within the protective cage of his arms. For a painful moment, acute envy twisted in Dianne, but she squashed it ruthlessly.
“I don’t know,” he said, a shadow across his gaze that had nothing to do with the glare as they drove east.
“Does that mean you’ve never seen this—this behavior—before?
” asked Dianne, icy terror shooting to the pit of her stomach.
In that instant, she realized that she’d unconsciously believed that this massive warrior, who’d saved her life several times in the past twelve hours, knew what they faced and how to overcome it.
“Not in the civilian population, not to this extent, no.”
“What happened to those men? The ones in front of the bus station. You know ….” Her voice trailed off. Another thing she couldn’t bring herself to say: the ones who’d been cremated before our eyes .
“We deployed some gnats,” said the driver. “Once those babies lock onto your frequency, you can’t shake ’em. But that’s never happened before. Only time I’ve seen anyone go up in a ball of fire, one of the Elioud laid hands on him. It must be a glitch.”
“Or an upgrade,” said Markos.
“Whatever,” said the driver grinning at the medic. “Would’ve liked to have some in the Teams. Bin Laden would never’ve known what hit ’im before he went up in a humongous ball of fire.”
“One of them survived,” said Ryan in a grim voice. As he said this, Germaine uttered a sharp gasp and moved restlessly, muttering, almost as if she relived her leg being broken in her unconscious state.
Dianne shivered, remembering the cold malice radiating from the ruined visage of the man who’d clearly been the leader. Unlike the others, he’d been completely rational.
And he wanted to kill them.
They stopped fifteen minutes later at a large mall off the highway. It was still early on a Saturday morning in July, so the parking lot was largely empty. Their driver parked the Range Rover in a spot on the far side before he and Markos got out and ran to the rear.
By that time, Germaine had come around and grown vocal. Babbling hysterically, she slapped at Ryan as he opened the door behind him. When he moved to get out, she grabbed onto the SUV’s window frame with both hands, her voice rising in a near shriek.
Ryan shot a look at Dianne. “A little help, please. It will go better for her—and us—if she calms down so Markos can take a look at her leg. We can’t stay here long.”
Dianne nodded. Wordlessly, she opened her own door and stepped down, her knees buckling as her feet touched asphalt. If Markos hadn’t returned to take her hand, she would have fallen. As it was, she swayed into him.
“Easy there,” he said, smiling down as he steadied her, before leading her to the rear where Ryan had carried the still-writhing Germaine.
Dianne forgot her own unsteadiness as her heart went out to her best friend, who must be in unimaginable agony.
Letting Markos’s hand go, she stepped forward and reached for Germaine, who managed to strike Dianne in the face with one of her fists.
Her head snapped back, starbursts of light filling her vision.
At this assault, Ryan, who’d done nothing to protect himself until now, set Germaine into the back of the SUV before grabbing both of her wrists.
“Enough!” he barked. “We can leave you here in this parking lot with a call to the locals. Or you can get control of yourself and let my medic take care of you.”
Germaine responded to the clear note of authority in Ryan’s tone. Blinking rapidly, she held her eyes wide and looked around them as if realizing where she was.
Dianne took the opening to step closer and put her hand on her friend’s upper back. “Germaine, I’m right here with you. You’re safe.” She looked at Ryan. “Can you give her some of that chocolate? It’ll help, won’t it? If nothing else, it’ll distract her while Markos does something for her leg.”
Ryan shook his head. “Negative. She’s in shock. Markos will start an IV to get her fluids. You can have some chocolate and water, however.”
Dianne felt a spurt of disappointment. He’d said the chocolate had healing properties. When she’d awakened this morning, all of her injuries were gone, and thick hair had already sprouted on the bald batch.
Ryan directed a pointed glance at the driver. “Barts, get her both.” Then he spoke to the waiting medic. “Markos, give the injured woman a morphine shot now .”
Both men moved with alacrity to follow Ryan’s orders. It was clear who was in charge.
Dianne accepted a chocolate bar and a bottle of water before crossing her arms. She watched as Markos pulled out an epidermic needle and administered the powerful narcotic.
Almost immediately, Germaine relaxed into Ryan’s arms. He and Markos eased her onto her back on the flat area created when the driver folded down one of the third-row seats.
Ryan turned to Dianne. “You need to eat and drink that.”
“I will,” she said, not taking her gaze from her friend while Markos bandaged Germaine’s thigh and the driver started an IV bag.
She felt Ryan shift closer to her.
“I mean it,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“Regardless, eat the damn chocolate, Markham.” Saying this, he began running his large hands over her shoulders and down her arms.
Sharp irritation shot through Dianne, taking her by surprise. She whirled, forcing Ryan to take a step back.
“I said I’m fine. You’re the one who’s bleeding.” She gestured wildly toward the oozing cut on his cheekbone. “I bet you’re black and blue from the way those monsters were beating you.”
Her voice broke on monsters and began to waver with unshed tears, making her even more irritated. Why couldn’t she be as cool and collected as he was?
Ryan dropped his hands and narrowed his eyes. “That’s irrelevant, Markham. It’s my job to protect you.”
“Is it your job to die for me?”
“Yes.”
Dianne’s jaw dropped. She’d dated men who weren’t even willing to compromise on where to sit in a movie theater, let alone risk bodily harm for her. She had no idea what to do with this blunt acknowledgment.
Ryan’s gaze traveled to a point over her head. “Go for Demon Slayer,” he said.
Dianne sidled closer. For the second time since they’d left the ship, she heard her sister’s voice, taut, sharp-edged, and vibrating with the strain of command, in her ear. “Sitrep, Demon Slayer.”
She was attempting to parse that foreign word when Ryan said, “Your sister is fine, Aerie Actual. Grimes, however, sustained a full fracture to her left femur. Unless you’ve got angels on standby, I need a medevac yesterday.”
He appeared to listen before responding, “Copy that.” Then he looked down at Dianne. “You’re in luck. Your brother-in-law will extract us by helicopter. We’ll rendezvous somewhere along the highway.”