“Fuck. I’m so good, I scare myself,” he sighed as the sound of screaming and crying reached him. He rounded the corner and found a girl face down, lying in a pool of blood.
“This reminds me of a weird porno I saw once…”
He gripped her by the waist of her slacks and pulled her up, setting her down one handed. She lay still. Before his eyes, her wounds began to close.
“Thank you…” she breathed into the floor.
“I’m guessin’ you’re Tally-Ho?”
“Talia…”
“That’s what I said. Look there’s some shit goin’ on…outside…” Lee waved his hand in the air as if trying to remember a subject that bored him. “And…you know…you gotta do somethin’? I think? I dunno. Whatever.”
“I have to…get the baby…”
“Well ya ain’t gonna do shit if ya sittin’ down are ya. Let’s go Tally Ho. Ha…” he said, picking her up by the arm. “That rhymed.”
*
Nick ran until he felt blood formulate in his throat as he coughed. He had no idea where he was, the mist was so thick, he had to resort to blind instinct only. Tynan’s men wouldn’t dare come in to chase him, he just had to hope he was near the tower. With a silent prayer, Nick used all the strength he had and leapt out from the mist and over Tynan and his forces. All he focused on was Nicole. He landed, on the side of the tower, perhaps thirty feet under her window. His nails dug into the concrete and he held on but unsteadily. The skin of his fingers tore and split easily as he dug his fingers in. He could feel the mist, whatever it was, seeping into his system. He was woozy but he held on. His clothes were soaked with blood from his wounds, and he coughed a huge glob of it right there onto the brick. He could feel himself blacking out. He knew that if he fell, he was done for. His powers had failed him, and the mist had had its desired effect except that perhaps, being a tenth generation, it had taken longer. Nick knew he had minutes to live. It broke his heart, as it would anyone’s, but Nick knew it was all about how you spent those minutes. All he could focus on was Nicole. With a huge effort, focusing on nothing but her shocked, tear streaked, beautiful face, Nick began to climb.
“Fire!” Tynan ordered. Nick looked back and down.
Alicia ran forward, screaming, “No! What are you doing? Take me! Kill me! You’ll hit the baby!” she screeched.
“I got what I needed. I said fire!” Tynan bellowed through a smile, “Bring the fucker down.”
His army unleashed a furious spray of bullets towards the stone structure, spraying cement and brick every which way. The bullet damage rose higher and higher, towards their target as Nick tried to rise faster.
He roared and gnashed his teeth as his back and shoulders were pierced and ripped through by hot lead. Nick felt his grip loosen. The skin of his fingers had been scraped down to the bone nub.
“Nick please…!” Nicole reached her hand out, lowering it for him. If he let go to grab it, he would fall. His legs were shaking from the pain, his eyes fluttering. Nicole screamed his name again, to wake him, but there was no help for it. Death had come for him. His body wouldn’t move. He had lost control of his muscles. More and more bullets sank into his back, so much so he threw his head back. He could feel himself leaning back, heading to the ground and then suddenly his face struck the concrete, and a hand was at his back pushing him forward. Nick looked at what had happened. A lean girl with dark hair had leapt onto the wall beside him, her silver eyes looking at him. One hand digging into the wall, and the other hand under his armpit.
She held him in her grip and dug in hard up the wall, helping his almost dead weight body. He heard the bullets firing, he could sense they struck her, but she kept climbing. She lifted him until Nicole could touch him and both women brought him inside through the window. Nicole sobbed over his body, kissing his forehead over and over again. Holding his head, rocking him gently. As wonderful as it was to finally see her, to be in her arms. There was one thing he wanted more.
“Let me see him…hold him…please,” Nick wheezed, referring to the child he could hear cry but couldn’t see.
Nicole sobbed and pressed her forehead against his, nodding as she did so. It was the unknown woman that spoke though, softly whispering, “I’ll get him.”
*
Talia picked the crying boy up and had to swallow her own tears. She slowly lowered herself down, trying not to focus too much on Nick’s appearance. Her half-brother was bathed in blood, lesions adorning so much of his visible skin. He was obviously in agony, yet all he wanted was one moment with his son. Just a minute to touch him. She didn’t know why he wouldn’t heal as she had. She could’ve tried to talk to him, to get to know him. Even just a few seconds. But she knew it was something she couldn’t
