“Elena,” he croaked, forcing his eyes open. He twisted away from the light, propping himself with one arm.
I got tased, he realized dizzily, taking in the white room, the cold metal underneath him. The burning eased somewhat, pushed to the back by the panic, the need to find his girl.
His vision slowly adjusted, the light tolerable now, and he looked down at himself. No jacket or shoes, just his white dress shirt and pants. Wires clung to his fingers, the crook of his elbow, and he started pulling them off when he saw who was lying on another gurney beside him.
Elena was unconscious, her feet bare, her elegant dress rumpled. More wires and tubes stretched from her arms to a big machine between them, and her face…
It looked as white as marble. The air lodged in his throat.
He pushed himself off the gurney, his feet not obeying him as he stumbled toward Elena. The machine’s beeping sped up when he tore off the wires and patted her cheek, but she didn’t open her eyes.
“Wake up, wake up!”
Elena’s eyelids fluttered.
“Thank God,” he breathed. “Are you okay?”
Squinting up at him, she opened her mouth only to close it again without a word. Maybe her throat felt as parched as his.
He helped her up and pulled her from the gurney. Her eyes struggled to focus on him.
“We have to go, now. Before they return.” His gaze darted around the room, looking for a way out.
Only then did he notice rows and rows of gurneys with bodies and IV tubes and machines with screens and wires and God knew what else. What the hell is this place? His pulse beat like a drum, his heart threatening to explode from his chest.
“Dave,” Elena’s rasping voice pulled him out of his shock.
“What is it?” He leaned down to her, but she backed off. Her arm felt like ice, and she was swaying on her feet.
“I’m not feeling well,” she whispered.
“It’s okay. It’ll be all right, I promise. We just gotta get out of here and call someone.” He found his phone on a table nearby. No missed calls or messages. Someone had turned it off. “Here, I’ll carry you.”
Just as he pulled her into his arms, something banged behind him.
Dave whipped around, momentarily blinded by the lights again, but managed to make out an open door and a dark, blurry figure of a man inside it.
“Don’t shoot!” a frantic voice yelled somewhere behind that door. “We need him. Don’t shoot, you idiots.”
Before Dave could think, his feet pulled him to the left. He slammed into another door, forcing it open with his shoulder. A dimly lit corridor stretched on and on behind it, and Dave ordered his feet to move, step after step, until he reached a steel door.
Clutching Elena to his chest, he yanked at the handle and cursed. Locked.
He whirled, kicking at the door even as the voices back in the room kept talking. Cold, detached, as if they knew he couldn’t get away.
“What are you waiting for?” the angry voice snapped. A woman, Dave realized.
“Calm down, Victoria,” the other voice replied. “That’s a reinforced door. I want to see what he will do.”
Dave’s breath came out in quick gasps as he clenched his teeth against the burning that was getting worse by the second. Two figures showed at the opposite end of the corridor, dark against the light. They just stood there, watching. Watching him as he gripped Elena’s body and whispered, “The door’s locked. I need ideas, baby.”
She stirred, and he looked down, only to freeze. Her shaking fingers reached up and brushed a trickle of blood from under her nose.
He began, “Are you—”
Another trickle came out of her other nostril, and Dave could only stare, the door, the people across the corridor forgotten.
Elena’s eyes widened as she saw the blood on her hand, felt more of it pour from her nose and down her cheek. “Dave, I…”
“It’s all right.” His lips moved of their own accord, and he wiped the blood with his hand. “It’s going to be all right.”
But she choked and twisted in his arms, another trickle of blood coming out of her mouth.
Dave’s heart seized in horror. It was not going to be all right, he knew it then with terrifying certainty. He was stuck here, with the enemy surrounding him and Elena bleeding out in his arms. Helpless, powerless human, as he’d always been.
She could heal though. His thoughts sped up at the idea, relief giving him strength to cup her head and turn it back to him. Yes, she could heal, if only he could get away and give her time.
“Elena—”
Her whole body seized, her eyes and mouth flying wide open as she grasped his shirt. Dave collapsed to the floor with her convulsing in his arms, trying to hold her still, to calm her down, clueless, useless as her back arched and her nails dug into his skin.
Then she went limp, her dead weight pinning Dave to the floor, her face a mask of smeared blood and her eyes unseeing.
He drew a strangled breath, the heat in his veins scorching, unbearable—
The world exploded in a flash of light.
Chapter 9
Pain sighed and tapped her fingers against the armrest, looking around the room. Unlike the backup infirmary on the ground floor, the main one had a waiting room, where old armchairs and couches went to die. She scratched at a cigarette burn in the wood just as the infirmary door swung open, but it was
