control like that. He'd always been the one guy you could
count on to keep his eye on the big picture, but his hands were
shaking as he tried to pull out the first roll of gauze from the
first-aid kit.
I shouldered
him to one side and started working as quickly as I could. The damage
wasn't quite as bad as I'd initially thought, but it was still
incredibly bad. Somehow the claws that had opened up her chest cavity
had managed to miss any of the really major arteries, but she'd
already lost a ton of blood.
"Hold
pressure there and there, Ash, or she'll bleed out before I can get
enough of the smaller arteries sewn shut for her to have any kind of
chance."
"This is
all my fault. I should have gone with a different plan, should have
kept us together instead of splitting us up like that."
There wasn't
time for Ash to fall apart on me. I finished tying off the artery I
was working on and then backhanded him hard enough to knock him to
the pavement.
"Pull
yourself together or she's as good as dead. It was a decent plan, a
good plan even. She knew the risks. All it would have taken is one or
two shots hitting the right spot and that guy never would have even
gotten within ten feet of her."
With someone
else I probably would have angered their beast enough that they
wouldn't have been able to stop themselves from attacking me, but
Ash's beast was weaker than most. He rolled back to his knees and
then crammed his hands inside her chest exactly as I'd ordered him
to.
"That was
risky."
I could hear
the anger in his voice, but for once my beast didn't rise to the
implied challenge. I couldn't help but smile as I tied off a second
blood vessel.
"More
dangerous than sliding between someone's feet and then shooting the
bad guy while your buddy is still in the line of fire?"
"I knew
you'd be there, just like you knew that I'd be there when you knocked
that first guy off balance and then locked up the second guy. It was
the last threat, you didn't have anything else to worry about but
him. I knew you were right behind me and it only made sense that
you'd deflect his attack away from me."
I wasn't good
at the tiny, delicate stitches you needed to hold broken arteries
together, but it was too late to do anything but keep going. A normal
person wouldn't even have been able to see well enough to have
operated under these circumstances, but my vision seemed just barely
up to the task. I hadn't ever realized before how much brighter the
life-glow was to fresh-spilled blood. It was faint when I was in
normal human form, but it still served as a softly glowing beacon
that told me exactly where I needed to go to find each torn vein or
artery.
"I'm just
glad that you didn't hit me with those last two shots."
"There was
almost no chance of that. I held the shot until you ducked and then I
took him in the head. Do you want me to try to tie up one of these?"
"No,
there's only the one needle that was pre-threaded. You'd need both
hands to thread it and get started. I'm not sure she can take that
much blood loss. I'm just about done here, keep the pressure on her
for a few more seconds and then I'll start on one of those. You have
any miracles in one of those packs?"
"We've got
a couple of saline bags, but that isn't going to do anything to keep
her blood oxygen level from crashing."
"No, but
it may be enough to keep her heart from stopping. Okay, move your
right hand now."
Under normal
circumstances the hole revealed as Ash got out of my way would have
gushed blood. It was the worst rip I'd tried to repair yet, but her
blood pressure was dropping to the point where there wasn't a whole
lot left for her to lose.
I got the first
stitch in place and started swearing under my breath as I realized
that I should have put an IV into her before we started on these last
two tears. It was too late to reverse course now; if we put pressure
back on the tear now we might rip the stitch out and make things even
worse. I had to just finish stitching her
count on to keep his eye on the big picture, but his hands were
shaking as he tried to pull out the first roll of gauze from the
first-aid kit.
I shouldered
him to one side and started working as quickly as I could. The damage
wasn't quite as bad as I'd initially thought, but it was still
incredibly bad. Somehow the claws that had opened up her chest cavity
had managed to miss any of the really major arteries, but she'd
already lost a ton of blood.
"Hold
pressure there and there, Ash, or she'll bleed out before I can get
enough of the smaller arteries sewn shut for her to have any kind of
chance."
"This is
all my fault. I should have gone with a different plan, should have
kept us together instead of splitting us up like that."
There wasn't
time for Ash to fall apart on me. I finished tying off the artery I
was working on and then backhanded him hard enough to knock him to
the pavement.
"Pull
yourself together or she's as good as dead. It was a decent plan, a
good plan even. She knew the risks. All it would have taken is one or
two shots hitting the right spot and that guy never would have even
gotten within ten feet of her."
With someone
else I probably would have angered their beast enough that they
wouldn't have been able to stop themselves from attacking me, but
Ash's beast was weaker than most. He rolled back to his knees and
then crammed his hands inside her chest exactly as I'd ordered him
to.
"That was
risky."
I could hear
the anger in his voice, but for once my beast didn't rise to the
implied challenge. I couldn't help but smile as I tied off a second
blood vessel.
"More
dangerous than sliding between someone's feet and then shooting the
bad guy while your buddy is still in the line of fire?"
"I knew
you'd be there, just like you knew that I'd be there when you knocked
that first guy off balance and then locked up the second guy. It was
the last threat, you didn't have anything else to worry about but
him. I knew you were right behind me and it only made sense that
you'd deflect his attack away from me."
I wasn't good
at the tiny, delicate stitches you needed to hold broken arteries
together, but it was too late to do anything but keep going. A normal
person wouldn't even have been able to see well enough to have
operated under these circumstances, but my vision seemed just barely
up to the task. I hadn't ever realized before how much brighter the
life-glow was to fresh-spilled blood. It was faint when I was in
normal human form, but it still served as a softly glowing beacon
that told me exactly where I needed to go to find each torn vein or
artery.
"I'm just
glad that you didn't hit me with those last two shots."
"There was
almost no chance of that. I held the shot until you ducked and then I
took him in the head. Do you want me to try to tie up one of these?"
"No,
there's only the one needle that was pre-threaded. You'd need both
hands to thread it and get started. I'm not sure she can take that
much blood loss. I'm just about done here, keep the pressure on her
for a few more seconds and then I'll start on one of those. You have
any miracles in one of those packs?"
"We've got
a couple of saline bags, but that isn't going to do anything to keep
her blood oxygen level from crashing."
"No, but
it may be enough to keep her heart from stopping. Okay, move your
right hand now."
Under normal
circumstances the hole revealed as Ash got out of my way would have
gushed blood. It was the worst rip I'd tried to repair yet, but her
blood pressure was dropping to the point where there wasn't a whole
lot left for her to lose.
I got the first
stitch in place and started swearing under my breath as I realized
that I should have put an IV into her before we started on these last
two tears. It was too late to reverse course now; if we put pressure
back on the tear now we might rip the stitch out and make things even
worse. I had to just finish stitching her
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