Page 114 of As the World Falls

A third man wearing a triple-faced mask lunges toward me with a gun in his hand. I raise mine, and he freezes and backtracks. I shoot, catching his left arm as he races back into the crowds of people, disappearing into them.

I stagger on my knees, falling forward. I balance myself on my left hand, keeping myself upright as much as possible. Blood pours into the grass around me, and all I can do is breathe in relief at the two men lying still across from me. One of them was for sure dead, and the other would be very soon if I got my way.

“Oh my god. James,” I hear Cecilia shout behind me. I feel her close now as she drops to her knees and pulls me against her. I weakly fall into her waiting arms. It was thankfully just my shoulder, but it hurt like a mother fucker, and I was losing a little more blood than I’d like. “Tobias, he’s been shot,” she screeches.

She’s rambling in a panic, and I can feel her heart thumping madly in her chest. I reach my hand down, tangling my fingers into hers. “It’s okay, babe. Calm down. It’s just a scratch.”

She looks down at me with glassy eyes, pulling me closer to her chest. “You have a fucking hole in your shoulder, James. Don’t tell me to calm down.”

I think I was becoming delirious, either from the pain or blood loss. Maybe I was coming down from my adrenaline rush because I could only smile at her. “But you’re okay, right?”

Tears stream down her cheeks as she nods at me. “I’m okay.”

“Okay, big guy,” I hear Tobias’s voice now. “Let’s get you out of here before someone sees what the hell you’ve done.”

“Whathe’sdone?” Cecilia shouts incredulously.

“No, he’s right. This isn’t good,” I mumble.

“You were defending yourself,” she yelps as Tobias lifts me from the ground, throwing my good arm over his shoulder and wrapping an arm around my back to keep me upright.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tobias grunts back. “We need to get out of here.”

“Let’s take him to the hospital,” Cecilia suggests.

“No,” we respond collectively.

“What the fuck is happening right now,” she mumbles in a daze, following us through the garden and out of the building. I look over my shoulder at her as I slump against her brother. I reach my fingers out toward her, and she stumbles forward, entangling hers in mine again. I didn’t like her being alone behind us. I needed to touch her.

Tobias looks down at our hands before turning away. “Fuck me,” he grumbles.

My limousine is waiting a few feet down the block, and Tobias practically drags my sorry ass to it and tosses me inside after letting his sister in first, per my request. I think he was being a little rough on purpose because he has an idea about me and Cecilia now. He was lucky he was at full advantage at the moment.

“We should really take him to the hospital,” Cecilia says again, to which we both respond no again.

Tobias opens a compartment, pulls out a first aid kit, and wraps my shoulder in gauze and bandage. “Lia, come put pressure on his shoulder,” he tells her.

She slides down the seat, placing her shaky hands on my shoulder and applying pressure. I hiss in pain, and she shoots me an apologetic smile. Tobias then pulls out a bottle of morphine and a needle from inside the kit, and Cecilia’s eyes manage to widen even further.

“Uh, how do you have that?”

“We always keep medications like this on hand in case of emergencies,” Tobias says plainly as he fills the syringe.

“Emergencies like this, I’m guessing?” she remarks sadly.

“Yup,” Tobias answers as he pulls my arm toward him.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” she asks, leaning over him.

He looks up at her with an irritated expression. “I know my way around needles and veins.”

“Oh…right,” she mutters, slumping back beside me.

I look over at her, squeezing her hand. “I also had him trained to do this.”

She nods. “Right, that makes sense.”

Tobias administers the morphine, and I’m feeling tons better by the time we make it to my city apartment. They help me inside, and I fall onto the couch as Tobias calls for my private doctor to meet us there. Cecilia sits down next to me, brushing my hair off my face.

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