Page 7 of Monster

“Let’s go, then,” Drake said, grabbing a pile of chain from the back of the pickup’s bed.He threaded it through the bars of the cage, narrowly missing a swipe of claws before Deacon grabbed it from the other side.

He handed the chains to Deacon before moving to the opposite end to help Jaeger lift. Deacon was stronger than the pair of them. He didn’t have pounds of molten metal scarring his back.

They wandered into the woods on the side of the road, lugging the cage along.

Hours passed. Drake’s body screamed. They walked on, ducking helicopters and jets as they passed overhead, searching for them. Day slowly turned into night. They stopped deep in the woods somewhere after midnight.

Deacon dropped to his knees and fell to the ground.

Drake rushed over to the dragon. “Deacon?”

“Something’s… wrong,” Deacon spat.“I don’t… feel… right.”

Drake frowned. During the fight, Deacon had narrowly escaped a huge caliber shot. Drake ran his hand down the man’s chest… and then felt it.

A wet spot.

He brought his hand up and saw it was covered with blood.

Lifting Deacon’s shirt, he saw the wound.It was festering and little veins of green were spreading out from around it. What the fuck?

“That bullet that grazed you… I think it had something on it.A poison of some kind.”

“Shifters are… immune,” Deacon mumbled.

“Immune or not… you’re not healing.”It had been nearly two days.More than enough time for Deacon to heal from a flesh wound. “We need to get you back to your people.”

“Sleep,” Deacon murmured.“I need a few minutes.”

Drake feared the dragon might not wake up if he slept, but without rest, it could make things even worse.Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. “Get some rest.I’ll keep watch.”He turned to Jaeger.“You, too.I caught a catnap in the truck.”

“He gonna be okay?” Jaeger asked, frowning.

“Hopefully,” Drake said, adding a smile a few seconds too late for it to really have the impact he’d hoped.

Jaeger brushed his hands down the sides of his pants before finding a spot to settle down on and get some much needed rest.

Drake rose to his feet and scouted the area around them to make sure there weren’t any hidden dangers they hadn’t sensed. Off in the distance, he heard the sound of helicopter blades approaching again.

This one was larger. He settled back against a tree and waited to see what came.It was an older Chinook, which was a transport vehicle, not a heavily armed combat helicopter like the Apaches he’d seen back and forth over the past two days.

The Chinook hovered low and moved slowly…

Drake frowned, sensing whoever was up there looking was searching for the needle in their haystack. He carefully worked his way through the trees and back to where he’d left the others behind. Using Jaeger’s move from before, he tossed a heavy leaved branch over the cage and made sure Deacon was under enough cover.

Even the beast had quieted; as if he sensed the danger they were in.

“They’re persistent.I’ll give them that,” Jaeger whispered.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” Drake said over one shoulder.

“As if someone could sleep with that racket.”

Drake stared down at Deacon’s blank face.He was enough in a bad way to sleep through the helicopter’s noise. That didn’t bode well.

He once again checked the wound at Deacon’s side, no idea what to do.Shifters healed fast enough that first aid wasn’t something they needed to take the time to learn, although he had enough common sense to figure out the basics.

Stop the blood flow.

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