Page 81 of Coerced

“Here, Gigi.” John sat down on her other side. “Cry on me for a bit. Don’t need to torture Kerry so much when I can’t do much else right now. We’ll lean on each other. Besides, we don’t need a guard with that shield wall.”

I went over to Rome and saw his color was good and his breathing seemed regular.

“How’s his heartbeat, Dragon?”

“Good. And he doesn’t feel too warm or too cold.” Travis shrugged. “We used duct tape to close up the gouges on his arm and chest. I don’t want to be around when he has to take it off, but it’ll stop the bleeding and hold his skin together. There’s a large knot on his head, but it isn’t bleeding. I saw how that beast tossed him, though. He may have busted some ribs.”

He gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the top of his head with one hand.

“I swear, the next set of books I check out are going to be on first aid. I feel so pathetically ignorant. It’s a new feeling for me.”

“Aw, you did fine. We can ask him about his ribs when he wakes up.” I turned back to John. “Okay, we need to set your nose before it swells anymore. Trust me on that.”

Gigi wiped her face and sat up, then looked at John’s face.

“It does look awful.” She bit her bottom lip.

“Okay. Do it, Kerry.”

“Me?” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I dunno if I can …”

“Come on. Travis and Gigi don’t know how. It’s up to you.”

You can do this. You can touch John’s face. You can make that choice.

“It’s gonna hurt.” I knelt in front of him. “You may get dizzy or wanna spew. Please don’t spew on me.”

“I’ll do my best to miss.”

I put my hands along his nose and felt around.

“On three?” His black eyes were wide.

“Sure. One, two—”

Snap!I pushed with my thumb.

“Ow!”

“What happened to three?” Gigi demanded.

I shrugged a shoulder and examined John’s nose, then let go of his face and leaned back on my heels.

“Good and straight now. Don’t touch it any more than you have to or you’ll knock it outta place again. Wish we had some ice.”

He started to nod, but slowly slid sideways, his eyes rolling back into his head. I caught his shoulders and lowered him down to the ground.

“Travis, Gigi, can one of you find something to wrap around this gash on his forehead?” I scanned the area again. “I wanna have a look around.”

They closed in on John and I stood up and studied the wall I’d made. The outside glittered with silver and I realized I’d put electrocution on it.

Gotta slow my roll ’fore I kill someone I might regret.

I took a deep breath and the wall around us slowly disintegrated, bits and pieces floating off in the air.

Someone had gathered all of our camping stuff, backpacks, and the two bow cases and made a neat pile on the ground next to Rome. Travis and Gigi musta gone through some of them for first aid supplies. My “go bag” was open, which was where they probably found the duct tape. At least, Clem had packed a new roll in it.

I went through the field for about thirty minutes and returned with Chance’s wallet, one of the yellow blankets the demons had used, and Maddy’s bow, which was broken. I carried it back anyway and put it in its case. Maybe it could be repaired. Then I laid the arrows and the demon blanket next to the other stuff and slipped Chance’s wallet into my coat pocket for now.

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