Page 74 of Ellie 3

“I didn’t even get to try,” she mumbled before swiping my phone. “Dr. Carpenter, this is Ha-yun, Ha-joon’s sister. We are en route with Ellie. One gunshot wound to her upper right chest.”

“Put me on speaker,” he told her.

She did and I told him specifically where the wound was and what else I was sensing.

“Alan, it’s fine,” Ellie promised. “The bullet is still inside and it hurts less than a sword.”

I wasn’t the only one who looked at her like she was nuts. It was then I realized what she was trying to do. “Stop trying to dig out your own fucking bullet!”

“Driving here,” the cop reminded me.

Right, yeah. Shit.

“It will hurt worse if it heals over,” Ellie argued as I held her wrists in one of mine and kept pressure on her wound.

I opened my mouth to tell her that there was no chance of the entry wound healing over in such a short amount of time, but she opened her eyes and gave me a look to listen to her. Fine, I wouldn’t beat her ass. “We’re almost there and Alan will have the good pain meds so just behave.”

“Yes, my Alpha,” she chuckled.

It felt like seconds and also forever until we reached the hospital. People were waiting when we arrived and helped get Ellie out of the vehicle and onto a gurney without jostling her too much.

“No, you’re not getting involved,” Alan said as he blocked me from following them.

“You’re just as much her family and shouldn’t—”

“I know that, but I can’t shift,” he muttered. “Besides, Ellie knows what she’s doing. It will take us just a bit and she’ll be in a room. I promise.”

“What does that even mean?” I snarled, but he was already hurrying off. “That doesn’t make any fucking sense!”

“It does if you’re old enough,” one of the officers who had helped with the convoy said, holding his hands up in surrender when I turned on him.

“He’s right,” Da said from my right, moving his hand to my shoulder. “I’ve seen vamps make that move a dozen times. It’s their training.”

I spun on him. “To get shot in the shoulder? Are you having a laugh?”

“No, she learned it with swords,” he sighed. “She’s been trained. They train to take the nonvital hit to disarm their opponent. If others could be injured—to save innocents, they take the hit—” He was struggling with how to explain it.

The officer moved Da aside and showed me he was holding his taser and it wasn’t ready to be used, but as an example. He waited until I nodded that I understood he was demonstrating. “If I fire and others are around, I could miss. If you move closer, the chances of me missing are less, right?”

“She shoved me out of the way,” I whispered, already knowing she’d done it to protect me. I caught on when he moved closer. “She rushed him or pulled him closer so the gun went off in her shoulder and there was less chance of the bullet going through to hit someone else. In his shock, she disarmed him and snapped his neck.”

“Yes, and she iswell-trainedto do that while injured,” the officer praised. “Shock gave her a few moments too, but—it’s a badass move that a lot of us over a century know. I did it once only because kids were around, but I startled the guy and he lost his hold on the gun. It happens with swords as well because—sometimes people are so used to sparring they’re not—”

“Their instinct is to pull back when they see something like a mistake in a fight,” I mumbled. I patted his shoulder. “Thanks, mate. I’m still going to encase her fine ass in bubble wrap, but I appreciate the explanation.”

One of the security offered to park my vehicle once Da gave him the keys and I thanked him. Ha-yun had only a bit of blood on her and waved off my offer for a change of clothes and just went to the bathroom. I grabbed what I had in my surgical locker and changed.

Alan was heading towards my family when I returned. “I told you it would be fast. She’s fine and doped up. Asking for you and if you’re going to dump her because you were yelling.”

The sigh I let out was probably heard around Atlanta. “Where is she?”

He told me the room number and said to bring my family with. I didn’t understand that, but he seemed worried as he hurried off.

“We were the target?” Da asked. “Or you? Our family?”

“I have no idea, Da,” I admitted as I quickened my pace to the room, my parents and siblings right in step with me.

“There’s my handsome Alpha,” Ellie greeted with a loopy smile. She was propped up on pillows and her right arm in a sling. “Good thing Sean is a good guy and let us take extra blood, huh?”

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