Page 19 of Blade's Battle
He heard the whoosh of the bullet a fraction of a second before it ripped into his shoulder. The force threw him backward.
“Got one!” a man shouted from up ahead.
“Wrong one!” another shouted.
Blade pushed through the pain and rolled onto his side. There, a quarter-mile upstream, a man in the trees with a rifle. The silver patch on the man’s black fatigues identified him as WSSO. Fuck, The World Shifter Suppression Organization was in Drake’s territory. Were they on their way back to Damien’s land, or were they targeting Drake now? Either way, it wasn’t good news.
The glint of sun off caught Blade’s eye. There, roughly two hundred yards to the right of the first man was his partner. That’s assuming there were only two, that is.
Two hands grabbed Blade under his arms from behind. Anna’s sweet scent soothed his wolf, but not Blade. She was dragging him toward the river. Was she trying to drown him?
A bullet bit into a tree right past him. Anna screamed and yanked his injured shoulder, desperately pulling at him.
The pain nearly made Blade pass out. He tried shifting. His stupid wolf picked a hell of a time to fight him. Then again, given the location of the bullet in his shoulder, maybe his wolf knew he’d be better off in human form, at least until he got the bullet out.
Blade reached up to grab Anna, to stop her from pushing him into the river. Another bullet rang out, hitting the dirt near his head this time. That was too damn close. With a grunt and a shove against his ribs, she rolled him off the bank, plunging him into the icy water.
A barrage of bullets rang overhead, but nothing came close to hitting him. Before the current could sweep him too far, he grabbed hold of some brush overhanging the bank. He’d lost sight of the men, an outcropping of rocks shielded him from them and their guns.
Anna had pushed him out of the line of fire.
As another gunshot echoed through the woods, Blade heard a loud splash not far behind him. He turned around in time to see red flannel sink into the water. He waited and waited. Anna wasn’t surfacing.
Blade dove beneath the water, his arm a dead, useless weight at his side. In the crystal clear water, he spotted her immediately. Her foot was wedged between two rocks on the riverbed.
Air bubbles—way too many air bubbles—sailed past him as Anna tried to free herself. She was panicking. By the time Blade reached her, he had to surface for air. Quickly, he dove back under and pulled on her caught foot as hard as he could. He knew until the day he died, he’d never forget the terror in her eyes.
Fuck!He didn’t have any leverage and her foot was really wedged in there. When he broke through the water for more air, a bullet struck the water by his head. He swam to the shoreline, found a branch and dove back under.
Anna had stopped struggling. Her long hair floated around her, partially covering her eyes. Eyes that were open and not blinking. Very few air bubbles escaped her now. Blade slipped the branch between the rocks and pushed down with everything he had. The rock lifted, freeing her. One-handed, Blade grabbed her by her shirt and kicked as hard as he could.
As they broke the surface, a volley of bullets struck the water near them. He had no time for those bastards! Anna wasn’t breathing! Blade pulled Anna under the rock overhang, leaned her head back and started mouth to mouth. Within a few breaths, she choked and spit up water. Blade kept her above the water, but his legs were tiring fast from bobbing, despite the relatively calm current in the small inlet.
Gasps for air soon eased and turned into sobs as he pulled her in against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” She said between sobs.
More gunfire echoed through the region. Blade was shaking. The shock, the reality of almost losing her was hitting him now that the immediate crisis was past.
He cupped Anna’s cheek. “Focus, Anna. We have to get out of here.”
She nodded, even as she fought for control over her crying, and he resisted the instinct to pull her into his arms.
Ah, hell. Despite everything, she was the sweet woman he’d rescued from Drake’s only yesterday. When he had returned with the branch, her eyes open andlifeless, he had never been so scared in his life. Whatever else happened, no matter what she’d done in the past, Blade knew he couldn’t let anyone harm his Anna.
Chapter Four
BLADE
Blade and Anna swam downstream for at least an hour, as far as they could go with the protection of the rocks. The WSSO mercenaries who had tried to kill them hadn’t shot at them in a long time. Most likely they’d lost them, but the men would follow the river. Blade and Anna needed to exit soon and get as far from the river as they could.
“Here,” Blade said when they reached a bend in the river that wasn’t rife with rocks. It made for an easy exit which they both needed. He barely had enough energy to climb out, but he grabbed onto her by her shirt, to keep her from slipping back into the water. Her lips were turning blue, and she looked as exhausted as he felt.
The men had been after her. Blade would never forget what he’d heard after he’d been shot. “Wrong one!”The WSS had been targeting Anna. Blade wanted to ask Anna about why the WSSO might be after her. She’d given them what they needed for that damn virus. None of this made sense, but Anna hadn’t said a word; she’d retreated into herself.
Blade crashed onto the riverbank, unable to take another step. He couldn’t use his shifter abilities to heal as long as that bullet remained inside him.
Anna collapsed on her knees next to him. Wet curls tumbling about her shoulders and that cursed shifter’s flannel shirt clinging to her body. She was a vision though, no matter what she wore. He hadn’t even noticed she had blonde hair until now. He’d rescued her in the dark and all those hours carrying her in broad daylight, she’d had so much dirt and mud caked in her hair that he’d never considered it was other than brown. The river had washed away all the grime. If only it could wash away her past as well. Hers and his.
