Page 19 of Twisted Empire

We had to make sure they didn’t make it to the door to follow her.

I threw myself even more into the battle, the pound of my heart egging me on more than unnerving me now. Every swing of the baton and every body I struck down was one more act to keep Maddie safe and fend off the pricks who thought they could hurt all of us.

My leg didn’t once wobble beneath me. I whacked and bashed alongside the other guys with rhythmic rasps of breath until more cars and vans roared into view beyond the fray.

Beckett’s reinforcements had arrived.

A grin sprang to my face, and I shoved away a man who’d hurtled toward me. Spinning around, I clocked him right across the forehead. My grip tightened around my baton, exhilaration and renewed strength surging through my body.

It didn’t matter that my limbs weren’t quite as whole as the other guys’ or that my prosthetic put me at a potential disadvantage. I was giving the fight my all and holding my own.

We weren’t going to let the real bad guys win. Not today.

CHAPTEREIGHT

Madelyn

Staring at the bodies sprawled across the terrain around the barn, I couldn’t help trying to tell myself that they weren’t dead. They were just unconscious. Knocked out or fainted from their injuries, but there was still a chance…

The attempt wasn’t convincing even to myself. Blood splattered most of those bodies. A few within my view were gazing at nothing with eyes that never blinked.

Death was all around. I only hoped that most of them were Doom’s Seed’s people and not Beckett’s.

“It’s… it’s a mess,” Logan said roughly from where he was standing beside me.

I hugged myself. “At least the four of you made it through okay. And I’ll try to make sure that as many other people do as I possibly can as well.”

Beckett hustled over with a plastic first aid box brought in one of the cars of reinforcements. “Here,” he said. “I can show you who we need to patch up. The doctor we have on staff is on his way, but you’re the only person on site right now with significant medical experience.”

I nodded stiffly and pushed myself into motion. I knew I wasn’t a doctor or even a nurse, but Ihadbeen training for this kind of work for years. If I could save even one life or at least a limb, what better time to start putting my studies into real practice?

As Beckett motioned for me to follow him, two of his men walked past us, hauling one of those blankly staring corpses. They tossed it into the back of a van. My stomach lurched.

I tried to focus on Beckett, but my gaze veered to a man slumped on the ground whose entire skull had been blasted open down to his bearded jaw. A horrified squeak escaped me.

Then Beckett was there, gripping my chin to pull my gaze to him. I met his solemn gray eyes, my pulse rattling through my veins.

“This is how my line of work goes sometimes,” he said. “Not very often, thankfully. And I never like it when it does. But I swear to you, we only kill when it’s that or be killed ourselves. I’d rather you’d stayed back at the house and not had to see all this.”

I squared my shoulders, willing down my nausea. “No, it’s okay. I asked to be here—I wanted to help, and I still do.” And I could do something no one else here right now could.

Beckett pressed a quick kiss to my forehead and led me the rest of the way to a man who was leaning against the tire of a pickup truck. He was clutching his arm in front of him, blood still seeping from wounds in his shoulder and forearm. I had the impression someone had sliced him open with a knife.

“He’ll probably need stitches,” I said, crouching next to him on the trampled grass. “And to have the wounds properly cleaned first. I don’t think I can do a good enough job with this.” I waved the kit.

“The doctor can handle the most serious parts,” Beckett said. “Can you stop the bleeding for the time being?”

I pulled out a roll of gauze and a couple of thicker pads from the kit. “I think so.” I focused on the man in front of me. “Can you lift up your arm a little so I can wrap it?”

The guy hesitated and then glanced up at Beckett. Beckett offered him a gentle smile. “She knows what she’s doing. She’s studying to be a doctor herself.”

At his reassurance, the man visibly relaxed. What Beckett said meant that much to him—he trusted his boss without question.

That was the kind of man I’d fallen for: the kind who ruled through respect rather than fear. Who cared about everyone working under him rather than seeing them as game pieces on a board.

He was a good leader, and he didn’t deserve to be in this situation. In this war that was brewing in a large part because of the way the Vigil guys and I had enraged Doom’s Seed by investigating my dad’s murder.

Grimacing at that thought, I swabbed the man’s arm and shoulder with rubbing alcohol, apologizing when he hissed at the sting, and wrapped both wounds as tightly as I could. When no blood made it through to the outer layer of gauze, I let out my breath in relief.

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