Page 58 of Wicked Deeds

She straightened, still gasping in pain, and I saw the gaping slice in her forearm.

I didn’t have much more time to think anything but ‘long’ and ‘bad’ before blood started to well out of the wound and my attention shifted from Gwen’s state of mind to ‘shit, stop the bleeding’.

I grabbed a napkin, realized it was heavy paper not fabric, and swept everything off the table so I could use the tablecloth instead. I wrapped it around Gwen’s forearm and applied pressure.

“Gwen, can you lift your arm a little?”Slow the blood flow. I have to slow the blood flow. The first aid lessons Mitch had insisted I have had apparently stuck in my brain. “Gwen. Liftyour arm, it will help stop the bleeding,” I repeated, tapping her elbow gently when she didn’t immediately obey.

She blinked at me, her blue eyes huge, her face white. She was biting her lip hard enough I was surprised it wasn’t bleeding, too.

Shock. Which might be useful for a minute or two. Because once it wore off, her arm was going to hurt like a motherfucker.

But she lifted her arm. I needed something to support it, so she could keep it there but I didn’t want to release the pressure. The tablecloth was already turning red. “Stay calm. Deep breaths. Close your eyes and focus on just breathing, okay. Help is on its way.”

As though to prove my point, Maia reached us at a run, barking orders over her shoulder.

Rufus was close on her heels.

“Maggie, what the hell happened?” he asked.

“I don’t know, the light, I think.” I tipped my head back to inspect the lights. Sure enough, there was a gap in the row. “One of them fell. Or exploded. I’m not sure.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“There’s glass in your hair,” Maia said, her dark eyes sweeping over me. “Are you sure you’re not cut?”

Nothing hurt. And I couldn’t feel anything damp in my hair like I might be bleeding. “I’m fine. Let’s focus on Gwen.”

“An ambulance is on its way,” Maia said. “Five minutes out.”

She dropped a backpack at my feet. The emergency kit one of them usually carried. All our cars carried a first aid kit capable of treating most things from bullet wounds down. They even had antidotes to common poisons and pathogens. Which was why Mitch had insisted on me learning to use most of them.

“Keep pressure on it until I tell you to stop,” Maia said to me. “Rufus, take off your jacket, put it under Gwen’s arm.” She kept talking to the three of us while she pulled supplies from the kit.

I focused on doing as I was told, trying to ignore the still spreading blood stain on Gwen’s makeshift bandage. My own breathing had gone shallow and I tried to slow it down. Fainting wasn’t going to help anyone.

“Maggie, I’m going to need you to let go. Gwen, this might hurt,” Maia said.

I removed my hands. They were stained with blood, too red under the lights, and my vision went spotty for a few seconds. Maia moved with speed and precision, no wasted movement, undoing the tablecloth and re-bandaging the wound with actual bandages, all the while talking to Gwen softly.

I closed my eyes for a minute, trying to fight off the shakiness from the adrenaline rush.

“Maggie,” Damon said, softly.

I opened my eyes. He was standing at the end of the booth closest to me. “I’m okay,” I said. I clenched my hands shut, not wanting to see the blood.

Damon noticed, his eyes darkening with concern. “Are you sure? I’ll cancel the rest of the meet and greet and come with you to the hospital.”

Hospital. Right. Gwen would need stitches, if not surgery. She was even paler, her eyes still closed, but she was responding when Maia asked her questions.

Where was the damned ambulance?I sucked in a breath.Get it together, Maggie.I was fine. Gwen was not. But she would be. And if Damon stayed, we wouldn’t wake up to headlines about explosions at Decker’s disrupting the night. It was just a freak accident. Nothing newsworthy.

“No,” I said firmly. “You stay here and finish up, if the team thinks it’s safe. It was an accident. I’ll be fine at the hospital.”

No doubt his team would be scrambling to search the place for threats, but there’d been no follow up to the light. No other explosions or attacks. And it had exploded over Gwen, not him. Barely anyone knew she was in the city. If Usuriel had spotted her and decided to take her, she’d be gone. I couldn’t have stopped him on my own. There was absolutely no reason to think anyone else would target her. It was a bad bulb and bad timing.

Damon stood his ground, the muscles in his jaw tightening as he stared down at me.

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