Page 30 of Bradi

“She’s a woman.” Marisa pointed to Nina.

“She is certifiable and does not count. Her judgment is nonexistent and her ability to see truths is dismal at best. She believes lies and lets the others twist around truths.” Bradi snorted and shook his head. “Doc, tell me you’re smarter than this.”

“What are the others?”

“Pray you don’t find out,” he said.

Nina clapped her hands together and looked around at her men. “Enough, take them!”

Bradi knocked her back with his arm as two men lunged at him. He made quick work of them, sending them hurtling in the other direction. Two more charged him and one ran at her.

Marisa stared at the large man heading straight for her and let her instincts take over. She dropped down low and he just missed grabbing her. Swinging around, she knocked him hard in the back. For a minute, she thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her as she watched the man’s skin ripple beneath the two leather straps that covered his otherwise bare upper body. When fur sprouted all over his body, Marisa screamed.

“Doc?”

She turned to see Bradi’s attentions on her and not on the men attacking him. A man with a sword moved in fast behind him.

Vaguely, she heard Nina yelling something about disabling him but not killing him.

Bradi’s blue eyes widened and his jaw went slack. Clutching his stomach, Bradi fell to his knees. At first, Marisa didn’t understand what had happened. She hadn’t heard any weapons discharge. But when she saw the end of a silver blade sticking out from Bradi’s stomach, she knew.

“Bradi!” she screamed, running for him.

A furred arm grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She didn’t need to look behind her to know that a monster held her. Her concerns were no longer for herself. All that mattered was that Bradi was dying.

Bradi reached for her and she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. “Doc, I’m sorry—”

“Put me down! He needs me!”

Nina ran to Bradi’s side and looked up at her. “Can you help him?”

Marisa ceased to struggle. “What do you care? You ordered him attacked you bitch.”

“I ordered him taken, not seriously injured. We parted on bad terms, and one can never be too careful here.” Nina touched Bradi’s cheek lightly and looked back at Marisa. “He is my brother.”

The thing holding Marisa let her go and she ran to Bradi. Dropping to her knees, she assessed the situation quickly. He’d been run through by a sword and she could only guess how many internal organs were damaged. Bradi fell onto his side and reached out for her.

A man moved up behind him and grabbed hold of the sword.

“No!” Marisa shouted. Everyone looked at her. “If you yank that out before we get him somewhere that I can look at him, he’ll bleed to death.”

“Pheebes, back away,” Nina said, her order stern to the man who had run Bradi through with his sword.

“Yes, my lady.”

“We need to get him to a medical unit, fast. With the proper equipment, I might be able to repair the internal damage and stop the bleeding, but we haven’t got much time.”

“It will take us at least three hours to make it back to the compound, unless he is able to shift—”

Bradi reached out and touched Nina’s leg, cutting her words off in mid-sentence. “No! Don’t say it.”

Nina stared at him for several moments before glancing back at Marisa. “You don’t know, do you?”

“No, she doesn’t know,” Bradi said as he coughed. “Please, Nina…no.”

“She has a right to know, Bradiainn. If she truly loves you it won’t matter to her.”

Blood trickled out of the corner of Bradi’s mouth and his eyes locked on Marisa. “She does not love me.” His head hit the ground hard and his body went limp.

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