Page 42 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
Finally, Ryan said in a quiet voice, “That explains a lot.”
Dianne glanced at him before staring straight ahead, her heart beating so fast she thought it would break out of her chest. She felt vulnerable, exposed in a way she couldn’t explain. Somehow Ryan understood her. She said nothing else, and Ryan didn’t press her for more.
After several moments, he continued as if she hadn’t just unloaded too much information on him—TMI as her friends would say, laughing. “By the way, how did you get me into this seat?”
She glanced again at Ryan, now studying his cellphone. “A couple of guys came along, from the local church, I think, and moved you.”
“Lucky for us,” he said, giving her a critical look. But he didn’t say anything else. Instead, he held the phone up and squinted at the black screen while squeezing his thumb on the power button on the side. The screen remained blank.
“Damn.”
“What? Forgot to charge your phone on the ship?”
Ryan shook his head. “No, I never forget that.”
He reached back for his backpack, dragging it into his lap before pulling out a black cord from the front pocket. He plugged it into the USB port on the console.
Dianne waited, dread crawling down her back.
Finally, Ryan sat upright. “The battery’s not empty. The phone has been fried by the massive harmonic disruption this morning. Looks like we’re incommunicado until we get to Shkodër. Better hope we don’t cross paths with anydaemonson the way.”
His hard gaze caught and held hers. “Because I’m not exactly up for a firefight.”
And saying this, he held up his hand to show her his side where blood had soaked his black T-shirt and pants all the way down to his ankles.
Twelve
Diannegasped.“Oh,myGod!”
“We may need to stop before we get to the safehouse,” said Ryan, as though bleeding from deep puncture wounds was an everyday, ordinary occurrence.
“How far is it?” she asked, trying to still the fluttering of her heart before it made her feel sicker than she already did.
He closed his eyes as if thinking took all of his concentration. “Seven hours, give or take.”
“You’ll bleed to death long before then.”
His eyes didn’t open. “No, I won’t. I trust you. You won’t let that happen.”
“What do you think I can do?”
“Give me more chocolate, for one thing.”
“Chocolate! You’ve got to be kidding me. You need a hospital, Helsing,” she said again.
This time he didn’t warn of dire consequences. Instead, he said, “I don’t exactly have access to Google maps.” He paused, as if speaking took effort. “Might waste a lot of time we don’t have trying to locate one.”
He paused again. Now he when he spoke, he sounded tired. “And the chocolatewillhelp, just maybe not enough to heal me on its own.”
“But we have to stop the bleeding. I know that much.”
“Of course.” He paused, groaning and inhaling before asking, “Got any ideas about how to do that? And call me Ryan. Sounds better from your lips than Helsing.”
Dianne wasn’t going to honor that, not when she was so scared for him. She shot him a hard look, but he didn’t open his eyes to look at her. “Well,Helsing, I can give you this magical tunic until we can find a better option. It would at least be something.”
She paused to think, which was really hard through her fluttering heartbeat. Ryan started to say something, but she cut him off. “I know you don’t want to get off this highway, but there has to be more along the coast. Stores. Pharmacies with bandages.”
“How about a kiss?” he asked when she finally finished. “That would make me feel better.”
