Page 55 of Their Property
Dyno’s eyes remained fixed on the beat-up doors, and I tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. When he looked at me, I jerked my head to the side, pulling him in that direction. He nodded slowly, understanding. We had to keep looking. Kyrie and T-Bone might be in there, or they might have gotten out. Since we couldn’t run inside yet, we had to check everywhere else.
“I don’t…” Dyno blinked, scanning the now smoky, fiery horizon as if in a daze. “I don’t know where else to look. They—“
“Hm!” I grabbed the sides of his neck, much like he did to me earlier. I slapped his cheek lightly and grabbed his jaw, making him look directly at me. If he didn’t know what I was trying to say, he’d figure it out soon enough.You’re a fucking Son of Odin. Get it together.
He blinked at me in surprise right before I saw movement over his shoulder. Without warning, I shoved him aside and drew my gun. “Hah!” I shouted a warning at the figure obscured by smoke and shadows.
Dyno turned around and followed suit, aiming his gun next to me. But the figure continued toward us, its silhouette distorted and strange.
“Stop!” Dyno called out. “Identify yourself!”
“It’s me, you dick-fuck!”
We lowered our guns and sighed out our relief together, but it was short-lived. T-Bone limped as he came closer, a grimace of pain on his face and blood coating his entire right side from his neck down to his hip. All at once, I saw why his figure had looked distorted from far away.
He carried a woman-sized bundle in his arms, limp and lifeless. Kyrie’s hand hung free, waving only from T-Bone’s agonized steps. Her head lolled on his shoulder, nearly flopping back as a dead weight.
“Kah?” Her name burst from my lips as I ran toward them, cold fear sealing my chest in a block of ice.
“She’s not breathing,” T-Bone said in an agonized voice. “I think she inhaled too much smoke.”
I touched her face, running my thumb along her cold cheekbone in hopes of rousing her.Wake up, sweet girl. We need you.She was so eerily still, and her lips were turning blue.
“Lay her down on the ground.” Dyno’s voice was a sharp command, and T-Bone pulled her away from me to do as he instructed.
“What are you going to do?” T-Bone laid our girl gingerly on her back, supporting her head the whole time as if she were a baby.
“Mari taught me CPR before we left.” Dyno ran his hands up and down Kyrie’s bloodstained arm. “Does she have any other injuries?”
“No, that’s all my blood.” With his arms now free, T-Bone winced and held his bloody shoulder. “Had to hit that door a hundred fucking times before we could get out.”
Dyno set to work quickly, breathing into Kyrie’s mouth and doing compressions on her chest. “How long since she’s been out?” He brought his ear to her mouth, listening for breath.
T-Bone shook his head, his expression heartbroken. “I don’t know, a couple minutes. She passed out right when I got the door open.”
Time seemed to stretch on forever as Dyno tried to revive Kyrie and we watched helplessly. He was exhausting himself, his own breaths weak from his own smoke inhalation.
“Let me.” T-Bone rolled forward when Dyno nearly collapsed on top of Kyrie. “Just tell me what to do.”
Dyno shook his head wearily. “You can’t do compressions with a busted shoulder.”
“Hm!” I moved up, hovering over the woman we’d all found ourselves obsessed with, and Dyno nodded.
“I’ll do compressions,” he said. “You breathe into her mouth. Two breaths.”
I nodded and tilted Kyrie’s chin up slightly as he had. Pinching her nose shut, I leaned down to seal my lips over hers. Ironically, I was certain this would be the only time our mouths would ever touch. She’d never want to kiss a defective one like mine under any other circumstances.
I forced all the air from my lungs into hers and on the second breath, I felt movement.
Dyno froze, his hands still flat on her chest. “Did she—“
Kyrie sucked in a harsh, ragged breath, and then started coughing. Dyno and I rolled her up to a sitting position, rubbing her back and encouraging her to breathe. The weight of the world lifted from all of us in that moment, and we huddled around her protectively, touching her arms and her back. We stared at her eyes, finally awake and open, her chest heaving as she took in more fresh air.
“Ohh fucking Odin, thank you.” T-Bone was beside himself, nearly weeping as he leaned in to touch her face, his forehead leaning intimately on hers. “Thank them all, you’re alive.”
“Guys?” Kyrie’s voice was a weak rasp, eyes glancing at all of us. “What’s happening?”
We’d forgotten about everything but her for a moment, but reality hit us again. We were sitting on the ground in the middle of a fucking war zone.
