Page 116 of Collateral Damage
It’s as if every inch of my skin is on fire, but my right leg burns beyond reasonable belief. It’s so bad that I can’t even scream.
I open my mouth and gag on ocean water. My vision blurs. Salt stings my eyes and throat. My lower body slices through what feels like a million razor blades.
Ice cold grips me immediately, pulling me downward, but the pain keeps me awake. I thrash, trying to pry my way to the surface. My lungs burn as I fight the weight of the water and the weight of my own panic.
Kick. Just kick.
My right leg’s not moving the way I’m begging it to. It’s sluggish. My stomach flips; I can’t feel that leg anymore.
I force my eyes to focus, look down. A scream rips through my throat, and a rush of water invades my lungs.
Red water.
An unnatural cloud of crimson in the endless deep blue. It’s thick with salt and blood and death and darkness.
The world around me grows quieter, as if the ocean is swallowing me whole.
There is a single thought—a stark truth and the last one I have before everything goes blank.
This is how I die.
All too quickly, my eyes snap open, and my throat constricts, heaving a wave of blood and salt water over my chin. The sharp pain returns tenfold, spreading throughout my entire body.
I blink wildly, my surroundings slowly coming into view. I’m laid out flat on a boat deck. Ethan is above me, mouth moving but no sound making it to my buzzing eardrums. Sybil is at his side, frantically tying something above my right knee.
I want to yell at her not to touch me; she’s making it worse. But I can’t speak unless it’s to scream. I can barely even move. Blood pours out of my mangled right leg, my life draining with it. I’m fading fast.
I peer around. Chandler, Amelia, and Arden… Their pale faces are streaked with tears. They’re looking at me like I’m already dead. Maybe I am. Why is there so much pain?
I don’t want to look at my leg.
But I do… and my stomach hollows.
A mess of bone and sinew sits under my knee, blood seeping rhythmically from the rope-tourniquet. I don’t recognize it; can’t get my mind to tell me that it’s my leg. Mine. This suddenly inhuman limb is attached to me, causing a fire so hot I’ve become numb. My eyes fall closed, salty acid churning in my stomach, threatening to make an appearance.
Ethan pats my cheek, his words finally having a sound. “Stay awake. Stay alive.” He demands it, demands me to look at him, but I’m too tired to open my eyes again. I’m done. He doesn’t really believe I’m going to survive this, does he? He can cry, he can beg, but it won’t stop the bleeding.
I want to say something, but I can’t speak. There’s not even energy for that. There’s nothing. I have nothing.
“You’re not leaving me, Coop. Do you hear me? You’re staying right here,” my brother orders.
It’s not like I want to leave him, but this overwhelming need to close my eyes is beyond my control. My brother and I mayhave come into this world together, but it’s becoming clear that we won’t leave it together, because this needy darkness is also calling to me.
I give in and the world, the pain, and everything disappears.
Forty-Nine
Sybil
Present - Age 27
I wake up, staring at Cooper’s ceiling, a wave of ease washing over me. I turn, finding the beautiful man asleep at my side. The events of last night return like a warm ray of sunshine. I don’t have a single regret. How can I when it was, without a doubt, the best sex I’ve ever had?
Cooper is an incredible lover, but our chemistry together was on another level, like he could enter my mind and anticipate my body’s every need. Somehow, I did the same for him.
Good God, this is a man I need to talk to my girlfriends about over spicy margaritas.
Watching him sleep now, I marvel at the way his lips look fuller when he’s relaxed, envy the length of his dark lashes, and linger on the gorgeous outline of his honed muscles. He really is an impressive male specimen. I always knew this, but to be naked in bed with a naked Cooper? It’s a whole new level of understanding.
