Page 86 of The Seducer
The door was unhinged, all the windows were broken, and the roof had collapsed, with the two eaves partly on the ground.
“Please, let her be all right.” I kept muttering to myself when I set the drone down in front of the house.
Every drone had an emergency kit, and to be prepared, I grabbed it before I ran to Athena’s house.
Banging on the door, I called her name. “Athena, it’s me, Finn.” I didn’t wait for her to answer, but pushed through the broken door and entered.
There, pale as a corpse, Athena lay on the floor, pinned underneath a large beam, with her leg in a pool of blood.
“Fucking hell, Athena,” I cursed as I ran to her, sliding to my knees.
“Finn.” Her lips were blue and shivering, and with no windows and a hole in the roof, it was as cold inside as it was outside.
“You’re going to be okay,” I muttered, and took in her injury.”
“It hurts,” she cried.
“I’ll get this thing off you,” I promised and looked up to see the collapsed roof above us. I was afraid that moving the beam would cause the whole construction to fall apart, but looking at the amount of blood on the floor, her pale complexion, and her chattering teeth, I knew I had to act fast or I would lose her.
“I’m so cold,” Athena whispered.
An iron band around my throat was holding down all the fear in my chest and keep it from spilling out. “I know, my love. But you gotta hang in there for me.”
With the superhuman strength of a desperate man, I moved the beam enough that I could drag her free.
“I know it hurts,” I told her when she whimpered. “I promise that I will give you something for the pain but right now I have to stop the bleeding. The beam cut you, and it looks deep.”
Rummaging through the emergency kit from Magni’s drone, I pulled out the syringe I was looking for. It was a bad sign that Athena didn’t scream in pain when I applied a thick layer of the Blood Blocker Gel in her wound. I knew from my patients at the hospital that it stung, but only for the fifteen or so seconds that it took for the gel to turn into mesh that would stop the bleeding and serve not only as an adhesive to hold the wound together, but also as a scaffold to help the body produce fibrin at the wound’s surface.
“Athena,” I called and slapped her cheek when she didn’t respond. “Athena, wake up, come on, you gotta stay with me, baby.”
Panic made me pick her up and run with her to the drone. I needed to warm her up; I placed her on the floor while I started the engines and jacked the heat on max.
“I’m going to save you,” I muttered with determination and reached for the emergency kit again. Fumbling, I managed to get hold of the donor unit. “You lost too much blood, baby, but I’m going to help you. Just don’t give up, do you hear me?”
With fingers cold from the icy wind that had been howling through the house, and with my vision blurred by tears, I scrambled to unwrap the donor unit and get my jacket off so I could get to the veins on my left arm. The clear tube filled up with my blood and one drip at a time the converter in the middle filled up too.
“Come on, come on,” I hurried the small device designed to make it possible for all blood types to donate blood in case of an emergency.
“Don’t you die on me,” I ordered Athena, and pulled her limp body onto my lap. “Let’s fill you up with some strong Nman blood, baby,” I whispered and inserted the needle into her right arm.
Finally, the converter was sending the blood through to her, and I sighed in relief as I saw her blood type show on the converter. I knew the small device could only convert one unit of blood when it wasn’t a match, but she was AB positive and could receive blood from anyone.
“Athena,” I called and held her close to me. “You’re going to get better, I’m going to save you. Do you feel it?” Keeping my fingers on her wrist, I felt her weak pulse. She was still breathing, although barely.
With my limited resources, there wasn’t much I could do for her except wait for her body to fill up on my blood, and whisper words of encouragement to her. “If you wake up, Athena, I promise you that I will do as much meditation as you want me to. I’ll even eat kale for breakfast and stop swearing in your house.”
Her head dangled, so I placed her chin against my shoulder. “Breathe, my love, just keep breathing for me.” My voice broke and with the back of my hand I dried away the tears that wouldn’t stop running. “Who’s going to make the world a better place if you die? Who’s going to teach people about patience and tolerance, and forgiving your enemy?” I sniffled. “It can’t be me because I could never do what you do. No one can!”
With my face all distorted from crying, I kissed her forehead, nose, and lips. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Athena. You are the most beautiful human to ever walk this earth, and I know I’m not worthy of you, but you still need to wake up. Please wake up,” I begged.
There was no reaction, only a slight change of color in her skin. “That’s right, baby, take all the blood you need. I would give you all of mine if it will make you wake up.”
CHAPTER 27
The Choice
Athena
