Page 167 of Bones
That should have made me feel something, but it didn’t. “Are you actually hurt?” I rasped out, still eying the bandage.
“Nope,” he said, eyes scanning my injured face. A muscle in his jaw flexed several times. “Just needed an excuse to get in here. Are you ok?”
I just stared at him, unable to muster the energy to tell him that was a stupid fucking question. Pain flashed across his face, but before he could say anything else, someone started trying to break the door down.
Griz shoved me down and I tried to make myself as small as possible as he got up on his knees to aim over the table, waiting. Pieces of the door went flying over the table as they slammed into it. Griz fired off a shot and someone let out a strangled scream. Then bullets slammed into the table and the wall over our heads. The next few moments passed by in a blur of Griz popping up to fire shots and ducking down as bullets whistled around us. Judging by how often screams followed his shots, Griz was a pretty damn good marksman. Finally there seemed to be a pause and Griz dropped back down, breathing heavily, and flipped up his jacket. Underneath he had an insane amount of ammo strapped to his chest. I must have made some sort of noise because he peered at me as he reloaded.
“You didn’t get hit, did you?” he asked.
I shook my head. He started to say something else, but then bullets peppered the wall behind us again. As soon as they stopped, Griz leapt up and returned fire. Outside I could hear gunshots and screams from what sounded like every direction now. This wasn't just a "little rebellion" as Madame had called it. This was an all-out war.
“Gods, they better hurry the fuck up before the clinic falls apart,” Griz said the next time he dropped down to reload.
I eyed the wall behind us, noting the many holes and splintered wood. A tiny part of me flickered painfully to life at the sight of the clinic being torn apart, but then it died.
“Don’t worry,” Griz said with forced lightness, “we’ll fix it.”
The floor creaked and Griz twisted to peer over the table. I jumped as he leapt to his feet and fired off a round of shots at the two men who had crept through the broken door. His body jerked, blood spraying, as bullets went through the right side of his abdomen and upper thigh, but he only took a single step backward, continuing to fire. I heard bodies thud to the floor, and Griz dropped back down, pressing a hand to his bloody side with a grimace.
“Don’t suppose—” he gasped out.
I was already scrambling over to him in a panic, pressing my shaking hands to his side, and trying to heal him as quickly as possible. Trey’s bloody face and empty eyes kept flashing through my head. Griz covered my hands with one of his large ones and squeezed.
“It’s alright, Bones,” he said, his voice so gentle it made my eyes burn. “You got this. I’m gonna be fine.”
Someone yelled outside, and then bullets slammed into the other side of the clinic. I flinched, trying to focus on healing. Griz kept his hand over mine the entire time, and finally, the wound in his side and the wound in his leg both closed. Outside someone started screaming a horrible devastated scream, but then a gunshot echoed and the sound cut off. I swallowed, wrapping my trembling hands around my body again as my panic over Griz's injuries faded away to that empty nothingness again.
Somewhere in the distance some sort of automatic weapon started firing and the windows in the loft rattled.
“That’d be the machine gun in the watchtower,” Griz said grimly. “Let’s hope the rebels got to it first.”
Gods, how many people were dead? Or injured? And here I was with the power to save them, just hiding in the clinic like a fucking coward. Iwasa fucking coward. I’d always been too afraid to act, too afraid to risk my own survival, and I couldn’t live with that anymore.
I stood and Griz grabbed my arm, yanking me back down.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he growled.
“There’s probably hurt people out there,” I said. “I’m not just gonna sit in here and hide.”
He glared at me. “You serious?”
“You don’t have to come.”
“For fucks sake, Bones,” he gave me an incredulous look. “There’s no way in fuck I’d let you go out there alone.”
I stood again, feeling so strangely detached and calm. “Then let’s go.”
“You still have a fucking manacle?—”
I crossed the clinic quickly, the chain clanking behind me, to where Vulture’s dead body slumped against the wall. I tried not to notice how many dead bodies littered the floor. To my relief, Vulture’s eyes had closed, and I didn’t hesitate before crouching and fishing through his shirt pocket where I knew he kept the key. Griz arrived at my side a second later, gun held ready and swearing under his breath. My fingers closed around the cold metal and I pulled the key out, bending to unlock the manacle on my ankle.
“You need any tools?” Griz asked.
“No,” I answered, shoving my boots on and standing. I wasn’t gonna deal with tourniquets and stitches and shit right now. I’d just use my powers. I was at least good for one thing—healing people—and that’s what I would do.
“Don’t burn out,” Griz warned, but I pretended not to hear him.
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