Page 106 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Blood sprayed across her face as he jerked forward in surprise and began to fall, his left arm a bloody stump just below theshoulder.
Garrett. Charming, handsome Garrett who loved his wife, and had two sweet daughters who adored theirfather.
Garrett who'd been there for Ava at every moment during her recovery, after he and Perry rescued her from Hague'slaboratory.
Gone beneath the feet of hisNighthawks.
Twenty-Five
THE WORLD NARROWEDto a very small bubblearoundher.
Ava blinked, and then she was at his side, her mouth babbling soundlessly as she saw the damage. "It's all right," she thought she said. "It's allright."
But it was not allright.
Too much blood. Bone. The gaping mush of burned flesh. Garrett gasped, his eyes so very wide, but it was Hague's face swimming through her mind as he shined the lamp in her eyes. Hague's hand lifting a scalpel as he said,"This won't hurt at all,mijnlien."
Suddenly she was in a distant world, where she was the onescreaming—
—Blink—
Screams echoed. She looked up, nostrils flaring and her stomach in revolt. Found the streets a melee of Nighthawks fighting against the crowd. Not in Hague's laboratory. Not the onescreaming.
And Garrett was bleeding to death beneath her hesitanthands.
Horror filled Ava, but it was a distant hollow ache as she stared at everything she'd tried to prevent. All she could do was babble to Garrett that he was going to survive, as she tried to stem the bleeding with a piece of tornskirt.
"Stay with me!" she cried desperately, but the pressure in her ears and around her forehead was getting tighter, and the world dulledaroundher.
—Blink—
A man at her side, asking if she was okay. No. Demanding it. Shaking her. "Ava?Ava?"
She looked up into Kincaid's face, and stupidly enough, the first thing that went through her head was his words from last night:we have nofuture.
"They shot him," she whispered. She saw it again. The rifle. The curtains moving. Garrett turning to look at what caught her eye. Ava looked down, to where her hands were covered in blood. "He'sbleeding."
"Aye. I know." Kincaid stripped out of his coat. "Is there a doctor here?" He lifted his head to bellow, "The guild master's down! Is there adoctorhere?"
Garrett's chest heaved and he tried to clutch her fingers with his remaining hand. His face was so, so pale. "Ava...." An exhale as he shivered. He tried to look at the ruined stump of his arm. "Jesus. Jesus,myarm—"
"You're going to be all right," Kincaid said sternly, ripping his shirt off over his head and pushing Ava's bloodied hands out of the way as he swiftly wrapped his shirt around the stump. "You've lost the arm, but you're a blue blood. You'll heal." He shot Ava a glance as he gently used his shirt to try and stem the bleeding. "He'llheal,yes?"
"Yes."Maybe. Her ears were ringing. The blood loss would becrucial.
"Get my belt off," Kincaidtoldher.
"What?"
"Get my belt off," he ground out, applying pressure to the wound and looking up at her with such vibrant blue eyes. "We need a tourniquet. At least until we can slow thebleedingdown."
All she could do was focus on the blue. There was a rushing sound in her ears that sounded like it was going to swallow her whole. A cold band seemed to squeeze her head inavise.
—Blink—
Garrett's teeth started chattering, and her stomach took a dive. Ava found Kincaid's coat in her hands and wrapped it around Garrett, trying to keephimwarm.
"No other injuries?" Kincaidasked.
