Page 130 of Dukes Are Forever
"He's alive," Malloryn said curtly.
Ava hurried into the parlor, gasping as she saw the damage. "My surgery! Now!" She glanced over their shoulders. "Kincaid?"
"Safe," Kincaid growled, lumbering through the door with Byrnes's arm slung over his shoulder. Byrnes's other arm was tied in a makeshift sling around his neck. "We're all safe."
"Though it was touch and go there for a moment," Charlie corrected, as he and Lark shut the door behind them. Of them all, they appeared to be the least the worse for wear. "Malloryn managed to break the door down, so we could get Gemma and Obsidian out."
Malloryn helped Obsidian into the small room off the parlor, which Ava had claimed for her surgery.
"Blood and ashes," Ava exclaimed, as she used a set of tweezers to pry Obsidian's shirt from the slick burn down his side. "What's wrong with Byrnes?"
"Broken wrist," Byrnes replied, with a wince. "Maybe ribs."
The pretty young scientist glanced between both Obsidian and Byrnes, as if trying to work out who needed her the most.
"Treat the burns," Byrnes replied. "I'll manage."
"If I wait too long, I'll have to break that wrist again and set it," Ava warned. "You heal too fast now."
"If I may, Miss Ava?" Herbert asked, gesturing Ingrid and Charlie out of the way. "I have some experience with wartime injuries. I can set the wrist."
It was all happening so swiftly.
Adele didn't know what to do, or how to help. And from the look on several of the others' faces, neither did they.
Malloryn turned and almost walked directly through her.
"What happened?" Adele whispered.
His face shut down. Amazing, to think there'd been any hint of emotion on it before, but there must have been, for there wasn't now. "This way," he said, grabbing her arm, and leading her toward the parlor.
Clara appeared with a jug of steaming water, linens and bandages. "Do you think you can tend the duke?" she asked Adele bluntly, which was an abrupt change in the dynamics between them.
"Put it on the table there," Adele instructed, and then turned to examine her husband, momentarily at a loss as Clara vanished.
"I'm fine," Malloryn said.
Blood dripped sluggishly from a gash on his arm, and if it were still bleeding after all this time, then she'd hate to think what it had looked like earlier.
"Sit down," she said, "and let me look at it."
"I'm—"
"Only going to get in the way in the surgery," she retorted, picking at the mangled remains of his leather body armor. One of the metal buckles looked like it had almost melted into his flesh. "Does that hurt?"
Malloryn ground his teeth together and tore it free, sending dark blood flooding to the surface. Adele swore under her breath, and then hastily pressed a piece of clean linen to the bleeding. "Hold this."
He must have been tired, for he didn't bother to argue as she set about prying the other buckles loose, and then lifted the molded leather carapace of his chest-piece over his head.
Though this was entirely outside her experience, she focused on cleaning the blood and soot from his skin, her heart aching at every sign of injury.
"What happened?" she whispered.
And he told her of breaking into the warehouse and handling the guards.
"I'm glad you're all safe. At least no one died."
Malloryn seemed to take a deep breath. "Adele, there was a casualty."
