says he hears it, we’ll hear it soon.’ I’d barely finished saying it when I heard the distant chop-chop-chop sound of the helicopter blades. They were distant but coming. ‘I hear it,’ I said.
‘I still don’t,’ Perkins said. It was another couple of minutes before he heard it. Sometimes I didn’t appreciate that I had super-hearing since I was usually surrounded by shapeshifters and vampires.
I said something I don’t say often; I said, ‘Please, don’t let him die, not like this.’
He frowned at me. ‘Damn it, fine, can Nick carry him back to the clearing?’
‘Yes,’ Nicky said.
‘Follow me, and you’re going to have to ride along, Blake. We’ll have to put you in the helicopter equivalent of a jump seat, and only if the pilot says the weight distribution will tolerate your extra.’
‘I’m small,’ I said.
‘You better pray you’re small enough for everyone who needs to be on this chopper, plus one blood donor.’
Nicky picked up Ares easily and followed Perkins. Nathaniel took my left hand in his and spoke low. ‘How’s your phobia of flying doing?’
I stiffened, stopped walking, and almost stumbled. ‘Motherfucker,’ I said, softly, but with feeling.
‘You didn’t think about it, did you?’
‘If I can save him, I’m going to,’ I said.
He squeezed my hand and said, ‘That’s my girl.’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I am.’ We kissed gently as we walked, and the first tree limb caught in his hair. It wouldn’t be the last. Becker actually took the ponytail holder out of her own hair and gave it to him so he could braid it. It also inadvertently exposed his body completely. Some good deeds do get rewarded.
32
Other good deeds, not so much. The inside of the Black Hawk wasn’t that big. We had a pilot, copilot, room for three stretchers, and two small seats for the medics. One of the medics stayed behind to help Perkins with the wounded still on the ground. We put Travers and Ares stacked to one side and strapped a third wounded officer between the medic seats and the stacked stretchers. By the time everyone was secure it was crowded. Did I mention I’m also claustrophobic?
My view was the stretchers, so no seeing outside, which usually helps with the claustrophobia. I was strapped into the seat, though I had to adjust the AR and the shotgun to sit back in it. The vibration of the chopper beat through my body in a steady, punishing rhythm. The nausea that had hit in the woods after the run came back, and I was left breathing deep, even breaths, trying to control it. I also tried to pretend I wasn’t in a whirling machine of death hundreds of feet in the air. There was a gasp that must have been a scream for me to hear it through the earphones and the noise of the blades. I looked up and found Ares trying to sit up. The chopper medic, who had just been introduced to me as Lawrence so I didn’t know if it was his first or last name, unbuckled and tried to force Ares back down, but one flailing arm sent him crashing, and only me putting a hand against his back kept him from falling on the wounded man in the middle. Neither he nor Travers moved.
I called out, ‘Ares, it’s okay!’
Lawrence sat down in his chair, so I could see past him to Ares. His wide, frightened eyes turned and found me. I watched his face get calmer as I unbuckled and moved carefully so I wasn’t standing on the third wounded man. I used the other stretchers as part of my handholds, but everyone else was unconscious so they didn’t mind.
Lawrence spoke into my headphones. ‘Can you calm him down so I can check his vitals?’
‘Yes,’ I said. The helicopter hit a little turbulence, and I didn’t really have my helicopter legs yet. Ares grabbed at me, and I gave him my left hand to hold, our arms bent at the elbow like we were going to arm-wrestle. I felt a spasm that ran through his arm. He writhed on the stretcher, face grimacing in obvious pain. He was mouthing something, saying something, but I couldn’t hear it through the headset. I took off one earpiece and bent closer.
‘Something’s wrong,’ he said.
I turned so I could yell into his ear. ‘You’re hurt.’
‘No, it’s more, it’s …’ He writhed again, hand convulsing on mine until I almost had to tell him, too tight, but he loosened it on his own.
I