She loaded her last magazine as she turned back to Declan and the remaining hybrid. But the lone hybrid was no match for Declan, and he quickly gained the upper hand, smashing his fist repeatedly into the creature’s chest until it stopped moving.
Then Declan was at her side, his eyes wide and terrified. “Oh God, you’re bleeding!”
Kendra opened her mouth to point out that he was bleeding, too, but the words died in her throat as she looked down at herself. The front of her uniform was soaked in blood. Her hands tightened reflexively on her weapon. The hybrid she’d fought with must have gotten his claws into her after all. But then why don’t I feel weak from losing so much blood?
It wasn’t until Declan ripped open her outer shirt and sent buttons flying everywhere that she realized what had happened.
“Declan, I’m okay,” she said. “It’s not my blood.”
He looked at her in confusion. “What?”
“It’s not my blood,” she repeated, then pointed at the hybrid who’d impaled himself on her weapon. “It’s his. He bled out all over me.”
Declan turned back to her, relief on his face. That was when she got a good look at him. His uniform had even more blood on it than hers, and most of it belonged to him. She swayed a little at the sight, suddenly light-headed, and she reached for the tatters of his uniform top as much to keep herself from falling as to check on his wounds. She pulled the outer shirt aside and gently lifted the T-shirt underneath to expose dozens of wicked slashes. Blood flowed freely, running down his chest.
“Oh God. What do I do?” she moaned.
She’d put teams through hundreds of injury scenarios for training back at the DCO complex, but right now she couldn’t remember a freaking thing she’d seen.
Declan grabbed her hands and gently uncurled her fingers from his tattered shirt. “It’s not as bad as it looks. Right now we have to get out of here. Your gunfire is going to draw more hybrids.”
Everything he said after, “It’s not as bad as it looks,” went right over her head. Because it looked really bad to her. She was pretty sure she’d caught a flash of rib in the wounds under his pecs. How the hell was he still standing?
“Declan, we can’t go anywhere until I get the bleeding stopped.”
But he dragged her away from the stream. “We need to go. Now. You can patch me up once we’re somewhere safe.”
She almost laughed. Safe? They wouldn’t be safe until they were back home. But he was right. They needed to get out of here. She only hoped Declan was right about those wounds not being as bad as they looked.
Kendra was just about to break into a run to keep up with Declan, but he stopped beside the hybrid who’d impaled himself on her weapon. She frowned as he pressed one big boot into the thing’s bloody chest, then the other.
“Get blood on your boots,” he instructed. “Hurry.”
She had no idea why he wanted her to do it, but she did it, even if it did make her feel ill. When she was done, he grabbed her hand and started moving. Instead of heading back up the ridge like they’d originally planned, he led her along the stream. Probably so they could make better time.
She glanced over her shoulder at the six dead hybrids and spent shell casings. She couldn’t believe she and Declan were both walking away from that fight. But the victory hadn’t come without a price. Declan was hurt much worse than he’d let on. Within minutes, he could barely walk without her help. They needed to stop so she could tend to his wounds, but she had no idea if they’d gotten far enough away from the ambush site yet.
“How did they find us?” she whispered as she took more of his weight on her shoulders.
“Those were the same hybrids who chased us into the cave yesterday.” His voice was weak, his words barely audible. “The last one I killed was carrying a piece of your torn clothing. I could smell it on him. He was using it to track you. When we disappeared, they must have decided to lay in wait for us to come out of hiding.”
She stumbled under his weight as he wobbled, but she got her feet under her and kept him moving. “How were they able to hide by the stream without you knowing it?”