Scorpio

Chapter XV

We made a mad dash back to the street corner. My heart raced. I tasted metal. Saw white light. Heard static. Soles slapped against concrete. Bullets punctured the night. One whooshed by my ear. We ran in zigzags so we wouldn't be predictable targets.

Echoes of footsteps behind us.

A muffled gunshot. A single gasp.

Drops of purple blood flying from xyr arm.

"F—— they have diamond bullets."

I turned and slowed ever so slightly.

A whiz. And——

Shatter.

Agonizing pain exploded down my left calf. I don't know if I screamed. The world melted away into the vacuum of space. Apocalyptic ringing filled my ears. Shooting fire consumed my leg.

Did I fall?

A glint.

Was that a raindrop?

"Ari!"

Someone far away was calling my name.

"Ari!"

Dry ice burned my wrist. Electricity singed my body.

Still moving—hobbling—off-center——

I was shoved into a car. Blood rushed down my leg. Intermittent firecrackers kept popping. In the distance, the wail of a siren.

She will be okay.

Am I okay?

I was thrown against the side door as we made a sharp U-turn and peeled away. Engines revved behind us.

We flew down the streets and zipped through the town in a blur. Shops, houses, landmarks, and street signs, they all became smears in my vision, crowded with crawling black dots. I gripped my knee with both hands, trying to stem the pain, my knuckles turning white. Sweat poured down my neck. My head felt feverish. The pain in my leg screamed and kicked. I saw a pool of dark red stretching its fingers around my pant leg.

Xe had one arm curled against xyr stomach. Darkness bled out from the wound, looking like spilt ink under the late evening sky. Under xyr breath, xe was muttering curses in a language I didn't recognize, the sounds harsh and piercing, full of anger and danger like an attacking hawk's war cry.

We passed out of the city and bounced onto a mostly empty stretch of highway. Sand, sand, sand—as far as I could see—no obstructions to block the views of the four or five black sedans chasing us.

We were going way too fast. Stray bullets struck the asphalt at our tail. We were barely out of range.

"Give me your leg," xe said in a tense voice.

I tried to lift my left leg, but the moment I moved it, a bolt of stinging pain clawed at my flesh and ripped it to pieces. I shrieked and dropped my hands. The palms were slick and warm with blood. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to wade through the disorienting haze of lightheadedness that was threatening to swallow me whole.

Miles fell away. We swerved and changed lanes at breakneck speed.

Sickness roiled my guts. I clenched my hands into tight fists. My fingernails dug into my bloodied palms. I tried to fight off the torture that was slowly encircling me in its deathly grip.

"Ari, give me your leg."

It was an imperative, and not one to be messed with.

Straining and heaving and hacking through every fiber of excruciating pain that yelled at me to quit moving, I picked up my injured leg and laid my knee over the median. I felt a chunk of my calf missing, filled with gore and blown bits of meat. I turned immediately to the side and pushed down the urge to vomit.