Gargoyle: Kinswoman

Part 13

"Bascun!" She shouted, not caring if anybody heard her or nor. "Oh no! No! No! No! No!" She pushed the gun back in its holster and ran to his side, landing on her knees, and quickly turned him around. Did he really get shot when she first heard the gun go off?

There was a gashing wound on his shoulder. She shivered, gaping for air, but couldn't get any in her lungs. She reached out and touched it on, what she hoped, was its edge and pressed slightly, testing the gushing blood if it would start going faster. It was stupid, she knew that, but she couldn't help it. She had to check if it began flowing faster, if the bullet had touched his artery. It hadn't, but there was something impeded inside the shoulder muscle. Something that had a dart-like edge to it and was poking out from the bullet wound. She grimaced, but wouldn't irritate the edge any further. She'd probably have to pull it out later.

She remembered the sun and looked up, checking the tensity of the clouds. Then her eyes fell on the men around them. Sure as hell someone in the surrounding houses had heard the gun shots. She had no doubt her neighbor would call the police immediately and she let out a small whimper, when she realized that they weren't safe here any more. One of the men carried her round in his chest, the other four had gashing wounds in their heads, but even now she could clearly see that they weren't humans.

"First things first," she felt the panic take over and forced herself to move in order to not to succumb to the shivering muscles.

She tried to move his body, yanking at his shoulders and realized right there that he had enough muscle mass over her lean body to make the task close to impossible.

She checked the clouds and knew she didn't have enough time to get to the house for anything helpful. She tried again, clutching under his arms and around his chest, ignoring the wings and this time she got half of his body high enough to slip herself beneath his belly and yank him over her back, his hands tangling over her shoulders. She took few wobbly steps towards the house, when it became painfully clear she wouldn't make it there at all with his weight draped over her.

Instead, she turned them slightly and dragged him further into the backyard, where she'd piled the wood last time she visited.

Isilia gasped few feet away and she wanted to cry.

"Please, go back to the house!"

"Is he alright?"

"No, but he'll live." She managed, but kept going. It was a lie, in truth she had no idea if he would or not, but she didn't want to admit it to herself, let alone say it out loud.

"We must get out of here," she said loud enough for Isilia to hear, "the police will be here any minute!"

And there was no way she could move him in time, he was too heavy and god knew how long the sun would be out.

The pile was big enough to cast a shadow at this time of the day to hide him if she packed him in with something. She grimaced when she realized he might be stuck there quite a while and she really didn't like that idea combined with the five bodies and the time it took the police to get here. Not more than half an hour. The only police station in the area was fifty miles from here. She knew that from personal experience, but nothing stopped them from being closer and getting here faster.

Her muscles were not trained for dragging a ton of concrete around, she gritted her teeth, when she was close enough to the woodpile to touch it with her finger. She kept going though, cursing the world, cursing her load on her back, cursing the sun and the men laying on the mud, who would be turning into rock soon enough.

She froze from the sudden thought, but woke quick, when Bascun's hand twitched. She continued pulling his monstrous body into the shadow and not a moment sooner she unloaded him, probably scratching his wings when he landed on them against the woodpile, the sun beams began moving from the shed towards them. She let out a sob, gathering his limbs as close to his body as she could press them and wrapping up his wings before using tarp from the woodpile to cover him up completely, praying to God it would be enough until she got back with a blanket.