Shards

chapter 30

Chapter 30:

He released my arm, but continued to speak. “You must have cut it when you were climbing down the building.”

I nodded, closing my hand around my blood coated limb. Why was it that I always got hurt? I didn't remember getting it, but there were a lot of things I couldn't remember. The pain must have been dulled by the adrenaline, but now that my attention had been drawn to it, I felt the throbbing and my arm began to shake. Looking away from the disaster, I took in the appearances of my two friends, really seeing them for the first time since the raid.

The cloud of fog and confusion had been lifted, and my eyes widened in shock. Julian appeared to be relatively unscathed, but Ian looked almost worse than me. His left cheek was swollen, and I saw the beginnings of a nasty bruise. Blond curls were matted with sweat, and a little bit of what appeared to be blood. A gash had split the fabric of his shirt, right around the shoulder. Blood dripped from the opening.

Following my eyes, he lifted his hand to cover it. The fog of battle must have been effecting him as well.

“I must have been grazed.” His voice was weaker than before, as if it was just catching up with him.

Before I has time to process, there was a ding and the elevator doors slid open. I guess I had to be thankful that the bullet hadn't hit him. The scratch that currently dripped blood, could have been much, much worse.

At our door, Julian slid the card into the slot, and for a second I was confident that we would make it without contact with the adults.

“Oh my god.” It was Erica's voice.

I did not turn to face her. Ian entered the room, and I was about to follow.

“Jaylee.” James's voice froze me in my tracks.

He had not hesitated as Erica had, at the sight of us. Instead, he moved down the hallway with new urgency. Using my elbow, I pushed Julian inside the hotel room; prepared to follow him.

“Wait, Jaylee... wait.” He came to a stop, holding his hands up in front of him, as if he was attempting not to frighten me. “You're bleeding... a lot. You need to slow down and tell us what happened. Plus, your cast is all scratched up, we probably need to go back to the hospital. Not to mention that you've somehow managed to misplace your crutches, and that piece of wood isn't going to do a thing.”

Before I could even begin worrying about creating a response, Ian had grabbed me, pulling me into the room.

“Go stop the bleeding.” It was in no way an order, more of a reminder. “We'll take care of her leg.” He'd closed the door half way, and was speaking to James through the crack.

Knowing that my judgment might be impaired by blood loss, I retreated to the bathroom, grabbing one of the painfully white towels from the sink. When enough of the blood had been cleared that I was able to see the scratch, I realized that it wasn't really all that bad. The only reason there had been such an excessive amount of blood was that it zig-zagged back and forth across a major vein.

Wrapping it in the one remaining clean towel and binding it with medical tape, I headed back out into the room. The door to the other was open, and the voices of my friends came from just out of sight. Grabbing two bags with the hand that was neither bleeding nor holding my cane, I pushed my way through the half closed door.

“Shit!” Ian swore. “Be more careful with what you're doing.”

He sat shirtless on one of the beds, allowing Julian to attend to his shoulder wound.

“Just suck it up.” The brunette was intent on the task in front of him.

He worked with a needle, pulling a thread in and out of Ian's flesh. With this medical inclination shown by even Julian, I began to feel slightly embarrassed of my towel cast.