Luminescence

Twenty-seven.

HUDSON

"An eye for an eye," I growl to the man who I had just shot in the head. And boy, did it feel good getting revenge.

The guard had just shot my girl.

I ran Mara back to the ship with her in my arms, with soft groans coming from her lips as I could feel the pain between our bond. Her arm was on fire, and there was hardly anything I could do about it. She kept slipping in and out of consciousness for short periods of time. Part of me believed that she was just in a state of panic, and couldn't handle the fact that she had been shot.

"Go!" I shout to Priscilla directing her to take off, and without another word she begins the flight course.

I lay Mara down on one of the benches in the back of the ship, as I hear the door close between the pilot cabin and the back of the ship. Clearly Priscilla wanted for us to have private time. I silently roll my eyes as I grab a medical kit from the closet.

First, I put on medical gloves. I grab some tweezers and some medical cloths to absorb the blood that had fallen from her arm already so that it didn't contaminate the floor. As her eyes reopened from falling unconscious, a silent sigh of relief fell from my lips.

Her breaths were short as neither of us said a word, as I focused on the main task, which was getting the bullet out of her arm.

With the tweezers, the bullet was in plain sight and ready to be pulled out. Mutants had stronger skin — or even stronger anything than humans, and the stronger skin prevented the bullet from going too deep.

"Stay still for me, okay?" I whisper softly to her, grabbing one of her hands so that she had something to hang onto. My thumb traces her fingers delicately, knowing pulling out the bullet would be painful.

And with one slight yank, the bullet came clean out. Mara's eyes only scrunched slightly as her lips pressed tightly together, as I could feel the shared pain between our bond once more. A grown man would probably be on the floor crying right now, but Mara was the strongest woman I had ever seen. And I admired her for that. I rubbed some disinfectant around the wound, before covering her upper arm in a white wrap that would stop the bleeding until we got home.

"I'm sorry," I whisper in complete honestly, as nothing but the wind rustling against the side of the ship could be heard. I sit next to her on the bench, with only an inch of space separating our arms.

Her eyes are confused momentarily. "For what?" She whispers weakly.

"I could've stopped the bullet. If only I wasn't so... distracted, then I could've stopped it sooner with my powers. I—"

I pause, as she places her pointer finger to my lips. Damn her, I hated when she did that. She would interrupt me every time—yet when her skin touched mine, I wanted to indulge in it forever.

"Hudson, I don't think you realize it yet, but you saved us," Mara points out, her bright blue eyes looking directly into my own. She spoke with honesty as I stay silent. "Without your help, there would be more than one bullet wedged in my arm by now. And are you kidding me? What you did back there when you levitated everyone into the air was freaking amazing!" She exclaims. "You should've seen Wes' reaction when he started floating, he was heated!" She laughs, and it was like music to my ears. Mara winced in pain afterwards.

I smile softly as I couldn't seem to break out of the trance I was in. Her face was so close, and if I moved my head any closer...