Howl

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

“Why do you look like her?” Lukas muttered when the person who looked like Emma approached him. When she got close, he noticed that she even smelled like Emma. “I’m not dead, am I?”

“Lukas,” Emma said, worried as she ran to his side. She tossed her gun to the ground and put her hand over the wound on his chest. “Oh my god. You’ve been shot.”

“Twice.”

If she hadn’t been so concerned for his life, she would have hit him for saying that, but the only thing she could think about was getting him out of the building alive. “Can you get up?”

Lukas struggled, but with Emma’s help, he managed to get to his feet. Emma started to half-carry him away, but he stopped.

“Weapons,” he said. “Get guns. We might run into more of them.”

Emma did as was instructed and picked up her discarded rifle and a handgun. They then continued on their way out, slowly, although that was not by choice. Lukas couldn’t support his own weight and was leaning heavily on Emma, which was taking its toll on her.

 “We’re not going to make it,” Lukas said, nearly falling down despite Emma’s assistance. “Leave me here. Go get help.”

 “I’m not leaving you. They’ll kill you.”

 “Not immediately. Both of us aren’t going to make it out of here.”

 “Yes we are.” Emma set him down on the floor, leaning him up against a wall, and then reached into her pocket and took out a small radio. Holding down a button on the side, she started speaking into it. “Talon, I got Lukas. He’s hurt.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Talon’s voice came over the radio, although there was a lot of static and it was difficult to make out the words.

“There,” Emma said as she put the radio back away. “Help’s coming and I’m staying with you.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Lukas grumbled.

“You’re not killing anyone anytime soon, and you’re not hurting Talon. He’s trying to help you.”

“He helped you get here. Put you in danger. I’m gonna kill him.”

“He also gave me a gun so I didn’t come unarmed, you dipshit, ‘cause I was coming in regardless. Now, what can I do about the injuries?”

“Put pressure on the one up here,” he said pointing to the wound on his upper body. “The bleeding should stop soon enough. Nothing else you can do until the bullet comes out.”

“Would this be a bad time to tell you that I missed you?” Emma said, struggling to hold back tears. She put her hand on his cheek, as the other pressed down over his chest.

“I think I’d have preferred a time when I wasn’t bleeding all over the place, but I can’t have everything the way I want it.”

 He closed his eyes, hoping it might somehow dull the pain, but it didn’t. Still, he kept his eyes closed, feeling tired with the adrenaline wearing off.

 “Don’t go passing out on me,” Emma said, her voice snapping his eyes open.

 “I’m not…” he started to argue with her, but before he could say anymore, he detected the presence of someone approaching, and it wasn’t Talon. It wasn’t even one of the other wolves from earlier. “We got company.”