Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Eighteen

Deacon

I watched in horror as Naomi fell in Sebastian's arms. A scream threatened to escape as the blood seeped through the sleeve on her hoodie. Guilt flooded through me as I realized Sebastian had been right, I had been careless, and now I was paying the price for it. I hadn't been paying attention to the noises I was making, I wasn't looking for any signs of possible attackers, I was only worried about doing my business and that had been that.

And now Naomi had been shot.

Because of me.

I was never going to forgive myself for this, Sebastian sure as hell wasn't going to forgive me. Naomi probably wouldn't either.

It was a roar that had come out of Sebastian. A roar that didn't last long. "Nai!" He turned his eyes to me, I stood at attention like a soldier at once. "Look after your sister!"

I nodded and watched as Sebastian carefully laid Naomi down and ran into the forest. Her eyes were open and she was panting from the pain. She refused to look at the wound. I knelt down to her side before she could move more, causing more blood to be lost. There was already a small puddle under her body, it was making me queasy.

"Deac, it hurts." She moaned.

It hurt me to see her in pain like this, especially when it had been my fault it happened. If I'd just paid attention, took care in what I was doing instead of being careless, she wouldn't have been shot.

"I know." I told her, propping her head against my knees as I reached into one of the backpacks for something that would work temporarily to patch her up. After searching for a little while, I came up with some rope and gauze. Taking off her hoodie, I tied it around her shoulder blade to help staunch the blood flow. She whimpered at the pressure I was applying. "Relax, Nai, it's to help keep the blood inside of you instead of on the ground."

Her eyes shut and her nose twisted. The smell was making her nauseous, she never really had been a fan of blood. She'd gotten better with it as we grew older but I think with this happening, she was going to revert to hating it once again. I couldn't blame her if that happened, I was quickly finding myself in the same position.

Once the wound wasn't squirting out blood, I stood up, attempting to stand her up as well. She stood but her legs quickly gave out from under her. "Nai, you have to stand."

"I'm trying." She growled. She still hadn't opened her eyes. "I feel numb in my legs, Deac. And my left arm, I can't feel it, it hurts so bad."

With the pack on my back, I picked Naomi up bridal style. I was trying to remember what Sebastian had said about which direction we needed to head in to get to the next safe house. We were close to it, but we had to rest last night due to Sebastian saying we would need daylight to find the entrance.

"I don't know if we can find it without him, Nai. I don't want to wait for him, but I don't think we have a choice. We need to find you a safe place so we can actually take care of your wound and make sure it isn't worse than it looks."

Naomi nodded, breathing heavy as I leaned against a tree. I could hear noises from the direction Sebastian had headed. He'd caught up with Naomi's assailant, his body count was going to go up by one before the day was over.