Hot Redemption (20 page)

CHAPTER 20

Phoenix

All my fault. This is all my fault. Why couldn't I have trusted Epic?

He'd given me no reason not to—not really. If I hadn't let my jealousy overcome me, then I wouldn't have killed Ice. Without her death, Epic wouldn't be laying in a pool of his own blood. I'd essentially taken two lives when I'd aimed my guns at Ice's chest and pulled the trigger. Maybe it was karma—maybe it was—
no
. Cold, hard determination replaced my feelings of remorse and agony. I wouldn't let this happen.

It wasn't too late. “You're not going to die on me, Epic! I won't let you.”

I laid his head down on the ground and wiped my blood-slicked hands on my bare thighs. I then picked up a gun and swung it around to point at Ain, who was crouched a few feet away with his hands over his head, almost as if he hoped that would hide him from me.

“Get the fuck up, now,” I barked the order at him, but instead of complying, he curled more into himself. “I said to get the fuck up now!”

Ain whimpered.

“You're going to stand the fuck up, and help me, goddammit! Or so help me, I'm going shoot off that limp piece of skin between your legs that you call a dick.”

Ain whimpered again, but his only response was to move his hands from his head to cover his crotch. As if that would really do any good. I growled in frustration. I had no time for this kind of shit if I wanted to save Epic's life. Since, clearly, Ain wasn't going to be any good to me anymore, I aimed and shot him directly between his beady little eyes, even though they were currently squeezed shut. A small sense of satisfaction coursed through my system as I surveyed the strangely macabre scene his blood and brains made in the dim lighting.

The sound of sirens began to wail in the background and I took in a shaky breath trying to decide what the next step in my plan would be. That's when Shade suddenly appeared beside me.

“What the fuck happened?” His voice shook with emotion. “Is—is Epic dead?”

“No! But we need to get him out of here before he is.”

“You killed Ain.” Not a question, I noted. He disappeared into the shadows. I scanned the area, but couldn't see Shade.

“Yeah, he—”

Suddenly Shade snatched the gun from my hand. “You can explain later. FYI, I'm going to need you to not kill anybody else tonight. Ain was our cousin. We hadn't seen him in ten years and when we did, we found ourselves in fucked-up situations, so I won't shed any tears over his death, but Epic isn't as sick as you and I.”

“If someone gets in the way of Epic surviving this, I'll kill them.”

He ignored me. “We need to get the hell out of here before we all end up getting arrested.”

I nodded in agreement. “We need to get Epic to a hospital.”

Shade slid his eyes to my face and some unreadable emotion passed across his features. He picked up his phone and spoke into the space comm feature on it. “Toy, we need transportation. Now.”

A moment later a hover car sped its way toward us, coming to a screeching halt inches from the roof. Toy took in everything much the way that Shade just had—with emotion, and yet detachment, at the same time.

“Help me get Epic into the car,” I yelled.

Toy jumped from the driver's side and silently the three of us managed to get Epic's large body into the back seat. His breathing was shallow, his heartbeat barely audible—I knew we didn't have much time left. I pressed my smaller frame against Epic, hoping my presence would soothe him and that he might benefit from my little bit of body heat. “Hurry, please. He needs a doctor. Now!”

“I'll make the call.” Shade jumped behind the driver's seat. The doors slid down by themselves as we sped off into the night.

Alarm bells went off in my head. “Make the call? What do you mean ‘make the call'?”

“We can't take him to a hospital, Nix.” Toy stared at the ground. “Even if they manage to patch him up, that'll only be to ship him off to some kind of prison on probably one of the shittiest planets in the galaxy. He wouldn't want to live that way.”

Fear shot up my spine and I shuddered. “What are you saying? That you're just going to let him die?”

“Of course not.” Shade gripped the steering wheel so hard white formed around his dark knuckles. “But no hospitals. We know someone who can hopefully get the job done.”

Hopefully?

“Who?” I was starting to panic. “Is he any good? Just tell me!”

“Calm down, Nix. He's our brother. We don't want him to die.” Toy dialed out a number on his phone. “Epic found a doctor here before we even moved, just in case the kids got sick.”

“Can this doctor take care of siphon wounds?”

“We'll see.” Toy gritted his teeth and began to talk into the phone.

I listened numbly as his voice droned on, obviously explaining Epic's circumstances to their on-call doctor. I tried to calm myself. Toy was right. Epic was their brother. Of course they didn't want him to die. They'd do everything in their power to save him. But what if it wasn't enough? What if I lost the only good thing I had in my life?
No, no, no, no—NO!
I ran my fingertips through Epic's bloody and matted hair. My nostrils flared with the copper scent of his blood. My stomach clenched with nerves.

“It's not good enough,” I whispered.

Epic could have turned his back on me when I killed Ice, saved himself. But he loved me with all his heart, the one that I held the key to around my neck.
What would he do if it was me lying broken and bloody in the back seat of this hover car?
Would he let some second rate hack try to save me? No, he'd do everything in his power to keep me alive. And I'd do the same for him.

I seized the gun out of Shade's holster and aimed at the back of Shade's black head. “It's not good enough.”

“What the—?” Toy started but I didn't let him finish.

“You can hang up the phone now, Toy, because Epic isn't going to get second-rate medical attention from some guy that may or may not know anything about saving lives. We're going to a hospital.”

“If you shoot me, we'll crash, and probably all be dead,” Shade growled.

“Don't try to call my bluff, because I'm not bluffing. I know very well that if I pull this trigger, we'll crash and probably all die. That's why I pointed it at you and not Toy. It was the best motivation to reign you both in since I don't have two guns at the moment.”

Toy narrowed his eyes at me and swore under his breath. “I really don't think she's bluffing, man. She's fucking insane.”

Shade snorted. “Tell me something I don't know.”

“If it makes me insane to love your brother so much that I'd do anything—risk anything to save him, then, yep, I am. Now drive us to the closest hospital. I don't care which one.”

I wasn't quite sure what I planned on when I got Epic to whichever hospital Shade was racing us to, but I knew most of the medical facilities were hands and feet above even the best ones back on earth. Horns honked at us as we sped through the air. I kept my arm outstretched, holding the gun tightly against Shade's skull as I tentatively glanced at Epic's still unmoving form. I was petrified that despite everything, I still might be too late.

“Faster!” I screamed. “Drive fucking faster!”

“I'm going as fast as this piece of shit will go,” Shade snapped.

My breathing came in short little spurts. My skin felt on fire and tears streamed down my face.

“Please, Epic baby, don't leave me.” I pleaded as my body began to shake.

I can't lose him. I just can't.

“I think she's losing it,” Toy muttered low as if I couldn't hear him.

I turned my face toward him and laughed without humor. “If you think I've already lost it, then you really don't want to see what's going to happen if Epic dies.”

The United Ladies of Light hospital loomed in front of us, and the giant illuminated medical sign burned through the dark night like a promise of redemption. Shade zoomed up to the emergency entranceway and some staff hurried out to us.

I slid the gun behind my back and stood. “He's been shot. Please help him.”

One of the nurses with reddish-orange skin—most definitely not human—addressed me. “Does he have insurance?”

I glanced in Toy's direction and he shook his head at me. “Ummm . . . no, I don't—”

The nurse raised her hands in the air. “We can't take him here then. If you take him over to—”

“He won't make it!” I screamed.

“I don't make the rules.” The nurse looked at me with sympathy but still backed away from the car.

I produced the gun from behind my back and pointed at the nurse's head. “New rule. You're going to save his life if you want to live.”

“Oh fuck,” I heard Toy exclaim.

The nurse's red eyes widened with terror. She eyed my state of panic, then the gun, and then her gaze slid to Epic. She nodded, clearly understanding I wasn't giving her much of a choice.

I kept a close eye on the nurses as I waved the gun around to keep them moving. They rolled Epic through the hospital and down a long corridor. A short and stocky doctor appeared in front of us and frowned at me.

“What's going on?” he demanded.

I pointed the gun at him and he took in a deep, shuddered breath. “You're going to save him. That's what's going on.”

He glared at me defiantly. “You're going to jail when this is over.”

“I don't care. Just fix him.” Nothing mattered besides saving Epic's life.

I numbly followed after the small team of doctors and nurses as they prepared for surgery. They each stepped under the disinfecting powder wash before donning gloves and masks. The material used for both shrank to fit snuggly over the flesh and was made out of a special material that fit like a second skin and yet permitted them to breath naturally. It had the effect though of making them seem as though all their mouths and noses had been spackled over with skin. It made me feel as if I were in some weird horror movie.

I hate hospitals.

I pushed down the memory of being brought to one after I escaped Teddy. I had no recollection of how I'd gotten there, just the vague recollection of stumbling into the ER bloody, bruised, and burned. I had been delirious from all the pain Teddy had inflicted on my body. The “mouthless” doctors and nurses had driven me into a panic and they had been forced to use sedation just to treat me.

But that wasn't an issue with Epic. He hadn't moved since he'd passed out on the roof, and a feeling of dread was beginning to constrict my throat. I leaned against the wall, tightly gripping the gun in my hand, and shivered as I watched the hospital staff begin to work on Epic. Monitors beeped, 3D screens appeared and disappeared, and the head surgeon barked orders with an authoritative tone.

“Get me ten cc of general coagulant and another of the synthetic universal blood.” Nurses scurried around like bees swarming in a hive. “Get me a canister of nanobots. He's not going to make it without them.”

The gun rattled in my hand. I continued to shiver from the low temperature in the operating room, but I couldn't leave Epic, despite the fact I was almost naked and covered in blood. I must have appeared insane.
Good, because I am.

“He's going into cardiac arrest—”

“I have his heart key!” I exclaimed, snapping my full attention back to what was happening with Epic. I rushed forward and slid the chain from around my neck and thrust it at a short nurse with brown hair. Her eyes met mine briefly with sympathy before she turned and handed it to the doctor.

The familiar mapping that Epic had shown me the night he'd given me the key appeared in the blank space above him. The doctor seemed to recognize the problem immediately. “We need specialized heartbots—stat! His faulty valve can't take the stress of what's happening to the rest of his body. It takes precedence.”

My vision began to darken around the edges and I struggled to stay upright on my feet. I felt so tiny and helpless despite the power wielding a gun gave me. There was only so much even these doctors and nurses could do for Epic if his body gave out on him. The medical technology of our day was amazing, but it wouldn't work any actual miracles.

Shade, as usual, seemed to appear out of nowhere and suddenly he was standing beside me. He placed a large warm hospital blanket with automated heating around my shaking shoulders and stared straight ahead at the commotion surrounding Epic.

“I love my brother. You know that, right?”

I nodded blankly. “He loves all of you too.”

“He loves you too, Phoenix. He told me as much and I thought I should tell you in case he—”

I clutched the gun tighter in my hand. “He's not going to die. I won't let him.”

“He won't survive in whatever jail they put him in—if he lives. I'm sure you've already figured out that my brother is softer on the inside than he appears.”

Tears dripped down and bypassed the weak smile that spread across my face. “I won't let him go to jail either. I'm going to take him far, far away from here and we'll spend the rest of our days lounging on sandy white beaches and drinking cocktails—like in the movies. I'll spend the rest of my days making him forget all of his pain. I'll make him happy.” My face scrunched up and I started to cry some more, not the calm tears, but the loud, ugly-faced, throat-choking ones. “Oh please, Duchess of Light, give me the chance to make him happy.”

Looking uncomfortable, Shade draped an arm around me and pulled me into his side. I continued to sob, not caring that my tears were seeping into Shade's T-shirt. “There are enforcers surrounding the building. We're fucking lucky that we happened to find the one religious hospital near the Red Light District. It's illegal for enforcers to step on holy ground. Do you have a plan?”