Wings of the Raven (7 page)

“Men, do not, I repeat,
do not
shoot the panther or the grizzly bear,” Charlie ordered. Screams, curses, and the sounds of machine guns crackled over the headset.

“Falco is down,” came a frantic voice. “Looks like a leg wound.”

“I’ve got three of the cartel bigshots holed up in a corner,” said another man. “Bridger’s getting them cuffed.”

“I’m cutting Will down from the pole. Evan and Jake are providing covering fire.” Hannah was short on breath. “He doesn’t look good at all, but he’s still breathing. We need to get him out of here ASAP.”

My heart almost stopped beating in my chest. Hope scooted her wheeled office chair close to the bed and took my hand as we listened in frantic silence.

“Allen is down,” another man said brokenly. “Head shot. He’s gone.”

Ernie bit his lip and turned away, but not before I saw his hazel eyes fill with tears.

Finally, there was no more gunfire.

“I think that’s all of them.” Evan sounded both tired and pissed.

“Hang in there, Nick. We’ll have you to a medic in no time flat.”

“Load the prisoners in one Jeep, the wounded in another,” Charlie barked out orders. “Who’s hurt?”

“Seriously? Only Nick Falco and the guy we came to get. Bridger’s got a graze on his arm, and the big guy caught some flying debris, but he’s fine.”

“Colonel? Which Jeep do you want us to put Allen in?”

“Fuck.” Charlie’s voice cracked. “I’ll have to take the body to the consulate. Put him in the back seat of my Jeep, throw the assholes in the back, trussed up like Christmas geese. Marco, you’re with me. The rest of you head back to the house and get Hope to take care of the wounded.”

“Vaughn, can’t you drive this thing any faster?” Hannah asked, maybe ten minutes later. “Will’s pulse isn’t good at all. Both of these guys have lost way too much blood. And why aren’t we heading to the nearest hospital?”

“La
Rosa
’s got people in the local hospitals,” one of the men answered. “The organisation is much bigger than we’d originally thought.”

“The good news is the three we’ve got are all wanted in the
US
—so the consulate will hold them while extradition is being sorted out,” Charlie replied.

For another fifteen or twenty minutes, I just held Hope’s hand and listened. Finally, Vaughn’s voice crackled over the link.

 
“We’re coming in fast. Ernie, get your ass off the radio and out to the carport to help carry the wounded. Hope, get fuelled up and ready to go. We’ve got two critical. Five minutes.”

“Guess it’s a damn good thing I let you stay.” Charlie came on and added, “We’re pulling into the consulate now. I’ll call when I have any intel.”

Ernie stood and left the room with Hope close behind. They waited out in the carport, while I sat rigidly beside the living room window, with my lip caught between my teeth until the car rolled into the drive.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Evan hopped out of the back, leaned back in, and lifted out Will’s limp, bloody body. Most men couldn’t have carried Will’s weight, but even when he’s human, Evan retains a lot of his grizzly bear strength.

Hope hurried ahead and held open the door. “
Carys
, take him to the room you were in,” she called.

I started down the hallway, hating to turn my eyes from Will, even long enough to lead the way. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw Vaughn and Ernie carry in the other man, but I kept moving, though my pace was still frustratingly slow. Even while I cursed the weakness, I was glad Hope had held some of her own energy in reserve for the injured men.

I pulled the sheet and blanket down, then sat on a small chest in the corner of the room. Evan laid Will face-down on the queen-sized bed and stepped back, next to me. Hope rushed in, followed by Hannah. Hope immediately went to Will’s side, while Evan and Hannah stood on either side of me, each wrapping a comforting arm around my shoulder.

Will was a mess. He was shirtless, and the skin of his back hung in bloody shreds. Several wounds had been sutured with butterfly bandages, but still oozed badly. Huge black and purple bruises covered his face, arms and torso, while small red sores dotted the soles of his feet. Cigarette burns? Even from where I sat, I could see his breathing was too slow and too shallow. Droplets of blood bubbled from the corner of his mouth. I tried to move forward, to go to him, but Evan and Hannah held me back. Vaughn slipped into the room and stood next to Hannah, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I’m just going to heal the worst of it now,” Hope warned. “Once he’s stable, I’ll go take care of Nick. Then I can heal them bit by bit until they’re well.”

We all nodded and I bit back a sob. Hope sat next to Will’s battered form and took his hand in hers. Then she closed her eyes. A soft amber glow seemed to surround both of them, and though I couldn’t see any change in the external injuries, I saw Will’s breathing ease and a little colour came back into his face as the bleeding slowed, then stopped.

“Okay. He shouldn’t wake up, and don’t try. I’ve fixed his broken ribs and the punctured lung, then helped kick start the production of new blood. That’s going to have to do for now.” I could see the exhaustion lining her face. She looked at Hannah. “Meanwhile, if one of you wants to change the sheets and clean his back, that would help. Then you might want to clean those cuts on your husband’s face. Down here, even minor wounds get infected awfully fast.”

Evan stepped over to the bed and helped her rise. “They’ll heal as soon as I get a minute to shift. Don’t worry about me.”

“Good.”

Vaughn walked her out of the room, while Evan and Hannah made short work of washing and bandaging Will’s wounds. They changed the sheets on the far side of the bed, shifted him to the clean one, then changed the other side. Fortunately, there was a plastic mattress cover underneath, so the mattress wasn’t ruined. They wiped that clean as well. I was impressed, even though I wished they’d let me help. As soon as they were done, I immediately moved over to the empty chair beside the bed.

Not wanting to risk waking Will, I didn’t touch him, but I lay my hand on the covers just an inch or so from his. Evan kissed Hannah on the cheek, said he’d be right back, and slipped out as well.

“So does he know about the baby?” Hannah stood next to me, putting her hand on my shoulder.

I nodded. “He was happy about it, I think. Before he sent me for help, he said to tell everyone we were engaged.”

“I imagine so,” Hannah had that same wry grin as her brother. Seeing it, I blinked back tears. “Though having the Maddox boys beat him up seems kind of redundant right now.”

I nodded again, barely looking up when Vaughn and Evan slipped back into the room.

“How about you, shrimp? You doing all right?” Vaughn finally said. “What’s-her-name said you would be, but it was harder than hell to ride out of here before you came around.”

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “We’re fine.”

“Oh, hell.” Vaughn shook his head, his black hair tumbling around his shoulders. “I still don’t even want to contemplate that. I mean we all knew you two had something going—”

“You did?” I should have known we couldn’t keep it a secret in a family of psychics and men who used scent as a targeting sense.

“Yeah,” Hannah agreed. “Ever since the wedding, the tension between you two has been different.”

“I’m not going to even ask why you got involved in an operation, given the circumstances,” Evan growled. “But it looks like Guardian now has a full-time profiler who isn’t allowed out of the office.”

“Yeah.” I didn’t care about any of that, as long as Will survived.

His hand shifted, touching mine. When his fingers curled around mine, I let them, grateful for both the touch and that one small sign of life.

I don’t know how long passed. Charlie and the other men returned and filled everyone in on the arrest of the three kingpins. Someone stuck a bottle of water in my hand and I drank it. Vaughn, Evan, and Hannah moved in and out of the room, and at one point, Hope stepped in and made me eat a bowl of
posole
, a thick soup with shredded pork, beans, and hominy, along with a couple fresh tortillas. She checked Will again, and I saw some of his wounds actually close under her fingertips. By the time she was done, he was still pretty messed up, but it was all on the surface. His complexion was back to normal, and his rest appeared to be a natural slumber. Hope, on the other hand, was ashen, her face tightly drawn.

“Sit down before you fall,” Vaughn snapped as she stood and swayed. He moved to intercept her on the way to the door.

“I will,” she spit back. She turned to Hannah and me with a wan smile. “He should sleep through the night. If you can bandage up the superficial wounds, I can deal with them in the morning. Charlie’s guys are doing the same for Nick.”

“Got it covered,” Hannah assured her. “Anything else I can do to help?”

“Keep all these he-men from killing each other while I crash?” She stepped shakily to the door, and didn’t even protest when Vaughn picked her up halfway there. “Goodnight, everyone.” She laid her head on his chest and let him carry her from the room.

 
“Well, we’re going to go get some sleep too,” Hannah told me, after she and Evan finished covering the cuts on Will’s skin. “We claimed the pull-out couch in the living room. Come get us if you need us.”

“Try and get some sleep yourself,” Evan added. He gave me a one armed hug. “See you in the morning.”

“I will,” I answered. If I could.

After I turned the light off, I crawled into bed beside Will, moving as cautiously as I could. No way would I be able to sleep anywhere else, and he seemed to gain some comfort from touching me. If I stayed away too long, his hand would begin to move restlessly until he found mine.

It was over, I reminded myself as I lay there shaking and trying not to sob out loud. The horror of the day was finally over, and we’d all survived. Once I was through crying, I finally fell into an exhausted slumber.

I woke this time, knowing exactly where I was. Will was pressed up against my back, his arms were around me and his lips were nibbling my ear. “Wake up, beautiful.”

I rolled over to look at him. “Will! You’re awake.”

“Observant, isn’t she? How are you, sweetheart?” He leaned up on one arm and ran his other hand over my face and down my side. “A few hours after you left me, I felt…something awful. But Hope says everything is okay.”

“When did you talk to Hope?” I scrunched up against the pillows, so I wasn’t flat on my back. A quick look at his shoulders and chest showed nothing but pink, healing tissue. Apparently Hope had also finished the job.

“She was in here about an hour ago. You slept right through it, but she caught me up a little bit.” A spasm of pain crossed his face before he turned it away. “I heard one of Charlie’s men was killed.”

“You know it can happen in this line of work,” I reminded him. “Even if we hadn’t been captured, they’d have had to go in and take down the bad guys sooner or later.”

“I know.” He sighed, then turned back to examine me. “But you’re okay, and so is the baby, right?”

“Thanks to Hope. It was pretty close, I think.” I didn’t even like remembering that moment of fear when I felt the bleeding start.

“I could feel your pain,” he said. “Then it just went blank. I was terrified.” He reached up to his neck and took my raven necklace off, then put it back on me. “You know I’m going to lock you in a tower for the next eight months, right? Maybe longer.”

“Only if I get to do the same. You felt something, but I
saw
you when Evan carried you in here yesterday. That’s not a moment I’m going to forget either.”

“I know.” He smoothed my hair, leaned over to kiss my lips. “I love you, Carys. I didn’t even know how much until I thought my nightmare was coming true. I don’t want to live the rest of my life without you.”

“I love you, too. And the same goes.” I sniffled back a sob.

“Carys Branwen Maddox, will you marry me? Not because of the baby—though that’s a bonus—but just so we can spend our lives together?” His eyes glittered as they gazed into mine.

“Of course I will.” I launched myself into his arms and we held each other tight. “You really don’t mind about the baby?”

“Not a bit,” he whispered into my ear. “You think she’ll be a shifter or a psychic?”

“She? Is that just a guess, or do you know something you’re not telling me? And I have no idea about the other. Maybe both. Wouldn’t that be fun to try to keep up with?”

“Just a guess. No visions, no real preference. Just more love than I ever knew existed.”

Epilogue

We kept the wedding small, opting for quick rather than big. Both our families were there, of course, along with Hope and Charlie Rivera, and a few other friends and colleagues. We held the ceremony on the beach at
Big Sur
, with the wind blowing and the sun shining, then booked a banquet room at a seaside restaurant for the reception. Honestly I didn’t care where we tied the knot, as long as we got it done before Will took off on another assignment. His wounds had all been healed before we left San Alonzo, but it had taken him a week or so to get back in top condition. We’d both taken several days off, and once we’d gotten back to
San Francisco
, we’d spent most of that long weekend in bed.