I chose the largest cave and carried River inside. I walked right to the back, and, after checking for snakes, placed her down on the ground. I removed her backpack so she could lie more comfortably. My eyes lowered to her right thigh. She was losing blood. Too much blood. A bullet had lodged inside her. I bent down closer to her. She groaned and squirmed as I eased the metal out of her and threw it aside.
It was a wonder that she was still alive at all. If this was one of the hunters’ notorious bullets, it should have burned her up from the inside out. I could only assume that either this bullet hadn’t been fired from one of their UV guns, or such bullets didn’t have the same effect on half-bloods. It appeared to have just penetrated like any regular bullet.
Whatever the case, she wasn’t looking good.
Lowering her shorts slightly, I checked that she was wearing underwear before removing the shorts completely. I needed to have full access to her thigh, and the shorts were getting in the way.
I took off my shirt and cleaned up her wound as best as I could with the cleanest corner of it. Then I cut my palm to feed her some more blood. Her face was still contorted in pain as she sucked my hand. Then she seemed to calm down a little. Although her wound was showing clear signs of healing, it took much longer than I’d expected. Only once it had fully closed did I allow her to attempt to sit up.
Putting my arm around her, I helped her upright. She looked in a daze. She stared at me with wide eyes, her lips parted, her breathing still uneven.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Chapter 24: River
When we approached the tanks, four men leapt out to see us. I explained to them that we had just escaped The Oasis, and they seemed to understand what I was talking about. They said they’d help us back to the police. But after they took Lalia, Hassan, and Morgan into one of the tanks, when it was my turn to get in, three hunters whipped out guns and aimed them toward me.
I didn’t know what to think. I was just bewildered. Why were they trying to kill me? What had I done to deserve this? It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. To be treated like an animal, worse than a criminal—having committed no crime. Even after all the wrong my father had done, he had not been treated like this.
If it hadn’t been for my new-found speed and lightning reflexes, I would have been shot the moment they pulled out their guns. I darted away from the tanks, away from my sister. I ran about the dunes, trying to dodge the bullets, until one caught me in my side.
When I fell to the sand, I was sure that that would be the end of me. The hunters would close in on me and lodge a final bullet in my head.
But then arms grabbed me, lifted me up from the ground and whisked me away.
Joseph. I still couldn’t believe that he’d come back for me. I didn’t understand why he bothered doing it, risking his life by coming right into the midst of the hunters just to save me—a girl he barely even knew.
After he brought me to a cave and healed me, although I was devastated at being ripped from my family once again, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for this young man.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
“It’s not your fault,” I replied.
“I should have given it more thought.”
“There was no way you could have known.”
“It seems they’ve adopted an absolutely zero tolerance policy for anything supernatural, harmless or not…” He paused, then asked, “How are you feeling?”
I looked down at my thigh. “Better.”
“Did they take your sister and the others?” Joseph asked.
“Yes,” I said, pain building in my chest at the reminder of my sister.
Poor Lalia. I didn’t know that her nerves could take being separated from me once again. My only comfort was that at least this time, she wouldn’t be surrounded by bloodsucking vampires and would hopefully be returned to our grandfather.
“There’s nothing supernatural about them,” I murmured, “so I just hope the hunters take them straight to the police.”
I looked around the cave. There was a rattle coming from the far corner, near the jagged entrance. A rattlesnake, by the looks of it. I shivered, another wave of coldness intensifying in my bones.
“What now?” I asked, my voice unsteady.
“We need to leave this cave and reach the nearest town by daybreak.”
I looked toward the sky outside. It didn’t look like it would be long now before the sun rose.
“And then what?”
“Let’s just get there first,” he muttered. “With these hunters on patrol, we can’t afford to get stuck in the desert. If we get caught out in the daytime, when I can’t go in the sun without being blinded, they could have us trapped.”