Chapter 32 - Blood on the Leather
The interior of the modified command transport smelled of iron, antiseptic, and adrenaline. The vehicle rocked violently as the driver tore down the winding mountain pass at over ninety miles per hour, evading the blazing inferno of the Caldwell estate behind us. Overhead, the relentless rain hammered against the reinforced roof like a shower of lead pellets.
Two combat medics worked feverishly over Sylvester’s prone form. They had cut away his ruined suit jacket and shirt, exposing the muscular expanse of his chest now marred by the jagged entry wound below his clavicle. Lucas sat huddled in the corner seat, wrapped in a thick wool blanket, trembling not from the cold, but from the raw shock of seeing the man who had seemed like an invincible giant laid low.
I held Sylvester's limp hand in both of mine, refusing to let go even as the medics applied pressure bandages and set up an intravenous line. His skin was dangerously cold, the pallor of shock creeping beneath his olive complexion.
"Vitals are dropping," the primary medic shouted over the engine's roar. "The round shattered the scapula and nicked the subclavian artery. Internal bleeding is accelerating. We need the surgical theater at the Citadel now!"
"ETA four minutes!" the driver barked back from behind the partition. "Local hospital is compromised—Marcus confirmed Caldwell sympathizers are monitoring city emergency dispatches!"
"Elena..." Lucas whispered, his small fingers reaching out to touch my arm. He looked up at me with wide, terrified eyes. "Is Mr. Sylvester going to die because of me? The red light was on my shirt. He jumped in front of it."
My heart fractured at the guilt in my child's voice. I pulled Lucas against my side, wrapping one arm tightly around his trembling shoulders while keeping my other hand locked onto Sylvester’s pulse.
"Listen to me, Lucas," I said, my voice steady despite the chaos. "Sylvester made a choice because he loves you. He chose to protect you because you are worth protecting. He is the strongest man in this world, and he will not leave us. Do you hear me? He will fight his way back."
On the gurney, Sylvester's fingers twitched weakly against mine. His eyelids fluttered open, dark eyes clouded with pain yet burning with an unyielding embers of defiance.
"Listen... to your mother, kid," Sylvester whispered, his voice barely audible beneath the hiss of the oxygen mask. "Takes more than... a coward on a hill... to bury me."
"Save your strength," I begged, tears slipping down my face as I leaned close to his ear. "Save it for the reckoning."
May you like
A grim smile touched the corner of his lips before the medics administered the sedative, pulling him under into darkness as the transport slammed to a halt inside the underground bunker of the Citadel.
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