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Authors: HeVans to Becky

Lucy Kelly (6 page)

BOOK: Lucy Kelly
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His heart in his throat, Jalen rushed back up the stairs four treads at a time.  He heard shouts and glass breaking.  Jett was entering the open door of the condo and sending him information as he opened the door from the stairwell.

Grace woke up from a sound sleep when Justyn shook her shoulder.  “Grace, you need to be quiet.  There are intruders entering the house, come with me,” he whispered in her ear. 

She scooted over to the side of the bed and got her gun from the nightstand, automatically checking that it was loaded and the safety was off.

“Where are Jalen and Jett?” she whispered back as she hugged the wall, even while holding her weapon out.

Justyn was seven-foot-two to her five-foot-eight, so he had to bend down a little to speak so not to be overheard, “Jett set up silent alarms along the perimeter of the condo and other areas of the building.  He and Jalen are investigating a breach.” 

“They don’t have guns.  What if the intruders are armed?” she asked in a whisper. 

She started to move quietly towards the door.  She knew better than to burst into an unknown situation.  Suddenly, she heard gunfire coming from outside the room and breaking glass.  She was about to make a dash for the door when Justyn grabbed her from behind and pulled her to him.  He had seen a flash of red from the corner of his eye, a laser sight, and acted automatically.

“Justyn, let me go.  Jett and Jalen may need me,” she said, as he picked her up. 

Shots rang out and the window at the side of the room exploded in a shower of glass.  He held her so close she could feel the impact of the bullets as they hit him.  He didn’t feel the bullets entering his body.  All his attention was on moving Grace out of harm’s way.

He was so concerned with getting Grace to safety; he had not activated his body shield.  He used his momentum to carry her into the bathroom and out of the line of sight from the window.  He used his BEIP to send a message to Jalen and Jett. 

As soon as they entered the bathroom, she yelled at him to put her down.  “Damn it, Justyn, you’re hit!  Let me look at your wounds,” she said, turning around. 

“I’m not leaving you, Grace; I just found you,” he said as he started to slump over.

“Here, let me help you down,” she said, and it was none too soon, for a second later he was on the floor.  She grabbed some towels to apply pressure and stop the bleeding.  He had two bullet wounds in his back. 

“Stay with me, Justyn, just stay with me,” she said to him as she pressed down with the towels. 

She didn’t hear any additional gunfire coming from outside the bedroom.  She was worried about Jalen and Jett.  She heard someone coming down the hall.

“Jalen?  Jett?” she called out. 

She didn’t hear any answer; she stopped applying pressure and picked up her gun.  Keeping her eyes on the door, she brought her gun around and moved to cover Justyn’s body.  He was going in and out of consciousness. 

She wasn’t prepared for the beautiful woman in a cocktail dress who came through the door, but she didn’t hesitate.  Grace raised her gun and fired at the same time as the assailant.  She continued to fire until the woman fell backwards.  A second woman appeared in a crouch, but before she could fire, she grunted and fell forward.

“Grace!” called out Jett. 

“In here.  Call an ambulance, Justyn’s been shot,” she said, as she watched Jett lean down to bind the woman he had stunned. 

The first woman was dead.  He stepped over her prone form and entered the bathroom.

“Careful, they have snipers.  They shot through the windows facing the park.  They must be up high in a boat or something to get an angle into the room,” Grace said, as she scrambled back to tend Justyn.

“We need an ambulance.  He has two bullet wounds in his back,” she cried, as tears streamed down her face. 

She couldn’t understand why her left arm wasn’t working.  She needed to resume pressure on the wounds.

She looked down at herself.  She saw the bullet hole in her shoulder, and that’s when it began to hurt.  It hurt a lot and she just stared at it. 

I’m going into shock;
she thought and keeled over on top of Justyn.

“Grace!” yelled Jett, and just then Jalen came running down the hall.

“Jalen!  Justyn and Grace are both hurt.  Contact the Protection Detail.  If they don’t know it already, there are snipers in the park, they shot out the windows,” Jett said, scrambling to assess Grace and Justyn’s injuries. 

Jalen pulled out his cell and phoned for an ambulance first.  He was phoning the Protection Detail just as Grace regained consciousness. 

Where in hell had they been while all this was happening?
he thought.

Grace was down on the floor beside Justyn looking up into Jalen’s face.  He seemed upset.  She tried to reach up and touch his face to let him know she was okay but her arms weren’t working right, and she was tired. 

“Jalen,” she said, “call Addie.  Tell her to send the Docs, they need to take care of Justyn,” she stopped to take in a shallow breath.  “I’m going to be okay, nothing important got hit.  You have to take care of Justyn,” she said.  She was speaking so softly Jalen could barely hear her.

“Lie still, Grace, the ambulance is coming,” he said.  He didn’t mention they had tried to reach the house, and no one was answering the phone there. 

Jalen had also sent a text to Arjun’s eyeglass lens, and it hadn’t been answered.  And the head of Grace’s Protection Detail wasn’t answering either.  He was worried about Grace and their Queen.  He was about to make another call when his phone vibrated.

“Hello?” said Jalen.

“Jalen, this is Sergeant Cooper.  Captain Udaka’s been attacked.  He’s on his way to the hospital with a small graze.  He asked me to call and check on you guys.  I was only able to raise one man on your Protection Detail.  I'm sending over some backup,” he said.

“Sergeant,” answered Jalen, “we’ve already been attacked.  We have six restrained and one dead assailant inside the building and an unknown number outside.  Justyn’s been shot twice in the back and is in and out of consciousness.  Grace has also been shot in the shoulder.  We’ve called for an ambulance but until we know the sniper’s been caught, we’re sitting ducks if we try to leave the condo.” 

He was packing Grace’s wound, but he didn’t like the pasty color to her skin; her respiration was too shallow for his liking.  He was worried about her going into shock.  While he listened to the Sergeant tell him what they were doing to get the paramedics in and get them to the hospital, he and Jett were working furiously to keep Justyn and Grace as stable as possible. 

They couldn’t risk grabbing the cover from the bed, as it was covered in broken glass.  They piled on towels from the linen cupboard to keep them both warm.

Jalen and Jett kept trying to text Arjun but were having no luck.  They wished they’d had time to make lenses for Rune and Kylan, too.  Jett decided to call Becky because she might have an idea.

As Jett was speed-dialing Becky, he leaned over to smooth the hair away from Grace’s face.  Rationally, he knew the injury wasn’t life threatening.  Emotionally, he was raging to take revenge on those who would harm his mate.  His eyes met those of his brother's, and he knew Jalen felt the same.

It took twenty minutes for the paramedics to be escorted inside by the SWAT team.  They’d volunteered to come in before the all clear was given.  The police had given them helmets and vests to wear and then took them up the stairs.  Jalen and Jett were grateful when they came; it had seemed like hours.

The paramedics were lifting Justyn onto a gurney and figuring out how to get him out without exposing him to fire, when Becky finally answered her phone.

“Your dime, my time,” she sang out.  Jett could hear music blasting in the background.

“Becky!” he shouted in the phone, “Turn down the music.  We have an emergency,” said Jett.

Becky scrambled to turn off the music playing through her computer.

“Whoa, Jett, is that you?  What’s the emergency?”

“Becky, the condo was attacked tonight.  Grace and Justyn were both shot, but Justyn’s injuries are life threatening.  He’s going to need emergency surgery.  He has at least two bullets in him,” his voice cracking on the last sentence.

“Okay, I’m on it.  What hospital?”  Becky asked.

Jett turned to the paramedic, asked which hospital Justyn would be taken to, and then relayed the information to Becky.

“You’re in luck.  Johanna’s sister, Catherine, is back from the Peace Corps.  She’s a top-flight surgeon, and I believe she has privileges there.  I’ll have her meet you.  I’ll contact Suzanna on the bat phone, and we’ll get her what she needs.  I’ll meet you there, too. 

“Just hang in there for me, okay?  You text me any changes in Grace’s or Justyn’s conditions.” 

Becky was trying to think of things and stay coherent at the same time.

“One more thing,” Jett said, “we haven’t been able to reach anyone at Addie’s house.  See what you can do about that, too.  Maybe you can raise them on another line or something.”

“Oh God!  Do you think something’s happened out at the farm?” she asked.  “Never mind, I know who to call.  I’ll call you back.  Just remember you’re meeting Dr. Catherine Woods.  She’s a brunette about five and a half feet tall.  She’ll be expecting you.  I gotta go now so I can get a hold of her and have her meet you there.  Bye.”

“Bye Becky, we’re counting on you,” said Jett.

Becky immediately pulled out her special satellite phone that she called the bat phone, to get a hold of the ship they had hovering on the far side of the moon.  She let them know of the emergency and told them Operation Immigration was going down early.  They needed to start transporting immediately.

They had been planning on having the shuttles land on Friday night, three days before the dark of the moon.  Now, they’d be landing on the quarter moon.  It was a good thing she’d already set up the ground transportation at the landing sites she’d chosen.  

Next, Becky contacted Catherine and told her what was going on.  She sent her a download on Nephilim anatomy, which was similar enough that Catherine would be able to cover over any anomalies if she used a surgical staff she could trust.  Justyn’s brothers would be donating any plasma he needed. 

After she made sure that Catherine was on her way, she called the DeKalb County Sheriff’s office and relayed what had happened in Chicago.  They would send a couple of patrol cars out right away to check on the farmhouse.  Becky kept trying to call the landline and the cells.  She wasn’t getting through to either of them.

Finally, she had the idea to call Addie’s bat phone.  It rang three times and then someone picked up.  “Hello?” a voice whispered.

“Addie, is that you?  Are you all right?  I’ve been trying to get through,” said Becky.

“Becky, thank God!  I didn’t think of using this phone.  I was so happy when I heard it ringing.  Our cell phones aren’t working, and the power is out.  I’m hiding downstairs.  They put me in the tornado shelter; Kai and Ari are standing guard.  The house is under an attack of some kind,” said Addie.

“Addie, listen carefully.  Grace is going to be fine, but her house was also attacked tonight.  An entire assassination squad is what it sounds like from what Jalen told me.  You have to send Rapha or one of his brothers to the City immediately.  Justyn and Grace were both shot.”

At Addie’s outcry, she hurried to continue, “Remember, I said Grace is going to be fine.  Jett said her injury wasn’t life-threatening.”

“Not life-threatening leaves a whole lot of room for other bad things, Rebecca Siobahn Anderson.  Which hospital are they going to?  And you didn’t say anything about Justyn.  What are
his
injuries?” asked Addie. 

She was tired of being guarded when the people she cared about were in danger, and sheltered from information that might upset her.  She moved her hand over the small bump she was showing.  Carrying these precious lives was the only thing holding her back from running outside to fight alongside her
Ankida
.

“Justyn needs surgery.  He took two or three bullets covering Grace.  How bad is the attack there?” asked Becky.

“The guys had set up sensors in a pretty wide perimeter, now they had plenty of advance warning.  They stashed me and then went out to get the bad guys.  I’ve heard some shots in the distance, on the West side of the house.  I’m worried, Becky.  What’s happening?  Why would someone attack us like this?” she asked.

“My best guess would be the Kadyrov family.  The trial starts on Monday.  I’ve called in reinforcements.  All the Nephilim who were scheduled to come in on Friday are coming in tonight instead.  As soon as your situation there is stable, I’m moving you into Chicago.

“I gotta go.  I need to call Jett back because I just had a brainstorm.  Call me every fifteen minutes exactly on the quarter-hour, which will make your first call in eleven minutes.  I need to be able to know you’re okay and then let others know.  I also called the Sheriff; the police should be arriving in minutes,” said Becky.

“Thanks Becks, I’ll call,” promised Addie happily. 

She was grateful for the connection.  She had been going crazy waiting like this.  Now she needed to go and see her sister.

“No problem, Professor.  I’m just glad you’re okay.  Bye,” Becky said and hung up.

She swiveled in her chair and turned on her encrypted PC.  As it powered up, she called Jett.  From the sirens in the background, she realized they were in the ambulance on their way to the hospital.

“Jett, Addie is fine.  I just spoke to her.  The house was attacked also, but they have the situation in hand.  As soon as they can, they’re coming into the City.  In the meantime, she’s calling me every fifteen minutes to check in and get an update on Grace and Justyn.  What’s the status?”

“Bless the Goddess!” he said.  “Grace regained consciousness a minute or so after we last hung up.  We didn’t mention that we couldn’t reach Addie.  She was stable when they loaded her into the second ambulance.  I’m following them both in.  The police are giving us an armed escort.” 

BOOK: Lucy Kelly
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