Chapter 51 Bleed Out
Grace lay quietly on the ground, trying to gather her thoughts.
The terrifying sound of silenced gunfire had long ceased, replaced by shouting voices and the crackle of police radios somewhere beyond the destroyed room.
Grace tried to process what had just happened. Someone had tried to kill them. Had opened fire on a hospital room with no regard for who else might be in the line of fire. The wounded officer's groans that sounded somewhere nearby as he was carried out of the room, was testament to that.
She suddenly felt a heavy weight on her that immediately snapped her out of her thoughts. "Enzo," Grace tried to shift from beneath Enzo as he had practically collapsed on her, she tried to create some space so she could breathe properly, but he was too heavy and her arms moved at awkward angles.
"Enzo," Grace said again, keeping her voice low despite the chaos around them. "Enzo, you're quite heavy, I can't breathe."
Nothing. No response. No movement except the shallow rise and fall of his chest.
‘What's with this sudden lack of disgust?’
Grace tried to crane her neck to see his face. It was pressed against her shoulder, his dark hair falling across his forehead in messy strands. His eyes were closed, his features pale in a way that sent alarm bells ringing through Grace's mind.
That's when she felt it.
Warmth spreading across her torso. Slow at first, then faster. A wet heat that soaked through her shirt with alarming speed, spreading until it pooled against her skin and seeped into the waistband of her jeans.
Grace looked down as much as she could manage from her trapped position beneath him.
Blood. So much blood. Dark and thick, streaming from somewhere on Enzo's body. She couldn't see the exact source from this angle, but she could see the damage. Could see how it soaked through both their clothes, spreading in an ever-widening stain that was pooling on the floor beneath them.
"Enzo." Grace's voice rose, panic overriding any instinct to stay quiet. "Enzo, wake up."
She pushed against him with more urgency now, trying to create enough space to assess where the blood was coming from. But he was deadweight on top of her, his body completely limp and unresponsive.
He was bleeding out on her.
The realization hit Grace like ice water. All the blood he'd already lost in the fight with Maddox, all the damage his body had been struggling to repair, and now new wounds from the gunfire had torn through whatever progress his healing had made.
‘Damn silver bullets!’
"Enzo!" Grace's voice cracked on his name. She tried to free her arms, tried to push him off her enough to get up and get help, but her leverage was all wrong and she feared that making the wrong move would only worsen it all. "Enzo, please."
His head lifted slightly. Just barely, like it took every ounce of strength he had left. His dark eyes opened to half-mast, unfocused and glassy, finding her face with what looked like tremendous effort.
His lips moved. Grace saw them form her name but no sound came out. Just an exhale that smelled like copper and pain.
Then his eyes closed again and his head dropped back onto her shoulder like all the strings holding him up had been cut.
The full weight of panic crashed over Grace. She stopped trying to be gentle, stopped worrying about aggravating his injuries, and just screamed.
"Help! I need help in here! Someone help us!"
Her voice tore through the destroyed room, raw and desperate. She kept screaming, kept pushing against Enzo's deadweight with everything she had, tears streaming down her face to mix with the blood that covered them both.
Outside in the corridor, Grace could hear an officer's voice cutting through the chaos on his radio. The words came through muffled but clear enough to make out.
"Shots fired at Saint Mary's, fourth floor east wing. The shooter has stopped. We have a man down, requesting immediate backup and medical assistance."
Static crackled on the radio. More voices responding, coordinating, organizing a response that felt too slow for what Grace needed.
She could hear voices and radio static somewhere in the corridor beyond, the muffled sound of officers coordinating in the aftermath of the attack. But no one came. The chaos outside had everyone’s attention pulled elsewhere, and Grace’s screams were just one more sound swallowed by the noise.
She didn’t know how much time passed. It felt like an eternity. She only knew that Enzo kept bleeding and she couldn’t get free and help wasn’t coming fast enough.