Brother Remembered - Black Dagger Brotherhood FanFic - Sumter Colony 2

Chapter 24

Night returned to his awkward pacing, playing sentry because he knew nothing else to do. When he heard engines, he ran to the edge of the field and shielded his eyes against the glare. To his great relief, he saw two of the farm's four-wheel-drive trucks with several doggen, including Ehmily, in the beds.

"Jane! They're coming across the field!"

Jane appeared next to him. "Good. V is stable if a bit rattled. The gunshot was a through-and-through and is already starting to heal. Hatrhed is still out, though. I don't know if that's normal, but we can't move her until dark anyway, so there's little to be done."

They watched the trucks approach, and Jane was very efficient with the resources and people when they arrived. Within fifteen minutes, they had Ace strapped to a board and loaded into one of the trucks.

The second truck had carried armed farmhands staying behind to provide protection. Night answered all their questions about the lessers they'd encountered, but he didn't have much information to give them.

"It's like they appeared out of nowhere," he explained.

Ehmily nodded. "When they don't return to report in, others might be sent out to find them."

Night agreed. He surveyed the crew she'd brought. "They know how to fight?"

"Trained by Hatrhed herself," Ehmily answered with pride. "Now, you should get in the truck and go with Ace. He's going to want you there when he wakes up."

The vehicle door was open, waiting for him to ride shotgun. He climbed into the passenger seat and pulled it closed. He twisted around to see that they had rigged the board up so that it was still flat but suspended, somewhat more shockproof to movement than it might otherwise have been. It was slow going, but they eventually reached the road that led to the clinic.

As soon as they were all inside the shuttered above-ground building, the elevator opened for them. They rode down to the underground level, where Vicktor and his staff took over.

They whisked Ace, still unresponsive, away, leaving Night with an empty coffee pot in the equally empty waiting room. He sat until he couldn't sit still, then paced until he couldn't stand it anymore, so he rinsed and repeated the routine. The receptionist eventually felt enough pity for him that she made coffee, which allowed him to have something to carry around and ignore until it got cold.

He had almost fallen asleep propped into a corner on one chair, another acting as a footrest when he heard Jane's voice.

"Night?"

He bolted upright, awake. "How is he?"

She sat beside him. "We were able to remove the bullet from his thigh, and he's getting a transfusion right now for the blood loss. But, he's broken his C2 vertebra, which is in his neck. We'd go in and fuse the bone in a human, but because he's pretrans, we don't think that's a good idea. When he transitions, having rods and screws in bones could cause more damage. So, we have put him in a Minerva brace for traction."

"What's that?"

"A very sophisticated neck brace that helps hold the head in position. It's non-invasive."

Night rubbed his face. "Lassiter says that he'll transition in less than a year and that it will be difficult for him."

"Well, going through a transition with a neck injury would be difficult. But, let's focus on the next few hours first." She smiled at the receptionist who came in to remake coffee before continuing. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet, so we have no way of assessing the true extent of the damage."