Away in a Tentacle Lair

27. Leo

Chapter twenty-seven

Leo

K ai’s family move quickly after the explosives are detonated around the filtration system. Seeing Kai standing with the men we are here to stop has my heart pounding, but I know my role in this rescue. I move ahead of the family, raising my hands at the sight of the guards’ weapons.

“What’s going on?” I ask in a shrill, scared voice. What do I need to do?”

I’m wearing my Marine Centre uniform, complete with a genuine ID tag. I look like one of them. Oslo beckons me over. “Hold him. We need to question him.”

As Nicholas planned, I am tasked with holding Kai so the armed guards can focus on the family.

I pull Kai back as his family challenges the research facility's management team. Mafia shifters against scientists shouldn't feel so evenly matched, but they're all packing guns, and I am lacking in anything to keep Kai safe. This makes us easy targets to the people I considered the good guys until I met Kai. Guns turn towards us, and I try to get in front of my man, but he gets in front of me. Mafia reflexes are faster than mine. I'm not ducking behind cover and taking shots at the bad guys because I'm a civilian who has never touched a gun before in my life. The only reason Kai isn't is because no one has given him a weapon.

A gun points right at me, and for a moment, it's all I can see. Then I see Kai. He jumps at the man, turning his body so when the gun fires, I'm no longer in its sights. The gun fires again, but when the two men part, it's Kai holding the weapon.

He turns it on the security officer and fires, dropping the man with one bullet. Kai doesn't move. He just stands with his back to me, his dark sweatshirt looking wet again.

The world falls away from my senses, and the gunshots mute against the emptiness in my mind. As I walk towards him, there is only Kai left. My hand touches the damp and comes away red.

“Kai?”

“I can't move.” His strained reply has me hurrying to his front. There's dampness on his jumper across his chest.

“Kai…” I whisper. What do I do?”

“Can't… move…” he grinds out.

“Nicholas!” I scream.

One of Kai's uncles responds. I think his name is Frank, but I'm not sure. All I'm thinking about is losing Kai.

“Take his arm, quickly.”

I copy him, taking Kai's arm and dragging him backwards until we're behind the mermaid changing hut. Frank lifts Kai's top, revealing the bullet wound just under his ribs.

“Kai, look at me, it's Uncle Frank. You're going to be OK.” Frank strips his jacket and shirt, balling the material in my fist. “Hold that there. Press hard.”

I pull Kai into my arms and push the material against the bleeding hole in his body.

Kai's body is limp, his eyes fixed on me. Instead of the jerry breaths of someone in pain, he's not breathing at all.

“Breathe, Kai,” I urge.

“Wrong order,” Frank snaps, his hands pressed against Kai's back. “Submerge Kai, imagine you are deep under the water.”

“Why?” I frown.

“There is something known as the mammalian dive reflex. It's triggered by submerging in cold water. It slows the heart, contracts the spleen, and keeps him alive.” Frank looks up at me. His words may sound calm, but his eyes speak the truth.

This is serious.

Of course, I knew that, but his look brings it home.

“I can't be here when the police and ambulance arrive. You can.” Frank moves my free hand around Kai's body to his soaking wet jacket. “Keep him alive for me.”

Frank abandons me with my dying man. I hold him tight, compressing the bullet wounds to stem the flow of blood.

“I… love… you,” Kai mutters weakly before he takes another breath and slowly lets it slip from his lips.

For six minutes, I watch him; the only sign of life is the infrequent blinking. I tell him I love him over and over, squeezing him like I can hold the blood inside him instead of feeling its heat trickle down my legs.

“Alright, son? Helps here.” A copper kneels beside me, hand on my shoulder.

“He's been shot. They're crazy.” I gesture behind me to where the shootout occurred.

“Relax. You can tell me everything after. For now, let's focus on your friend.”

He yells for the paramedics, and soon, Kai has a team of three working with him.

“He’s a free diver,” I yell. “He’s holding his breath to save oxygen.”

He's not; he's unconscious. I can tell by the fact they've put a mask over his face, and one squeezes on the bag to force air into his lungs.

They ignore me. There is no way to treat him where he is; the only cure is to rush him to the hospital.

Soon, I'm left standing alone, cradling my blood-soaked clothes against me.

“Let's get some details from you, and then I'll have one of my guys take you to the hospital.”

“Sure.”

I numbly tell the officer my name and my role in the centre. My statement consists of helping the mermaid out of the tank and watching hell unfold. I tried to get Kai to safety but failed.

I failed to save my man.

After sobbing my heart out, he sends me to shower and change, and I obey. I want to get to Kai but can't stand the coppery smell clinging to my sticky clothing.

My ride to the hospital is when it truly hits me when I'm sitting idle in the back of the police car with nothing to occupy my hands.

The security officers were armed. They were trying to kill my man. The curse doesn't give the family long life or healing powers beyond a normal human. I know that from the harrowing tale of his mother, whose death no longer feels quite the accident it did before. People surface under boats constantly; it's terrible, but Kai said he sat under the water, knowing it was too dangerous to surface. That doesn't sound like a kid who swam daily. He chose to hide under the water rather than get help for his mum. He knew they were looking for him.