Free Gifted Curse (Curse Trilogy) by C.M. Owens

around at the chaotic destruction I’ve evoked.  The dust has clouded my view of the barricade.  Dead bodies are all that surround me, filling me with a darker, draining knot forming in my throat.  I only pray that barricade shielded them all from my deadly blast.
    “Brazen!” I panic.
    “He’s here,” Clay says, and I rush over to see the gashes covering our commander.
    My eyes move to the man lying in his lap, and my heart pops up in my mouth as a cold heat floods through me.  I can barely tell it’s Brazen.  His eyes are open, but he’s almost strangling to try to talk.  His lips are cracked, singed.  His charred skin hides the beauty he normally displays as the red pours from his gaping, fatal wounds.  His labored breaths tell the secrets of the excruciating pain he’s in, forcing my tears to pour out in abundance.
    “A uranium grenade almost hit me.  Brazen stepped in front of me to absorb the blast,” Clay explains with guilty eyes, but he looks as if he was almost blown up too.
    Hale and the others swoop in just in time to start grabbing people up.  I stand frozen, staring at the man I’ve promised my life to as he suffers in agony.
    “Get the full bloods to the tinted vehicles now.  The rest can be treated here.  Bring the blood.  All of it,” Hale commands, and men scramble to do as he asks.
    I snap out of my moment of terror, praying I can subdue the devil within.  Hale’s eyes flash over to me as he gauges my pupils.  He looks away when he sees it’s still just me.
    I follow the man carrying Brazen to the vehicle, and I grab four packs of blood before I leap in with him.  I use my teeth to rip open the bag, and I start pouring the blood into his mouth before I assess his damages any farther.
    “You’re okay.  I’m here now.  You’re going to be okay,” I almost cry, and then my shaky hands grab another bag to tear open.
    I almost drown him in this one when my hands tremble too much and the bag gushes the blood into his throat.
    When I reach down to grab another, his hand pulls it up for me.  Tears surge free from my swelling eyes as I watch his wounds healing from the heaps of blood I’ve forced down him.  They begin sealing up very slowly, and his broken bones begin cracking back into place.  He gasps when air finally flows into his lungs without obstruction, and he takes several easy, deep breaths.  He casually opens the third pack himself, and he begins sipping it as if it’s just a snack.
    “Well, I suppose I must look pretty damn terrible for you to be holding such heavy tears,” he smoothly rolls out, his hand motioning for me to come to him, and my wails ring free as I lean into his chest.
    “I’m okay,” he coos as he holds me to him, stroking my windblown hair with his hand.  “Look.  They’re all gone now.”
    I see the threat of the tint dropping from the sky, and I scramble to roll up the dividing glass from the back to the front.  I sigh in relief when I finally know he’s safe - from everything.  Very gradually the size of the knots in my stomach and throat begin to lessen.
    “I didn’t think I was going to make it in time,” I whimper.
    “You did.  It’s rather emasculating to need my girl to save me, but I’m damn glad you got here when you did.  They fried our radios right away, and then another pulse killed our cell phones.  The ones in charge left before it was over.  We didn’t even-”
    My lips silence his rambling ones.  I just want to feel his touch.  I don’t want a debriefing just yet .  His hands grip against my back, and I lie on top of him in the back of the tinted vehicle.
    “I was so worried,” I breathe.
    “I was too,” he confesses.  “I sure as hell wasn’t ready to go before I got to see you walk down the aisle,” he playfully adds.
    I cry and laugh at the same time until his lips halt mine’s quivering again.  I hear the front doors opening, but the dividing glass is too dark for me to see who’s