Free Warrior's Mate by Tehya Titan Page B

was
nothing compared to the grief she felt when she saw Dobbs in the driver’s seat,
his eyes wide open and unseeing. Her throat seized up as she tried to speak,
and she coughed a little, sending bolts of agony through her system.
    “Tex? Morris?”
    She repeated
their names a few more times, hearing the barely veiled panic in her own voice
as she did. It made her want to weep with gratitude when she heard an answering
groan from one of the men in the back. That brief moment of thanks quickly
changed to anguish as she turned her head again and saw the other Humvee had
been blown to pieces, the skeleton of the vehicle a fiery inferno.
    Fuck…there had
been four good men in that vehicle, and now they were gone.
    The smell of
gasoline had Jordan focusing back on her own situation. There would be time to
grieve for the others later. Her hands fumbled with the seatbelt release, and
she braced herself for the pain to come as she hit the button. She let out a
scream as she fell, the pain so great she felt as if she were going to puke her
guts out.
    Blood poured
from her wound since the movement had caused the metal shrapnel to jerk from
her body, and she held a hand over it. Jordan ripped the bandana she always
carried out of her pocket, and pressed it against the wound to staunch the
blood. The temporary fix wouldn’t last long, but it would have to do for now.
    “Loot?”
    Relief swept
through her at the sound of Calhoun’s voice, even if he did sound slightly out
of it. “Tex! You okay?”
    He groaned.
“Shoulder is fucked, my leg is bleeding like a stuck pig, and my head hurts
like a bitch, but overall I’m good.”
    “There’s a gas
leak. Get out. Get out now.”
    “Copy that.
Morris is unconscious. He’s got a pretty nasty cut on his head. What about Dobbs?”
    “He didn’t make
it.”
    “Fuck. You all
right, Ramsey?”
    “Still
breathing…for now,” she told him. The glass cut into her hands as she crawled
out of the broken window. Once outside the vehicle, she pulled at the backdoor,
but the impact when they’d hit the ground had sealed it shut. “This door won’t
open.”
    “I can get him
out on this side,” Tex told her as he used his legs to kick open the door.
    Jordan heard Tex
cursing as he pulled Morris’ unconscious body out of the vehicle with him. She
waited until she was sure the two men were clear, then she moved away from the
vehicle on the other side. Unable to stand, she crawled, but she’d only made it
a few feet before her body gave out and she collapsed on the ground.
    “Loot? Ramsey? Damn
it, Jordan, answer me!”
    Jordan heard
Tex, but she couldn’t make herself answer him. On the other side of the
vehicle, he sounded so far away, too far for him to hear her even if she could
utter a response. She used the last of her energy to flip onto her back, and
squinted up at the bright sun in the clear sky as she felt the life draining
out of her.
    This was it.
    Closing her
eyes, Jordan allowed herself to give into the lethargy that overwhelmed her.
There would be no way to get help to their location in time for her to survive,
not with the severity of her wounds. They’d lost so many good men, and for
what, damn it? Two of her men would make it back, but she wouldn’t be making it
home. Hell, she didn’t even have a home, not really. There was no one to miss
her, no one to care that she’d died on some barren roadside in the fucking
middle of nowhere.
    Wow, now that
was a pretty damn depressing thought.
    The bright red
behind her eyelids dimmed slightly as she felt someone standing over her. If it
was an insurgent coming to check to make sure she was dead, he would only have
to wait a few more minutes. When no painful kick or slap landed, she guessed it
was Tex checking on her. She opened her eyes, prepared to say goodbye to her
friend, and blinked up in confusion.
    No, the man standing
there wasn’t Tex.
    In fact, he
wasn’t even human.
    The figure above
her was shaped like a man,