Free Dark Mountains by Amanda Meredith Page A

jumped out of her chair with a shriek. The sudden movement had my body instinctively reacting. Years of training made the movement involuntary. I went to lunge out of the bed, intending to grab Libby and shield her from danger.
    I instantly regretted it. The pain was bewildering. Every part of my body was on fire. I moaned, the sound gurgled by the ventilator. I hadn’t gone far. I realized that my arms and legs were restrained and was actually thankful for that. My unnecessary evasive maneuvers would’ve sent me flying off the bed had they not been holding me in place.
    “Cole?” Libby’s voice was like a balm to my burning body. I tried to focus on her face but my eyes had filled with tears. “Oh God, Cole. I’m so sorry!” She put her hands on my face and leaned above me so I could see her without moving my head. I was struggling to focus and I could feel my body going into a panic when I couldn’t control my own breathing. My body was screaming at me to suck in giant breaths but I could only breathe with the steady rhythm of the machine.
    “Cole, look at me,” she commanded as she stroked my cheek. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to force my body to obey. I opened them again and saw that she was crying. I tried to lift my hand to wipe them away but they were held down by the restraints.
    “No, no.” She reached a hand down to hold mine. “Keep still. It’s alright.” I shook my head a little. I couldn’t panic right now. Every movement dipped me in that lake of fire and I didn’t want to risk losing control again. “Don’t try to talk, honey. You’re on a ventilator. Do you understand?” I tried to nod my head but the pain had me closing my eyes again. “Blink if you understand me.” I opened my eyes and very carefully blinked for her.  She smiled, new tears coming to her eyes.
    “You’re in the hospital, near Ramstein. Do you understand? Blink twice for no.” I blinked once for her again.
    Ramstein was where they sent you were seriously wounded. Minor injuries were treated in the forward operating hospitals near your field base. If you were too injured to serve but well enough to fly, they shipped you stateside to Walter Reed. I resisted trying to wiggle all my toes and fingers. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to know if they were all there or not. Then I wondered absently if I’d even be able to tell.
    “Do you remember anything?” She asked me and I blinked twice. She seemed to chew on her lip a little before she spoke, as if she was unsure of how to tell me. I could only pray I wasn’t missing a leg.
    “You were on a mission, by yourself,” she started and I blinked once. I remembered that part. My mission had been to assassinate a murderer. “There was an explosion.” I blinked twice. I didn’t remember any of this. What explosion? “Cole, you’ve been in a coma for over two weeks.”
    Two weeks? Jesus. What the hell had happened to me? I was blinking furiously now.
    “It’s okay.” She was stroking my cheek again. “Your brain got bounced around in that hard head of yours and swelled too much. There’s a fracture above your left ear. They kept you asleep while the swelling went down.” She leaned down and kissed my cheek. “You broke a few ribs and punctured your spleen. You got lucky… they didn’t have to take it out.” She smiled a bit and continued to touch my face.
    “You’ve got some pretty bad burns that are going to need skin grafts…” I blinked furiously at that. I’d seen soldiers with bad burns. They didn’t even look like men anymore.
    “They’re on the back of your neck and upper arms. The doctor said they wouldn’t scar too badly. You broke your nose.” She chuckled a little and I blinked twice again. “I was just thinking that this little bend in your nose makes you even more handsome than you were before.” I couldn’t blink for a second and then, very carefully, blinked once. “There’s a bit of shrapnel embedded here” I could