Sons of Lyra: Fight For Love (5 page)

She ran to him, her mind
filling with his brother’s words about protecting him. She had to
help him. He needed her now more than ever. She grabbed his empty
arm and gently placed it around her shoulders, helping Alessandro
support him and leading the way to her office. Remi slumped against
her. She gritted her teeth and forced him upwards, intent on
supporting his weight and getting him to her table.

It seemed to take forever
to get him into the room and there was no sense of relief when he
was finally on the inspection table. He collapsed. She shouted for
a nurse to assist Alessandro and then ran around the table to her
tools. Leaning over Remi, she patted his cheek, faster and faster,
matching her racing hearts. He murmured something, barely
conscious.

“
Remi, Remi...
Remi!” she said, frantic and terrified by the sight of so much
blood on him. It plastered his face and his clothes. There wasn’t
an inch of him that didn’t seem to be coated in it. “Don’t die on
me!”

His hand weakly caught
hers and stopped her from patting his cheek.

“
I’ll live for
you instead,” he croaked and frowned as he opened his eyes and
looked at her. “I’m fine... Jericho.”

She wasn’t at all
convinced that he was fine.

“
What about
him?” she said.

“
It’s his
blood... a Heavy Armour... it tore him apart. He didn’t stand a
chance.” He threw an arm over his eyes and swallowed hard. His
tight voice, laden with emotion, said that he was close to tears.
It was understandable. He loved Jericho like a brother.

A noise in the hall made
her look up, the sound of rushing feet and shouted
commands.

“
What about
Ambra—” Her question seemed redundant when the doctors rushed past
with a hover-stretcher, Ambra running behind them. Emmanuelle
swallowed. The entire blanket covering the patient on the stretcher
had been red with blood. There’d been life support equipment
onboard.

“
Jericho... he
tried to protect Ambra. He... don’t let him die. Do whatever you
can for him... even if it’s...” he trailed off and flexed his
cybernetic hand. “I couldn’t protect... we were separated... I was
too late. I should’ve been there. It was my fault.”

Emmanuelle held him down
when he tried to sit up. He winced and pushed against her. She
pushed back, determined not to let him aggravate his injuries and
put his own life at risk.

“
Calm down.
It’s not your fault, Remi,” she whispered, her hand against his
cheek. His tears dampened her fingertips and cut through the blood
on his face.

“
Whatever it
takes...” He looked up at her, tears shining in his eyes. “Save
him.”

Tears filled her own eyes
when she saw all the hurt in his. He and Jericho had been
inseparable since the academy. They were closer than
brothers.

“
A normal
soldier won’t be given such treatment.” It broke her heart to tell
him that and see the realisation dawn in his eyes. Jericho would
likely die.

He went to sit up again.
She pushed him back down. Anger flashed in his dark eyes, red with
tears.

“
I’m a normal
soldier like him! Like all of them!” He tried to push her away but
she held him down. Her hands shook against him, trembling with fear
as his whole face darkened. “Let me go!”

“
No!” She
pressed her hands against his shoulders and shoved him back down,
pinning him against the table. “You’re not a normal soldier. You’re
a prince, a son of Lyra. Your kingdom would do anything for
you.”

Fear shook her when his
cybernetic hand closed tight around her wrist, making her bones
creak. He gritted his teeth and pushed her away. She stumbled
backwards and put a hand out behind her to grab the cupboards there
and stop her from hitting them.

He was off the inspection
table before she could stop him.

“
They’ll do
this for me then!” He limped from the room and she followed him as
he shoved people in the corridor aside and pushed
through.

The gaps he’d made for
himself closed behind him, hindering her. Before she could reach
him, he was opening the doors to the operating theatre. She grabbed
his arm and he turned on her. In his eyes, anger overruled
pain.

“
Leave me
alone!” He pushed her hand off him. “Let me do this.”

She grabbed him again,
unwilling to give up that easily. She had to get him back to her
inspection table before he passed out. It had to be purely
adrenaline keeping him going now. “What are you going to
do?”

He turned away and looked
into the operating theatre. She looked past him at the doctors and
Jericho where he lay on the table. A glance at Remi made her heart
ache. The tears trembled on the brink of falling, his face ashen
beneath the blood. The theatre lights reflected in his eyes. She
could almost see Jericho in them. She didn’t want to look at him.
There was no way the doctors would be able to save him.

Remi swallowed and then
frowned.

“
Whatever it
takes, understand?” he said when the doctors looked his way, voice
showing none of the raw emotions she could see in his eyes. There
was only determination and anger in it. “On my authority, do
whatever it takes. If Jericho dies, I will never forgive
you.”

Ambra pushed past her and
Emmanuelle was glad when Remi stopped her. He held Ambra close, his
broad frame protecting her from the sight of Jericho. Ambra shook,
trembling in Remi’s arms.

“
I won’t let
anything happen to him, Ambra,” Remi said and held her closer.
Emmanuelle stepped back to give them more room. “I’ll bring him
back for you, but he might not be the same.”

Ambra looked up at him
with wide eyes and understanding gradually dawned in them. She
touched his cybernetic arm and forced a smile.

“
I’ll always
love Jericho... always. It doesn’t matter what it takes to save
him. I’ll always be there for him when he needs me.”

Remi’s hand covered hers
and held it.

“
Thank you
Remi... I know that if it weren’t for you... he’d be dead already,”
Ambra said with another smile, this one holding more
feeling.

“
I’ll be there
for you both—” He wavered on the spot, swallowed hard, and then
collapsed to his knees.

Ambra looked
horrified.

Emmanuelle rushed to his
side, crouching close to him and placing her hand against his back.
He wearily raised his head and looked at her. His pupils dilated
and contracted, clearly struggling to focus.

“
Will you let
me attend to you now?” she whispered.

He nodded.

She pulled his arm around
her shoulder and helped him stand with the aid of a male
nurse.

“
You were
fooling nobody by saying you were fine,” she muttered and took him
back to her office.

It was an effort to get
him onto the inspection table and lay him down. The weight of him
drained her strength and she was breathing hard when she finally
ducked out from under his arm. She carefully opened his armoured
jacket and his shirt. He grimaced when she made him sit up again so
she could remove them completely. They dropped to the floor at her
feet.

Several men in black
rushed past her office. One stopped in the doorway. The intricate
white logo emblazoned on the left side of his chest told her that
he was a bio-engineer.

She grabbed the scanner
and ran it over Remi’s torso.

“
Does
Lieutenant Lyra IV need anything?” the man said.

She shook her head. “I can
handle him and his arm is fine.”

The man nodded and left.
She pressed the button on the control panel and closed the door so
she wouldn’t be disturbed again. Running the scanner over Remi’s
legs revealed that he had a weapons fire wound on his left thigh
and his right knee was badly damaged. There was a burn mark and
hole in his right upper arm too, and several lacerations across his
stomach. It was nothing she couldn’t repair or aid towards
recovery. His knee would be the hardest. All she could do for it
was use the binder to bring the flesh together again and then
bandage it. It was down to his body to heal that one.

He winced and muttered
something. She pressed a hand to his forehead. His skin was red hot
and damp with sweat. He was becoming feverish. Picking up the
injection gun, she loaded it with painkillers and then pressed it
against the side of his arm. She fired it and he winced again
before sleepily opening his eyes to look at her. Her fingers
brushed his cheek and she smiled at him.

“
Rest,” she
said and his eyes closed and then opened again, as though he was
fighting the effect of the drug. “I won’t let anything happen to
you, Remi.”

His eyes closed. She
checked his vitals on the large monitor above the head end of the
inspection table to her left and then set to work. It was going to
be a long night. She only hoped that the bio-engineering team would
be able to save Jericho.

She picked up the skin
healing device and ran it over the cuts on his stomach and any
other shallow wounds she could see. When they were closed, she
carefully removed his trousers and boots, leaving him in only his
underwear. She blushed when she remembered when they’d last been in
this room together and then forced those thoughts out of her head.
It wouldn’t do to get distracted now. She had to focus so she could
save him. One mistake could cost him his knee. If they had to
replace it, it would be months before he would be allowed to return
to duty. He’d miss his chance to enter the pilot academy. She knew
how important that was to him, and how important it was that he
entered there as just another soldier. No doubt his parents could
get him in at any point in the course if he missed the start, but
it wouldn’t be what Remi wanted. He wanted to be treated as a
normal soldier. Normal soldiers couldn’t jump in mid-way through a
course.

Healing the smaller cuts
on his legs, she paused briefly at his knee to check on it. The
wound was deep enough to reveal bone. It needed to be healed
quickly to avoid more blood loss or permanent damage. She placed
the skin healer down and picked up the next device. The instant she
ran the blue beam over his knee, the bone began to disappear, his
flesh knitting back together. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the
blood vessels and muscles would heal given a few weeks
rest.

She stifled a yawn as the
hours drew on and she stood holding the device. It was slow work
and she was beginning to tire. There were still another two wounds
to fix. She glanced at them, checking they weren’t bleeding, and
then looked up at his face. It was ashen. The image of his body on
the monitor said he was stable, but the sight of him so pale and
drawn made her worry. The device in her hands beeped and she looked
down to see that it had finished its job. She applied some salve to
his knee and then bandaged it.

Another hour and she’d
healed the wound on his other leg and his upper arm. She placed the
device down, dragged a stool over, and slumped onto it, ready to
collapse.

Her fingers smoothed the
hair from his forehead, stroking it gently. The medication would
keep him asleep for a few hours more yet and then she’d give him
another dose. The hall outside her office had gone quiet. She
leaned over and pressed a kiss to Remi’s lips, and then folded her
arms on the table beside him and rested her head on them. She
wanted to keep an eye on him but it was impossible to keep them
open. Closing her eyes, she yawned and drifted away.

***

Remi frowned and then
internally grimaced when he tried to move and found he couldn’t. He
focused, feeling groggy and weak, and tried to figure out what was
happening. Slowly, feeling in his hands and feet returned. Pain
burned in his knee and his right arm. He swallowed it and blinked
his eyes open. The lights were too bright. He squinted and then
smiled inside when the fuzzy shape of Emmanuelle gradually came
into focus.

She leaned over him,
running the healing device over something. His knee. Now that his
head was clearing, he could feel the warm tickle of the red beam
over his skin.

It gradually turned from a
warm tickle to a burning pain.

He grimaced and flexed his
fingers into fists.

“
Keep still,”
she whispered, voice soothing and gentle as always. It warmed his
heart to hear the concern and affection in it.

She put the device down on
the table near his feet and walked up to him. His eyes followed her
every move and he frowned when she picked up an injection gun and
loaded it with a clear liquid.

“
Don’t knock me
out again,” he croaked, throat parched and sore.

She smiled and her grey
eyes shone with it. Her fingers brushed his forehead and he closed
his eyes at the calming touch.

“
It’s only a
painkiller,” she said and he flinched when she shot the injection
into his neck.

The whole world suddenly
seemed more hazy and warm. He looked up at her, smiling dazedly as
the heat rushed through him to fill every inch of his body. His
head felt fuzzy. He felt like he had after their moment
together.