Read Online Capturing Today (TimeShifters Book 2) by Jessica Keller, Jess Evander - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jessica Keller, Jess Evander
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Darnell.
Please let him live.
“Come on.” He leans even closer. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Blood.” I hold up my hand.
His eyes rake down me then back up. “Where? Where are you hurt?” He’s yelling, bent close to one of my ears in order for me to hear him.
“Not me.” I reach out to touch his blood coated side again. “You.”
“I’m not hurt.” Michael looks down. “That’s not mine. At least I don’t think …” He tentatively touches some of the stain with his fingertips. “Unless I’m in shock.” He looks over his shoulder. “It’s not me.” He swivels back toward me, his face blanched. “This man needs more medical help than I can give him in a trench.”
When Michael moves, I spot the man. Mud and fallen sandbags blocked him from my view before. He’s groaning and bleeding. A lot. I bounce my gaze to the trench wall. Watch a tangle of ants race back through a pinhole in the wall.
No matter our size, the world quakes around us all.
I glance back at the man, and recognition washes over me. I don’t know him—not personally—but he was next in line to have his feet examined. If he hadn’t been standing where he was, whatever hit him would have hit us.
Guilt rushes cold and tight through my veins.
“The stretcher runners won’t come until the exchange fire ceases. I think we should walk him back now. Will you help me?” Michael stands beside me and does that thing where he turns his head and speaks low as if he’s afraid the man might overhear. In a scenario that didn’t involve the man sustaining life-threatening injuries, the whispering would be laughable. It’s way too loud for the man to hear us.
“Of course.”
Michael kneels down and speaks with the severely wounded man. Then he motions for me to get on the man’s other side, so we can form human crutches. The soldier grits his teeth. His eyes shut so tight they look like big wrinkles on his head. Like he doesn’t even have eyes. Which is actually pretty gruesome.
I check the wall for ants again.
Eddie switches out with another man behind a machine gun. I can say this for Lark’s Pairing, the man moves like lightning. In the space of the past few minutes, he’s gotten back to his post and manned it while Michael and I were in our own world.
“I’ll cover you.” Eddie pulls a smaller gun from his side. The smiling Hallmark man has been replaced by a broad chested superhero straight out of a summer blockbuster movie. I can’t wait to tell Lark how much I like him.
Well, if I get out of here alive.
I nod to Michael, letting him know I’m ready.
We make for the steps. The gunfire doesn’t sound as close any longer. Or perhaps I’m a pro at wishful thinking.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Instinctively, I tuck my chin to my chest. Which will do me a bean pile of good if someone shoots at us. Blessedly, we make it up the crumbling steps, out of the trench, and start to head away from the front lines. Eddie flags us for the first hundred meters before giving me a quick salute as he heads back to the trenches. Now that I know Eddie is here—in danger—I should have made him come with us. Lark will skin me alive if something happens to him. Not even exaggerating.
The injured man is walking reasonably well, all things considered. He has weight against me but not enough that I feel strained by it.
I peek back over my shoulder at the fighting behind us. Hoping to spot Eddie positioned behind a machine gun, safe behind the wall of sandbags. Instead, I see them.
Shades.
In No Man’s Land.
Tons of them.
My heart breaks into a gallop. Blood punches through my veins loud and hard.
A couple of Shades rise to their full height. Stare directly at me. Others crawl across the men dying out in the field. A handful of them sit as if they might spread out a picnic there.
The only positive? They make no move to follow us.
Snapping my head back around, I force Michael and the soldier to walk
Please let him live.
“Come on.” He leans even closer. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Blood.” I hold up my hand.
His eyes rake down me then back up. “Where? Where are you hurt?” He’s yelling, bent close to one of my ears in order for me to hear him.
“Not me.” I reach out to touch his blood coated side again. “You.”
“I’m not hurt.” Michael looks down. “That’s not mine. At least I don’t think …” He tentatively touches some of the stain with his fingertips. “Unless I’m in shock.” He looks over his shoulder. “It’s not me.” He swivels back toward me, his face blanched. “This man needs more medical help than I can give him in a trench.”
When Michael moves, I spot the man. Mud and fallen sandbags blocked him from my view before. He’s groaning and bleeding. A lot. I bounce my gaze to the trench wall. Watch a tangle of ants race back through a pinhole in the wall.
No matter our size, the world quakes around us all.
I glance back at the man, and recognition washes over me. I don’t know him—not personally—but he was next in line to have his feet examined. If he hadn’t been standing where he was, whatever hit him would have hit us.
Guilt rushes cold and tight through my veins.
“The stretcher runners won’t come until the exchange fire ceases. I think we should walk him back now. Will you help me?” Michael stands beside me and does that thing where he turns his head and speaks low as if he’s afraid the man might overhear. In a scenario that didn’t involve the man sustaining life-threatening injuries, the whispering would be laughable. It’s way too loud for the man to hear us.
“Of course.”
Michael kneels down and speaks with the severely wounded man. Then he motions for me to get on the man’s other side, so we can form human crutches. The soldier grits his teeth. His eyes shut so tight they look like big wrinkles on his head. Like he doesn’t even have eyes. Which is actually pretty gruesome.
I check the wall for ants again.
Eddie switches out with another man behind a machine gun. I can say this for Lark’s Pairing, the man moves like lightning. In the space of the past few minutes, he’s gotten back to his post and manned it while Michael and I were in our own world.
“I’ll cover you.” Eddie pulls a smaller gun from his side. The smiling Hallmark man has been replaced by a broad chested superhero straight out of a summer blockbuster movie. I can’t wait to tell Lark how much I like him.
Well, if I get out of here alive.
I nod to Michael, letting him know I’m ready.
We make for the steps. The gunfire doesn’t sound as close any longer. Or perhaps I’m a pro at wishful thinking.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Instinctively, I tuck my chin to my chest. Which will do me a bean pile of good if someone shoots at us. Blessedly, we make it up the crumbling steps, out of the trench, and start to head away from the front lines. Eddie flags us for the first hundred meters before giving me a quick salute as he heads back to the trenches. Now that I know Eddie is here—in danger—I should have made him come with us. Lark will skin me alive if something happens to him. Not even exaggerating.
The injured man is walking reasonably well, all things considered. He has weight against me but not enough that I feel strained by it.
I peek back over my shoulder at the fighting behind us. Hoping to spot Eddie positioned behind a machine gun, safe behind the wall of sandbags. Instead, I see them.
Shades.
In No Man’s Land.
Tons of them.
My heart breaks into a gallop. Blood punches through my veins loud and hard.
A couple of Shades rise to their full height. Stare directly at me. Others crawl across the men dying out in the field. A handful of them sit as if they might spread out a picnic there.
The only positive? They make no move to follow us.
Snapping my head back around, I force Michael and the soldier to walk
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