Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 94: Chapter 94

Ethan's scout and I stumbled back just as the manor erupted into fire and chaos.
There were wolves and Rogues everywhere. I didn't know who was who. I had no idea if the burned man on the ground at my paws was one of ours or one of Rory's. I didn't care.
I pawed at the form, and my wolf found the strength somewhere to heal him enough to stabilize him. I couldn't do more than that. There were too many hurt, and only me to heal them.
I would later realize that the scout was using her darts and other tricks to knock out anyone who approached me while I worked. At the time I barely knew she was there. I didn't even know her name and she probably saved my life a dozen times that night.
I worked on wolves who fell unconscious at my feet. They were bloodied from battle and singed by fire. I watched one man stumble, still burning, out of the manor only to fall into the creek. The scout fished him out and dragged him to me.
I forced the water from his lungs and then healed the ribs I broke doing it. I healed the worst burns enough that shock wouldn't kill him, and looked for the next.
There were so many. The fire had come out of nowhere, and it caught both sides off guard. Later, I would learn that Rory had ordered his Rogues to torch the place.
They had thrown Molotov cocktails through the windows. But Rory hadn't known that the manor was powered by gas. In their rush to leave, the kitchen servants had left the stove running. Gas had filled the kitchen and the nearby dining room.
Then, the open flames of the molotovs had hit the gas. And everything went up in a single, huge flume of fire. I was lucky to be mostly in the woods at the time.
Most of the Rogues were retreating. They'd done what they came to do. A few still tried to find someone to fight, but between the smoke and the chaos it was hard to know who was who.
Even wolf senses could barely tell. The smoke and flame filled every nose. Forget perfume, a massive fire was the perfect disguise for scent based senses.
I healed the seriously injured as I moved. Those who were stable but bleeding and burned would have to wait for treatment by Ethan's doctors, or for me to have a full night's rest. Maybe two. I was running on empty.
I hated to turn anyone aside, no matter whether they were Leo's pack, Ethan's wolves, or the Rogues. But if they were conscious and capable of moving, I had to refuse. There were too many on the ground, too many too close to death. I had to save my strength to save those.
I heard the sound when it happened, but I didn't know what it was. It was a kind of thunderous pop that echoed over the shouts and the crackle of flames. I looked in the direction of the sound and then stumbled over to the next patient.
Then there were hands on me, pulling me away. I snarled, only to see Ethan pulling on my fur, eyes wide and wild. He was crying.
“Tessa, Leo. It's Leo,” he choked out.
I was running and shifting back to human before he finished speaking. I followed the shouting. There were a lot of screams and noise all coming from one area. Ethan ran with me, barely keeping up despite his longer legs.
Leo was on the ground. His beta, Johann, knelt over him. Johann's hands were dyed crimson with blood up to the wrist. There was so much blood splattered on him that for a moment I thought he was the one critically injured.
I knelt across Leo's body from Johann. Leo was conscious, mostly, but his eyes wouldn't focus right and his breath came in bubbling gasps. He tossed his head when he saw me, and one hand came up only to flop back on the ground.
“What happened?” I demanded.
His wounds didn't make sense. I expected deep gashes, claw marks and bites. Instead his chest was peppered by small, deep holes. It was like someone had poked him repeatedly with a sharp stick. But the injuries weren't right for stab wounds, somehow.
“Rory tricked him,” Johann said. “Challenged him, Leo accepted. But Rory didn't shift. They stayed human.”
I nodded. Challenges did not have to be fought in wolf form. Weapons were supposed to be forbidden, though.
“They fought like normal for a bit. Leo was winning, of course. Then Rory pulled this... thing, out of his jacket.” Johann sketched vaguely in the air. “Like a pipe, but short, tiny, with a handle, and a little lever.”
The description didn't make any sense. I shook my head, and put my hands on Leo's chest. I was almost out of strength. It didn't matter. I was not going to lose him. I would not.
I reached out with my wolf's strength, calling on everything I'd ever learned to heal those deep, bleeding wounds. There was something in the way. I couldn't close the wounds.
“There's something in the wounds,” I said. “Little bits of metal.”
“Bullets,” Ethan breathed, “That was a gun Johann just described. Human weapon. It shoots little metal pellets, called bullets. They're still in the wounds.”
“You have to get them out,” I said, “so I can close these wounds before he bleeds to death.”
“I wouldn't know how,” Ethan said. “I would do more harm than good.”
Johann shook his head, too. He didn't even know what a gun was, how would he know how to remove bullets?
“Dr. Lee,” I said, “Please tell me she's nearby.”
“She's here. I'll bring her,” Ethan promised.
He turned on his heel and ran. The scout rested one hand on my shoulder and kept watch around us.
“Rory?” I asked. Was he just waiting for a chance to pick us all off with his damn human toy?
“Ran when Leo went down. I got a good bite in, but he's fast, damn him,” Johann said.
Between me, Johann, and the scout, we managed to keep pressure on all of Leo's wounds. But he was fading fast. He tried to talk a few times, but only weak rasps came out.
Dr. Lee arrived at a dead run, with a first aid kit. She listened to my report and immediately went to work digging out bullet after bullet. Mercifully, Leo passed out partway through.
I sealed the wounds as quickly as they were free of little metal obstructions. But the wounds were deep and I was so, so tired. I almost collapsed right onto Leo's chest after the third wound closed.
“Tessa, you have to stop,” Lee said. “You've done too much, too fast.”
I shook my head. I was not giving up. I would not let Leo die.
“Tess, you can't,” Ethan said. “If you save Leo at the expense of your own life... he'll never survive that.”
“Don't tell him, then,” I said. “Say I got caught in the fire or something.”
I rested my hands on the last two wounds. They were deep, and one had nicked Leo's heart. I had to fix that, I couldn't just stabilize it.
I took one deep breath. I reached for my wolf, but she had no more strength left to give me. That was fine. I had some left. It was the strength that kept my own heart beating, but I could spare it for Leo. My heart was his, anyways.
I healed Leo's heart, and sealed over the deep wounds. His breathing cleared of the painful rasping. His eyes fluttered open.
I smiled, even as the world went gray around me.
I don't know who caught me as I collapsed. I know Dr. Lee, Ethan, and his scout, all dove for me, but I was out before any of them touched me.