Chapter 6 - Blood on the Marble
The medical suite was illuminated only by the red glow of the emergency backup lights.
Gunfire still rattled outside, but the reinforced doors of the suite were locked tight.
Clara helped Victor onto the steel table.
He was bleeding heavily, the torn muscle rejecting the healing process entirely.
"You are going to bleed out if I don't cauterize this," Clara said, her voice shaking for the first time.
"I don't have time to properly prep you."
"Do it," Victor grunted, gripping the edges of the steel table.
Clara fired up the surgical cautery pen.
The smell of burning flesh filled the small, red-lit room.
Victor did not scream this time.
He stared directly into Clara’s eyes, using her presence as an anchor against the excruciating pain.
Clara worked furiously, sealing the ruptured blood vessels and closing the torn tissue.
Her hands were covered in his blood.
Her breath was coming in short, panicked gasps.
When she finally finished, she dropped the cautery pen into the sink.
She backed away from the table, her knees suddenly weak.
The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind raw terror.
She slid down the wall, sitting on the cold floor with her head in her hands.
Victor slowly sat up.
He ignored the blinding pain in his side.
He swung his legs off the table, walked across the room, and sat down on the floor right beside her.
He didn't say a word.
He reached out with his massive, bloodstained hand and pulled her against his chest.
Clara did not resist.
She buried her face in his uninjured shoulder, trembling uncontrollably.
Victor wrapped his arms around her, pressing his chin against the top of her head.
Outside, the gunfire began to slow as Silas and the Syndicate soldiers neutralized the threat.
Inside the red room, the mafia boss held the ghost surgeon as if she were the only fragile thing in his violent world.
"I've got you," Victor whispered into her hair.
"Nobody touches you, Clara."
May you like
"I swear it on my life."
Clara closed her eyes, realizing with absolute horror that she felt safer in his arms than she ever had in her entire life.
