Bloodbound: The Alliance
Chapter 98 - 100

Chapter 98: Chapter 100

Kelsey POV

We rush back into the lounge, tension coiled like a spring, and still no sign of Vance. Landen freezes the moment his gaze falls on Avara, laid out across the low table. Blood pools on the varnished surface, spilling in thick streams over the edges. His expression hardens with shock as he charges forward instinctively.

Silas intercepts him, slamming a firm hand against Landen’s chest, halting his path. Landen doesn’t hesitate, knocking Silas’s arm aside with a sharp motion as their faces come within inches of each other. They square up, fists curling, rage sparking between them like an imminent storm.

"Don’t you dare come near her," Silas warns.

Luciano steps in, instead of restraining his shoulder, he grips Landen’s shoulder in an attempt to pull him back, but Landen jerks free, his chest heaving with unspent anger. He glances back at me, his expression demanding answers.

"What the hell is going on?"

"An attack," Luciano snaps, his tone edged with irritation. "Probably because half the world’s one percenters decided to show up at this wedding."

Landen shakes his head, his voice cutting. "And we have world-class security?"

"Clearly, it didn’t stop the invaders," Luciano fires back, his frustration palpable.

But my thoughts snag on a memory, my mind racing back to the chaos before the gunfire began. The two gunmen who appeared, their rifles trained on a single target.

"No," I say, my voice firm. "This wasn’t a random attack. If they were zealots, they’d have opened fire on everyone. If it was a ransom plot, they wouldn’t have fired at all. The first two gunmen... they were aiming at Avara."

Every pair of eyes fall on me with disturbing weight.

"I saw it," I affirm. "Avara is their target."

"Yeah, but why?" Landen asks.

"You even have to ask? It’s because you and your fucking family!" Silas says, barking out each word. "This alliance is what put a target on her back."

"Still doesn’t answer the immediate question," Landen retorts with infuriating calm.

Silas lunges and Luciano stops him with a grip on his shoulders before he shoves him back so hard he stumbles to a halt, still seething with anger. Luciano lifts a warning hand at Silas before he whips to the side to stab a finger in Landen’s direction.

"Enough—the both of you," Luciano shouts, his voice like bang of a thunder. "Ignore each other or shut the fuck up!"

I gape at his visceral rage, a quivering that destabilizes the tension as his carefully wound composure crumbles into chaos. I move away to kneel at the flank of the table to inspect Avara, deadly still, barely alive with shallow breathing as tears prickle behind my eyes. The only one among us who would know how to staunch the bleeding is the one that got shot. Twice.

A strangled sound struggles out of Silas’s mouth as he paces feverishly before he jostles Luciano forward.

"You have to do something," he pleads.

Luciano glares back at him with watery eyes. "Like what?"

"Stop the bleeding!

"Silas, how the—"

Vance rushes in, pointing at Avara frantically as a middle-aged man with a briefcase enters. He opens it up to snatch out his medical scissors and cuts a slit in the torso of her wedding dress. Starting from the neckline to slice a seamless line to tear it open.

"Look away," I scream at all the boys, even her brothers as I gesture fervently for them to spin around. "Turn your backs or I swear to God, I’ll use the doc’s scalpel to dig your eyes out."

All of them swivel around to show me their backs without protest.

"Young lady, I could use your help with applying pressure here," the doctor requests.

Avara lies motionless on the table between us, her pallor ghostly under the natural light flowing in the living room. The in-house physician, a wiry man with steady hands and wide eyes, crouches at her side as he fumbles for his tools.

"She’s lost a lot of blood," he murmurs, not looking up, his voice clipped and clinical. He pulls on gloves with a practiced snap and examines the wound, where one bullet has torn through flesh and embedded itself deep. Blood oozes sluggishly, the stain growing around the jagged tear.

"She needs a hospital."

"But can you keep her alive long enough to get to one?" Luciano asks with his back still turned.

"I’m not property equipped, but yes, if we’re fast enough. The closest hospital is twenty minutes away."

"I tried the phones, no signal," Silas says to the wall. "They must have a jamming field over the entire area."

I crouch opposite the doctor, my knees pressing into the hardwood floor. My breath is shallow, my hands trembling as I reach for Avara’s arm, trying to anchor her somehow, as if my touch alone can hold her to life.

"This will be tricky," the doctor says, tilting his head. "First bullet is through and through. Second bullet’s lodged close to an artery, and the shrapnel isn’t far behind."

He works with meticulous care, the scalpel gleaming as he makes a precise incision. Blood wells up instantly, dark and slick, and he blots it away with gauze.

"Hold this," he orders, sliding a clamp into my hand. My stomach churns, but I obey, listening to him to instruct me to position it to stem the bleeding as he navigates deeper. The sound of metal meeting forceps is jarring—a grating scrape as he grips the shrapnel.

"She’s going into shock," he mutters, his voice taut. "Keep her steady. If this shard shifts, it could puncture something vital."

Sweat beads on his forehead as he pulls, and the shrapnel slides free with a sickening squelch. He drops it into a metal dish with a sharp clang, immediately focusing on the bullet. The tension thickens as he probes deeper, his hands sure but strained.

"She’s holding on," I whisper, more to myself than anyone else, watching her chest rise and fall in shallow, uneven breaths.

"Barely," he snaps, flicking his eyes to mine for the briefest moment. Then, with a deft twist of his wrist, he extracts the bullet, blood spurting before he staunches the wound with gauze.

"Got it," he says, exhaling a long breath. He begins suturing with practiced speed, his hands steady even as mine continue to shake. "Now we just pray she’s strong enough to hold on."

I glance down at Avara’s face, pale and serene despite the violence done to her body. "She will be," I murmur, clinging to the hope because it’s the only thing keeping us tethered.

"No, we can’t wait," the doctor says as he sprouts to full height. "If you want to ensure she lives. We have to get her to a hospital now."

"Then we go now," Silas says as he whips around.

He goes for Avara but freezes when two men clad in black appear in the archway. Vance rotates and outstretches a placating hand to either side.

"Our security team," he informs as his eyes stumble to Landen, a fraction of a moment fraught with nameless tension before he addresses them. "We need to get her to the hospital."

"Mike has the keys to the Cayenne."

Silas scoops Avara into his arms delicately before we all follow them out. All of us surround Avara like a shield as the guards escort us towards the primary entrance where we’re united with a gauntlet of guards. Terse words are exchanged as a set of keys is tossed in the air and caught by another as we all gush out of manor from the front. Only Silas, Luciano and I are able to enter the Porsche Cayenne GTS. Vance closes the door on Silas’s side before the guard hops in the driver’s seat and yanks the car into reverse before it launches towards the open main gate.

Silas lifts Avara just enough so he can cradle her head to his chest with her body draped across us both in the backseat. Luciano casts a glance from the passenger seat, and this time I’m even unable to muster a smile to console him.