"Solid Ground" by Erin
Prologue
It was July in Prague, the sort of time she would have loved to visit on vacation. She never expected herself to be chasing after a man she barely knew instead of clearing her name the minute she set foot outside Eckhardt's lab. Lara knew Kurtis didn't have time for that; the warm trail of blood leading her down the alleyways close to the building was getting worse.
"You shouldn't have moved, you idiot." Lara stopped at the end of a long alleyway, close to civilization. It looked into an even longer alleyway lined with the backs of shops whose windows still glowed with evening meals.
"Sorry Lara, habit." Lara turned to find Kurtis sitting as far into a nearby alcove as he could. Whatever plant had been set in it was toppled over, its dirt scattered all around him.
She was already by his side, her arm around his back to help lift him. "Where's you're bike?"
He strained to pick himself up out of the alcove, but Lara was taking most of the weight. By his direction, they wobbled into the long alleyway of shops and out the other end where the street sat in patches of darkness. Kurtis' motorcycle sat in front of a well-lit shop, protected only by the sheer luck of paranoia.
"I almost made it." His smile seemed to laugh for him. "What-?"
Before he could finish, Lara watched as his eyes fluttered back, and what was once a manageable body turned into a bleeding mass that almost made her double over. The bike would be too unsteady now for the two of them – she had to risk being seen. Lara's hands shook as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dial 155. Her choppy Chezch would have made Kurtis laugh...