VD We're Stuck Here 81

Chapter 81

As Elijah and Freya ran to where the fallen Kol lay, Rebekah went through the small pasture to the eastern fence. She suspected that the shooter had been there just outside the barrier. No one could have fired inside with any accuracy without having the barrel of the gun through one of the barrier holes. One of the many bushes that had grown up in the uncut hay field was right next to the barrier, giving cover to a person who wanted to get close. Finding a spot where there was actually a smudge of gunsmoke around a hole in the barrier, Rebekah bent down and looked across the pasture to where her brother lay and she could see that a well-aimed bullet could pass between the wooden fence boards and hit a person just beyond.

Elijah and Freya knelt beside Kol who was lying on his abdomen, although he was propped up on his elbows. He was still cursing loudly in pain. His two siblings could see blood on the back of his jeans. Barbara was kneeling beside him in tears.

"Hold still, Kol," Elijah said firmly as his hands felt the bloody fabric.

"I can't. It hurts like hell," Kol yelled at him. "I think my pelvis is broken!"

"I believe you are right," Elijah agreed. He had found the bullet hole in the cloth. It was below the belt, but not down by the crotch. He could not feel a lump that would indicate that the round from the muzzle-loader was just under the skin. Likely, it had smashed into and through Kol's sacrum, the center pelvic bone above the tailbone. It was possible the damage included his bladder and intestines. Elijah eased his hand under Kol's body, but he felt no blood from a frontal exit wound.

"It had to be Mikael," Kol groaned. "Damn him!"

"I do not think so," Elijah said, shaking his head. "Mikael would have stayed, reloaded and fired again. Can you feel where the ball is?"

"No. But it hurts all through my pelvis. If it's wooden, it'll kill me."

"No, it will not, but if it is wooden, we need to find it and remove it before it causes gangrene in there." A vampire's body tended to force a "foreign body" out again, but one floating around loose in the abdomen took quite a bit of time.

Kol groaned and swore at the thought of the pain and illness that it would cause him and how long it would last. Until the thing was dug out of his body.

"How are you going to remove it if it has gone inside?" Freya asked.

"I do not know. You are moving your legs, Kol. Let us see if you can stand."

They lifted Kol up and found that he could bear some weight on his left leg, but not on his right. The back of his pelvis was indeed broken.

Rebekah had joined the group and she told them what she suspected.

"If Mikael wasn't the shooter, then he had to have hired him," Freya added. "Who else out there would know to fire a wooden bullet?"

"Can you hobble up to the house or should I carry you," Elijah asked his brother. He and Freya were both holding Kol up.

"I think I can make it, but I can't put weight on my right leg."

"I know. Rebekah, relieve Freya supporting Kol. You are stronger."

Barbara wanted to help, but she was too short to support the tall young man. Instead she walked closeby as the group made their way slowly to the house.

Soon, Kol found himself lying stripped naked and on his abdomen on the kitchen table. He knew that some of the pain he felt was from his vampire's body trying to heal the damage, including pulling the damaged bones back together. When Rebekah offered him her arm, he let his fangs down and bit her, sucking as much blood as he could until she pulled her arm away.

"The wound is healing," Elijah stated as he used a damp cloth to wipe away the blood that had almost stopped oozing. "Given time, everything will be repaired except where the bullet is located." He still was not sure if the musket ball was metal or wood, so he had to rely on Kol's sensations.

"You should give him some of your blood, Elijah," Rebekah said. "The more he gets, the faster he'll heal."

Elijah nodded. He suspected that none of the vampires' blood had its former strength, but it still would help Kol. He offered his arm to the young man, who drank and then rested his head down on the table. It was obvious the pain had lessened. Elijah rarely touched his youngest brother soothingly, but he now brushed the dark hair from Kol's forehead and let his hand rest on his head.

"You'll be alright."

"Yeah. Sure. I hate this place." He turned his head and looked at Barbara. "It's the place I hate, not the people. And being held prisoner."

No one bothered to list places that could be worse. Freya handed Barbara a wet cloth and a dry one. "Here. You know him intimately. You wash the blood off his butt."

Barbara took the cloths and gently washed her lover. It took some time because the blood had run down on the sides and between his legs. By the time she was done, he had rolled over onto his back, which was very tender, but did not cause extreme pain. She laid the drying cloth over his private parts so he was not so exposed, even though everyone there had seen him nude.

Elijah then gently pressed on Kol's lower abdomen until he found the most tender spot. "I suspect this is where the ball is."

Freya spoke up then. "Let Barbara and I lay hands on him and try an incantation. Perhaps we can bring it to the surface and it can be easily cut out."

"Easy for you to say, love," Kol muttered.

"Well, can we try?" the older sister asked him, and he nodded.

Actually, the idea worked. Freya and Barbara spread their hands over his lower abdomen and concentrated on raising the foreign object to the top, at which time, Elijah used a sharp, pointed kitchen knife to cut it free.

"There are three pieces here, Kol," Elijah said, holding them in his hand. "It was a pointed wooden bullet, but it fractured when it hit you. There are likely splinters still inside, but they are small."

"So I get to live on in this forsaken place," Kol muttered through gritted teeth as Barbara once again cleaned him off. "I suppose the shooter will return at unexpected times and shoot at any one of us again."

"We will have to be more vigilant," Elijah said, nodding. He then went out to the porch where the hand-washing basin was. He wondered if Rebekah had felt drawn to Kol's blood as he had. His brother would not have appreciated it if he had licked some of it up. He hated to admit to himself that the scent of all that blood had been very enticing.

While he was drying his hands, he was startled by the squawk of a bird that was walking around just beyond the porch. It was not some little sparrow. It was a large raven! This bird needed a large hole in the barrier to fly through. Elijah stepped to the edge of the porch and looked up. He saw at least two holes in the dusty dome that would allow a bird of that size to get in.

Freya come out onto the porch. "What was that sound?"

"Raven."

"Oh no! That's not good." She eyed the black bird that was staring at her. "The dome is failing fast. I don't think Barbara and I can keep it going much longer. And then what?"

"I wish I knew."

A/N I'll write more when I can. Happy holidays and the start of a new year.