It was almost unbelievable. He did not think he would see her again, but somehow, when he needed help, Emma showed up like a guardian angel. She ran for several minutes, moving faster than Hunt ever had on his own feet. Finally, when she was certain they were far enough, she slowed down in a dark corner and placed Hunt on the ground.
He looked up at her, nodding. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome and quite stupid,” Emma replied. “Where did she come from, and how the hell did you fall for that?”
Hunt took the chance to look down at his body. Across his side was a deep gash. It had come from the blow the Wyvern had given him, and he was losing a lot of blood. He swore under his breath, grunting in pain. If he didn’t do something to stop the blood loss, he was going to pass out and possibly die.
“You wouldn’t have a pair of staplers on you, would you?” Hunt asked, grunting in pain.
“You trusted a foxlike character called Sly, what the fuck did you think was going to happen?” Emma pressed.
Hunt chuckled, realizing he had missed all the signs. Sly was known to only care about herself, but she had come with a proposition he could not refuse. Getting out of the tunnels wasa good idea, and Hunt had wanted it badly. Once he figured the way out of the place, all he had to do was survive long enough to get out.
“I need to stop the bleeding,” said Hunt.
“Well, do it,” Emma said, sitting beside him.
Hunt saw her eyes reflecting light in the darkness as she looked down into the distance, trying to see if there was anyone sneaking toward them. Hunt shook his head. “I can heal scrapes and bruises with time. But I don’t have time for this.”
Emma looked down at it, seeing the blood. “Oh no.”
“Yeah.” Hunt shook his head. “I’m going to bleed out if I don’t do something, and my magic isn’t really strong enough right now.”
Emma looked around. “Because of the talisman? Isn’t there something you can do to jump-start it? Just, I don’t know, pull through. There has to be something.”
“There is,” Hunt replied. “Right now, I have a trump card that would stop this, but it would leave me comatose for a few days. Also, it’ll hurt like a bitch. I don’t want to use that until I absolutely have to.”
Emma chuckled. “Are you crazy? Isn’t this an ‘absolutely have to’ case?” She grabbed his shoulder. “Look, I can’t let you die.”
Hunt looked up at her, searching her eyes in the darkness. The soft glow of the single lightbulb in the corridor bounced on her face. She wanted him to live, but Hunt wanted to know why. He needed to know if she cared about him living, or if she just wanted him to help her escape. He didn’t know which one it was.
“I don’t plan to.”
“Good,” she said, nodding. “Because I can’t save your life and have you die on me.”
An idea forced its way into Hunt’s head. Something she had said, about jump-starting the process. Because of his fingers, he couldn’t do a lot of his powerful magic. But if he could draw the power from somewhere else, he would just need to channel it, instead of being the one to do it.
“I need a live wire,” Hunt said, looking up at the bulbs. “Get one of them for me.”
“What are you going to do?” Emma asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she rushed off and leaped straight up, slicing through the wire before ripping it off the roof. It quickly shorted out several other lights in both directions for quite a distance, plunging them into darkness.
“I got this,” Hunt said. He pulled off his jacket slowly, groaning in pain as he folded it down and bit on it.
“Hey,” Emma said, sliding her hand into his own, “you got this. You’re going to be fine.”
Hunt paused for a moment. He knew he was going to be fine; it would hurt like hell, but he would be. She didn’t know that, and Hunt heard the concern in her tone. It wasn’t just her desire to escape. Emma cared about his survival. She was not willing to come to terms with it, but Emma had pushed aside her hate for him. A man who spent his entire life killing paranormals, and there she was, reassuring him that he would be fine.
He smiled at her, biting down on the jacket. He held the live wire just above his injuries, and channeled his magic into the wire, using the massive amount of energy from it to amplify his magic. He turned the electricity into heat, focusing it on his wound as a single bright blaze that cauterized it.
Hunt bit down on the jacket, screaming as loudly as he could through it. It muffled his voice, and he felt Emma’s hand squeeze tightly on his shoulder as she watched. Hunt felt his blood boil, and every part of his brain told him to stop. But he had to go all the way. Seven seconds later, he made it across the entirety of the wound and tossed the wire to the side.
Hunt fell face-first to the ground, completely broken by the experience. He had cauterized his wounds in the past, but never one as big as this gash. The smell of burnt skin and hair lingered in the air, threatening to make him throw up. Emma helped him to get on his back, laying him flat on the ground and pulling the jacket from his mouth.
“Just stay still, you’re going to be okay,” Emma said, folding up the jacket and using it as a makeshift pillow underneath his head. “Now I know you hate paranormals, but if you were one of us, you wouldn’t be so worried about this.”
Hunt grunted, trying to speak. He was too weak, but he agreed. She would have easily been able to heal from the attack, instead of being scared of death. She joked about it, but it was the truth. Hunt pointed at his jacket, and Emma reached for it, helping him pull it out.
“What is it?” she asked, searching the pockets. She found a small can he had gotten from Sly containing water. She had also given him a snickers bar for him to eat and keep his strength up. “Hungry, eh?”