"Lara!" Myranda shrieked and immediately tended to her.
"It burns, oh fuck - it burns!" Lara cried out in anguish.
"Go get Ajax - go" Metas urged Joss as he too tended to Lara who was writhing below Myranda's hands that were giving her pressure to keep her wound from bleeding.
'Damn it, I missed' Silas cursed himself and tried to steady the gun again, this time with the aim to finish Lara off. At least he could cause Metas pain if he took away his childhood and best friend. He pulled the trigger again, and squeezed his eyes closed as the sound of the gun was quite loud and bothered his ears.
He didn't hit Lara. This time, he hit Myranda in her left side as she was moving Lara into a different position to comfort her.
"Mandy!" Metas shouted, and attempted to hold both of the females who were most important in his life now bleeding, and letting out sobs. Metas was so wrapped up in his adrenaline rush, that he hadn't even felt the wound he and Myranda were sharing.
Unlike Ajax and Lara - they hadn't had time to really understand what being a true fated pair was. While the former understood how to 'share' pain, the latter only understood the primal connection they had.
This made it easy for Ajax to be able to locate and assist Lara without being injured himself. He had already started his run towards them when he felt a deep pain resonate within his body. Luckily he was not too far away, and he made it to Lara's side quickly, where he pulled her into his embrace.
"Veltar is on his way," he assured her as his eyes peered down into her beautiful blue ones. "Don't do anything stupid like die,okay?"
Lara's eyes were filled with shock and confusion as she tried to figure out what in the hell just happened. Their kind had no idea what guns were - what the sounded like - or even what they felt like.
Metas would have attacked Silas himself, but it seemed that Vincent had already taken care of that for him, as his moves were unearthly fast, and his size was great. As a Protean, Vincent had the ability to form into literally anything he pleased up to his full size in his dragon form.
Unfortunately for Silas, that size was gigantic, and the massive weight the scaled beast put on his chest was apparent as he struggled to breathe.
He also struggled to hold his urine in, as he soaked himself in the warmth of his own piss as he trembled beneath the scowling wyvern whose face was breathing hot, smoky air out of his nostrils.
"Coward!" Metas shouted towards Silas with disgust. "I am going to kill you! To hell with traditions. You went too far, you piece of shit!" While his roar was not as scary and demonic as Vincent's had been - it was still filled with a deep sound that would make the meek and mortal scream in terror.
"What kind of ruler uses human weapons? What kind of worm wriggles beneath my feet?" Vincent asked with a voice filled with a thousand souls speaking at once as though the entire realm of death were speaking at once.
Silas couldn't answer the question - because he was both terrified, and lacking the air to be able to do so.
Myranda's tears spilled over the sides of her cheeks as throbs of agony coursed through her muscles. Her eyes searched through Metas' frantically as though he had any answers to what was happening.
"I've got you, Mandy. It's alright. Don't leave me...." Metas begged softly, and for whatever reason his mouth formed into a wobbling smile.
"I- I..." Myranda struggled to speak as she found it difficult to draw breath into her left lung.
"Shhh, it's alright. I love you, too" Metas replied tenderly as he watched her struggle helplessly.
"What happened? Why?" Ajax asked in rage as he turned his gaze towards the pinned Silas.
The only reply he received was a manic laughter.
********
It wasn't easy, but Veltar had managed to stabilize both Myranda and Lara with the opium he had made for Cassandra, who hadn't needed them anymore. He was glad he saved the elixir, otherwise they'd both be nearly impossible to heal from their wriggling.
Having them both still and asleep made it easier to extract the bullets embedded within them, as well as suture their wounds closed. It had taken a few hours to tend to both, and he offered to heal Metas as well, but he turned the alchemist down and opted to sit outside with Ajax as they both waited impatiently for any news.
Jyriah was so emotionally numb from all he had been through in the past few days that he had opted to leave the worrying to Metas - he was her husband now, after all. It was time to let the Alpha do the heavy lifting emotionally.
When Veltar emerged he simply gave them both a positive nod, which for whatever reason made the two think they could go be at the sides of their respective partners. However, the brown-haired male stopped both of them before they could even get close.
"No. They're okay and stable. They need rest. Those bullets were silver. I'm surprised they aren't dead. We're all very lucky those bullets didn't hit their hearts. We would be without our Alpha and our Luna, as well as our beautiful Lara... I cannot stress how much we should thank the Moon Goddess for Silas' poor skills. Speaking of which, where is he?" Veltar asked with a cold, sadistic tone at the end of his words.
"He is currently with a dragon. Jyriah says that you are welcome to speak to him first, being what you went through," Metas answered with fatigue. The sun was already up, and with everything being a complete disaster, he was pretty ready to sleep.
"Good, good. I'm just going to go speak to him for a little bit after I ensure those two are completely stable. Once I leave again, you can both go in to lay at their sides," Velter relayed with the a different kind of tired than his Alpha had, but it was clear he too, was tired.
"Will the silver kill them retroactively?" Metas asked with concern. He hadn't forgotten about Myranda's original injury when her leg got caught in that trap Silas had set up.
"No, I was able to get them out fast enough to where they won't absorb enough to kill them. Still, I've given them some herbs, and the wounds are healing slower than they should, but they are healing - so that's already a good sign. They wouldn't be healing if silver had seeped into their blood. I'm sure I'll be out in no time so that you can rest."
"Thank you, Veltar." Metas aid with respect and gave him a soft bow in gratitude.
"You're the best, man..." Ajax thanked in his own way and reached out to grab Veltar's arm so that he could 'shake' at his elbow.
"It's my honor. Jessie will take over watching them when I need to sleep. She's just as good as I am when it comes to care taking. I've sort of taken her as my apprentice and soon she'll be teaching me with how well she excels at the art," Veltar replied with a light disposition.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to watch over my two patients so you can get to them faster," the alchemist added before he turned to enter the cave again.