Evans, Gabrielle - From This Moment [The Moonlight Breed 7] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic Ma by Gabrielle Evans (ebook reader with highlight function .TXT) 📗

“Oh, gods.” With that bit of warning, Zavion jerked his head to  the side and expelled a gush  of crimson from his lips. His eyes rolled  back in his head, his mouth went slack, and his body became heavy.  Then with a last hissing puff of air, he stopped breathing altogether just as the flare of headlights rose over the hill.

“C’mon,” Flynn commanded, jogging toward the approaching  vehicle. “That’ll be Xander and Logan.”

The SUV skidded to a stop, fishtailing through the dirt  as it slid  sideways in the road. Devlin hurried forward, practically ripping open  the back hatch and shoving Cian and Zavion inside before he and  Flynn dove into the backseat.

“Go,” Devlin urged, slapping at the seatback in front of him. Then  he spun around with a worried look on his face. “Is he breathing?”

“No.”

“Pulse?”

“I don’t know!” Cian shouted as he spread his lover out as best he  could in the cramped space. Kneeling over him as the SUV bumped  and rocked, he pressed one hand atop the other, right in the center of  Zavion’s chest, and sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening.

Counting out thirty chest compressions inside his  mind, Cian  shifted to his mate’s head, pinched his nose closed, and covered  Zavion’s mouth with his own to breathe air into his lungs. “C’mon,  Zavion,” he urged as he began another round of compressions.  “C’mon, damn it!”

82                        Gabrielle Evans

“Give him blood,” Logan instructed from the front passenger seat  while Xander drove at breakneck speeds along the dirt road. “It  should act like a jolt to  his heart, the same as a defibrillator.”

The suggestion hadn’t worked for Demitrius and Oscar, so Cian  had no reason to believe it would be successful for him. That didn’t

stop him from accepting the pocketknife Logan passed to him,  though. Slicing the blade across his palm, he forced the blood into  Zavion’s mouth and caressed his throat in hopes that it would get him  to swallow.

Then he returned to doing chest compressions, pausing after  the next thirty to  place his ear to his mate’s chest. “C’mon, Zavion, c’mon.”

“Fuck,” Xander growled as the vehicle accelerated to dangerous  speeds. “We’ve got company, guys.”

Still pressing the heel of his hand against Zavion’s chest in a fast  rhythm, Cian spared a glance out of the back window of the SUV.  Two sets of headlights sped toward them, one vehicle behind the  other, and both swerving dangerously on the narrow road. He  estimated the distance to be half a mile at least, but their pursuers  were gaining quickly.

“How far to the helicopter?”

“Three miles, maybe four,” Xander answered tightly as his eyes  darted back and forth between the windshield and the rearview mirror.

At the speed they were traveling, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes to reach their destination. With their enemies closing in on them quickly and Zavion still unresponsive, five minutes suddenly felt like a lifetime.

“We’ll make it,” Devlin assured him, though his eyes didn’t stray  from the lights behind them. “It’s when we stop that I’m worried  about.”

Cian didn’t have anything left in him to  care or worry about much else besides his mate. Nothing he was doing was working. Why couldn’t it be like it was in the movies? Why couldn’t he just shout at

From This Moment                       83

the heavens, profess to love Zavion, and scream that the man couldn’t  leave him? Then Zavion would miraculously wake up, and all would

be fine.

With growing desperation, he retrieved the pocketknife from where he’d tossed it to the side, placed the blade over his wrist, and cut deep into the flesh with a grunt. The blood flowed freely, gushing from his veins, and he pressed his arm to Zavion’s lips, flooding his mouth with the life-giving crimson.

“What the hell?” Flynn gasped. “Have ya lost your damn mind?”

“Shut up,” Cian snarled. “I don’t care as long as it works.”

When the dark red blood began to seep from the corners of  Zavion’s mouth, he pulled his arm away, lifted his lover’s head into his lap, and pinched his nose. Then he tilted Zavion’s head back and stuck two fingers into his mouth, depressing his tongue in an attempt to force the fluid down his throat.

“Almost there,” Xander informed them. “Be ready to run like hell.  We’ll take care of the assholes following us.”

Cian barely heard him, though. He was positive that he’d felt  movement in Zavion’s throat. “That’s it,  a ghrá.  Wake up. We’re

goin’  home. You won’t want to miss that.”

Zavion’s throat constricted again, a bit more forcefully, and he  started to gag and choke as he sucked in a huge lungful of air. He  never opened his eyes, didn’t move beyond that, but the steady rise  and fall of his chest and the strong beat of his heart were enough for

Cian.

Slumping back against the window, he pulled Zavion into his arms and closed his eyes as he battled back tears of relief. They weren’t out of the woods yet, though, and there was no time for him to be an emotional wreck.

Only a moment later, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, the wheels stuttering through the dirt and mud. The back hatch flew open instantly, and someone was screaming at him to move his ass.

84                        Gabrielle Evans

“Cian! Let’s go, man!” The vampire Enforcer, Raven, jerked on  his elbow as he pulled him out of the SUV.

There was movement all around him as men, vampires, and  animals clashed together in a battle of fists, feet, claws, and fangs.  The dozen  Drones from The Hive were easily distinguishable in their black attire, and they’d come in full force, complete with several  automatic weapons.

As much as it killed him, as much as it tore him apart inside, he  couldn’t leave his brothers and friends to fight alone. Easing Zavion  into Raven’s arms, he nodded curtly and pushed at the vampire’s  shoulders. “Get him home, Raven, and take care of him.”

For once, the man didn’t offer a sarcastic response. He looked Cian right in the eyes and nodded seriously. “I’ll keep him safe.”  Then he was gone in