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More cop cars arrived "Around back!" the officer shouted, and pointed at the house "Seal off the streets!"

"Got him!" someone screamed "Down on your knees! Down on your knees Hands behind your head!"

Eli They had Eli Cops in a panic, three of their on "He’s with me!" I shouted

The cop beneath me added her voice to hed blood I knew instantly what thatand her chest cavity was filling up with blood The officer was drowning in her own blood My e was years old, but it caainst the cruiser door Looked up into the eyes of a paramedic who dropped to his knees besideProbable hemothorax"

The medic stuck his ear pieces in and listened to her chest with his stethoscope "Yeah Lung is down," he said, already cutting through her uniforet her transferred stat" He started re the Kevlar vest that hadn’t protected the officer The bullet had gone in just above the vest at a doard angle

The cop coughed and sucked blood and coughed again Blood splattered over all of us She earing a T-shirt under the vest It was scarlet and sopping I felt her heart stutter underhadn’t been counfire, I knew I could have heard the heart in distress Beast’s hearing is that good, even over the sirens squalling

"She needs a chest tube She won’t make it to the hospital," I said Paramedics weren’t certified to insert chest tubes in the field Only doctors could do that Meaning that this cop was dead I looked at her for the first time She was brown haired, brown-but-pasty-skinned, brown eyed Maybe Latina Maybe one of the mixed races found so co her death, her eyes wide and panicked and knowing

With a pair of scissors, the paramedic cut her T-shirt open The wound was bad

Eli dropped to his knees beside ers have to do all sorts of things in the field Like save one another, or thee bore needle into her chest beneath her left ar bullet hole, where exactly would you stick it?"

The para what I was asking He couldn’t help her, but a bystander could "I’d stick it right here" He touched the cop’s skin It was icy, sweating She was going into shock

I slapped her face, and she looked atback from the brink "We can try to save you, or we can be smart and avoid a lawsuit and let you die You want us to try to save you? Nod once for yes"

The cop nodded once, then again, and again Coughing Blood going everywhere

Eli handed me an oversized Betadine swab I swiped her chest at the site the parae and removed the plastic top from a needle It looked like a ten-penny nail with a hole bored through It was huge There wasn’t ti There wasn’t tiers pushed between two of the cop’s ribs, pressing into theintercostal space I remembered the word Useless now, that h the flesh The injured cop didn’t even flinch Blood flushed through the needle end and out into the street Eli secured the needle in place with a wad of gauze and taped it down

I looked at him and said, "Get outta here" He understood So did the paramedic and the cops around us Civilians don’t do stuff like this The official types all looked away Eli grabbed a blue absorbent pad, stood, and walked away, head doiping his hands and hiding the blood all at once He moved down the street away fro

I looked at the cop and saw her badge Her na She wasShe took a breath and exhaled, the sound of air gargling and thick, her eyes onShe ed at her and she added, her words a whisper, "Who was that , as well as she was able Moments later, the cop was inside an a transported down the street toward the nearest hospital A second a with the other injured cop The coroner was standing over the third one The para CPR but everyone kneas just a formality The officer was familiar, but I couldn’t think of his name at the uy, nets and sipped one too uy

I looked up at the brokenpane where the shots had come from Other panes were busted out from where Eli had fired back I looked down atblood I opened and closed my hands; the blood was tacky and cold in the warain Maybe this tiood because I’dthat Swelling would be uninjured and going about her life just fine had I not lived across the street froht be War Woman, but uilt rose up and wrapped cold, sli frousted, cooler than thein Rain on the wind and the threat of lightning in the ozone scent

I felt a tap and looked down at Jodi, my friend on NOPD The vamps’ best friend at cop central "He fired fro to the busted"Did the unknown person who offeredto safety hit him?"

"Blood at the scene," Jodi said "No one there Trail out the back door, across the alley and the garden behind the house, through the next alley to the street; then it stops Shooter got into a vehicle and disappeared"

"The old lady?" The nale GSW to the head Maybe two days ago Before the bomb incident" Her voice lowered "What are you mixed up in, Jane?"