Chapter 5 - The Glass Shatters
I didn't think. I reacted with the primal, unreasoning fury of someonebacked into a corner with nothing left to lose.
As Arthur’s hand reached inside to grab the metal railing of the gurney, I lunged forward, grabbing the heavy medical oxygen tank strapped to the wall beside me. With a grunt of effort that tore a muscle in my shoulder, I unclipped the heavy steel cylinder and swung it like a baseball bat directly toward the open door.
The heavy bottom of the tank caught Arthur squarely across the collarbone with a sickening crack, sending him stumbling backward off the step and into the gravel where Sheriff Thomas had to catch him to keep him from hitting the ground.
"Drive!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, slamming the back doors shut with all my weight and locking the internal latch. "Vance, drive right through them!"
"Hang on!" Vance roared, stomping the accelerator to the floor.
The ambulance engine screamed, the rear tires spinning furiously in the loose gravel before catching the asphalt with a squeal of burning rubber. The vehicle surged forward, sideswiping the county cruiser with a grinding screech of metal that shattered the siren lights on the police car and sent a shower of red and white plastic shards across the highway.
In the back, the violent motion threw Julian’s gurney loose from its floor lock. I lunged across the narrow aisle, wrapping my arms around the metal frame just as it slammed against the supply cabinets. Julian was gasping for air, his fingers clawing at his chest as the IV line ripped out of his arm, spraying a bright crimson arc across the white linoleum floor.
"Clara..." he choked out, his eyes rolling back toward the ceiling. "The... the ring... look at the ring..."
I dropped to my knees beside him, pressing a sterile gauze pad onto his bleeding arm while keeping my eyes locked on his face. "What ring? Julian, stay with me! Look at me!"
"My grandfather’s... ring," he whispered, his voice fading to a microscopic thread. "The one Beatrice made me wear... it’s not gold... it’s a reservoir..."
Before I could process what he meant, the ambulance lurched again as a heavy impact slammed into our passenger side. Another vehicle had joined the pursuit, ramming us from the side to force us off the road. The siren panel above us shorted out in a shower of blue sparks, plunging the back of the ambulance into sudden, eerie darkness, save for the sickly yellow glow of the morning sun breaking through the canopy of trees.
Through the shattered glass of the side window, I saw the dense, ancient forest of the Vance estate rushing past us like a wall of dark teeth. We weren't heading toward the hospital anymore.
Vance was fighting the steering wheel, screaming profanities into his radio as the transmission output shrieked with white noise.
I reached down and grabbed Julian’s left hand. On his ring finger sat the heavy, antique gold band his grandmother had forced him to wear during the ceremony—the one encrusted with a dull, dark red stone that looked less like a ruby and more like dried, hardened resin.
Without hesitation, I jammed my fingernail into the side of the setting, pressing down hard on a tiny hidden latch.
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With a soft click, the stone popped open on a microscopic hinge, revealing a tiny, hollow chamber inside the metal band.
And resting inside that secret cavity wasn't a gemstone at all. It was a microscopic, dried petal of a flower I had never seen before—and a tiny, glistening drop of fresh, dark crimson liquid that smelled distinctly of bitter almonds and decay.
