Covert

Chapter Eight- The Effects of Fear

Declan stretched his arm across Autumn's wingspan, having used her as the final stabilizer he needed to continue forward. With the vacant pharmacy stocked in full medical necessities came into sight, Autumn made her way to the closest chair to have Declan sit. She then picked up a shopping basket, set it over her arm, and made her way down the well-stocked aisles. Foreign brands of bandages and varied names of antiseptic made their way into her line of sight. Knowing that Declan would know which ones were present for proper usage had allowed her a calm mind to be able to take one of everything that seemed useful before then returning to him. 

By now, his wound had been present for over a few hours, and had stained his shirt completely. Appearing as sweat or even spilled paint to those ignorant to the truth. This caused concern as his skin had grown pale, having lost a pigment from its usual sunkissed allure. His complexion became sodden with small amounts of sweat that forced his hair to remain upon his skin like glue. She knew she had been left to her own devices as he was fading fast, and would be little to no help. 

Knowing the area of his wound as the blood marked it quite well, Autumn moved her fingers to the fabric of his shirt, before his hand fell upon hers. The rough nature of his fingers caused for her to become aroused when imagining them caress her. For a moment, she had been drawn in by his deep emerald gaze and full lips, before pulling back when her hand fell onto his wound, making him wince. 

Within seconds, Declan recovered, before watching her with heavy eyes. With loss of blood and the inability to seek professional medical help, Autumn was left to deduce the situation based solely on her own wits. Using her cellphone and her base literary knowledge of prefixes and root words, she was able to arrange antibiotics from the simplistic cold medications. Separating the vitamins from the laxatives, she began to sort from the items she needed to those in which she didn't, focusing on tweezers  and a pan. Pouring a few gracious tilts into a pan, Autumn had brought alcohol in preparation to be sterilized. Dipping the end of the tweezers into the alcohol, she then lifted his shirt upright as he began to mumble something unintelligible beneath his breath. 

As she ignored this while continuing with her attempts as first aid. Using a cloth doused in rubbing alcohol, she began to wipe away the blood from his wound, seeing the bullet having made its way from one side of him and exiting through another. Knowing she only had to disinfect and seal him, she began those motions as his mumbles became easier to understand. 

"Bonita. Muchas bonita…" he spoke, his eyes cascading down her body, before then locking her gaze with his own. "Beso Americana…." He commented-a word that she knew had meant "kiss". She paused for a moment, locked between reason and lust, before his touch moved to her waist. "Perhaps I can show you how good I can persuade you with my tongue." Before she could pull away, his lips pressed upon hers as her eyes closed immediately. But the intimate moment ended quickly as impact upon Declan's skin had caused her to retreat from his buss. Removing a thermometer from behind her, she tore open the package before forcing him to take his temperature-finding it to be at a dangerous 102.8 and rising. 

"You can get angry at me tomorrow…" she spoke just as the sound of the bell from the back employee entrance had rung out. She had fully anticipated to dragging Declan to the hospital if necessary, but it seemed as though a blessing came to her in disguise. A pharmacist made his way to the counter to see two people in a fire situation. His gaze read the scene before Autumn lifted the gun kept by the gunmen that shot Declan, pointing it to him. 

"You are going to help us." The man looked to her as if she was completely off of her own medication. It was clear that he was no doctor, but he would be the closest thing she had. The man approached Declan before setting his touch upon his forehead. When feeling the temperature, fear became present in his gaze, before he then looked to Autumn. Luckily, the man spoke English, allowing a shaky, yet possible conversation. 

"He needs a doctor."

"Not an option." She spoke upon setting her attention onto the gun still present within her grasp. Although she knew it was without ammunition given the fact it had become wet and now dysfunctional, the pharmacist was unaware of this little detail. 

"I am not a doctor…"

Although she had no intention of taking the life of this innocent man, Autumn would put enough pressure into him, as if that was all she intended. 

"Just help me reduce his fever and see him up-" as she instructed this, the man finally noticed the extent of Declan's wound. Silence filled the air between them until the pharmacist slowly nodded. "I have a...bath in the back of the store, I will fill it with tepid water...and I need you to get a piece of metal- size of this…" he spoke while rounding off his fingers to appear to be the size of an American Silver Dollar. Autumn watched the man closely before he stayed true to his actions while she carried on with her own. Looking around the shop, she finally came upon a flag stand that was the exact circumference of what she was told to scout. Bringing it to view for the man, he then took a blowtorch from the security closet and took the end of the metal while it rested over the constant flame. 

"He needs to undress." Declan was without a trustworthy frame of mind as he was no more than a moveable zombie. He mumbled and spoke names aloud, but never anything that made more sense than that. Because of this, Autumn was left to begin to strip his clothes. 

The blood remained present upon his lower abdomen, allowing her the chance to see how physically fit he had truly been. The indents of his abdominals had been presented in peak fitness. Her gaze drifted from the bare nature of his chest to the wound on his right side, to the beauty marks that were perfectly present upon his physique. A tattoo of a phoenix was present right above his wound, making her bring her fingers to trace him while feeling his skin become present with goosebumps. 

She managed to withdraw her touch and focus her attention on continuing to undress him. She set her fingers to the button of his pants, pulling them free before the sight of his boxers could be seen. Although the fabric of said garment kept her imagination guessing what was beneath his boxers, the bulge set before her allowed her to understand a reason behind his arrogance. 

"You are so beautiful." Declan spoke in a tired tone as she blushed before focusing on his boxers. This had been the only time within her entire life that Autumn was removing someone's clothes without the intention of finding some sort of pleasure from it. Bit right now, the only thing that mattered had been for him to be alright. She turned him to face away from her before assisting him from his boxers and allowing her to bare witness to his naked ass. The corner of her mouth curved into a thin smile as she knew if she saw his frontal view, that she would not be able to withstand being so close. "You do not have to get me shot for me to take my clothes off for you." He spoke in a perfect humor that fit harmoniously into his persona-even with a fever. 

"Shut up." She commented while bringing her strength beneath his arm to help him into the bath. 

Autumn remained at his side while his eyes remained glossy and the blood from his wound had caused him to turn the water red. It allowed for him to remain modest with his member hidden beneath the crimson water. She carried her touch to a small rag from a package for cleaning, unused until now, before bringing it upon his chest. She set the water over his chest, wrapping the tip of the sponge upon his chest, around his n*****s, on the base of his neck, and finally to his chin. The mid-September shadow that became present on his chin had forced her to feel a coarse feeling until she became drawn in by his lips. Feeling taken by surprise by his kiss, she could only think about what would have happened if a fever would not be the reason for this. Perhaps she would have been satisfied by him and his gracious tongue. 

Suddenly, the sound of boots entering the building alerted Autumn before assertive words in Spanish were spoken to her. As she was forced onto her knees while Declan remained in the tub of bloody water, Autumn came to realize the pharmacist had called the authorities. Without a chance to even attempt to conjure an explanation, she was taken from Declan's side and drug into a cop car waiting to take her to prison- a place she never intended on going back to.