A bad omen...

"I can sense and smell something nearby, but I can't work out what it is." Shadow said, stopping again. She reached under her cloak, hand grasping the hilt of one of her swords. "What ever it is, I don't know if it's hostile or not. Stay on alert."

'Right,' Bart said, getting into a fighting stance, his style. Left arm in front, palm of the hand facing ground, right arm sideways, claws beared. One leg forwards, one leg backwards, foot facing to the side.
'Ready.'

Shadow drew one blade, her eyes darting around. The sword glowed very slightly with her dark energy. She adopted her own battle stance, her feet at shoulder-width apart, sword at the ready. She held her head high, eyes, ears, nose and mind on alert to the person's presence.

-Hm, let's see. To your honour, Shadow?-

Bart quickly glanced left and right, to see any incoming things. Whatever this is, it was surely trained, not to be detected by a Kraferr's senses like that, except for vision. A cold gust of wind prepared Bart as it leaked through his shirt and tickled his spine with it's deathly fingers. The lights flickered once more.

- What do you mean? -

Shadow suddenly jumped to the left, dodging an attack. A small lock of purple hair remained where she had been standing, and she looked at it for a moment.
"That was close..." She remarked.

-Well, maybe you can reveal the attacker's identity-

Noticing that Shadow was attacked, he concentrated to his visual senses, seeing a black shape in a red background. Bart couldn't tell if it was a female or male. But he knew that it was hostile, for attacking like that.
He lunged towards the figure, claws beared, teeth glistening in the dark night, one leg straight and the other flexed.

- ok -

Shadow's stance had changed, and she had drawn her other sword. The attacker deftly dodged the attack. The streetlamps went out completely, leaving the trio to fight by moonlight, and a strange red glow coming from Shadow. The demoness had yet to notice this.

The attacker seemed to be grinning as it directed its attack at Bart, lodging an arrow into a bow and taking careful aim.

Bart noticed a small object being used onto a bow. He identified the object. He cursed. An arrow, he thought. He tried to foresee where the arrow would get shot. Him, he thought. He swiftly moved to the side, leaning his body dangerously to the ground, but his speed kept him from falling.
He tried to approach the opponent by zigzaging between the poles and jumping slightly to disturb the aimer. He then quickly crouched, and he lunged at his enemy, one arm blocking the attacks to his head, but still having it's claw beared, and the other arm blocking the attacks to the chest.

The archer dropped his bow as Bart came too close for it to be of any use. The attacker drew a sword, a clumsily made blade, and thrust it towards Bart's heart. Shadow ran towards them, eyes narrrowed and teeth bared, showing longer-than-normal canines.

Bart was shocked at the speed of the enemies' retraction, and soon knew that he wouldn't come out unscathed. As he was soaring in the air and towards the enemy, it thrusted it's blade at Bart's heart.
Sh*t, he thought.
The blade pierced Bart's arm, thus impaling him onto the blade. The weapon slowly sank deeper into Bart's reinforced chest, making the chest have an unbearable pressure, thus causing it to break.
Blood rivered down Bart's body as he landed onto the ground with one leg. He grabbed the opponent's hand, squeezing it tight. He felt the blade in his body, but he was used to pain. He smirked slightly. He looked up at the enemy, grinning like mad. His eyes gleamed a very bright red light. 'Know that...' he began, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, 'A Kraferr's heart is not at the same location as a human's heart.'
He threw his other hand, claws beared, at the opponent's face, aiming for the eyes.

The attacker's face was covered in a black band, leaving only its obviously human eyes exposed. The eyes showed shock as it saw Bart's claws headed for them. The person recoiled, ripping the sword away, but not before the claws had ripped into it's right eye, splattering blood onto the other side of it's face. It saw Shadow coming out of the corner of it's eye, and threw the sword at her before fleeing as fast as possible. Shadow couldn't stop her charge quick enough to change direction, and the sword hit her chest chest, running through her heart and out through her back.

Bart slumped onto the ground.
Well, d*mn, he thought, this is a good beginning.
He coughed up blood, leaving a small trail. As he slowly pulled his way to Shadow, leaving a trickle of dark blood behind him, his eyes glistened. He arrived near Shadow.
He cursed. I swore I would protect her, he thought, and I have failed. But there's still a chance.
Bart looked at the wound. She's going to die, he thought, if I don't bring immediate help. I can't bring humans... Wait. She said that Vrael's a medic. I better get him, but how?
Bart laid his wrist on Shadow's neck. The pulse was going unstable. He laid two fingers on Shadow's forehead.
'Shadow, I hope you can hear me,' he began, 'I need to call Vrael, but how can I do it? Tell me.'
Bart approached his ear to Shadow's mouth, if ever she couldn't speak well. He still felt the pain in his chest, but he chose to ignore it. Shadow's life was for right now the one in most danger.

"I can hear you..." Shadow murmured, "Don't call Vrael... They can't know..." Her face screwed up in pain as she coughed. Her hand grasped the hilt of the sword, and wrenched it out, throwing it away.

Crap, Bart thought.
He didn't really know what to do. Or maybe he did. Could he? He didn't think so. Not experimented enough. But... if he didn't do it, would Shadow die, here? What a dishonour. He knew that there was no other way: He didn't have the strength to lift Shadow and carry her somewhere safe. And he knew he couldn't let Shadow die here.
'Shadow,' he begun. He gulped, 'I know you're going to find this very awkward, but maybe... I could help you.'
What am I saying? he thought? The hell am I saying? I can't even stay easy when they dissect a rabbit in SVT class. Oooh, what to do now? I'm scared of the two answers: If no, what the heck am I going to do? And if yes, what the heck am I going to do?
He looked at the wound. Normally, if the heart was the vital part, Shadow would already be dead. He could try to stop any hemmoragy by tightening some cloth around the wound. But what else?

Shadow closed her eyes briefly.
"I won't die," She murmured before snarling, "I will not die!" She knew the consequences if she died now. She put a hand over her wound, feeling the blood. She looked at Bart.
"Please, help me..."

Oh, Christ, he thought.
He took his T-shirt and ripped a large strand of cloth. He picked Shadow up, to put the cloth under, and he laid it on the wound. He tied a knot to the cloth, tightening hard. The cloth turned black from the blood.
He felt his wound. Ah well, he thought, I'll have to cope with that. He stood up, making sure that his back did not get damaged, to see if he could still move. Luckily, it wasn't. He slowly bent down, putting one arm under Shadow's upper body, and putting one arm under the knees. He heaved Shadow up. She isn't that heavy, he thought, but still, try to walk some time with this. He looked at Shadow.
'Everything's going to go...' Bart said, stopping in mid sentence. '...Going to go fine.'
He started marching, his body spilling blood and leaving small puddles at each step. He was heading towards a turn around by the street. He slowly advanced towards the street hoping that no consciousness was looking at the two.

"You're hurt too..." Shadow murmured. She reached a hand up to touch his face, letting some of her magic flow into him. She may not be able to heal herself, but she could at least lessen his wounds. She could feel her energy drain, like it always did.

'Yes, but I'm not endangered as you are, Shadow.' he said, hastily.
He arrived at the corner of the street. He looked to see if anyone was watching or coming. Nothing. He looked at the closed and locked building that stood beside him. A medical bulding.
There, he thought, maybe I'll be able to get something.
He looked at Shadow. 'Hey, Shadow,' he said, 'Do you think you have enough energy to disable all electricity for a period of time in this particular building without sounding the alarm?'

Shadow nodded slowly. She reached out and touched the wall, allowing some of her magic to leave her. The single light that had been on went out, but no alarm sounded. Her violet eyes rolled to the back of her head as she blacked out.

'Jesus Christ!' Bart said, noticing that Shadow just whited out.
I didn't mean for her to go unconscious... he thought.
He didn't have time, he thought, normal uncoscious people can only survive 10 minutes at most without treatment. Bart looked at the cloth. It was black. All black.
He heavily kicked the glass, spreading it onto the floor. Nothing happened. Good, he thought.
He laid Shadow gently onto a table in the building. He quickly rummaged through the varied medicine.
'Cough cure, Stomach ache cure... aha!'
Bart snatched a box marked 'Anaestetic'. He took a syringe and cotton, and also a bottle with the words 'liquid desinfectant'. He took some cotton and poured some desinfectant on it. He ran to Shadow, sitting on a chair next to her. He put his indew onto the neck. The pulse was getting weaker.
If she got impaled in the heart, what am I going to do?
He dabbed the cotton around the wound. He filled the syringe with anaestetic, and shot it near the wound.
He then stood up, and rummaged once more in the shelves, looking for some string he could sew the wound with. He found 'stitch string', and he grabbed it. He unrolled a few meters of string, took a pair of scissors on the shelf, and cut the string. He also took a needle lying in a random drawer. He tried to put the string into the needle, but he was trembling so much he couldn't aim well. He sighed.
What if I'm doing something wrong here? he thought, I always do wrong things in situations like these.
he looked at Shadow, still unconscious. She won't die, Bart thought, she shall not die like this!
He fit the string into the needle, knotted it, and started sewing in a criss-cross pattern to pull the flesh back into place. After a few minutes, he put his index on Shadow's neck. The pulse was getting dimmer and dimmer by the second.
She only has a few minutes left, he thought. What shall I do?
He tried to remember what they did to badly wounded people in the books he read about human anatomy.
'Desinfect, sew the wound...'
He looked at Shadow. She needs to get her heart beating again for the blood to flow. Bart didn't know how to make a human heart recover from it's wounds, and especially a non-human one.
He cursed. He sat on the chair. He didn't know what to do. He looked at Shadow. I just couldn't protect you, he thought.

-Okay, the above post is COMPLETELY fiction. THAT IS MOST PROBABLY NOT HOW TO REANIMATE SOMEONE. I've never did such a thing. Don't try to do this at home, kids.-

- You got the disinfectant right, but you stop the bleeding first, and you don't use a cross stich on a wound, normally you use individual stitches. (sorry, I read too many medical books lol) -

Shadow's breath was becoming fainter, but there was another, faint, beating from the other side of her chest, but it was flagging. In her mind, she was re-living the moment that the sword struck, the pain and the blood. Strangely, her only thought at that point had been 'that's another scar to add to the collection'.

From what Shadow knew of demon atonomy (and past attempts to kill herself), she knew that if her 'main' heart was damaged, her 'secondary' heart would keep her alive until it healed. She didn't know, however, that it wouldn't be able to run her body indefinitely.

Bart put his head into his hands. He put his index on Shadow's neck. Faint pulse. But he felt something else, hidden. He approached Shadow. There was a beat, uncorrespondant to the normal one he heard up until now.
Could it be that, he thought, Shadow has two hearts?
Bart was astonished at the thought. It could be, he continued thinking, but I don't think any normal body could have two main hearts. This... secondary one, he thought, would be an emergency heart. Thus, allowing Shadow to stay alive. But how much time does it take until Shadow repairs her main heart? Probably a long time. And what if the secondary heart was only temporary?
Bart cursed in his mind. He knew that a way to heal faster would be transfusing Kraferr blood into Shadow's body, because Kraferr blood has extra regenerating coding, but what if Shadow had an antibody killing any unknown cells? Or what if that doesn't work on a non-human, after all?
I can't speak to her, Bart thought, she's unconscious, and she needs to keep strength anyways. I need to fuel the heart myself if it begins to falter.
He put his index on Shadow's throat. The same slow and hidden beat.

A quiet but menacing laugh echoed from the shadows of the room. Raven stepped forwards, watching Bart.
"Trying to help her? I was watching your fight. Not one of the best ones I've ever seen, I lust admit." She said conversationally, continuing towards them. She stopped on the opposite side of the table to Bart, her arms folded. "I'm guessing by the look that was on your face that you've found out about our secondary heart."

'You again,' Bart said, no change in his face. He stood up and looked at Raven. 'Yes, I'm trying to aid her. I can't let her die.'
Raven mentioned the secondary heart. So it's possible... he thought.
'Yes, I've just learnt about it. Except...'
He looked at Shadow. His red eyes glistened. His fur straightened. He turned back to Raven.
'Except I don't know what to do now.'
Bart felt uneasy. He lost lots of blood from the wound. He didn't pay attention. At least he tried to.

Raven rolled her eyes.
"Stupid girl, leaving without a guard." She muttered under her breath. She examined the wound.
"Those stitches won't last long." She said, "And the secondary heart won't be able to keep up much longer. Hmmm..." Raven said.

She put her index finger on the jewel embedded between Shadow's eyebrows, and murmured something. Shadow jumped awake with a sharp intake of breath.