Other good deeds, not so much. The inside of the Black Hawk wasn't that big. We had a pilot, copilot, room for three stretchers, and two small seats for the medics. One of the medics stayed behind to help Perkins with the wounded still on the ground. We put Travers and Ares stacked to one side and strapped a third wounded officer between the medic seats and the stacked stretchers. By the time everyone was secure it was crowded. Did I mention I'm also claustrophobic?

My view was the stretchers, so no seeing outside, which usually helps with the claustrophobia. I was strapped into the seat, though I had to adjust the AR and the shotgun to sit back in it. The vibration of the chopper beat through my body in a steady, punishing rhythm. The nausea that had hit in the woods after the run came back, and I was left breathing deep, even breaths, trying to control it. I also tried to pretend I wasn't in a whirling machine of death hundreds of feet in the air. There was a gasp that must have been a scream for me to hear it through the earphones and the noise of the blades. I looked up and found Ares trying to sit up. The chopper medic, who had just been introduced to me as Lawrence so I didn't know if it was his first or last name, unbuckled and tried to force Ares back down, but one flailing arm sent him crashing, and only me putting a hand against his back kept him from falling on the wounded man in the middle. Neither he nor Travers moved.

I called out, 'Ares, it's okay!'

Lawrence sat down in his chair, so I could see past him to Ares. His wide, frightened eyes turned and found me. I watched his face get calmer as I unbuckled and moved carefully so I wasn't standing on the third wounded man. I used the other stretchers as part of my handholds, but everyone else was unconscious so they didn't mind.

Lawrence spoke into my headphones. 'Can you calm him down so I can check his vitals?'

'Yes,' I said. The helicopter hit a little turbulence, and I didn't really have my helicopter legs yet. Ares grabbed at me, and I gave him my left hand to hold, our arms bent at the elbow like we were going to arm-wrestle. I felt a spasm that ran through his arm. He writhed on the stretcher, face grimacing in obvious pain. He was mouthing something, saying something, but I couldn't hear it through the headset. I took off one earpiece and bent closer.

'Something's wrong,' he said.

I turned so I could yell into his ear. 'You're hurt.'

'No, it's more, it's ...' He writhed again, hand convulsing on mine until I almost had to tell him, too tight, but he loosened it on his own.

I touched his face, got him to look at me, and said, 'Medic needs to check you. You gotta let him do that, okay?'

His eyes rolled with the pain, but he said, 'Okay.'

I turned and motioned to Lawrence. I started to let go of Ares' hand, but he held on tight, as if he were afraid for me to let go, so I kept hold of him, just moving his arm back with me. It also meant he couldn't accidentally hit Lawrence with it again. If Lawrence needed me to sit down and give him more room, I would, but if it helped calm Ares and I could stay where I was, I'd do it.

Lawrence worked around me, but he'd barely touched him when Ares' body convulsed so violently that if I hadn't had his hand in mine his arm would have swung out again. I held on tighter and yelled next to his face, 'Ares, it's okay. He's helping you.'

'I just need to check you, no needles, nothing bad,' Lawrence said in a voice raised over the noise.

'No,' Ares said in a strangled voice.

'Let him do his job, Ares,' I said, bending over his face. From inches away I watched his eyes turn to hyena gold. The energy of his beast crawled up our joined hands and down my spine. 'No, don't you dare shift in here!'

'Can't help it ... he wants me to shift.'

'Who wants you to?'

'Vampire, her master, it's ... he can control my ... beast.'

'Not through a bite he can't,' I said.

'Land,' he said, 'land, I can't hold on. He's ... it's ... calling me.'

'Not possible, not like this.'

'It's like the bite, the rot ... it carries a piece of him with it. It's not just a disease, it's him ... it's him.'

'Who?'

He screamed full-throated, wordless, and then he found his voice again. 'Hurts, God, it hurts!'

'Ares! Don't ...'

He used our joined hands to pull me close and I was left looking at his face from inches away, upside down, as if I'd put his head in my lap. His hand was almost crushing mine. 'I won't be me when I shift. Do you understand? I won't be ... me. He ... will control. He will control ... me.'

'Shit.' I whispered it, but my face must have let him know that I understood, because some tension went out of him. He trusted I'd take care of it. I only hoped I could.

Lawrence said, 'Does he mean what I think he means?'

'We land now,' I said.

Lawrence shook his head. 'We can't.'

'We have to get Ares out of here before he shifts.'

He hit the microphone and said, 'Is there any place to land now?'

The pilot's voice came over the headset. 'That's a negative.'

Ares convulsed again, and the energy of his beast raised the hair on my body. He growled, and the sound vibrated loud enough that Lawrence could hear it over all the other noises. He gave me wide eyes and got back on the headset. 'We've got a problem and we need to be on the ground ASAP.'

The copilot turned in his seat just in front of us and asked, 'What the hell was that?'

'Shapeshifter,' Lawrence said.

'Landing would be good,' I yelled.

'Negative, repeat negative, there is nowhere to bring us down safely,' the pilot said.

I got on the headset. 'Shapeshifter is about to lose his shit, we need him out of here before that.'

'We were assured the shapeshifter had control of himself, or we wouldn't have let him on our bird,' the copilot said.

'Normally he does, but trust me. You want him out of here before it happens.'

'We got no landing site for at least the next ten minutes. Can he hold it together for that long?'

'Ares,' I said.

He looked at me with his hyena eyes. His body convulsed and I almost had to cry uncle. He was going to crush my hand if he didn't stop.

'Ares, can you hear me?'

'Yes,' but his voice had that edge of growl to it.

'Ten minutes, hold on for ten minutes and then they'll land.'

'I don't think ... not sure.'

'Hold on, we'll get you out of here, but you gotta hold on.'