Isaac raised the veins. Madison inserted the needles, one by one. She elevated Zar’s table as high as it would go so gravity would help. Somehow, she did all this without ever really looking at Zar, like pretending he wasn’t there.
Zar lay down, panting slightly, as blood started to flow into the IV line, and Isaac was giving Madison a rundown of what we knew of the worst damage.
She pulled on blue surgical gloves, checked Kage’s shoulder and around his head, then worked her way down to Jason holding his insides in place.
“Go. You, hand right here.”
Jed reached to follow her orders, to keep Kage together, but Jason didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to know she was there.
Isaac had to snap at Jason, using his name, before he backed off around Jed, leaving Jed and Isaac for the helpers, Zar lying still on the table, watching Kage’s face.
Then Jason was backing toward me, which made me realize for the first time since Madison’s front door, that there was a me. I was a person standing in this room. A mixed-use surgical room in a veterinary clinic. So white and bright. Smelling of antiseptic and urine and cats. A couple of cats cowered in recovery cages, their eyes huge, fur on end and mouths slightly open as they took in the scent of the wolves, too frightened for a meow.
If they had animals here, someone would be in very early looking after them. How early?
The lights were so … white. Blazing, cold, settling into my soul like snow into a ditch, filling and filling, colder and colder.
He’s not dead yet and he’s going to live.
This is a human woman. There is a human veterinarian, not a caster, not even a druid, a mundane human woman is operating on this shifter. This werewolf. And she knows. She hates it, she’s terrified, but she’s helping anyway, fighting to save him even though she doesn’t have to.
“Cassia? You need hospital—”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
It had been Isaac’s voice, and my own. He was looking at me from the table.
I stood in the doorway at the back of the room with Andrew. He had his arms around me, like he was trying to hold me together while they tried to hold Kage together. I leaned hard into him.
“I can’t drive that thing, mate. Never driven a four-wheel. She can’t drive. And Jay … maybe could, but probably shouldn’t.”
“Call an ambulance. They’ll take her to Kendal. Stay with her. Say you’re married. They’ll let you ride with her.”
“I’m not leaving,” I repeated.
“What’s wrong with her?” Madison asked behind her mask, absorbed in her work of cleaning debris from Kage’s intestines and internal organs. “Wash your hands, then disinfect, then thread that for me.”
Isaac moved to the sink as he answered. He’d been holding pressure on Kage’s shoulder. “Concussion, a bite on her arm, and she fell about … a hundred yards down a ragged slope.”
“You should be lying down.” Madison’s eyes flashed to me before keeping focus. “But the bite wound needs to be flushed as quickly as possible. Get it under the tap, let the water flow over it. You need antibiotics now. You could already have blood poisoning or developing infection. If you’re not going to hospital, flush the wound, lie down, and take amoxicillin. I don’t know the dose for humans.” She kept working while she talked. She took the needle from Isaac and started to stitch—inside. She was a long way from getting to actually sealing any skin.
Andrew had me in front of the sink. I wanted to vomit into it, but I stood like a mannequin while he pulled off the coats.
“Where … where are they?” Jason stammered, breathless. I didn’t know what he was talking about.
Andrew swore when he saw the blood-soaked sock on my hand, but much more when he saw my arm. Below my jacket wrap, I had on only my wet bra.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Andrew whispered, though I was still trying to hear Madison talking to Isaac and giving instructions to Jason.
Jason brought me a blister pack of pills and a glass that he filled with warm water.
He struggled to get my attention enough to make me swallow one. Then, with Andrew asking Madison what she would give a Newfoundland in my situation, another pill.
Jason hugged me, face against my neck, shaking, his breathing sharp, while I leaned down into the sink for Andrew to wash my arm. I didn’t even look at the arm, didn’t feel it, only watching Kage until I couldn’t see anymore, then pressed my face into Jason’s bare skin.
So cold. So … so cold. So cold I couldn’t … anything. Only remember one thought. He’s going to live.
Chapter 11
“She’s okay.” I pressed a hand to my pelvis.
“As far as they can tell, darling. You’re the one we’re concerned about.” Andrew squeezed my aching right hand.
I opened my eyes. Andrew sat against my hospital bed in dim light of midday filtered through shut blinds. I heard people in the halls, steps, voices. Mostly quiet.
Pain radiated out from the back of my head, down my spine, through my sides, along my legs to my feet. My right arm hurt like impending death. Useless as a slab of meat. I didn’t return Andrew’s pressure on that hand, didn’t even cross my mind that the arm was any use.
Otherwise … I felt okay. Dry, warm, awake. I remembered snatches of Jason and Andrew helping me, of drifting off and coming to, of riding in the ambulance with Andrew talking to the EMT, holding my left hand the whole time. He’d told them we’d been out walking at night and we’d never even got a good look at the dog. Some huge, loose animal, there and gone, knocked me down a slope.
There had been a lot of needles and reassurance as I’d argued with them that all I was worried about was the baby and they’d insisted they needed to look after me first, then they’d get to that. They’d done a scan. Was it just an ultrasound? Had there been a CAT scan? I couldn’t actually remember, only that they’d finally obeyed my pleading that they needed to make sure the baby was okay, and a woman in scrubs had said everything looked fine as far as they could see—that I didn’t need to worry about that part. It was like she’d given me permission for shock and concussion and I hadn’t opened my eyes again until now.
Hospital gown and bed, Andrew beside me in a chair he must have been in all the later part of the night and morning. An IV in my arm, dripping fluids. Antibiotics? Pain meds?
I wasn’t sure if the feeble insurance I had would cover ER in another country, but I wasn’t too worried about it. Not like at home—where uncertainty of coverage could mean panic, bankruptcy, end of everything. Here … there would be a bill that we could sort out later. It wouldn’t kill me.
“Andrew?” I turned my head on the pillow, blinking. The light at his back seemed very bright, harsh, despite it only coming through slits in the blinds. “Kage?”
He looked at me through his glasses, his grave expression not changing. “We don’t know. He’s alive, but he hasn’t woken up. That vet says it’s a poor lookout. She doesn’t know how tough we are, though. We’re praying for him.”
“I have to go back.” I shut my eyes.
“I know. They’re not going to let you unless you pass their concussion test and they know you’re out of danger. I told them we want to go home this evening. Don’t think you’re going to get any better than that, Belle.”
“What did they tell you?” I rubbed my left hand across my belly. “She’s for sure okay?”
“As far as they can see.” He bent over, kissed the back of my hand, then the white blanket over my pelvis, resting his head there, then up to kiss my cracked lips.
I followed with my hand to stroke his hair. “I need to be back with Kage.”
“I know,” he repeated and kissed my forehead. “We’ll get you there this evening. If you can stay awake and pass the tests.”
“What tests?”
“No idea. About your eyes dilating and being mentally sharp, I suppose. Best thing you can do right now is go on napping, then we’ll have you wide awake to ace the tes
ts later.”
“Isaac was here.” Funny, I hadn’t remembered, at first, just now thinking I’d heard his voice.
“Right,” Andrew said. “He’s gone downstairs to get you coffee.”
“Oh… That’s part of the headache. Withdrawal.”
“We figured. Just a little, and some water and a snack. Then you go on resting and I’ll get you more later for your tests. Applesauce, buttered roll, yogurt? What’s your fancy?”
“Would the roll be warm?”
“I’m sure I can sort that.”
“Applesauce and a roll then. And coffee. I need to go back. If we’re with Kage we can help. I can’t stay—”
“We know, darling. We’ll get you out. Not right this minute.” He helped me sit up more, combing the hair back from my face with his fingers, warning me that I would need to talk with a nurse and make a good impression while I had my lunch. “We’ve got your purse here.” He passed me lip balm that I was able to use with my left hand.
I looked around to the sound of a step as Isaac appeared in the doorway to the small room. He set a white paper cup on the table by my shoulder and bent to kiss my brow, leaving his lips there, his short beard rough and warm, his breaths slow. I raised my left hand to his face, returning the touch. For a minute or two we remained silent, Isaac breathing in my skin, me holding his face.
For the first time, it crossed my mind what it had looked like for Isaac, Andrew, and Zar when that thing, followed by two others, leapt from the ridge straight into me, sending me down the slope entangled with wolf and beast—vanishing from sight in the dark. Jason chasing after, Andrew changing to follow, Jed running in, Isaac and Zar struggling to make their ways down on two feet with flashlights.
At last, I moved, sliding my hand across his ear, up into his light hair. “I’m okay.” I tipped my head up to kiss his lips, mine newly sticky with the lip balm. Glad it was vanilla bean. “Really. Just the arm wound and a headache. I’m fine. They would have torn me apart without Kage there. We need to be with him.”
“We’ll get you back there.” Isaac kissed me again. “Once we’re sure you’re out of danger. Both concussion and blood poisoning are things they need to watch.”
He finally stepped away. Then, because he was so tall it was awkward, he sank to his knees beside the bed while he gave me the coffee cup.
Andrew was gone. I hadn’t heard him leave the room, but he must be getting my lunch.
I sipped weak coffee, holding on with my left hand while Isaac cupped his around mine. I wanted to ask him about Kage but was afraid his news would be Andrew’s news—nothing better, nothing more liberating. So I wanted to ask him about Madison. What was going on? Who was she? When he’d lived in this area, had she been the go-to human vet who helped wolves? It couldn’t be that simple or she wouldn’t have reacted that way to him.
I couldn’t ask that either. It was a story. I wanted to hear the full thing. Not a quick few words while my head was spinning and he was on his knees at my hospital bed. As much as asking after Kage or Madison, I wanted to ask what had happened. What were those dead swamp beasts, cobbled together like a science fiction experiment?
I took another drink, set the cup aside with his help, then drew his hand down so my right could reach it as well. Moving my right hand hurt my arm with a burning, achy brutality. I wrapped both around his and Isaac brought his right up to join the other three: a hand embrace.
We said nothing.
Andrew returned with a plate containing an applesauce cup and a buttered roll I could smell as he walked in. He must have been able to microwave it.
Chewing hurt my head more. In my efforts to sit up taller, I also found other fresh hurts—many bruises. I didn’t mention them.
Andrew told about my arm while I ate. Where there’d been a gash—two fangs ripping out of my flesh—that was what the bleeding had kept coming from. They’d put in a few stitches. Otherwise, it was just a matter of keeping the puncture wounds very clean and open. Covering the bite, even with antibiotic cream, could trap bacteria inside. With the right treatment it would start to heal and close up fast, although probably leave scars on my upper right arm. What made it so uncomfortable, and the limb so painful and useless, was the massive bruising and swelling, with punctures only a small part of the problem—although also the worry for infection.
I was right: they were dripping me full of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Now there was just a very light, hardly touching cotton wrap around the arm down to my elbow to prevent me from banging the wounds or stitches while I was asleep. I was glad I couldn’t see it—only a little discoloration from blood and pus seeping into the soft gauze. And the swelling. Even my right hand, a long way from the bite, was swollen.
“No broken bones? Ribs?” Isaac was addressing Andrew across me while I nibbled.
Andrew shook his head. “Not sure how. It must have been the way they rolled down.” He pinched the bridge of his nose below his glasses, eyes shut, then pushed them back in place.
I nodded slowly and swallowed. “I kept landing on them. Kage and that thing—not the rocks. He was in the middle, or I’d have been dead.”
“Speaking of that thing…?” Andrew addressed me.
“I have no idea,” I said. “I’ve never seen such a creature.”
“Zar knows,” Isaac stood, rubbing the back of his neck. I doubted he’d been to sleep in the past thirty hours. “Zar told us about them this morning. He’s read about them in his history and folklore books. None of the rest of us had ever heard of them either.”
“What are they? Where do they come from?” I asked.
Isaac turned his gaze from the window blinds to my eyes in the gloomy room. “Kindred.”
“What?”
Andrew frowned.
“He says those things are the kindred, the faie. Ancient casters used to be able to enchant, slay, and animate the remains of a kindred into a great beast of war to hunt their enemies. They stole the will of the kindred, taking command of physical forms that fell under enchantments and their trapped souls by removing their eyes. Brought back from death but blind, the caster could then control the undead beast better than any servant.”
I stared at him.
Andrew glanced at me, Isaac, then back to me.
My mouth was open. It wasn’t just that I’d never heard of such a thing, it was everything else. It was a life flashing before my eyes, the whole of everything—from the first description of a body with eyes cut out to the faie coming to me in a vision to the lurking creature in the night that did not smell like any living creature at all.
“Three targets, three ways to kill,” Andrew said softly. “The magical triad: shifters, vampires, kindred. One killed by catastrophic damage—a cut throat and bleeding out like old wolf hunts, for example—one by a stake in the heart, one by taking their eyes. But, no matter your wanting them gone, you can bring back the last as a servant to help clear out the rest in a pinch. You can send those beasts after a pack of wolves who you’d be afraid to tackle on your own without hunting rifles.”
I shut my mouth, still at a loss.
“So you’ve never heard of this?” Isaac asked. He looked even more grave and I knew they’d assumed I would be able to offer missing pieces that Zar didn’t know. For example, who could make these things now?
“Never,” I said. “I could search for faie in a scry, but they haven’t visited me in a long time. Not since the night in Yorkshire, when they asked for help. I don’t know if I can find them. Anyway—”
“You can’t do any such thing right now,” Andrew said firmly. “Not with your head.”
“Finish.” Isaac glanced to my lunch. “Rest. A nurse will check on you. I’ll be back this evening and hopefully bring you both to Ambleside. But only if you’re all right.”
“I’ll be fine. I could go now.”
“Not with a concussion. Let them keep an eye on you. Another night unless they’re sure you can go.”
Whi
ch made me think of Isaac’s medical knowledge, of the way he’d put Andrew’s dislocated shoulder back in Germany and raised veins for needles with no instruction.
I didn’t ask.
I just needed to get back to Kage, to all of them, to keep him alive, to figure this out. One question at a time.
Chapter 12
I couldn’t think about faie or shifters or casters. It was Kage, getting out of here, being with him, all my pack, helping him, that mattered now. So … I cheated.
After speaking to the nurse, with Isaac leaving, then a careful, painful visit to my en suite bathroom, I read on my phone about signs of concussion and what they would ask me and how to make sure I sounded fine. Then drifted off again, Andrew still there, texting to his parents at home. They said Melanie was doing all right—though shell-shocked.
By the time I woke, the light in the room had changed. Late evening. Time to go.
Andrew told me to chill, but my heart raced, thinking of Kage. I made another bathroom visit and washed my face and was able to brush my knotted mess of hair because they’d brought my backpack. I couldn’t put my clothes on until I’d aced the tests. No jumping ahead and ruffling feathers.
Andrew had the nurse there for me, but we had to wait forty-five minutes before a doctor finally came to check me over. A middle-aged man. I was glad. Sexist, but I felt sure a female doctor would have been harder to fool.
The truth was my vision was not 100%, my head throbbed and burned, and I was praying my pupils dilated properly, calling on a little magic energy and hoping it would help.
He examined my arm, explained the prescriptions he was sending for me and where we could get them filled, but that it was after hours and I didn’t need to start until tomorrow. Then told us both the signs to look for with sepsis, asked about my head, shined a light in my eyes, gave more warnings, mostly to Andrew. He also left a cotton pad and gauze with directions to use sparingly just to protect the wound, that it needed to stay breathing and a little pus was a good thing. He used a touch of surgical tape to leave the current protective dressing back in place after he examined it, then showed how to fit the sling. It would be both protection and reminder to keep the arm quiet and allow the bruising to heal.
Moonlight Whispers: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 8) Page 6