“Were you exposed, too?” Shawn asked Hex as he led them deeper into his house. He paused outside a door on the left and poked his head inside, where a little girl was playing with a doll. “I’ll be a couple of minutes, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy,” the young girl answered. “Then can we make Jennifer better?” The young girl held up her doll.
“We sure can.” Shawn smiled, his eyes filled with love as he chuckled to himself. “She’s a difficult patient.”
“Who, Jennifer?” Martha teased. “Or are you talking about someone else?”
“Good to see you are feeling better,” Hex said lightly.
“Definitely Jennifer, she has the weirdest symptoms. A medical mystery for sure.” Shawn took a key from above the door and unlocked a room on the right of the hallway. “This is my home office.”
He switched the light on and went inside. “Please, sit.” He indicated two chairs and Hex sat in the chair furthest away so that Shawn could examine Martha. “Let’s start with blood pressure and then I’ll listen to you to your heart.”
“I feel fine now,” Martha insisted as she rolled up her sleeve.
“I’m the doctor, let me be the judge of that,” Shawn told her firmly as he placed the cuff around her upper arm and began to pump it up.
“You need to check Hex over, too.” Martha glanced sideways at Hex.
“I feel okay,” Hex assured her. “Just a bit of a headache.”
“A headache is one of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, so I’ll take a look at you, too.” He glanced down at the blood pressure monitor. “It all looks good.”
“See, a fuss about nothing,” Martha told Hex.
“Not exactly.” Shawn listened to Martha’s heart and then took a look inside her mouth. “I’d prefer it if you could both go to the hospital. But since there’s a whole heap of snow between you and Bear Bluff Hospital, I’m going to recommend plenty of fresh air. Hilda’s fire is also not to be used until the chimney has been swept. Then get her a carbon monoxide alarm.”
“We’re going over the mountains back to the sawmill. So we’ll get plenty of fresh air,” Hex told the doctor.
Shawn checked Hex over before he put his equipment away and sat down at his desk. “I don’t think going over the mountain is a good idea either.”
“Why not?” Martha asked. “You know I need to get the antibiotics to my mom.”
“I know. But the air is thin on the higher slopes and the oxygen in your blood is already depleted. If I sent you to the hospital, they’d put you on pure oxygen to replenish the oxygen in your blood. I can’t allow you to put yourselves in danger.” Shawn leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
“I’ll go alone, and Martha can stay here with you,” Hex suggested.
“My advice is for both of you.” Shawn leaned forward, his eyes fixed on Hex. “You were lucky. If you hadn’t gotten out of there when you did, you might have been killed.”
“Hex got us out of there. He saved me…” Her voice trailed off. “Maybe this was it. Maybe the dream was wrong.”
“Martha might be right. You were drowning in a way,” Shawn agreed.
“The dream is what woke me,” Hex admitted. “I knew I was losing you and I woke up.” His brow creased. “My bear woke me. He yelled at me to wake up.”
“And you did and you both got out of there alive.” Shawn leaned forward and looked directly at Hex. “Maybe it’s time to let go of that dream and thank fate for saving you.”
“So, our other sides weren’t affected by this?” Martha asked. “We didn’t plan to climb the mountain in our human forms. So why can’t we continue as planned?”
“Because we don’t know that something might happen and you’ll have to shift into your human forms,” Shawn replied. “We also don’t know if the two halves of us are connected on a level we don’t understand.”
“Well, that’s a deep conversation for another day,” Martha joked. “So if we can’t go over the mountain, we could just follow the road. No high altitudes.”
“I’d rather you both rested, but I know your mom shouldn’t miss any more of her meds.” Shawn paused. “I could get the hospital to make out a new prescription for her. But someone from the sawmill will have to go and get the meds from Bear Bluff.”
“Thanks, but I have Mom’s pills here, we’re going to make the journey. I don’t want anyone else taking a risk. It’s quicker for us to get back to the sawmill from Cougar Ridge than it is for Mac or one of the others to go to the hospital in Bear Bluff,” Martha said firmly. “It won’t take too much longer. We’ll take the road out of Cougar Ridge and then cut across country once we’re on the flat.”
“That will take us close to the creek.” Hex shook his head. “There must be another way.”
“We can just follow the roads,” Martha assured him. “If we stick to the roads, we won’t go near the creek.”
Hex swallowed down is panic. Maybe they were right, maybe his dreams had been about saving Martha from the effects of carbon monoxide. But as he nodded his head in agreement, knowing they had to get the antibiotics to Hilda, it didn’t feel as if this was over.
In fact, it felt as if it was just beginning.
As they left Shawn’s house, Hex looked up at the distant mountain peaks and hoped he was wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Martha
Hex wasn’t happy. Martha could sense the tension in her mate as they locked up her mom’s house and headed out of town.
They were taking Shawn’s advice and following the roads rather than going over the high mountain pass. It would add an hour or more to their journey, but at least they wouldn’t risk worsening the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“We should still get there in the daylight,” Martha said as they reached the top of the road that led down from Cougar Ridge. No one had dared make the journey out of town and no one had managed to reach Cougar Ridge by road either. However, most of the kids from Cougar Ridge had spent the day sledding down the first part of the road, and it was worn smooth like glass.
“We should have brought skis. It sure would have made traveling down the road easier.” Hex looked right and left before he chose a path through the trees that lined the edge of the road. “We can walk here, the snow isn’t deep, and it shouldn’t be too slippery.”
“Good, because there is quite a drop if we go over the edge.” Martha looked down the steep side of the road and shivered. She’d had a close enough shave with danger already today, she didn’t need another one.
“I thought cats always landed on their feet?” Hex teased as he dodged around a young boy who had dragged his sled to the top of the road and was now preparing to slide down once more.
“They do. And it’s not the landing I’m worried about, it’s all the trees I’ll hit on the way down.” She watched the children for a moment while Hex walked across the packed ice to the edge of the trees.
“Coming?” Hex held onto a slender tree trunk on the edge of the road.
“Yes.” She turned away from the children and followed her mate. “I used to sled down here. My dad would bring me. He used to help me pull the sled back up the road when I was too small to manage alone.” Her eyes misted with tears. “It’s funny the things we forget.”
“It is. Then we see something or hear something and it’s as if the memory was always there.” Hex began the descent down the side of the road. It was difficult to walk between the trees in their snowshoes and the journey was slow going. Once they passed the end of the sled run, they could rejoin the road and make better time.
Or we could dump the snowshoes and use four feet instead, her cougar suggested.
“We could shift,” Martha suggested as the road curved around to the left. The children didn’t sled this far down the road and silence soon enveloped them. “No one can really see us, and no one would care even if they did.”
Hex nodded. “Good idea. If we don’t move faster, we’re not going to make it
back before dark.”
He looked around, his eyes fixed on a point in the far distance. “There are some other people in that direction.” He pointed in the opposite direction to the one they would take once they reached the road at the bottom of the hill. “But aside from that, we’re alone.”
“Then let’s go.” Martha shifted instantly and took off at a loping trot, her paws sinking into the snow. Her cougar snarled, she hated the pads of her paws getting cold, but she ran on regardless.
Behind her, the air shimmered as Hex shifted into his bear and ran to catch up. He seemed to be coping well with the snow on the ground and so Martha’s cougar picked up the pace, aware that the night and another blizzard were closing in.
Lifting her nose, her cougar sniffed the air. They had time. Plenty of time to get safely back to the sawmill. It was important that they paced themselves and didn’t tire too quickly. If the weather did suddenly take a turn for the worst, they had to have some reserves in their energy tanks.
Reserves in our energy tanks? Her cougar laughed. We aren’t cars, you know.
I know. But you know what I mean. Don’t tire yourself out. Martha was glad her cougar had taken over. Her head still ached, and the cold seemed to drain her energy much faster than it normally would. Her cougar shifter blood didn’t seem capable of staving off the chilly mountain air.
Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she checked up on Hex. His bear was trailing a little behind and she slowed her pace, not wanting to pressure him into tiring himself out. They had a few miles to cover and one wrong move could end in disaster.
No disasters, her cougar told her. Hex’s dream was all about carbon monoxide poisoning. I’m certain of it.
Hex doesn’t think so, Martha replied. He’s convinced the dream is about the creek and I don’t think he’s ready to give up on it just yet.
Maybe when he doesn’t have the dream again, he’ll believe it, her cougar answered.
And if he does have it again? Martha asked. Do we go back to believing his dream is a portent of doom?
Her cougar froze, her paw raised in the air as she turned her head from side to side. Beside her, Hex’s bear slid to a halt and lifted his head to listen.
There was a scream. Her cougar took a couple of steps to the right, turning away from the sawmill.
Turning toward the creek.
Hex’s bear nipped her shoulder in warning. He didn’t want her to go, yet as another scream rang out, Martha knew she had no choice. It was time to look fate in the eye.
She sprinted forward toward the creek and Hex’s bear roared in protest. Martha’s cougar didn’t stop. If someone needed help, then she would help them. She couldn’t stand by and do nothing just because of a dream that may or may not come true.
Behind her, Hex kept pace with her cougar, his short, stocky legs powering him forward through the snow. As she took a quick look over her shoulder, it was as if the bear was floating on a snowy cloud as small flakes of snow were thrown up by his big paws.
He does not look happy, her cougar said, as if Martha couldn’t see for herself.
The creek was close, the trees grew thinner as they neared the edge. Martha stopped, listening for the voices she’d heard. Voices of distress. But all was silent.
“Let’s go back.” Hex had shifted into his human form and he placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to turn her away, trying to make her move back. “Whatever it was, it’s gone.” He stood silent like a statue and listened once again before he added, “It was probably kids playing.”
Martha shifted into her human form. “It didn’t sound like they were having fun.”
They stood side by side and listened, but all Martha could hear was the rapid beating of Hex’s heart. Perhaps it was kids. Or perhaps there was someone in trouble down by the creek. She took a step forward, but Hex reached out and grabbed her arm.
“There’s no one there.” He shook his head, his eyes showing his fear.
“We have to check it out.” She swallowed down her panic. This was it. This was the very thing his dream had warned him of. Martha could sense it. At least she could sense that Hex believed it. He believed it deep down in his soul, and she shivered as if someone had walked on her grave.
“Then I’ll go.” He let go of her arm and walked on toward the river.
Toward his doom.
“We go together.” She took a couple of quick steps and caught up with him. “We’re stronger together.”
Hex shook his head. “I need you to stay back. I need you to stay safe.”
“And what happens if it’s you who goes into the water?” Martha’s voice cracked as she spoke.
“I’ll be okay,” Hex insisted.
“Yes, because I’m coming with you.” She put her hands on her hips, her mouth set firm as she jutted her chin out and said, “You can’t stop me.”
His head jerked back. “Please, Martha. I’ve spent so long living this dream, this nightmare over and over again, I can’t let it come true.”
“You don’t know for sure it’s me…” A scream rang out, splitting the silence.
Martha and Hex exchanged a glance and then they both set off toward the creek at a run. There was no time to argue, no time to debate who stayed behind, they needed to get to the creek and help whoever was in danger.
“There.” Hex pointed down the creek. There was something red on the water.
“Help me!” A boy’s voice rang out and they ran toward it. “My brother is stuck on the ice and I can’t get to him.”
Hex slid to a halt on the bank of the creek. “Okay, keep very still.”
“It’s okay, we’re here to help,” Martha assured the two boys.
“The ice has cracked,” the boy on the bank explained. “We thought it was strong enough, but it cracked.”
“Help me.” The boy on the ice lay still, his arms and legs spread out wide as he tried to stop the ice cracking even more.
“Keep back,” Hex instructed the boy on the bank…and Martha.
Martha didn’t argue. She went to the boy on the bank and tried to calm him down. “It’s okay. We’ll do what we can to get your brother off the ice. Maybe it would help if you told us your names.”
“Ethan. I’m called Ethan and that is my brother Jonas.”
Martha nodded. “Are your parents close by?”
“No.” Ethan shook his head. “They let us come out to play in the snow. They said we shouldn’t come this far. They said we should stay away from the creek…”
“Okay.” She took out her cell phone. No signal. “We’re going to help. You need to stay calm and stay right here.” She pointed to Ethan’s feet. The snow along the section of the bank where he stood had been flattened down as he walked up and down, trying to reach his brother. At least he hadn’t taken a chance and gone on the ice after his brother.
It seemed as though Hex had taken on that task.
“Stay here.” She pointed her finger at Ethan before she directed her attention toward Hex. “What are you doing?”
Hex slid his jacket off his shoulders and draped it over a fallen tree trunk next to his backpack. “I’m going to get the kid.”
“By going into the water?” Martha asked as she turned around and assessed the scene before them.
“I don’t intend to go into the water,” Hex replied. “But if....” He didn’t finish his sentence, they both knew how dangerous this was and how either Hex or Jonas could easily end up in the freezing creek.
“So what is your plan?” Martha asked.
“Simple.” He pointed toward a long branch that had fallen from one of the trees alongside the creek. “I’m going to hold the branch out for the kid. When he has a hold of it, I intend to pull him along the ice to where it’s thicker.”
Martha let out a long sigh. “It’s a good plan.”
“It’s the best plan unless one of us runs back to town and fetches help and equipment.” His expression told Martha that Hex didn’t expect the ic
e to support Jonas’s weight that long.
“Okay, what do you need me to do?” She followed him as he grabbed hold of the branch and carried it back to the creek.
“Stay away from the edge.” He gave her a tight, humorless smile.
“Back at ya,” she replied. “Don’t forget, we don’t know who goes into the water in your dream.”
“Let’s hope no one goes in the water today.” His concern for the two boys was evident as he carefully lifted the branch and placed it down on the ice a foot to the right of Jonas. Hex’s muscles tensed as he slowly let the weight of the branch rest on the ice. “I’m going to need to keep hold of it.”
Martha nodded. “You concentrate on that and I’ll talk to Jonas.”
She slid down toward the bank accompanied by a sharp hiss of breath from Hex. “Careful,” he hissed.
“I’m okay.” She held up her hands as she turned to look at Hex. “Just focus on your part.”
“I am,” he bit back.
“Okay, Jonas. You need to reach for the branch. Be careful. No sudden movements and keep your weight spread out.” Martha watched as the frightened boy lifted his arm and reached for the branch. His fingers stroked the bark, but he couldn’t reach it. “A little closer,” she said to Hex.
Hex nodded and lifted the branch higher before moving it a couple of inches closer to Jonas. This time the boy managed to cup his hand around the branch and grab hold of it. “Got it,” Jonas’s voice wavered as he called to Martha.
“Okay, really carefully.” She almost couldn’t bear to watch as Hex pulled the branch along the creek to where thicker ice had formed. There was still no guarantee they could get Jonas out of the creek without the ice cracking but at least he was moving away from the already broken ice.
As they moved along the bank, Ethan followed, keeping about ten feet away so as not to get in the way. It was like some kind of strange dance as they sidestepped their way along the creek. But it was a dance of life or death. One wrong move and Ethan could crash through the ice.
Hex (Winter - Shifter Seasons Book 1) Page 16