Blacke and Blue

by Fiona Blackthorne

  Love for Ger slammed into her, jolting her slowing heart. Terror and grief crashed over her like another terrible night water wave on the icy ocean, and just like on the ocean, she was helpless against it.

  “Oh, Ger,” she whispered numbly, her lips feeling limp and clumsy like after Novocain at the dentist.

  Even the sound of his name seemed tied to her very heartbeats. She loved him. She loved his brother. She had almost lost Ian, and now she was going to lose Ger? No! It couldn’t be possible. This wasn’t happening. She wanted to go to him so badly, to stroke his hair and look into his eyes, at least one last time, but her body lay dumb and stupid on the floor, propped against the table leg like a broken doll.

  She was so cold. So cold and so tired. And so very sad. This was all horrible. She just wanted to close her eyes. The backdoor to the kitchen swung noisily on its broken hinges, and blasts of cold air barged in and stole the already meager heat from the room.

  Trisha felt tears running down her cheeks, but she couldn’t lift her hands to dash them away. She couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move. She just wanted to go to sleep and wake up to find this was all gone. Or go to sleep and never wake up. It almost didn’t matter…

  Suddenly, all the wolves looked up at the doorway expectantly. Trisha looked over, following their gaze, but she couldn’t see anything or hear anything. Then, there was a crunching set of footsteps and a man entered the kitchen, bundled up in a navy blue parka, heavy gloves, a hood, and a scarf with sensible sturdy snow boots. He carried a bright orange medical duffle bag.

  “What are you all doing, staying like that?” the man barked, his voice revealing a slightly singsong accent with rounded vowels and clipped consonants. Indian? Trisha wondered blearily. Pakistani?

  “Shift back right now!” the man ordered, quickly divesting himself of the winter outer gear and stooping over to check on the small blonde woman. He then got up and came over to Trisha, touched her forehead, and quickly felt her pulse in her throat.

  She saw he was definitely either Indian or Pakistani, a trim older man, perhaps in his 60s, with graying hair and kind black eyes that showed worry wrinkles at the corners. He then went over to Ger and set down his bag, unzipping it and taking out equipment.

  Trisha watched in disbelieving horror as the wolves shifted and seemed to liquefy to reform as humans. Human men. Naked human men.

  Naked human men she had met before.

  She recognized Robert, Declan, and Sean Molineaux. Robert had been one of the wolves by Ger, while Declan had stayed by the blonde woman. Sean was the wolf who had run out to fetch the doctor. The other two wolves by Ger, well, one of them was Cole Peterson, and while she didn’t know the other one, the family resemblance to Cole was enough to guess he might be Preston Peterson.

  They were all werewolves. She had no way of processing this idea to accept it. She put it away in a mental vault with a loud clang and tried to focus on the man who was now helping Ger. She guessed he was some sort of doctor.

  “Get pressure on that woman’s wounds,” the man said. “We have to stop the bleeding before I can start to do the stitches. Strip the other woman out of the wet clothes. Find blankets and wrap up her core. Ignore the arms and legs. We need to heat up her vital organs. Someone shut that door!”

  “Doctor Nasir! What about Ger?” Ian asked, helping the man lay Ger flat on the ground.

  “If we can stop the bleeding,” the man replied grimly. “His body will have a chance to heal itself. But the wounds are deep. Put more pressure on right here. Yes. Like that. Robert, I need you to put pressure here on him. Good. Sheriff, are you able to put pressure on the wound on your arm?”

  Cole Peterson came over to Trisha, who was fighting to swallow against the lump in her throat at seeing Ger lying so still, his body limp and heavy on the floor.

  “Hey,” Cole said gently. “I’m going to help you get out of those clothes. Preston, come help.”

  “I’ll get blankets,” Sean said, dashing out of the room.

  Trisha looked up at Cole and glanced over at his brother Preston, noting the matching square jaws and gray eyes. She inadvertently looked down then looked away, having caught a glimpse of pure male bodies in all their splendor.

  Cole laughed a little ruefully. “Sorry about the au natural state. It’s just awkward to carry clothes around all the time. Most people here are used to it, and most keep a couple of spare changes available for anyone who needs them.”

  She would have given a week’s vacation time to have been able to say something, anything to that in that exact moment, but her brain wasn’t up to forming words, and her jaw was too tired to move, and her tongue sat numb and still.

  “Come on,” Cole said, gently putting his arms around her and getting her to her feet.

  Trisha lay heavily against Cole, unable to move or support herself in any way, but there wasn’t any need to. The two men held her and maneuvered her like she weighed nothing. She didn’t care that she was soon stark naked in a roomful of mostly naked men.

  All she could do was stare at Ger, her handsome, kind, gentle Ger.

  “Ian,” she rasped out with the last of her effort.

  Ian looked up from his brother and jumped up to come to her side as the doctor took his place. He reached for her but Preston intercepted him.

  “Sorry, Ian,” he said. “You need to strip down, too. You hold her against those ice-cold wet clothes of yours, and she’s a goner.”

  “I got blankets and boxers,” Sean announced, grinning. “Clean from the dryer in the laundry room. I even ran the dryer for a couple minutes to warm it all up in case your nuts were freezing.”

  “Sean,” Robert Molineaux groaned, shaking his head.

  Trisha felt the warm blankets go around her torso, wrapping her from neck to thigh, and covering her head. Preston picked her up in his arms, and she burrowed against his chest, desperate for the heat radiating from him.

  “Jesus!” Preston exclaimed. “She’s an icicle!”

  “I could use another set of hands over here,” Declan said from where he was holding onto the blonde woman’s fingers and palms, trying to staunch the bleeding.

  Sean instantly went over to him, and Trisha watched as he got some of the medical supplies from the doctor’s bag and began to clean and bandage the woman’s hands. Preston continued to hold her, and she lay inert against him, noticing small things like the sensation of her heartbeats as they grew just a little stronger again. She watched Ian strip down and wrap himself in the blankets the same way she was wrapped, then come over to her and caress her cheek with his icy fingers.

  “I’d let you hold her,” Preston said gently. “But, I don’t think you’re up for that just yet.”

  “No,” Ian agreed sadly, and Trisha could see tears in his eyes. “That cold water did a number on us both.”

  “Come on, McDade,” Cole said, taking Ian’s arm. “Let’s get you patched up.”

  “G–Ger?” she stammered, her teeth beginning to chatter as her body shivered violently as she began to warm up slowly.

  Ian said nothing but looked deeply into her eyes, his lips pressed tightly together.

  “This isn’t good,” the doctor said from the floor. “I’m losing him.”

  The bottom fell out of Trisha’s world.

  * * * *

  Ian heard Trisha’s strangled cry as if it had echoed in his own chest. He stared at his older brother on the floor, unable to recognize the bloody, battered body as the man who was the anchor for their whole family.

  “Ger!” Trisha sobbed, limp and white-faced against Preston. Ian wanted to hold her so badly, but he knew his own arms and legs were barely able to support him now.

  He went back to his brother and knelt beside him.

  “Hey, buddy,” he choked out, smoothing back the blood-damp hair from his brother’s forehead. “Remember when we were kids, and I always wanted to play with you and the guys? Remember how they would make fun of me because I couldn’
t shift to being a wolf and keep up, but you stayed human with me to help even out the odds? I need you to stay with me, now.”

  Ian prayed for some sign, anything. A twitch of the eyelids, a finger spasm. Anything. Nothing came. His heart tried to hammer in his chest, but it was too cold and sluggish now to do much more than thump irregularly as panic took hold.

  “Ger!” he called, shaking him by the shoulder. “Trisha and I need you! You have to stay for us!”

  “Pulse is falling,” Doctor Nasir said quietly. “He has lost too much blood, I’m afraid.”

  Ian felt the room go still and silent around him. Time lengthened into agonizing seconds as they all now awaited the inevitable. He could sense all of them straining to hear the last breaths of his brother, to try and catch that moment where the light winked out.

  “Wait!” Robert exclaimed, rising and stepping back from Ger. “I have an idea.”

  Ian watched dully as Robert shifted to his wolf. To hope would hurt too much, almost as much as to lose his brother.

  The wolf raised its leg to its mouth and savagely bit into it. Blood began to flow heavily from the wound, and the wolf pressed his leg against Ger’s lips, smearing them with blood.

  “Yes!” Doctor Nasir exclaimed, suddenly animated and forcing Ger’s mouth open. “This might work. That’s a good idea you had, Robert! Here, let me lift up his head so it goes down his throat, and he doesn’t choke.”

  Ian watched, stunned and not understanding as the wolf reopened the already-healing wound on its leg and held it to Ger’s mouth again.

  “Alpha blood!” Sean said, snapping his fingers. “Robert’s the pack alpha, so his blood has to be the strongest of us all, carrying the most healing ability. Damn, big brother! You got some brains hiding behind all that muscle.”

  Ian almost found himself laughing at the long-suffering eye roll the wolf gave Sean, and then…laughter did come. Joyful laughter as Ger gasped and coughed, struggling to swallow and breathe at the same time.

  “That’s enough, Robert,” Doctor Nasir said, helping Ger to sit up fully. “Ger, stop for a moment. Swallow. Now breathe. Easy.”

  “Perk!” Ger gasped, his eyes fluttering open, concern coloring his face. “Trisha! He’s about to—”

  “He’s not doing anything anymore to anybody,” Sean announced gleefully. “You got him.”

  Ian’s heart was full. He looked from his brother to his Trisha and saw that their gazes were locked on each other, full of fearful wonder and relief.

  “Good to have you back,” Ian said quietly, resting his hand on Ger’s shoulder. His brother looked up at him, golden eyes full of the bond the two of them shared by blood and love.

  “What?” Ger said in a gravelly voice that showed his throat was still healing. “You think I’d die and miss out on all the fun of watching you and Trisha chew each other’s nuts for the rest of our lives? Not a chance, baby brother.”

  Ian looked over at Trisha, and love for her overwhelmed him. Her eyes were drifting closed, and for once her tart tongue was too tired to fire off the zingers that had made his life a thousand times zestier, funnier, and sexier since that moment he had met her.

  Not one of them was left without battle scars from this night, and it would be a long road back to normalcy, but they’d be on that road together. Of that, he was absolutely certain.

  “Storm’s still heavy,” Cole said, glancing out the window. “We’re not going back to the mainland tonight. Not with the injuries and cold risks we have here.”

  “We can’t stay here,” Sean replied, frowning and looking in the fridge then quickly shutting the door. “We definitely can’t stay here.”

  “The Casa de Pais will take us,” Declan said, standing up and picking up the blonde woman who looked like she was in a half swoon.

  “I can’t wait to see their faces when we show up like this on their doorstep,” Sean said with a grin, helping Doctor Nasir pack up the duffle bag.

  “Shut up, Sean, and go get some more blankets for transporting everyone,” Robert said, leaning against the wall and massaging his forearm, now fully human again.

  Ian stood up, trying to help Ger but finding he only had strength enough for himself. He grunted in frustration as he forced his wobbly legs to balance. Doctor Nasir helped pick up Ger and get him on his feet.

  “I wonder if Perk had some kind of wheelbarrow or toboggan or sled,” Ian said, looking from Trisha to the other woman. “We could use those to tuck the girls in and drag them with us.”

  “I’ll go check,” Cole said, running out into the night, but careful to brace the door shut against the cold.

  Twenty minutes later, they all left the house.

  “Our ancestors must be rolling in their graves tonight,” Ian said sadly as they crossed the old graveyard. He thought about the generations of brave men who had lived with their star-crossed destinies to be wolves for the sake of protecting this town, and then to have one of their own turn, and turn in such a way.

  “They’re probably trying to get a better look at us,” Sean said. “You don’t see a parade like this every day.”

  Those in the group who were still conscious laughed a little, for it was true. Robert in wolf form led the group, with Ger in wolf form behind him. Ger limped and moved slowly, but it was clearly easier for his body to go the distance as a supernatural creature than as a fragile human. Cole was in wolf form as well, bringing up the rear. In the middle, Preston supported Ian, as Ian stumbled along in an old set of Perk’s clothes and boots, though everything was too small. Declan pushed a wheelbarrow that held the two unconscious women, cuddled together in a nest of blankets, with an extra blanket over their heads to keep them from breathing in the icy air. Sean carried a bundle of the wet clothes from Ian and Trisha, and Dr. Nasir made his way through the snow, head bent low against the wind.

  A strange parade, indeed, Ian thought as they left the graveyard and stepped onto the narrow path that led through the woods to the only other place to find shelter on the island this night.

  Chapter 25

  The house loomed before them, looking improbably welcoming with warm windows glowing in the facade of a large stone mansion.

  Peeking out just a little bit from under the blanket, Trisha saw the house through the thin haze of her eyelashes then closed her eyes again and snuggled against the other body under the blankets with her, seeking warmth.

  Suddenly, there was light, voices, cries of wonder and alarm, and a sense of being in a place where the air was warm and dry. She struggled to open her eyes, blinking and catching random moments like photographs.

  Robert was clasping the shoulder of a tall, skinny man with black hair, olive skin, and a hawklike nose, who looked like a Spanish nobleman except for the fact that he was wearing red and black flannel pajamas.

  Two women in fluffy white robes were ordering the men around like disapproving sheepdogs. The women were of medium height, both older with iron gray streaks in their black hair.

  Sean was grinning at one of the women and having his ear tweaked.

  Ian and Ger were being supported up the stairs by two men in pajamas, one short and fat, the other of medium height with a goatee.

  No! She wanted to go with Ian and Ger! Someone had to help her up and get to them. What on earth was she in? Some kind of basket?

  Oh.

  A wheelbarrow.

  And Perk Hawkins’s victim lay next to her, warm and alive.

  She released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and let the darkness come back and pull her gently down.

  * * * *

  “My name is Maria,” the woman said. “And, I think you are just waking up.”

  Trisha found herself agreeing with the statement, but as soon as she nodded, she wished she hadn’t. She cracked open her eyes and found herself in a room that was done in soft golds and pumpkin, reminding her of warm earth under a summer sun. She shivered as the cold in her bones ate away at the brief heat of the thought.
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  There was a pungent, tangy, sharp, and sweet smell under her nose. She looked down and saw a steaming glass mug full of amber liquid and a slice of lemon studded with cloves floating in it.

  “A hot toddy,” Maria said, moving the mug away and wrapping her arm around Trisha in order to help her sit up. “Doctor Nasir almost objected to the whiskey. Said it wasn’t good for treating cold. I explained to him what he could do with his opinion.”

  Trisha tried to smile at the smug smirk in the woman’s kind little eyes, but she was just tired. She found she was on a love seat in beige velvet next to a small hearth where a comforting little fire crackled merrily, drowning out the howling wind outside. The feeling of warm, dry fabric against her skin caught her attention. She was wearing ginormous pink flannel pajamas with some kind of hideous Laura Ashley-esque flower pattern. Well, whatever. It was dry, it was warm, and the first sip of the hot toddy felt like heaven. Obviously, Maria believed in making hot toddies where the tea was more of a formality, and there was enough honey to soothe a savage bear.

  “Ger? Ian?” she managed to croak around her sore throat. Now that she was more fully awake, she wanted very much to know where they were and how they were, though the sharpness of her anxiety was gone because she knew they were alive. They were all alive. “The girl we brought in?” she added.

  “Dr. Nasir and Robert are taking care of your men,” Maria replied, dimples digging into her plump cheeks. “You’ll see them soon enough. The girl is downstairs. Consuela and Eduardo are with her, and I think a few of the others.”

  Maria paused, a thoughtful expression coming over her cheerful face.

  “You should talk to the girl,” she said finally.

  “I was planning to. I thought she’d be in bed by now.”

  “That’s just it, carita. She doesn’t want to go to bed.”

  Trisha stilled then cautiously nodded. “Afraid of nightmares?”

  “Afraid of everything, I think.”

  “That’s going to require a lot of therapy. More than I can do. More than I will be here to do.”