Dr. Wolf, the Fae Rift Series Book 1- Shockwave

by Cheree Alsop

  She motioned back the way they had come. “Without you, there’d be a dead fairy in our Emergency Room, our patients would’ve had their blood sucked out by the vampire, and both Dr. Worthen and I would have been crushed to death by the demon. I think you’re doing alright.”

  Aleric allowed himself a half-smile. “It has been a busy day.”

  She glanced at him. “When was the last time you ate? I’m sure Nurse Tarli is about to run to Minnow’s for Dr. Worthen’s standard dinner; I can have her pick up something for you as well.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Aleric said.

  The nurse gave him a kind smile. “If we don’t take care of our doctors, they can’t take care of our patients, then the whole place falls apart.”

  That brought an answering smile to Aleric’s face. “Food would be great. I think my stomach is about to eat itself.”

  “I’d say that was a fae thing,” Nurse Eastwick said, “But my son just moved out of the house; it’s amazing how much he could eat in one day. You appear close to his age. You’re what, in your early twenties?”

  “Something like that,” Aleric replied noncommittally.

  “Something like that?” she repeated. “You mean you don’t know for sure?”

  Aleric raised a shoulder and kept his tone light. “I mean for a family of werewolves, mine wasn’t very attached to me. I was booted out when I was four.”

  He could feel the nurse’s stare. “They kicked you out? What did you do to survive?”

  Aleric pushed open the doors to the E.R. before he glanced at her. “Ran away to live on the streets of Blays. Fortunately for me, I had the advantage of being able to scrounge in wolf form. Scrawny wolf pups get better scraps than the Dark fae orphans.”

  He forced a smile and turned away to prevent more questions he didn’t want to answer.

  “Is this the room?” he asked.

  He pushed aside a curtain and found himself looking at an older woman holding her arm to her chest.

  “Are you my doctor?” she asked. She moved the bandages she clutched to show him deep scratches along her forearm that bled.

  “Your patient is this way, Dr. Wolf,” Nurse Eastwick said from behind him.

  “My apologies,” Aleric told the woman. “Your doctor will be along shortly.”

  He let the curtain fall shut. Something about the scratches nagged at his mind.

  “What happened to her?”

  “That’s Mrs. Miller. She said one of her dogs attacked her this morning. She’s always taking in strays. We’ve treated her before for bites.”

  “You know those look more like demon claws than a dog attack, right?” Aleric said.

  Nurse Eastwick glanced behind her at the closed curtain. “I didn’t think of that. Until today, it hasn’t been something we usually consider.”

  “You might want to start considering it,” Aleric suggested. “There’s a possibility we’ll need to start tracking down Fae that are attacking humans here. Do you know anyone we can trust?”

  Nurse Eastwick was quiet for a moment with her hand on the curtain to the demon’s room. “Let me think about it for a moment. Things are starting to get complicated.”

  She pulled the curtain aside. The demon stared at them both with its angry glowing eyes. The straps holding its arms to the bars looked paltry considering the bulk it had shown before.

  “It’s awake,” the nurse whispered.

  “Of course I’m awake,” the demon replied.

  A chill ran down Aleric’s spine at its pointed teeth and the rolling bass of its words.

  He shoved aside the fear and stepped into the room. “You attacked the head physician, nurses, and orderlies of this hospital. Are you aware of how many lives you put at risk?”

  “Are you aware that I don’t care in the least about the lives of humans?” the demon replied. He tensed his arms.

  “Break those bands and I’ll choke you out in two seconds,” Aleric threatened.

  The surety in his voice made the demon pause. He studied Aleric, his glowing gaze intense.

  “What do you intend to do with me here, werewolf?” he asked.

  Aleric didn’t question how the demon had guessed his werewolf lineage. Instead, he said, “You’re a danger to the humans of Edge City. Until we figure out how to get you and the other fae back to Blays, I can’t let you leave this hospital.”

  “You’ve seen what I can do in this hospital,” the demon replied.

  Aleric’s instincts screamed for him to turn tail and run away instead of challenge the demon. Instead, he crossed his arms and glared down at the Dark fae.

  “This is my hospital. If you injure anyone here, I will make you wish you’d never set foot in Edge City, understand?”

  The tension in the room increased with the minutes the demon waited to reply. He studied Aleric from his feet to the top of his head. Aleric was suddenly aware that he still wore the scrubs from the operating room. At the very least, he appeared more like a doctor.

  “Very well,” the demon finally said, his pale lips twisted in an eerie smile. “Do what you will, werewolf. I would like to return to Blays, and something tells me you’re just the one to make that happen.” His smile deepened and Aleric’s heart gave a double-beat. “So tell me, Doctor, how are you going to do that?”

  Aleric glanced at Nurse Eastwick. Her face was pale and eyes wide. She looked completely terrified of the Dark fae in the bed. Aleric wanted to get the demon away from her as soon as possible.

  “I’m in the process of figuring that out. We’re going to move your bed to the fae section of the hospital, and I’m going to ask that you stay there until it’s time to go back to Blays.”

  “Certainly, Doctor,” the demon replied, emphasizing the title again as if mocking it.

  Aleric pushed the bed through the back of the curtains and down the convenient aisle to the door. He paused on the E.R. side before Nurse Eastwick followed him out. He pushed the bed through the doors and let them shut, keeping an eye on the creature through the glass so he could speak to the nurse in private.

  “We’re going to need another dose of sedatives. Ask Dr. Worthen the very highest dose he recommends to safely administer to this demon.”

  “Is it safe to keep him here?” the nurse asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Aleric replied honestly. “But it’s safer than letting him roam around the city. We don’t need another incident like earlier.”

  He glanced to the right and found the demon watching him with narrowed eyes from the bed on other side of the glass.

  Aleric stared back until the demon turned his head away.

  “Please let me know when the sedatives are ready. I’ll wait for you outside the D Wing so they can be administered before I take him inside. The fewer people around him while he’s alert, the better.”

  “Thank you,” she said with relief in her voice.

  Aleric nodded and watched her walk away through the white curtains. He took a calming breath and put on a façade of being in control once more. He pushed the doors open and moved the bed in front of him toward the D Wing.

  “This is quite the setup you’ve got going here, werewolf,” the demon said.

  “I was thrown into this situation as much as you were,” Aleric replied without looking down at the demon. “I’m making the best of it.”

  “That’s what I was doing before you so rudely interrupted me,” the demon said.

  Aleric paused just before the D Wing doors.

  “Look, demon—”

  “Forsythe.”

  “Forsythe,” Aleric repeated. He opened his mouth to continue, but whatever he wanted to say fled at the name. “Your name is Forsythe?”

  The demon nodded. “Ironic, isn’t it? A name that means ‘man of peace’ is also the name of the demon terrorizing your hospital?”

  Memories stormed Aleric’s mind. It was all he could do to reply with, “What’s ironic is the way you speak about yourself in the thir
d person.”

  “That’s not ironic, it’s factual,” Forsythe replied. “It’s a fact that I spoke about myself in third person. It may be unusual, even annoying, perhaps, but there is nothing ironic about it. Irony is all around us, my dear doctor. What makes it so is the way it appears. Take you, for example.”

  He had no choice but to put up with the demon until Nurse Eastwick appeared with the sedative. Aleric gritted his teeth and asked, “What about me?”

  “You’re a werewolf posing as a doctor pretending to care about these fae you call your patients. If I remember, you had quite the disdain for any other fae in Blays. That’s true irony.”

  His words sent a rush of cold through Aleric. “What do you mean, if you remember?”

  The demon gave a self-suffering sigh. “Am I to assume that you are dimwitted so that I can have the patience required to repeat myself at least once? I remember you in Blays, Aleric Bayne. You made my life difficult, which is an understatement. Do I need to explain what an understatement is?”

  “I know what an understatement is,” Aleric replied, his tone level. “And I can attest that the opposite is also true, Forsythe.”

  The demon nodded. “Need I remind you that you suffered from the consequences of your own actions? Your kind was warned and you chose not to listen.”

  Aleric’s hands clenched into fists. He took several steps away from the bed to avoid throttling the demon until the creature truly couldn’t breathe again.

  He spun on his heel. “Your actions ended a life!” he shouted.

  The sound reverberated up the hallway just as Nurse Eastwick rounded the corner. She looked from Aleric to the demon tied to the bed.

  “Should I come back later?” she asked.

  Aleric shook his head. “Give him the sedative before I do something I regret.”

  “Or you don’t regret,” the demon replied.

  Aleric fought back the urge to growl at him.

  Nurse Eastwick’s hands shook as she brought the syringe toward the demon’s arm. Aleric thought he would struggle and was prepared to pin the creature down, but the demon merely observed them with partially-lidded eyes.

  Aleric watched him until the demon’s eyelids closed completely.

  “I thought you had never met a demon,” Nurse Eastwick said, breaking the silence.

  Aleric shook his head. “I’d prefer not to talk about it.”

  She nodded. “Fair enough. Do you want help getting him situated?” It was clear by her tone that she would rather not go into the fae wing if at all possible.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Aleric replied.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Aleric realized his hands were still clenched into fists so tight his fingers were white. He willed his muscles to relax.

  “I’m sure,” he said, his voice quiet. “It’s fine.”

  He pushed the bed through the double set of doors. If it hit the doors harder than usual, he told himself he had done it to see if the demon was awake. The Dark fae didn’t so much as twitch a muscle.

  Aleric was tempted to put the demon in the Light fae side and let the fairy torture him, but he knew better than to trust the Dark creature. He angled the bed toward the door on the right and pushed it through.

  It took him a moment to locate the vampire. Dartan sat in the corner near the windows that had been covered from top to bottom by long pieces of wood.

  “Is that my new roomie?” Dartan asked.

  Aleric kept a careful eye on the vampire as he maneuvered the bed to one of the open side rooms.

  “Don’t talk to him,” Aleric said shortly. “He’s sedated and should sleep, but if he wakes up, he’ll only spread lies and deceptions.”

  The vampire gave a noncommittal grunt. “As I recall, you felt much the same way about me when we first met.”

  “I still feel the same way about you,” Aleric replied.

  The vampire crossed his arms. He had yet to move from his place against the wall.

  “Would you believe that my time here has changed my perspective?”

  “Not one bit,” Aleric replied. “You tell me if an anansi spider can ever tell the truth.”

  “People change,” the vampire said.

  “You’ll pardon me if I don’t feel that there has been adequate time to make up for wanting to eat a fairy in this same room less than four hours ago.” Aleric made his way to the door. He paused and said, “Don’t touch the demon. He’s stronger than he looks.”

  “Should I tell them that they’re dealing with a wolf in sheep’s clothing?” Dartan shot back.

  Aleric glanced over his shoulder. “I’m the one trying to help.”

  “And I’m the one stuck in here,” the vampire replied.

  “We’re both stuck, remember?” Aleric told him.

  Aleric pushed through the doors and made his way to the hall. He was about to go back to the E.R., but realized there was no reason to do so. Given the way the other orderlies and nurses looked at him after the demon incident, he felt like the less time he spent there, the better.

  There wasn’t anywhere else to go. Aleric looked up and down the hallway, wondering what he should do. He was exhausted. He wanted to sleep somewhere while there was a lull, but his greatest fear was that a patient in some other part of the hospital would make his or her way to the D Wing. At least the wing was fairly secluded from the other parts of the hospital. In fact, besides those humans he had seen in the E.R., he had yet to see anyone else. It seemed with the D Wing under construction for so long, everyone else was in the habit of not heading down the more isolated hallways.

  But there was always the chance. With the demon and vampire in the Dark fae room, Aleric didn’t want to risk anyone happening upon them by accident. It could be a very fatal accident indeed.

  He slid to a sitting position against the wall near the double doors and let his head settle back. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but given the day he had just had, he could sleep anywhere. Aleric closed his eyes and gave in to the sleep that pressed heavily against his eyelids.

  Chapter 6

  Aleric couldn’t decide if he was caught in a dream or reliving a memory as he watched the little wolf pup wander the streets of Blays. The first night had been hard. Thoughts of his mother made his heart ache more than his empty stomach. The little wolf sat on a street corner and pointed his muzzle to the sky.

  It felt fitting that his first howl would be that of loneliness. There was something about the glow of the moon peeking between the tall buildings that made Aleric feel as though someone listened to him. The face of the man on the moon looked as though he howled in reply.

  Something hard hit him in the back and Aleric yelped.

  “Shut up down there!” an angry voice shouted from the apartments above.

  Aleric took off up the street, his paws drumming a scattered cadence on the sidewalk.

  A lump he had mistaken as part of the bags of garbage that piled at the corner separated and rose up. Aleric skittered around the lumbering giant’s arms when the man attempted to catch him.

  “Come back, pup,” the giant called. “I haven’t eaten for days. You would make a juicy morsel.”

  Aleric turned the next corner and slid to a halt. At the end of the alley, three vampires stood around a body. They didn’t look like the healthy, haughty vampires he had met once when his mother took their taxes to the Sanguis Building as part of the Armistice agreement. These vampires were skinny, frail, red-eyed creatures whose bones could be seen through their thin skin. All three of them turned at Aleric’s appearance.

  “We have no power over Ashstock,” one said.

  Another shook his head. “This one is weak. We should try.”

  “Come here,” the third one coaxed.

  “Come join our game,” another invited. “We’re having fun.”

  “You’ll really like it,” the first said.

  Aleric made the mistake of looking into their eyes.

/>   “Here little wolf, come hang out with us.”

  He took several steps forward, his mind in a fog. Instincts, even at his young age, told him listening was a terrible idea, but he couldn’t fight against the pull of their voices.

  “You’ll really like it,” the second vampire said.

  “Not as much as we will,” the third commented.

  “Concentrate,” the first snapped. “We can’t let him get away.”

  Aleric felt as though he was wrapped in a warm blanket. The sensation paused with the vampire’s rough words. Aleric was almost to them. The promise of being with anyone after the absence of his family was almost more than he could deny, yet instincts tickled at the back of his mind. He wondered if he should phase to human form so he could talk to them.

  His gaze shifted to the body at their feet. For a moment, he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. It looked like a faun, its throat torn open and blood staining its skin and fur. But the blood was old and the faun’s skin was gray. The creature had been someone’s feast days ago and now the vampires were left with the refuse.

  Fear prickled through the hold the vampires had on Aleric’s mind. He took a step backwards.

  “We’re losing him,” one of them said.

  “Stay calm,” another echoed.

  “Come to us,” the third told him.

  Aleric shook his head against the compulsion. The third vampire darted toward him. Aleric yelped and turned, galloping back up the alley and around the corner.

  He ran until he could no longer hear the sounds of pursuit, winding in and out of Drake City’s confusing network of alleys and streets. Everywhere Aleric looked, terrors loomed. There were creatures trying to eat him, an old women coaxed him with yummy food until he caught sight of the cleaver behind her back, tentacles snaked out of a street drain and grabbed his paws; they nearly succeeded in pulling him under until a chance car rounded the corner and the tire clipped him, knocking him free.

  Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Aleric limped to an abandoned apartment building that looked ready to fall down at any moment. He found a board leaning against the building and crept beneath it.

  Aleric’s body shook. His head hung. Memories of his mother pushed against him and it took every bit of his willpower to keep from howling again. She had fought the sickness for as long as she could. He knew she did it for him. She had told him so when he lay on the bed with her, willing for her to come out in the sunshine and play with him like she used to. She wanted to, but her body wasn’t able.