by M. J. Haag
Julie led me to the nearest house and opened the back door. Warm air enveloped me as I stepped inside.
“You have heat?”
Julie grinned.
“The gas lines still work. The men are fitting all the houses with wood stoves just in case, though. Go ahead; take off a few layers. You won’t need them in Tolerance.”
I stripped out of my coat and an extra sweater as I looked around. The interior was nothing like the damaged, blood-stained homes on the base. Fresh, neutral tones of paint coated the walls, and tasteful pictures depicting a variety of outdoor scenes hung in various places. It felt surreal to be standing in such a normal looking kitchen.
“Merdon, the fey who’s hurt, is back here with Kerr,” Julie said, once again leading the way.
I followed her to a bedroom with three fey in it.
The giant standing beside the bed looked up at me, and my feet froze in the doorway while my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest. His eyes and the small scars that crisscrossed his face made him fiercely terrifying. My hands started to shake.
“This is Merdon,” Julie said, leaning over the creature on the bed and gently smoothing back his hair. “He was attacked by several hellhounds.”
Scratches, gashes, and puncture holes littered the skin of his exposed torso. A few of the wounds oozed, but none of them bled. His chest barely moved with each shallow breath. He didn’t look good, just like the one they’d wanted me to patch up the last time. It was a nerve-wracking experience I’d hoped not to repeat, mostly because of the imposing demon who’d stared at me during the whole procedure.
The second, conscious demon in the room moved, calling my attention. I looked up, and my eyes widened as I stared at a creature with a familiar bright red bead decorating the end of his right temple braid. My hands started to shake. Him.
“I found some supplies,” he said, picking up a plastic bag from the floor. “You’ll have enough this time.”
I heard the threat in those words and wanted to cringe. He’d been there when I’d tried to tell them there was no point in helping the other demon. He obviously still held a grudge.
“Kerr has more supplies in the living room,” Julie said, oblivious to the undercurrent as she straightened away from the injured demon. “Suture packages, bandages, alcohol, iodine, and more. Kerr must have been watching you closely when you stitched up Ghua. These men sure pay attention to the details.
“We’ll give you some room to work. I’ll just be in the kitchen. Shout if you need anything.”
She walked out of the room, and the giant trailed behind her.
Left alone with the demon who’d been tormenting my brief dreams for the last week, I couldn’t look away from his snake-like gaze. Why him?
He lifted the bag of supplies higher.
“Heal him.”
Chapter Two
Do what you need to do to keep Lilly safe, I thought. Just pretend this creature is human. A bossy, asshole-prick like Matt.
I took a slow breath, swallowed hard, and grabbed the bag from him.
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
Facing the bed, I studied the injured fey. His grey skin seemed a shade darker than the rest of his kind. Normal or a sign of something going wrong? I leaned over the fey and examined the wounds on his chest. Black scabs covered the majority of them, and the skin around a few of them appeared near black.
“I’m not sure how much I can do for him, even with supplies. These injuries look a few days old and well on their way to being healed.”
I reached out to check his skin’s temperature, but the fey with the bead in his hair caught my wrist, making me jump.
“He was attacked by hellhounds. Use the gloves in the bag.”
I nodded quickly, and he released me. My anger and resentment grew by the moment. Fucking Matt. Fucking hellhounds and zombies. Fucking Lee. He should never have taken Caden out that night.
Looking in the bag, I found a box of large, non-latex gloves, sutures, bandages, and a bottle of iodine. I wished for the millionth time that I hadn’t gone back to school. The only reason I’d done it was because Lee hadn’t been happy with the idea of me being a stay at home mom. He’d wanted to live with a dual income and persuaded me into nursing, because of the pay, only a year and a half after Lilly’s birth. Why had I given in?
I pulled on the gloves and carefully began to check the visible wounds on the injured demon’s chest. I hadn’t minded helping people but never had a calling for it. It had taken a lot of time and studying to learn what I had during school. That meager knowledge had tripled in the last few weeks through some trial and error health practice. Again, not by choice. Thankfully, no one had lost their life yet because of my uneducated care. I hoped the current patient would help me out and live, too, because I didn’t doubt that Matt would follow through with his threat to kick me out of Whiteman.
I took another slow, steadying breath to calm the anger over the fact that Matt expected me to do everything he wanted while not even considering my request for help. It wasn’t like leaving with a few men would be fruitless to him. Whiteman was in desperate need of medical supplies. I could help scour rural clinics for what was needed while also searching for Lee and my son. All Matt needed to do was ask the demon leader and offer him the right incentive. These creatures didn’t need our help. They rarely got injured. Although, when they did, they went all out. But, I’d seen how they behaved around females. They wanted women. All Matt needed to do was—
I froze as I understood what I had to do.
I’d witnessed how the demons stared after the women. How they went out of their way to protect them. Any one of these creatures would do anything for a woman who willingly committed to him. In fact, several women were already in serious relationships with a few of the demons. The women lived with them. Slept with them. And, they got just about anything they wanted. I was standing in the proof of that. A nice, heated house in a safe neighborhood.
If I wanted to find out what happened to Lee and my son, all I needed to do was give myself to a demon. My chest tightened, and I could barely breathe as I imagined having to have sex with one of these monstrous men.
My gaze shifted to the face of my patient. His eyes, now open and glassy, locked with mine. How long had he been holding perfectly still as I examined him? How long had he been watching me?
If just their gazes scared me stiff, how would I ever be able to touch one?
“Close your eyes, Merdon. You’re scaring her,” the one with the bead in his hair said.
The creature on the bed immediately closed his eyes.
I swallowed hard and mentally shook myself. Too much was riding on my ability to help the dark fey. I couldn’t screw this up.
“No. It’s all right. Can you tell me how you feel, Merdon?”
“Tired. In pain,” he said, not opening his eyes.
“Does any wound hurt more than the others?” I asked.
“The one on my right thigh.”
My gaze shifted to the sheet covering him from toe to waist. The unmistakable outline of his penis laying to the left made my eyes pop. The thing under the covers looked like a baby’s arm. I desperately wanted to run for the door and forget my dumb idea about getting the demons to help me.
You can do this, Cassie. Think of what’s at stake. He’s injured and needs help. Don’t help him for Matt and the rest of Whiteman. Help him for yourself. For Lilly and Caden. Maybe the more you learn about these creatures, the more comfortable you’ll become. Then, you’ll be able to do what needs to be done without screaming your head off.
“I can do this,” I said under my breath.
Moving toward the end of the bed, I carefully untucked the sheet and eased it back to reveal a massively muscled thigh. All my thoughts and concerns about seeing things I shouldn’t fled at the sight of black lines running from the skin exposed at the edge of the sheet to his mid-calf.
I nudged the sheet back further and found the so
urce of his pain. A large gash, still slowly oozing blood, just inside of his right thigh.
“Merdon, I need to clean this wound. It’s not healing like the others.” I dug through the bag for what I thought I might need and eased his thigh toward the edge of the bed so I could see better.
I looked up at the other fey.
“This might hurt him. Can you keep him still? I don’t want to make the injury worse if he jerks while I’m working.”
He looked at the resting fey, who’d opened his eyes again.
“Don’t move.”
My mouth dropped open a little. Although he’d said the words without any tone, it didn’t change his cold manner.
The injured fey nodded.
“I will not move.”
I set my gloved fingers on Merdon’s leg.
“If it starts hurting too much, let me know.”
He closed his eyes again. Leaning forward, I gently probed the skin. Just beneath the surface, I felt a lump.
“I need some water. Or alcohol if you happen to have any,” I said without thought. “I need to rinse this.”
A bottle of alcohol appeared in my peripheral. I grabbed it and started rinsing, my focus on the object, not so much on the patient. Whatever was under the skin was definitely foreign. I set the bottle aside and prodded the edges of the wound apart.
A spray of black blood shot out, just missing my face and coating the sheet.
“Stop.” The commanding voice made me pause.
I glanced at the patient, who was silent and holding perfectly still. Then, at the other fey, who stood beside me, only inches away.
“I can’t stop. There’s something in there. I can see the edge of it.” I leaned forward, ready to try again.
Hands gripped my waist, and I was moved two feet from the bed. With wide eyes, I stared at the fey who’d lifted me like I was a piece of damn paper.
“What is your name?” I asked, trying to sound stern.
“Kerr.”
“Kerr, if I don’t remove whatever is in that wound, the infection will spread. It might already be too late to save his leg.”
Kerr took a clean bandage from the tray near the bed and lifted it to my forehead. He wiped my skin and showed me the dot of blood on the white material.
“He was attacked by hellhounds. Whatever is in that wound could infect you. Tell me what to do.”
I nodded, shaken that I hadn’t even felt the blood land on me.
“Clean your hands with the alcohol,” I said. I would have told him to put on gloves too, but they would have never fit him.
Once his hands were clean, I continued.
“There’s a lump just under the skin, here.” I took his hand and gently set his fingers on the lump. “If it’s a foreign object, which I think it is, it needs to be removed and the wound thoroughly cleaned. See these lines running from the wound? In humans, it means blood poisoning. But, I don’t know if it means the same thing for your kind.”
“Step back,” he said.
I took a step to the side, still in a position to watch but out of the danger zone.
Kerr opened the wound with one hand and dug his fingers inside with the other in a detached manner that made me cringe.
“Be gentle,” I said. “The infected tissue can be more sensitive to pain.”
He grunted and pulled out a blood-coated tooth. My chest tightened at the sight of the large, jagged spike.
“Is that from a hellhound?”
“Yes.” Kerr set the tooth on the bedding, glanced at me as if making sure I wouldn’t grab the thing, then started dousing the wound with alcohol.
I moved toward Merdon’s head.
“As soon as we’re done cleaning that wound, I’ll bandage it.”
“No. I will bandage it,” Kerr said.
“I would stitch it,” I said over Kerr, “but with the infection, I think it’s safer to leave it open.”
“Do what you must,” Merdon said without opening his eyes.
While Kerr worked on the infected injury, I looked over the other wounds, gently probing any that had the same dark coloring as the infected one. My focus drifted between healing the fey, which would ensure mine and Lilly’s place at Whiteman, and what I would do if I did convince a few of these guys to help me. I wouldn’t be able to take Lilly with me to search for Lee and Caden. It wouldn’t be safe. And, I wasn’t sure I trusted her at Whiteman without me.
When Kerr and I finished with everything on Merdon’s front, Merdon rolled over so I could work on his backside. It took a long time to gently probe each puncture hole without a scab or with dark skin surrounding it. Finding no lumps, I started disinfecting and bandaging where needed.
Kerr stayed uncomfortably close, quietly handing me whatever supplies I needed. It took longer than I anticipated to bandage each wound, and my lower back ached from the time spent leaning forward. I only hoped I’d done enough to help.
“That’s the last one,” I said with a light touch to Merdon’s back. “Rest, and make sure you drink plenty of fluids over the next few days.”
“Thank you,” he said.
When I turned to leave, Kerr blocked me. He reached for my hand, and I automatically pulled back.
“No,” he said firmly.
Heart hammering, I held still and let him lift my hand. He carefully peeled off the glove, tossed it into the plastic bag he’d been using to collect the garbage, then reached for the other one. Once he had the gloves, he pointed toward the door.
“The bathroom is the next door. Go wash.”
I quickly escaped the bossy fey and closed myself in the bathroom.
With a clinical thoroughness, I scrubbed my hands and my face and hoped it was enough. Drying with a clean towel, I studied the tired circles under my eyes. How long had it been since I’d had a decent night’s sleep? More importantly, would I ever have another one again? Probably not. Especially if I moved forward with the crazy plan still floating in my head. Could I really sleep with one of the fey in order to find out what had happened to my son? In that moment, I knew I would. I would do anything if there was even a slim chance he was still alive.
Heartache and anger filled me, yet again, for allowing Lee to take him. Eight months wasn’t too young to be away from a mother. But, it was far too young to meet a father’s new girlfriend.
I looked down and twisted the rings I still wore on my left hand. I should have taken them off long ago; the moment Lee asked for a divorce. But, some stubborn part of me refused to do so until the divorce papers were signed.
The illusion that there was still something to save had faded long before Caden’s birth. The pregnancy had been the only thing that had kept Lee from filing sooner. He hadn’t wanted our friends and family to think less of him for abandoning me when “I needed him most.” He had never understood that telling me he wanted a divorce and then hanging around just to keep up appearances had hurt me more than simply leaving would have. I’d been on my own long before the earthquakes.
Hanging the towel up, I thought back to the moment I’d handed our son over. I should have lied and said he was sick, too, like Lilly had been. I would never regret anything more in my life. Not even what I was about to do.
Taking a deep breath, I got serious about my plan. How would I choose which fey? Definitely not the scarred, scary one. The injured one was probably more the speed I could handle. But, probably not. The way he’d held so still without a single flinch spoke volumes about his strength. The image of Kerr, the one with the red bead in his hair, filled my mind. The way he watched me…the way his hands had gripped my waist. I shivered and turned away from the mirror.
No matter who I chose, I’d likely need to deal with more than I bargained for. I only planned to sleep with one, so I needed to figure out which of them had the most friends or influence.
I opened the door and jumped in surprise when I found Julie and another woman waiting in the hall. The woman I easily recognized as the companion to the fey
who’d been injured almost a week ago.
“Eden was wondering if you could look at Ghua’s stitches,” Julie said.
“I think they need to come out,” Eden said. “It looks like the skin is growing around them.”
I glanced at the window and saw we still had a fair amount of daylight. And, by helping another one, I could put off choosing which demon to sleep with a little longer.
“Sure. I’ll take a look.”
Julie led the way to another bedroom where Ghua lay completely naked, belly down on the bed. I’d seen it all before while putting the stitches in, but the view had been in increments because of the sheets I’d used.
I pivoted quickly to give him privacy as Eden scolded him for not covering up and came face to face with Kerr. He held up a clean pair of gloves.
“Thank you,” I said, pretending like my face wasn’t flaming as red as my hair.
“He’s covered now,” Eden said. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s all right.” I turned and looked at the stitches. “These do look like they’ve been in long enough. It’ll sting a little as I pull them out.”
I looked at Kerr.
“Did you happen to find any scissors? They would be small and come in a package like the sutures and bandages.”
“Yes. I will get them.”
“More alcohol, too, please.”
He left with Julie, and I faced Eden, subtly looking her over for signs of abuse as she sat on the edge of the bed near Ghua’s head. She looked completely healthy, a little underfed like we all were, but happy.
“No, Eden,” the fey said. “I want to use your lap as a pillow.”
“I’m sure you do, but that’s not happening. I don’t trust you.”
He lifted his head and looked her in the eye.
“I will not lick—”
She slapped her hand over his mouth and looked at me.
“They’re worse than kids,” she said, laughing nervously.
“Um…okay.”
“You’ll get what I mean if you’re around them long enough.”
“You’re covering my nose,” came Ghua’s muffled words.
“Sorry, babe,” she said, removing her hand. “If you don’t say another word while we’re here, I’ll let you use me as a pillow when we get home.”