by Cheree Alsop
“It’s ridiculous,” he said aloud.
It felt better to speak the words that swirled around in his head. Perhaps if he said them, he could get rid of the feelings and be done with them.
“I don’t know why I’m here, or why I think of you when I’m not,” he continued. “It’s silly, really.” He looked down at her. The stillness of her face bothered him. He wished he could see her smile again the way she had in the hallway as though she knew exactly how she unnerved him. “Maybe I feel responsible,” he said, his words quieter. “Maybe it’s my fault you’re here.”
He thought about that. Guilt felt very akin to the emotions that held him. “If the fae hadn’t come to Edge City, you wouldn’t be fighting death right now. But I had nothing to do with that,” he said quickly as though she had questioned him. “Trust me. Life would be much easier right now if the Rift had never happened.”
He fell silent for a moment, then admitted the words that almost scared him to say aloud. “But I’m glad it happened, because I’m here. I have a purpose, even if it’s a purpose that will probably eventually kill me.” He smiled, feeling foolish but also happy when he said the next words, “I’m helping people. Who would have thought that I, Aleric Bayne, lone werewolf reject who would never amount to anything in Drake City, would be Dr. Wolf, rescuer of fae creatures here in Edge City Hospital?”
He shook his head. “Not me. If you told me a year ago where I’d be, I would have laughed.” He looked back at her. “Of course, you wouldn’t have said it because we never would have met.” His eyebrows pulled together as he watched her. “My life would have been less without knowing you. Even speaking to you for a minute, maybe two, has given me something. Call it inspiration, drive, the want to be a better person. There is something about you that makes me want to make you smile again.”
He let out a breath and rose. “But I can’t do that sitting here. I’ll find more goblins and we’ll get the cure, I promise.”
The green marks that streaked up her arm were darker and thicker than the last time he saw them. They ran up her neck and beneath her gown. Aleric knew they would reach her heart, and he feared that they would do so sooner than he could find the goblin he needed.
“I’ll find it,” he vowed again. “Hang in there, Lilian. Don’t you leave me.”
They were the same words he had said to Sherian when he carried her bleeding and on the verge of death to the wood nymphs. He pushed down the swarm of memories the words brought and left the silence of the room that was broken only by the slow, steady beeping of the monitor and the rise and fall of Lilian’s shallow breath.
“She hasn’t returned yet,” Gregory said when Aleric asked him about Dr. Indley. “She said something about having to head further south to one of the smaller veterinary clinics. Apparently they use a lot of tranquilizers in the country.”
“Anything else you need me to help with?” Aleric asked.
Gregory shook his head. “No other fae cases at the moment. The troll is resting from the surgery to remove the metal spikes. I imagine he’ll be moved to the D Wing in an hour or so. Should he go to the Light or Dark fae side?”
“Light fae,” Aleric replied. “He’ll heal better with the sunlight.” At the orderly’s surprised look, Aleric said, “You’ll be surprised at his cheerful demeanor when he doesn’t have metal spikes sticking out of him.”
“I guess I will,” Gregory said. “Nurse Eastwick also added another bag of saltwater for the selkie, but she hasn’t responded yet. We’re figuring out how to get a bathtub here.”
“Maybe they could bring one with the gargoyles,” Aleric joked.
Gregory grinned. “We should put in our order now. Therese has been gathering all the UV lamps she can. They’ll be ready for the gargoyles when they arrive.”
“Thank you for the report,” Aleric said.
“Anytime,” Gregory told him. “I dropped off an extra bag of blood for Dartan. It seems like he heals a lot faster if he keeps it fresh in his system.”
“Very true,” Aleric replied. “Good of you to keep up on that.”
Gregory smiled. “Happy to help. With all the goblin victims, Dr. Worthen’s been asking their family members to donate, so we have a fresh supply. With all of the city’s strange cases being sent here, the other hospitals have also shipped over extra supplies. Now I’m off to stack boxes of bandages in storage. Holler if you need anything.”
“Will do,” Aleric said.
The orderly hurried off between the sectioned rooms. Aleric crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He envied the fact that the human had somewhere to go and something to do. Without the tranquilizer guns to hunt goblins, Aleric felt worthless. Dartan was handling the goblins, the patients were as good as they could be considering, and Aleric couldn’t get himself to sit down with the thought of those who still needed him.
He made his way to the Light fae side with the thought of preparing a room for the troll to recover in. It was going to have to be a big one. He pushed open the door and paused at the sight of a young woman standing near the window.
“Can I help you?” he asked. She turned and he caught a slight, fishy scent. He couldn’t help staring. “You’re the selkie!”
She blushed prettily and ducked her head to hide her face behind her long brown hair. She had wrapped the hospital sheet around her and detached the I.V.; Aleric noted with an inward smile that she had used the tape to stop the blood from the needle’s tiny prick the same way he had when he first awoke at the hospital.
“I am,” she said. Her voice was musical like water bubbling over rocks.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
She gave him a curious look as though wondering why she should tell him.
He cleared his throat. “I’m Dr. Wolf. I’m the physician taking care of you here.” He gave a self-deprecating smile. “I’m not actually a doctor, but they keep calling me that. I’m really a werewolf trying to help out the fae. My name is Aleric.”
“You’re a werewolf?” she repeated hesitantly.
Aleric nodded. “Fortunately, the only one I know of around here. The rest of my race isn’t so kind toward others, if you know what I mean.”
“I do know,” she said in a tone that indicated so much more than her words.
Aleric hated that just the mention of his race was enough to make her doubt him. He didn’t have any way to encourage her to trust him except for the truth. His words were quiet when he said, “I apologize for whatever my kind has done to you and yours. I wish I could take it all back, especially after what I’ve seen here, but I can only vouch for myself. I promise you that I am whole-heartedly interested in your well-being and the care of the other fae at this hospital, and I will do everything in my power to get you home healthy and whole.”
She watched him for a moment, her brown eyes taking in much more than he wanted her to see. After a few long seconds, she nodded and gave him a small smile. “I am feeling better, and I’m in your debt for the care you have given me.” Her dark brown eyes took on a troubled look. “Where am I?”
Pity filled Aleric. He crossed to her and stopped a few feet away so as not to impose on her space. “We’re in a human city. There was a Rift, a tear in the divide between our world and this human one, and many of us became displaced here. I think you were caught when you were changing form.” At her blush, he looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re right,” she said after a moment. “I was changing, and then I remember pain. I couldn’t breathe. I-I think I blacked out.”
Aleric nodded. “You were unconscious when you were found. I didn’t know what to do to help you come around. A friend, a fawn named Braum, suggested saltwater. I think that’s what helped.”
“I am very grateful,” she replied. She paused, then said, “Do you know when I can go home? My husband will be worried sick.”
“I’m working on that,” Aleric reassured her. “As soon as we have it figured out, we’ll get you back,
I promise.”
“Thank you,” she said with another pretty smile.
Aleric made sure she was comfortable and promised to send some crackers and tuna fish. She perked up at the sound of fish for dinner. Happy to see her awake and doing well, Aleric made his way back to the Emergency Room. He wandered between the sections. One of the curtains had been pulled aside. Aleric glanced in to see an older man sitting on the bed holding his arm.
“It’s you!” the man said.
Aleric looked behind him to see if the patient was referring to someone else.
“You’re Dr. Wolf,” the man continued, his voice filled with eagerness.
Aleric nodded. “I am.”
The smile that spread across the man’s wrinkled face was so infectious Aleric found himself smiling back.
“I wish the guys could see this,” the man said. “If I knew falling at the shop and getting stitches would result in me meeting Dr. Wolf, I would have done this months ago! Of course, you weren’t here months ago, so that doesn’t make much sense, but just the same, totally worth it!”
The man’s enthusiasm made Aleric chuckle. “Though I don’t condone getting hurt just to gain entrance to the E.R., I’m glad we get to meet,” he told the patient.
“Can I get a picture?” The older man’s voice wavered with hope at the question.
“Uh, sure?” Aleric replied as more of a question than an answer.
The request caught him off guard. He couldn’t decide if the picture would be a good idea or not, but the eagerness on the man’s face was something he couldn’t deny. He walked to the side of the bed and bent down to make it easier on the man to take a picture of them both with his small phone.
“I don’t mean to be forward, and you can say no if it makes you uncomfortable, but would it be possible for you to be in your, um, other form for the photo?” the old man asked.
Aleric couldn’t deny him. “I guess there’s no harm in it,” he said. He pulled the curtain closed completely, took off his shirt, and phased.
“Just like that!” the man said as if Aleric had shown him magic. He supposed, given the circumstances, that he had.
Aleric trotted to the side of the bed. The man leaned over, his bandaged arm holding his phone while he wrapped his other thin arm around Aleric’s shaggy neck.
“Say cheese, or whatever wolves say,” the old man told him.
Aleric gave a huff. The man snapped the picture.
“Oh, that’s just perfect,” the man said, looking at his phone.
Aleric hurriedly changed form again and pulled on his clothes while the man was occupied with the phone. He walked back around the bed to see the picture.
“I look terrifying,” he noted.
“Nonsense,” the man replied. “You look resplendent. Look at that coat. You must stay warm on winter days, I imagine. I can’t wait to show the boys. They’ll be so jealous!”
“I’m glad I could make that happen,” Aleric replied.
“Thank you very much,” the man said.
Aleric left the room feeling slightly better about things.
“Dr. Wolf!” Dr. Indley exclaimed. She hurried up the hallway toward him. “I saw you on the news. Are you alright?” She paused. “You took a shower. You clean up quite nicely.”
She looked him up and down with such close scrutiny that Aleric wondered if he should be blushing.
“I’m fine,” he protested. “Really. Just fine. Don’t worry.”
“I had to worry,” the veterinarian replied. “You rode a gargoyle out of a second story window. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking, ‘This is really going to hurt’.”
Dr. Indley laughed and touched his arm. “Of course you were.”
She stayed like that, beaming up at him as though he had just saved the world or something. The silence between them grew uncomfortably long. Aleric cleared his throat.
“Did you get the tranquilizers?”
“Huh, oh, yes!” Dr. Indley replied. “Here.” She held out the black box she had been carrying. “I had to run all the way to Stride to get it, but I found one. I have two more on order. Dr. Worthen said the hospital will reimburse me for them. I’ll bring the others as soon as they arrive.”
“As soon as what arrives?” Dartan asked, walking through the door.
“New tranquilizers,” Aleric replied. “Seeing as we left the last one with the medusa.”
Dartan gave a visible shudder. “Don’t remind me.” He smiled at Dr. Indley. “And how are you, Gorgeous?”
She blushed prettily and was about to hug him when she saw the state of his burned skin beneath his scrubs.
“Oh my goodness, what happened to you? You poor thing! Has anyone been properly caring for these?” she asked.
Dartan met Aleric’s gaze over her shoulder. “No, they haven’t. I’ve been wasting away in the D Wing slaving over goblin serum without a moment to think about it.”
“Oh dear!” she exclaimed. “We’d better go take care of you right now.”
Dartan lifted his eyebrows at Aleric. The werewolf rolled his eyes in return as the vampire followed Dr. Indley through the doors.
“I’m sure we could find some salve or other that would help you,” Dr. Indley’s voice faded away down the hall.
“That’s it. You lost her.”
Aleric spun at the sound of Gregory’s voice.
“How did you get to be so sneaky?” he asked.
Gregory held up his foot. “Sneakers, but that’s beside the point. You let that vampire steal your girl.”
“Again, Dr. Indley is not my girl.”
“She could be,” Gregory shot back.
Aleric shook his head. “I don’t want her to be.”
Nurse Eastwick poked her head out of the closest sectioned room. “Our Dr. Wolf has his eyes on someone else.”
Aleric gaped at her.
“Oh, come on, Doctor. I saw the way you looked at Lilian the first time you two spoke, and you were mooning over her in her room not too long ago.”
“I wasn’t mooning,” Aleric said, embarrassed that he had been caught.
“Call it what you want,” the nurse replied. She stepped back into the room where she had been working. “Your eyes don’t lie.”
Aleric turned to find Gregory giving his eyes a very close look.
“Give me some space,” the werewolf told him. “It’s none of your business.”
“Lilian’s beautiful,” Gregory said. At that same moment, Therese came around the corner. “Of course, nobody’s as beautiful as my Therese,” he said quickly.
“You’re so sweet,” she replied. She gave him a big kiss on the cheek, then quickly wiped off the lipstick she left. “We’re not supposed to do that. Professional relationship only. That’s what we promised Dr. Worthen.” She gave Aleric an apologetic look. “I just can’t help it, though. When Greggie starts talking sweet, I can’t control myself.”
Unsure what else to say, Aleric went with, “I can’t say I blame you.” Uncomfortable at the situation, he hefted the case Dr. Indley had given him. “I’ve got to go.”
He left quickly through the door. He stopped in the breakroom and grabbed a few things he felt sure the nursing staff wouldn’t miss. When he passed the door to the D Wing, he heard Dr. Indley doting over Dartan’s wounds.
“You poor thing. I can’t believe you’ve been suffering like this all day.”
“It’s been difficult, but it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad now that you’re here. It must be your beauty; everything else pales in comparison, even my pain.”
Aleric shook his head as he pushed the back door open. He walked down the street carrying the case in one hand. With the vampire around, he would be lucky to ever get a girl even if he wanted one.
“Where are you going, Dr. Wolf?” a voice asked.
Aleric smiled at the heads that poked out of the alley.
“I’m off to hunt goblins. Want to come?” he teased.
�
�Ew, goblins,” Grimma said.
“No thanks,” Grimsli echoed. “You should stay away from them.”
“I would,” Aleric told the grims. “But I need to catch them to help the people they’ve bitten.”
“How do you catch them?” Grimma asked, her eyes wide.
He hefted the gun case. “I’ve got a tranquilizer gun. That way they can’t bite me.”
“Good idea,” Grimsli said, his expression solemn. “We wouldn’t want to see you on our list.”
Aleric stared at them. “Do you have a list here?”
The twins looked at each other for a moment. Aleric’s heart pounded as he glanced from one to the other.
Grimsli was the first to crack. “No,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t think it works here. But you should have seen your face!”
Grimma was giggling.
“Laugh away,” Aleric told them. “Maybe I won’t give you the treats I brought.”
Wide smiles filled their faces.
“What treats?” Grimma asked. The little girl hopped from foot to foot as though she couldn’t contain her excitement.
Grimsli watched Aleric silently as though worried that the werewolf was playing a cruel joke on them.
Aleric held out the bag he had grabbed in the breakroom. Grimma took it and immediately sat on the cement floor of the alley to see what was inside.
“Apples!” she exclaimed. “Peanuts and two chocolate bars!” Her mouth formed an O and she held up an orange square. “Cheese!”
“Cheese,” Grimsli repeated. He reached out a hand. Grimma set the square on it as though the single, plastic-wrapped piece of cheese was solid gold.
“You guys like cheese, huh?” Aleric said, amused by their reaction. He thought they would be more excited about the chocolate.
“Cheese is the greatest thing in Blays,” Grimma said.
Grimsli nodded as he carefully divided the square down the center so that both halves were even. “It’s our favorite thing ever.”
Aleric looked past them at the alley. The twins had turned the cardboard boxes into something akin to a house. The inside looked surprisingly comfortable. He pulled the two blankets off his shoulder. If anyone at the hospital missed them, he would replace them; but from what he had seen, the hospital had plenty of the same type.