I fumbled to pick Ceres up and my nose caught a whiff of what I didn't want to smell. I knew the scent of a silver burn when it hit my nose and I knew that we had a limited amount of time before the poison took hold. I stumbled away from the house with Riley and Luke behind me. I was hoping that I was somewhat recovered by the time I reached my truck.
Silver burns were nothing to trifle with. They had cursed almost every silver item the Witches used in their endless battle against us. The curse on them ensured that contact with them wouldn't just be a quick burn or slice and then nothing further. Whenever a Witch injured a Lycan with a silver tool, it deposited the hazardous metal into the Lycan's bloodstream. It was their way of ensuring that even the smallest of encounters had lasting results. It was also their way of biting us in the ass if we managed to kill them. For most Witches, the goal wasn't just to kill; it was to get in just one good shot.
I could see the poison working through Ceres's skin. Silver turned our veins black. Every second worked against us as the poison moved closer to her heart. If it reached that delicate muscle, she would die.
I clutched Ceres to me as I stumbled to my truck. I fell three times along the way because the explosion threw off my equilibrium. I hoped that my falls didn't further injure her as we made slow progress toward the vehicle that would take us to help. I had to put Ceres down so that I could fish for my keys. She was still unconscious for the most part, but I was able to lean her against my truck and keep an arm around her for support. I opened the door, picked her up, and clambered inside with difficulty. In trying to start the truck, I missed connecting the key to the ignition four times. By the time I turned the engine over, my vision was stabilizing. I saw Riley and Luke making their way to their cars as I put the truck in gear. I started to drive and had to fight just to stay in my lane because of my double vision. My own driving terrified me, and I thought that we were going to crash before we got to the clinic. I was afraid that we weren't going to make it in time.
I slammed on my breaks when I came up to a red light. My reaction time had taken a hit, but I managed to keep Ceres's face away from my dashboard. She didn't need that kind of impact. I put the truck in park while I waited for the light to turn green and fastened her seatbelt. As I did, I noticed the blood on my hands. I couldn't remember where it had come from. There was also ash. I looked at my hands in shock. What had I done?
The light turned green, but it wasn't until someone honked their horn behind me that I realized it. I shook myself, put the truck in gear, and sped out, squealing the tires and leaving a trail of smoke in my wake. My vision was clearer now, but sounds were still distant. I looked up in my rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of myself. There was blood coming out of my ears. I had a gash on my forehead from my impact with the road. More ash covered my face and hair. I wondered how much of the house was still standing. I wondered if anyone was still alive. I wondered how they would have managed to survive. I prayed that they were dead.
I took shortcuts through the alleyways to get to the clinic faster. We bounced around on potholes and I worried about Ceres's head bouncing around too much. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but the bruises were already forming. The blood in her hair also worried me because it meant that she had injuries that I couldn't see. Her wrist was swollen. The other one had bruised and was either sprained or fractured. She had burns on her wrists and fingers, likely from the ropes. Blood still oozed from her neck. That was the most likely reason that the poison from their cursed silver wasn't moving faster.
We could touch regular silver and start healing as soon as we stopped. It didn't work that way with their weapons because the Witches wanted to make sure that there were lasting effects.
Most of us had even figured out how to use silver to our advantage. Most of the piercings we wore had a low silver content in them to prevent our bodies from healing over it. Riley's gages, for example, had silver in them.
I saw Riley's car in my rearview mirror and Luke's right behind his. When the coast was clear, I blew through the red lights without the worry of police interference. We owned this town. We owned the police. I was more likely to get an escort than a ticket.
We made it to the clinic in just a few minutes, but in my head, it seemed longer than that. Ceres was breathing through her mouth beside me and I could see that the poison was slowing. Her body was fighting it. Her wolf was fighting it. It was saving her life.
My truck squealed to a stop in front of the brick building that was our pack's medical clinic and I unbuckled Ceres as Riley opened my door. He helped me get her out of the truck and Luke held one of the double doors open as I rushed Ceres inside. Riley was right at my heels and slipped in front of me to open the second door. We made our way up to the receptionist's desk. She looked up at us in shock and I knew what she saw.
In front of her were four people, covered in ash and blood. She could see the poison in Ceres’s veins. My hands had spidery black veins. Riley had a gash on his cheek. Luke had a gash on his shoulder that had dripped blood halfway down. Their injuries were also caused by silver, so they also had the painful black veins of poison working through their bodies. She stared up at us for a moment in shock. Witches had injured all of us. Ceres was the most critical, but we were all in need.
"Oh my god," she whispered.
She stood and walked around the desk to the double doors that led back to the examination rooms. She led the four of us back there and put us into three rooms. I sat down and cradled Ceres to me. I tried to brush some of the ash out of her face, but I only succeeded in smearing blood. I looked at my shaking hands and stared. I expected to see the blisters, but this blood wasn't all mine. Some of it was Ceres's. Some of it belonged to the Witch I had beheaded.
I stood back up and was careful as I put Ceres down on the examination bed. I walked over to the sink and turned on the water. I pressed my hand against the soap dispenser. On accident, I pushed out too much of the antibacterial soap before I started scrubbing at my hands. Each time I washed over the blisters, it was agony. I cried out in pain as I washed the blood off my hands. Some of the blisters popped and I hissed.
"Stop, stop, stop!" someone ordered, pulling my hands out of the water. She grabbed a fistful of paper towels and pressed them to my palms. "Stay still," she ordered. I sat down in the chair and stared at the paper towels in my hands. I felt the first tear burn at my eyes and clenched my jaw to keep it back. I could not lose control now. I could not break down now.
Chapter 17 ~Wolfgang~
I could feel the poison flowing through my veins from the silver chain. With every beat of my heart, the pain inched up my arms like a slow-moving fire. The silver hadn't cut me in such a vulnerable spot, so I wasn't as weakened as Ceres. I had a lot more time to sit back as the doctor looked over her than she did.
Dr. Cyrus set a black case down on the counter before she unzipped it. Inside were several gold tubes and a gun-like device that delivered the dose. I watched her as she pulled the gun and one of the gold tubes out to load it. She gave me a stern look and shook her head before she tilted Ceres's head to the side and exposed her neck. She pierced Ceres's neck with the large needle and pulled the trigger. Ceres made an unconscious sound as the needle pierced her skin to deliver the serum. We waited for a moment to see if her condition would change.
I studied Dr. Cyrus while we waited. Her brown hair had a few strands of gray in it and pulled into a tight bun on the top of her head. She had lines around her eyes and mouth. Laughter lines, my mother called them. Her eyes were green. She was taller, coming to a height of five-nine or so. She appeared focused and determined to make sure that she didn't lose any Lycan.
After a moment, the doctor gave her a second dose, this one to the arm. The amount of silver running through her veins was too much for one.
"What happened?" she asked, glancing at me as she took Ceres's pulse.
I cleared my throat. "The coven took her," I said. My voice was rough and dry. "We got her back."<
br />
"That explains the injuries, but not the ashes," she said.
"I blew up the house," I replied.
She nodded. "Right," she sighed. She shook her head as she let go of Ceres's wrist. She wrote something down before she stood in front of me. "Let me see your hands," she instructed. I held my hands out and couldn't believe that I'd driven with them in this condition. I'd made them worse by scrubbing them, which was why she'd stopped me. My skin looked as if a red-hot knife had cut it. There were blisters cutting across my palm and the skin looked as if it had melted away. Since the blisters had popped, it looked even worse than what it should have. The last time that I'd seen my skin in this condition, it had been my wrists and ankles.
She hissed. "What have you gotten yourself into this time, Volsunga?" she whispered, shaking her head. She met my eyes. "It's been a long time since I've seen these kinds of silver burns."
"She was the stepdaughter of the coven leader," I said. "He wasn't happy to find out that she's Lycan."
"Should I worry?"
I sighed. "I would say yes," I replied. "The chances are high that we're going to be back here a few more times before this ends."
She let out a groan and shook her head. She took care as she washed my hands and I had to bite back the screams because of what I'd already done. She slathered an ointment on my palms before she bandaged them with the ease of practice. "Silver chain?" she asked. I nodded. "Why did you grab it?" she asked.
"To kill the witch that planned to use it to kill me," I replied.
"How many lived?" Dr. Cyrus asked.
"None, I hope," I replied. "She was my first concern. I didn't stick around to see if anyone else survived."
"She's not pack," the doctor replied.
"She's my mate."
She froze, halfway through bandaging up my other hand. She looked up at me, at Ceres cradled in the next chair with my hand moved to touch her out of instinct, and I saw that she understood. "Yes, she is," she said. She exhaled before she turned her attention back to my hand and finished bandaging me up. I watched as she finished up with me.
She ended up washing my face off as well because I had other injuries that she needed to take care of. She also checked my ears to make sure that there had been no permanent damage from the explosion. I was grateful that we healed fast enough that I was going to be just fine.
When it came time to take care of Ceres, Dr. Cyrus started by setting her broken nose.
"Hold her tight," Dr. Cyrus instructed. "She's unconscious, but this will wake her up and I don't want to further injure her by having her struggle."
I nodded and pulled Ceres into my lap. I wrapped on arm around her body while my other held her head in place. When I had a secure hold of her, I nodded to Dr. Cyrus. She pressed one hand against mine on Ceres's forehead and held her nose in the other. When she pulled Ceres's nose, the sound of cartilage grinding back into place made me want to vomit. Ceres screamed as her eyes shot open. Her eyes weren't their normal chocolate brown; rather they were the deep yellow amber of the wolf.
Ceres started crying. Tears flooded her eyes and spilled over. I didn't know if it was from the pain, the stress, or any of the other thousand things that had happened to her in the last three weeks. She tried to cling to me for comfort, but the doctor wasn't done looking at her. I made her focus on me. "We're at the clinic," I said. "You need to let Dr. Cyrus help you. You can break down when we get home," I promised. She let out a sob and clutched me to her. I held her and the doctor did her best to work around me.
"I'm going to give her a sedative," she said. "She needs to sleep, and I need to be able to work on her neck and wrists. Lay her down on the table, but don't leave her side for too long. She's going to need your presence for proper healing."
I nodded and laid Ceres down on the gurney in the room. She hissed in pain and I wondered if it was because of the pain in her shoulders or her broken wrist. Dr. Cyrus took note of that and I did my best to be gentile as I laid her down. I held Ceres's hand as the doctor examined the wound on her neck and gave her another shot, this one containing a sedative. Ceres whimpered and her hand clenched around mine. Dr. Cyrus washed out her hair and most of the blood and ash around her face and neck.
Dr. Cyrus treated her neck as she had my hands and the only thing that kept Ceres from screaming was the drug that kept her asleep. The doctor taped the bandage to her neck and wrapped gauze around it, like some sort of morbid choker.
Next, she looked at Ceres's wrists. She sighed before she left the room. When she came back, it was with an x-ray machine. She looked at me. "You said she's your mate, but have you mated yet?" she asked.
I shook my head. "She hasn't shifted yet," I replied. "And she hasn't given off any fertility signs as far as I've noticed," I added.
Dr. Cyrus nodded. "Not pregnant but no shift," she muttered to herself. She looked thoughtful and I had a feeling it was about whether she should use one of the lead aprons humans had to use when getting x-rays or not. As Lycans, we didn't have to worry about human concerns such as radiation.
Coming to a decision, Dr. Cyrus pulled an apron out of the drawer attached to the base of the machine. She had me help place it over Ceres as a precaution, but she didn't make me leave the room because I was immune. She took the pictures and left the room. About fifteen minutes later, she came back. "Her left wrist has a clean break, the right has a sprain," she said. She put the sprained wrist in a soft cast and set the broken one. Dr. Cyrus also put it into a soft cast, since she would heal too fast to warrant a more permanent one. She wrapped an ace bandage around it to ensure that it was immobile.
"Her shoulders and arms are going to be fine. The muscles are tense because of the way they tied her up. Keep an eye on her neck and your hands. Change the bandages every three or four hours until you're both healed. I can write you a prescription for pain, but there's almost no point because it won't do you any good. She may not heal in time for the full moon, but the shift will heal her completely when she does it for the first time."
"Don't worry about the pain meds," I said. "No point in wasting the paper or money."
She nodded. "The sedative should wear off in a few hours, perhaps longer. I haven't treated anyone her age that hasn't shifted yet. I can't say how long it'll take before she wakes up."
"I'll just carry her out then," I said.
Dr. Cyrus nodded. "Come back if you need anything," she said.
I nodded before I gathered Ceres back up in my arms. Dr. Cyrus held the door open for me and I carried her out to the lobby. Riley and Luke were already patched up and held the doors open for me to get outside. When we reached my truck, Riley fished my keys out of his pocket, as I'd left the truck running when I arrived, and unlocked the cab. I set Ceres down in the passenger seat and belted her in to keep her from falling. I was careful to make sure I didn't catch her in the door as I closed it, and then I looked at Riley. "I'm going to take her home," I said. "Can you go tell my parents what happened?"
Riley shook his head. "I'll take her home," he said. "You need to be the one to tell your parents what went down."
I sighed. "Right," I said. I looked at her on the other side of the glass and pressed my bandaged hand against it. The thought of her going anywhere away from me filled me with fear and apprehension and dread. I was willing to take her with me, but it would have been an inconvenience. I would either have to leave her in the truck while I went in to talk to my dad, or I would have to carry her in, and her injuries couldn't support that. It was better for her to go home with Riley because my visit to my father could not wait any longer.
I clenched my fist and pressed my head to the window, ignoring the pain in my hand. I hated being so torn. I needed to be with her. I needed to make sure that she got to safety. I needed to be the one to protect her....
"She'll be at the apartment when you get back," Riley promised me.
I nodded. "Yeah," I said with a rough voice.
Riley sighed. He knew t
hat I was stalling even if neither of us knew the real reason why. He pulled my hand away from the door and handed me the keys to his car. "The sooner you tell your dad, the sooner you get home to her," he said.
I nodded as Riley got into the truck. I watched him drive away with my mate and my truck, and I could only pray for their safety. I unlocked the door to Riley's car. Luke looked at me over the roof from his door. "You okay, man?" he asked.
I met his eyes and shook my head. I got in, thinking of all the things that I would have to tell my parents. There were things I had to say, and I didn't know if any of the words would come. Still, I had to do my duty as Volsunga to the pack. I had to do my duty....
When I pulled up to my parents' house, I sat in the car for a few minutes. I didn't know what to do, think, or say. I felt like it took me hours to get myself out of the car and walk up to the doors. Once there, I waited before I opened it and walked in. I kicked off the snow, hung up the coat I forgot I was still wearing, and stepped into the foyer to see that the door of the library was open. My father knew I'd arrived, and he was waiting for me.
I walked to the library, listening as each step echoed in my mind. When I reached the open door, I leaned against it and knocked. My father looked up at me from his desk and sighed. "How did it go?" he asked. "You appear to be in one piece, so I assume you were successful?"
I sighed. "That depends on your definition of success," I said as I pushed myself off the doorframe and walked toward him. I sat down in the chair across from him and picked at a string hanging from the hem of my shirt. "We got Ceres out of the house. Riley and Luke came and helped me do it. We went to the clinic because we were all injured. Riley took her home so that she can sleep off the drugs and I came here to report."
"Then what is it that you need to report?"
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 16