Lost

by Dean Murray

  I nodded and tried for the right combination of relief combined with crushing exhaustion. It wasn't hard, as that was exactly what I was feeling once you filtered out an intense fear that Onyx or the Coun'hij were going to show up at any minute.

  "Yeah. I was doing a surgical residency in Maine, but my parents got sick last year and I had to take a leave of absence."

  "Are you planning on returning and finishing up your residency?"

  "I'm not sure. Before I left, the pressure was really getting to me. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when the first thing you feel upon hearing that your parents are severely sick is relief because you know it will mean that you can get away from the hospital to do something besides just sleeping for the first time in months."

  He hadn't been expecting that, I could tell by the way that he stopped to consider his response. "For what it's worth, I think you should go back and finish up. It wasn't that long ago that I was doing my residency; I remember the pressure and you're right about it being brutal, but it's also worth it in the end. You've got a real gift, I can't imagine trying to sew someone up like that with nothing but an interior dome light and a flashlight for illumination."

  I mustered an exhausted smile and nodded. "Thanks, I'm just glad that it looks like she's going to be okay. Maybe you're right. I've been leaning that way anyway if for no other reason than I'm not sure how else I'll pay down my student loans. That's going to be hard enough on a doctor's salary, I'm not sure it will even be possible on what I make right now."

  I turned to go, but he stopped me with a hand on my arm.

  "Mr. Parks, what actually happened out there?"

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Those wounds weren't inflicted by a mountain lion. They were too deep. I'd say that you and her husband did it to her, but you're obviously hiding injuries yourself and he's got a couple of bruises that I'm not sure your sister could have dished out even if she used a crowbar on him. I've been doing this for long enough to know what the police are going to think if I send this over without more information than I have right now."

  The gears inside of my mind spun furiously for several seconds. I'd gone too far in my attempt to bond with the good doctor. I'd figured that my hacks would buy us the time we needed to get Kristin out of the hospital, but if he was becoming personally invested in our situation then he wouldn't just wait for the email backlog to clear out, he'd call the cops himself.

  "Honestly? I'm not sure. It started out on four legs—at least I think that was what I saw. It was just so fast. One second it was down close to the ground and then it was tall. It knocked me down and was on top of my sister before any of us could react. Her husband shot it with his gun and it turned and ran away."

  For a second there was something in the backs of his eyes that told me I'd struck some kind of nerve with my story, but it only lasted a split second before his professional skepticism reasserted itself.

  "Are you trying to tell me that a monster of some kind did this to her?"

  A laugh burst out of me and I noticed in passing that it had a nice touch of hysteria to it. "We're screwed. I knew someone would question the wounds. I told him that there wasn't any way real doctors would believe that a mountain lion could inflict wounds that deep, but we didn't know what else to tell people. Saying that some kind of monster did it is like asking to be committed, but he didn't want the cops to know that he'd been carrying a weapon illegally.

  "He's got a permit back home, but it's no good for Louisiana. We weren't even planning on stopping. The original plan was to just drive straight through but my sister wanted to get some pictures so we decided to stop and campout for one night…"

  Doctor Hamilton held up a hand to interrupt the flow of words. "Okay, the first thing you need to do is calm down. Fortunately for you I'm inclined to believe you. I did my residency down five minutes from the Mexican border. These days it seems like the gangs down there are plenty flush with guns, but a few years ago that wasn't the case. I've seen my share of knife fights and I've never seen anything like this.

  "You're a big guy, you could probably take someone apart like this with a sword, even a short one, but I'm not so sure you could do it with a knife as short as this one would have had to have been. I know a guy who does forensic work on cadavers for the FBI. We took extensive pictures while we had your sister opened up."

  "So you'll send him the pictures and he may be able to prove that we didn't do it?"

  "Yeah, it's not guaranteed, but it's a start and it gives me a reason to wait to call the authorities. With any luck he'll come back with something that will give the police enough of a pause once I do file my report that they'll choose to just keep an eye on you until your sister wakes up and can collaborate your story."

  I reached out and took his hand in both of mine, shaking it with the unbridled relief of an innocent man learning he was going to dodge the electric chair.

  "Thank you, Doctor Hamilton. I never in a million years thought we'd find someone willing to give us the benefit of the doubt like this. Between that and finding out that Kris is going to be okay, well, I feel like the hall is spinning."

  I let myself sway a little, which prompted him to reach back out to steady me.

  "Let's get you back to your bed and look at those wounds."

  I shook my head as he guided me back into my room and helped me back down onto the bed. "Can you please look in on my sister again and get those photos sent off to your friend first? I'll be fine for a few more minutes and it would mean a lot to know that she was still okay."

  He gave me a considering look, but nodded. "All right, but don't go anywhere. I'm worried about your wounds and wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

  I gave him my best honest face and relaxed back into the bed in an attempt to put him at ease. He nodded to a familiar-looking blonde nurse as he left my room and turned right to go check up on Kristin, cell phone already out and dialing.

  I still had five minutes before my scheduled check-in with my nurse, so I offered this nurse a wan smile in the hopes that she'd move on. It didn't work.

  She walked into my room and looked down at her aluminum clipboard as she closed the door. Alarm bells started going off inside of my head a split second before she kicked Ash's feet off of the low table where he'd propped them when he'd fallen asleep.

  "It's amazing that you've managed to survive this long on your own if this is the kind of mess you typically make of things."

  I expected Ash to pull a knife on her. Dangerous people are always the most unpredictable when waking up somewhere that isn't completely safe. This seemed like the perfect situation to have Ash go off like a crate of dynamite, only he didn't.

  "Hi, Celeste. It's nice to see you, too."

  Ash didn't seem surprised that the nurse in our room was ready to rip his head off, but I rolled out of the bed and subtly lowered my center of gravity into something that wasn't quite a crouch, ready to respond if things heated up even more.

  I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but before I got my question out the nurse stepped forward and picked Ash up by the shirt collar, slamming him against the wall with enough force that I wondered if there was anyone in the next room over to hear the impact.

  "You piece of trash. Do you have any idea the mess you left behind when you left here? Do you know what I had to do to keep your secret? You put me through nine kinds of hell and never bothered to even call and tell me that you'd survived. Then a few months ago you call and tell me that some Ancient from south of the border is tearing through the western half of the country and please can I figure out a way to stop him before he kills you? Oh, and while I'm at it is there any way I can arrange to keep the fact that you were my anonymous tipster quiet? Don't you know that you're supposed to grow up to be less of an ass rather than more of one?"

  The surge of energy coming off of her put to rest any question as to what we were dealing with. To summon that kind of raw boiling energy she had to be a shape sh
ifter, and she wasn't just a wolf, she was one of the more naturally powerful hybrids I'd ever come up against.

  Ash was in terrible danger. She'd positioned herself perfectly to rip his head off with her claws if she shifted forms. I'd taken a step towards the two of them when she grabbed him, but now I froze, not wanting to do anything to push her over the edge into a transformation.

  It wasn't until I looked back over at Ash that I realized why he was still eerily calm. Having Celeste kick his feet off of the table like that should have sent the sports magazine on his lap tumbling to the ground. It hadn't because he hadn't been asleep.

  Something had woken him up before she walked into the room and he'd anticipated her actions, up to and including the fact that she was going to manhandle him. Ash was calm because he still had a measure of control over the situation.

  The magazine hadn't gone crashing to the floor, but more importantly the silenced pistol underneath it hadn't ever left Ash's hand. It was now pressed up against the nurse's chest, silencer and all.

  "If it helps, I'm sorry about the way things went down. There are some things I'd probably do differently if I had it all to do over again, but this is the last time you put your hands on me, sis. The next time you put yourself in a position where you could kill me, I won't hesitate to pull the trigger."

  I felt like I'd been hit by a baseball bat. I should have seen it before she even made it inside of the room. The resemblance was incredible. They both had the same straight blond hair and similar features.

  On Ash they looked good, but his sister was nothing less than gorgeous. She had the delicate cheeks and chin of an angel, and a body that, even under stolen hospital scrubs, I could tell was perfect.

  Somewhere along the way she'd acquired the toned, hard build of a dedicated athlete without losing the femininity I'd always found so attractive in Jess, but it was her eyes that most captivated me. They were an incredible shade of gray that had depths to it that I'd never seen anywhere else. Right now they were filled with heat, not all of which was directed away from me, but it was still all I could do to pull my gaze away from hers when she glanced back to confirm that I was still outside of striking range.

  "You wouldn't dare shoot me, Ashley."

  Ash looked like he wanted to flinch when she used his full name, but his hand stayed rock-solid.

  "I think that you'd be surprised at what I'd be willing to do, Celeste. I've studied under some people over the last few years who were every bit as hard and unforgiving as you or Mom. Isaac and I just finished killing four of the Coun'hij enforcers Onyx had out looking for us. One of them got their claws into Kristin, but the rest of us all walked away under our own power. That should give you an idea of just how dangerous I've become since we last saw each other."

  Celeste looked back at me appraisingly. "He doesn't look that impressive. This Kristin chick must be hell on wheels."

  "Isaac would surprise you, but Kristin is a normal human. She's pretty good with a gun, but she didn't uncork some puissant ability and magically eliminate two or three of the opposition hybrids if that is what you're thinking."

  For the first time since she'd entered the room, Ash's sister looked uncertain of herself. It had been obvious that Ash hadn't been lying when he said that we'd just finished mopping up a hit squad that would have been capable of taking down some small packs.

  "I'm not bluffing, Celeste. If you don't put me down in the next ten seconds I'll shoot you and deal with the consequences of having one more dead body on my hands."

  "You're a better liar than you used to be. You'd never get a shot off before I transformed and cut your throat. Even if you did, it would take more than one shot to stop me."

  "Maybe, but I can guarantee you won't be beating Isaac with a bullet lodged up against your heart. Two seconds."

  It was like watching two trucks filled with explosives slide towards each other across a sheet of ice. Everything was happening in slow motion. It felt like I should have been able to do something to stop the wreck from happening, but I couldn't.

  Celeste thought she was still dealing with the same scared teenager who had left home more than a decade before. Even worse, she probably had the same stubborn streak that caused Ash to consistently throw himself into fights that he shouldn't have been able to win.

  That was the thing though. He did tend to win them. Ash had learned that the only way to be respected by a dominant was to be willing to put his life on the line to back up his position. This was the most important interaction he was ever going to have with his sister. If he backed down now then he was always going to be working at a disadvantage. It was the first step in a dance that would ultimately lead to her bossing him around for however long they were together.

  If there was one thing that I knew about Ash, it was that he would die before he'd become a slave to his sister or anyone else. More importantly, he'd kill in order to avoid having his choices taken away like that.

  It was surprising in someone trained by spies, but he viewed the world through the same lens as the shape shifters from a thousand years ago. Once he was your man he'd endure terrible things on your behalf, but his loyalty wasn't something that could be taken by force.

  For Ash it was all one long, unbreakable chain. If he backed down now then it was just a matter of time before his sister would push him too far and he'd be forced to try and kill her. It was now or never. She had to accept him as an equal, as a possible rival, or all bets were off.

  They were frozen for one impossibly long second with Celeste's hands against Ash's throat, suspending him in the air and his gun dimpling the fabric of her scrubs. I was positive that neither of them was going to blink, and then Celeste's phone buzzed with an incoming text. It gave her an excuse, a way of backing down that was external to the two of them and the standoff that they'd locked themselves inside of.

  I was watching closely enough to see Ash's finger start to take up the slack on his trigger as his deadline wound down, but his sister set him back down a fraction of a second before her time ran out. As she fished her phone out of her back pocket I wondered if she knew how close he'd come to shooting her. I hoped so. It would probably avoid a lot of issues down the road if she understood that Ash wasn't going to back down.

  "One of my people back at the house just texted me to let me know that Onyx received a call a few minutes ago that has him nine different kinds of excited. He jumped in his car and drove away in a hurry. Any bets as to why?"

  Ash closed his eyes for a single second. It was his way of preparing himself for what we all knew was coming.

  "He just found out we're here. How long do we have before his people start arriving?"

  "If I knew that I'd be prescient and I would have killed him off long ago. It all depends on who he's got out helping the enforcers the Coun'hij sent down to look for you and how close they happen to be. My person back at the house would have spent a couple of minutes getting somewhere safe before they texted me. People could show up within the next five minutes. You might have more than that, but he'll be here himself within the next fifteen minutes. What's your escape plan?"

  Ash tossed me two of the bug-out bags and headed towards the door with the other one. "I'm not sure; I'll let you know as I figure it out."

  Celeste brushed past me, hot on Ash's heels.

  "You came here without a plan?" Her question came out in a hiss that was too faint for the humans at the nursing station to hear.

  "Of course not. The plan was to talk to the lamias, find out where Dream Stealer is and then go and kill him. We've just run up against some problems that I haven't finished working my way around yet."

  "Ashley! What the hell are you thinking? We don't talk about them outside of the family."

  Ash stepped up to the nursing station, but he got one last jab in. "It's Ash now, and these days Isaac is more my family than you are—it's been at least a day and a half since he threatened to kill me."

  The nurse looked up as Ash pu
t his free hand, the one not buried inside of his bag to hide the fact that he was carrying a huge semi-automatic with a silencer on it, on the counter in front of her.

  "I'm sorry to bother you, but where did they take my wife? She's got some allergies that her brother wasn't aware of and I need to make sure that they haven't given her anything that will send her into shock."

  "You got married without telling me!"

  Celeste's exclamation was nearly loud enough for the nurse to hear, but Ash's expression didn't flicker at all.

  "I can pull up her list of medications right here, sir, and make sure that she hasn't been given anything problematic. Then we can enter a note on her file and make sure that nobody gives her anything they shouldn't."

  Between the news that Onyx was on his way, probably with half a dozen or more hybrids to back him up, and the tension between Ash and his sister I already had a confused, worried expression on my face. I amped it up to eleven and made sure that the nurse saw it before I turned and started down the hall in the direction her doctor had come from.

  "There isn't time; someone could be sticking it in her IV drip right now! I'll start checking rooms down here."

  I could hear the nurse's gasp from twenty feet away. She was probably worried about lawsuits and losing her job. Given the ongoing, low-level concerns with terrorism for the last several years, having someone of Middle-Eastern descent running around the hospital screaming was the kind of thing that could start a panic, but Ash didn't give her a chance to think of calling security.

  "Crap. He's incredibly protective of her. Quick, which room is she in? It's the only way to stop him from searching the whole hospital."

  "Second floor, room 236."

  I spied an elevator bank off to my left, but I didn't wait for it. I threw open the heavy gray door to the stairwell and went up the stairs three at a time. Ash and Celeste were only about a second behind me.

  "I didn't get married, not yet at least—we are waiting for her to turn eighteen first. It's just a cover story so that they'll keep us in the loop on her status and not go hunting her parents down."