by M. C. Cerny
“Does Lucky have another name?” Warren looked me over intently and I squirmed again under the bedsheets.
“It’s Kerri, Kerri Harper.”
“It’s beautiful,” he said, and for the first time I really wanted to cry ugly tears, because nobody had ever referred to me in that way before. Not about my name, my looks, anything, maybe it was totally superficial, but I’d just got the guts to end a pretty shitty relationship the day before and I was still raw. My emotions were ripped up and adrenaline got the better of me with racking coughs followed by sobbing tears.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay.”
“No, I’m not, I’m a hot mess,” I said through fat rolling tears, my confidence nonexistent, and Warren chuckled. I worried he was laughing at me, but his gentleness said otherwise.
“No, you’re not. You’re okay.” He propped me up on some fluffy pillows, pushing the sweaty tears drenched hair off my face. I couldn’t possibly be looking beautiful then with my swollen eyes and banged up body, but he didn’t seem to care and busied himself around my little room.
“I’m s-sorry.” Stricken, I didn’t know who looked more surprised by my breakdown.
“I know just the thing to make you feel better.” Warren left, taking a leather bag with him. Looking around my little room again, I was guessing he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Gray walls and a stupid hanging sheet blocked out any view toward the outside world. Looking over the side of the bed, I peered down at the floor. Yup, that was gray too. Taking my one good arm, I lifted the edge of the sheet and looked underneath. I was dressed in a hospital gown, some navy blue pattern, so at least that wasn’t gray.
Warren returned a few minutes later with a tray of food and a steaming cup of tea. The tea excited me, its swirling cloud of heat already warming me as he put the tray down in front of me. Tea had always reminded me of cozy sweaters and spices that make your tongue tingle and toes curl. Still a little early for anything pumpkin spice, but fall was my favorite time of the year. I was grabbing for the tea with the good hand out and my wrapped up one attempting to follow. Before he could say anything, I took a sip and almost hurled the fowl tasting liquid back out. There was nothing pumpkin or delightful about that. The sheer awfulness of it made my eyes tear up. He was cupping my mouth under my chin and little bits of liquid leaked between my lips onto his hand.
“Swallow it.” Keenly looking at me, I noticed for the first time his strong and handsome face with angles and planes that sloped in perfect arcs. His eyes, gray fathomless pools, a shade darker than everything in the room, obliged one deeply to do his bidding. I took a gulp and thought I’d prefer death first over that, whatever that was, but I did it anyway. The drink was definitely not cozy, warm or spicy. “All of it, like a good girl.” He didn’t yell or threaten, merely compelled me to listen with his unexpectedly stern voice. I glared at him under heavy lashes, letting the foulness slide down my throat with worries gagging forth.
“What the hell was that?” Gasping, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take anything else off the tray he’d given me. I would’ve scraped my tongue clean of the foul taste, but my desire to not insult him won over.
“That was a mixture of willow bark tea and herbs. I would have warned you about it, but you kind of took off on me head first. You’re rather impulsive, aren’t you?” Kindly, he laughed, pulling up a chair as he nodded to the sandwich on the tray.
“How do you know I wasn’t allergic to anything in it?” Almost panicking, he looked worried for about a second until his expression eased with something he seemed to recall but didn’t share with me.
“You weren’t, were you?” I shook my head no, slowly cupping the warm mug I would’ve rather not drunk. It was strange how I was feeling better as the minutes passed. He sat down in the chair with watchful eyes. “It’ll help bring your fever down so you can sleep. Sleep is the best way to get rid of the cough.” I was sure about it, and out of my passive nature I kept sipping the worst tea made from the sweetest gesture I’d ever been given twice in one day.
Chapter Five
*
WARREN
Officially off my twenty-four hour shift, I watched Kerri sleep, dozing off in the chair next to her bed. Leaving a handful of times to stretch, I walked around the floor of the clinic still bustling with minor injuries from the storm and medical emergencies. Mandatorily, I couldn’t get called in for another twenty-fours, so I took advantage of the reprieve. It seemed we weren’t the only ones who couldn’t get to the hospital during the storm. Woodland Creek wasn’t exactly a haven for bad weather, but heavy rains had always flooded the main road in and out of town from time to time. Another reason I wanted my pilot’s license, but that was a task for another day.
“I’m wondering why you’re still here, Mr. Boone.” Eden tapped her pen on a clipboard, looking her usual grumpy self. I let my arms stretch out and another rip rent the seam of the fabric under my arm slightly.
Crap.
“I feel like you use my last name to pull rank on me, Eden.” She snorted, flicking her braid of hair over her shoulder, rounding the corner of the nurses’ station, making notes on her charts and signing off on discharge papers.
“This isn’t the military.” Eden raised an eyebrow and the desire to torment my relative was strongly ingrained.
“You could have fooled me.” I flicked the braid of hair off her shoulder, smirking.
“Ah, I still remember the pup that would pull my tail just for fun.” Eden was my older cousin by several years and always held onto grudges when it suited her.
“Are you really still mad about that?” Crossing my arms, I stood my ground, expecting her to pounce and bite my face for something I did over a dozen years ago.
“No, I’m still mad about the time you and Jase put hair color in my shampoo and the next time I shifted, I turned a delightful shade of lavender…jackass.” She punched my arm, but the force did nothing against my flexed muscles. She forgot I knew her well enough to not let my guard down with her.
“We didn’t know it would do exactly that…” The memory was an exceptionally funny one. Who knew blonde-haired shifters absorbed purple dye is such a unique way?
Well…we did now.
“Hmmph.” She looked about as tired as I was and even though our kind had some impressive stamina, our level of exhaustion was something that not even a coffee IV could cure at that juncture. Huffing out a breath, she put her clipboard down and ushered me over to her office down the hall, pushing me in and closing the door.
Reaching for a container of bottled water, she tossed one at me. Opening one for herself, she took a swig of the locally bottled spring water. “Warren, your stray cat is new here in Woodland Creek.”
“I know. Jase and I pulled her from her partially submerged vehicle off the main road into town. You know, right at mile marker nineteen. The one I’ve been complaining about for months now with the transportation department.” Lectures came easy to my older cousin and something told me I wasn’t escaping this one.
“God, you’re cute.” She shook her head and I got that she didn’t mean the comment as particularly complimentary. “A little dense sometimes, but cute.” And I was right about that one.
Tired, I waited for her to continue, finishing the water in one swig. “Just say what you mean, Eden.” Crushing the bottle with one hand, I tossed it in the recycle bin.
“It’s likely she doesn’t, uh…” Eden scratched her neck in a nervous gesture. “Know about the residents of Woodland Creek.” So Eden didn’t think Kerri Harper knew about shifters…Well, that was glaringly obvious.
“I sure hope not, we don’t advertise that now, do we? Hey, welcome to Woodland Creek, home of the weird and shifty.” I was trying to make a joke of things, but Eden scrunched her face up.
“Warren.” Scolding was Eden’s signature and I would only worry when she stopped doing it.
“It doesn’t help when Jase makes dumbass remarks. Of course she doesn’t know. Did
you think I would tell her?” Would I tell her? I wasn’t planning on it. We knew there were people out there who were into fetishes and searched out shifters, or what they thought they knew about us. We kept our kind a secret for a lot of reasons, especially after a few books went mainstream encouraging things between our kind and humans. “Oh, come on. Are you really that dumbstruck over her?” The last thing I wanted to do was admit something even I didn’t understand at the moment about what drew me to her.
“Eden, I just worked a double shift and my last call was Kerri Harper. I’m working on zero sleep here.” I would’ve slept for days after that if I could, but I was starting classes soon and work didn’t stop just because I was tired.
She nodded and then began again. “Are you still having problems shifting back and forth?”
Grabbing the back of my head, frustrated, I told her the truth. “I am…not all the time, but enough that it can be...problematic.” This was a new problem I was having since the recent lunar eclipse, but that wasn’t what I thought was causing it. Honestly, I didn’t have a clue and for all I knew it was a normal transition.
She made a thoughtful sound, nodding. “Well, you better stock up on razors and clippers.” Her eyes gave me a look and I knew I looked worse for wear after a long shift, but she crossed her arms and nodded to the mirror behind me. “Look at yourself, Warren.”
Turning, I spied a glance of myself and found that my hair was grown out and shaggy. I looked like a mountain man too far away from civilization. My half Native American blood on my dad’s side was prominent. I’d shaved the day before, but it was pointless. I could have sported the beard and man bun look with my longish hair at that point.
“Shit.” Running a hand over my face, I wondered if that was exactly what Kerri had seen earlier.
“I guess you’re perfecting the poor college student look?” Eden exhaled, but I didn’t find much of this funny at all. She leaned back in her chair, resting her hands on top of her desk.
“I look like a damn hobo.” I pushed my hands through my messy hair again and Eden chuckled.
“How do you not notice that you’re still covered in tufts of fur and hair? Doesn’t it itch?” Eden walked over to me and reached over, touching a length of hair hanging over my forehead and poking me in the ribs.
“If I knew the answer to that question I wouldn’t need you to censor me. Isn’t there something I can do or take for this?” Eden shrugged and moved to sit down behind her desk, ready to give me another discourse of what I should be doing. “Maybe see Pia and see what she says?” Pia Mathews was the apothecary in town and knowledgeable about all things herby and potion-like.
“Do you really think she could help me?” Eden flipped through some files on her desk and I felt summarily dismissed.
“I see your frown, Warren, but I’m not sure I should be getting involved in all this.” She waved her hand in the air and made another note on a chart.
“Eden…” Peering up from her paperwork, Eden began anew, folding her hands, the tips of her fingers tapping together.
“Kerri Harper looks like a gentle girl. I can sense that you…like her. I’m not telling you what to do here, Warren, but I don’t know if she’s ready to hear she’s living in a town full of shifters and magic.”
“Right. So let’s just ignore the obvious and pretend nothing happened.”
“She didn’t see you or anyone else shift, so I suggest you keep that little detail to your hairy self and visit the barber a bit more regularly.”
Rolling my eyes, I nodded, keeping my opinions to myself. I wasn’t going to tell her, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t find out eventually if I wasn’t careful. If we weren’t careful. I amended to myself. I was going to have to keep a close eye on Kerri and a closer one on my foolishly interested heart.
“Perfect. I’ll discharge her tomorrow and you can drive her to her dorm room on campus. Get her settled and then get away from her.” Eden was all set to let this go, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the girl in the room down the hall.
Chapter Six
“Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends.” Eminem
KERRI
“Thanks for driving me to the campus.” I snuggled deeper into the clothes Dr. Lupinski borrowed for me. A pair of scrubs and a navy blue sweatshirt that I knew definitely wasn’t hers because the back read Woodland Creek EMS. I was going to have to figure out how to get my stuff because the sun shining promised the last week of August was going to warm up and dry out.
Warren looked at me with a smirk on his face, driving his pickup truck, a huge black Nissan Titan that was probably better suited for a farm. We headed toward the university grounds on roads I didn’t know through the small town. “It’s no problem at all. I actually have to register for my fall classes, so I might as well do it today while I’m here.”
“You’re a student here too?” Okay, so he wasn’t totally altruistic, I was fine with that. Surprised, I was under the impression that Warren worked full-time for the EMS squad. It didn’t occur to me that my savior was pursuing an education as well.
“I go to the night classes for the paramedic course in the undergraduate program. I want to get my pilot’s license after this and do medivac training.”
“Wow, so flying planes and stuff.” Picking at a string on my pants for something to quell my nervousness, I felt unexpectedly shy with Warren.
“I like the idea of being able to help people and I’ve always wanted to fly.” I watched him handle the steering wheel confidently over the curving roadway. His fingers were long and thick, with wrists that made my stomach flutter each time he moved his hand. A large silver watch with a fat dial rested on his heavy boned wrist, glinting sunlight into the cab of the truck.
My sprained wrist rested in my lap and the pain brought me back to reality and reminded me that getting to know Warren might be a bad idea. I’d been through a lot and Dillon was still fresh on my mind. “Have you flown before? Like a lot?” Swallowing my anxiety down, I rested my head back against the seat, waiting for him to respond.
“Yeah, it’s amazing.” We glanced over, catching each other’s eyes, and his smile took my breath away. It was the kind of chest tightening and butterfly fluttering that I had no business feeling. “Just being up in the clouds, soaring against the wind like a bird...it’s liberating.” He laughed and color creeped up his neck. I couldn’t imagine why his confession had left him as nervous as me. I wanted to experience that feeling he’d captured flying and wondered if that was greedy of me to want something I missed out on for so long with Dillon. It was a strange thing to ponder and he didn’t say much else as we pulled through the campus drive, circling the truck closer to the dorm suites.
“Well, here we are.” Instead of letting the truck idle, ready to kick me out, he turned it off completely, pocketing his keys. The air conditioning stopped blowing and the white noise ceased with it as we sat inside the cab.
“Indeed.” Looking around the old campus buildings, admiring their architecture, I wondered what the next two years of my life would be like there.
“I called the garage and they said to contact them about your car. It might actually be fixable if you want them to look it over.” Warren held out a card with the picture of a model T Ford as its logo.
“Thanks.” His fingers touched mine and heat licked the skin like a slow burning fire. Quickly, I took the card, suffused with shock and guilt. I’d just broken up with a control freak; I didn’t need to have feelings for someone else.
“The owner said he’d look for a new door. Seems the other one is missing since the storm.” There was that strange, creeping flush that reached Warren’s ears this time. I noticed that his hair was shorter today. Cleanly cut and his face looked smooth, soft even, and I wanted to touch it to see. Purely for research purposes, I told myself.
Instead, I kept things formal. Formal was safe and routine because clear
ly I couldn’t handle anything else right then. “Thanks again. I really appreciated everything you’ve done.”
“No problem. It’s my job.” That took some of the specialness I was imagining out of it.
“Right, I should go, so thanks.” The quicker I left the better, right?
“Hey, do you know where your room assignment is? I, uh, should probably walk you up and make sure you get there.”
Chuckling to fill the silent space, I held up my still damp purse. “What, me and my one bag as it is?” He joined me laughing and more of the awkward silence followed.
“Well, you never know, come on.” Warren got out of the truck, leaving me a moment. He opened my door and unclicked my seatbelt, helping my sore body out of the vehicle. “Easy does it.” He lowered me softly to the ground, our bodies barely touching but enough that I knew I shouldn’t be gripping his arms as tightly as I was.
Breathless, I waited for him to step back. “Okay, so my room assignment is Lupin Hall, room 34.” I started walking toward the building, which had a stone face of gothic architecture and thick wood beams. Lupin Hall was carved in the stone above the doorway in fancy lettering, together with the year 1791. Wolf-shaped gargoyles lined the entranceway. This is so Harry Potterish. Wonder if there are any haunted parts on campus. A giggle and a tremble overcame me for a moment.
“Ah, third floor. My friend here always complains about the slow elevator, so we might have to take the stairs if you’re feeling up to it.” He rested his hand lightly on the middle of my back, propelling me forward, and a shiver tingled up and down my spine from the simple touch through my clothes. Those magical fingers pushed me forward gently.
“I can manage. It might be good for me.” We walked side by side to the front door, which he pulled open and ushered me inside.
“Good thing you don’t have any boxes to carry.” Warren winked and gave me another killer smile of his, and we walked inside the residence hall.
