by Cheree Alsop
“Seriously?” Aleric said when the door shut. “I should have just let the vampire get you.”
“You wouldn’t,” Tranquility shot back. She sat in the middle of her bed with a satisfied look on her face. “He’s a meanie.”
The vampire grumbled.
Aleric nodded. “He is that. But I did promise him some blood. Are you going to be alright in here?”
Tranquility looked around. “Yep. Not much going on at the moment. I’ll think about better ways we can design this space so we can separate the fae.”
Aleric gave her a wry smile. “You do that.”
His gaze fell on the selkie. She hadn’t moved even with all the commotion.
“What’s going to happen to her?” Tranquility asked, following his gaze.
“I’m not sure,” Aleric replied. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“I’ve never seen a selkie in mid-phase.”
“That’s what concerns me,” Aleric told the fairy.
Tranquility studied him for a moment. “You really are nice, for a werewolf.”
Aleric’s mouth turned up in a half-smile at the compliment. “And you’re not so bad for a tree-hugging, flower-loving fairy.”
Tranquility grinned. “Go get the blood, Dr. Wolf. I’ll hold down the fort.”
“Will do,” he replied.
The door shut behind him and Aleric paused. He had just held a full, mostly civil conversation with a fairy. Whatever had happened to turn his whole life upside-down had done so quite thoroughly. Fairies and many of the other Light folk didn’t give werewolves the time of day in Blays. He was just as used to ignoring them. It was strange to have such a simple interaction with one, even if he had just saved her life twice in the same day.
“Aleric?”
He glanced over his shoulder.
“The ties…,” Nurse Eastwick suggested.
Aleric spun around and gripped the open hem of the gown shut behind him.
“Whoever invented these should be forced to wear them while fighting vampires and demons,” Aleric told her. “See how he fairs then.”
The nurse chuckled and held out the bundle in her arm when she reached him.
“I found some clothes in the discard bin. They were left behind by random patients in the E.R.; hopefully you won’t get fleas.” She paused, then laughed at her own joke. “I’ll bet you’ve had to deal with them more than once. Do you wear a flea collar?”
“Very funny,” Aleric replied with a roll of his eyes. He accepted the clothes. “I prefer a flea necktie. It’s more distinguished.”
She folded her arms and waited.
“Um, some privacy, if you please,” Aleric said.
“I’ve already seen everything.”
“Not everything,” Aleric replied. He backed up, careful to keep the wall behind him. “There are some things I prefer to keep private. Are there no restrooms in this blasted hospital?”
“Down that hallway,” she said, pointing.
Aleric walked sideways with his back to the wall and one hand carefully keeping the hem closed.
“You take away all the fun,” Nurse Eastwick called after him.
“You need to re-examine your idea of fun,” Aleric shouted over his shoulder.
He reached the bathroom and, after ensuring that it was empty, shoved the trashcan beneath the door handle and sank onto his knees on the floor.
“What have I gotten myself into?” he asked aloud. Talking to himself was a habit of his Sherian used to say was endearing. He shook his head. “Sher, if you saw me now, you’d think I jumped off the deep end. I fought a demon and saved a fairy. The world is truly going to end.” He paused, then said, “If it hasn’t already.”
Aleric looked down at the clothes in his hands and sighed. “Enough with my pity party. There’s work to do.”
He rose and changed into the clothes the nurse had brought. Grateful that they didn’t smell too badly, he pulled the gray tee-shirt over his head and drew on the dark pants. She had been kind enough to find a pair of ratty shoes. He was tempted to throw them away with the thought that whoever left shoes at a hospital must have either died or been too messed-up to realize it, but he pulled them on with the knowledge that walking barefoot in a hospital could lead to some serious injuries.
He would definitely need to find clothes of his own soon. He didn’t relish spending time in another person’s belongings, and he missed wearing underwear. It was something he had taken for granted that he wouldn’t any longer. From now on, he would think of underwear as a luxury item.
At least given the smell, the person who had worn the shirt had probably come in after some accident fixing a vehicle with an oil problem, and the pants smelled faintly of fresh-cut grass. It could be worse, definitely worse. At least neither had worked for a heidrun farm. Those oily goats caused a stench no amount of washing would chase away.
Aleric tossed the hospital gown in the garbage can before he pulled the can away from the door. He wouldn’t resign anyone else to the undignified state of wearing it.
“Much better,” Nurse Eastwick said when he walked through the door.
“Don’t you have better things to do than wait for me to change my clothes?” Aleric asked.
The nurse lifted one shoulder. “Dr. Worthen asked me to bring you to the E.R. as soon as you were presentable. He has a patient to discuss with you.”
“He realizes I’m not a doctor, right?” Aleric replied.
“Given the state of things, you’re the closest to an expert that we have at the moment. He was pretty impressed with the way you handled the demon, and he thought you might be able to help him with a case that showed up yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Aleric repeated. “Didn’t the fae start coming in today?”
She nodded. “Mostly. You and the others we’ve taken to the D Wing came in today. The boy, though, he came before it started.”
She pushed the door open to the Emergency Room. The room had been mostly put back together after the demon attack. The orderlies and nurses who rushed past slowed when they saw Aleric. Several moved to the other side of the room to avoid him.
“Do they know I’m not the bad guy here?” he asked so that only Nurse Eastwick could hear.
“You’ve got to give them some credit,” she replied. “After all they’ve seen today, it’s a wonder they’re still here.”
“Are other hospitals getting bombarded by fae folk like this one?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Actually, no. Edge City Hospital is the biggest in the area, so most unusual cases come here. When I called Memorial and asked if they had noticed anything different about their patients, they wanted me to clarify. I took that as a ‘no’. Until we figure out what’s going on, Dr. Worthen has the place on lockdown. He doesn’t want a swarm of reporters and police in here while he’s dealing with patients. He says when it slows down and we know what we’re dealing with, they’ll know.”
“Can he do that?” Aleric asked.
“He’s in charge and he’s old school,” Nurse Eastwick replied. “He’ll do whatever he wants.” She glanced at him. “Like asking werewolves for medical advice.”
The nurse led the way down one of the branching hallways and pushed open the door at the end. Aleric looked inside.
As soon as the young boy on the bed met his eyes, the boy started to scream.
Pain like nothing Aleric had ever felt before exploded in his head. He dropped to his knees on the floor and couldn’t move as the sound reverberated through every cell in his body. He bent over with his forehead touching the cold tile and felt his body shut down completely. He fell to his side and the world went dark.
Chapter 4
Aleric opened his eyes. He was on a bed in a curtained room.
“He’s awake,” he heard Nurse Eastwick say.
Aleric put a hand to his head. The pain slowly lessened, but he couldn’t escape the fog of his mind. The scream echoed around and around, blocki
ng out his thoughts.
“What just happened?” Dr. Worthen demanded.
Aleric glanced up at him, squinting against the neon light above his head. An acrid taste lingered on his tongue.
“That was a banshee.”
“Sounded like a normal kid crying to me,” Nurse Eastwick said from the doctor’s side. She watched him with concern in her eyes.
Aleric let out a breath. “I’ve never felt anything like that. I felt like I was going to explode from the inside out.”
“Maybe you have a concussion,” the nurse suggested.
Aleric shook his head, then pressed both hands to his skull in an attempt to lessen the throbbing. “It’s not that kind of pain,” he said, his voice tight. “It’s more like agony that went through my entire body. I’ve heard of banshees before, but I’ve never seen one in person.”
Dr. Worthen crossed his arms in front of his chest and studied the curtain behind Aleric’s bed. “He did seem upset when you entered the room.”
Aleric nodded. “Banshees are Dark fae. They don’t like werewolves much, or most other fae for that matter.”
“But he’s just a child,” Nurse Eastwick pointed out. “Maybe we can reason with him.”
“You can reason with him,” Aleric replied. “I can’t go back in there. It’ll kill me.”
Dr. Worthen studied him closely. “You might be right. You’ve had quite the day. I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to rest, have you?”
“Have you?” Aleric asked. He sat up gingerly and was grateful that they hadn’t tried to put him in one of those horrible hospital gowns again. At least the borrowed shirt and pants stayed closed in the back.
Dr. Worthen gave him a small smile. “If you call trying not to pass out when that demon thing had me by the throat a rest, then yes.”
Aleric stood slowly and felt his legs waver. When Dr. Worthen held out a hand, he took it and allowed the doctor to help him the rest of the way up.
“Easy, there,” the older doctor said. “We don’t normally have patients treating patients.”
“I’m not normally a patient,” Aleric told him. “I take care of myself.”
Dr. Worthen nodded. “I get that from you. I like it. Reminds me of me.”
“I make you coffee, Gregory picks up your dry cleaning, and Nurse Tarli, who brings you dinner every night from Minnow’s, nags you on your orders until you take the time to sit and eat,” Nurse Eastwick said. “What part of that is taking care of yourself?”
“The part where I’m busy savings lives; it pays my bills so that I can eat,” Dr. Worthen replied in a level voice as he pushed aside the curtain. “Therefore, I’m taking care of myself by taking care of others.” He met Aleric’s gaze. “It’s a very selfless thing to do.”
Aleric nodded. “So I’m finding out. It’s going to kill me if I keep doing it.”
“Probably,” the doctor replied. “Your patients are a bit more volatile than mine. Given your current reaction to the boy, I think I’ll handle that one. Do you want a place to rest for a while?”
Aleric shook his head. “No. I need to get the demon set up and take blood to appease our hemoglobin-challenged friend before he eats everyone else in the D Wing. The fairy is attempting to take over the place, and the selkie feels like she can just sleep her life away. There’s no time for rest.”
“Now you sound like Dr. Worthen,” Nurse Eastwick pointed out.
The orderly with the red hair met them at the next section. “Uh, Dr. Worthen, Dr. Wolf, we have another patient.”
Aleric exchanged a glance with Dr. Worthen. The orderly looked close to panic.
“Who is it?” the doctor asked.
“What if the patient is less of who and more of what?” the orderly replied.
Aleric tipped his head to one side. “Do you take animals here?”
“I let you stay, didn’t I?” Dr. Worthen replied.
Aleric rolled his eyes. “You let me stay so that I’d take all the patients you don’t know how to handle.”
“True,” Dr. Worthen said. “Sounds like there’s another for you. I’m hoping it’s the last because I don’t know how much more my staff can handle.”
They followed the orderly to another set of curtains. Moans of pain came from behind it.
“Don’t tell me you’re giving a fairy liquid again,” Aleric said.
The orderly shook his head and wordlessly pulled aside the curtain.
Aleric heard surprised gasps from the others at the sight on the bed. His heart went out to the fae.
“What is it?” Nurse Eastwick asked.
“It?” the young man repeated, taking a moment to stop moaning and stare at her. “I’m an ‘It’?”
The pain in the young man’s face showed that he was on the edge of losing control. Finding out the chaotic whirlwind the fae had found himself in might be enough to push him over the edge.
Aleric took charge of the situation.
“He’s a faun, half goat, half man.” He crossed to the bed. “Hello, sir. I’m Dr. Wolf. What is your name?”
“Braum.” He eyed Aleric with uncertainty. “You look young to be a doctor.”
“I got bonus points with experience rather than schooling,” Aleric replied. Braum was clutching one of his hooved legs in both hands. Aleric motioned to the leg. “May I?”
At Braum’s nod, he carefully slid up the pants on that side. He gritted his teeth at the sight of bones poking through the skin halfway down.
“What happened?” he asked, keeping his voice level. Fauns were known for their high pain thresholds, but this was a serious injury.
Blood dripped from the wound that should have at least been wrapped before the faun was brought in. The EMTs might have been taken for a loop with the amount of fae creatures they were dealing with, but he would have a word with them about taking standard emergency precautions when bringing a patient in so he or she didn’t bleed to death.
A wry voice in the back of Aleric’s mind mentioned that he was starting to think like a doctor. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the patient.
“I was running from the Brighton wolf pack.”
“The werewolves?” Aleric said in surprise. “Why were they chasing you?”
“Well, I….” Braum paused and met his gaze. “Does it really matter? I was running, then all the sudden I was falling. Before I hit the ground, it felt like a force threw me down through it. I slammed into something hard. When I awoke, there were buildings I didn’t recognize in a city I had never been in. Some woman saw me when she was going into her apartment and screamed. I heard her call the police from inside.” He waved a bloody hand. “That takes us to the present.” He touched the small horns curling from his head. “I guess she doesn’t like the caprid type.”
“Some people are particular,” Aleric replied.
Braum nodded and sat back. “What can you do? I know it’s a bad break because it’s bleeding all over.” His gaze held Aleric’s. “Can you fix it?”
This was far out of Aleric’s comfort zone. He looked at Dr. Worthen.
The older man cleared his throat and stepped forward.
“Young man, we need to take you into surgery immediately. The nurse will help you change into a hospital gown and get you prepped with a drip to lessen the pain. I’ll be the one performing your surgery.”
To Aleric’s surprise, Braum pointed at him. “What about Dr. Wolf? Can’t he do it?”
Aleric stared from the patient to the actual doctor. “Um, no, I, uh, I’m still in training.”
That seemed to appease the faun. He nodded. “That makes sense. Will you at least be there?”
Aleric found the request odd. He wondered if the faun felt some connection to him because they were both fae. Did he know he was in an apparently all-human world? If so, the thought of going into an operating room under the knife of a human doctor was probably an intimidating one.
Aleric looked at Dr. Worthen. The doctor gave a shal
low nod of approval.
“I’ll be there,” Aleric promised.
That seemed to calm the faun. He settled back onto the bed with his jaw locked, breathing through his teeth against the pain.
Dr. Worthen gave Nurse Eastwick several instructions, then motioned for Aleric to follow him from the room.
“This is highly unusual,” the doctor told him.
“I’m sorry,” Aleric apologized. “I don’t suppose you usually let werewolves into an operating room. Is that some kind of a sanitation violation?”
Dr. Worthen stared at him for a moment as if trying to comprehend what he had said. The doctor finally shook his head. “No, not that. I mean the faun. He had the legs of a goat. I am doctor, not a veterinarian. I’ve never operated on a goat before.”
Aleric nodded. “If veterinarians operate on animals, can we get one here?”
Dr. Worthen thought about it for a moment. “You know, there is one vet on the south side who may be available. Let me make a phone call.”
Aleric watched the doctor rush swiftly toward his office. Given all the man had seen, the thought of operating on a goat leg appeared to make him the most nervous. Considering the circumstances of the day, Aleric had a lot of respect for the man. Knowing that he had never even been around fae creatures before, he deserved a lot of credit for not just turning them away at the door.
The red-headed orderly walked past.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Aleric asked.
“Gregory,” he replied.
“Gregory, can you get me a bag of blood?”
If the orderly thought the request was a strange one, he didn’t show it.
“Certainly,” he replied. “Which type?”
The question caught Aleric by surprise. He didn’t know blood came in different types. To keep from sounding completely ignorant and undermining his façade as a doctor, he went with, “Which type do you have the most of?”
“O positive,” the orderly replied.
Aleric nodded. “That’ll do.”
When Gregory returned with the bag of blood, Aleric accepted it with a nod.
“Well done,” he said, hoping he sound doctorly.
