Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  "Thanks," I nervously say before opening the car door and getting out. I shut the door and wave goodbye to Liam before walking up to Estelle. She offers me a hand to shake before she starts speaking so quickly I struggle to keep up with what she says.

  "I'm Estelle, my familiar is a deer, and many people say I'm like my familiar. I've heard all about you, Anastasia, and your wolf, Shadow. I'm so happy to get help in the infirmary. We are very understaffed," she mumbles the end part with a slightly sad look before she just forgets it to plaster a smile on her lips.

  "Hi! I'm happy to be here. I honestly thought I was giving up all my dreams when I became a familiar, but if I still can be a nurse, it isn't that bad," I tell her.

  "It's not bad at all, and working here would be much better than a human hospital. We can heal people more quickly, and we hardly ever lose patients," she tells me and waves a hand. "Come in, let me show you around." Estelle spends the next half an hour showing me the various patient rooms and where all the equipment is. There are three patients in the bays, and I'm introduced to them all. All three are much older and have nothing seriously wrong with them. Estelle explained that we have a medicine from the blood of our familiars which can help us heal. It doesn't work on humans and actually kills them, but for us, our blood is so closely bonded with our animals’, they can actually heal us. We just get back to the reception when the doors are flung open, and a woman screams. We both turn to see a man carrying a woman in his arms into the room, and she is holding her stomach, a very large stomach suggesting she is in her late pregnancy.

  "The baby is coming, Estelle!" he shouts.

  "Oh gosh, what a surprise; you aren't due for two weeks! Straight in this way," Estelle runs ahead, and I quickly follow her down the corridor where she opens the first bay. Estelle directs the man to place the woman on the bed as she turns on machines.

  "Who are you?" the woman asks as I stand nervously at Estelle's side.

  "Our new nurse, Ana," Estelle introduces me just as a contraction ripples through the woman, making her scream.

  "How long has she been in labour, John?" Estelle asks the man as they pull her jeans off, and I find a blanket on a nearby table and place it over her for some privacy.

  "She said it was no longer than ten minutes before I got there, and then it was a twenty minute drive to get here," he tells us, looking frantic.

  "John, why don't you go and get a drink at the machine in the reception while I examine your wife. Take a deep breath while you’re out there. Roxanne and the baby will be okay," she firmly tells him, and he looks to his wife, who nods before he goes off outside.

  "Roxanne, I'm going to examine you now and see how far along we are," Estelle says, putting some gloves on and whispering to me. "Please go and hold her hand and talk to her. Keep her calm for me as that makes this all much easier."

  "Okay," I nod, going over to Roxanne's side and taking her hand in mine, which she squeezes tightly. "So…do we know if the baby is a he or she?"

  "A girl," she breathes out, answering me.

  "Any names picked yet?" I ask her, and she shakes her head.

  "I want to see her face first and then name her. We have a list of ten maybe names, but I've never connected with any of them," she explains. She looks in so much pain that it almost puts me off ever wanting to have children when I’m older.

  "When I was born, my mum named me after my grandmother," I tell her, and she smiles at me, her face flinching in pain as Estelle examines her. I only know that from a Google search of our family tree. I couldn't find anything else though, not even who my grandmother married.

  "My mum's name was Isabelle," she says and throws her head back as she screams.

  "Roxanne, listen to me, the baby is near out. When the next contraction comes, you must push," she informs Roxanne who nods and squeezes my hand more tightly.

  "I'm scared," she cries out, her blue eyes meeting mine with pure panic and fear in her eyes. I don't need her to say anything to me to know how she is feeling.

  "You can do this," I tell her firmly. "Your daughter is nearly here and wants to meet you. You just need to do this final part."

  "O-Okay!" she pants out, and I look away from her to Estelle who smiles at me. I know I said something right, and I can't help but smile back. The next hour is full of Roxanne's screams, orders from Estelle, and my encouraging words before the baby arrives just as John walks back in the room. The baby cries as Estelle lifts her onto Roxanne's chest, and John rushes to her side as I step back.

  Estelle places a baby blanket over the baby as I hear Roxanne say, "Welcome to the familiar world, Isabelle."

  13

  First day done and dreams forgotten

  Anastasia

  "There you go," I finish wrapping up a fifteen-year-old boy's hand where he fell and cut it open earlier today, just as Estelle comes into the room. The boy smiles at me with bright red cheeks and curly blond hair. He has been nervous since he got here as he didn’t want us to tell his mum he climbed the tree he wasn’t allowed to with his familiar jaguar. In the end, his mum got here, and she didn’t care as long as he is okay. She only just left the room to pull the car closer and throw her drink away. Estelle walks to my side and picks up the boy's hand gently from mine, examining the bandage.

  "Amazing work, Ana," she says, winking at me before looking at the boy as she gives him his hand back. "Now you remember to come back here tomorrow to change the bandage and not to get it wet in the meantime."

  "I won't. Thank you, doc," he says, his cheeks bright red. "Thank you, nurse."

  "No problem, just be more careful next time," I say, and he nods before jumping off the bed and walking out the room. I start cleaning up my mess, throwing cloths and anything I used to clean the boy up in the bin as Estelle helps me.

  "You did well today. We aren't usually this full of patients. I'm proud of you for handling your first day so well, and you should be extremely proud of yourself as well," she tells me.

  "I owe you for guiding me. I couldn't have done as well as I did without your help," I reply, and she smiles.

  "I have a feeling you could have, but never mind," she replies, walking to the bed and pulling off the paper cover to put in the bin. "I want to know how lunch with Mason went? How living with guys who look like that is?"

  "Mason came here with lunch, you saw me sitting with him. There isn't anything to tell," I say, shrugging my shoulders. "As for living with them, it's okay. Alex doesn't like me, Liam is a harmless flirt, and Mason...there is something about him. I just think we could be good friends."

  "Friends...right," she replies, giggling as she pulls a new paper sheet on the bed. I laugh, knowing there is no point trying to convince her differently, and finish off my cleaning before pulling my gloves off and putting them in the bin.

  "How are Roxanne and Isabelle?" I ask. I've been helping out at the front of the infirmary while they were moved to a more private room with Estelle checking in on them.

  "Both baby and mother are happy and healthy. You should go and see them," she suggests. “I’m sure Roxanne will let you have a little snuggle of that beautiful girl.”

  "I would, but Mason is taking me home, and I don't want to make him wait for me," I explain to her. Hopefully Roxanne and Isabelle are here tomorrow so I can go to say hello.

  "Oh, you shouldn't leave that boy waiting for sure," she says, laughing as she opens the door. "Go on, and I will see you tomorrow. You have Saturdays off for training with whoever they assign to you, and Sundays, the infirmary is closed. I'm not here on Monday, so you will meet the other doctor, and I guess I will see you Tuesday."

  "Okay, thanks for letting me know...what is training?" I question, following her out the door into the corridor. She flashes me a quizzical look but answers anyway.

  "You know about bonding with your animal and the training you will need to do that...right? We can share power with them, and if your connection doesn’t work, the power could kill you. It is impo
rtant you train at least once a week for two months to establish a bond," she informs me of something I needed to find out, and I guess I have the answer I was looking for now. Even if it sounds pretty frightening.

  "Thanks for telling me," I reply.

  "No problem. I know how confusing it is to be dumped into a world you don't get. You will find most the familiars here know that feeling all too well," she says.

  "When did you change?" I ask her, interested to know her past even though she has every reason not to tell me a thing, and she smiles sadly.

  "The day my husband died. Mark was a good man, a man that made me happy and, god, did I love him," she says, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms as she looks past me down the empty corridor like she can see something there I can’t. "We found out he had cancer in his brain. We didn't know until the tumour was too big and there was no treatment on earth that could heal him. The next few months were nothing but suffering on his part, and I almost wished it was over at the end. The day he died, the moment exactly actually, triggered my change."

  "I'm so sorry. I really am," I tell her, reaching out and placing my hand on her arm in comfort. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel like I can trust Estelle. It is a familiar thing.

  "Don’t be, I will see him again when I die. We are just apart for now. I truly believe our souls are woven together so tightly that death is nothing but a bump in the road. It's like the old myth of how familiars and their animals are reborn—"

  "Hey!" Mason interrupts, and I turn to see him walking down the corridor towards me. He is covered in dust, wearing a builder's belt littered with tools, and there is dust in his dark hair. He stops right in front of me, grinning at me like he hasn’t seen me all day when I know he has. I don't even think when I reach up, spreading my fingers through his incredibly soft hair to get the dust out. I lower my hand, shocked with myself, and he only smirks.

  "Thanks, it was a messy day," he playfully replies.

  "No problem," I say, my voice a little higher pitched than I wanted it to be. I mentally sigh as I turn back to Estelle, whose smile is borderline cheesy.

  "See you tomorrow, guys. Have a good night," she tells us before winking at me and walking off. I can't help the smile on my lips as I turn back to Mason.

  "Are you ready?" he asks, and I nod, walking down the corridor at the same pace he does, our hands brushing each other ever so slightly with each step. "How was your first day then?"

  "I helped deliver a baby, fed two older people their dinner and helped them get changed, and finally, I cleaned up a kid's cut hand from when he fell out of a tree," I tell him. Saying it out loud seems crazy. I never expected to get such hands-on experience on my first day and actually enjoy doing it.

  "Sounds busy," he chuckles as we get to the front door, and he holds it open for me to walk out first.

  "How was yours, Mr. Builder?" I ask. I don't know why I decide to give him a nickname, but as I keep referring to him as Mr. Builder in my head, it was bound to slip out at some point.

  "Full of dust and bricks. Nothing special to tell," he replies as he unlocks the blue Jeep parked out front. I slide into the passenger seat after opening the door and wait for Mason to do the same before he starts the engine and drives us home. There is light country music playing from the stereo, and I stare at it, trying to figure out if it’s the radio or a CD. I guess CD after the song changes straight to the next one.

  "How come there is no internet or signal here? Do you guys have a TV at the cabin?" I ask Mason, needing to know this. I have Sunday off, so I hope I can make Sunday night into my new movie night.

  "We don't actually know why this place is a dead zone for signal of any kind, but it is. I stopped trying to use my phone after about a week. We do have a TV though; it's in the basement which I’m guessing you haven’t been shown yet. It doesn't have TV channels on it, but we have a pretty decent collection of movies. Liam loves movie night every week and usually gets a new DVD from the shop to watch every week," he tells me. My kind of guy.

  "How do the shops get things imported?" I ask, curious how it all works.

  "One truck comes in and out every morning with what is needed. Once a month five trucks come with a bigger load," he says and pulls his eyes off the road for a moment to look at me. "If you are thinking of escaping that way, don't bother. Those trucks are scanned at the entrance and checked over at least three times."

  "I wasn't asking to escape, don't look so worried. I'm not an idiot," I reply, seeing his worried smile.

  "I know you're not, but I understand the need to get back home to your family. It makes you act differently than you would usually do," he says, holding on tightly to the steering wheel.

  "If I were going to escape, I think asking Hex to fly me out of here would be the best plan. Just so you know," I say, and he laughs. I’ve thought about it more than once.

  "Not the worst plan I’ve ever heard, but Hex won't leave without me. I won't leave without Liam and Alex, and Hex can't carry them all," he says. Clearly, I’m not the only one that has thought of the idea.

  "Dammit, my master plan is ruined. I will have to come up with a plan B," I joke, and he grins.

  "When you do, let me know it. I'm good at planning," he jokes, but the look he gives me suggests maybe he isn’t at all joking.

  "Okay, Mr. Builder," I quietly reply.

  "I like the nickname. I can't remember the last time someone gave me one," he says and reaches over with one hand to grab mine. He only squeezes my hand once before letting go and focusing on the drive home. I hum along to the music as I watch out the window until we get to the cabin, where Raine is leaning against her car outside. She looks ready for a night out, and I suddenly remember her promise to take me out to meet her boyfriends. I could use a night out after a long day.

  "What does she want?" Mason asks, pulling up the car, staring at her like she’s about to rob his house.

  "Me. We are going out," I explain, and Mason groans, seeming less than impressed.

  "You sure know how to make your friends, Ana," he says.

  "What is that supposed to mean?" I ask. Raine seems harmless.

  "Nothing." He gives me a one-word answer before getting out the car.

  14

  Food, drink and music. What could go wrong?

  Anastasia

  "Ana!" Raine calls me as I walk over, Mason sticking close to my side which doesn’t seem to escape Raine's notice from the little look she gives me. I look over at the cabin, seeing the lights on inside and wondering if Alex is home. I doubt he would let Raine in the house. I still can’t stop thinking about what his animal might be. I should ask Mason when we get a moment alone.

  "Hey, Raine," I say, stopping right in front of her and taking in her similar outfit from yesterday. Jeans, black coat and a white top underneath. Her red hair is down now, falling in messy but smooth curls. It suits her to have her hair down.

  "Are you ready to go? The twins have gone ahead and gotten us a table at the best place to eat in the empire," she tells me, and I grin. Now I’m really excited. There is going to be food. I feel like I could eat a cow with how hungry I am.

  "Yeah—"

  "I'm coming with you. Give me two minutes to get changed," Mason cuts me off before I can answer, and I look up, seeing his frown directed at Raine before he storms off into the cabin, leaving the door open.

  "What crawled up his ass and made itself at home?" Raine bluntly asks, and I can't help but chuckle at her comment.

  "I don't know," I say, shrugging. I watch Raine's eyes widen at something behind me just before I get that feeling Shadow is close, and I turn around to see him running out of the woods, straight at me. He effortlessly slows himself down until he halts right in front of me. "Hey, Shadow." Shadow rubs his head against me, looking over at Raine for a moment before stepping back. "I'm going out for the afternoon for a meal, you should stay with Silver and Hex in the house where it is warm." Shadow huffs but looks o
ver with me at the door just as Silver goes inside. I can see the hesitation in Shadow's eyes as he stares down at me, but he finally bows his head and runs inside the house.

  "I'm impressed. You have such control and respect between yourself and Shadow already. It took me well over a month to get Kiwi to follow an order like that," she explains to me, her eyes running over me like she can’t figure out how I did it.

  "Really?" I ask.

  "It's the same for everyone," she says. "It takes time to form a bond of trust."

  "I trust Shadow already, maybe that is it?" I ask.

  "He trusts you back, it seems, but sharing power is a true test," she says and turns around to pull the door open to the driver's side. "Let's wait in the car where it isn't so cold."

  "Good idea," I reply, walking around the car to the passenger side and getting in.

  "What do you do for work, Raine?" I ask her after she turns the car on to warm up the engine, I suspect.

  "I study with my dad to take over when he retires," she tells me, "which equates to lots of paperwork and boring stuff. I will be happy when he chooses four new leaders to replace the ones that died. None of them had children...so at the moment, it's just me and dad running this entire place."

  "When will he choose new leaders? Will there be a test or something?" I ask.

  "No, he will decide before the end of the year. I'm pretty sure Estelle is looking like one of the leaders and Mason. Dad thinks he is too young though, even though he is a good leader and manages his job extremely well," she tells me just as Mason comes out of the cabin. He has brushed his hair, leaving no dust in sight. His deep red shirt is ironed with a few buttons undone that show a little chest. He has black trousers on that the shirt is tucked into and, holy gods, he is attractive.

  "You have a little drool right there," Raine teases, pointing at my bottom lip, and I scowl at her, knowing I'm not really drooling. I do a casual wipe across my mouth as Mason gets in the car, just in case.