by Cheree Alsop
Officer Ling nodded. “You did, especially when that gargoyle about flattened you. Not to mention the fact that I’m pretty sure you were knocked unconscious when you hit the cement after flying out the second story window….”
Aleric held up a hand. “I lived it. You don’t have to describe it to me. I would definitely rethink my strategy if I went in there again.”
“How so?”
“I would have a strategy,” Aleric concluded.
Officer Ling laughed as he pulled into the back parking lot of the hospital under Aleric’s directions.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t know any of us who could have handled them. I’m guessing the Mayor will be a bit more considerate to your cause after what you did.” He helped Aleric get the goblins out of the car and handed them over with a look of disgust. “Seems like a poor reward for your day’s work.”
“If they save lives, it’s worth it,” Aleric told him.
Officer Ling pulled something out of his pocket. “I almost forgot. The Mayor asked me to get this back to you.”
Aleric accepted the envelope of money Dr. Worthen had given him. “Thanks.” He hefted the goblins and made a face. “I doubt I’ll be buying dinner for a while.”
Officer Ling smiled. “Can’t say I blame you.” He walked back around to the driver’s side. “We’ll have an officer drop off the other car.”
“I appreciate it,” Aleric told him.
He watched the officer pull away and gave a shake of his head.
“This day keeps getting stranger,” he said. He went to push the door with his shoulder, then remembered the incident with Dartan. He pulled the door open and stepped inside.
“It’s about time you got here!” Gregory said the moment he entered the hallway. “You’re all over the news! You’ve got to come see this. Everyone’s watching!”
Aleric followed him up the hallway. He had forgotten he was carrying the goblins until he entered the breakroom and Therese screamed. Everyone who had been watching the television jumped and looked to see what had startled her.
Aleric held up the goblins apologetically. “Sorry. I forgot about these.”
“They’re terrifying,” Therese said. She hid behind Gregory. “I don’t want to get bit.”
“Don’t worry. Officer Ling stunned them. They should be out for a while,” Aleric replied. “Though I don’t think tranquilizing them would be a bad idea. I don’t know how long they’ll be out.”
“I’ve got them,” Dartan said.
He crossed the room looking far better than when Aleric had left him, though the vampire’s skin was still a patchwork of burns and he walked as though he had aged fifty years.
“You should be sleeping,” Aleric told him.
“I feel a lot better,” Dartan replied, accepting the goblins. “Besides, after what I’ve seen, you should be the one in the hospital bed.”
Aleric followed his gaze to the television.
“We thought he was dead for sure!” a man with buzzed hair told the reporter. “But when they lifted up the monster, the werewolf acted just fine. He even went back inside to fight the rest of them!”
“There you have it,” a reporter in a windblown suit told the camera. “Dr. Wolf singlehandedly saved our Mayor and government officials from four monsters we have been told are called gargoyles. More footage keeps coming in. We’ll give you a rundown of what happened.”
The camera switched to recordings of the battle as seen from outside the Capitol Building.
“You’re lucky you’re not dead,” Dr. Worthen said, his arms folded across his chest.
“He’s right,” Nurse Eastwick told Aleric. “You need to be more careful.”
Aleric watched a recording of him flying out the window on top of the gargoyle. The creature turned to stone as it fell. It hit the ground and Aleric was thrown. The bruises along his back from landing on the steps throbbed. He had to agree with Nurse Eastwick.
“I went back to get Gregory’s car,” he explained. “I got ambushed by the Mayor’s friendly bodyguards.”
“The Mayor asked you to fight the gargoyles?” Therese asked in surprise. “Last thing I saw online, she was calling for your head.”
Aleric nodded. “I’m hoping this helps with relationships a bit.”
“What are they going to do with the gargoyles?” Dartan asked.
Aleric looked at his friend. “They’re bringing them here, actually. I figured we could come up with a way to keep them in stone form until we can open the Rift. I was thinking that with the UV lamps Tranquility rigged in the Light fae room—”
Dartan took up the idea, “We can keep them stone even at night. That’s brilliant!”
“I have my moments,” Aleric replied.
Dartan hefted the goblins. “I’ll go extract the serum from these. Get some rest. You look like a gargoyle landed on you.”
“Very perceptive,” Aleric said as the vampire left the room.
“I’ve got patients to attend to,” Dr. Worthen told him. “They have your heroics on a loop. You should keep watching. They’re turning you into the face of the fae. It might help your friends have a better shot at not getting shot.” He winked at Aleric and left the room.
Nurse Eastwick handed him a white to-go box with the word ‘Minnow’s’ written across the top. Aleric could smell the chicken cordon bleu sandwich inside. “Eat up.”
“Thanks,” Aleric said with gratitude. “I have money, thanks to Dr. Worthen. I can pay for things now.”
She waved her hand as she left through the door. “Don’t worry about it. Dr. Worthen has you on the same feeding schedule as he is so you don’t drop down dead. And yes, I mean to make you both sound like barnyard animals. You’re going to start smelling like one if you don’t take a shower. Sponge baths in the bathroom don’t count. Gregory, Therese, I need your help with the goblin tests.”
“See you, Dr. Wolf,” Therese said, giving him a big smile. “You’re amazing.”
Gregory held the door open for her. He paused before following.
“My car?” he asked with a hint of hesitation.
“It’s fine,” Aleric told him. “The police will be bringing it back shortly.”
The orderly stared at the werewolf. “The police? Why?”
Aleric thought of the Archdemon and everything else that had happened since he borrowed the orderly’s car. “It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in sometime. But thank you for letting us borrow it. It’ll be as good as new when it’s returned.”
Gregory gave a relieved smile. “Alright. Thanks.”
A thought occurred to Aleric. “Oh, Greg.”
The red-head poked his head back through the door. “Yes, Doc?”
Aleric brought out the envelope and withdrew most of the money. He left in enough he figured would cover a few replacement shirts and some meals, then held out the rest. “For your ring fund.”
Gregory’s mouth fell open. He looked from the money to Aleric.
“Dr. Wolf, that’s too generous. I can’t ask you to do that!”
“You haven’t asked,” Aleric replied. “It’s more than I need, and I can tell she’s worth it. I’m happy to do whatever I can to help you get that much closer to your dreams.”
Gregory crossed back to the couch Aleric leaned against. On his face was a dazed expression. He accepted the money as though he barely saw it.
“A-are you sure, Doc? You really don’t have to.”
“I want to,” Aleric told him. “You both deserve to be happy.”
Gregory put the money in his wallet with as much care as though the few hundred dollar bills were thousands. Aleric watched him leave, then sat back on the couch with a satisfied sigh. He opened the to-go container and took out the sandwich. He took a bite and another sigh escaped him.
“How can something taste so good?” he mused.
“Will this improve relations with the fae?” the reporter on the television was saying. “Can Dr. Wolf’s heroics help the citizens of E
dge City be less afraid of this strange flood of creatures? Can this one fearless werewolf be enough to protect us against the new dangers we’re finding outside our doors?”
Aleric pushed the channel button. The television flipped to a new station.
It showed a man holding up a book entitled ‘When Fairytales Attack- A Professional’s Opinion on the Fae Outbreak’.
“In answer to your question, Amy, I do feel that this supposed doctor could in fact do more harm than good,” a man with salt and pepper hair and a monotone voice said. “If we allow ourselves to fall into a false sense of security, we are only setting ourselves up for more terror. That is what spurred me to write this book so quickly, and what’s driving it to fly off the shelves as fast as any store can keep it in stock. Who knows what lurches in the shadows?”
The blonde-haired woman sitting next to him asked, “But Dr. Jeagerson, do you believe in the possibility of an alliance between these fae creatures and our citizens? Has Dr. Wolf’s selfless actions given us reason to trust him?”
The doctor’s face took on an even more flat expression if possible. “No, I don’t, Amy. First of all, I feel that the werewolf’s actions were calculated. For all we know, he put the gargoyles in the Capitol Building in the first place.”
“He nearly got killed,” Amy pointed out with an incredulous look. “You can’t tell me he expected that to happen.”
The man smiled, but the expression was entirely without humor. “It seems you have also fallen beneath the spell of Aleric Bayne’s good looks and projected want to bring peace to our society. It’s a textbook case of Stockholm syndrome.”
She looked completely annoyed at his verdict, but he didn’t allow her to speak.
“We are the captives, and so many have failed to see that this Dr. Wolf, among others, is our captor. You, like so many of your fellow citizens, have fallen for this supposed werewolf knight who has come out of the shadows to save Edge City. But don’t be fooled, Amy.” The man turned his gaze to the camera. “Don’t any of you be fooled. If our biggest ally is a wolf, what’s to say he’s actually not just a wolf in sheep’s clothing?”
“Well, because he’s a wolf, Dr. Jeagerson. We all saw that.” A picture of Aleric in wolf form next to the police officers on the steps of the Capitol Building flashed up on the screen. “He’s not pretending to be anything else.”
“Exactly,” the man shot back. “And shouldn’t that make us suspicious?”
Aleric rolled his eyes and turned off the television. As hungry as he had been, he realized he had eaten the entire sandwich without tasting it.
“Great,” he said to himself. “A perfectly good meal ruined by horrible programming.” He stood and carried the container to the garbage can. “He nearly died. Shouldn’t that make us suspicious?” he said in an imitation of the man’s droll voice. “Your breath almost killed me; shouldn’t that make me suspicious?” he asked back, lifting his voice to sound more like the woman who had done the interview.
Feeling frustrated, Aleric pushed open the door. Nurse Eastwick had suggested a shower. That sounded like the very best thing in the world. Aleric had nothing at the moment to do besides go goblin hunting again, and if he didn’t take a break, he was going to fall over. That wouldn’t help the hunting of goblins one bit.
He grabbed a clean set of scrubs from the supply room and made his way to the employees’ locker room. Most of the hospital staff did their showering at their homes, but the locker room was there in case emergencies made long shifts with the inability to run home for a break.
Containers on the walls were labeled ‘shampoo’ and ‘soap’. A basket with folded towels sat in one corner and two discarded towels lay in the bin next to it.
Aleric pulled off his clothes. The movement pulled at his tight back muscles. He glanced in the mirror behind him.
Purple and black lined his skin where he had landed on the concrete steps. Other blotches showed where he had hit the walls and floors compliments of the gargoyles. By the look of things, he was amazed he could move at all. His hand throbbed. He looked at the fang marks on his wrist and the gash along his palm. Fortunately, the fast healing that came from his werewolf heritage was already taking effect. Though the wounds throbbed, it was with a healing ache. With any luck, they would be mostly gone by the next day.
Aleric turned the water as hot as he could stand it and stepped beneath the spray. A sigh escaped his lips. As much as the beat of the water hurt at first, the warmth chased away the pain of his bruises.
Aleric leaned his forehead against the tiled wall and let the water fall on his back. He couldn’t remember the last time he had taken a real shower. Nurse Eastwick was right in her guess that he had scrubbed with paper towels in the bathroom near the D Wing. He hadn’t felt right using the showers without permission, and he didn’t want to jeopardize his position at the hospital by asking for such a luxury.
A shower for the orphaned children in Blays was something they joked about as they scrubbed in the runoff from the mermaid towers. If they were lucky, they found a bit of peppermint soap that had survived its run through the pipes. Because the alleys were usually cold and damp most of the days of the year, the orphans generally put up with the stench of each other until the very warmest days drove even them out to enjoy the chance at getting clean.
After the Fallow Conflict, not showering became a must. With the vampires and demons using tiangou, their long-nosed black hunting dogs, to bring werewolves in, it was necessary to smell like anything but a member of his race. When Aleric turned mercenary, those he served hid his scent with their dark arts to protect him, though he didn’t count the things he had been forced to do as actual protection.
Aleric shied from the dark thoughts. He had patients counting on him and a lot to do if he was going to catch enough goblins to save them all. He had already taken longer than he had planned. Aleric hurriedly washed his black hair which was getting shaggier than he liked and gingerly dried his back with the soft towels. He wished he had a knife to shave the black scruff that was growing on his jaw, but that would have to wait. Dressing in fresh scrubs made him feel more human than he had in a very long time. He tossed the towel in the bin and wandered toward the D Wing. He entered the Dark Fae side and paused.
“You really turned this into your own private laboratory,” he said, staring around at the tables, pile of syringes, the two unconscious goblins on the closest table that had been covered in sterile paper, the gloves, scrubs on hangers, and even a hazards box for the syringes. Aleric glanced at the cage of goblins that hissed and growled from the corner. Another cage had been added.
“I feel like a scientist,” Dartan said. Aleric couldn’t tell if the vampire was smiling behind his doctor’s mask, but it was obvious Aleric’s reaction pleased him. “I figured if you were off catching more goblins, I’d better be able to handle them. Come look.”
Aleric followed him to the cages. Small pieces of the gray tape had been fastened around each goblin’s first claw.
“See. The numbers correspond to the serum samples,” Dartan said. He showed Aleric the table near the far wall. Small syringes, all of which were carefully numbered and set in order, had adjoining scales in tiny glass dishes. “This way if we have a match, we know which goblin did the biting; the antidote is administered, and the victim is cured. Nurse Eastwick provided smaller needles which she said were used for insulin. They’re easier on the patient because the test sample can be so small, and the poke isn’t as painful. We also save a lot of serum that way.”
“Genius,” Aleric said. “Who would’ve known a vampire would turn into a goblin venom specialist?”
“Exactly,” Dartan replied. He pulled down his mask to reveal his pointy-toothed smile. “The things we don’t learn in Blays, right?”
Aleric thought of the wolf in sheep’s clothing comment on the television. “Some things don’t change.”
Dartan gave him a closer look. “What’s going on?”
&nbs
p; Aleric took in the vampire’s exhausted state, the fact that he was working on extracting goblin venom while still healing from his very serious burns, and the hard work he had done in the D Wing. He decided that his issues shouldn’t impact his friend.
“Nothing.” He forced a smile. “Just tired, I guess, but I want to see if the serum is a match for Lilian. I’m worried about how long it’s taken.”
“Me, too,” Dartan replied. “Luckily, I’ve got the samples from the two goblins ready to go. Want to come help?”
“Definitely,” Aleric replied.
Chapter Eleven
Aleric sat in Lilian’s room after Dartan and Dr. Worthen had left. Unfortunately, Lilian hadn’t responded to either of the sample serums. She lay unmoving in the bed, the monitor beeping along with her heartbeat in a rhythm that was slower than ever. Her chest barely rose and fell enough to move the sheets. The worry on her father’s face had gripped Aleric’s heart in a tight fist when Dr. Worthen kissed her forehead before leaving the room. Aleric had promised again that he would find the goblin.
Dr. Indley had gone to another clinic to pick up additional tranquilizer guns. Aleric had nowhere to go until she returned. The helplessness he felt in the face of the poison that was slowly claiming Lilian’s life pressed against him from all sides.
He thought of her sparkling blue eyes when he had fumbled over his responses to her questions. She had caught him off guard, and he told her he was a janitor. He didn’t know what made him lie; he could never remember tripping over his tongue so much in the presence of another person. Maybe it was the way she had looked at him, her gaze teasing and compassionate at the same time. Perhaps it was the tip of her head that sent her black hair dancing over her shoulders. Maybe he was just an idiot who saw a girl and completely forgot that he was also a person with the ability to carry on a normal conversation.
Aleric felt like it was the latter. He didn’t know why she had gotten into his head with such a short encounter. There were many other patients in the hospital, and more than a dozen other goblin-bite victims, but yet here he was, moping around her room like some doe-eyed pup.
