by Ashlyn Chase
Sadie nodded toward the cards. Brandee had almost forgotten she needed to draw one. Her hand shook slightly as she reached forward. How would she know which one to choose? She wasn’t psychic.
Brandee withdrew her hand and said, “I can’t. You do it, Sadie.”
Sadie raised her brows but didn’t argue. She pulled a card from the lineup and flipped it over. On it was a heart with three swords piercing it.
Brandee gasped. “Oh my…” There were no words for the fear that sliced through her at that moment.
Sadie was quick to say, “It’s not as bad as it looks. Although at this moment it may mean sorrow and pain, there’s a positive view in the end. Right now there’s upheaval, separation, disruption, and conflict. That’s the worst part. He’s probably worried about you and his not being here to reassure you.
“However, it also means the clearing of the obsolete to make way for what is to come. Establishment of something better. Had the card been upside down, an eventual defeat would be indicated. This card is telling me that, yes, he’s in trouble, but he will overcome this on his own. What you need to do is trust that. Trust him.”
Brandee covered her face with her hands. All she’d heard was that Nick was in trouble and nothing could be done about it.
Sadie placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “It’s going to be all right. You need to believe that.”
Brandee stared at Sadie. “And what if I don’t? Is that going to affect the outcome?”
Sadie paused for several moments, as if trying to choose her words carefully.
“Brandee, dear. What we believe always impacts the energy around us. Look up the law of attraction online or in the library. It may sound odd at first, but think of it this way: it’s one way you can help Nick.”
She hung on that thought. “Okay. I do want to help Nick. So are you saying that the law of attraction will tell me how to do that?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Brandee nodded. At least she could do something to help. “Thanks, Sadie. I owe you one.”
Sadie smiled. “Well, you know what I like as payment for my services.”
Brandee kissed the old woman’s cheek. “One White Russian, coming up.” She waved to Wendy to get her attention and tried to think positive thoughts.
***
Nick was in too much pain to think about finding clothes and going to the police department. He figured the hospital would be less annoyed by a naked man with a bullet in his butt. How he’d explain it would be interesting.
Getting the bullet out right away was important too. Werewolves heal rapidly. He really didn’t want to explain why he’d waited until it was healed over before he sought treatment. He could always ask the police to take his statement at the hospital.
He’d managed to locate the nearest hospital by following the signs, then he shifted outside the emergency room and walked in, covering his genitals with his big hands. Even so, the nurse behind the partition seemed startled and took off.
Great. Just great. She’s probably calling security.
Moments later she returned with a hospital gown, practically threw it at him, and said, “For Pete’s sake! Put this on.”
Nick did as he was told and fastened it in the back.
“I don’t suppose you have your insurance card on you,” she said, smirking.
“You supposed right. I don’t have insurance. I’d say I’ll pay out of pocket, but…”
She finished his thought by rolling her eyes. The woman handed him a clipboard and told him to fill it out, then have a seat in the waiting room.
“I’d rather not sit down. I’ve been shot in the hindquarters.”
“Oh! Let me get the triage nurse to take a look.”
“Aren’t you a nurse?
“No. Just an intake professional.”
“Oh. You seemed blasé enough to be a nurse.”
She snorted. “I’ve seen it all from my little window, mister. I’ll get you in as soon as you fill out the form.”
“Do you think you could hurry? This thing hurts like a mutha.”
Nick felt good about his choice to come to the hospital rather than the police department. He might have been arrested for indecent exposure there. Now he was being treated like a normal naked guy who just happened to walk in with a gunshot wound in his tush.
The triage nurse came out to take a look at his butt, then asked him to follow her before he’d had a chance to fill out the form.
“I’d like to ask someone to call the cops for me. I need to report the bastards who shot me.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We report all gunshot wounds to the police. It’s New York State law. Sherry’s probably calling them now.”
“Efficient,” he said.
She didn’t follow up with any more conversation. Just led him to a room and instructed him to lie on the gurney, facedown, of course.
“Of course,” he said and took the prone position.
She peeled back the gown and said, “It looks like it’s stopped bleeding. When did this happen?”
“Ah…” What would sound realistic? “I don’t know. It was a while before I could locate the hospital, so a couple hours, at least.”
“I’m surprised you’re not moaning in pain.”
“Nah. I’m tougher than I look.”
“I’ll be back with the doctor. In the meantime, keep working on the form.”
He had laid the clipboard on the nearby table, so she handed it to him along with the pen and left him alone with his form.
Let’s see, do I want to give my real name? And what do I use for an address and date of birth? He had to think about that for a while. He and Konrad had been born on December 12, 1912. They had agreed on a more recent year to go with their looks, but was it time to update it? Did he look older than he had thirty years ago?
Crap. This is harder than I thought. He moved on, figuring he’d come back to that stuff. Next of kin. That was easy. He filled in Konrad’s name and phone number. Konrad was his only kin. Their parents, both human, had died long ago, and they’d lost track of any extended family they might have had. He and Konrad had been running away from home at age ten when they came across a pack shifting in the woods under the full moon.
The only reason the pack turned them instead of killing and eating them was because the alpha at the time had stopped them. Stop ruminating, and get the damn form finished.
Name of primary-care physician? None. Insurance? Self pay. Place of work? Self-employed. Okay, now back to the difficult questions.
A partial truth was always easier to admit to than a downright lie, so he wrote down his name as Nicholas Wolf. Close enough.
Again he thought of Brandee. Would she want to keep her maiden name, or would she want to become Mrs. Wolfensen like his sister-in-law Roz had? He shook his head as if to clear it. The crazy things I think about. She might not even want to speak to me when I finally get to talk to her.
Now they wanted his address. He couldn’t use his own. Maybe the bar? He almost laughed out loud as he pictured writing down Boston Uncommon as his address. They’d probably believe he belonged in an asylum since he’d walked in stark naked.
He fudged the rest of the form and hoped no one would check his facts until he was out of there. He signed his fake name with an illegible scrawl and stuck the pen into the gap at the top of the clipboard.
The nurse returned to take his blood pressure and temperature, start an IV, and check his wound again. It had already stopped bleeding, as she’d noted before. Maybe she just wanted another peek at his butt.
“The doctor will be here soon. Hang in there,” she said, and left.
The pain had settled into a dull throb. He hoped the doctor would be able to just dig it out right there in the emergency room instead of scheduling an operating
room for the following day. By then, it would be too late.
Chapter 23
Brandee’s phone finally rang. “Please be Nick, please be Nick,” she chanted, running to the kitchen where she’d left it to recharge.
She grabbed it and didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway, shouting, “Hello,” a little louder than necessary.
“Brandee?”
“Oh, Nick, thank goodness! Are you all right?”
“I will be. I just had a little trouble down here and I thought you might be worried. I wasn’t able to call for a while.”
“Oh, my MIA. Of course I was worried. It’s been two days with no word at all.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. It couldn’t be helped. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.”
“Nick, what did you mean when you said you will be all right? Does that mean you’re not okay right now?”
“Not exactly. I got shot in the ass. Fortunately my hide is pretty tough so the bullet was shallow. Digging it out was painful and the drugs they gave me didn’t work at first. So they gave me more and that knocked me out for quite a while. When I finally woke up, I had to give the police my statement, pick some dudes out of a lineup, and talk to a DA about getting the judge to set no bail. My perp was a flight risk—literally.”
“You were shot in the… Oh, my shit! Where are you now?”
“At a cell phone store. My brother paid for the new phone with his credit card, and he’s wiring me some money so I can get home on the train. I called you as soon as I could.”
“What happened to your phone? And your money?”
Nick’s voice lowered to a whisper. “I had to shift to get away.”
“Away from what? Or who? The dudes in the lineup?”
“Yeah. Like I said, I’ll tell you everything when I get back.”
“I had Sadie do a reading and she said you were in trouble. That was two days ago, and I’ve been going crazy ever since. I wanted to send Kurt and Tory after you, but no one had the faintest idea where to look. Sadie suggested I use the law of attraction to think you into a safe situation, so I borrowed a book to learn how, but it’s easier to read about it than actually do it. I could barely think straight.”
“I’m sorry you were so worried. I’ll make it up to you when I get back. There’s just one thing I need to take care of first, then I’ll come straight to your place. Are you working tonight?”
“Yes. Thank goodness you called. I was so preoccupied last night I kept dropping stuff and couldn’t remember an order to save my life. The night before, I tried to occupy my mind by working in my makeshift darkroom, but I lost track of time and overexposed everything.”
He sighed on the other end of the phone. “I’m afraid my job is going to put me in danger from time to time.”
“Then get a new job.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Nick?”
“I’m here.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask…why do you always call me sweetheart? Not honey or baby.”
“Because you have the sweetest heart I’ve ever seen. People show who they are in a million little ways. An ex-cop notices these things. You’re the one who’ll grab the map from behind the bar and show lost tourists how to get around the city. You always speak up when you talk to Phil because you know he’s hard of hearing. You’ve even taken money out of your tips to help a customer pay her bill when she came up short.”
“Oh. You saw that stuff?”
“Yeah. The fact that you didn’t know anyone was aware is even more telling. You obviously weren’t doing it for brownie points.”
She chuckled. “I’ll never think about ‘brownie points’ in the same way since meeting the cleaning crew.”
“Yeah, they’re worth their weight in Pine Sol. I should go, though. We can talk about everything later. Meanwhile, I told my brother I need some clothes and he wants me to call him as soon as I have something picked out.”
“What? Did you say you need clothes? What are you wearing now?”
“The hospital loaned me some scrubs.”
“Oh.” She chuckled. “I pictured you at the cell phone store stark naked with your hands over your…you know.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s how I walked into the hospital.”
She gasped. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“Oh, my naked ape.”
“Hey. Are you calling me an ape?”
“Hell no. I just say the first thing that pops into my head. Sorry.” She lowered her voice. “Maybe I should have said, ‘Oh my naked wolf.’”
“Or, ‘Oh, my nude model.’”
***
Nick stood opposite his brother in Konrad’s Newton office. Mother Nature’s reaction to humans, especially those who knew about paranormals, had been bothering Nick for some time. He hoped Konrad could shed some light on the subject since his wife was completely human.
If Konrad had met Gaia before, he might know how to handle her. Konrad was always the brains and Nick the brawn.
“Bro, I’ve got to know how you cleared Roz with the Supernatural Council.”
“The what?” Nick’s brother leaned forward and clasped his hands on top of his desk.
“You’ve never heard of GAIA? The Gods and Immortals Association?”
Konrad’s brows knit. “No. Should I have?”
Nick stuck his hands in his pockets and paced. “Shit. I thought the society was just a rumor until I saw its members for myself. You’ve got to swear to keep what I’m about to tell you in the strictest confidence.”
“Of course.”
Nick went on to explain what happened the night Adolf Balog took him to the mysterious building that housed GAIA. He described its paranormal leader, Mother Nature, in detail, including her temperament. Then he shared her threat and ability to carry it out.
In typical Konrad fashion, he seemed to consider what Nick had told him seriously and thoughtfully. Then he nodded and muttered, “Mother Nature seems like a real asshole.”
Nick laughed. That was just the kind of remark he needed. But even though it relieved the tension slightly, he was puzzled about his brother’s lack of knowledge.
“I thought you knew everything about the paranormal world,” Nick said. “Hell, I thought you knew everything about everything.”
“What gave you that idea?”
Nick scratched his head. “Oh, only because you’ve read every book you could get your hands on and seem to know it all.”
“Are you calling me a know-it-all?”
“Kind of.” Nick was quick to add, “In a good way.”
“Well, I knew nothing about this society. And fortunately, they seem to know nothing about me.”
“Lucky you. So you never had to fess up and tell them Roz knows about us.”
“No. Now I’m beginning to wonder why not.”
“Me too. Shit. I had hoped you could tell me how to get in touch with the Council and how you managed to get their approval to marry Roz.”
“Nope. Sorry, Nick.”
“Have you ever wondered why you and I wound up with human mates instead of other wolves?”
Konrad shrugged. “I imagine it’s because we were human in the first place. Had we been born pups of two werewolf parents, we might have had a pack mate.”
Nick nodded. Leave it to his brother to be logical.
“So, getting back to the Council. Where did you meet when Adolf took you to them?”
“Good question. There’s an office building on State Street where they supposedly hang out, but I’ll be damned if I can find the right floor. There was a glass bubble and sky overhead, so you’d think it would be easy to locate, but it’s impossible.”
“Why do you want to get in touch with Mother Nature? It seems
to me you should avoid her.”
“I’d like to get her blessing as far as Brandee is concerned. I know for a fact my mate can be trusted with our secret. I need to make Gaia understand that before I propose. I don’t want Brandee to wind up a widow just because I was too chicken to clear it with a deity.”
Konrad rose and took over pacing for Nick. “I wonder if I’m off the hook or not. My only excuse is ignorance. I couldn’t have told Gaia about Roz since I didn’t know about the existence of the Council back then—thank God—or gods and goddesses, or whomever.” Konrad slapped his brother on the back. “You’re a braver man than I.”
“I was kind of hoping you’d come with me. If I can even find them again.”
Konrad’s jaw dropped. “You want me to face an angry goddess who you pissed off by doing exactly what I did, but somehow I got away with it?”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
***
Nick sought out Adolf Balog before going to the bar to see Brandee. After all this, he wanted to give her some good news.
He walked into the small foyer that housed the buzzers for each apartment. Instead of pressing two for the second floor, he pressed three for where the Balogs lived.
“Yah,” a female voice said.
“Mrs. Balog. I’m looking for Adolf.”
“Adolf? Who are you and what do you want with my son?”
Nick heard Adolf’s voice in the background but couldn’t make out what he said.
“It’s Nick Wolfensen. I need to talk to him.”
Adolf’s voice said, “I’ll be down in one minute.”
Whew. He had the feeling Mrs. Balog wouldn’t let her precious son speak to a werewolf.
A few moments later, the young man opened the door, but instead of letting Nick in, he stepped out and closed the door behind him.
“What can I do for you?”
“You can take me back to GAIA.”
Adolf reared back and started at him. Finally he asked, “Are you sure? I mean, she doesn’t exactly welcome visitors.”
