Black Ghost Runner

by M. Garnet

  Even with this, they could only do so much. Miracles were not on the menu. He could not leave her side, even as the meds worked on her. They had her hooked up to so many machines she had her body immobilized by support devices. The doctors fed her liquids by multiple tubes inserted in both arms and in one ankle. Her pale color was interrupted everywhere with bruises that surround the gashes, pulled by stitches or small strips of tape. Dark circles surrounded her eyes. Her lips were blue, not the deep red he wanted to see.

  He finally felt his pack enter her room. He wanted to be alone with her, but he didn’t mind the support. He heard one of them speak.

  “The doctors want to speak to you, Noble. It is time.”

  He knew what they wanted to say. They had her in an induced coma to help with the healing. It had been too much for her body. She was dying.

  He nodded and got up to lead the way to the end of the hall where there was a unique meeting room. One wall was a waterfall. The family was to sit on soft leather couches with low tables that contained water and wine. Fine linen handkerchiefs were available in several discreet folded sets on the corners of the tables. The doctors could sit in chairs across from them, giving them the good, bad or hopeful news.

  Noble refused to play the game. When he entered the room, one doctor sat in a chair facing the low table across from the couch. Two other doctors sat flanking him, only a bit behind him, showing support. Noble swept the table clean with one stroke. He stepped over it to sit, knee to knee against the doctor.

  His voice was low as he demanded the truth.

  “Can you save her, yes or no?”

  There was only a short silence, then the answer he did not want.

  “No, sir. Her will is strong, but the body is gone. We are so sorry.”

  Before the doctor could say anything else, Noble raised his hand.

  “Can you wake her so that I can talk to her before she dies?”

  The doctor shifted in the seat as if to recede from the touch of Noble’s knees. He looked over his shoulder at one of the others behind him. Noble shifted his attention to that man.

  “Can she be awake?”

  This man began to stammer, then shake his head. Noble was up. He had the man on his feet. Two of his people prevented the other doctors from interfering.

  “Can you bring her to consciousness enough to understand me before she dies? I need to ask her a question.”

  This doctor drew himself up as he pushed against Noble. “You understand this is against our oaths. I will be honest with you. Yes, I can bring her back. There is a small likelihood that she will be able to understand you, but it will hasten her death. She is so close now, and not in pain. If I bring her out of the coma, she will be in pain, and her system will shut down because of it. As I said, it will hasten her death. Yes, you might have a lucid moment or two, but is it really worth her pain?”

  Noble let the man go. “There is something you don’t understand, I can do something that could save her. I have the authority, now wake her.”

  While they moved her to a special room, Noble let his team bring him up to date on the clean up.

  Tern was his right hand, the one Beth thought of as the big guy. He was not sure why that information had come to him from her brain, but at the time they both had smiles. So Tern was the one to bring all the information together.

  “Some of the men in the vehicles that hit us were either killed or injured, but others escaped. They were immediately moved over the embankment to retrieve anyone they could pull from our car that they had pushed beyond the wall. Our second vehicle was able to miss the pile ups and Burd, Tun and Tanny were with us before they could bring up their reserves.” He looked around at the rest, then continued.

  “Because you and I were able to shift, we were safe except for some bruises. You shifted back to get her out to the second vehicle, which got her out of there and to the doctors faster than any ambulance could have done. We killed as many as we could in the confusion of the continued crashes on the highway. Then, we put their bodies into vehicles that we set on fire. We kept two for interrogation. They were good—government men from some obscure project funded by some Senator who we are doing research on to study him further.”

  Someone brought them in coffee. Tern reached for one, taking a small sip of the hot brew before continuing. “Because so many other innocent vehicles ended up in the crash, it will take them a while to get things straightened out. The fact that their men disappeared will make them hesitate. It might give the Senator something to think about.”

  Tanny spoke. If Beth had been awake, she would recognize her as the small woman from Mexico. “So, now it is up to you. Will you turn her?”

  Noble looked at all of them for a long moment. “If it is not too late. If she agrees. You must keep the medicals away once she is awake.”

  Standing in the hall, they knew when she was out of the coma because there were moans, telling them she was conscious. Noble pushed through the doors with speed faster than was humanly possible to be beside her. His people took care of clearing the room, against all protests.

  He was around the bed and gathered her in his arms, feeling her body fighting the pain. He knew the moment she was awake. He’d heard the moans before, now deeper after she woke.

  “Beth, sweet, it’s me.” He kissed her dry lips as the moans came from deep within. Her eyes fluttered.

  He heard her try to talk. “Shhh, sweet one. I know it hurts so much, but if you understand me, try to nod your head, just a little.”

  Her head, too cold against his arm, did nod yes. Her body jerked with pain as he tried to hold her to take some of it into his own system.

  “I am sorry, little one, but I need to tell you the truth so that you can make a choice. Do you understand my words?” Against the palsy that shook her, he felt her faint nod on his arm.

  He slid onto the narrow hospital bed, holding tightly, kissing her cold wet forehead, feeling his own hot tears leaking down.

  “Beth, sweet one, you are dying, there is only one way to save you. The doctors can’t do anything for you. I can, but you may not want it. Please, baby, let me know you hear and understand.” His voice was harsh, but he could do nothing to change it. The emotions and the fears tightened all the muscles in his body. He wanted to shift, he wanted to tear this room apart, this clinic to shambles, to hunt and find the men who had done this so that he could rip his talons into flesh.

  During this time of sitting by her, he had come to know one important thing in this world. She was his mate. For him to lose her now was something he was not ready to endure. He could give up anything, being Alpha, living on the farm, anything but her.

  He felt her head move again. He pulled back, trying to clear his eyes to look at her. Her one open eye, the color reminding him of the forest, green and red brown—on her license it said hazel. Not for him. It was the color of the forest.

  Her dry mouth moved weakly, as no words came out around the tube.

  “No, no, don’t try to talk, just nod your head. We have no time. I can save you by turning you. If I bite you again, if I let my saliva move into your vein, you will become like me, a shifter. It will save you and let you heal, but you will not be human, like you are now. You will be like the people of my farm. You will be a shifter. Do you understand what will happen? I can turn you, or I can let you die now and join those who have gone ahead, waiting for you.”

  Another spasm wracked her and she nearly jerked out of his grasp. “Please nod yes, if you want me to change you.” He held his hand against her cheek, praying to every god he had ever heard of. At last, the one eye looked deeply at him. He felt her head go up, then down.

  He only had seconds. He was ready to shift, so he had to reach that important vein in her neck when he was in his animal form. He knew he was strong. He could shift faster than anyone, but the seconds it took to change, then find that vein that was now so weak, were so important.

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nbsp; He knew his tribe would keep everyone away because he would make a noise that anyone could hear throughout the building when he took her blood and give her his venom. Still he wasn’t sure if it was too late. She was so weak, her body was so damaged, especially the spine.

  He not only needed to turn her, he needed to help her shift in order to give her a chance to heal. It was all a great risk with a small chance of survival—but her only chance.

  Epilogue

  Noble watched her through his golden eyes, from under the pine tree where he crouched, silently invisible in the shadows. She was in the sun, chasing birds, not really trying to catch them, just testing her healing muscles, leaping in the air, like a kit.

  She was a beautiful, mutant cat, almost as large as he was, her fur a mixture of warm brown with golden tips on the ends. Wherever the folds of her skin came together in a winkle of fur, the gold tips gathered. They actually made a flash of bright color that seemed to reflect the sunlight itself.

  Even though he couldn’t see them from here, he knew that in this form, her eyes were the strange green of the forest, with her fur the color of the warm brown that would be in her eyes when she was in her human form.

  He thought of a different set of eyes that he had seen in the dark of night as he straddled a fat, out of shape Senator who was asleep in his bed in Georgetown, Washington. He could have killed the man without waking him, but he needed to have the man look into his eyes. He needed the man to see death, to understand all the people that had died at the Senator’s mistaken orders.

  After his team had taken out the security squad at the mansion, he had shifted. He stalked up onto the bed. With enough light in the room for the man to see, he had put his feet on both sides of the man, then placed a heavy paw on the chest, pressing down until the man woke up, gasping first for breath and then in fear.

  It was just as well that he couldn’t talk in his shifted form. A deep growl was all it took to tell the man what was going to happen. The man had screamed like a teenage girl in a scary movie until he stopped the process with one sharp swipe. Done and done.

  He watched a very pleasant sight. He let rumble a different type of growl, looking around. He had marked her many times. He had marked this area as soon as they shifted, but he was still on the defensive against any male that might approach her. Beth was his mate and he was the Alpha.

  About the Author

  Many would call M. Garnet one of those Grande Dames who has led a long and exciting life and must now sit in comfort with a secret smile as those around her are extremely polite and careful with their language and sexual innuendos.

  Married 31 years to a Soldier of Fortune (oops we were not suppose to tell anyone what he did, but he is dead now so what the hell), her lovers included a professional Golfer, a highly successful nightclub owner and of course a sports bookie. She traveled to most countries and still plays poker, although now she prefers it from her small office, surrounded by her Mac, her PC and her flat screen Sony with Cayo, her King Charles Spaniel, begging for attention.

  Her long and interesting life, from childhood on an old-fashioned farm in Kentucky, through foundries and automobile assembly plants, running an International Engineering Consulting Company, has all given her a wealth of detail to draw from to add to the background of the stories she puts on her ‘puters.

  She can be reached at mgarnet2@yahoo.com, or try her web site at www.mgarnet.com