by Caris Roane
When the wolf rushed him again, Grant levitated, flipped through the air and came down behind him. He used both arms to encase the wolf’s neck then twisted with a firm, familiar grip.
The resulting crack sent the wolf crumpling to the ground.
“Need help over here.” An unfamiliar woman’s voice called to him.
Grant remembered the gunshot, but he’d thought Ryan or one of his other fellow officers had come to the rescue.
As he turned, he saw that his back-up warrior was fae, the last thing he’d expected. She was bent over the mauled woman.
He rushed to help. Blood still oozed from dozens of deep bites and tears. His rescuer stripped off her leggings, wadded them up, then used them to pack what was no doubt the worst of the wounds on the victim’s abdomen.
Grant knew what he had to do. He scooped her up and flew her straight into the air. The other woman, her gun in hand, tracked beside him. Her voice was suddenly in his head. Do you know Kiara’s refuge in Revel?
Yep. That’s where we’re headed. He had the fae pressed tight against his chest to hold the packing in place. He could feel the warmth of her blood oozing everywhere, especially on his chest. How was she still alive?
His battle-mate spoke again, I’m contacting one of the nurses now. They’ll be ready for us.
Grant flew damn fast and was surprised the woman could keep up. What’s your name?
Natalie McKinnon. Yours?
Grant. Officer Davis Grant of the Savage Border Patrol.
I’ve heard good things about you.
He crossed one more rise of houses and a strip center appeared. Waiting in the parking lot was the refuge medical team with a gurney. He dropped down fast. Two of the members moved quickly out of the way to give him room. He wasn’t a small man.
He laid the woman on the gurney but kept his hand pressed to the packing against the abdominal wound.
Natalie explained things quickly. Hands moved in to replace his. He felt a grip on his arm. Natalie spoke close to his ear. “They’ve got her. You can let her go now. You did good.”
With difficulty, he released the woman.
He rose upright as the team hurtled the gurney into the refuge and down the long hall. His feet followed as though having a mind of their own. Natalie held his arm and stayed with him. She was holding onto him tight, which surprised him. She probably wasn’t used to battle.
A nurse hurried up to them and took his other arm which also surprised him.
Suddenly, he was dizzy as hell, and he stumbled, but the women held him upright. “We’ve got you,” Natalie said.
Her words didn’t make sense. Maybe both women needed emotional support. One thing about being at alpha-level in his pack, over the years he’d gained a better understanding of women.
He didn’t know why, but suddenly he started feeling light-headed and his vision began to fade at the edges. When another gurney appeared, some instinct had him hurtling toward it.
One thought went through his mind. Oh, shit. Some of the blood was mine.
Then he passed out.
~ ~ ~
“He didn’t know he was wounded,” Natalie explained to the nurse now tracking the gurney on his right side.
“I figured. These big wolves never know when to quit.” It was more a statement than a criticism.
“It’s a good thing. If Officer Grant hadn’t carried her here, I know I couldn’t have done it. I’m grateful beyond words he made it this far.”
When he’d picked the woman up off the ground, Natalie had almost stopped him. He was bleeding profusely from a deep cut in the well of his right shoulder and he was horribly pale.
But he was also pumped from battle. She’d seen it before. Adrenaline could do amazing things, like blocking pain and keeping a warrior upright. Besides, what had their options been? Zero, if he’d fallen. The fae would have died. Officer Grant might have as well. Now both of them had a chance.
So, she’d flown beside him and kept sending up prayers to an alter God she wasn’t sure existed, hoping Grant would be able to make it all the way. Funny the things you do and think when you’re desperate.
Two nurses worked on Grant. One set him up quickly with an IV of wolf blood. In their alter condition, blood-type didn’t matter. The other nurse used a big-ass needle and quickly started setting stitches in his shoulder. Natalie helped since some suction was needed. The artery had been nicked, hence the level of blood loss, but nothing the nurse couldn’t handle. The refuge doctor was busy with the near-dead fae. Emergency room tactics were down and dirty.
Even so, Grant was in excellent hands.
When he began to pink-up, though he wasn’t yet conscious, Natalie moved to the other bay to check on the victim.
The team was still working on her and had IV’s in both arms. The doctor was closing the abdominal damage. Alter medical assistance was very different from the human world. The alter transformation gave long life as it stripped the humanity out of each person. Alters could self-heal and viruses and germs were rarely an issue.
Blood loss, however, was a different matter. The woman was deathly pale. Healing from this kind of mauling was almost always impossible.
Movement to her right shifted Natalie’s gaze. A witch entered the facility on quick, levitated flight. Natalie knew her well. Emma had a facility in Elegance that took in all kinds of strays. Someone had called her in to help.
The different alter species that worked in a variety of refuges and shelters were a loose network. Each territory had several, staffed with people determined to save lives while working against way too many people intent on taking them.
Their world was a mess.
“She’s in here.” Natalie lifted her arm and gestured to the bay, though it was hardly necessary. The blinds were open, and the level of activity was visible from the distant, front entrance.
Emma rushed in. The team made way for her to pass to the head of the table. She placed her hands on top of the woman’s head and let her healing ability flow.
Even in her unconscious state, the woman released a sigh as though her body recognized that the right kind of help had come at last.
Emma was an amazing woman, with beauty to match. She had long, thick auburn hair. The front part was pulled into a top knot that seemed to suit her, while the rest cascaded to her waist. Her eyes were a lovely green.
Natalie?
For a moment, Natalie didn’t recognize the masculine voice in her head. When she realized it was Grant, she left the bay and moved next door. His eyes were open, and his color was much better.
“You rang?” she asked.
His answering smile was weak.
She shifted to stand at the foot of his bed. A second nurse wiped the blood off his arms and chest. Because he was naked from the waist up, and the crisis had passed, Natalie blinked a couple of times. Her thoughts grew completely inappropriate.
Damn, he’s built. Grant had muscles on muscles.
Of course, most of the Border Patrol officers were constructed on powerful lines, especially the wolves.
Natalie ordered her thoughts and lifted her chin slightly. She would rise above her unhelpful lust. Grant was a wolf. The last thing she’d ever do was get involved with a wolf. Every fae cell of her body did a twist of revulsion even at the thought of it.
“How’s she doin’?” He asked. His voice had a gravelly, masculine edge that hit her at the back of her knees.
Wolf. Remember, he’s a wolf.
She steeled herself and finally responded, “Still touch and go, but Emma is here. Do you know her?”
His lips quirked. “Emma and Officer Vaughn run a teen shelter in Elegance. Everyone worth a damn knows Emma.”
“Couldn’t agree more.” She smiled. There was way too much to like about this man.
The monitor in the next room suddenly hit that horrible flat-line sound.
Before Natalie could stop him, Grant had pushed the sheet back and moved to sit up on the sid
e of the bed. There he stopped and planted his hands on the mattress edge. He was white-knuckling it and probably trying not to pass out again. What did he hope to gain?
The nurse tried to get him to lie back down, but he lifted a hand that had an imperious edge. She drew back and stayed silent. He shifted his gaze to Natalie.
“Check on her.”
It was half command, half plea.
Natalie stepped around the corner and restrained a gasp. The woman’s complexion was white, a terrible juxtaposition to the blue flames on her skin. She was dying.
Natalie met Emma’s gaze. Emma shook her head.
Natalie’s eyes burned suddenly. This woman couldn’t die, not when she and Grant had worked so hard to save her.
She felt compelled to do something.
Natalie opened up her faeness and aligned herself with the immediate future. Several cramps attacked her spine. She pressed on. What she saw there, startled her but gave her hope at the same time. She returned to Grant.
“You have to come with me.” She drew close, took his arm beneath the elbow and gave tug. “Lean on me if you have to. We have only seconds to save her, to bring her back. I don’t know why, but she’s important to Five Bridges.”
He nodded and rose to his feet. He switched to telepathy. I feel it, too.
She shifted to his opposite side and grabbed his IV stand. He moved slowly, working hard to keep his balance. The nurse caught his other elbow and as a unit they began to move.
When they reached the other room, all the techs had stopped working. Everyone stared down at the woman.
Natalie urged Grant to get close to the bed. She then took his hand and had him touch the woman’s ankle, which is what she’d seen in the future. Because she retained her hold as well to make sure the contact took place, she could feel a ripple of energy pass from his body to the woman. It was the strangest thing she’d ever experienced.
Natalie stared at the monitor.
A second passed, then another.
A blip erupted into the small space.
Gasps fluttered around the bed.
Emma murmured, “Thank God,” then returned her hands once more to the top of the woman’s head.
Grant leaned forward and covered both ankles with his hands.
His voice entered Natalie’s mind. I don’t understand. I’m not a healer.
It’s not so much about healing as connection. I think she trusted you because of what happened in the Graveyard and needed to feel the connection in order to live. For all I know, she may have been hunting for you just now, in the afterlife.
What a strange world we live in.
Yes. It is.
She glanced at him and met his gaze. His eyes were an unusual shade of gold and green with small shards of brown. They were exquisite. Maybe they were his wolf’s coloring. She knew some wolves’ eyes changed color.
The blips on the monitor grew closer together. Steadier.
He shifted his gaze toward it. “She’s getting stronger.”
Emma spoke, “Your touch brought her back. She was gone, Grant. I promise you. She was gone.”
“It’s a miracle,” one of the nurses said.
Emma asked, “How did you know to touch her?”
“I didn’t. Natalie did.” He glanced at her and dipped his chin.
Emma smiled at Natalie. “Well, then, how did you know?”
“I accessed the immediate future and saw Officer Grant just like this, or rather I saw us.” She glanced down at her hand. One of hers still covered his. The truth was, she feared letting go. She didn’t want the woman to slip away again, but she had no idea how long they should remain as they were or even if her involvement mattered.
“She’s safe now,” Emma said as though answering the unasked question. “You can see by the wounds. Many of them have finally started to heal. They weren’t before.”
Natalie’s gaze was drawn to several of the cuts that had been left open to the air. Emma directed the nurse to start pulling back the gauze on some of the larger wounds and it was the same everywhere. Emma’s healing abilities were now having a profound affect.
Natalie withdrew her hand from on top of Grant’s, but he didn’t break contact with the victim. Maybe he sensed the woman still needed the connection.
~ ~ ~
Grant felt better as well. Maybe he was experiencing a residual effect of Emma’s care for the woman. Or maybe it was the additional wolf’s blood flowing through his veins. He would need to return the favor and give a donation of his own to the refuge in the coming weeks. The least he could do.
Natalie believed this woman was important to Five Bridges, though she didn’t know why.
Within a few minutes, he experienced a conviction he could now withdraw his touch from the woman. Emma truly was gifted and most of the cuts on her arms and legs and were completely gone.
The more serious abdominal wound might require another full day of healing to see her completely restored. He had to agree; the whole thing was a miracle.
As he backed away from the bed, Natalie moved with him.
The nurses began to bathe the woman and it no longer seemed appropriate to be looking at her mostly naked body. One of the nurses must have felt the same way, since she drew the curtain to conceal the bed from view.
He moved close to the wall opposite the emergency bay to allow traffic to move easily. He no longer felt like he would faint again, though he kept one hand planted on his IV stand.
The refuge had close to thirty employees and there was still quite a bit of activity even though the early morning hours were closing in on dawn.
“So, you’re a wolf.”
He glanced at Natalie and his lips quirked. “Seems I am. And you’re fae.”
“Hopelessly.”
Her response made him chuckle.
When a nurse drew near and began unhooking him from the IV, he stole a glance at the woman who had saved his ass in the Graveyard.
She was lovely. That was the exact word that went through his head. She had a light complexion and a faint pink bloom on her cheeks. Even her lips had a rosy color. Her eyes were large, hazel and fringed with dark lashes.
Her long and curly, light brown hair was scattered everywhere like a wind had come up or at the very least a battle with three rogue wolves. Yet it suited her face and the light in her eyes. She wore a patterned silk tunic in teal and violet shades. She no longer wore her holster.
He realized with a start that if he’d been in his human form, he would have asked for her number. As it was, he’d no more date a fae woman than he’d put his boots on the wrong feet. He didn’t have anything against her kind, some of his good friends were fae Border Patrol officers. But he was one solid dominance fight away from taking over the Meldorin Pack and wresting it from the worst alpha wolf ever born. He wanted a female wolf for his alpha-mate. A fae was not even on the farthest reaches of his radar.
Still, he kept looking at her. “You’re a good shot and you saved my life. I don’t know if I could have handled all three wolves once they shifted.”
“You were wounded as well. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d make it to the refuge.”
He chuckled. “I couldn’t figure out why, if I had the victim’s abdominal wound held tight against my stomach, I kept feeling all this blood flowing down my chest and under my arm. One of the wolves had a blade.”
“I figured.”
He narrowed his gaze. “You aren’t with the Border Patrol or the Tribunal Law Enforcement service, are you? Because I’m sure I’ve met everyone.”
“No, I’m not.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Then, why were you even out there, with a weapon? When I heard the shot, I thought it was one of my pack-mates or a fellow officer.”
She looked away, her softly-arched brows high on her forehead. “As to that, it seems your wife, I mean her spirit, showed up at my studio, in the middle of a futurist session, and told me to get my ass out to the Graveyard.”
<
br /> His wife? Renee? He didn’t understand. “My wife?” His voice had dropped almost to a whisper. How many times had he begged for her to pay him a ghostly visit? Six years ago, when she died, he’d spent a small fortune with deadtalkers trying to bring her back, to have one last conversation with her, to apologize for not being able to save her.
Yet, here she was somehow involved in saving a fae female from a Graveyard mauling.
“Well, she said she was your wife. I had no reason not to believe her. She had an attitude, real no-nonsense. I liked her.”
“Sounds like Renee.”
“Sorry for your loss.”
“It was a long time ago. Six years now.”
She remained standing beside him, shoulder to shoulder. They faced the drawn curtain of the emergency bay. He could hear voices now and was pretty sure the victim was awake and talking, if quietly.
“Are they here?” the woman asked. “I want to thank them.”
Natalie pushed away from the wall. He followed suit.
Emma appeared from behind the curtain and waved them close. In a quiet voice, she said, “She’s come around, but she’s very weak and traumatized. She’ll need rest. Just let her lead the conversation. She might need to talk.”
He and Natalie each nodded.
Emma drew the curtain back slowly. The top of the bed had been raised so that the woman was no longer flat on her back. She was covered in a soft, blue blanket as well. She had long, rust-colored hair and light blue eyes. “My name is Talya and I understand together you brought me in from the Graveyard.” A smile quavered on her lips. Blue flames still appeared on her neck and cheeks.
“We did,” Natalie said.
“How are you feeling?” Grant asked.
Her smile broadened. Grant had a sudden sense of a tender, kind spirit. He hated the thought that wolves had done this to her. Rage worked at the edges of his mind, but he pushed it back. She didn’t need to see the resulting wolf-sign if he got mad. He’d sprout fur in a few places and his maw would elongate.
He forced himself to take a sustained, deep breath.
Talya’s gaze became fixed to his. “I know I died, at least for a moment. But there was a woman waiting for me with long blond hair. She kept shoving at me with both hands. She didn’t understand that I wasn’t there to leave Five Bridges. I think I was looking for you.”
