Dr. Wolf, the Fae Rift Series Book 1- Shockwave (2 page)

He paused with his hands on the doors, his sharp gaze jerking from the nurse to Aleric and then to the form on the bed.

“Nurse Eastwick, explain.”

The nurse looked at Aleric. He could see it on her face. Her job rested on the words that came out of her mouth next. She lowered her gaze.

“This patient said we could save the girl if we took her to sunlight. She was dying, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to try.” She pushed back a strand of blonde hair that had escaped her bun. “I’m sorry, Dr. Worthen.”

“Sorry?” Dr. Worthen replied. He stepped forward and the doors swung shut behind him. “I don’t even know what to say, Loreen. You endangered the life of a patient by taking her away from the medical team. I don’t know what you were thinking!”

Aleric stepped forward so that he blocked the doctor from reaching the nurse or fairy.

Dr. Worthen stopped short. “Who are you?”

Aleric crossed his arms. “Aleric Bayne, werewolf. I won’t let you touch either of them if you mean to harm them.”

The doctor looked from Aleric to the nurse behind him. “Did he just say werewolf?”

Aleric saw the nurse shrug out of the corner of his eye.

“Do you have a problem with werewolves?” Aleric asked, his voice flat. “Let me guess, there’s been a rabies outbreak you’re trying to pin on the local wolf pack? Or better yet, fleas are abounding and the werepanthers don’t want to take responsibility as usual? I’d respond with a flea collar joke, but I can tell by your expression that you’ve either heard them all or you’re about to tell me that you don’t believe in the fae folk either.”

Dr. Worthen shook his head, his gaze wary as though he suspected he was dealing with a crazy person. “I don’t believe in werewolves or any other ‘fae folk’, as you called them. This is a hospital, and a very busy one at that. I don’t have time for games or delusional patients. Come with me and we’ll see that you get the care you obviously need.”

Aleric blew out a breath through his nose. The day was getting stranger than he could account for.

Humans in Blays had a tendency to be obstinate toward those fae considered Ashstock, the term given to the races of the fae that could sway either to the Light or Dark. Because of his race, Aleric was used to being treated as more animal than man; that, he could take. The straight-up disbelief on the faces of the two humans in the room was different. They didn’t believe in fae at all. He could hear the truth in their tones and see the way they reacted to his words.

“You don’t believe in the fae?” he repeated.

Dr. Worthen shook his head.

“Maybe we should go back,” Nurse Eastwick said from behind Aleric.

Aleric glanced at her. “And you? Even after this?” He gestured toward the fairy sleeping on the bed.

The nurse hesitated for the briefest moment before she shook her head. “I don’t. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to him,” Dr. Worthen said. “He’s obviously suffering from severe delusions as a consequence of the blow to his head. From the imaging results, the severity of his injury could give way to…what are you doing?”

Aleric pulled the hospital gown over his head. He glanced down and realized that he wasn’t wearing any pants. He held the gown over his lower half. He wondered where his other clothes had gone; the thought that somebody had put the gown on him filled him with horror. But some things were more important than his nakedness; he shoved the dismay aside.

“I’m proving to you that the fae exist,” Aleric replied.

“Loreen, come over here,” Dr. Worthen said.

She took a step toward the doctor, but Aleric held out a hand. “Wait.”

She paused at the tone of his voice.

“You need help,” Dr. Worthen said, forcing soothing tones. “We’ll get you the help you need. Wouldn’t you like to rest?”

Aleric glanced out the window. The sun was still high overhead. Phasing would cost a lot of energy. Glancing from Nurse Eastwick to Dr. Worthen, he decided it was a price he needed to pay. If their belief in the fae could save another fairy from the agony the one beside him had suffered, it was worth it.

“I’m counting on your sense of self-preservation to keep you from running away screaming wolf,” Aleric told them, his voice laced with steel. “Wolves are fast, and werewolves are faster. If you decide to run, I will beat you to the door; that, I guarantee.”

Chapter 2

Aleric willed the phase to come. He thought of how his paws would sound on the tile floor. He imagined the brush of the cooled air through his fur. He pictured the room from the black, white, and gray vision of the wolf. With the last thought, he felt the phase come upon him.

Aleric’s mouth and nose elongated. His ears sharpened and moved to higher points on his head. His muscles pulled and twisted, elongating or shortening as needed to meet the demands of his changing shape. The joints of his arms and legs changed, forcing him to the ground. Black and gray fur ran up his arms and down his torso. His tail grew and his teeth lengthened. In less than a minute, he was in wolf form.

Aleric looked from the nurse to the doctor. Dr. Worthen’s mouth was open and the sour scent of fear tangled with his physician’s smell of antiseptic, body odor from the long day, and the bitter plastic of the hospital gloves he changed with each room he visited. Nurse Eastwick had similar scents, but hers were overlaid with the flower aroma of the lotion she applied constantly and the tomato sauce odor of the spaghetti she had reheated for lunch.

“Loreen, do you see a wolf?” Dr. Worthen asked in an almost-level voice.

“I-I do,” Nurse Eastwick replied.

Dr. Worthen took a step toward the double doors. “I need to go get someone. There has to be someone who can take care of this, whatever this is.”

Aleric shadowed the doctor’s step with one of his own and the doctor froze. Aleric couldn’t speak in his wolf form. He hoped that the fear would keep the doctor in place long enough for them to have a civil conversation. Phasing back to human form would take more strength. He wished it was night outside and moonlight spilled through the windows onto his thick fur; it would have made things easier. Somehow, he doubted the goal of the day was for anything to be even remotely easy.

Aleric remembered fingers, the feeling of the metal bar beneath his hand, the press of the glass against his shoulder. He thought of the cold tile beneath his bare feet. He felt the phase come upon him and didn’t fight as his body changed form once more. He took a breath to settle his racing heart and reached for the hospital gown that lay on the floor.

“I apologize,” he said. “Nakedness when phasing is hard to avoid. Wolves don’t look very good in boxers.” He glanced at Nurse Eastwick when he had his gown on, hoping for the hint of a smile.

The nurse stared at him as if he had grown four heads and each were in the middle of quoting different Shakespearean plays.

“He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf,” he recited quietly.

“King Lear Act Two.”

Aleric’s head turned at Dr. Worthen’s words. “I’m pretty sure it’s Act Three,” he replied.

“Are you sure?” Dr. Worthen asked. “I’m almost positive it’s Act Two.”

Aleric’s head tipped slightly as he studied the doctor. The man watched him with the wild look of one attempting to find a semblance of normalcy in a world that had just been flipped upside down. Aleric gave him that chance.

“Perhaps we should discuss it at a later time. I know you have patients to tend to,” he suggested.

“Huh?” the doctor replied. His face lit up with realization. “Oh, right. The patients. I need to get back!”

He took a step toward the door, then paused and glanced at Aleric. When the werewolf made no effort to come after him, Dr. Worthen walked the rest of the way and put his hand to the closest door. He halted as if just remembering something.

“Uh um, Nurse Eastwick, I am in need of your assistance in the E.R.,” he began. He threw a look at the bed next to her, then met her gaze. “I suppose our, uh, patient will be fine during her rest. We’ll come back to check on her momentarily.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Nurse Eastwick replied quickly. She gave Aleric a questioning look.

“It’s alright,” he told her. “Go ahead. I’ll wait with the fairy.”

“Take it easy,” she replied. After what she had seen, it appeared she was more comfortable wearing the shoes of a nurse than the boots of someone who had just stepped into the possibility of an entirely different division of people than she thought existed.

“I will,” Aleric replied.

“The fairy,” he heard Dr. Worthen mumble as their footsteps faded up the hallway.

“Yes, Doctor,” Nurse Eastwick replied. “And she can’t be given fluids of any kind.”

Aleric let out a sigh and leaned against the window again. It required all of his strength to keep standing after phasing twice in less than five minutes. As if his legs decided to take away even that small victory, they collapsed beneath him. Aleric sank to the floor and rested his head on his knees.

Nothing made sense. He hoped he would wake up and find that it was all a dream, but the ache that centered behind the bandages whispered otherwise. Something had happened, something big. He cleared his thoughts of the chaotic whirlwind of possibilities and tried to remember.

The nurse had mentioned a storm, a weird storm that had brought them two dozen patients in ten minutes. Had he come in with those two dozen? Had the fairy? He didn’t remember a storm.

The last thing Aleric remembered was running. He had been running through the streets of Drake City when suddenly he was falling. Buildings rushed by and he hit his head on…what? He couldn’t remember the last part.

The sound of the door opening brought him back to his feet. He wondered why he hadn’t heard footsteps first. Perhaps the nurse was right and he had hit his head harder than he thought.

Relief filled him when both Nurse Eastwick and Dr. Worthen entered. That relief changed to surprise when he realized they were pulling a bed.

“I thought you didn’t use the D Wing,” he said, crossing the room toward them.

“I was hoping that I could ask for your professional opinion on a matter,” Dr. Worthen replied.

The nervousness of his expression when he glanced at the patient in the bed set Aleric on edge.

“It’s an unusual case,” Nurse Eastwick explained.

She glanced at Dr. Worthen, then handed Aleric a file.

Caught off-guard by their sudden change in attitude, Aleric took the file and scanned through it. The numbers and the doctor’s scratchy handwriting didn’t make any sense.

“Um, could you paraphrase this?” he asked.

Dr. Worthen nodded. “This patient came in with severe burns, extreme anemia, and an unusual reaction to the transfusion.”

“It didn’t take?” Aleric asked.

Dr. Worthen’s face paled slightly. “Uh, no. Quite the opposite. The patient took the blood bag and attempted to drink it when we weren’t looking. We had to use a heavy sedative to get it back.”

Aleric looked at the patient for the first time. The coppery scent of blood that had been tickling his nose came from the patient’s stained mouth and clothes. Repulsion made Aleric’s stomach turn.

“You are dealing with a revenant.” At their uncomprehending stares, Aleric said, “Haven’t you heard of bloodsuckers?” They shook their heads. “Soulless?” Again, the headshakes. “The walking pulseless?” At their continued blank looks, Aleric sighed and said, “How about vampires?”

Both of them nodded before taking a big step back from the bed.

Aleric gave the vampire a closer look.

“Don’t worry. It appears the burns across his skin are healing as a result of the blood. That’s pretty common. They have a condition where their body destroys the blood in their systems, so they have to continually replenish it to avoid going into a mummified state.” He pushed the vampire’s lips back to reveal the elongated canine teeth. “As you can see, vampires have hollow teeth that makes drinking blood a lot easier than through a needle in their skin.” He shook his head in distaste. “I don’t suppose any good comes from shoving a needle in someone.”

“On the contrary,” Dr. Worthen replied. “Most of our patients need the rehydration and it also replenishes the saline and electrolytes lost during dehydration.”

Aleric stared at him. “I have no idea what you just said. It’s a good thing you’re the doctor here.”

Dr. Worthen gave the shadow of a smile. “I suppose if this patient is on the road to recovery, we’ll take him back to the E.R. to continue his progress.”

“I would wait.”

“Why?” Nurse Eastwick asked.

Aleric studied the form on the bed. “Vampires are known to be quite ornery when they wake up after a major injury. This one must have been in the sunlight to have been burned so badly. They’re generally night folk, the Dark fae. No matter how much sunscreen they use, vampires practically melt in direct sunlight. And after something like that, they wake up famished.” He hesitated, then offered, “If you want to leave him here, we can put his bed against the wall furthest from the windows and sunlight and I’ll keep an eye on him.” He paused for dramatic effect and concluded, “It wouldn’t do to have him run out of blood and attempt to get it from other patients.”

Both the doctor and nurse looked horrified.

“What is happening to my hospital?” the doctor asked.

“Blame it on the storm,” Aleric suggested. “In Blays, it once rained minkies for four days.”

“What are minkies?” Dr. Worthen asked.

“Small cats with wings that—”

Dr. Worthen held up a hand. “You know what? Forget I asked. We’ll leave the patient here for the safety of the others under the condition that you come get us when he awakens.”

Aleric put his fingers to his forehead in a mock salute. “Yes, Dr. Worthen; your orders will be carried out with strict efficiency.”

The doctor shook his head again and pushed back through the doors with the nurse trailing behind. Aleric heard him ask Nurse Eastwick, “Are you sure I’m not sleeping? This could be a nightmare. Although I have my clothes on. Most of my nightmares start with me realizing I’m not wearing any clothes.”

“You’re definitely wearing clothes,” the nurse replied.

Aleric didn’t waste any time. He hurried around the room gathering rope, a cord, and several zip ties before he returned to the vampire’s bed. He quickly bound the vampire’s arms and legs to the bars of the bed.

Stepping back for a brief survey of his work, Aleric found himself shaking his head like Dr. Worthen appeared to be fond of doing. “What am I doing here? I’m not a doctor. This is ridiculous.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the door opened again.

Two orderlies rushed in with a bed between them and Nurse Eastwick close behind. The orderlies paused as soon as they made it through the doors and stared at the unfinished state of the D Wing.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” the red-haired one on the left asked.

“We don’t have time to be picky,” Nurse Eastwick replied. She spotted Aleric near the far wall. “Dr. Wolf, we are in need of your expertise. Again.”

Aleric’s eyebrows rose. The title took him completely by surprise.

Nurse Eastwick gave him a pleading look when the orderlies weren’t paying attention.

Aleric cleared his throat. “Oh, yes. What seems to be the problem?” he asked.

He had made it halfway across the room when the fish scent struck him. He paused.

“Flippers?” he asked.

Nurse Eastwick nodded with a surprised expression. “How did you know?”

Aleric glanced at the orderlies. “I can take it from here. Thank you, gentlemen.”

Both young men looked more than relieved to be excused from the bedside of their strange patient and the presence of a doctor in a hospital gown.

As soon as they were gone, Aleric closed the space between him and the bed. It took all of his self-control to not pinch his sensitive nose.

“Selkies can shed their skin to look human, but they never quite lose the odor.” He looked at the beautiful face of the woman sleeping on the bed. “How did you know she was fae?”

Nurse Eastwick held out another file.

“You do remember that I’m not really a doctor,” Aleric reminded her when he accepted it. “I have no idea what this says.”

The nurse pulled off the white sheet that covered the patient.

“She has flippers.”

Aleric stared at the woman’s flippered hands and feet. “Selkies aren’t often caught in-between their forms. I’ve never seen one.” He fought back the urge to blush and look away. “It’s quite a personal thing for them.”

“She was found unconscious in an alleyway.” The nurse paused and then said, “Fairly close to where you were found, actually. The EMTs who brought her in said she didn’t have clothes or identification. It seems to be a familiar story with your fae folk.”

Aleric nodded. “Why identify ourselves when what we are is the identifier? I know the humans of Blays feel differently within their own communities, but the fae are who we are. We can’t really hide from it.”

“So that’s it, then,” Nurse Eastwick said as she tucked the sheet back over the woman’s hospital gown. “You’re not from here?”

Aleric looked around the room. “I don’t even know where here is.”

The nurse’s pager buzzed. She glanced at it. “More patients are coming in. I have to run.” She reached the door and looked back at him. “Let me know what you need with the, uh, selkie, Dr. Wolf. I have a feeling I’ll be back.”