Page 21 of Charmed and Dangerous

“I need your help. Something is wrong with Brady. He’s throwing up, has the chills. We don’t know what’s wrong. The healer isn’t sure what’s going on. Please?”

She wasn’t a healer. She’d never attended the bedside of anyone. She made potions and handed them out in the shoppe for minor illnesses. This was outside her purview. If the healer couldn’t help, how could she? But this was Saul and his nephew. She couldn’t say no. She nodded and took his hand. He didn’t even wait.

He swept her up and carried her to his truck and raced to a house over the hill from his own. His parents were on the porch, worry etched on their faces. Sacha and Blaize were inside, at Brady’s bedside. The bear cub was pale and sweaty and smelled sickly of vomit and something sweet. It was peculiar and prodded something in her mind, but she couldn’t quite remember what. She leaned over him and checked his pupils and his pulse.

Brady opened his eyes a little. “Hi, Brady. Remember me? I’m your uncle’s friend, Maeve. Can you tell me when you started feeling sick?”

“It’s a stomach virus,” the healer stated definitively from the doorway, his long white robes indicating his status.

Saul glared at him. “Nothing you’ve done has helped. Maybe let Maeve try.”

“She makes potions for sale at a tiny little shoppe. She’s not a healer. She couldn’t even get hired by a reputable shoppe,” the healer sneered. Saul growled, and the healer paled, stepping back. “Fine. But she could kill your cub.”

“What is that sweet scent? What did you give him?”

“I don’t have to answer to you. If you’re so smart, you figure it out.” The healer folded his arms in front of him and gave her a condescending look.

She launched herself across the room and grabbed him by the throat, pinning the taller man to the wall. “You’ll tell me what you gave Brady and you’ll me right now, or I’ll let the bears in this room rip you to shreds.”

The healer glowered at her but belatedly heard the growls of the three bears surrounding her, directed at him. He paled and recited the herbs and concoctions, nothing unusual for a stomach virus. Something she would have given the boy, too, if she had been called earlier. But none of that would have created a sweet smell, with almost a hint of decay under it. Something pricked her mind from her mother’s journal. She just couldn’t grab a hold of it. Given that he was a young cub and mischievous, she had an idea.

“Brady, were you playing in the woods this week? Did you eat something that you shouldn’t?”

Sacha made a low cry, and her mate tucked her close. Brady nodded weakly. “There were berries. By the creek. So pretty. I thought they were blueberries, but they didn’t taste like them. But they were good.”

Her heart chilled. She glanced at Saul. “On it. We’ll get a sample.”

He tore out of the room, followed by Blaize. It wasn’t long before they returned with a sample of berries and dirt littering their shirts. Saul wordlessly handed her the berries, and she gasped. “Klosinth. Not blueberries. You need to tear out all the bushes immediately. These are deadly, especially to shifters.”

Sacha cried out again and collapsed against Blaize, who gathered her close, rubbing his hands up and down her back to soothe her.

Saul grimly nodded. “Already done. We’ll burn them later and make sure there aren’t any more.”

Maeve, Saul, and the healer went into the kitchen. The healer studied the berries, his brow furrowed. “I’m not familiar with these.”

“I’m not surprised. Most shifter communities are ruthless in eradicating them from the area. They’re sweet but deadly. Typical antidotes won’t work with them.”

The healer shook his head, still looking a bit stunned. “I don’t have an antidote for this, not directly. But we could try…”

Maeve shook her head. “Devil’s Thimbleberry. It’s a general antidote for shifters. A tea from that should work. I have some in my greenhouse.”

“Do we have time?” the healer asked, concern in his voice.

“We’ll have to hope we do,” Maeve replied grimly.

Saul drove her back to her house, breaking all kinds of speed records, neither of them speaking. She headed right to the greenhouse and picked the berries, grateful that they had bloomed so quickly. She simmered the berries in hot water, then mashed them to extract as much of the juice as possible. She strained the resulting liquid to get rid of seeds, which were bitter and could induce vomiting. Brady didn’t need that anymore. Saul watched her actions without getting in the way.

“Will you have enough time?”

“It should steep for a few days, but we can’t wait. I have to hope that it will work, newly steeped, especially since Brady is so small. I don’t think he can wait.” She looked at him. “Let’s go.”

It had only been a few hours, but Brady was paler and his breathing more shallow. He didn’t respond when she tried to wake him. The juice wasn’t hot, so she spooned it into his mouth, encouraging him to swallow, even while unconscious. Eventually, the first cup was gone.

“Now we wait.”

Maeve and Saul sat on one side, while Sacha and Blaize clung to each other on the other side. At one point, Maeve reached over to take Saul’s hand and he gripped it gratefully. Several hours passed and Brady’s breathing seemed to get better. And his color slowly improved. Then he opened his eyes.

“Mama?”

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