Page 5 of Changeling
“What the fuck?!” Nathan cried, shaking his leg furiously.
The creature skittered off of him back into the maze of dust and boxes, and Nathan immediately scrambled to his feet and painfully made for the pull-down door and ladder. Maybe it was more scared of Nathan than the other way around, but it was pissed about him trying to capture it. And another thing—that was sure ashellno freaking raccoon.
Great, Nathan thought, grimacing as he landed back down on the floor below.So much for a vacation.
Chapter 3
“Ow!Shit!Wouldyouwatch what you’re doing?! Geez.”
Nathan grit his teeth as Jim finished replacing the last few stitches that had ripped when he fell. Jim was good at this stuff usually, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.
“Stop complaining. You move too much,” Jim replied roughly, face close to Nathan’s bare chest as he sewed. “And you’re the one who had to go and pull these things. I’m almost done.”
Nathan grimaced all the way through to the last stitch. He hated that Jim made it sound like he had done this on purpose. “Yeah, coz I asked the evil teddy bear with fangs to attack me. Did you see the bite in my leg?” He gestured down to where Sasha had finished disinfecting and cleaning the bite and was now wrapping Nathan’s ankle in gauze. In actuality, there weren’t any teeth marks, but the creature had torn open Nathan’s recently healed bullet wound, and he was still pretty sure teeth had been involved at some point.
There was a snicker from the doorway and Nathan turned his head to glare at Alex. They were in what was often used as the first aid room for when seals came in injured. Alex had gladly offered up supplies and use of the room when Nathan came limping down the stairs, blood soaked through his pant leg and a few places on his T-shirt.
Currently, Nathan was kicked back on what had obviously been a dentist chair before it found its new home in the Gatehouse. It worked well enough to elevate his leg for Sasha, gave Jim easy access to the stitches, and had an accompanying table to set gauze and supplies, where Nathan’s necklace was currently resting while his wounds were treated.
Blessedly, Sasha had finished with Nathan’s leg and came up by his head with a fresh dose of pain meds and a glass of water. Nathan took the lot gratefully.
“Vacation, right?” Nathan winked at Sasha as he downed the drugs.
“Be honest,” Sasha smirked back, “did you really expect anything else?”
Nathan huffed. "I'm sore and anxious and really sick of adding insult to injury—literally. So yeah…I was hoping for peace and quiet for a change." He closed his eyes and sighed, enjoying Jim’s gentler touch now as his brother placed clean bandages over his wounds. “Don’t we deserve a break from the nasty, bitey things in life? I’d give another few stitches for that thing to have actually been a raccoon.”
“What did you say it looked like?” Alex asked, walking a little farther into the room.
“Like Gizmo on steroids,” Nathan grumbled. He didn’t want to open his eyes again just yet. The dentist chair came complete with that annoyingly bright light, and Jim had been using it to better see by.
“Gizmo?” Alex questioned. “Like fromGremlins? Cute, furry, Chinese creature that sings?”
“More like a gremlin and an Ewok had a love child and it isn’t happy about it,” Nathan said. He put a hand over his face and peeked through fingers at Sasha when the incubus laughed. “I’m serious. Doesn’t make it any less scary or vicious. Did I mention the opposable thumbs?”
“Several times,” Jim said.
“We thought you’d never shut up about it,” chimed in Sasha.
Nathan grimaced even though the brunt of the pain had finally started to subside. “Okay, you two need to stop tag-teaming me or we’re going to have a problem.”
“Tag-teaming you, huh?” echoed Alex. “There’s an interesting mental picture.”
Bright light be damned, Nathan’s eyes went wide with the horror ofimaginingthat mental picture, and the next thing he knew Jim and Sasha were holding him down as he struggled to get out of the chair.
“It was just a joke,” Alex defended, though she was still smirking.
“Can I at least throw something at her?” Nathan grumbled at whichever of the men holding him down would listen, even though he was already calming down and letting them still him. “Whatever. Forget it. Can we concentrate on the baby hellbeast upstairs?”
“Sorry for the trouble. Honestly,” Alex said. “I say we leave the thing be until morning. It hasn’t attacked before, just now, after being disturbed. So I’d be willing to bet it’ll stay hidden tonight. I’d rather we had a fresher start on catching it.”
Nathan wasn’t too sure he liked that idea. He doubted he could sleep comfortably knowing that thing was scurrying about somewhere above his head.
Now that he was patched up, though, he gladly accepted the clean shirt Sasha handed him, and painstakingly pulled it over his head. It was like starting from square one with his wounds, all tender and recently stitched. Nathan really hated Evil Gizmo right now.
“Jim and I can finish the room we were painting,” Sasha said to Alex as he and Jim helped Nathan out of the dentist chair. “Might as well, so we’re finished with it. It’s not too late yet.”
Jim nodded. “Sure. But you,” he said pointedly to Nathan, “are going to sit, rest, and do nothing. At least for the rest of tonight.”
