Page 17 of Wolf Bane
The weres who saw me around, who knew who I was, tended to treat me like a nonentity at best or, at worst, an annoyance to be borne.A handful of clan members, mostly folks old enough to be my parents, but a small number of weres around my own age, were far more vocal about their displeasure at my existence and especially the fact Ethan didn’t feel the same way they did.
It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been any precedent for drumming unwanted weres out of town on a rail.It had happened as recently as twenty years ago when Mr.Stone was still alive.Ethan had never told me great details, just that his dad had been the one to order a handful of weres out of the territory, forcing them to head back to some old ancestral land that wasn’t going to be able to support the group and it had been somewhat of a scandal since he was forcing them to return to territory dangerously close to some huge were clans.
It was a fun little town I was living in.
“Tyler.If I’m the subject of this little kaffeeklatsch, I need to know.”
“Why?What can you do about it?I’ve got it under control, Lan.I know what Ethan wants done, and I know how to handle this little subset of the locals, okay?I won’t let this get yanked out from under my brother.”With a sudden movement, he was on his feet, ushering me into the hall.“Come on.You can crash in the spare room, you know where it is.It’s Ethan’s old one.”He smirked.giving me a little shove towards the familiar door.“Take a nap, relive some old memories, but for the love of God don’t jerk off in there.”
“Oh my God.”
“What?I don’t know how you’ll react to being in the room where you were once deflowered.”
“Oh my God!”
With a final shove, he shut the door behind me.“I’ll wake you up at five.”
ChapterFour
My shift at the clinic started bad and got worse.Already dragging ass from the long night at Tyler’s, I was half an hour late getting to work and got off on the wrong foot with a new patient who was less than thrilled about my stance on vaccinations (always) and my refusal to entertain the idea that, just maybe, taking unadulterated belladonna instead of heart medication was a good idea.
Things only went downhill from there, the schedule being off kilter and several patients, who already felt miserable to start with, snapping and snarling (rightfully so, to be honest) at being delayed.We pushed through, Reba’s pleasant smile never faltering even though I could tell she wanted to throttle me for causing the mess, and my apology muscles getting a workout.We finally caught up just after noon, working through the usual lunch break, and by the time I was able to take a five-minute breather in my office, the afternoon looked like easier sailing.When I emerged, slightly refreshed and very caffeinated, Reba was signing in a patient, a confused-looking woman about my age with her dark hair in a very swoopy side ponytail and a surplus of green eye shadow.
“I’m sorry, we don’t have a psychiatrist on staff,” Reba was saying so patiently I knew she was repeating herself.“And I don’t see your name on the schedule for today.You said your last name was Perrin?”
“Doctor Babin?”the woman said, leaning past Reba to catch my attention.“I’m Gina Perrin.”
“Hi.Reba will make sure you’re all checked in and I’ll see you soon.”I offered her a tight smile and motioned to the bright green and white ICW sample box.“I need you to send a message to their contact person that we have a sample to pick up this evening, and I need their contact person to call me.”
Reba, visibly flustered between Gina Perrin trying to get my attention past her, my request, and everything else going on, threw up her hands.“Sure!I’ll add it to my list!”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely.“This office would collapse around my ears without you, Reba.You’re a godsend.”
She snorted but seemed to smile a little bit at that.“Well.Iamthat.”She nudged the tin on her desk towards me.“Just for that, you can have the bourbon brittle.”
“Ooooh, fancy!”I crunched into it—it really was delicious—and made a mental note to get more floss on the way home.“Did I see Mr.Robards is in room three?”
“I worked him in this morning.He called, sounded really in need.”
“On it.How’s the afternoon look?”
“Better than this morning.”She glanced at Gina Perrin.“I’m sorry, we’re not taking walk-ins.”
Gina Perrin made an annoyed sound at the back of her throat.“Listen, I’m not here to see Doctor Babin!”
“Then you’re in the wrong place, hon,” Reba said, more vinegar than honey, as I slipped back to the exam room.
* * *
Eustace Robards was nothis usual chatty self.Headache, fever, nausea… all the signs pointed to an infection, but I wasn’t sure what kind.Checking his wound, I saw it was healing well with no signs of pus or redness which was a relief and a half.He let me draw blood and just nodded when I told him it’d take a day or two for the results to get back from the lab, but I’d put a rush on it since he was my favorite.
Not even a hint of a smile.
“Okay, Mr.Robards, we’re going to give you a course of antibiotics just to be on the safe side, and I want you to come back in a week so I can check the wound again and follow up on whatever we find in the blood work.And in the meantime, if the bite gets hot, or red or… Mr.Robards?”
He was staring into space, somewhere over my left shoulder, swaying gently as if the air conditioner’s breeze was buffeting him back and forth.Eustace Robards made a gurgling noise, fingers twitching at his side before he brought them up to his chest, curling them into loose fists.It reminded me of bodies I’d examined, how they curled up in death, limbs retracting as rigor set in, muscle stiffening as decomposition did its work.He gurgled again, this time closer to words.“Hhhhhhhg… hhhhhhk…”
I threw open the door.“Reba!Get in here!I need help!”
