Page 8 of Wolf Bane
I made a noncommittal sound—difficultwasn’t the right word for it, but I couldn’t think of a better one.The distance itself sucked, sure, but the layers of secrecy and the fact he seemed like an entirely different man some days didn’t help in the slightest.He’d texted twice since our call Tuesday night, once a briefComing home Thursdayand then, sometime last night after I’d gone to bed, a quick update to let me know that might not be happening and he’d let me know.At least he’d remembered to put a heart emoji on that one, I thought grumpily.
“Room one,” I reminded Reba, eager to get out from under her sympathetic gaze.Reba was one of my closest friends, but sometimes her concern for me was overwhelming.Maybe it’s some introvert thing or my mommy issues are deeper than I want to examine, but Reba being worried for me made me want to just hide under my desk some days.
Which, okay, yeah, I probably should talk to someone about that.
Reba was still giving me pointed, worried glances when she led Kayley Hale back to room one.“This one might be out of our wheelhouse,” Reba said nervously.
Kayley, a tall and rawboned young woman of twenty-two, held up her left hand.
Her left hand which clutched a wad of blood-soaked paper towels and a melting ice pack.
“The little shit bit me,” she muttered, marching to the exam table.“Just took a chunk right out of my hand!”
“Whobit you?”I hurried to the cabinets over the room’s sink and started pulling down the supplies for cleaning and suturing a wound.“Kayley, what insurance do you have?You’ll need x-rays to make sure there’s nothing like bone chips or something in there, but I’m going to clean you up, okay?”
Kayley held out her hand for me.The wound was… well, it was gross.There’s no other word for gaping bite wounds.
Gross.
“One of the fivers just chomped down on me during story time,” she said, her pale features slowly going gray as I gently removed the paper towels and ice pack.“She wouldn’t let go, either.It was like my mom’s freakin’ Yorkipoo when you give it a pig’s ear.”
The wound was ragged, torn more than punctured.I’d seen a few bites in my time, human, animal, and were.This was nothing like any other human bite I’d ever seen.“Walk me through this, Kayley.”
She sighed, seemingly unaffected by the fact her hand was looking grim.“I work half-days at Miss Tilly’s Kids.That daycare on Mortree?You know, in the green house?”
“I’ll take your word for it,” I murmured, carefully wiping blood away from the edges of the wound.I’d need to tell Reba to get the referral sent to a plastic surgeon to minimize the scarring, and a specialist to check for possible nerve and muscle damage.It was that deep.
“Doree-Jane reminded me that I’d told Melly she couldn’t climb on the monkey bars, those were for the big kids and Doree-Jane figures Melly was mad at me for that and, well…” She nodded to her hand with a significant raise of her brows.“Kids, man.What the hell.”
“Wait.Melly?Melly Clemens?”I sat back, my leg giving a ghost throb of pain where the kid had bitten me.“Did anyone notify her parents?”
“I don’t have bugs or something.”Kayley sniffed.“I’m negative for everything.Get tested like biannually or whatever.”She started to pull her hand back, but I had a firm grip on her wrist.“Hey!”
“Human mouths are filthy,” I said briskly.“Let me clean this out and get some butterfly bandages, but Reba’s going to give you a referral for x-rays over at the imaging center in Terrebiene.It’s open till seven and they’ll be able to get you in if you head right over.She’ll stay on their necks to make sure it’s in the system before you get there.Um, so, does Melly bite a lot?”
Kayley relaxed a little, shaking her head enough to make her dark ponytail swing.“She’s usually a pretty good kid.Kinda wild sometimes but, you know, six-year-olds,” she added with a shrug.
I thought of Mariska.“I don’t know many six-year-olds but the kids I do know… that tracks,” I murmured, dabbing her wound clean.“Do any of the other kids bite?”
Kayley shook her head again.“It was weird.This week, she’s been just real… I don’t know.Feral or something.”
“Feral?”I glanced up.“Interesting choice of words there.”
She huffed.“Little bratgrowledat me at snack time when I wouldn’t let her have more juice—she’d had three boxes already—and then the biting!”
Right.Definitely calling Vinnie Clemens as soon as Kayley was cleaned up and out the door.“Any other kids acting up like this?Her brother maybe?”
“Jay?Nah.He’s a sweetie.Sleepingallthe time lately, but it’s common for his age group.Growth spurts,” she added with a shrug that nearly yanked my needle loose.
She rambled on a bit more about the kids in her care, watching me clean her wound avidly while she filled me on all the pertinent daycare gossip.
“I dunno.”She sighed as I applied the final dressing.“It was just so weird.The kids are usually real sweethearts, you know?But between the crud going around and now this, it makes me think I made a bad career choice.”She sighed again and eyed her hand.“Is it weird I can’t feel my fingers?”
I ushered her to the front desk and made sure she had a paper copy of the scrip Reba was sending over to the drugstore in town, and her sister, who’d driven her, swore she’d take Kayley to her appointment with the specialist the second it was made.
“I’ll clean up one.There’s a patient waiting in two for you,” Reba murmured as Kayley and her sister headed to the parking lot.“Debbie Harris again.”
I groaned, that burgeoning headache becoming full-fledged with flashing neon lights and showgirls to herald its new, long-term residency behind my right eye.“What’s it this time?Bubonic plague?Cotard’s delusion?”
