Page 28 of Outside the Veil
“My stomach’s too full of flutters.”
So instead, Finn danced around him, getting underfoot while he tried to get ready. The headbutt against his knees while he shaved hit the limit of his endurance.
“Go find your collar, please,” he suggested to gain a few moments’ peace.
Finn loped off and returned with the nylon and plastic collar between his teeth.
“Shh, you’ll wake Tia Carmen.” Diego pointed to the tail thudding against the hardwood.
Unintelligible mumbles issued from around the collar. The tail stopped but the tags jangled when Finn shook his head. One tag had been purchased at a pet store and engraved—Finn—please return to Diego Sandoval, with his cell number. The other was Finn’s rabies vaccination.
Diego’s stomach had plummeted when he’d found the requirements for transporting pets across the Canadian border. Dogs were permitted, but not without documentation of their rabies shots. He couldn’t ask Finn to endure the needle and there was no way to know what horrible reaction his body might have to the vaccine. In a bit of underhandedness that still had him losing sleep, Diego had picked up a stray to use as a proxy. The dog got his vaccination, Diego got the papers he needed for Finn, and Tia Carmen took the stray to one of the no-kill shelters.
For all her brave words about getting Finn out of the city, she had cried over him the night before, soothing her own anxieties by stuffing him full of food. She had pulled Finn’s head down to hers when they’d said goodnight at her door and whispered in his ear. Diego could have sworn he’d caught the words, “Take good care of him.”
Now Diego hesitated at his own door, mentally checking things off. Luggage. Water. Laptop. Keys. Documents. Coffee pot was off. Dishes washed. Why did he have this knot the size of a basketball in his stomach? He shivered, tried to shake the feeling of something lurking over his shoulder and locked the door.
“Diego, I don’t feel well at all.”
Not even ten miles outside the city. Damn.
“You want to lie down in the back?”
“I want to get out of this accursed box and be sick somewhere.”
The tires shrieked as Diego wrestled the truck to a stop on the shoulder. He raced around to Finn’s side and lifted him down, narrowly sidestepping what Finn could no longer hold in his stomach.
“My apologies,” Finn murmured when he finished.
“You sure you can do this?”
“Yes. I must. Perhaps if we had something to muffle the iron’s effects?”
“Such as?”
“A silver shield would be best.”
“I’m afraid I left all the arms and armor at home. What else?”
“Dragon skin? Were-pelt? Silk?”
“That last one we can manage.” Diego slid back the truck bed’s cover and retrieved his silk bathrobe from the suitcase. He’d only packed the thing because it took up less room than terrycloth. The scarlet and gold threads sparked in the streetlight when he spread the cloth on the back seat. What an odd fate for Mitch’s last Christmas present.
Finn settled with a huff and curled up with his tail over his nose. Only one paw protruded when Diego finished covering him with the rest of the robe.
“Better?”
“Yes, much. Are we close yet?”
Diego resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I warned you we’d have to drive all day.”
“I had hoped you were exaggerating.”
Five hours later, at a rest area outside Portland, Diego pulled over again. Finn had started to wheeze.
“We’re about halfway there.” Diego clipped the leash on for propriety’s sake and carried Finn into the shade of the picnic area.
“Then why…have we…stopped?”
