Page 15 of Raven's Instinct
When the last of the wire had been stripped off, Kendra kicked it all off the side of the road so she wouldn’t accidentally stumble on it while she was cleaning him up. She stripped off her gloves and went into the van for a jug of water. She paused to pour half of it into a pan for the bull and he drank thirstily, emptying the bowl in a few slurps.
The rest of the water she poured over his leg with sterilizing soap, and she wasn’t surprised when he gave a tremendous bellow of pain as she worked. “Sorry, buddy. I’m going as quickly and carefully as I can. You really managed to do a number on yourself.”
The bull huffed and groaned, but kept his feet planted, unmoving, which Kendra deeply appreciated. He lifted the afflicted leg as Kendra asked him to, and she probed the joints above and below.
“The infection is localized,” she said approvingly. “We can probably get it cleared up before it goes septic. I’m going to give you a few stitches because I don’t like how this is still bleeding, and some oral antibiotics. I’m also going to get you started with an injection and pack it with sugar. Believe it or not, the sugar will encourage the flesh to heal and keep infection from spreading. Don’t lick it, or I’ll find a surgery cone in your size.”
The bull eyed her, like he wasn’t sure if she was joking.
Finally, the leg was stitched, packed in sugar, bandaged, and back on the ground. Kendra was cold and her ears and fingers were numb. It was near freezing, and she couldn’t do delicate work with gloves on. She wore a padded flannel, but was still in summer work boots and had forgotten to put on a hat.
“Don’t baby the leg too much,” Kendra advised, blowing on her hands to warm them. “I don’t usually have to tell animals that; they’ll put weight on it when they’re ready to and limparound like an invalid if they think it will get them extra treats.” She cleaned off her first aid tools as she put them away. “You want to explain why you didn’t just shift to get out of that?”
The bull shook his head and snorted, then stamped his front feet and jerked his head backwards.
“Is something else bothering you?” Kendra had done a very basic inspection before she got down to work, but the affliction was so obvious she hadn’t done a thorough job of it. She went to his head and checked down his back, feeling the temperature between his front legs and looking in his ears.
He pulled away when she went to check his teeth. “Fine. I’m not your dentist and maybe that’s a little personal. Be that way.”
She checked his shoulders and front feet, patted under his belly, and listened to his breathing. Aside from his questionable barbed wire accessory choices, he was in stellar condition, strong and sound. There was a brand on one flank, barely visible on his dark hide.
“I don’t recognize this mark,” Kendra said, squinting at it. “It doesn’t really look like a brand at all.” Most brands were simple, because the whole point of them was recognition. This one was muddy, like someone had tried to do a delicate design with a thick-headed marker, and black on black made it even more obscure.
The bull was bobbing his head up and down like a cartoon.
“Does this have to do with why you’re stuck this way?” Kendra asked.
More vigorous nodding.
The idea of someone branding a shifter made her a little sick to her stomach, as the ugly injury hadn’t. The idea of the mark somehow trapping him as a shifter was even more unnerving.
“So…do you know how to fix it?” Kendra asked. “I’d offer to kiss you, but there’s this guy I’m sort of dancing around, so I’m not sure the timing is right, you know?”
The bull arched his head and gazed at the ground as if he was praying for patience.
“I’ll try,” Kendra finally said. “I just don’t want you to have any expectations, okay? No tongue.”
The kiss she put on his velvety nose was perfunctory, and it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
“Sorry, buddy. In no small part because I have no idea where to send a bill for this and oh, no…”
Kendra realized that she was hearing her phone ring from inside the van at the same moment that it dawned on her that she had not only missed her opportunity for a shower at the laundromat, but also that she was already late for picking Amy up and it must be Tiny Paws calling, wondering where on earth she was.
9
ALAN
Amy was the last child at the day care, and she fussed in Addison’s arms while Alan sterilized all the toys and cleaned the playroom. Shea had already vanished, leaving even more stealthily than she had appeared, and Cherry was organizing the craft cabinets and sorting projects for the next day. Alan was astonished how much thought and direction went into each day’s work, given how chaotic and unstructured the day care seemed at any given moment when it was full of kids.
His respect for the team had only grown through the week, watching Addison, Shea, and Cherry turn certain disaster into success, and tears into laughter, over and over again. They were patient and nurturing, but firm about boundaries and rules. It would have been easy to get overwhelmed and stressed by the sheer sensory input, but they were rock solid in the face of every challenge, and never lost their temper. Alan thought wryly that military recruits ought to serve a tour in a playroom as a matter of course; he’d already learned more about cooperation and compromise than a full year of hostile negotiation training and all his tours in the field had taught him.
When everything was orderly and Alan had changed the bedding in the little actual-animal zoo, he vacuumed and realized that Addison was yawning. Cherry was gone, but little Amy was still unclaimed.
“Kendra’s on her way,” Addison said, when Alan had stowed the vacuum and locked the cleaning cabinet. “She had a medical emergency.”
Alan squashed a flare of alarm and touched the charm he’d put back in his pocket, then remembered that Kendra wasn’t part of his network. Besides, if Kendrahadbeen hurt, Addison would probably be more alarmed. She was probably at theotherend of any medical emergency. “Is she a doctor?”
“A veterinarian,” Addison said, stifling another yawn. “Livestock, mostly, but she also goes to outlying places that don’t want to bring dogs and cats in. She has a mobile practice.”
