Page 48 of Shadows of the Soul

He turned on his heel and strode out of the room. The door slammed closed behind him.

Norbert grabbed some gloves and stood opposite me. “What do we have?”

“Fractured skull, a nasty wound to her eye. She may have lost it. Multiple claw wounds on her flank, the major one has torn through her abdomen, exposing her intestines. She has a bite to her throat that is causing the majority of her blood loss, although it’s not arterial, as she would already be dead.”

He felt around her head. “Do you have an x-ray machine?”

I nodded. “Yes.” I pointed to the portable machine in the corner. He rolled it over and positioned it above the wolf’s head.

We exited into my office, closed the door, and I pressed the button to take the images. Hurrying back inside, we both grimaced at the results.

“This is going to be a close call,” Norbert stated as he examined her abdomen injury. “There doesn’t appear to be any organ damage. How good are you with a needle?”

“I’m not the prettiest, but I get the job done.”

“Good enough.”

We worked quickly, closing her wounds with stitches. My hands were steady and sure, but inside I was shaking like a leaf. We could sew her up, but that skull fracture wasn’t something either of us were equipped to deal with.

I glanced at the clock. Twenty-one minutes, that’s how long we’d taken to patch her up. I replaced the empty fluid bag. “Should I give her painkillers?”

Norbert shook his head. “It will make her healing sluggish.”

I looked at the crimson puddle on the floor. “We need blood.”

Norbert frowned and glanced at the door. “It would have to be a wolf. I’m not a wolf.”

“Dave?”

Norbert snapped his gloves off with a sigh and deposited them in the yellow clinical waste bin. He washed his arms of the blood splatter in the metal sink, then opened the door. Dave had a hand on each side of the frame. His head was bowed and his back hunched.

“We need your blood,” Nobert said as he put a hand on Dave’s shoulder.

Dave sucked in a breath and lifted his head. I nearly stumbled in shock at his red-rimmed eyes and damp cheeks. Norbert ushered him to a stool I’d set up next to the wolf. I rolled up Dave’s sleeve, inserted the needle, and taped it down. The blood flowed freely from his veins to hers. He clasped her paw, and his thumb stroked over the fur.

“Do you remember the time you got stuck up that oak tree when we were kids?” Dave whispered.

I blinked and shot a glance at Norbert. He shook his head, walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “All we can do is wait now.”

“You were jealous that Hudson could climb higher than you, and you wouldn’t be told that wolves didn’t climb. So up you went, higher and higher, following a cat. You were fearless and determined. Determined to show us nothing could stop you, determined to keep up with any species. I envied that determination. I still do. But what I need from you right now is to fight to stay alive. You have to live, Mary.” He lifted his head and looked me dead in the eyes. “Because the world doesn’t want to find out what I will do if you don’t.”

Whoever Mary was to Dave, she was precious and loved, which meant I was fucked if she died.

***

My butt was numb—again, this time matching the rest of me as I sat on the tiled floor across from Mary. Dave was in the exact same position opposite me. His blank stare scared me more than his anger. Norbert perched on the stool and kept watch over Mary, checking her vitals every few minutes. Hours stretched, and the sun gave way to the moon. That would help. While wolf shifters weren’t ruled by the moon and her cycles, they drew power from it.

Mary convulsed, the tremors wracking her prone mangled body. I shot to my feet. Dave beat me to her side and blocked me. “Let her through,” Norbert snapped. I pushed Dave, he slid to the side. His look of utter disbelief said I’d used far too much strength. I grabbed the prepared injection of anticonvulsants. Norbert held her leg, and I plunged it into her. We waited a beat to see if the medication would work. She settled for an entire minute. I let out the breath I’d been holding, and the universe spun and kicked me in the face as Mary fitted again.

I protected her head with my hands. Dave snarled expletives to the world, pain stamped all over his face. I’d not asked who she was to him, but it wasn’t rocket science to know they were close.

“Do something,” he growled, his fingers curling into claws.

“There’s nothing more we can do,” Norbert stated. “The head injury is something she will repair or it will overcome her.”

Dave punched the wall, leaving a fist-sized hole in the plaster.

Mary jerked and then went still. Too still. I lifted my hands and backed away.

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