Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga) (34 page)

     His red, checked shirt had been cut away as much as possible to reveal cracked and blistered skin.  Singed red swatches of cloth melded with his deep brown skin in some areas, making an odd, patchwork collection of angry, blacken-skin, and shirt.  His face was so swollen that I could barely recognize him.  He was breathing on his own, but there was an oxygen mask resting near his head at the ready.  My brother was so burned and banged up; it was a miracle he was still in human form.

     My hand flew to my mouth to hold in the sob that was building in my throat.   My wolf cringed and howled inside, feeling Rush’s pain as intensely as if it were her own.  I ground my teeth together; fighting the compulsion to throw my head back and let her sorrowful bale, free.

     The doctor’s expression softened and he dropped his head.  No matter how hard-assed a man was, show them a crying woman and they froze with uncertainty.  The nurse, a younger woman who didn’t look much older than my twenty eight years, left her place at the foot of Rush’s bed and came to stand in front of me.

“You must be Mrs. Waters.  My name is Vicki.  I spoke with you earlier.  I am so sorry, but we need to give the doctor room to work.  It really would be better if you let me walk you to the waiting room.”

     She took my hand and began pulling me
toward the door, but I didn’t budge.  “He’s my brother,” I said in a hollow, distant voice.  It didn’t seem real.  My brother was the strong one; he was an alpha.  It went against everything I knew, to accept the injured body lying on that gurney was Rushing.

     The nurse placed her hand on my shoulder and gave me a small push.  “I know this is hard for you, but I need you to leave,” she said again, this time with a little less compassion.

     I dug my heel into the floor and shrugged her hand off of me.  “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not going anywhere.”

She rolled her eyes and planted her hands on her hips before she narrowed her eyes at me.  “Aren‘t you Still Waters?”

     Of all the insane moments to be recognized.  I huffed and pointed toward the bed, ignoring the excited gleam in that was in her eye.  “That man is a werewolf, okay.  You’re lucky you don’t have a half-crazed wolf on that bed instead of a man.  Call an ambulance.  He needs to be transported to the CMS.”

     Confusion and fear flashed across both of their faces as they cut their eyes
toward Rush.  They didn’t know whether to believe me or not.

“You’re crazy,” the doctor exclaimed after a few seconds, then leaned past me to look out into the hall.  “I’ve had enough of this. Will you please do your job and get this woman out of my exam room so that I can take care of my patient.”

     I spun with a growl on my lips and saw that the entire doorway was filled with onlookers.  There were at least five guards among them, all looking unsure of what to do.  One man, a tall blonde with ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’ looks, pushed his way to the front of the bunch.  He was packing a wicked looking rifle, and stunk of fear.  I glanced at his hands.  Although he was pointing his weapon at the ground, his trigger finger was twitching.  This was why we had no business in human hospitals.  The law protected us and provided us with equal rights, but you can’t control the emotions of the masses.  Most humans were still afraid of us.

     I took a small step
backward, putting myself in between Rush and the gun, and threw both hands in the air.  “Listen buddy, we’re on the same team.  I just want to get my brother out of here before something goes wrong.”

     The frazzled guard gulped, and tried his best to put on a brave boy face before he slid the safety off of his weapon.  “Walk forward slowly with both hands in the air.  We’re going to escort you to a secure area.”

     “The hell you say!”  I took another step back as my wolf began stirring again.  “I’m not leaving without my brother.”

     The guard raised his rifle a few inches and the click-clack of round being chambered, rang through the air.  The bodies around him began to scatter when they realized he meant business. 

     The sound of the gun being cocked spurred my wolf even harder.  The view before me took on a new look as my eyes shifted again.  The poor doctor looked like a deer caught in headlights.  His head darted back in forth between me and the guard as he tried to figure out what in the hell was going on.  His face dropped when he saw the change in me.

I shrugged my shoulders and smiled sadly.  “I tried to tell you.”

     If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would have bet money that a guy that old wouldn’t have been able to move so fast.  One second he was inches away from me; the next he was clinging to a guard like I’d just tried to rip his throat out or something.  The bad part about the doctor’s exodus, without him in the way, now there wasn’t any reason for the guard not to use his weapon on me.  The nurse abandoned ship at the first sight of a gun, so the only thing keeping the guards at bay WAS the fact that the good doctor was standing so close to their target.

     I jerked as a sharp pain stabbed me in the fingers.  Damn it all to hell, my hand had begun to shift.  I cursed, wondering exactly how many things can go wrong with a single situation.  I dropped my hands behind my back, and I took another step
backward, trying to put as much distance between myself and the gun as possible.  Another step and I bumped into the foot of Rush’s bed.  Every guard in the hall gasped, and before I knew it I was staring down the barrel of not one, but five guns.  Before I could say what the hell, I felt a hand wrap around my shoulder.  Rush was awake.

     “Get the guns the hell away from my sister,” he tried to shout but his throat was so raw and damaged, his voice was little more than a croak.  His hands, no, scratch that, his claws dug into my shoulder as he gingerly hopped off of the bed and limped in front of me.  I snaked my arm around his waist, trying to keep an eye on him and the guards at once.

     “Rush, you’re in no shape to be out of the bed.  I don’t need you making your injuries worse.  Let me take care of you.”  I tried to reason with him, but the only sign that he’d paid me any attention was the slight addition of weight as he sagged against me.  If I were any other wolf, he wouldn’t have allowed that.  Alphas were hard wired to show no weakness.

     “I’m not just your brother, Still; I’m your alpha, and I won’t let one of my wolves be threatened, especially when you didn’t do shit.”  This time I could make out what he was saying pretty easily.  His voice was getting stronger by the second.  I took my eyes away from the guns and turned to look at his face.  The swelling was almost gone, but the burns still looked awful.  The blinding flash of cameras caught my attention, and I jerked my head back
toward the hallway.

     Both doors to the main entrance were thrown open, and four riot-gear-clad goons waltzed through them like they owned the place.  Neither one had any visible weapons, but they moved with such precision and certainty that I knew they were Sentinels.  Behind them was a news crew and God knows how many reporters.  My cell phone began vibrating like mad in my back pocket, and my heart sank.  A nagging little voice in the back of my head was screaming that the camera was a live feed.  My mind jumped to my mother, and the shit storm she was going to have to face with her husband.  So much for staying in the closet.

     The pack of Sentinels and that’s what they were, a pack, wolves every one; reached the throng of human guards in a few short strides.  Beside me, Rush growled and pushed off of me before they could see him leaning.  I watched him walk as he took a few steps forward and noticed that his gait had improved immensely.  It shouldn’t have been possible.  Weres healed fast, but not that damn fast.

     He took a few more small steps, and pulled himself to his full height of six-foot-five.  Once there were a few feet of space between us, the room started spinning, and I stumbled back into the narrow gurney.  The dizziness only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough to make me want to thump Rush on his beat up nose.  He’s used alpha mojo on me, drawing off of me to heal himself.  That also explained how he was able to stay in his human form.  If my wolf recognized the wolf within the shifter that let me in, Rush’s wolf must have also.  He’d drawn energy off of the wolf shifter.

     The hospital guards sidestepped out of the way and let the Sentinels pass through their formation.  A few more steps placed them just outside the door to the exam room.  One wolf slid his dark sunglasses off of his face, took one look at us and frowned.  He turned to his pack and pointed at the circus behind them.  “Can you believe all this shit for a banged up wolf and a girl.”

     I took this a sign and scooted around Rush’s back.  I threw a finger in the air and cleared my throat.  “Um, hi guys.  I’m the reason you were called out today.  I’m-”

     “I’ll be damned, it’s Still Waters!”  One of the Sentinels smiled and stepped into the room with his hand held out for a shake.  My over-eager brother pulled me back, and lowered his gaze to the poor sap.  The wolf stopped short and dropped his hand.  “No disrespect intended.  I just wanted to shake her hand, man.  My mate and I watch her show every Wednesday night.”

     I carefully took Rush by the hand and tried to pull him back.  “Down boy, he’s just a fan.”  My brother looked down at me and scowled.  His eyes shot daggers at me before glancing back at the bed and then to the crowd.  For a fairly smart woman, I can be on the dense side sometimes.  Rush’s newfound strength was only temporary.  He needed the crowd gone so he could get back to the bed, because he damn sure wasn’t going to give an unknown pack of wolves his stomach.

     More camera’s flashed, stinging my eyes as I headed toward the guard that called my name.  Once the white stars in my vision cleared, I saw the masses had gathered again.  Doctors, nurses, patients in hospital gowns, young and old had gathered outside of the door.  Sixty percent of them had their mouths hung open, and were looking at me with mixes of awe and disbelief.  My ratings were either going to bomb or skyrocket after this.  I hope for George’s sake it was the latter.

     I so did not need this, but the quickest way to get rid of them was cooperation.  I groaned before I put on my best interview face and held out my hand to the wolf that was in charge.

“Hi, I’m Still,” I said as I leaned past him to wave at the group behind him.  The jittery, human guard that was ready to blast me to kingdom come a few moments ago looked none too happy with the situation.  He lowered his weapon and tucked it at his side, trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

     The wolf took my hand and smiled.  “Hello, Ms. Waters.  I’m one of your biggest fans.  My wife is so going to flip when she finds out your one of us.”  I glanced back at my brother.  The look he gave me made my blood run cold.  I needed to move faster.

     “Your wife won’t be alone,” I muttered before I let his hand go and shoved my own into my jeans pockets.  “Listen, I am so sorry about this.  My brother was in a wreck, and they brought him here instead of the CMS.  I was just trying to make sure no one was hurt.”  I shrugged my shoulders and caught the anxious human’s eyes.  “I tried to explain that when I got here, but you guys weren’t trying to hear me.”

     The Sentinels turned to their human counterparts; their faces screwed in mild contempt.  The wolf closest to me threw his hands on his hips and turned to face one guard head on.  “Your name’s Gibson.  You’re head of security, right?”

     The human’s face turned red and he slowly nodded.  “Yeah, that’s my name.  And for the record-”

     The wolf growled, and Gibson shut the hell up.  “Save it.  We came and did a training session with you, two weeks ago.  You should have known how to handle a situation like this.”  He waved his arms to the growing number of microphone and camera-clad reporters that were trying to push their way into the unit.  “And why in the hell hasn’t this ER been secured?  Patients should be in their rooms, and the media damn sure shouldn’t be allowed access.  Maybe your guards can handle that.”

       Gibson looked like he had swallowed a dozen killer bees and they were all doing the electric slide in his gullet.  He was so obviously pissed at being talked to like he was incompetent, and in front of news cameras at that, but he wasn’t about to yell at a werewolf.  He slung his rifle over his shoulder and pointed toward the doors.  “Get these camera’s out of here and everyone back to their rooms.”  He turned and threw both hands into the air, calling out over the mild roar of voices.  “Show’s over people, move along!”

     The wolf laughed to himself and gave me his hand, meeting my gaze dead on.  “My name is Walter.  Don’t worry, Ms. Waters.  We’ll have your brother transported to the CMS and this entire mess straightened out in no time.  I am afraid that you’re going to have to come in and give a formal statement.”

     I inwardly groaned.  That was the last thing I wanted to do.  I’d kept myself distant from the Black Paw pack for a reason.  Their alpha, Marcus Daniels, is my godfather.  He and my father had been friends since they were kids.  When Marcus left Goose Creek to take over the Black Paw Pack, they remained close.  Almost like brothers.  Marcus promised my father that my mother and I would be safe in Charlotte, if I kept my mouth shut and stayed out of trouble.  It was either that, or join his pack, and my mother was done with werewolf society.  So that wasn‘t an option even if I had wanted to.  I kept the fact that Marcus was my godfather to myself, and he checked on me twice a week by phone call and the occasional, unannounced drop in.  Once a week, either Marcus or his nephew Thade and I had dinner and they tried to persuade me to join the pack.  I always say no.  It looks like my choice was about to be taken away.  Marcus wasn’t going to be happy about this.