Blood Moon (5 page)

Violet and Grant situated Kerri on the big
oak table. One leg hung limply off the edge, causing her jean skirt
to bunch up and expose her white panties. Violet repositioned her,
pushing her legs together and smoothing her skirt with bloody
hands, as if modesty mattered at this point.

The towels at Kerri’s neck were soaked
through with blood. It puddled beneath her head, staining her blond
hair and dripping from the edge of the table. Grant dug through a
kitchen drawer and came back with a fresh stack of towels.

Logan pushed his sleeves up and quickly
washed his hands at the sink. Then he found Zelda’s trauma bag in
the pantry. Violet watched him with wide eyes.

“
Where’s Doc?” she asked,
curling up her bloody fingers and pressing them to her
chest.

“
Here. I’m here,” Zelda
said, finally joining them.

Her hand looked raw, and she tucked it in
close to her body. She approached the table slowly, as if in a
daze, and blinked down at Kerri’s motionless body.

“
There’s a saline
irrigation kit above the stove.” She pointed her good hand at a
cabinet behind Logan.

Logan set the trauma bag on the corner of
the table and fetched the irrigation kit.

Zelda slumped down at the table, leaving the
chair closest to Kerri’s head free for Logan. Grant reached for the
bloody towels, but Zelda waved him off.

“
Leave them,” she said.
“Press the new towels on top. We have to stop the bleeding first.”
She pointed to the coat closet by the back door. “Violet, there’s a
wedge pillow on the top shelf. We need to elevate her
head.”

Violet nearly tripped over her own feet at
she hustled around the kitchen, following Zelda’s directions. Once
the wedge was placed under Kerri’s head, the blood began to
slow.

Logan set the irrigation kit in the chair
Zelda clearly intended for him. He just couldn’t bring himself to
get that close to her yet. He could feel her eyes lingering on him,
and usually he would have welcomed the attention. Now it grated on
his nerves. If she was looking for acceptance or approval, she had
a long wait ahead of her.

The room was painfully quiet, save for the
faint drumming of Kerri’s blood as it dripped from the table onto
the floor. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, until Zelda deemed
it time to begin the ugly business of cleaning and stitching the
wound.

Logan was no stranger to gore. He’d seen his
fair share of injuries on the farm, and Selena wasn’t fond of
doctors. She wasn’t fond of anyone. So Logan knew a thing or two
about stitches. Still, he paled at the sight of the torn skin on
Kerri’s neck and shoulder.

Zelda rested her good hand on top of the
irrigation kit and picked at the corner of the cardboard box, until
Logan took it from her and tore it open.

“
I’ve got this,” he said.
“You should see to your hand.”

Zelda flinched at his tone before standing
and retreating to the kitchen to tend to her own wounds.

Kerri’s skin puckered out in jagged strips,
dark blood crusting the edges. Logan held his breath as he poured
the saline over her neck, for fear the wound would spring back to
life and start bleeding everywhere again. From the amount on the
table, it didn’t seem like Kerri could have much more to spare.

Once the wound was clean, Logan slowly,
painstakingly stitched it closed. Twenty minutes had never felt so
long. When he finished, he rubbed his face across his shoulder,
wiping away the sweat that had gathered there. He let Violet take
over from there, with antibiotic ointment and a gauze bandage.

Zelda stood by the sink, struggling with her
own dressing. Logan watched her a moment, questioning his better
judgement, before he couldn’t take it any longer. He walked around
the counter and snatched the roll of gauze from her.

“
Let me do it,” he
said.

Zelda flinched again, and he couldn’t help
but feel like the biggest asshole in the world. Still, he refused
to apologize. His anger boiled beneath the surface, making him feel
reckless and hyper aware of the coming full moon.

He reigned in his foul mood, refusing to let
his wolf take control, as he gently wrapped Zelda’s hand and
forearm, careful not to touch her skin.

“
What next?” Violet asked,
wringing her hands as she walked around the table.

Zelda blinked stiffly. “She might need a
blood expander. I have an IV kit and some Hetastarch upstairs.”

“
Okay. I can do that.
We’ll get her set up in a room.” She nodded to Grant. “Grab the
stretcher.”

Grant hurried to the coat closet where
Violet had found the wedge pillow, and where Zelda kept more
medical supplies than coats. He came back with a stretcher and a
neck brace. After the brace was secured around Kerri’s neck so her
head wouldn’t flop around and pull the stitches loose, Logan helped
transfer her from the table to the stretcher.

As Violet and Grant disappeared up the back
stairs, Logan turned and placed both hands on the kitchen counter.
“You know I have to report this to the council, right?”

Zelda swallowed and rested her bandaged hand
against her chest. When her eyes met his, they were wet. “I was
afraid you’d say that.”

She placed her good hand over his on the
counter, flinching when he pulled away.

“
Don’t—” he bit his lip,
stopping himself from finishing the sentence.

He’d just watched her barbeque a man twice
his size by pointing her finger at him. She was not the fragile
human he had courted for the past year. He didn’t know what she
was.

He stood taller, trying to push the tension
out of his shoulders. “This will go a lot easier on both of us if
you come with me.”

Zelda lowered her voice and took a timid
step closer, watching him with solemn eyes. “I don’t want to leave
my people here alone. What if the Raymore Clan comes back?”

“
They won’t,” Violet said,
descending the stairs. She circled the counter and washed her hands
at the sink. “They’ll lick their wounds for a day or two. They’re
not smart enough to regroup any sooner than that. And I’m pretty
sure they ain’t dealt with a witch before.” She looked at Zelda,
piercing her with hurt, accusing eyes.

Zelda held a hand up. “I’m not. Not
anymore.”

Logan snorted, and Violet gave him a cold
look.

“
At any rate,” she said,
“Grant and I can watch the place while you drag Doc off to offer
her up to the council.”

Logan’s jaw tensed. “In a day or two, when
those mangy bastards do return, you’ll want the council in your
corner. And don’t forget, the council is the reason your sorry lot
have sanctuary in this town in the first place, you ungrateful
mutt—”

“
Logan,” Zelda hissed,
stepping in between him and Violet. “I’ll go with you.”

He growled deep in his throat, waiting for
Violet to lower her bloodshot eyes before he turned for the door.
He ripped it open, letting it slam in to the wall, and stalked out
into the back parking lot.

The sun was hanging low in the sky, bleeding
pink-orange out over the city. In the far distance, charcoal clouds
stirred along the horizon with a soft grumble of thunder, promising
dreadful things. A ghostly moon, a sliver away from full, rose
higher as the red sun slipped away.

Logan kicked at the
gravel. Then he kicked a tire on his truck. He pounded his fist
impatiently along the top of a wheel well. His restlessness shifted
into paranoia. He felt eyes staring at him from the dark shadows
pooling around the few buildings that surrounded the pub.
Get it together,
he
thought, and shook his head.

The back door closed, and Logan turned to
watch Zelda cross the parking lot. She had pulled on a jean vest
over her blouse, but he could still see her shoulders tremble, and
her forehead crinkled more with every step she took. She was
scared. It almost made him laugh. She could shoot lightning from
her fingertips. What did she have to be afraid of?

Zelda stopped in front of him, her eyes
turned down in submission. It made his skin tingle as the alphic
nature of his wolf was appeased. The human part of him still felt a
sucker punch of guilt—and a tinge of white knight that urged him to
pull her into his arms and swear to take her secret to the grave.
But it was too late for that.

Selena is going to kill
me,
he thought again.

He’d spent the last year telling his sister
that Zelda was harmless. That her misfit wolves, while lacking
decorum and a high school education, didn’t pose a threat. He had
no idea just how wrong he’d been.

The Raymore Clan was trouble enough, but the
revelation that Zelda was a witch would not be taken lightly by the
council. They were in the business of keeping secrets—secrets were
not kept from them.

Logan wanted to believe that they wouldn’t
exile her, or worse, demand her head. He’d witnessed them put down
a rabid vampire two summers before, so anything was possible.
Still, he wasn’t sure he could stand by and do nothing if someone
tried to harm Zelda. As mad and confused as he was, a part of him
still longed for her. He couldn’t help it.

Logan pressed his lips together and yanked
open the passenger door. Zelda slowly climbed inside, and he shut
the door behind her. He circled the truck and entered the driver’s
side. As he turned the key in the ignition and the truck grumbled
to life, he turned to Zelda.

“
Selena said something
about visiting Dr. Delph tonight, so we’ll head over to Orpheus
House. It’s a five minute drive. That’s how long you’ve got to
decide if you want the council to hear the truth from me or from
you.”

He put the truck in gear and pulled out of
the parking lot.

Chapter Nine

Dr. Delph meditated on
Sundays. Or at least, he
preferred
to meditate on Sundays. Selena knew this, but
courtesy had never been one of her virtues. She paced the length of
his private office, from the arched window to the engraved door,
her work boots shedding dirt and pebbles on the white rug
stretching between the desk and sofa.

Orpheus House was unusually quiet, like the
towering fortress was taking a deep breath, anticipating the full
moon. The werewolf in the cellar hadn’t so much as sniffled all
day, and even the cheese factory manager’s changeling wife was in a
docile mood.

Selena lifted a finger in the air. “She’s
taking in every goddamned stray that sniffs at her door—and now
it’s my problem. I told you it would come to this,” she
snarled.

Dr. Delph sighed and propped an elbow on his
desk, resting his chin in his hand. “Everyone is this town is
essentially a stray that we took in, Selena.”

She paused and leaned over his desk.
“There’s a big difference between the folk you send Graham out to
fetch and the pack trash that harlot’s been drawing in.”

“
Harlot?” Dr. Delph
grinned. “The girl’s not been involved with anyone that I know of.
Attracting the attention of your brother hardly qualifies her as a
harlot.”

“
She’s up to something. I
just know it.” Selena rapped her knuckles on his desk and
huffed.

“
Her lot doesn’t seem
especially harmful, in and of themselves. It’s their collective
past that is drawing the unwanted attention. They need to be more
widely dispersed if they continue to seek shelter here.”

Selena gave him a disgusted look. “Nice
try.”

A heavy knock at the door made them both
jump.

Dr. Delph stood and buttoned the collar of
his shirt. He felt underdressed, but to be fair, he hadn’t expected
any visitors today. At least he’d changed out of the bathrobe he’d
been wearing when Selena barged in.

Living at Orpheus House allowed him to be
close to his patients in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately,
it also seemed to eliminate most of his personal time. Not that
he’d had much of a social life to begin with.

Selena fingered the window blinds, peering
out across the wide front parking lot. “Speak of the devil.”

She stalked to the door ahead of Dr. Delph
and swung it open, blocking his view.

“
What do you want?” she
barked. “And what is she doing here?”

Dr. Delph reached the door and nudged Selena
aside. Logan, Selena’s pup of a brother, and Zelda Fulmen, the
woman Selena had been ranting about for the past hour, stood in the
dark hallway.

“
We have a problem,” Logan
said, his gaze sliding from his sister to Dr. Delph.

Dr. Delph immediately noticed the fracture
in Zelda’s aura. She’d broken a vow.

Selena sniffed the air, curling her nose.
“What’s that smell? It’s like rotting meat and melted plastic.”

Zelda lifted a bandaged arm and held it
protectively against her chest. She opened her mouth, then looked
helplessly to Logan.

“
The Raymore Clan attacked
the pub,” he answered for her.

Selena snorted. “Of course they did.”

Dr. Delph frowned at her before ushering
Logan and Zelda inside.

“
Was anyone else hurt?” he
asked, gently touching Zelda’s shoulder to attain a subtle
reading.

Her body sagged and he felt a wave of
remorse flow so heavily from her that he staggered back a step. She
hadn’t been in such bad shape since their first meeting, and it
pained him to see her this way. A year of healing, gone in an
instant.

“
Kerri was bitten, and I
couldn’t help her.” Zelda wept, gripping her bandaged arm with her
good hand.