Crimson (The Silver Series Book 3) (14 page)

“
What do you
mean?”

“
It's no ordinary chip,”
Charles explained. He held up the scanner. “If I may?” I nodded and
sat back down; he proceeded to run the tracker back over my spine.
“Most dogs and cats are implanted here, at the base of the neck. A
few are microchipped here,” he ran it across the base of my tail,
“or here,” he scanned the sides of my neck and shoulders, but the
machine stayed silent. “But your
pet
,” he said with a wink at me, “was
implanted in the forearm.” He waved the device over the front of my
leg again and it beeped. “Not only that, but it's not showing me a
number.” He held up the device and showed it to me, then to the
others.

“
What does that mean?” Jaze
asked.

“
Probably what you knew it
would. This isn't a normal pet microchip with a number linked to an
owner.” He glanced at me. “My guess is it's a GPS chip designed to
show exactly where our wolf friend here is at all
times.”

At our exchanged glances, Charles gave a
small smile. “Can I assume you want it removed?”

Mr. Davies' eyebrows rose. “Can you do
that?”

The vet nodded. “I assume that anyone's
reason for tracking a werewolf can't be good. I made a pact a long
time ago with Jack that I would do what I could to protect
werewolves, and if removing this chip will keep your friend safe,
I'll do it.”

Mr. Davies let out a short sigh of relief.
“You don't know what this means to me, Charles. I'm in your
debt.”

The veterinarian shook his head. “I'm in
Jack's debt. He saved my life once and I never got the chance to
repay him before he was killed.” He met my eyes. “I'll do what I
can.”

I nodded and he smiled. “Right, then. First
off, we'll take an xray to pinpoint the chip's exact location, then
we'll operate.” I winced at the word and he gave me a sympathetic
smile. “Don't worry. Regular chips are usually about the size of a
grain of rice. If this one's similar, we'll have it out in no
time.” His lips pursed. “Can you act like you have a broken leg?” I
lifted my paw like it hurt. Jaze laughed and Mr. Davies' cuffed him
on the shoulder good-naturedly.

“
Would it be easier to
remove if he was in human form?” Mr. Davies asked in a hushed
voice.

Charles shook his head. “I went to vet
school, not med school. Besides, I don't know how I'd explain
operating on a human at my clinic.”

Mr. Davies bit back a smile. “Of
course.”

“
Follow me, if you will,
uh-” he paused.

“
Kaynan,” Mr. Davies
supplied.

Charles' eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Not a
very animalish name, right Toby?” he asked, looking at me.

I rolled my eyes while Jaze and Mr. Davies
burst into laughter. Grace smiled and Jet gave me a sympathetic
look, shrugging as if to say I might as well go along with it. I
sighed and followed Charles through the back door like an obedient,
limping dog.

“
Trisha, help me get Toby
here onto the xray table, will you?”

An assistant with short blond hair streaked
with pink and wearing green scrubs came over. Her eyes widened when
she saw me. “Are you sure that's a dog?” she asked. She bent down
cautiously. I sniffed the hand that she held out and fought back
the urge to lick the remains of sweet-smelling sugar particles from
whatever candy she had been eating from her fingers.

“
He's part Malamute,” the
veterinarian explained in a forced casual tone. He bent down and
they picked me up in a manner most unfitting for a werewolf. I
winced when they set me on the table and Charles gave me an
appreciative glance.

“
He hurt his paw?” Trisha
asked, taking it gently in her hand. I wondered where she had
received her assisting training because many other big dogs would
have bit her fingers off if she tried to handle a broken
limb.

Charles must have agreed. “I believe it's
broken, and you're lucky he's mild-mannered because a move like
that with a dog this size could put you in the hospital,” he said
sternly.

Trisha dropped my paw with another
thoughtless gesture, her eyes wide. “I'm sorry, Dr. Green. I didn't
think. Please give me another chance. I promise I'll do
better.”

Charles sighed. “Go take care of the
kennels. Cindy can show you what to do.”

“
Yes, Dr. Green,” she said
quickly. “I'll get them done right away.” She bent over and gave me
a big hug. “Get better, big guy.”

She hurried down the hall, pink sneakers
squeaking on the linoleum floor. Charles and I both stared after
her. When she turned the corner he shook his head and looked back
at me. “She's new. Maybe I should have told you to be more
aggressive. She could have learned something without getting
hurt.”

I snorted in agreement and he smiled. “Maybe
next time.” At my look, he chuckled. “Not that I hope to be doing
this again anytime soon for your sake, but it would be a great way
to train my staff without hospital bills.”

He positioned the machine, shot a film, then
led me back into the room to wait while it developed. Mr. Davies
looked shell-shocked but glad to see me. Grace’s fingers traced
through my fur and I took comfort in the feeling. We sat in silence
until the vet returned and slid the film onto a viewer. He pointed
to a tiny capsule between the bones of my forearm. “There's our
tracker.”

“
Can you remove it?” Jaze
asked.

Charles nodded. “Shouldn't be hard. The
position's good and it'll only be a minor surgery.”

“
What will you tell your
nurses?” Mr. Davies asked.

Charles shrugged. “That some idiot put a
microchip in the wrong place and it's starting to cause nerve
impingement.” He looked at me. “They'll believe anything, as you
can tell.”

I gave him a wolfish grin and he touched a
tooth. “We can clean those while you're out.” I lowered my ears and
he backed away with his hands up. “Just a joke, mostly. All dogs
can use a cleaning now and then.”

The thought of going under bothered me, but
Charles couldn't justify doing a procedure like that on a dog who
was awake. I finally gave in and let them place a gas mask over my
muzzle. The faces around me grew fuzzy until I could no longer make
them out.

Chapter 14

“
Come on, Kay. It's not
far,” Colleen said. Her little hand held mine tight with
eagerness.

I followed her through the tall grass behind
our house, between the orange trees, and to the old shed against
the back fence that had holes in the roof and was starting to fall
down. Dad often warned us not to play around it, worried that it
would collapse if we bothered it too much, but Colleen pulled me
inside. She ducked under a wooden beam that slanted from the dirt
floor to the roof and knelt next to a mound in the far corner.

Beams of orange-hued light from the setting
sun trickled down between the slats and motes of dust danced like
tiny ballerinas to the dusty floor. I held my hand up to the light
and watched the way it flitted between my fingers, casting
larger-than-life shadows on the floor.

“
Are you coming, Kay?”
Colleen asked, her voice hushed now with wonder.

I continued to the corner and knelt down
next to her. The mound against the wall was an old sweatshirt of
Dad's that had been in the discard box; now little fuzzy balls were
curled up inside.

“
What are-”

“
Shhh,” Colleen cut me off.
“You'll scare them.” Just then, a tiny, fuzzy, black and white head
poked up and mewed. Its tongue showed bright pink against a furry
white muzzle.

“
Kittens!” I said and a
smile stole across my face.

“
Aren't they amazing?”
Colleen asked. Her eyes shone up at me filled with the wonder and
happiness only a child on the edge of discovery can
have.

“
Definitely,” I said. She
smiled and I knew that my answer meant the world to her. She was
only a year younger than me, but it seemed like everything I did
was special to her.

I bent down and ran a finger softly over the
top of the mewing kitten's head. He pushed back into my hand so I
would keep rubbing. His bright blue eyes peered up at me with soft
innocence.

“
He likes you, Kay,”
Colleen said with a giggle.

“
I like him, too,” I
admitted. I picked him up and held him to my cheek. He ran his soft
forehead against my cheekbone and it felt like the feathery down of
a dandelion seed tickling my skin.

“
Let's ask Mom and Dad if
we can keep them,” Colleen said. She jumped up and held out her
hand.

I put the kitten back with its siblings and
walked out with her.

***

Something inside of me softened at the
memory. Most of my youth was made up of arguments with Mom and Dad,
sneaking out of the house, and generally getting into as much
trouble as I could muster for reasons I couldn’t explain. Seeing
Colleen at such a young age made my heart ache, and the gentler
memories of when we were very young felt unreal, like a dream I
didn’t want to wake up from. But the anesthesia faded and I awoke
to the concerned faces of Jet, Jaze, and Mr. Davies. “Can every
werewolf do that?” Charles asked from my other side, his voice
thick with awe.

Mr. Davies shook his head. “Just Kaynan.
Something from when he was changed.”

I looked at Jet and his lips creased as
though he held in a laugh. “We saw the kittens.”

I sighed and pushed slowly to my paws.

“
Whoa, now,” Charles
cautioned with a hand on my back. “Take it easy. I usually keep
patients overnight to make sure they don't have any bad effects
from the anesthesia.”

“
We need to destroy this
thing,” Jaze said; he looked down at the object in his hand. I
followed his gaze and saw a tiny piece of metal in a glass case.
“But thank you for all that you've done.”

“
Anytime,” Charles replied.
He shook their hands. “Really, anytime,” he said seriously, meeting
Mr. Davies' eyes.

Mr. Davies gave his hand a firm shake and
nodded. “Thank you very much. It means the world to have people we
can trust, especially someone with your skills.”

Charles beamed and Mr. Davies took out his
wallet. “Where do we pay?”

The vet shook his head. “It's on the
house.”

“
I insist,” Mr. Davies said
sternly. “You need to be reimbursed for your time.”

Charles shook his head again. “From what you
told me, this may have saved Kaynan's life. Let me keep that
thought to repay some of what I owe to Jack.”

Mr. Davies hesitated, then nodded. I tested
my bandaged leg on the table, found that it held, then jumped down
gingerly and followed Jaze and Jet to the door. Grace walked by my
side with her hand on my shoulder and I showed her images of the
room and the hallway beyond. Jet opened the door and let us all
pass.

Mr. Davies let out a sigh after we were
seated in the SUV. “Wow, who would've thought? What a guy,” he said
with a smile and a shake of his head. He started the vehicle and
entered the main road.

“
And kittens,” Jaze said, a
smile in his voice.

I growled and he laughed out loud, holding
up his hands. “Alright, alright. I won’t say anything else.”

“
Kittens are quite
adorable,” Mr. Davies said from the driver’s seat.

“
And fluffy,” Jet said. I
saw his eyes crease with a rare smile in his reflection on the
window as he watched the scenery roll by.

I let out a lower growl of frustration and
everyone laughed.

“
Colleen was very sweet,”
Grace commented after a few minutes. Her fingers ran through the
soft fur behind my ears, calming me. I licked her hand and she
rewarded me with a smile.

We traveled in silence for a few minutes and
I stretched out across the backseat. I had just begun to doze off
from the lingering effects of the anesthesia when something smashed
into the SUV from behind, throwing me to the floor. Grace shrieked,
fear tight in her voice.

“
What the-” Mr. Davies
stared back in the rear view mirror and his eyes widened. He
floored the gas and the vehicle sped up.

“
Guns!” Jaze
shouted.

Grace unbuckled her seatbelt to cower on the
floor. I shielded her with my body and she wrapped her arms around
me in fear. I peered over the back of the seat through the
shattered window and saw the muzzles of guns aimed at us from the
tinted windows of a black SUV similar to those that had accosted us
at the mall. Mr. Davies jerked the wheel to one side, then the
other. When he couldn’t shake them, he gunned our vehicle down an
off ramp.

“
The chip!” Jet said in
alarm.

Jaze's eyes widened and he stared down at
the microchip in his hand. He quickly unrolled the window and
tossed the chip into the sunflowers that lined the side of the
road.

“
Too bad they already know
where we are,” Mr. Davies forced out, fighting another jolt from
behind.

“
We have to lose them,”
Jaze said. He pointed down another road that dissected ours by
ninety degrees. “That way.”

Mr. Davies turned onto it, our tires
squealing as he fought to keep the vehicle centered, then we raced
toward the skyscrapers that made up the center of the city. We
rushed into the bustle of traffic and Mr. Davies dodged left, then
right, then turned down a side street Jet suddenly pointed to.