“Because if he’s unconscious, we won’t know if I got all the splinters out. Not until he wakes up—or doesn’t wake up. Say we go through all that trauma, patch him up, but oops, we left behind a splinter. He doesn’t wake up, and we have to do it all over again. If you only want to do this once, he has to be awake so he can move and show us he’s not paralyzed anymore.”
I wanted to slam my fists against the seat and scream. Instead, I steadied my voice, knowing Christian was listening and needed to hear us making confident decisions. “Then give him enough drugs to dull the pain. You can at least do that, can’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and see it as soon as you open him up. Wyatt, you need to be in there and show us the exact spot he was staked so Shepherd goes in the right way.”
“I’d rather not,” he muttered. “I already had to dig in his chest for splinters. If he croaks, who do you think he’ll torment until the end of time?”
“I’ve never had to do anything like this before,” Shepherd said. “Shit. I don’t even have a bone saw.”
I cringed internally while stroking Christian’s hand. “Can’t you buy one?”
“Everything’s closed except the grocery stores. Sure. We’ll just swing by for a carton of milk and a bone saw.”
I sighed. “We’ll get through this. Just look through other tools we have in the garage. We’re going to get it done and get it done fast. I’ll give him my blood, but it can’t be a transfusion since he can’t afford to lose his own. He’ll be knocked out right after from blood loss, so we’ll need to put a tube down his throat and pump it into his stomach. Can you do that?”
Shepherd rubbed his face, expressing what all of us felt to our core. “This is a clusterfuck.”
* * *
I stoodby Christian’s side in the medical room while Shepherd organized the equipment. His trays were neatly lined with surgical instruments, rags, plastic syringes, medicine, and a container of my blood, I had already cut away Christian’s shirt and cleaned off his chest, reassuring him that everything would be fine. I wondered if he would rather just die than go through this, but begging for death wasn’t his style.
Gem peered through the open doorway, her eyes wide as Viktor entered with a few tools from the garage.
“What do we got?” Shepherd asked.
Viktor set everything on the counter. “Tin snips and this.”
Shepherd glanced over his shoulder. “Is that the rotary tool? Did you bring extra cut-off wheels?”
“I will get.” Viktor hurried out of the room.
Wyatt lifted up the tool and turned it on. It made a high-pitched whistling sound that made my blood curdle.
“Turn that off,” Shepherd boomed. “It’s cordless. You’ll run down the battery.”
Wyatt set it on the counter and then wandered next to me, putting his arm over my shoulders. “It’ll be okay, buttercup. You can lean on me for a little moral support.”
I elbowed him away. “I drank a Charmer’s light, so everyone needs to fuck off before you say or do something you’ll regret when the gift wears off.”
“No wonder.” Wyatt stepped back and blew out a breath. “That explains my boner the entire car ride home. I thought I was finally off my rocker. No offense.”
Shepherd rolled a metal cart with all the equipment next to the table. “Claude’s busy disposing of the bodies.” He glanced at Gem. “Did Blue and Niko make it back yet?”
She twirled her hair between her fingers. “They’re still wrapping things up. Wyatt’s Vampire friend charmed the workers into thinking a raid took place and made them forget their visitors tonight. Blue and Niko made sure they located all the phones, and now they’re waiting on the Regulators to collect the victims locked in the room. Boy, that really worked out in our favor. It’ll be easy to make it look like a raid since they were selling people as blood or light slaves.” She looked at Christian again, hands clasped beneath her chin. “I can’t help. I justcan’t.”
Shepherd put on blue elastic shoe covers. “Go keep an eye on Hunter. Make sure he doesn’t come out of his room.”
Gem dashed off just as Viktor returned. He handed Shepherd the wheels and then passed out protective eyewear. I closed Christian’s eyes. Shepherd had already prepared several shots of pain medicine used in the ER to help with pain and anxiety.
“Show me,” he said to Wyatt, handing him a marker. “Draw a circle and tell me the depth and angle it went in.”
Wyatt took the black marker and hovered over Christian. “Don’t blame this on me. It’s not my fault he stabbed you with a busted-up chair leg.” Wyatt drew a circle while explaining how the stake went in.
Shepherd put on a white apron that said:Kiss the Cook.
“That’s my apron,” Wyatt pointed out.
