“Three.”
“Down to the wire. Do you have a search warrant?”
Silas glanced her way. “No.”
“Hmm. Then you better let me go in first.”
“Are you high?” Silas stopped abruptly, a muscle in his jaw tensing to the point of pain. “Did you learn nothing from last night? Why would you think that was a good idea?”
She shrugged. “If Alex is up there, he’ll be expecting you. Me, he won’t see coming.” She grabbed the address out of Silas’s hand and took off toward the café.
Silas protested all the way past the crowded Starbucks to the foreboding stairwell that led above the bustling coffee shop. An illustration of a finger pointed toward the second floor.
“This looks cozy.” Meredith climbed the dim and dirty stairwell two steps at a time.
“Wait,” Silas protested. She glanced back and pressed a finger to her lips.
“Shhh.”Why was she always hushing him?On the second floor, a frosted glass window inscribed with the eye of Horus read Copper Herald Health & Wellness in a script font.
Silas bit his tongue as Meredith tried the door and found it locked. He pointed at a handwritten note taped to the glass: Knock for service.She rapped three times.
They waited. She knocked again.
Footsteps. Silas flattened himself against the wall just as the door opened.
“How can I help you today, young lady?” an old man’s voice asked.
Meredith rubbed the bump on her head from the night before as she notably lowered her gaze by two feet. “I’ve been having a lot of pain in my shoulder and neck area since I fell yesterday. I was wondering if you had any therapies for that.”
“Is this pain with you all the time, or only after you shift?”
Meredith raised both eyebrows. “Only when I’m walking on two legs, actually.”
“You’ve come to the right place. Come in, and bring your werewolf friend with you.”
She glanced behind the door at Silas, raising both eyebrows and gesturing with her head. He came out of hiding and stared down at the wrinkled man inside. Based on his height alone, he would guess he was a leprechaun, but the shape of his ears and nose suggested part elf. The medicinal herbs hanging in the office masked his scent, but Silas thought he caught a whiff of elf under it all. Whatever he was, he must be sensitive to the light: he wore sunglasses in the dim room.
“Over here, then. Lie down on the table. Please remove your blouse.”
A deep growl came from Silas’s chest. It was an involuntary thing, like a hiccup or a sneeze. Mortified, he coughed into his hand and turned away to try to cover it up.
“There’s a gown on the table,” the doctor said, ignoring the interruption. “Although I can’t see anything but your aura anyway. I’m blind as a bat.”
With a pointed glance toward Silas, Meredith walked deeper into the room. Silas turned his back until the rustle of her undressing stopped, and he heard the crinkle of her lying down on the paper-draped medical table.
“I’m Dr. Copper by the way. If you come by another time, you might see Dr. Herald.” The little man selected a bowl of stones from a shelf along the wall.
“There are two of you?” Silas asked.
Dr. Copper made a face and began placing stones carved with ancient runes along Meredith’s solar plexus. “You obviously don’t keep him around for his brains,” he murmured to her.
Silas scowled. After a few moments, he decided to make use of the silence. “Do you treat many werewolves here?”
“I don’t, no. My specialization is vampires. But Dr. Herald does. He’s fascinated by shifter anatomy. I dare say, if you’d phoned first, he’d be the one treating you today.”
“What days does he work?”
“He’ll be in later tonight. He tends to come and go. Make an appointment if you’re interested.”
