She spun around, eyes wide, muscles coiled.“Rick,” she gasped, slumping against the van’s side, glaring at the tall man with light brown hair frowning at her on the sidewalk.“You scared the shit out of me.”
Rick’s eyebrows shot up, fudge-brown eyes immediately concerned.“You reallyarein trouble, aren’t you?”
Regan scrubbed at her face with her hands.“You could say that,” she answered into her palms.Pushing herself from the van, she stared long and hard at Rick.How the hell did she explain the last seventeen hours to him?She suppressed a sigh, reaching for the passenger’s side door handle.“No questions, okay?”
Before he could answer, she opened the door.
Declan slumped in the seat, sweat-slicked face white, slight shudders wracking his body, blood—both old and new—staining his pale, clammy flesh.
“What the fuck?”Rick gasped beside Regan.
Declan rolled his head to the side, glassy-eyed gaze slipping from Regan to the man beside her.“Ná bain di,tuilí.”
“It’s okay, Declan,” she said softly, leaning across his body to unclip the seatbelt holding him upright.Blazing heat radiated from him in waves.Sick, insidious heat she knew all too well accompanied sick, insidious pain.Regan’s stomach clenched and she quickened her pace, not wanting to send any jolting movements into his fevered limbs but knowing she raced the clock.“I’m here.”
Delirious, grey eyes slid to her.“Run.Get away.I’m sorry.I never meant…” His eyelids fluttered closed and a grimace scrunched up his face.“Scaoil í.”
“Jesus, Regan.”Rick jumped forward, helping her remove Declan from the van.He wrapped one strong arm around his back, hefting him from the seat to the sidewalk.“What the fuck is…”
Declan stiffened, a suddenly lucid stare locking onto Rick.“Bain di agus réabfaidh mé do scornach.”
“I’ve no fucking idea what you’re saying, mate,” Rick muttered, hitching Declan further up his side with the gentle skill of a person used to moving large creatures in agony.“But I hope it’s thank you.”
A sharp groan burst from Declan’s dry lips, his eyes squeezed shut and he slumped forward again.Another wave a violent shudders took possession of his body, the short length of chain attached to the shackle on his wrist rattling with each.
Rick looked at Regan, his level stare speaking volumes—I want answers—before he turned and walked slowly toward the open door of his clinic, carrying most of Declan’s weight with him.
Regan slammed the van’s door shut and followed, worry eating at her like a cancer.What if she was too late?Declan’s condition had deteriorated so quickly over the last thirty minutes.What if?—
“Stop it, Woman!”she hissed to herself.Now was not the time.
Stopping at the clinic’s door, she hurriedly studied the street.It was almost empty, Rick’s practice situated as it was, two blocks from the main strip.Several people wandered around, mostly heading for the restaurant drag, but no one had bothered with them.Not even to cast a curious sideward glance.She breathed a sigh of relief and the sudden black lights swirling across her vision made her realize she’d been holding her breath.
The sting of disinfectant, ammonia and animal urine assaulted her nose as she stepped into the clinic’s waiting room.The smell normally calmed her.It was a smell she associated with her uni days, made her think of recovery and care for those in need, but tonight it made her nerves string taut.In the back rooms, dogs locked in cages overnight awaiting surgery the following day barked and whined, the sound sad and somehow lonely.A lone cockatoo called for an owner not there, obviously disturbed from its sleep by the unexpected interruption.“Mavis,”it called repeatedly.“The lights are on!Mavis, the lights are on!”
The low nightlight on the front counter cast the area in looming shadows, the sinking sun adding its own through the louvered blinds on the windows and door.Anyone could be hiding, waiting in those shadows.Anyone…A chill rippled up her spine and she scowled.
Oh, for Pete’s sake.McCoy is not here.Wake up, Woman.
She crossed the foyer, heading toward Rick’s main operating room.Brilliant white light streamed through the thin cracks around the door, telling her the vet had wasted no time.He never did.
Declan lay stretched on his back on the stainless steel table when she entered the room, turbulent, grey eyes closed.A tube poked from between his lips, held in place by two strips of sticking plaster.The tattered remains of his black shirt were gone, now nothing but a crumple of blood-soaked material on the floor at Rick’s feet.She ran a stunned gaze over his lean form, throat clamping shut at the hideous lesions and gashes crisscrossing his rib cage and chest.Jesus, it looked as though he’d been attacked by a pack of wild animals.
Which is exactly the case, isn’t it?Two werewolves on one.Declan chained, the others free.Thanks to you.
Guilt consumed her and she bit back a moan.
“It’ll take about five minutes for him to go under completely.”Rick adjusted the controls on a large canister positioned at Declan’s head, feeding a steady stream of anesthetic into his lungs.“That’s five minutes of answers I want before I begin.”
Regan stopped on the other side of the table, wanting to thread her fingers through Declan’s, to make sure he was still warm.Still alive.“I can’t, Rick.”
Two very angry, very worried brown eyes snapped to her face.“I saw you on the six o’clock news, Reg.The report stated you were abducted by a dangerous criminal!”
Regan hissed in a breath.Bloody hell, what would her parents be thinking?They’d be going out of their minds.
“Is this the criminal?”Rick continued, anger making his words deep and hard.“This bloke I’m just about to cut open?Has he hurt you?Are you okay?”
Regan gave him a small smile.“I’m fine.Really.You know me, Rick.You think I can’t take care of myself?”
