“Wager?Wager?Are you okay?”I glanced over at Herne, uncertain.
“No, I don’t think I am,” he said.
“Call the medics,” I said.
As Yutani put in a call to 917—the emergency number for Otherkin—I cleared the table.
Viktor lifted Wager up and laid him out on the flat surface.“He’s hot—his body feels too warm,” he said.
Wager curled up in a fetal position, moaning as he clutched his side.His right side.
“Oh, crap,” I said.“I’ll bet it’s his appendix.Tell those medics to get here soon.”
“Will do,” Yutani said, returning to his phone call.
“Should we ice his head?”Herne asked.
“I’m not sure.I know some of the symptoms, but not what to do about them,” I said, frantic.Appendicitis could be bad—really bad—if it wasn’t treated right away.The Fae weren’t usually prone to it, but humans and magic-born alike were.And Wager was a tralaeth—half Dark Fae, half human.Knowing him, he’d probably ignored the early signs, assuming it was something like stomach flu.
“I’ll get a pillow,” Talia said, hurrying out of the breakroom.She returned with a sleeping bag and a pillow.“Lift him up so we can lay him on something cushioning,” she said.
Viktor gently gathered him up again, and Talia and I stretched the sleeping bag out.Then Viktor laid him back down, and we tucked the pillow under his head.Wager was groaning loudly now, and while he was conscious, he seemed focused on the pain.
A few moments later, the EMTs arrived.They took over as we stood back, giving them room to work.A few moments later, they were ready to wheel him out.
“Do you think he has appendicitis?”I asked.
“He shows signs of it.But the doctors will have to make the final call.Do you have an emergency next of kin?”One of the medics pulled out a notepad.
I shook my head.“Most of Wager’s family disowned him.He’s part Fae,” I said.The EMTs were shifters, most commonly, and didn’t care about his heritage except as for how it would affect his treatment.
“I see.Then we’ll put you down as his to-contact on the form.Name?”The shifters might not hang out with the Fae all that much, but they understood what being half-Fae meant.
“Ember Kearney.Also, add Yutani to the list.And Raven BoneTalker.”Raven and Wager were good friends.She needed to have access to how he was doing.
“Ready,” the other EMT called.Wager was strapped onto the stretcher.“We need to get him to the hospital.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” the EMT said.
“Here’s our card,” I added, handing him our business card.He took it, and they headed out, wheeling Wager to the waiting ambulance.I turned to Yutani.“Go to the hospital and wait.Keep us updated about his condition.”
“On it, boss,” Yutani said, jumping up.He grabbed his tablet, phone, and laptop, shoving them into a messenger bag.He grabbed his keys and, long dark hair swirling around his shoulders as he hurried out to his car, he took off, following the medics as they headed for the hospital.
CHAPTERTHREE
After the medicshad taken Wager off, sirens screaming, we gathered back in the breakroom.Tension filled the air.Talia, Herne, Viktor, and I sat there, silent.Talia finally got up and poured us all coffee, then brought the platter of pastries over to the table.
I cleared my throat.“I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s going to be hard to focus until we hear from Yutani.”
“So, shelve the case we were about to talk about?”Herne asked.
“Until we know how Wager’s doing.It won’t hurt to push it back for a day.Or half-a-day.Either way, we’ll be down a person.”I bit into a maple bar.“What do you think of Ash?”
“Hard to tell this early,” Herne said.
“She’s observant,” Talia said.“That much I can tell you.The woman was watching everything and everyone in the room.I’ll do some research on the Crystal Fae and see what I can find out, if anything.”
“You’re correct—she does seem to take in everything.And that glamour is wild, she practically radiated a magnetism I haven’t often seen,” Viktor said.“She’s going to attract notice.”He sighed.“I would like to talk about the UnderLake Park case.Yes, we’re all worried, but just sitting around waiting isn’t going to do any of us any good.We can always go over it again once Yutani is back from the hospital.”
