Moonsilver transfusion f.., p.18
Moonsilver Transfusion (Full Moon Medic Book 4), page 18
Something crackled beneath my paws in the dry leaf litter. Slate’s head snapped up and turned in my direction; his eyes widened before his expression twisted into a snarl of hate.
That was enough for me. I leaped at him, jaws scissoring open, intending to latch onto that overly hairy head of his. As my paws left the ground, his eyes lit with flares of golden light. A wave of force slapped into my body. It propelled me backwards, I hit the tree behind me with a crunch of bone echoing through my skull. Bouncing off, I fell to the ground like a giant sack of potatoes.
The hell was that?
26
I lay there, stunned, watching the van’s tires spin and smoke. The rubber caught the road and the van lurched forward. It fish-tailed across the yellow line as it hurtled out the dead end alley towards the main road.
“YOU SHALT NOT HAVE THIS MAN IN THE DARK OF NIGHT. I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT.” A voice boomed in my head.
Who?! I demanded but the voice had fled with Slade. Luna’s cool power ran like a refreshing stream across my back, my broken bones snapped together like a set of Legos, and I rolled up to my paws, experiencing pins and needles dancing in my toes. The foot-thick tree I’d hit had a visible splinter dent in it from the impact. Whatever that was, if it thought I would give up a hunt that easily, then it was dead wrong. I declared my hunt with a howl and rushed after the retreating metal box.
Mine, Victoria sent as she exploded from the shadows, jumping over the row of cars parked on the street with effortless grace. Our paws pounded the asphalt as we gained on the news van. Victoria nearly caught up with it at the corner. The van shot out onto the main road, cornering so tightly two of its wheels lifted from the road.
A horn blared as Victoria tried to follow it; the headlights of a black SUV illuminated her fur. Victoria threw herself from the path of the car and landed awkwardly, slamming into a car on the other side of the street.
Knowing it’d take far more than that to more than slow Victoria down, I continued my pursuit. Avoiding the road itself, I turned onto the sidewalk paralleling the road. No pedestrians blocked my way this night. The van’s engine revved, heedless of the red light as it approached an intersection.
I drew up even with the van, then lunged out into the road, shifting midair, my paws flowing into taloned hands to rip out the sidewall of the rear tire.
And missed. The rear of the van inexplicably swung out of the way, dodging my claws like a nimble deer. The claw of my pinkie scratched the road. Light shone, not in the air, but at the very edge of my vision for a brief moment, and then was gone. My maiming blow denied, I continued to run after the van. Victoria tore past my bulky hybrid form as if I stood still. She sprang, aiming to land on the van’s roof.
The van’s edges lit with a searing light as it turned ninety degrees with the speed of a high impact collision and shot into a side alley. Victoria landed hard on the road, pivoting on one paw, her claws ripping up ribbons from the road. My own paws skidded as I banked to follow the van.
A flash of light whited out the world. The same light that had glowed within Slade’s eyes. I stumbled but continued on, closing my eyes, forcing my ears up and forward. Within a few more steps I realized I no longer heard the van’s engine nor smelled the burnt rubber of its tires. Trotting to a stop, I opened my eyes. Through the multicolored haze of my shocked retinas I saw that Slade, Nigel, and the van were gone. A jagged line, like a lightning bolt, persisted longer than the other colors, and I caught the sharp, sour smell of ozone. Victoria rushed in behind me, stopping herself against my legs, and looked around in confusion.
He’d gotten away. I lifted my muzzle and howled, Victoria joining in. A sour, bitter song of spike-filled notes, through it we told Luna of our night.
To my surprise, my bracelet lit with a blaze of her pale light, shining so brightly that it haloed my vision in her colors. A growl rumbled through my very being and in the sky the moon appeared to be a bright hole in the dark night, through which a celestial muzzle protruded. Unfurred, moon-pale skin stretched over bone. It sniffed once, then the thin lips drew back, revealing black fangs veined with silver. I shivered, and the nearly full moon returned to normal. She issued no commands but whatever guarded Slade, she wanted it destroyed.
We stood there, listening as the coyotes bragged of their good hunting, fat squirrels, and celebrating the ceasing of all the screaming clogging up the night. That would be a win. I hoped people appreciated the cost. Victoria and I made our way back to the park.
“Merf.” Secret mewed to us at the park’s edge. I scooped her up and she nestled into my arms with a tired purr.
I shifted back down to wolf woman, instead of wolf monster, Victoria did likewise. “I suppose you’re going to need another heart after closing those gates?” I asked with a sigh.
She purred louder.
“Heh,” Victoria chuckled, “Don’t let her fool you. She already helped herself when she thought I wasn’t looking.”
“Merf!” Secret grumped and stared daggers at Victoria. Petting her head mollified her, slightly.
I was about to suggest that we all go home, when I spotted a new set of vehicles in the parking lot: three orange vans with biohazard symbols painted on the side. Two people wearing hazmat suits stood talking to Cindy: one short, one tall. Other hazmat-clad individuals hovered over a line of the dead still awaiting body bags.
My sense of duty probably wouldn’t have turned my feet in their direction alone, but it’d been awhile since I’d seen Doctor Wiggins, and Secret needed to get back on a tutorial schedule.
“Doctor Wiggins, I presume?” I called when we were close enough to catch snatches of their conversation.
Nadia spun in her suit, and in the dark of her hood I caught the flash of a rare grin. “Abby, Victoria! Is that my kotenok in your arms?”
“Merf.” Secret’s ears flicked back.
“I think that depends on whether you have textbooks stuffed in there somewhere.” Victoria translated.
“Ha! Not today, but there is much learning happening tonight, da?” Nadia said.
“Nadia!” Dr. Wiggins scolded her. “Have some respect.”
“Docktor. This is another new thing. New discoveries. Someone must do what we do. Best we smile, otherwise we do it slow. Hope they tell us something new.” She reached out and patted the smaller man’s shoulder, the plastic crinkling.
“It will be the same bloody brick wall. An impossible thing that happens that defies the supposed unbreakable laws of nature.” Doctor Wiggins spoke with a nearly robotic monotone and none of his usual nearly goofy cheer. His voice made the scars on my wrist tingle with sympathy. I’d heard that tone, usually from failed suicide attempts. The ones that weren’t pleas for attention or help. The numb ones who were just vaguely disappointed it didn’t work.
“Doctor Wiggins, are you alright?” I asked.
He did not answer immediately; while the hazmat suit concealed his face I felt his gaze travel up and down my bestial body.
“You just walk around like that now? You live like that?” he asked with that same distant tone.
“Docktor!” Nadia exclaimed in sheer exasperation, “Ignore him, he’s… overworked. You both look fantastic, very healthy, strong. Come, Docktor, we have work to do. Yes.” She took a few steps away, waiting for Dr. Wiggins to join her.
He gave a deep sigh. “Yeah. I’m overworked. That’s it.” He turned to Cindy, “We can take it from here, Miss Maverick.”
We all watched him trundle towards Nadia, who put a hand on his back to guide him toward the line of bodies waiting to be processed and transported.
“Merf.” Secret summed it up and we all took a deep breath of our own.
“Anything else we can do, Cindy?” I asked, turning to our tired, fox-eared friend. The halogen lights revealed that her fur color had faded to a flaxen auburn and dirt clung to her pink house dress, indicating she’d spent much of her or Rey’s energies tonight. Still, the ears moved and weren’t attached to any headband, so she hadn’t gone completely dry.
A smirk quirked the corner of her mouth, “Other than putting on shirts so you two stop flashing everyone?”
“Hopefully the next time we run out the door on all fours for a medical emergency we can steal some T-shirts from Cliff.” I laughed, imagining his shocked expression when I borrowed his clothing.
Victoria actually tittered beside me, turning away and covering her mouth.
“Take your fuzzy asses home and get some rest,” she smiled, then looked out among the ruined park, and the smile died. The mixed team of coroners and hospital researchers were unwrapping bundles of black bags. Several of the relic-wielding priests remained, hovering over the dead, weeping and praying. “I know you did all you could, but Jebus Crust, tomorrow’s gonna be a total shitstorm.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, but a gentle pulse from the ground beneath me reminded me that I still had one duty left before I could bed down for the night. And I needed to get my human face on.
About an hour later, I wore my uniform as I parked in front of a two-story house. Sadie’s parents, Isabell and her father, his leg in a cast, waited on their porch. Their faces were drawn from lack of sleep and watched me with anxious eyes.
“She’s gone. Isn’t she?” Her mother asked before I had even closed the door on my car.
I paused, wondering how to answer that. Not gone; if I reached down deep, I would feel her heart, pulsing and soothing away pain. How to explain that, though?
“I should have stopped her.” Isabell whispered to herself.
“You tried,” Her husband said and squeezed her. “We all did.”
“She’s not dead,” I said and immediately regretted it. Hope flared in both their eyes, only to die away when they saw my expression. “A group of… priests provoked it into a rampage. I… I couldn’t kill it, but I hurt it. I destroyed its heart. To try to undo the damage and save some of them, Sadie gave it hers.”
“What? Why?!” Isabell shouted at me.
I opened my mouth to explain about how Sadie had made her choice but the angry tears that poured from Isabell’s eyes stopped me. No explanation of how the spirits worked would satisfy her. She’d lost her daughter and wanted something to blame. My eyes wandered down to the walkway I stood on and over the grassy yard. Among the grass a tulip had bloomed, the cup of petals facing the sky. By Luna’s light alone it would be impossible to tell its color, but the house had a porchlight on. Orange.
“She did it for the same reason she connected with the spirit in the first place,” I said, my eyes finding additional flowers everywhere I looked. Every plant in their flower beds that ran along the porch bloomed or was on the edge of blooming. “She didn’t want to leave her home, and didn’t want anyone else to have to leave, either. For what it’s worth, her sacrifice saved about fifty people.”
“She’s a child! Not a sacrifice! Do you think that makes up for my own little girl not coming home?”
“Course not.” Steeling myself, I looked up into those eyes; they bored back into mine with an intensity that bordered on hate. Blinking back my own tears, I took a shaky breath. “But she’s not gone, she’s part of the land. She can hear you, although she might not be able to respond directly. She wanted me to tell you something, though.” I forced a small smile onto my face.
“And that is?” Isabell’s voice trembled, verging on breaking.
“Her favorite color is orange, not pink.”
Confusion twisted up Isabell’s face but her husband laughed, nodding his head. “That’s true.”
“Remember that when you wake up in the morning.” I told them. “Good night.”
I got my hand on my car door before Isabell spoke again, “That’s it? That’s all you have to say? Do you have any idea what we’ve gone through these past two weeks? And this is the result?! I don’t care if she saved a hundred people! A million! I want my daughter back, you monster! Give her back! I want her back! Please!”
She broke into sobs.
“I’m very sorry.” I said, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn around. I got in the car and drove. Perhaps waking to find their yard covered with orange flowers would assuage their grief, but I doubted it. Perhaps Isabell would learn to commune with her daughter, or she’d join the cast of people calling for my hide. Maybe both these things or neither, their story would continue on, hopefully without me. What had they gone through these past weeks? I didn’t know; there were too many people in this city for me to learn all their stories. As a paramedic, you glimpse into the lives of so many in a moment of need. You do what you can, drop them off at the hospital, and wash your hands of it, almost never knowing if they lived or died.
Certain cases always stick with you though, the ones you replay through in the middle of the night, searching for that one action that could have changed things. I drove aimlessly for over an hour before giving up hope that I’d shake the certainty that I’d fucked up. This one would be following me all the way to the grave.
27
Cindy’s prediction of a shit storm proved to be an understatement. Apparently those priests were real deal demon hunters sent from the Vatican and the rest of the people were part of some huge network of megachurches down in Texas. Somehow Slade had convinced them to come to Portland in order to prove, as Victoria put it, the hardness of their Jesus boners against an actual demon. Whatever force that’s been keeping news and belief of the supernatural contained to the local news broke. International headlines screamed, Hell Caught on Camera in Portland! Slade had live-streamed the entire thing with breathless giddiness, only clicking off the camera once I started tending the wounded. Debate raged if the footage was real or fake. The final count didn’t lie, though; including Sadie, one hundred and thirteen dead, forty-eight horribly maimed. It rivaled some of the country’s worst mass shootings in terms of scale.
After a few hours of morning doom scrolling, I would have tossed my phone in the trash and retreated into the wolf, but for a call from Mayor Pat, who begged me to come down to city hall. I didn’t have the energy to argue, and I found myself at city hall dressed in my paramedic uniform. Victoria still slumbered, so I took Secret for moral support.
“He’s waiting for you in his office.” The security guard told me as he checked my medical bag. Not sure why I’d brought it with me into the building. Just felt safer with it, I suppose. I found my way to the mayor’s sanctum without seeing the hallways in between. Opening the door without knocking, I found Patrick sitting at his desk, holding court with a small gaggle of people in dress uniforms. My eyes bounced between the fire and police chiefs before settling on the six-inch bronze antlers sprouting from Patrick’s temples. Damn spirits.
“Abigale!” He greeted me with a gentle politician’s smile. “Thank you so much for coming. Won’t you take a seat? We’re drafting a statement.”
I didn’t say a word. Walking forward, I threaded around the chairs and the people they contained, then grabbed Patrick by an antler.
Hauling him across his own desk caused an outcry around me. The police chief drew his gun on me and I had a vague realization that I really shouldn’t have left the house. Not like this. This stretched-too-thin Abby did stupid things, like bite sorta girlfriends and assault city spirits in the seat of their power.
The power of Portland’s spirit closed on my body like a vice, but I kept hold of that antler and stared into Patrick’s wide, surprised eyes. The shine of burnished bronze lurked in the depths of his pupils.
“No more children,” I told the spirit, my voice a flat monotone.
Recognition and relief washed over Patrick’s face as he schooled his mouth back into a smile. “Sadie. It’s tragic what happened; her parents will receive our heartfelt condolences.”
“I’m not talking to you, Patrick. I’m talking to the city,” I said, picturing the elk in the depths of his eyes. “You’ve got Mill Park back, so now I want assurances, a promise that no piece of you will ever use a child as your, I dunno what to call it, shaman? Rider? I don’t know. Whatever. Tell me that you and all your pieces will never allow what happened to Sadie to happen again.”
The bronze of the elk filled Patrick’s eyes and power pulsed through the antler I held, pain flared along with a sizzle of my flesh.
You overstep, wolf. The spirit’s voice filled my mind. We are grateful for your service, but we will not limit ourselves for the sake of your guilt.
“She was eleven years old!” I insisted, tightening my hold on the antler.
And so she remains. In those burnished orbs, Sadie appeared, her petite features carved of soil and asphalt, glowing LED light emanating from her eye sockets.
“I made my choices. Same as you,” she said. “You sound like my mother.”
“Because your mother’s right. I shouldn’t have put this on you.” Tears swelled up in my vision. I blinked and Sadie disappeared, leaving me facing the angry stare of the unsympathetic city.
The burden of adapting to a new age falls on the children; from them will arise the shamans, the mystics and magicians who reach into spaces beyond mundane sight as you do. Now, let us focus on moving forward.
Seeing Sadie again had drained me of righteous anger. The spirit jerked its antler from my hand and with the break of that contact I found Mayor Patrick before me again.
“Hey, hey, hey!” he said, making a shooing gesture at the Police Chief’s drawn gun. “No need for that.” Then he flung himself the rest of the way over the desk to hug me. “Thank you so much for your service last night, Abigale. I want you to know we stand behind you.”
“Thanks.” I mumbled automatically, mentally retreating back to that numb place. Then I took a seat. Before long I found myself standing behind him as he held a press conference that seesawed between sympathy for the victims and casting them as reckless thrill seekers. He called for Slade to be fired from KATU TV for reckless endangerment; he spoke with more passion than I’d ever seen from him. Nobody else mentioned the bronze antlers. Mayor Patrick and the spirit seemed to have found a balance. Good for him. Not that I cared. At that moment I cared about very little.
