Blood Bound

Tony walked into the emergency room as if he'd been there a time or two before. He was wearing civilian clothes, jeans and T-shirt, but the cheery-faced young man with him was in uniform.

He strolled into my curtained cubicle and looked around. Samuel was off doing doctor stuff, but the others were all there. Stefan and I had scrubbed up. I was in one of those stupid hospital gowns, but Stefan's clothes were still covered with blood. Bran sat on the doctor's chair, slowly spi

"Tony, this is Adam Hauptman, we were talking about him just the other day. Adam, this is my friend Tony." I didn't bother to introduce the others.

Tony's face froze and he stopped where he was. I guess he hadn't recognized Adam from his newspaper pictures until I'd used his name. Adam's publicity shot showed a conservative businessman. There was nothing conservative or businesslike about him tonight. Anger radiated off of him in waves even humans should be able to sense.

"Hey, John," Tony said casually, after quickly looking away from the Alpha. I guess the information sheet that had gone out on werewolves had explained that it was not a good idea to have a staring contest with one. "Why don't you get both of us a cup of coffee."

The other cop gave Tony a narrow-eyed look, but he only asked, "How long should I take?"

Tony glanced at me. I shrugged and instantly regretted it. "This won't take more than ten minutes."

When the other cop had gone, Tony pulled the curtains closed. It didn't give us much privacy, but the cacophonous chatter of dozens of mysterious machines would mask whatever we had to say from human ears.

"You look like death warmed over," he told me.

"It wasn't at the police station," I told him, too tired for our usual teasing. "But it wasn't more than a half mile away."

"You found it."

"I killed it," I said. "I think that you'll find the nightlife will calm down a little from here on out."

Tony frowned. "It?"

"Yes." Stefan's voice was weary. "Something that should never have been allowed to roam the streets. It was not murder, sir. It was self-defense."

"Don't worry," offered Bran meekly. "There isn't a body." Only because he'd noticed Littleton 's head lying around and we'd used Zee's medallion to get rid of it, too. I'd forgotten all about it. Presumably it wouldn't have done anything except scare the begeebers out of whoever found it-since the body was gone-but I was just as glad to have that last bit taken care of as well.

Tony looked at Bran more closely. "Do I want to ask who you all are?"

"No," I told him.

"So why did you call me in?" Tony asked.

I opened my mouth to answer and Samuel pulled the curtains aside and stepped in, an X-ray in his hands.

"Dr. Cornick," Tony greeted him like an old friend-I supposed that cops might see a lot of emergency room doctors. Then something about the wariness of everyone in the room clued him in.

"Samuel needs to have the shield of police business to hide behind," I said before he could ask if Samuel was a werewolf, too.

Tony frowned, taking a careful look at the people in the room-avoiding eye contact. "All right," he said slowly. "You're sure everything will get back to normal?"

I started to shrug, but nodded my head instead. "As normal as it gets."

"Fine." He looked at Samuel. "Tell me that you're not a danger to your patients."

I waited anxiously for a smart-ass comment, but Samuel was tired, too. He only said, "I'm not a danger to my patients."

"All right," Tony said. "All right. Dr. Cornick, if anyone asks about this, just tell them it was a police matter you were helping in." He took out his wallet and pulled out a card. "Give them my number if you need to."

Samuel took the card. "Thank you."

Then Tony turned back to Adam. "Mr. Hauptman," he said. "Mercy tells me that I ought to speak with you first on matters concerning werewolves."

Adam rubbed his face tiredly. It took him so long to speak that I worried. Finally he said, in an almost civil tone. "Yes. Did Mercy give you my number?"

"We didn't get that far."

Adam collected himself and managed a small smile that made him look like a hungry tiger. Tony took a discreet step back. "I'm not carrying my cards tonight, but if you call my office, I'll instruct them to give you my cell phone number-or Mercy usually knows how to get in touch with me."

My ankle was just sprained. Stefan left while Tony was talking with Adam. No one but me seemed to notice. I don't know if he did some vampire thing, or that no one else cared.

Adam wanted me to stay at his house. But he had half the local pack, part of the Montana pack, and Kyle staying at his house. I had no intention of joining the crowd.

After the others left for Adam's house, Samuel carried me into my battered trailer and started toward my bedroom, but I didn't want to sleep. Not ever.

"Can you take me to the office, instead?" I asked.

He still wasn't speaking much, but he obediently switched directions and took me into the tiny third bedroom that hummed with various bits of electronics.

He set me in the chair, then dropped to his knees in front of me. His hands were shaking when he closed them on my knees and pulled them apart so he could fill up the space between. His body was hot as he pressed himself against me and buried his face in my neck.

"I knew you'd come," he whispered and the power of his wolf ruffled my hair as it rushed over me. "I was so worried. And then… and then the wolf came. Adam kept control-he tried to help me, but I was in a worse state than Ben, who had been there far longer. I am losing control of my wolf, I'm a danger to you. I told my father that as soon as you are well, I will return to Montana."

I held him with my good arm. "Demons aren't good for a werewolf's control."

"Of the three of us there," he told my neck, "I had the least control."

That wasn't true. I'd been there and seen him still fighting when Ben had given up entirely to the wolf. But before I took up that argument, I realized something.

"That church is less than half a mile from the hospital," I told him. "Uncle Mike told me the demon's presence causes violence anywhere near him-and the police records confirm that. When Tony worked it up for me, we found that the area of effect was over three miles in diameter. You've been fighting the demon since the night I first ran into Littleton. It had Ben for a few days-you, it's been working on for weeks."

He stilled, thinking about it.

"The night you lost control after that accident with the baby," I said. "It wasn't you, it was the demon."

The arms of my chair creaked a protest under his hands. He took a deep breath of my scent and then pulled back a little so he could look me in the face. Very slowly, giving me plenty of time to pull away, he kissed me.

I thought I might love Adam. Samuel had hurt me once before-very badly. I knew that he might only want me now for the same reason he had wanted me then. Even so, I couldn't pull away.

I had come so close to losing him.

I returned his kiss with interest, leaning into his body and threading my fingers through his fine hair. It was Samuel who ended the kiss.

"I'll get you some cocoa," he said, leaving me in my chair.

"Sam?" I said.

He stopped at the door, his back to me and his head lowered. "I'll be all right, Mercy. For tonight, just let me get us both some cocoa."

"Don't forget the marshmallows," I told him.