The Vampire's Bat (14 page)

“I want to go get breakfast and bring it up here to
eat, since Peter needs some, too. Would you like to come with me?” Seamus asked
as he finished buttoning his shirt.

Maysa
shook her head. “There’re more people in there now then there was before, and
after yesterday, I don’t want to have to face any of them.”

“What do you mean ‘after yesterday’? What happened?”

“I ran from you. It was stupid. You wouldn’t have hurt
me so I don’t understand my reaction, but it was wrong and stupid.”

“Sweetheart, it could have been a flashback. You were
traumatized, and things like that can happen without notice. I’m not going to
condone you running from me, but you didn’t do anything wrong and I don’t think
anyone would fault you for it. But you are right about there being more people.
That’s okay if you don’t want to go. I shouldn’t take long.”

Seamus had to gather help to carry all the plates and
glasses of juice, but soon enough he and
Maysa
were
eating at the breakfast bar in the infirmary. Peter was eating as well but in
the bed that was still out in the living space.

“I think my scent is coming back,”
Maysa
said after swallowing a mouthful of pancake.

“Why do you think that?” Seamus asked before stuffing
his mouth with the same.

“I think I can make out yours and Peter’s vampire
scent, but I know for sure I was able to scent just a hint of Havana’s bear
when she helped you bring up the food.”

“That’s really good news, sweetheart. Would you let me
take a blood sample later today?”

Maysa
giggled. “You mean you haven’t gotten enough?”

Seamus laughed. “I meant what I said earlier, I can’t
get enough of you.” He smiled and winked at her.

Chapter Nine

“Sea!”
Seamus heard Reese yelling his name from the downstairs gym. He was currently
doing an exam on Peter before heading out to check on all the other patients.
He looked up as he heard the heavy tread from the young teen darting up the
stairs. The door flew open, and Reese hurried inside.

“Nix and Henry are both coming in with trap injuries.”

“Son-of-a-bitch!”
Peter cursed. “That’s one whole sentry team.” Peter
threw his legs over the side of the bed and began dragging himself out of bed.

“Reese, help Peter to his room in the house,” Seamus
ordered. As the two slowly made their way out of the room and down the stairs,
Seamus,
Maysa
, and Katie, who’d just arrived, worked
to get the bed back into the bedroom with clean sheets, and readied trauma
kits.

Neto
appeared with Henry slung
over his shoulder, a steel-jaw leg-hold trap still clinging to his left arm.
Henry shouted in pain at the jostling, and his skin was undoubtedly pale.

A startled cry came from Katie.
“Daddy!”

Seamus glanced over to assess her. He saw that even
though Katie looked and sounded upset, she was still capable.

Neto
headed straight to the
exam bed behind the partition. “Nix is worse,” he said over his shoulder as he
tried to place Henry down on the tiny bed as carefully as he could.

“How much worse?”
Seamus asked.

“He was snared by some kind of razor wire. He’s in his
falcon form, and they were trying to free him without slicing his wing and neck
clean off,”
Neto
answered.

“
Neto
, get Tyler up here.
Tell him I might need to do a blood draw on him,” Seamus said hurriedly as he
rushed to help Henry out of the trap. He worked quickly to get Henry stable
enough for when Nix arrived.

Once again, Nix’s blood dripped a path on the floor,
but this time it coated his feathers instead of flesh, as
Kace
carried his limp form in. Someone’s shirt was wrapped protectively around his
chest and neck. The flat
,
sharp wire was still
wrapped around his body, cutting deep into his feathers and flesh.

Reese arrived with Tyler just at that time. “
Maysa
, have Reese help you draw a pint of blood from
Tyler,” he ordered.

Maysa
nodded and sent Reese to gather the equipment as she took Tyler over to a
chair. Seamus focused on his work. He had to carefully remove the wire without
moving it in any direction lest he would cut Nix more. He winced when he saw
how deep some of the cuts had gone.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he worked. Hooking up
an IV was tricky on Nix’s falcon form, but once he got it going and got some of
Tyler’s blood dripping into him, he could sense Nix strengthening, but only
just a little. He was worried it wouldn’t be enough, so he didn’t relax.

Seamus didn’t know how long he took, but when he was
done, he had placed dozens of stitches, including several connecting severed
nerves and muscles. Seamus stretched his back and neck. He could feel his mate
through their link. She wasn’t nervous, but she was concerned.

“Bring
Bronya
and
Alphy
in, sweetheart,”
he said through their newly formed mind-link. He felt
her slight jolt of surprise, but she quickly recovered. He chuckled at the
memory of this morning.

The door opened, and
Maysa
led the other two in.
Bronya
hurried over to Nix, but
he was still in falcon form. “
How is he
?” she
asked.

“
He should pull through, but
some of the cuts were seriously deep. It nearly took his wing and head off.
I’ve
done what I can, and now we can only wait.”

Alphy
walked over and stood beside
Bronya
, looking down at
their good friend. “Yes,
Kace
said he thrashed around
in a bit of a panic after he flew into it. It was up in the tree, and Nix had
become focused on Henry who was trying to sense out and disarm traps
.
The sneaky bastard
is
sending us false scent trails
,
and with the
rains, it’s made it near impossible to get a fix on him. I feel like we’re just
chasing our tails. He’s not coming too close to the tree line
,
and to top it off, he’s
placed better concealed traps near more obvious ones
.
Henry was focused on one,
trying to disarm it, and he ended up setting off another. It’s like he knows
about our senses and how to get around them.”

Maysa
let Seamus pull her into his arms as he continued to talk to
Alphy
and
Bronya
. “Well, I don’t
know how much mobility he will recover. There’s a possibility he might not ever
be able to fly again, but it is just as likely that he will. I can’t say at
this point.”

Bronya
ran the back of two of her fingers down some feathers on one of his wings. “As
long as he lives, I can handle everything else.”

Seamus could see tears pool in her eyes, but they
didn’t fall. He could see the tense lines around her lips and her rigid posture
start to relax as she continued to stroke her mate’s feathers.

Alphy
looked up at him. “Thank you, Sea, and congratulations, the both of you, on
your bonding.”

“Alpha?”
Maysa
said in a small voice.

“Yes,
Maysa
?”

“It’s Scott.
The one who’s setting
these traps.
I just know it’s him.”

“I know it is,
Maysa
. Don’t
go blaming yourself. This is all on him. I’m already stretched thin as is with
security, so no one goes into the forest without my permission, until further notice.”
Alphy
placed a hand on
Bronya’s
shoulder. “I’ve given warning to the treehouse building crew to keep a lookout
for him
,
and I have Marley, one of
Kace’s
building crew who is also one of his sentries, assigned to them. Just focus on
Nix.
Hey
,
Sea, can I
have a private word with you?
”

“Sure.” Seamus gave
Maysa
a kiss on her head. “I’ll be right back
,
sweetheart.”
Then he followed
Alphy
,
who led them halfway down the stairs. He turned
and regarded Sea with concern.

“Enzo and I are worried about Nix possibly
having night terrors again, due to the way he acquired his injuries. Should we
tell
Bronya
? Or do you think he would develop any?”

Seamus took a moment to think about the
questions. A very few were privy to Nix’s PTSD
,
which had started with the murder of his
parents.

“He only has them during certain events, which
this one would most definitely qualify, but I think the key is his mate. One’s
destined mate can always calm their other half. I believe that so long as
Bronya
stays by his side, he should be fine. I’ll make sure
to monitor him closely
,
and yes, I
believe
Bronya
should be told. But the details as to
why, I’ll leave up to Nix to tell her. After I finish up with Henry, I’ll tell
her.”

After checking on Henry, being satisfied he was
healing well, Seamus sent him home with his mate, Beverly. The room was once
again quiet, and he noticed it was after noon.

“Reese, please clean up the exam area. Then you can
head back into the house.”

“Will do,” Reese replied happily.

Connie had brought up some food, so Seamus
decided to wait to talk to
Bronya
until after everyone had left. He
and
Maysa
sat and ate while Katie went to go lie down.

After they finished eating,
and
not being able to leave the mess until later,
Seamus began cleaning up
the hospital room, with
Maysa’s
help. After
, while
Maysa
was in the
bathroom, Seamus checked on Nix and used that time to talk to
Bronya
.

“Has Nix ever talked to you about his past?” he
asked.

“Uh, a little bit.”

“I don’t know how much to tell you, but did he
tell you he sometimes suffers from night terrors?”

Bronya
shook her head
,
so Seamus continued. “He doesn’t get them in
his falcon form, but when we finally get him to
shift,
we will need to watch for them. I believe he will be fine while you’re here
,
as your presence will calm him.
And don’t leave his side if
you can help it.”

Bronya
nodded her head. Satisfied, and completely
spent, Seamus and
Maysa
both
collapsed on their bed. He was still weakened from
his earlier state, so he fell to sleep, taking a nap, not waking up until right
around
sun
set
.

Seamus stretched and went to check on Nix. Walking
around the divider, he saw
Bronya
had her head lying
on the bed while her butt was planted in a chair beside it. Her arms were
resting on the bed above her head, placed over the tip of one of Nix’s wings.

As Seamus approached, he saw Nix sleepily open his
eyes. He smiled down at him in a bit of relief. “You had a lot of people
worried. Let me have a look at how well your wounds are healing before I
determine whether or not you should shift,” he whispered.

Seamus looked over the sutured cuts. They looked like
they were a few days old already, but they were still a long way from being
healed. He pressed down in different places and listened to his lungs. That was
when
Bronya
woke.

“Nix, you’re awake.” She looked up at Seamus. “When
can he shift?”

“I can sympathize that you might want to hold him and
hear him talk to you, but I don’t want him putting any pressure on those
stitches for a little while yet. I’ll look at them again in the morning and see
if they are good enough then. The position of some of those cuts makes it
actually more dangerous to shift as opposed to facilitating his healing.”

After he finished, he looked over at
Maysa
, who had been standing behind him.

“I’m going to go check on the other patients from the
lab raid.” Seamus held out a hand to
Maysa
.
“Care to join me?”

“Yes,” she said happily. After grabbing a big medical
duffel bag, he headed out with
Maysa’s
hand in his.
It was a lot of traveling as some of them were in the park model homes, and
others were in the alpha house. They started with the patients in the park
model homes. It was very dark, and the clouds finally decided to open up.
Seamus and
Maysa
had to walk through the rain to each
destination.

Next to all the patients was a pad of paper that
people who had helped care for them used to record information. Whenever
someone would give food, water, or in the case of non-shifted forms, clean a
mess, they would record how much was given, eaten, drunk, or messed, along with
any characteristics like nightmares, or responses to things, positive and
negative. This was especially helpful with the many shifters who still hadn’t
shifted since they couldn’t speak for themselves.

As Seamus checked over the patients,
Maysa
recorded the information on a tablet that he was
using to keep everyone’s medical records on. He would later copy the files over
onto a computer. This was what he did for everyone in the pack.

He was ready to head out to the barn where they were
forced to keep some of the shifters, but he wanted to stop by Ryker’s room
first. Knocking on the door, he didn’t hear an answer. Looking in, the room was
empty. A toilet flushed
,
and
a
moment later one of Ryker’s sentries, Gavin, trotted down the hall.

“Hi, Sea.
Maysa
.
Looking for Ry?”

“Yes, would you know where he is?” Seamus asked.

“Sure. We got more cams in the mail today, so he went
to the barn to put them up. He put me on monitors tonight since
Alphy
doesn’t want anyone past the tree line at night, not
even the gargoyles.”

“Yes, it’s turned out plenty dangerous for even the
day. Thank you, Gavin.”

Seamus led
Maysa
out to the
barn. He could see the gargoyle Stelios sitting on the top roof watching him
approach. Seamus knew the other, Bogdan, was sitting on the main house. It was
where they both liked to be on guard when they weren’t flying patrols.