When he cleared the door, he saw Maggie holding back Gwen. He tried to muster a smile, but it felt more like a grimace. He settled on giving the worried looking kid a thumbs up. However long ago since the blast, he still couldn’t hear anything but a whistling noise and dull, distorted noises. Maggie, with Gwen’s hand in hers, stepped forward and grabbed Luke’s hand, leading him to an examination room.
Luke hopped up on the table while Gwen took a chair out of the way. Maggie started talking, but Luke held up his hand to stop her, pointing to his ears.
“I can’t hear you.” He turned his head so an ear was pointed toward her.
Understanding dawned for Maggie. She looked around the room, took a white board off the wall, and grabbed the marker.
Besides hearing loss, what else?
“A cut on the back of my head. Probably some scrapes. Maybe a concussion. It’s hard to tell whether the dizziness is that or the eardrums.” Luke wasn’t sure how loud he was talking or if he was speaking clearly, but Maggie seemed to understand.
Maggie wrote another message on the board. How much pain?
“Not too bad. If you’re needed elsewhere, I can hold.”
Maggie nodded and opened a cabinet, pulling out a large bottle. She shook out four ibuprofen and handed them to Luke. Next, she waved him forward so she could examine the cut on his head. Satisfied it wasn’t a pressing issue, she gave some instructions to Gwen, reached out and patted the kid’s shoulder, then left the room, setting the white board where Gwen could reach it. She picked it up and started writing.
I’m glad you’re not hurt too bad.
“Yeah, it could have been a lot worse,” Luke replied.
She cringed back.
“Too loud?” he asked.
Gwen nodded.
“Sorry. I can’t hear myself and it’s hard to talk. That better?”
She nodded. Luke tried to muster a smile for the kid. She looked worried about him.
Can I do anything for you?
He was thirsty and needed to swallow the pills. The dust from the exploding building lingered in his throat.
“I could use something to drink.”
I saw a soda machine in one of the rooms. That OK?
“That sounds perfect. Cola or a lemon-lime would be good. No orange or grape.” He fished his wallet out from under his armor, pulling out a five dollar bill and handing it to her. “Get something for yourself as well.”
She nodded and headed out the door, looking back once before closing the door behind her. As soon as he had privacy, he stripped off his filthy and shredded hoodie, tossing it in a garbage can. Then he took his armor off. It took a few tries to get his fingers to untie the leather cord holding the halves together, but he pulled the thong and shucked off the armor, setting it out of the way.
Luke walked over to the sink in the exam room. He turned the faucet on and rinsed his mouth, gargling to get as much of the lingering taste of concrete out of his mouth. Finding some tissues, he blew his nose, then washed his hands. He’d just sat back down on the table when Gwen returned with two sodas.
She handed Luke the cola and had an orange soda for herself. She offered his fiver back, but he waved it off.
They were free!
Her enthusiasm wore away at a tiny corner of the numbness that had taken over since he’d climbed into the van and turned over the reins of the operation to Jung-sook and Archie. Luke cracked his can open and took a sip, sighing as the bubbles and flavor covered up the grimy taste in his mouth.
“Do you know if Pablo or Sam are back yet?” Luke asked.
No. I can go check.
“No, it’s best to stay out from underfoot. Let the doctors take care of their business.”
She nodded and sat down to enjoy her orange soda, pulling out her phone to read. He leaned back on the reclined table and tried to relax but failed as he waited in the noisy silence of his concussed head and broken eardrums. He tried to scroll through his phone but couldn’t focus and gave up. When Maggie came back into the room, he sat up.
“Any word on the other team?” Luke asked before she could even close the door.
She grabbed the white board. Not yet.
Luke slumped, disappointed with the lack of news. Maggie started by checking Luke’s vitals and making sure he didn’t have any injuries that might have been covered by his armor. Satisfied, she moved on to his wounds. He grimaced as she gently cleaned the blood from his ears before peering in with her otoscope. She said something to Gwen. Gwen grabbed the white board and started writing.
She said burst eardrums.
“Yeah. I figured. Not the first time it’s happened to me. Still sucks.”
She says hold still so she can cover your ears.
Maggie covered his ears with gauze, securing the gauze patches with tape. Finished with his ears, she had Luke sit on the doctor’s stool so she could clean and examine the wound on the back of his head. She’d finished putting a few stitches in his scalp when something from outside the room drew her attention.
“What is it?” Luke asked.
Gwen wrote on the board. She said she’ll check.
Maggie poked her head out the door and turned around, saying something to Gwen.
She says it looks like the other team is coming in. There are injuries. She has to go.
Luke stood up and peeked out the door Maggie had left cracked when she’d dashed out to assist. Sam’s face was the first he saw. Covered in soot and smudged with sweat, he barely recognized her. She looked like she’d been crying.
Pablo limped behind her, held up by Pieter and one of the Portland pack. His leg was coated in blood, although it didn’t look like it was flowing anymore, thanks to his werewolf healing. The last two werewolves carried a stretcher fashioned out of a discarded pallet with an unconscious person on it. Luke looked on in horror seeing if he could find the eighth wolf he’d sent to the apartment building.
Everyone was covered in soot and debris, several had ripped clothing and signs of injuries. Luke staggered back into the exam table, his head in his hands. When he caught Gwen walking toward the door, he shook himself alert and slammed the door shut before Gwen could see what was happening outside.
He shook his head, sending stabbing pain radiating from his ears. “You don’t want to see that.”
She nodded and returned to her chair and started fidgeting, trying to distract herself with her phone. Luke vacillated between anger and numbness, not wanting the former to take control. He wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there when Sam popped her head in. She said something Luke couldn’t make out through the din of his ruined ears.
Luke held up a hand to stop her. “I can’t understand anything you’re saying.”
Gwen said something and held up the white board. Sam took it and scrawled on it quickly.
I’m going to take Gwen up to hang out so we can talk while I wait for Maggie to come check me out. Seeing the shock in Luke’s eyes at sending Gwen out into the hall, she quickly erased the board and added, It’s clear. Everyone else is in a room, that’s why I need to share this one. We don’t have much space.
Luke nodded. “Gwen, if you can, take a nap. It’s late.”
She nodded and followed Sam out of the exam room. He didn’t have much hope she’d take a nap with everything going on. She’d worry about people she knew, and even though Luke wasn’t in terrible shape, he’d caught her checking on him, her brow furrowed and her eyes anxious. He tried sitting in the chair, figuring if Maggie needed to exam Sam, she’d want the table. He slid into the chair, fidgeting while he waited.
Sam returned a few minutes later and picked up the board. I got her set up with the TV. She’s worried about you. She says you look really mad.
“I am.”
How bad was it?
“I’m not sure. I don’t think anyone took anything serious except Delilah and me. We were quite a bit behind everyone else when the explosion went off. If my eardrums are blown—” He interrupted himself. “Am I speaking too loud?”
Sam shook her head, wincing. Yeah. My ears blew as well. They’re mostly healed now.
“Do you want to sit?” He gestured at the exam table.
No. She turned around.
Her clothes were shredded on her back and butt, although her legs looked fine. He hadn’t noticed it early when she’d come in. She turned back around.
Don’t feel like sitting much. I have glass in my back and ass.
He winced.
Yeah. It’s not fun. I can feel it moving around my skin as my body tries to heal it. Hazards of being a wolf.
Nodding, he clenched his jaw, his brows furrowing. “Did everyone make it out?”
She shook her head. The slight gesture was a punch to the gut. Luke could feel his anger shifting to rage.
Jennifer didn’t make it out. She fell. Pieter dragged me away, or I’d be dead too. When it went off, I was near a window.
“Pablo?”
Should heal fine, took some serious shrapnel to his leg. I think it cut his artery, but we yanked it out hoping his healing would get ahead of it. It worked.
“What about the other wolf they were carrying in?”
Herschel? I don’t know. His leg looked bad.
Luke was surprised when Maggie walked in, startled by her sudden appearance and the blood staining her white coat.
“Are you needed with the others?” Luke asked.
Maggie shook her head, taking the board from Sam. I’m not a surgeon. I did what I could until they arrived. They’ve got it in hand now. I’ll just be in the way. She erased the board after showing him her first message and kept writing. Pablo is OK. We got the debris out of his leg. He’s healing now.
“Delilah?”
Bruises and scrapes. One eardrum burst, the other looks OK. She’s asleep right now.
“Hersch?”
He’s probably going to lose the leg. I think it’s damaged beyond what a wolf can heal. We’ll clean it up and see if his body can take care of it, but if not…
She left it hanging. Luke crumpled in on himself a little more.
I’m going to need help with Sam. We have to get the glass out of her back. Do you know ASL?
Luke shook his head, chalking it up to one more failure in his life. He’d had all the time in the world, he could have dedicated some time to it.
“Whatever you need,” he said.
She taught him the letters “S” and “F,” so he could hand her the scalpel or the forceps. She also asked him to wipe any blood she pointed at. While Maggie got the equipment ready and washed up, she had him help Sam undress and lie down on the exam table. Sam, even maintaining her good humor with an ass and back full of glass, winked at Luke as he helped her onto the exam table.
He washed up thoroughly to his elbows and put on the gloves Maggie had laid out for him, happy to have something to contribute that would distract him from his growing anger.
Maggie worked quickly, starting on Sam’s back and working her way down, cutting the embedded pieces of glass from Sam’s body. Luke handed Maggie the tools she needed when she signaled and dabbed Sam’s blood when called for. He wasn’t squeamish after serving in too many militaries and wars during his nearly two-thousand-year struggle against the vampires. He was just tired of seeing it, especially when it belonged to his friends and loved ones.
The task at hand kept his mind focused and distracted from worrying at everything that had gone wrong. Where the cuts were made and the debris removed, the wounds quickly closed, leaving pink lines that would likely disappear entirely thanks to her werewolf healing. When they finished, Maggie washed Sam’s back and butt and sent Luke to get some spare clothes from the pack’s stash in the supply closet.
Luke had questions to ask about the facility but didn’t feel like making them write out the answers. After he found a vampire or two, his ears would heal, and he could ask his questions then. He wished he’d interacted with more packs over the years. He had no idea where the North Portland Pack ranked, but from everything he’d seen, it was one of the best run organizations he’d seen. It seemed like Holly and her people had a plan in place for nearly everything or were so flexible that they could adapt their facilities to fit the circumstance.
He hoped the pack’s resources wouldn’t break under the pressure of joining him in his cause. Every day, he thought about what a mistake it was for them to hitch their pack to his star.
Something drew Sam and Maggie’s attention. What more could go wrong? Maggie stepped out to check the newest development while Sam dressed. When she was finished, she poked her head out the door. She looked pale when she turned. Reaching for the board, she started writing.
It looks like one of the sweeper teams took some injuries. One of them looks really bad.
Luke paced in a tight circle, spitting a stream of curses. Sam darted out of the room, reappearing a few minutes later.
A group of vampires ambushed them. No dead, but one of them is in rough shape.
“What else can go fucking wrong?” Luke spit out.
Should we pull the teams off the street for the night?
Luke thought about it for a moment. “Yes. Pull them until further notice.”
Sam raised her eyebrow but pulled out her phone and sent the order. She reached out and gave his armored shoulder a pat. He did everything in his power not to shake it off in his anger. Maggie returned a minute later, fresh blood on her white lab coat. She spoke to Sam who wrote out her words on the board.
We need this room. You two can get going. Get Gwen to bed.
Luke nodded, picking up his shredded hoodie. Sam tossed the board onto the counter and pulled Luke out into the hall and out the way they came, then up a set of stairs. They found Gwen watching cartoons. Sam held up her cell phone, shaking it at Luke.
He reached into his pocket and pulled his out, but the screen was cracked and the phone wouldn’t turn on. He must have sat on it sometime after sending the texts earlier that evening. He had no idea how much damage it had taken in his fall from the explosion. It could have started the damage there, finishing its destruction any time after. He sighed shaking his head, holding back the curses he didn’t want to say in front of his ward. Sam borrowed Gwen’s phone, handing it to him before texting him.
Sorry about the phone. This will work for communication. We’re only a few blocks from the rendezvous point. I’ll walk you back, and you can drive home from there.
Luke was silent, partially because he couldn’t hear but mostly because of the anger roiling under the surface. Gwen, stressed and tired, held Sam’s hand, but checked on Luke regularly, worry written clearly on her face. When they got back to the parked cars, Luke fished out his key. The phone vibrated as Sam sent one last message.
Go get some sleep. Let the doctors work. We’ll deal with everything once we’ve licked our wounds and healed. We’ll be in touch.
I have a spare phone at home. I’ll get it activated. Goodnight, Sam.
Sam, instead of texting back, pulled Luke in for a hug. Finished with Luke, she gave Gwen a hug, telling the girl something Luke couldn’t hear. He waved to Sam and opened the rental car, setting his armor in the trunk before getting behind the wheel.
He was glad he didn’t live too far away. Not being able to hear was messing with his senses. It wasn’t the first time he’d had his hearing blown, and the way his life went, it wouldn't be the last. Inside the house, Gwen gave Luke a fierce hug then went to her room. Luke went to his office to find his spare phone.
While he waited for the phone to get enough of a charge to turn it on, he opened his laptop and logged into the tracking software they’d been using to catalog their potential vampire sites. He wasn’t sure what team had been hit tonight, so he tried to figure out which one had stopped their route in the last hour or so. Finding a likely candidate, he stared at the screen, grinding his teeth. The anger and despondency he’d been fighting to keep under wraps until he could get away from everyone roared back to the forefront.
They’d hurt him. They’d hurt his friends. They’d killed one person with two more on the edge. He needed to do something. He needed to strike back. He wanted to make the vampires bleed.