K Stewart - A Shot in the Dark

“Um, for what exactly?”

“The arm has to go-there’s no cure for that.” The whatever-he-was shook his head. “The shock of the amputation will probably kill him anyway, but at least he’d have a chance.”

“You can’t cut my boy’s arm off!” I’d forgotten about Oscar, who’d been watching the proceedings with a kind of mute horror. “He’s only fifteen!” The man lurched to his feet, then stood there with fists clenched, like he wasn’t sure what to fight, or even how to begin finding out.

“That poison will kill him if it reaches his heart. This is the only way to save him.”

“No, it’s not.” They both looked at me, and Cameron frowned. “Will, how high can that stuff go before we have to cut off the arm?”

My buddy frowned thoughtfully behind his thick glasses, then drew his finger across Zane’s biceps near the shoulder. “‘Bout here, I think? But I’m not a surgeon, Jess, I’m an EMT, and we don’t have the stuff-”

I waved him into silence. “Find a pen, mark that spot. Until it gets there, we have time.” I looked to Cameron. “It is curable. My wife can do it. If I can find out how she did it, could you duplicate her spell?”

Cameron frowned even darker. “Just who did she cure?”

“Me.” I reached down and yanked my jeans up to display the shiny pink scars on either side of my calf. “Scuttle demon in January. Punched right through my leg, and the black streaks started going, just like that. The doctors were going to take the leg, just like you said. Mira saved me.”

He was shaking his head before I’d even finished. “That’s not possible. We’re taught, right from the beginning, that a tainted wound is fatal.”

“And I’m telling you that you are wrong. Now.” I fixed him with a look of death. At least, I hoped I looked intimidating. A little. “If Mira tells you how to do the spell, could you duplicate it?”

He thought for a few moments, then shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not one of the methods I’ve been taught, and there really isn’t any room for improvisation-”

“But if Mira can make you understand, if she can tell you what she did, can you do it?”

It took him a bit, but he finally nodded. “I can try.” He turned then to head up the stairs, climbing each riser like it took real effort.

“Are you all insane?” We all turned to look at Oscar, who was wide-eyed, just this side of being a little crazy himself. “Those.. . those things were… escaped chimps or something. And you’re babbling about magic and spells?”

I approached him slowly, like you would a spooked animal. “It sounds nuts, I know, trust me. And I don’t know what those things were, but they weren’t chimps; they weren’t animals. Did you see the big white thing come barreling at us? That’s a demon, and he’s trying to get in.” But why? He couldn’t hurt anyone without a contract. Couldn’t touch us at all. But the Yeti had come charging at us anyway, charging at me. Something wasn’t right. I tried to keep my uncertainty off my face.

“A demon? You expect me to believe that bullshit?” Color flushed into Oscar’s pale face. I don’t think I’d ever heard the man curse, not once in all the years I’d known him.

“It doesn’t matter if you believe it. Not believing it doesn’t change anything.” I stopped moving forward. If he was gonna snap, I didn’t want to be in arm’s reach.

“And just how do you know this? What makes you so fucking smart?” I didn’t even get a chance to answer him before he advanced on me, fists balled at his side. “You knew about that stuff and you didn’t tell anyone?! You just…! You just let us all go walking around out there with those things!”

“I didn’t know they were there, Oscar. And I couldn’t have reached him any faster.” But there would always be that little voice that asked if I could have. If I’d noticed the smell sooner, or left the porch earlier, or even run up the path faster… If I’d have turned back when Axel told me to, would they have come for me, instead of Zane?

“Bullshit! You didn’t even try!” He shoved me, and I let him, backing up a step or two. Wasn’t the man’s fault his world just got turned on its ear. I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done the same, in his place.

Duke, however, took offense, and a low growl rumbled through the room. “Marty, hold the mutt!” Even with his considerable strength, earned over a forge and anvil, Marty had a helluva time holding on to his two hundred pounds of pissed-off dog.

Things only got worse when Oscar came at me again, shoving me with both hands. “You just let those things… those… your fault!”

I could hear Duke setting up for that deep bass bellow of his, and I knew Marty wouldn’t be able to hold him. “Oscar, you need to calm down.” I promise, I used my calm grown-up voice and everything. It was when he swung at me that things got interesting. I blocked the first one easily, batting his fist aside and dropping into a defensive stance. “I mean it. You’re going to get someone hurt.” It was going to be him, but man, I didn’t want to do it.

“Fuck you!” The second punch whiffed by my ear as I sidestepped it, and I caught his wrist, wrenching his arm back behind him and pressing up. I knew it was gonna hurt like hell, but it was the only way I could think to get through to him.

Zane was yelling too. “Dad, leave him alone! Stop!” But it didn’t make a difference.

“Oscar! Chill the fuck out!” It was like he couldn’t even hear me. He screamed, jerking against my hold until I was afraid he was going to dislocate his own shoulder. This was going to get out of hand if I didn’t do something drastic.

“Sorry I have to do this.” I released my grip on his arm, reaching around to grab him by the throat instead. From behind, I put pressure against the back of his head. He gagged as I cut off the air to his windpipe. “Just gonna take a little nap…”

He flailed for a few seconds, and I knew he was already seeing stars. Six seconds in, and the world would be going gray. Eight, and he slumped in my arms. With Cole’s help, I lowered him to the floor and released the choke hold. Oscar gasped, blinking his way slowly back to consciousness.

I rested my hand on his chest, waiting until his eyes could focus again. “I recommend you stay down. Savvy? We’ve got more important things to deal with at this exact moment.”

Things like saving Zane’s arm. I knew that poison, knew that a raging fever and amazing pain were coming in short order. At the very least, he needed a hospital, and the nearest one was in Fort Collins.

Things like who the hell Cameron was. Not to mention how we were going to get out of this damn cabin with those things waiting out there in the woods. Yeah, it hadn’t escaped my notice that them staying out meant that we had to stay in.

The dog was still growling. Even with the “danger” subdued, Duke was still reacting like there was a threat in the room. I finally looked at Marty, who gave me a strained shrug.

“Let him go. See what he does.” Not my best idea, but Marty couldn’t hold on to the big lummox forever.

The mastiff gave a lurch in Oscar’s direction, and I tensed to head him off, but Duke did no more than pad over to sniff the downed man, hackles still bristled along his striped shoulders. I could see Oscar’s eyes, wide with fright as that massive muzzle brushed against his throat in passing. Duke settled for a firm snarl, then made the rounds of the room. Zane also got a growl of disapproval, which didn’t surprise me. Dogs and the soulless just don’t get along. I yanked Oscar’s sleeve up, but found his arm bare. No surprise, but I had to be sure. I’d been fooled before.