Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Nicky raised his hand up to the flashlights. His hand was covered in blood that had strands of yellow in it. The smell hit me next. I’d smelled it at the hospital. Shit. I dropped to my knees beside the hyena. ‘No,’ I said, ‘damn it, no!’

The hyena shivered, convulsed, and then the fur melted away, as if his human body were something trapped in ice, revealed by the energy that spilled off him as his body shifted back. He should have been trapped in hyena form for at least four hours, maybe ten. You only changed back early if you were powerful enough to will it, or too hurt to hold form, or dead.

I searched his neck for a pulse, holding my own breath, as I waited to feel it against my fingers. There, there it was, he was alive. I yelled, ‘Man down! Medic!’

Nicky had put pressure on the wound with his bare hands while we waited for Bush to bring the officer paramedic who was still back at the clearing. I’d shoved plastic gloves at Nicky.

‘I can’t catch anything from him, Anita.’

‘Ares caught it,’ I said.

He’d frowned at me, but he hadn’t argued after that, just taken the gloves and held his now-gloved hands to the wound.

Nathaniel, still in leopard form, sniffed at the wound and hissed. I started taking off my vest.

Becker asked, ‘What are you doing, Marshal?’

‘I’m going to give him my shirt to use at the wound, but first I have to get the vest off.’

She was one of only a handful of officers who had stayed here in the woods to guard us in case something else bad showed up. Though I’d heard one cop say, ‘We’re safer with them.’

I think they meant the three of us.

I got the vest off and spilled it to the ground in a clank of weapons. I peeled off my T-shirt, folded it into quarters, and handed it to Nicky. He reached for it, the gloves dark with blood and streaked with the infection, though I wasn’t sure that was what it was, not exactly. Had everyone bitten tonight caught this? The other bites had not looked like vampire bites. They’d been zombie, or human looking. Was this infection something that vampires and shapeshifters could catch? If it was, then it was something new.

I slid the vest back on my shoulders. It was rough with just the bra on, but it was better than not having the vest in case of stray bullets. Besides, it helped me carry my weapons. I used to hate the vests when the government first started making us wear them, but now it was just part of how I carried my stuff.

‘Pretty bra,’ someone said.

I looked up at the knot of officers around us. I didn’t know who had said it, just one of the men, so not Becker. I debated on whether to get angry, but it was a nice bra, all lacy and black. ‘Thanks,’ I said, and fastened the vest back into place so I could put my jacket back on.

‘Do the panties match?’

Crap, the fact that I hadn’t been hostile to the first comment had encouraged him. I looked up and said, ‘Who said that?’

They shifted uncomfortably, and then the other men stepped back to leave one younger officer standing by himself. He’d been stupid and they weren’t going to protect him, not out here, not with people bleeding and dying.

The leopard leaned against me like a big dog. I think Nathaniel was trying to remind me not to kill our friends. I put an arm around him and petted the warmth and comfort of his fur. It did help lower my blood pressure. ‘And you are Officer what?’

‘Connors, Officer Connors.’ He said it clear, no mumbling, and met my gaze steady.

‘Okay, Officer Connors, the man bleeding and hurt from fighting beside you against flesh-eating zombies and vampires is my friend. You must have friends back at the clearing who are hurt, or worse, right?’

He nodded.

‘Sorry, I didn’t hear that, can you use your outside voice?’ I said. It was almost a relief to be able to upset about something this small.

‘Yes,’ he said, and there was the tiniest edge of anger now.

‘Then is speculating out loud about a female officer’s underwear appropriate under these circumstances?’

‘No,’ he said, nice and clear this time.

‘Good to know we agree on that,’ I said.

Bush came jogging back with another officer in tow. He introduced him as Officer Perkins. ‘I heard you yell medic , but … there’s a lot of wounded.’

He went down on his knees beside Ares and looked down the nude length of his body. ‘This was the hyena?’ he’d asked.

‘Yes.’

He’d triple-gloved before he signaled Nicky to move back. He shone the light on the side of Ares’ neck and just shook his head. ‘Travers has a wound like this in his chest. It’s the same infection that got Sheriff Callahan.’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘The wound doesn’t seem to be closing. I thought lycanthropes healed better than this.’

‘Wounds made by other preternaturals heal slower,’ I said.

‘So, because it’s a vampire bite it’s not healing?’ he asked.

‘Yeah.’

The big leopard rubbed at me. I ran my hands through his fur. ‘It’s okay, Nathaniel.’

He pushed at me again, and I turned to look into his leopard eyes, but the look in the eyes wasn’t animal. He was trying to tell me something. I dropped shields a little more, trying to ‘see’ what he wanted to share. I was suddenly overwhelmed with grayish images, the scent of the night, and the feel of my body against his, but … not the way a person thought of it, more like a … I shoved my shields back in place, holding on to his leopard form to keep from swaying. I’d caught glimpses of things, but it was like looking at a jigsaw puzzle that had been swirled around on the floor. You knew there was a picture, but it was just bright bits of color and shapes.

His energy poured over my skin, marching down my nerve endings like electric kisses. His fur flowed under my hands, and for the first time I held him as his human form pulled its way out of the fur and muscles of his leopard. The power of it shivered through my body so that I shuddered as his skin flowed smooth and fever-hot against me.

Becker exclaimed behind us, ‘Oh, my God!’

I wondered if she said it from watching him shift form or because he was now crouched naked, hidden only by the fall of his unbound hair. She hadn’t said anything when Ares changed form, so it was probably the whole nude-and-beautiful-man-who-wasn’t-wounded-and-unconscious thing. It’s just bad form to lust after the wounded, but Nathaniel wasn’t wounded. He fit into the curve of my arm and body like he always did, as if he’d been meant to be there all along. As nice as it had been to cuddle his leopard, this was better, more comforting to me.

‘I’ve never seen you change back to human this soon,’ Nicky said from the other side of Ares and Officer Perkins.

‘I’ve never tried to change back this soon,’ Nathaniel said, and his voice was a little shaky.

I hugged him close, marveling at how warm he was, how silken his skin and hair. I buried my face in his hair the way you’d take a stiff drink to calm your nerves. I found the heavy leather of his collar still around his neck, though looser.

‘You’re supposed to pass out after you shift back,’ Nicky said.

‘In case I do pass out, Anita, remember the vampire that bit me in Tennessee?’ he asked.

I’d known about rotting vampires, but the first time I knew that they could infect people with their bite was when one of them bit Nathaniel. He’d lain on a hotel bed screaming in pain and would have died if Asher and Damian hadn’t drained the sickness out of his body, risking their own lives to do it. Asher had been strong enough to be okay, but Damian had nearly rotted to death. I’d saved him by letting him feed on me, and risked dying the same way, but since I’d asked Damian to save Nathaniel, I’d had to try. This was before Nathaniel was my animal to call and before Damian was my vampire servant. It all seemed so long ago and far away now. ‘How could I forget?’ I said, and hugged him tighter. It seemed unthinkable that once I hadn’t loved him, once I had done everything I could to avoid being his lover, and now he was one of the most important people in my life.