Nadine Book 7

65. Dog Smell

Tre keeps us focused, and we make it to the pack house. I sit between Tre and Dipak again.

Elek gives me a dirty look. "You have fun?"

"Yes I did. Thank you for asking. I saw a lot of the island. It's beautiful here. I saw a waterfall with some wolf babies playing. I saw the village. It's very nice. This place is amazing."

Elek gives me a side eye. What the f**k is his problem now?

Mason takes his spot. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I lost track of time."

Sasha laughs. "You're on island time now. We'll get there when we get there."

After dinner, I walk with Elek. "So what was the attitude for?"

He shakes his head. "I wanted to see you. I miss you, and you ran off with him. What were you even doing?"

"We walked around and talked. I saw the waterfall and everything like I said." I shrug my shoulders.

He kisses my head. "Maybe tomorrow I can steal you. We can take a walk or something."

I scratch my head. There is no one around us and we're walking. I smile. "That sounds nice."

He gives me a little kiss. "I'm going back to the ship. I've got to get this dog smell off me."

That 1 hurt. "Have a good night."

"I didn't mean it like that. You smell amazing. You always have. It's the pack smell or something. I don't get it."

"It's ok. I will see you tomorrow. I'll come over to the boat if I can."

"Either way, I'll find you, and we'll talk."

"Ok."

He kisses me on the cheek and flies off.

There is still nobody here. I'll take a walk on my own. I check out the homes and families. Some of them have flowers planted outside their doors. I love that. I follow a path almost all the way out of town and find Dipak and Mason.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Nothing. What are you doing out here?"

"Seeing the land. I'm thinking about putting houses here. We could vacation here."

I stare into the trees.

"Yea, what happened, woman?"

"Nothing. I need... I have no idea."

"Woman get over here."

I stand beside him with my arms crossed, staring into the trees.

"Give me a hint. Who does this involve?"

I sigh. "Elek gave me attitude at dinner."

"I seen that."

"Well, I took a walk with him to ask about it. He said he wanted to see me today and I ran off. And he misses me. Then he said he would try again tomorrow. Maybe we can go for a walk or something, but we were walking alone." I scratch my head. "Then he started complaining about the dog smell. Like what the f**k? I don't know. I'm sorry I stink? I don't smell anything. So yea, he left me alone in the path, so we could try to be alone tomorrow, and I stink, apparently."

They stare at me.

I shake my head. "Thanks. You're both very helpful. I'm going to go take a bath." Thora lands in front of me.

"You know what I was thinking?"

"Do I stink?"

"No. You smell fine. Still like soap really."

"Thank you. What were you thinking?"

"We should get drunk and roam the island while Nik follows us around again."

I crack up laughing. "I'm sure he would enjoy sleeping on the ground again."

"And you know what else?"

"What?"

"There are no bears here. I got it out of Tye. They are lying to you to keep you inside the village. There's no reason for the guards either."

I glare at both of them.

Mason cracks. "I don't want you to get hurt or lost out there. It's a big island, and you got lost on it once already."

Then Dipak. "What if pirates come and take you woman? We don't know this place."

Thora pulls a bottle of rum out of a bag.

Dipak shakes his head. "You'll be sick for days."

"Not if we drink slowly."

"You've only ever drank wine. That is so much stronger than wine. You will pass out somewhere weird, and we won't be able to find you. You can not do that."

Thora stomps her foot. "YES WE CAN DIPAK."

Mason nods. "Elek couldn't get away from her fast enough and said she stinks."

"WHAT?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Pretty much."

"I'm telling Coral." She flies out.

I turn to the boys and Dipak is holding the rum. "How the hell?"

"None of this, woman. It's too strong."

"How did you even get that? We got that Dipak. It's ours."

"I'll trade you then. I'll get you a bottle of wine."

"Fine. You better not forget." I give him a dirty look.

"I'll go get it as soon as we get you back to the hospital. That guard will be waking up any time now."

"I can make it. You can keep staring at trees." I fly to the village to the hospital.

"Last room to your left."

"Thank you."

Omar, Ronion, and Kodan are around the guards' bed.

"He's been stirring. But not awake yet." Omar hands me the folder.

I lean against a cabinet and cross my feet. A 32-year-old male werewolf. Long list of minor injuries. A few broken bones. Stabbed threw the leg with a tree branch. I scratch my head on that 1. The file starts 6 years ago. "It's only 6 years old?"

"That's when he got here. We don't have his medical history before that."

I stare at Kodan. "Do you have anything from before that?"

"No."

"He could be anyone. You let anyone move in?"

He smiles. "No. We get to know people before we do that. But we don't make them transfer medical records. And he moved here at 26 years old. He was young and had just found his mate. He shouldn't have had much of a medical history before that."

"I guess that's true. The ages are messing with me."

"How old are you?"

Ronion chuckles. "They are immortal Kodan. She's almost 400 years old. And she's the baby here."

"Yea, I guess 6 years is like a weekend for you."

"Pretty much." I go back to the file.

Half an hour later, the man opens his eyes.

"Do you remember what happened, Hugh?"

"Charma fell. She was so broken." He cries. "Is she ok?"

I stand up. "Her wounds are healing. However, she's still unconscious. Do you remember anything else?" I hear the door shut.

"You turned her into a vampire. And me too."

"Very good. Do you feel any different?"

"No. I'm still me."

Ronion nods. "Being a vampire or werewolf does not change who you are. Is your wolf awake?"

"Yea. He's waking up but he's here."

"Good."

Kodan smiles. "Will he get a dragon?"

I shake my head. "No, a dragon is something different. He won't get that. The drugs we gave him are hard to wake up from. It's better to let him wake up slowly. Ask him questions as he's awake. Don't try to force him to stay awake. He should be good by morning."

Omar stands up. "What do you want to do about the blood drip? He'll rip it out when he wakes up."

"Keep putting it back in. I don't want him waking up in frenzy. Other than that, if we can get him to drink 12 ounces, he should be good for 12 hours. He's new, so it's questionable. Make sure everyone is watching for signs of frenzy."

"What's frenzy?"

"Vampires need blood. It's not that we want it. We have to have it. Now, if the blood levels in our bodies get too low, our bodies take over getting the blood they need. No one is safe when someone is in frenzy. People will drain their own children for their blood. They will attack anyone."

Dipak nods. "But say I went into frenzy right now and bit Mason. Even in frenzy, I'm not trying to kill him. My body will give me back control after about 8 ounces. So really, he is big enough, he'd be light-headed, and it would hurt like hell, but he would live."

"You do this every day?"

"We go through about 8 to 12 ounces a day. We have our own. We don't plan to go into frenzy. And most of us have been vampires long enough to sense when our levels are starting to get lower. The only thing that throws them off is using vampire powers. If I would use superspeed from 1 side of the island to the other, that would take a lot of the blood I have. I will need more after that."

"Healing can throw us off too. When we heal with vampire power, it's a lot like the speed of healing with werewolf power, but that uses blood for us. We have to watch our levels after that."

Kodan looks at me all freaked out. "What about those 2?"

I smile. "More than likely, I will have to send them to my castle for a couple of months. It will give them a chance to learn about the levels and understand how they feel them. I don't think we'll be able to keep them in a werewolf village. You would all be getting bitten until they figured it out. They could always come back after they got it figured out. I'm not going to steel any of your people."

Hugh opens his eyes, spits out the blood drip. "Is Charma awake yet?"

"Not yet, sir."

He closes his eyes.

Omar puts the blood drip back in. "It's going to be a long night for whoever sits here."

Dipak nods. "Should make Tye sit here."

Omar laughs. "Tye will jump 8 ounces down his throat and go to sleep."

I smile. "Well, as long as he gets it. But yea, next time he wakes up, try to get him to drink 12 ounces. Then we can stop messing with the drip until morning. Great, I'm going to go check on my other patient. Where is my other patient?"

"2 doors down on the right."

"Thank you."

Dipak mumbles. "Damn doctors."

Her blood drip is going way too slow. "Oh shit." I go back to Hughs' room. "Dipak, I'm going to get Cruor. This isn't good."

"I'll get him. You want anyone else?"

"Bring the girls. I don't know what's going to happen. Tell them dresses and gloves. I also need a gurney and everything for surgery."

I go back to her room and pick up the file. A 29-year-old female. Typical injuries. Nothing out of the ordinary. 1 childbirth.

"What's happening?"

I look up at Mason. "Her body isn't healing like it should be. Sit there. I'm pulling another doctor for ideas. You can watch while we talk. I need to read this."

Dorseti runs in with a dress, shoes, and gloves. "Go change." I hand her file.

I go into an empty room and get ready for surgery.

Cruor is standing in the room reading the file when I get out. "Nadine, you can't open a werewolf. She will die if you rearrange her spine."

"I made her a vampire. She fell off some rocks and landed badly. Broke her back and neck. Her only option was to be made a vampire. I believe I can do surgery on her now."

"Yea, that will be fine. So, what is the issue?"

"I was hoping to let her body heal on its own. It was a bad break, but I didn't know if she could survive the transition to vampire. Adding neck surgery at the same time seemed crazy. But her body survived the transition. Now the blood drip is going too slow."

"Yes, she needs opened up. She's not going to make it through the night if you don't."

"That's what I hoped you wouldn't say." I open the door. "Bring me the gurney."

Elkie and Dorseti bring it in.

"We're doing surgery. Dorseti, can you get Hugh down there to drink 12 ounces of blood. He's waking up slowly, and they are tired of fighting with the blood drip."

"Of course."

Elkie helps us put her on the gurney. "Are you absolutely sure she's a vampire?"

Cruor looks at her. "The blood is absorbing. She has to be a vampire."

"Well maybe she's only like halfway there and the blood is absorbing half as fast."

Cruor rubs his eyes. "Well then she would be 100% dead, because she has no pulse, and she's not breathing."

"Or 50% alive."

I rub my eyes. "She's got a point. What if the transition is taking longer because she's injured?"

Cruor shakes his head. "If you wait, she will die for real. Nadine, your hands are tied. It sounds like they have been this entire time. All you can do now is keep trying to save her."

I nod. "Ok. Here we go."