Page 6 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)
Nic
Moonscale Memorial Hospital
It took me forever to fall asleep that night at the hospital but once I eventually passed out, I slept better than I ever imagined I would.
I dreamt of big cats running underneath me as I flew above them, circling.
We were hunting something together, but I didn’t know what.
Was it Jon? Was I finally ready to take my vengeance?
My mother always said vengeance was for people who had nothing left to lose and I had everything anyone could ever want.
She was almost right. I had almost everything anyone could ever want but I didn’t have love.
Though, love wasn’t on any particular important list for my mother.
She loved me. That was a given. She’d sat on my egg for almost a full year before I came out.
I was important even if she had to pay someone to do all her laptop work while she kept me warm.
Romantic love was another story. She didn’t take risks if she couldn’t figure out how to come out on top and unscathed.
In my dream, she stood atop a mountain, waving Jon’s severed, spotted paw at me.
She grinned as if offering me up a rare, exotic jewel.
I woke nuzzling my face against the cold side of the hospital pillow.
Mum had left her purse or something leathery here.
What was it? Was it one of her folk remedies?
I sniffed the air, but she wasn’t here. Hadn’t been here in my hospital room since she went home the night before after making me promise not to sign myself out of the hospital before they finished observing me.
Next came the coppery scent of blood. I blinked my eyes open.
Had I pulled out one of my IVs? Had something on my face started bleeding again?
It didn’t hurt. It didn’t even sting anymore.
Something brown and leathery lay on my pillow, cuddled under my cheek as if someone slipped it there to make me extra comfortable.
I sniffed again and my head filled with the coppery blood of something rodent-ish.
Had a rat crawled in bed and died with me?
Had I rolled over on some emotional support rat that the hospital staff hadn’t told me about?
I sat up and blinked.
No.
NO.
NO!
A bloody beaver tail?
I jerked back away from the corpse of a tail and found myself on the floor, ripping out my IVs and stumbling over the cords, the sheets, and my own panicked limbs as every alarm in the room blared, beeping in my ears.
I couldn’t yell for help. The sound caught in my throat.
Who the fuck would do this? Was this some old timey folk medicine my mother insisted they try out?
Nurses rushed into the room all asking questions at once but I wasn’t stopping. I pushed my way through them, knocking one on her butt. Fuck this! Fuck that! Fuck them! I might’ve ran all the way home had I not ran nose first into Arrow’s chest.
“Dude!” Arrow said, caught off guard. “I can see your arse! What’s going on here?”
“Tail in – Beaver! Beaver tail in my bed!” I managed to choke out the words.
“What?” the medic blinked.
It seemed the whole of the hospital poured into the room I occupied seconds before and only Arrow stuck around to ensure I hadn’t lost my damn mind.
He took me to the medic’s staff room and offered me a muffin and some tea.
I couldn’t stomach anything with the coppery smell of blood still stuck to the inside of my nostrils.
Seconds passed like small eternities as I waited for my mother to arrive.
Arrow said he gave her a call but when an hour of small eternities passed, I wondered if he lied about calling her to calm me down.
The hospital was on lockdown because of course it was.
That wasn’t any old beaver tail. The door to the medics’ breakroom had opened and shut often enough for me to hear snatches of the conversation.
“Belonged to that beaver brought in this morning.”
“The one bleeding his ass off.”
“He knows the cheetah.”
“No, the patient never left the hospital last night. Nothing on the camera either.”
“Probably are after the dragon. Just trying to work him up before they get to him.”
“Don’t listen to them,” Arrow said, cutting through my spiraling thoughts.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but the door swung open again. This time Clarence Moonscale stepped into the room looking as if someone had cut his tail off and made him lick it.
“What is going on?” Clarence asked, sinking into the chair on the opposite side of the little break table from me.
His choice of seats put him next to Arrow who had enough of his bullshit from the first word out of his mouth.
“That’s your job to figure out,” the medic said narrowing his eyes on Clarence.
“So, you tell us. What the hell is going on? One of your flight members gets delivered two severed body parts and you don’t know what’s happening?
You have guards on the hospital, and some crazy fuck still gets in with a fucking beaver tail?
That’s not something most folks just carry around! ”
“He’s right!” I nodded, glad to have someone on my side.
“Who do you all owe money to?” Clarence asked.
“I don’t owe money to anyone,” I said, trying and failing to bite back a groan.
“Jon tried to convince me to give him money the night before his paw showed up on my doorstep. He never said who he owed it to but he was going on about how it was all my fault because I broke up with him and wouldn’t give him any more.
He was after my family’s money. He’s half ready to kill my mother to try to get it. ”
“I don’t think he’ll be killing anyone right now,” Clarence said, his voice grave. “Arrow, maybe you’ll understand this. He cut off the cheetah’s paw. Whoever it was.”
“Yes, I’m aware. I saw it,” Arrow nodded as if it were something he saw every day during the normal operation of his job.
“The hand is gone from the man too,” Clarence said, and Arrow nodded.
“Do you know how rare that is?” Clarence asked when neither of us reacted the way he expected us to.
“Yeah, people don’t go around hacking hands off,” I nodded at the idiot.
“Okay, but do you realize usually losing a hand won’t affect the inner beast, right? And vice versa. Whatever did that took the paw and the hand somehow. This isn’t your run of the mill crazy, want-to-be, mobster. This guy whoever he is, means business.”
Arrow sat back in his chair and thought about it for a long minute.
“Why me, though? Besides being Jon’s ex, why me?” I asked them both.
“I don’t know, Nic,” Clarence said. “That’s what I need you to tell me. We know you didn’t leave your room last night unless you’ve developed the ability to open Other World gateways or teleport, but the beaver tail ended up in your bed. How did your accomplice get into the room?”
As if summoned by the accusation, Rozel Hemmings stepped into the room with his briefcase tucked under one arm. He wore a well-tailored suit and his dark hair was slicked back against his head as if a cow licked it smack dab into place.
“Why are you questioning my client without representation, Mr. Moonscale? Or do you prefer Alpha Moonscale?” Rozel asked.
“Clarence is fine,” Clarence sighed.
“You’re accusing my client of very serious crimes while he is clearly the victim and while you’re wasting time terrorizing him, while he’s in the hospital, I might add, whoever is actually doing this is getting away with it.”
Someone knocked on the door and everyone turned to look.
This time it didn’t swing open until Clarence gave the knocker the all-clear to enter.
A guard in a black uniform arched his brows at Clarence as they talked over some secret guard link.
The general public wasn’t supposed to know about the existence of such a link, but it wasn’t a very well-kept secret.
“What’s going on?” Arrow asked.
“The beaver says he was attacked by a cat,” Clarence said, his face grim. “A cat with elephant tusks and claws as long as his forearm.”
“I’ve never heard of such a beast,” Arrow said.
“Me neither,” Clarence sighed. “That’s why our running theory is someone is conjuring this beast to spread chaos amongst their targets. What I can’t figure out is why the beast keeps bringing its prizes to you.” His eyes narrowed on me.
“Well, when you find whoever did this make sure you bloody well ask them,” I growled.
“Don’t growl at me. It’s not like I’m the one leaving you presents. Don’t leave town, Nic. I don’t know how you’re wrapped up in this, but I know you are.”