Page 24 of Hexes & Heartstrings (Shifters of Bastion Keep #2)

He tried not to let it bother him; around shifters, privacy really was just a polite fiction.

"Can you sit up?" Teresa asked.

Brushing off help, Sergiy swung his legs off of the bed but remained hunched over. He seemed to be focusing on his breathing.

Teresa lifted his snout, checked his vision, and then prodded around his neck.

"Good. Next, bring your wings out."

Sergiy held his breath, but then instead of summoning his wings, he nearly fell forward off the bed, groaning, and Bruin felt the pain hammering at his charm.

"No?"

"I, I got it." Sergiy tried again, and the wings flickered, then solidified…

…but only for a few seconds before winking out with another pained gasp.

"Lord Sergiy," Teresa began.

"Damn it, no."

"Yes. This looks like more than just phantom pain. One or both of your prostheses might be malfunctioning. You need to see your specialist."

Zell barked an agreement. "It's just before three o'clock, so if we leave in the next hour, we'll be able to catch the early train."

Sergiy seemed less inclined. "I don't want to leave my warband, not with everything going on."

Teresa dabbed some hand sanitizer on her hands from a bottle she kept in a pocket, and Bruin saw both werewolves wrinkle their muzzles.

"Tough. You don't want to do this now? I won't force you, but the pain will likely remain intermittent until you do, and you won't be able to trust your own flying during an incursion."

Sergiy began swearing in Slavic, which was a novel experience for Bruin.

"Very good, my lord, I'm glad to see that you're willing to do the reasonable thing. Zell?"

"Yes, I'll tell Galina to make some calls. Thank you."

As Teresa left, Zell knelt on the ground, then wiggled Sergiy's footpaws.

"Time for an adventure, little one!"

Sergiy groaned, but Russell barked a quick laugh.

The next hour was an explosion of activity.

Russell first helped carry Sergiy into his sitting room so that his many visitors weren't tromping through his bedroom, and then worked on packing a suitcase for him.

In the meantime, Bruin scrounged up some clothes for himself and Sergiy so that they wouldn't still be in their underwear.

Marka and Markos both made an appearance, giving their brother their condolences before assuring him that they'd take care of the packs while he was away.

And then when Galina came in to sit on the couch next to her son, Bruin decided to help Russell with the packing, letting them have a moment to themselves.

Bruin was just putting Sergiy's toothbrush into a fancy toiletry case and debating whether he should head back to his own room for the night so he could finish getting some sleep when Zell came in and stood before him. He felt himself being regarded in a way that the baker hadn't before.

At last, the werewolf yipped.

"Family outing. You coming?"

◆◆◆

"So what you're saying," Bruin said, staring at the plush, roomy seats and bunks in the train, "is that you get a whole car to yourself?"

"Yes?" Zell said, giving him a confused head tilt as he helped Sergiy modify a sitting bench into a bed. "Is that not normal where you're from?"

"The American public rail system isn't very robust, m'lord," Nurse Rolf explained in his slow drawl as he assisted Russell in putting away their luggage.

"Bruin, aFree Glades history lesson for you.

In the early twentieth century, a great fad broke out among the Houses, where owning your own trainyard became The Thing to Do, and railways exploded as the nobles tried to outdo each other.

They remain heavily subsidized today, and most trains thus have a dedicated Noble's Car.

If it's not reserved, though, it acts as a second accomodation car if the space is needed. "

"Makes sense," Bruin said, thinking of centaurs and some of his larger orc cousins who wouldn't be able to comfortably use the more common seats. "I have to say, I'm much more looking forward to this instead of flying."

"My lovely earth mate," Sergiy said fondly, slowly making himself comfortable on the bed. He kept insisting he was fine, but he moved around like a newbie the day after overdoing it at the gym because he'd been trying to keep pace with his boyfriends against their sound advice.

Bruin shook his head to put aside that unpleasant memory, then yawned as he strode about the compartment.

It was now four a.m., and the five of them were headed west to a specialty clinic where Sergiy's physician practiced.

If it had just been a matter of phantom pain, the hospital in Town would have sufficed, but Teresa and Sergiy both suspected that there was something the matter with his prosthetic tattoos.

Apparently following some kind of Usenko standard operating procedure, it had been a seamless transition from castle, to van, to the train in Town, making it just in time to catch the first ride out.

Stifling yet another yawn, Bruin grabbed a pillow and blanket off of one of the sleeping bunks, carrying it over to one of the bench seats.

Opposite him, Sergiy was laying back on the bed, a charm bag with Bruin's active pain-relieving gems hanging from a thong around his neck, supplementing the healing oil that Bruin had hastily mixed and rubbed into his back.

Russell was beside him in his wolf form, while Nurse Rolf took his own bench and pulled out a reading tablet.

After getting their fare and identities validated by the roaming train conductor, Zell joined Bruin on the bench. He helped him get settled in his blanket, then tousled his hair.

Bruin took a long moment to check again over his charm, renewing its energy with a few whispered words while making sure that there were no frays or weak points, then finally closed his eyes.

He slept fitfully, constantly waking up to look across to where Sergiy was resting, one time jerking up upon seeing an empty bed and being told that Sergiy was just using the bathroom.

The final time he awoke, he found himself with his head resting on Zell's furry belly and a heavy paw on his back.

Four hours after they'd boarded the train, they disembarked.

Rolf parted ways with them at that point, saying he was going to find them a hotel; apparently even if Sergiy were treated promptly, it wouldn't be convenient to take the train back until the next day.

The rest of them then hired a cab, taking it to the clinic.

The health care center that they were visiting was a squat building shaped like a semi-circle, populated by a multitude of abstract bronze sculptures, and with a gigantic tree in the middle whose broad canopy extended over much of the roof.

After Sergiy checked in at the front desk with a polite Fu dog, they took seats in the waiting room.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Bruin asked, looking around the room. Other than the comparative increase in mythic species to human ratio of the patients and employees, the clinic looked much like any other from Chicago.

"Shouldn't take any time at all," Sergiy answered, nodding his thanks as Zell gave him a bottle of water from a bag. "Maybe ten minutes."

"Noble rank hath its privileges, huh?"

"More like Gregory calling ahead to schedule a same-day appointment," he countered glibly.

"But we'll probably be staying here a while to get some tests done, if my previous visits are anything to go by.

If you want a real bed to catch up on some sleep, don't be shy about asking Rolf to take you to the hotel. I'll be fine."

Bruin leaned forward in his chair, sharing a look with Russell, who nodded in agreement.

Yeah, no chance of that. He had his phone and his witch's bag, he could easily occupy himself for the rest of the day if he had to.

As Sergiy predicted, he was soon led away by a medical assistant. Russell seemed content to quietly watch a bubbling water tank, and Bruin busied himself with researching online sites about treating phantom pain.

A lot of the online witch charms he could find involved kitchen magic, and he made a note to ask Rosemary for help.

Maybe he'd be able to learn to make a healing soup, or a soothing oil he could keep in the bedroom?

There were also charms involving Hedge magic, so asking Arthur was an option.

But if he went that route, he'd probably wait until he could get Lux there with him, since the man had a way of translating the other disciplines so that Bruin could understand.

Sergiy came and went several times as he did his testing, getting x-rays taken and his blood drawn.

And Bruin was called in at one point to explain his pain-relieving charm to a nurse—something about the clinic not wanting to blindly mix pharmaceuticals and magical analgesic, and they wanted to give Sergiy his choice of treatment.

But after a cafeteria lunch and still no end to the diagnostics, Bruin followed Russell as he took Zell's idea of waiting in the clinic's park-like atrium in his wolf form. Finding himself an out of the way sunny spot, Bruin settled in for a doze, comfortably sandwiched between a pair of canines.

At three in the afternoon, Sergiy was at last released, and he joined Bruin in waiting out front for their transit while the two werewolves made a last minute bathroom break.

Bruin noticed that Sergiy was moving a little stiffly as he sat beside him on the wooden bench. His mate rolled his neck a couple of times when he thought that Bruin wasn't looking, leading Bruin to suspect that he'd been straining himself to keep up his usual controlled bearing.

"Sergiy, relax," he said.

"I am relaxed."

Bruin grabbed his wrist before he could pull away, feeling for his pulse. "You're pinching your shoulders, and your heart is racing, so don't exaggerate. Is it nerves?"

"My nerves are fine," he insisted, shifting in his seat."There's nothing to be nervous about."

Bruin turned and crossed his arms, staring at his mate, but Sergiy remained resolute in his silence, staring straight ahead.

"If you say it, I believe it," Bruin said, feigning nonchalance as he sat back. "I trust you."

Aha! There it was, the guilty dip of the chin.

Drake shifters were almost as easy to read as wolf shifters, once you got used to their tells.

A canine's wagging was obvious, of course, and though Sergiy sometimes did the same, it was actually more in his head, and he was as expressive with it as others were with their hands.

But if he didn't want to talk about it—probably stubborn pride, which was ridiculous—then Bruin wasn't about to shame him for it. Better to change the subject, instead.

"Anyways, I'm glad to finally be out of here! I was afraid that by the time we got back to the hotel, it'd be bedtime, but now there's time enough to have a proper nap before bed!"

"Didn't you already have one? In the clinic garden?"

"A tiny one," Bruin said, pinching his fingers together. "But you weren't part of it, and you need to catch up on sleep more than any of us."

"You could've gone back to the hotel and had yourself a nap earlier," Sergiy pointed out wryly, but Bruin shook his head.

"And your dad wouldn't think less of me if I'd left you here alone?"

"I guarantee you that he wouldn't," Sergiy said, shaking his head, then hesitated. "Mom, maybe, but she's not here."

"But she'd eventually hear about how I abandoned you."

"Bruin…"

"Look, I care what your parents think of me, okay? I'm your boyfriend. Mate. Whatever. So stop offering me an out, and get it through that hard skull of yours that you're as stuck with me as you are with Russell."

Sergiy didn't seem to have a ready response to that, and before he could say something, the front door of the clinic opened and they were joined by Russell and Zell.

"So when's the surgery, little one?"

Sergiy gave Bruin a last long look, then turned his whole body to look up at his dad instead of merely turning his head. Stiff neck, maybe?

"There's still a few more diagnostics waiting to be read, but right now they're not seeing a need for surgery, so here's hoping it stays that way.

They want to do a few more tests over the next couple of days, but if nothing sticks out, then they have me scheduled for the repair procedure on Saturday. "

Bruin jerked in his seat. "That's so far away. Five days!"

Sergiy gestured vaguely. "Saturday is the earliest the specialist can see me to fix my prosthetic devices. Nothing about this situation screams emergent, so… yes. Five days."

"We're lucky it's that soon," Zell added.

Bruin sighed, watching as a red mini-van pulled up to the curb, and he saw Rolf wave at them. Standing, he joined his two boyfriends in climbing into the back seat.

Sergiy put a hand on his leg and gave it a squeeze as they buckled themselves in.

"Sorry."

"Urg, don't apologize," Bruin grumped, crossing his arms stubbornly. "It makes sense. Are you having to stay here until then?"

"I'm staying. Rolf? The procedure's on Saturday morning, so we'll need to extend our hotel stay until at least then. There's usually physical therapy for a few days after as well, checking over the changes."

Bruin winced. "So more than a week. I don't think I can duck out of my duties for that long."

"I don't expect you to. You and Russ should head back."

Bruin carefully laid his shoulder against his mate. A whole week without him. He already saw little enough of him as it was, lately, and now this?

They'd just made it back to the hotel, when Sergiy got out of the vehicle, stumbling a step only to be righted by Russell.

"I know you and Russ both have a strong work ethic," Sergiy began carefully, like he wasn't sure how Bruin would take it. "But maybe it would be alright to miss one day? As a vacation. No promises for how much energy I'll have tomorrow, but my dad and I could show you around the city."

Bruin smiled, and he saw Russell looking to him hopefully—really? Since when was Bruin in charge? But as far as olive branches from an overworked and absent mate go, this was a solid ten out of ten.

"I think the keep can survive one day without us," he said, then spelled it out for Russell's benefit. "Yes, Russell and I will stay another day with you. I trust my lord can develop an interesting itinerary?"

"He'll do what he can," Sergiy said with a smirk. "And I think first on the list is a proper nap? I admit, I'm beat."

Bruin took Sergiy's hand in his, giving it a squeeze as they entered a well-to-do hotel, and felt it as Russell patted him on his head.

Ill circumstances happened in life as a matter of course, but good witches knew to look for the silver lining, and a day and a half free to spend with his boyfriends was pretty damn bright.