Hunted: An Avalon Novella by Steve McHugh

Author:Steve McHugh [McHugh, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hidden Realms Publishing
Published: 2019-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

“Thank you,” I said to Travis as I handed him back his phone. “Wei said she’ll be here within the hour.”

“We still need to look at that wound,” Travis said, placing a black leather bag on the floor.

“Do we really?” I asked. “Once this bastard thing is off, I’ll be able to heal. Unfortunately, I need a key”

“Did your friend say she had a key?”

I shook my head. “No, she didn’t.”

“So, it could be a while.”

I nodded. “It could be, yes.” I sighed, resigned to what was to come.

Travis got me to lie down then removed the bandages from my side. “At first glance, this looks okay,” he said. “Through and through, no serious damage to organs from where it’s hit, but something is off.”

“For the last few minutes I haven’t been able to smell anything,” I said. “That seems bad.”

“Can you usually smell anything?”

“I’m still part fox, so yes. My sense of smell is excellent, better than most dogs. It’s what I used to find your cabin, but I couldn’t differentiate the scents. At the time, I thought it was just the shock of what had happened, but when you and Mary turned up, I could smell you both, smell your fear and apprehension. Smell Mary’s excitement. Since then my sense of smell is lessening. I’m not sure it’s shock.” In all honestly, I was terrified it was something much more serious, and was one of the reasons I hadn’t been keen on Travis looking at it. Getting the band off was the priority, but it probably wouldn’t help much if I was dead before that happened.

“There’s some kind of silver fluid leaking out of the holes,” Travis said. “Looks like molten quicksilver.”

I shrugged. “No idea,” I said between clenched teeth. “Some kind of witch bullshit, I imagine.” I’d been shot with a silver bullet before, I knew the pain it caused, and this wasn’t like that. It was like a gradual shutting down of my senses. The sorcerer’s band didn’t do that, at least none I’d ever worn before had done that, and I’d seen people draw runes on bullets to cause extra suffering to their victims, so it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility.

“I need this thing off me, and I’ll be fine,” I said. “I just need to not die before then.”

I felt a slight jab near the wound.

“Local anesthetic,” Travis said. “Should stop this part from hurting too much.”

“What part?” I asked.

“I have to clean this wound. It has bits of tree and dirt in it. And then I have to sew it. None of that is going to feel good.”

“Lucky me,” I said and took a deep breath. “I hope you have sterile tools.”

Travis nodded. “I’m going to go wash up again, and then we’ll get you done.”

I remained motionless while Travis left the room, Mary remaining behind.

“It looks bad,” she said.

“You do not have a great bedside manner,” I told her with a smile.

“Will you be okay?”

I nodded. “Had worse.”

“Really?”

Another nod. “I jumped off a cliff only a few hours ago.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.