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Voices shouted in the waiting area, loud enough to reach the bowels of the ED. Closer, despite security threatening to remove them.

Quinn and Bennett rushed into the room.

Eryn looked up. Through the blur, she realized she was sobbing.

Quinn’s hands slapped over her mouth.

Bennett stepped up to the end of the bed. “He’s strong,” he said in a calm, soothing timbre. “Where’s the surgeon?”

The entire room looked at him like he was a ghost.

“On the way.”

Walking and talking, Quinn and Bennett were in better shape than Vann. Bruised and battered, but they weren’t here for their own care.

A nurse ran through another assessment. The entire team moved fast to keep his heart beating, air flowing, blood pumping. Oxygen strapped to his face. Unresponsive.

Bennett shook his head. “See to that abdominal wound fast, and he’ll pull through. I’ve survived worse.”

Holden pushed into the room to evict Bennett and Quinn. “Sir, ma’am, you need to wait outside. We’re doing what we can for your friend.”

Lips receding, teeth bared, Bennett growled low in his throat.

Threat permeated the room.

Holden took a step back, pale and speechless.

Eryn’s voice crackled. “He’s had a severe head injury. A punctured lung. But the abdominal wound… Even if he survives the surgery…”

The human in her grieved, sobbed, cussed, and wanted to demand they move faster.

“Surgeon’s onsite,” Karen yelled as she ran back into the room. “Let’s move, people.”

Eryn ran back with the gurney, refusing to leave his side.

“Eryn.” Holden ran with her into the surgical suite. “You know you can’t—”

The fury in her might be willing him to die, but both the monster and the human in her were going to tear this room apart if anyone tried to drag her away. “I don’t care.”

The surgeon sprinted into the room, nurses strapping sterile gear onto everyone. The surgical assistant ran in next.

Eryn stepped back long enough for someone to wrap her in a gown and stuff a mask over her face. Maybe they realized she’d rather get fired than leave Vann’s side. Or, she was monster enough to terrify them. All the extra security they’d hired via a mystery grant… yet none of them stopped the many violations in progress. In tears himself, one of the security guards hugged Quinn as she passed.

As the surgeon approached her patient, a nurse carefully removed the abdominal bandaging.

Eryn stopped fast.

Where his intestines had extruded before, they had… spontaneously reduced.

No one seemed to notice, but they hadn’t seen…

The surgeon began her work.

Bennett pushed the door open and growled as he shifted out of reach of hospital staff.

Eryn waved them off. “Let him in.” Security hadn’t stopped him. She nodded for the surgeon to ignore the bizarre and continue.

Every soul in the room looked around, waiting for someone to cry out how odd this was.