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Chapter 6
Miguel
“I shifted as I burst through the clinic doors. “Jax!” I searched frantically, finding him emerging from one of the exam rooms. “Jax, it’s Amelia. We need a room fast.”
“What happened?” Jax asked as he opened the door closest to me. The room was pristine, all white and chrome, the machines waiting in a corner easily within reach when needed.
“Amelia.” I panted, trying to catch my breath. “Broken ankle, possibly foot infection.” My words were sporadic as I spoke around breaths. I wasn’t winded from the run, it was the anxiety and fear of losing a mate before our life, and her acceptance of it began that was taking my breath away.
“Infection?” His eyebrows rose. I knew what he was asking. How? It was rare for our kind to get infections, and when we did, they could be life-threatening.
“Yes, I don’t know how. She broke her ankle in her search for Molly. It didn’t heal correctly. I didn’t see it. She wouldn’t let me.”
The doors banged against the walls, and Niko stormed in with Amelia still passed out in his arms.
“Bring her in here.” Jax was pulling trays from cabinets, setting everything he might need within reach. One of his nurses came in. “Get me antibiotics, lidocaine, sterile water, as much gauze as you can find, and start a saline IV drip.” Jax began to work, his movements methodical in nature.
My panther was pacing inside me, not liking another man being so close to Amelia. He didn’t act this way when Niko had scooped her up, but he sure didn’t like Jax touching her.
“Relax, Miguel, she needs him,” Niko whispered as he stood next to me. He stepped closer, giving me support as his arm rubbed against mine.
“I know that my cat knows that, but neither one of us really likes it,” I growled back.
“If you can’t control yourselves, you’ll have to leave,” Jax spoke as he worked. He took a large, angled pair of scissors and began cutting off her jeans.
“Wait, I’ll do that.” Niko stepped forward; hand outstretched for the scissors.
Jax looked up at him for a moment. He nodded toward the sink with his head. “Wash up first.”
Niko scrubbed his hands and all the way up his forearms before he returned, and Jax handed the scissors to him. “They need to come off. Be careful on the left leg; it’s swollen, making the material tighter than normal.”
“Can’t we just cut the bottom open?” I asked.
“We would risk worsening the infection. They are soaked with dirt, mud, and god knows what else. They have become a breeding ground for a host of unknown bacteria. We need them off so we can disinfect the whole area and see what we are dealing with.” He waved in the nurse. She had a large blanket over one arm and a plastic tote with a handle filled with the items Jax had requested in the other. “Hurry up, Niko. The sooner they are off, the sooner that nice warm blanket can be draped over her.” With our shifter DNA, we were immune to most diseases, but when our systems were weakened by injury, we could still succumb to infections.
I watched as Niko expertly glided the scissors through the fabric on the right leg all the way to the waistband, cutting through it. On the left leg, he gently snipped above the swelling and then up and through the waistband on that side. With the nurses’ help they rolled Amelia so they could remove the fabric. Niko backed away as Jax and his nurse began to work in tandem.
Their movements were like a well-coordinated dance. She quickly inserted the IV and had the saline drip on high, covering Amelia with the warm blanket, keeping her legs uncovered so Jax could clean and disinfect them before beginning his exam. I didn’t expect him to clean both, but I assumed he was being overly cautious.
Jax grabbed a syringe from the tray next to him. I hadn’t even seen the nurse set it up, but bottles and syringes were lined up in a neat little row. I turned my attention back and watched as he injected the medicine into four different areas of her left leg.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to hold the anger from my voice.
“I am numbing her leg before I make an incision. You see how swollen this leg is compared to the other?” he paused as he used alcohol wipes to clean the area. “The infection needs to be drained, and the open wound flushed until the liquid runs clear.” He placed the empty syringe in a bright red box to his right after he finished all four injections, another item I didn’t notice appeared.
“Nancy, I don’t have time to narrow down what bacteria infected her. Administer the doxycycline.” In his next breath, he addressed us, “Doxycycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic meant to treat a myriad of infections. It’s the only one I have found that works with shifters’ rapid healing. We don’t have time to run the blood tests in the lab.” He rubbed a large piece of gauze dripping with the orange-colored antiseptic down the length of her shin. He followed that with a small scalpel, and his steady hands and even breathing kept the incision at the perfect depth.
The scent of rotting flesh filled the room, and my stomach flipped with nausea I barely contained. I glanced at Niko out of the corner of my eye, seeing his skin turn a light pale green to match how my stomach felt.
“I’m going to need more saline. Bring me the largest irrigation syringes we have.” Jax packed gauze on either side of her leg to soak up the flow of blood, puss, and something else that looked like oil.
“Niko!” Jax barked.
He stepped to the side of the bed as Jax glanced up at him. “Do you smell it?”
Niko’s eyes flashed the gold of his tiger. “Magic.”
“It’s going to take more than modern medicine to heal her.”
