“Lucky? How so? This is going to hurt like hell tomorrow.” It was already hurting, but experience had proven to me that wounds usually hurt more after the initial shock passed.
She poured antiseptic directly into the wounds while I ground my teeth together.
“Did I mention that a werewolf’s bite is contagious?”
“Contagious?” I shook my head. “No, you didn’t, but I remember that from the movies.”
Gail capped the antiseptic and tore open another box. “Don’t put too much credence in movie fiction. They miss more often than not, but yes, if you’d been bitten, come the next full moon you would change.”
“And be like him?” I motioned toward the body lying on the gravel.
“More or less. You might be a little bigger, maybe a little more vicious, it varies, but you’d be a creature of evil, that doesn’t change,” she turned her eyes to mine. “And I’d have to put you down.”
I met her gaze for a few seconds and then grinned. “Then I’m glad he didn’t bite me.”
“Me too, Jesse. I hate to have to kill you.”
Her seriousness was troubling. I huffed and said, “And I wouldn’t want you to.”
Her eyes stayed on mine and I saw moisture reflected there. I grabbed her bloody hands in mine and raised them to my lips. “Hey, Gail, it’s all right. I’m fine. Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’m not bitten.”
She grinned, but the moisture remained in her eyes. She pulled free and reached for the box she’d already opened. “Yeah, you’re fine. Now this,” she held up a stapling tool, “is going to hurt.”
“Ah, Gail, don’t you have Dermabond or one of the other surgical adhesives?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You know how to use those?”
“Pretty simple really, just pinch the skin closed and spread a little of the adhesive over the top of the cut.”
“Yeah, works great too, but it has a limited shelf life. I’ve used it before, but I always have to throw out the old stuff and buy more. Staples don’t have a twelve-month shelf life.”
There wasn’t much else to say about it. I’d have preferred the adhesive, after all, it formed a barrier against infection and the skin healed faster. I shrugged and watched her bend over my chest.
“Jesus!” I exclaimed as she pinched the first gash closed and worked the stapler. Dermabond also didn’t hurt.
I gritted my teeth but didn’t say another word through a dozen staples. When she set the stapler aside, I worked my jaw and stared down at my chest. The staples were aligned and placed a uniform distance apart. “Damn, woman, you’ve done that before.”
“It’s a job requirement.”
“So you went into nursing?” I asked with a grin.
She gave me a skeptical look. Reaching back into her first aid kit, she removed a small jar and opened the lid. I suddenly smelled jasmine.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s a poultice, it’ll speed your healing.”
“Seriously? So now your family is into alternative medicines?”
“Don’t knock what works, Hoss. This will cut your healing time for a wound in half.”
Gail dipped a finger into the jar and gathered some of the poultice. She smeared each of the slashes on my chest with a small amount.
“So that’s what is under your bandage?” I asked. “I thought I smelled jasmine.”
Gail closed the jar set it aside. Opening a sterile bandage pack, she pressed clean gauze against my chest. “Hold this, smart ass.”
I placed a finger on the gauze while she expertly taped it down. I watched her work until she had covered my wounds with blood-speckled bandages.
“There, that’ll keep you until you see a doctor.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to explain this to Doctor Ramey,” I said.
“Don’t go to your family doctor. See someone in Huntsville.”
“I probably will. Word would get around Greenbow and I don’t need my parents finding out I got clawed up when I was meeting an old girlfriend.” I chuckled. “They’d take it the wrong way.”
While Gail wiped the last of the blood from her hands, I watched and wondered just what her life was like. Was this like a family business or something? A family that hunted down the strange and unbelievable? Nah, couldn’t be, it sounded too much like the plot of a TV series.
“So this is what you really needed me out here for tonight?” I asked.
“That’s part of it. Come on, you can help me drag the body out to the grave.”
“Okay,” I said, but when I stood, the staples pulled against the sides of my wounds. “Damn, that hurts.”
“I think I told you it would. If you can’t drag the body, you can at least keep me company.”
We walked back out to the center of the parking lot and I gingerly bent down to grab one foot. “I’ll take this leg and you can have the other.”
“Deal,” Gail said.
As we dragged the naked body toward the cemetery, I turned and studied the ruins of the man’s face. He’d been about our age. I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that. We passed through the gate and in a couple of minutes were once more beside the open grave. Gail took out her big knife and removed the man’s head. It took her three swings.
“Damn, that’s a little gruesome.”
“Yeah, you’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t think I want to get used to it,” I said.
“I’ll roll him in. Think you can shovel enough dirt to cover the grave?” Gail asked.
“I can give it a try.”
She tossed the head in and then pushed the body into the hole. It thumped onto the two ghouls.
Gail stood and stared upwards at the moon. “A damn shame.”
“What is?” I asked.
“I’d hoped it would be someone else, someone older.”
“Oh? What do you mean? Do you think there’s another one around here?” I twisted around to study the forest.
“No, I think this one was set on my trail by the one I was after.”
“Why?”
“Because the other one knew I was looking for him tonight. I left a trail that would
