'Don't worry. Earl said Gretchen's the best. She's supposed to be able to fix any injury. Milo and Sam swear by her. I guess we're supposed to leave her alone to do her thing.'
'Any relation to Skippy? They share the same fashion sense.'
'Yeah. They said she's one of his wives. I think she's like the tribal healer,' he said.
'Wives? With an S? As in plural?' That was a bit surprising.
'Sam said he's got like five of them. Hey, different cultures. Whatever works, I guess.'
'Dang. I don't even have a girlfriend and Skippy has extra wives,' I replied.
'No wonder. You look like shit,' Holly said from behind me. Between her sultry looks, her swimsuit model's body, and the. 308 Vepr in her hands, she looked like she should have been in a James Bond movie. 'You're bleeding all over the carpet. What the hell did you do to yourself this time?'
I turned to regard her and smiled broadly. 'I fell out of the van. While it was moving.'
'You should stick with accounting. Holy crap. You have gravel stuck in your arms. Sit down, I'll grab some iodine. Trip, get a towel, and by the way, the property is clear. I didn't see anybody out there.'
'Julie's dad is strapped down in the back of the ambulance. He's out cold. You should probably see to him first,' I told them as I studied my shredded arms. They looked almost as bad as I felt.
'Is he hurt?' Trip asked. 'I'm no Gretchen but I know first aid.'
'Mildly concussed probably. Crazy son of a bitch tried to drive us into a train so I clocked him in the head until he quit. Watch him. He's nuts. Find a room to lock him in, and keep him tied up. Preferably chained to something heavy.'
'You really are a people person, aren't you? Give me the keys too, I'll hide the ambulance around back.' I tossed them over. He left to retrieve Ray.
'I'm not kidding. Lock him in the attic if we have one,' I shouted after him. 'And check the room to make sure there aren't any weapons in it.'
Holly forced me to take a seat in the kitchen while she raided the extensive first aid kit. I sat next to the marble sink with my shirt off while she painfully removed each piece of bloody gravel with a pair of needle nose pliers. The kitchen was also under construction, someone had pulled down most of the cabinets to be restained, and a pair of sawhorses and some plywood served as the kitchen table. Mercy was not Holly's strong suit, and after violently ripping each piece free she dropped them into the sink with a clatter. It was not a pleasant experience.
She told me about how after Julie had called from the asylum, Earl had immediately loaded up a response team in the chopper to come to our rescue, only to be intercepted and forced to return to the compound by the Monster Control Bureau's helicopters. While the Feds were watching them land, Earl had called to check on our status and had gotten Ray instead. Since Holly and Trip were considered mere untrained Newbies by the Feds, and not really important in the grand scheme of things, he had given them directions to the Shackleford family home and had them sneak off with Gretchen.
'What's this stuff? Looks like you got splashed with slag from a cutting torch or something,' she asked as she removed a chunk of metal from my arm. It left a small hole that immediately began to well up with blood.
'Gargoyles bleed molten. I beat one of them to death with a fifty barrel. It kind of got on me.'
'No kidding?' I flinched as she jerked out a particularly pointy piece of asphalt.
'No biggie. It only had one arm. And it was stuck under the van. It was the bastard that stabbed Julie. I lost the barrel, so I finished it off with a tire iron. When I cracked its head it kind of just squirted everywhere.'
'You rushed a giant monster with an empty gun to save her?' She jabbed me with the pliers.
'I guess. Ow. Careful.' I grimaced as she grabbed a chunk of flesh instead of rock.
'Hold still, you big sissy… Look, Z, let me be honest here. I'm getting a little worried about you. Seriously.' Holly sounded earnest. She paused to wipe her brow. It was uncomfortably warm and stuffy in the kitchen. 'Back on the freighter you were willing to play chicken with a vampire to save Julie. And now you take on a damn ten-ton gargoyle with a stinking tire iron to protect her?'
'It wasn't that big. And on the freighter I pulled that grenade to save all of us, not just her.'
'Sure…' She did not sound convinced. 'Z, I'm not stupid. I can see how you get all dopey around her. Whatever. I don't want to see you do something stupid and get killed for her is all.'
'Nothing that I wouldn't do for anybody else,' I said defensively.
'I don't doubt that either. You would probably do something stupid to save anybody. You and Trip both. Idiot wannabe heroes who would probably run into a burning building to save kittens or some shit. I'm surrounded by idiots.'
'I didn't know you cared.' I grinned. She stabbed me again.
'Trust me on this one, Z. There'll come a time when you're going to have to make a choice. Somebody who you can't save, no matter what. And then you're going to have to choose, you can either save yourself, or you can die trying. Sometimes the choice is between running like a coward, or fighting like a fool.' Holly sounded angry as she said that.
'What are you trying to say?'
'Just something I learned the hard way is all. You know, before…' She trailed off, then changed the subject. 'I think that's the last of it. I'm going to put some iodine on this now. You're missing a ton of skin, so this might sting.'
'Before what?' I pressed. 'You're the only Newbie who has never told us how you got into this business. Everybody knows about my werewolf, or Trip's zombies, or Lee's spiders. Holly, you're tough as nails, and you don't take crap off of anybody, but you're buttoned up so tight about your past. What happened before? You know you can tell me any… Yeeaaarrrgghhh!' I screamed as horrible burning pain ripped through the raw nerves of my arms.
'Oh, my bad. That wasn't iodine. That was rubbing alcohol. All your babbling distracted me. Now shut the hell up,' she ordered.
I did as I was told. I wasn't going to push it while she still had that bottle of liquid pain. Damn, that hurt. The iodine stung, but it was nothing in comparison. Trip returned after he had secured Ray and had hidden the stolen ambulance.
'What did I miss?' he asked. 'Holly, you don't look happy.'
'Nothing,' she replied stonily. 'Hold still. Some of these holes are going to need stitches.'
'Gretchen could do it, probably?'
'She's busy. Julie has a real injury, this is just a boo-boo. Besides, I know what I'm doing. This won't hurt a bit. Well, actually it'll probably hurt like a son of a bitch. Bite down on something,' she suggested.
Trip pulled up a chair and sat down next to the improvised table. 'I put Julie's dad in a bedroom upstairs. I checked the room for weapons, found this. I think Julie has loaded guns stashed in every room of this place.' He placed a. 45 Beretta in front of him. 'Don't worry though. I've got him handcuffed to a wrought-iron bed frame. He isn't going anywhere.'
I thought about that for a moment. It beat thinking about the needle that Holly was running thread through. I hated getting stitches. I had done it plenty of times without local anesthesia. Illegal fighting rings did not exactly have the best insurance. 'Where exactly did you get handcuffs?'
He shrugged. 'They were in one of the gear bags.'
'They're mine,' Holly said. Trip jumped. She looked up at us in consternation. 'Get your mind out of the gutter. Damn, I am supposed to be the support person, remember? I was just thinking ahead. Earl said we had a dangerous crazy guy to baby-sit.'
'Sorry,' Trip said.
'Bible thumper,' she muttered under her breath as she stuck the curved needle through my skin.
'No really, I didn't mean-'
'Whatever, Trip. Just because I danced naked for money doesn't make me a whore.'
'Sorry. That wasn't even what I was thinking,' he replied, raising his hands defensively. Holly was quiet as she continued stitching me up. Trip was too dark to blush, but he was obviously embarrassed. 'I'll go check on Gretchen.' He left the room in a hurry.
I watched as the tear in my flesh gradually closed. She did good work. I felt the need to defend my friend. 'I don't think Trip was judging you. He's real religious, but he isn't that way at all.'
'I know.' She continued stitching. 'He's probably the nicest guy I've ever met. And he's real innocent at heart.
