As the men half dragged the limp form across the grass, Jessie noted that her crawling sensation had vanished. Was Cara’s entire place as magical as she was?
“I take it you’re Kade,” Zach commented as they shuffled the large, naked guy through the side gate Cara held open.
“And you’re Zach,” Kade rumbled.
“Apparently.”
They carted the inert body along the stone path between the plants. The naked man’s legs trailed behind them, leaving streaks of blood.
Cara hurried ahead to the door. “Put him on the table,” she ordered.
Jessie helped them heave the big guy up. Laid out, she got a good look at Neil’s head. And didn’t like what she saw.
“Zach is right,” she said, alarmed as she checked his pulse again. “That head injury looks bad. He needs a hospital.”
“No hospitals,” Kade growled.
“But—”
Kade turned away from her, arranging Neil’s legs on the table and examining them as he did so.
Cara’s fingers were already drifting over Neil’s inert form. “When Weres are unconscious, so is their control over the beast,” she explained. “They have a tendency to come out of it in a nasty mood.”
Oh. Jessie swallowed. Right. Nasty for them didn’t mean yelling and swinging, it meant teeth and claws. But how many Weres died because they didn’t have access to modern medicine?
Kade lifted his gaze from Neil and met Jessie’s. For a moment, time froze. He tweaked a brow, and she dropped her eyes to his arms. Immense arms crisscrossed with both fresh and old scars.
She swallowed. Kade was no stranger to injury. If he believed Cara could help his friend, who was she to argue?
Jessie glanced at Zach. His gaze slid from her to the big Were. And it wasn’t friendly. But a man lay bleeding on the table. Some emergency nurse she was. Jessie moved to the sink. “Have you got any antiseptic?” she asked Cara.
Cara’s brows rose.
“She’s a nurse,” Zach offered.
“Sink’s clean,” Cara said. “Drawer on your left has towels we can use.”
“They won’t be sterile,” Jessie protested in astonishment. What did they do before sterile procedures were developed? She’d have to boil towels.
“Neither is he,” Cara pointed out. “It’s okay. I can keep infection out of the wounds. If you can focus on cleaning him up, I’ll start healing.”
Jessie didn’t waste time debating. Here, Cara was the doctor calling the shots. She dug out a stack of towels and filled the sink with hot water.
“What can I do?” Zach asked.
“Help Jessie.” Cara’s fingers trailed across a set of five deep slashes across the man’s chest. Air whistled through the slices. Jessie swallowed; the claws had penetrated to the lung.
Blood covered one side of Neil’s head. Cara probed it with gentle fingers. “Was he unconscious when you found him?”
“Yeah.” Kade exchanged a glance with the healer and straightened. “I’ll move the truck.” He said, and then vanished through the door.
Jessie returned to the table with a basin of hot water and a towel. Cara was still probing the head wound. “Start with this,” she said. “I think the skull might be fractured.”
Jessie’s hands paused with the damp towel over his face. “You can tell that without an x-ray?”
“Yes,” Cara said, her eyes sliding closed. “I can feel it. Sponge the blood away. I’ll be busy for a bit.” She fell silent, her fingers resting lightly on his skull. And then she began to sing. Not in any language that Jessie understood. The words were barely audible, and she swore she heard flute accompaniment.
Zach stared as he set his bowl on the table.
