Page 99 of A Light in the Dark
According to the doctors, who dealt with me having anxiety over the unexpected shifting, shapeshifters tended to have spontaneous incidents during expansive recoveries like the one Joel faced. It helped them heal faster and removed some of the strain of the injury.
I did my best to focus on the ‘heal faster’ portion of their commentary. I enjoyed caring for him while a luna moth more than I should have, and I went out of my way to find roses for him to sniff while he suffered. When he wasn’t sniffing roses or gorging on fruit, I kept him on my shoulder and transferred him to a plastic lined basket so he could expel his silk without making a mess everywhere.
After the sixth transformation, Joel refused to shift back to human, even after eating seventeen oranges and vomiting out at least twenty pounds of silk, which I got to walk to the entrance of the hospital to meet up with a rather amused Coraline, who’d escaped from Calden on virtue of him needing to get some work done.
“I’m so sorry about this,” I mumbled, handing over the latest bag overflowing with silk.
Joel rode on my shoulder, and judging from his still state, he’d passed out following his latest bender.
Coraline smiled, reached over, and petted the luna moth. “The poor guy. That’s shift number six so far, right?”
“It is,” I confirmed. “He’s refusing to shift at this stage, not that I blame him. He’s exhausted.”
As far as I could tell, Joel slept through the wolf’s attention. “Let’s go talk to the doctors and see if we can take him home. There’s a point where being in the hospital doesn’t help shifters much, and if he’s refusing to shift back, he’s probably at that point. Shifting, peace, and quiet will be best for him at this point. Try not to fret. The first time Calden injured himself, I had my first midlife crisis. Nobody had told me there’s no point in hospitalizing shifters after a certain stage, and my idiot spouse had decided to check himself out. I went to visit him, he wasn’t there, and I lost my shit. The hospital staff laughed at me. A nice nurse explained it to me, and she suggested I should seek vengeance for his wily ways.”
“Have you paid him back for that yet?”
“I’m paying him back for that stunt soon.” Coraline raised a brow and nodded in Joel’s direction.
Ah. Right. The game. “When is the game happening? Will Joel be able to play?”
“We’re waiting for Joel to recover and be rested before we have the tournament. Winning because a pair was excluded due to a bunch of assholes didn’t sit well with anybody. Since we’ll be playing on weekends for most of the days for however long it takes, it’s not a big deal. Nobody is happy about having to cram in our errands and chores over the weekdays, but we’ll probably survive.”
I frowned. “How many hours a day will we be playing?”
“Fifteen, split into three five hour sessions. There will be a two hour break between each session.”
I could work with that schedule. Two hour breaks would give me plenty of time to make food and stretch. “By ‘home,’ do you mean our home or yours?”
“Mine,” Coraline admitted with a grin. “The hospital will insist you stay close for a day or two in case Joel needs to go back for any reason. If you go three days without mishap, we’ll drive you home. Flying will still be out for another week at a minimum.”
“They almost killed him, didn’t they?”
“It came uncomfortably close, yes. But because you two took the hits, no more refugees should die.”
I wondered how many times I would have to tell myself that before I accepted the truth of it. I hadn’t minded quite as much when I’d been the one targeted, but Joel’s injury had done an excellent job of transforming the whole incident into an unforgivable sin. To keep myself from lying, I focused on the silver lining. “I’m glad the refugees will be safe.”
“That leads me to the next problem.”
I wanted to go home, pick a corner, and cry for a while. “I have a plethora of problems. I do not need more. Please take the problems elsewhere.”
She laughed. “The emergency election in Stonecreek is tomorrow.”
The election might be the death of me, especially since my boss kept sending me teasing texts and photographic evidence I was on the ballot. “I definitely do not need that problem. I’ll worry about it the day after tomorrow. For now, let’s see if we can get Joel busted out of here and do something—anything—other than sitting around a hospital while waiting.” If I needed to care for the luna moth for even a few weeks, I’d happily carry him around, offer him choice bits of fruit, gather his silk, and otherwise rule over him. Ifanyone tried to take my luna moth, I’d weaponize anything I could get my hands on.
I had many problems, but a lack of my own luna moth would not be one of them.
“Hopefully, we can manage that little. Come on. Just don’t let Joel fly off on us. I brought a luna moth prison for if he’s discharged.”
“You better go get the luna moth prison even if he’s not discharged, because I don’t trust him. He will try to bust out of this joint,” I stated.
Laughing, Coraline returned to her SUV, and after a few minutes, returned with a large plastic cage meant for a rodent of some sort. “I think Calden’s just making me drive more. After we got together, he insisted I learn how to drive so I can be properly independent. And he keeps threatening to buy me my own vehicle if I don’t use his at least twice a week.”
“That’s harsh.” I turned my head to regard the sleeping luna moth. “You don’t think he’ll make me drive, will he? I have feet.”
“He’s the type who will delight in being your servant and will drive you wherever you want. Mine prefers independence. Then he gets upset when I get on the bus and read. Me? Spend forty minutes to go somewhere it would have taken ten if I drive? It’s reading time, Valerie.”
“I read while I walk fairly often,” I confessed.
