Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

side.
    â€œIt’s not a sterile environment, but it sounds like that’s not important.”
    â€œNo,” I told Jody distractedly. Where had Sam gotten to? “Werewolves deal with germs better than people do. Looks like they’re ready to go.”
    I closed the door, took a deep breath, and turned to Mary Jo. “Do you know what to do? I have to find Sam.”
    â€œI’m here.” Samuel was naked as the day he was born, and sweating freely from the speed of his change. His skin was filthy with dust and fae blood—a condition he was remedying with a bucket of water and a towel that must have been among the things Mary Jo had required. His eyes were gray, a shade or two lighter than normal, but the other wolves would doubtless put it to changing. “I’ll take care of it.”
    â€œSamuel,” I said.
    But he looked away and took up something that looked like a scrub brush, with stiff bristles. “I need you to hold him down. Ben, lie across his hips. Mary Jo, I’ll tell you where I need you. Hands will be the worst, so we’ll start with them.”
    â€œWhat about me?” I asked.
    â€œYou talk to him. Keep telling him we’re helping him with this torture. If he hears you and believes you, he won’t fight us as hard. I’ll give him some morphine. It won’t help much or for long, so we’ll need to move fast.”
    So while Samuel scrubbed the dead skin and almost-healed scabs off Adam with a stiff-bristled brush, I talked and talked. The burns had killed tissue that had to be removed. Once it was gone, the raw wounds would heal cleanly and without scars.
    Adam kept going into coughing fits. When they’d happen, everyone backed off and let him cough until he spit up blood with great hunks of black in it. Ben had a few of those fits, too, but he rode them out while still keeping his weight on Adam.
    Every so often, Samuel would stop and dose Adam with more morphine. The worst of it was that Adam never made a noise or struggled against the people holding him down. He just kept his eyes on mine while he sweat and his body shook with small tremors that grew and subsided with whatever Samuel did.
    â€œI thought you were dead,” he said, his voice a bare rasp while Samuel moved from his hands to his feet. It didn’t seem to hurt as much—at a guess there weren’t a lot of nerves left. He’d jumped into a burning building barefoot to save me.
    â€œStupid,” I said, blinking hard. “As if I’d die without taking you with me.”
    He smiled faintly. “Was it Mary Jo who betrayed us at the bowling alley?” he asked, proving he hadn’t been entirely unaware of what had been going on while he was changing.
    Both of us ignored the pained sound Mary Jo made.
    â€œI’ll ask her later.”
    He nodded. “Better—” He quit talking, and his pupils contracted despite the morphine he’d been given.
    He arched up and twisted so he could press his face into my belly, making a noise somewhere between a scream and a growl. I held him there while Samuel snarled at Ben and Mary Jo to hold him still.
    Another shot of morphine, and Samuel moved us all around. Ben across Adam’s legs—“And don’t think I haven’t noticed your hands, Ben. You’re next up.” Mary Jo on one arm, just above the elbow. Me on the other.
    â€œCan you hold him?” asked Samuel.
    â€œNot if he doesn’t want me to,” I told him.
    â€œIt’ll be all right,” Adam said. “I won’t hurt her.”
    Samuel smiled tightly. “No, I didn’t think you would.”
    When Samuel started on Adam’s face with the brush, I had to close my eyes.
    â€œShh,” Adam comforted me. “It’ll be over soon.”

    WARREN ARRIVED NOT LONG AFTER THAT. TOO LATE to help with Adam, but he and Mary Jo held on to Ben while Samuel scrubbed his hands free of black skin and blisters. He hadn’t changed twice and started healing wrong, but it was still bad enough.
    Adam had closed his eyes and was resting while I stood with my hands wrapped around his upper arm, one of the places where he hadn’t lost any skin. The connection between us hadn’t reset yet, and I had to rely on my senses to tell me what he felt. It surprised me, given how unhappy I’d been with that bond, that I missed the connection when it was gone. My ears told me that he