Simone followed Julian into a bare operating room. Like the outer room, it was clean and sterile with steel furniture and large lamps over the surgical table. It looked like any operating room she'd ever seen and she was impressed with the quality of the state-of-the-art tools and monitors. In fact, she knew several hospitals that would kill to be this up-to-date.
While Julian placed Xypher on the table, she headed to the small room on her right where a prep sink waited so that she could scrub down.
Carson entered right behind her. "You look like you know what you're doing."
"I'm an ME and I thought you might need an assistant for surgery." She dried her hands on one of the green towels that were stacked on a table beside the sink.
He inclined his head before he began scrubbing his hands, too. "Good woman. My usual assistant is off today."
Julian came to the doorway. His clothes were covered in blood. "If neither of you needs me, I'm heading back to my house to do damage control on the bed . . . and pray none of my neighbors saw the major battle we had in the street with our friendly neighborhood demon."
Carson snorted. "Please, no more getting caught on videotape and God save us from Webcams. I swear I hate this modem age."
Simone ignored his caustic comment as she met Julian's gaze. "Good luck and thank you for all your help."
Julian smiled at her, then vanished while Carson wheeled a table of instruments back toward the other room.
"Don't we need a mask and scrubs?" Simone asked him.
He shook his head. "I wash my hands out of habit. Basically your friend here should be immune to the typical genus that can kill a human. What will infect him would be things we couldn't protect against anyway."
"Oh." Simone moved to the opposite side of the table and helped to remove her temporary pressure bandage from Xypher's side. She was a bit surprised that Carson didn't remove Xypher's jeans, but he seemed content to leave him partially dressed.
Since she'd never operated on anyone, never mind someone who wasn't exactly human, she kept her backseat surgeon under wraps. Obviously the man knew what he was doing or Julian wouldn't have brought them here. Not to mention, no one would have paid for all this equipment unless they knew how to use it.
Right?
She hoped so. Stepping back, she watched as Carson opened him up and started working on the wound. She cringed at the damage done. His arteries and tissue were a nightmare.
Poor man ... or whatever he was.
A twinge of guilt went through her as she considered the way he'd put himself between the demon and her. He'd taken the brunt of the fight-just like he'd done in the alley so that she wouldn't be harmed.
In spite of all his gruff bluster, he had heart and at least a basic code of decency. That realization softened her toward him. He actually wasn't that bad. And as she stared at him, a part of her was warmed by his consideration.
Carson reached for a clamp on the stainless steel tray. "What was he cut with?"
"A short sword."
He shook his head. "It looks more like a chain saw got him. Look at the damage here." He held the skin back so that she could get a full view.
Simone reached for another clamp to hand him since Xypher was bleeding so badly. Carson was right. It was awful. "I don't know if this helps or matters, but the man wielding the sword was some kind of demon."
"Do you know from what pantheon?"
This had to be the most screwed-up conversation she'd ever had. There weren't many people you could tell about a demon appealing in the street and then attacking you who would accept it with such a simple question. It should be interrupted with laughter.
And lots of alcohol.
"Uh, no. But Xypher called him Kaiaphas."
Carson cursed.
Simone looked up at the unexpected anger the name caused. "You know him?"
"Part Greek, part Sumerian, all pissed off. It's a wonder any of you survived. But the real question is, why did he attack you guys? It's not his normal style."
"What do you mean?"
"Kaiaphas is a doleodai. A bound demon. He can't act on his own, he has to be commanded by someone."
That was an interesting tidbit. Simone wanted to laugh at the absurdity of everything that had happened to her since lunch. "How on earth did I get caught up in this? All I wanted to do was check out a simple crime scene and go home. No ... I take that back. All I wanted was to have a ham and cheese sandwich with an old friend. Now I've been dragged into the middle of some Greek-god conflict and it's not even, dinnertime yet. I can't wait to see what happens next."
Carson smiled, "I've had those days." "Sure you have."
"No, really. You should follow me around and document all the weirdness I get dragged into."
"Such as?"
He took the clamp from her hand. "Well, there was the time Marvin, our former mascot monkey, ran from his owner. Wren-he's a tiger that can take human form-and went upstairs to sleep with the dragon. Turns out our resident dragon is allergic to monkeys-who knew or could imagine that? Max broke out with a rash in areas I still cringe over, and if you mention the word 'monkey' to him to this day, he shoots fire at you. Then there was the time when . . . oh, I better not tell that. If Dev catches wind of it, he'll rip my heart out and eat it."
Simone stepped back at everything he was telling her. No ... it couldn't be.
Could it?
"You have lycanthropes here?"
Pausing, he glanced up at her. "Aren't you a Squire?"
"No."
He sucked his breath in sharply and twisted his face up into a mask of aggravation. Growling, he reached for sutures. "You didn't know about any of what I just said until it came pouring out of my mouth, did you?"
"Nope."
He cursed again. "I can't believe I just did that. I assumed since you knew about Xypher and the demon, and Julian manifested you in here, that you knew everything about our world."
No, but she was getting a quick introduction that was becoming scarier by the minute. In all her conversations with Tate, he'd never once mentioned lycanthropes.
"Appears I do now," she said, trying to make Carson feel better about his slipup, "Daily Inquisitor, here I come . . . better yet, the local nut farm."
"Yeah, and I just broke nine hundred rules. What say we keep all of this between us?"
"Believe me, baby, I ain't talking. I value what little sanity1 have left, and the last thing I want is to be in the middle of what I'm in the middle of. Point me to the exit and Alice is out of the rabbit hole, back on earth, and happy to develop Alzheimer's over this entire incident. In fact, I'm not even sure I'm here. I'm thinking a Daimon konked me on the head and this is all one big hallucination brought on by severe blood loss."
"You ramble like that a lot?"
"Yes. I find it grounds me."
He laughed as he worked on Xypher.
Simone paused as she realized something. "We didn't give him anything to keep him knocked out. Shouldn't we do that?"
"Nah. It wouldn't do any good. Dream-Hunters are immune to those lands of drugs."
"Really?"
He nodded, leaning closer for a better look at what he was doing. "They're gods. Normal human medicine doesn't work on them."
"Then why are we operating?"
"Because he's bleeding and unconscious . . . I've never seen a Dream-Hunter bleed before, especially not like this. But I figure if he bleeds, he could bleed out and die."
On one hand that made sense, but on another . . . "Gods can't die, right?"