Flight of the Golden Harpy (11 page)

5

Kari jumped into the driver seat and pressed the start button. “I’m not sure when I can return your vehicle.”

“Take your time,” Jake said, leaning in the window. “Didn’t your daddy give you that new vehicle?”

Kari nodded and pushed the starter again.

“I was fired from your dad’s mill for poaching on his land,” Jake said. “Wait’ll your old man finds out you traded that expensive vehicle for a busted-up harpy.” He laughed. “Tell him it’s payback time.”

The vehicle engines engaged, and the transport started to hover. Ignoring Jake, Kari threw it in reverse and pushed the old vehicle to its top speed down the coastal road. She sped passed the harbor and reached the highway to Westend. She decided to take Shail to Doc. There was no time for another doctor or vet. She glanced back at the motionless body and wondered if the golden male was alive. “Please don’t die, Shail,” she cried. Her earlier assertive attitude dissolved into tears, and she wiped them away with her sleeve. Ten long years of waiting and dwelling on the harpy, and now he lay dying. She glanced at her hands, stained with his blood. “This can’t be happening. It can’t end like this.” She sobbed as the dark jungle flew past. The trip to Westend was taking forever.

*   *   *

Kari finally arrived in the little town and zipped down the quiet main street. Seeing the yellow cottage, she took the terrain vehicle over the lawn and parked by the front door. The cottage was dark inside, and the outside lit by a porch light. She leaped from the vehicle and ran to the porch. She rang the bell, beat on the door, and shouted for Doc. An inside light came on, and the door opened. Dressed in his Pajamas, Doc stared at her.

“Hurry, Doc. It’s an emergency,” she screamed, leading him to the vehicle.

“Okay, okay,” he said calmly. “I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t.”

Kari flung the back door open, and the vehicle light revealed the harpy. Doc peered down at the still creature. He turned and looked at Kari with a frown. “You got me out of bed for a miserable harpy? I ain’t no damn vet,” he growled, and turned toward the cottage.

Kari grabbed his arm. “Please, Doc,” she cried. “He’s dying. I don’t have any other place to take him.” She dropped to her knees and held Doc’s hand. “Please, I’m begging you,” she moaned. She lowered her head and wept.

“Come now, dear,” he said, guiding her to her feet. “It’s only a harpy.”

“He’s not just a harpy to me,” she whimpered.

The porch light illuminated her damp face. “Aren’t you the Turner girl who was here yesterday?” he asked.

Kari nodded.

He walked over and looked at the harpy. Pushing the bloodstained feathers away, he saw the yellow wings and hair. “I’ll be darned. This is a golden. Haven’t seen his likes…” He paused in midsentence and gazed at the girl, leaning over the harpy. She was gently caressing the young male’s face. Her hands trembled, and she whimpered. Doc sighed. “Is this the golden that pulled you out of the lake and used the licing moss?”

Kari nodded again.

“I’m awake now,” he grumbled. “Might as well have a look at him. I owe him that much.” He lifted the wing and examined the curled up body. “That blast wound is at least two days old. I’m surprised he’s alive.” He straightened and took Kari by the arms. “I know this harpy saved you, and now you want to save him, but this poor thing has suffered enough. Let me put him out of his misery. I have the drugs. He won’t feel a thing. It’s the kindest thing we can do,” he said gently.

Kari jerked free of the doctor’s hold and stepped back. She stared at the old man in horror. “You want to kill him?”

“He’s beyond help and suffering. It’s cruel to keep him alive.”

“No,” she said. “He’s not some injured animal, not to me. He’s been my whole life. I love him. If you kill him, you might as well kill me, too.” She kissed the harpy’s cheek and wrapped her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his silky blond locks and cried.

Doc watched her for a long moment as she held the frail body. He calmly placed his hand on her shoulder, and she glanced up at him through her wet hair. “I don’t know anything about a harpy’s insides and haven’t done this kind of surgery in years, plus he’s very unstable. But I can’t turn you and your golden away without trying.”

Kari threw her arms around the old doctor. “Thank you, Doc. Thank you,” she said between sniffles.

“Don’t thank me,” he said seriously. “I want you to understand something. He’s probably not going to make it, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“I understand,” she said.

“All right, I’ll get a stretcher so we can get him inside,” he said, and hastily walked into the cottage. He soon returned with the floating bed. Kari and Doc rolled Shail onto it and pushed his limp body into the cottage. Doc flipped on the lights in his small hospital room.

“If word gets out that I’m treating harpies,” he said, pushing the harpy on the operating table, “the whole damn town will think I’m nuts.” The full extent of the harpy’s injuries was revealed under the bright floodlights of the exam room. Cuts and abrasions covered the sleek muscles where the men had beaten him. The ropes that bound his wrists and ankles were so tight Doc had to cut them off, exposing deep gashes. Doc shook his head. Not only did the harpy suffer from two laser blasts, but he had also been severely battered. “Who did this?” he stormed.

“Some guy named Jake.”

“Jake O’Connell. I know him. I delivered that boy. He was a rotten kid, and now he’s a rotten man. He should be arrested for animal cruelty,” Doc grumbled. “It’s one thing to hunt wild game, but this kind of torture of harpies goes too far.” He placed an oxygen mask over the harpy’s face.

“Why did they do this to him?” Kari asked.

“I don’t think these guys see harpies as game,” Doc said, preparing the harpy and medical equipment for surgery. “It’s some kind of twisted justification. They think the harpies are seductive males that steal and molest women, so the hunters show no mercy. I’ve heard of some pretty unspeakable things that have been done to harpies. Your boy here could have gotten worse.” He scanned Shail’s injuries with a monitor and pushed back the locks to examine a cut under the harpy’s left eye. He smiled at the stunning creature. “Personally, I think those hunters are just plain jealous. These harpy males are always good-looking, and they can fly. Makes me wonder why they’d have to steal women.” Doc finished with the scanning. “Well, he’s got a few busted ribs, but they’ll heal, and so will that wing. But this blast to his intestines is the major concern, and his blood pressure is low. I don’t dare operate without a blood transfusion,” he said, looking at Kari. “And you, my dear, are going to provide the blood.”

Kari was puzzled, her face frowned with doubt. “I’m no doctor, but don’t blood types have to match? We’re not even the same species. Won’t my blood kill him?”

“Without blood, he’ll surely die. Most animals don’t have blood types, and he’s animal enough. I don’t have time to argue about it. Either trust me or take him elsewhere.”

“I have no choice but to trust you,” she said. She sat down in a living room chair, and Doc drew her blood.

“I took quite a bit, so stay put,” he ordered, returning to the exam room. “I’m too old to pick you up if you faint.”

Kari waited in the other room and agonized over the blood transfusion. She stood up and did feel dizzy, but managed to walk to the doorway. “Is he all right?”

“He’s got your blood, and it’s compatible. He’s doing okay,” Doc said, not even looking up from his patient. The machines buzzed as Doc worked on the harpy’s wound. “I’m surprised these old lasers still work. Haven’t used them in years.”

Doc appeared to be enjoying himself and hummed throughout the operation. Kari leaned against the threshold and watched, feeling a little nauseated and weak.

“I’m cutting out these damaged intestines, but he’s got plenty to spare,” Doc said, glancing up at her. “You look pale. If you’re going to vomit, take it outside.”

“I do feel a little sick,” she admitted, backing out of the room. “May I use your communicator to call home?”

“On the desk.”

Kari looked at it and called, “Do you have a portable com?”

“There’s one on the kitchen counter with a location shutoff.”

Kari went to the kitchen and called home.

Maria answered. “I was just leaving for the night,” she said. “Your father is in his den. Do you want to talk to him?”

“No, just tell him I’m spending the night with Carol.”

“Okay, Miss Kari. I will tell him,” Maria said.

Kari wandered back to the small hospital room. “I’m feeling better now. Can I help?”

“Not with the surgery, but you can clean up the deep cuts with antiseptic, save me some time,” Doc said. “I’ll seal them and deal with that broken wing later. I put an antibiotic patch on him. Should fight the infections.”

Kari cleaned the injury on Shail’s broken wing that hung down from the table and then washed his wrists and ankles. As she removed the dry blood, his wounds were revealed. Rage started smoldering in her when she saw how terribly Shail had suffered. “I should’ve got my laser gun and killed them for this,” she muttered under her breath.

Doc glanced up. “You do care a hell of a lot about this harpy.”

“Yes, and I can’t even explain it. Since I came back from Earth, I’ve been fighting these feelings, but the moment I touched him, the battle was lost. Charlie says the harpy has a spell on me.”

Doc chuckled. “I don’t know about that superstitious Indian and his talk of spells, but I know love is the worst spell. Makes us do crazy things. Well, I’m finished,” he said, stretching his tired back. “I sometimes surprise myself.”

She looked at him, questioning the outcome.

“I’d say his chances are fifty-fifty. Better than a few hours ago,” Doc said. “I got to say this harpy’s looks are deceiving. He’s got a slight, almost delicate-looking body, but underneath the skin, he’s tough and resilient … heartier than most humans. Must be the animal blood. Strange these creatures don’t hold up in captivity.”

“I really must thank you, Doc.”

“No thanks until the final results are in. Now let’s have a look at that wing,” he said, pulling the long wing from the floor and resting it on a small table. “It’s a clean break. He’s lucky it’s not in a million pieces or blown clean off. A good old-fashioned splint will fix it. But it’ll be some time before he flies. I don’t have the expensive equipment they have in Terrance that can mend a broken bone in a week.”

Doc set the wing with a clear plastic splint. “That should hold it, and he’ll have a hell of time getting it off.” He sealed the open cuts and lacerations with a small laser. “If I’d gotten him sooner, he’d have no scars, but these little scratch marks will give him character, especially the one under his eye. He’ll still be a handsome thing.” Doc chuckled. “We need to put him in the spare bedroom. Don’t have that many visitors, but it wouldn’t be wise if they saw a harpy in my cottage.”

Kari and Doc moved the harpy on the floating stretcher down the hallway to the spare bedroom. They placed him on a double bed, and Doc sat down in a chair, gazing at his winged patient. “I’m beat,” he said. “When you called home, did you tell your father about him?”

“No, Dad would kill him.”

“Yes, John doesn’t care for harpies, especially gold ones,” he said. “When you used the portable com, I figured you didn’t want your father to know you were here. What are you going to do with the harpy? He can’t stay here. The whole town would find out before long, and you can’t take him home. If he survives the night, he’s going to need a lot of quiet care. Turned loose too soon, he’d die from those injuries. Plus he can’t be caged. They get depressed and suffer from shock. When he starts feeling better, I don’t know how you’re going to keep him still. Your problems are just beginning, keeping a wounded harpy.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said, realizing that Doc had a strong point. The harpy stood a chance at survival, but her father was Shail’s greatest threat.

“Don’t worry about it now,” Doc said. “If he’s alive in the morning, we’ll figure it out. Besides Jake, who knows you have him?”

“Three of Jake’s hunting buddies, Carol and—”

Doc interrupted. “Carol Baker from the grocery?” he asked with a raised voice. Kari nodded, and Doc continued, “That blabbermouth. By tomorrow the whole town will know about the harpy, including John. You better move your vehicle into the garage, or they’ll know you’re here. If he survives, you better move him tomorrow night. I can picture your dad storming my door.”

Kari rose to move the vehicle, and Doc followed her out of the bedroom. “It’s late,” he said. “I’m going to bed. The closet has some clean medical gowns. You can use one for sleeping, and there are some blankets and pillows for the couch. Make yourself at home.”

“Doc, you act like an old crab, but you really have a heart of gold.” She hugged him. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me and the harpy.”

He weakly smiled and ambled off to his bedroom.

She moved the vehicle into the garage, shut the door, and came back into the cottage through the back kitchen door. Grabbing a medical gown, she went to the bathroom to change. She saw in the mirror that dried blood stained her clothes, her face, and hands. After cleaning herself and her clothes, she slipped into the gown, grabbed a blanket for the couch, and decided to check on Shail once more.

A dim bedroom light illuminated his six-foot frame, and Kari saw he breathed easier. Touching his sleeping face, she comprehended he might die in the night. “You shouldn’t go alone,” she said softly. She turned off the light and climbed on the bed, carefully putting her arm around him. A feeling of contentment consumed her, as though she had always belonged near him. She closed her eyes and snuggled against the golden male.

6

The throbbing pain in Shail’s side caused him to gasp, and he detected the scent of men. Startled, he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He struggled to sit up, but lacked the strength, and the slight effort made his suffering worse. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He had been taken from the floating structure and put into a large cage. His body shuddered with fear, for he had lost his courage and fight.