Olympic Cove 2-Breaker Zone (8 page)

Nick caught the severed shaft and tossed
it to the side. “Okay, this is the hard part,” he said grimly. “I need him to
roll onto his good hip.”

With the twins’ help, the merman rolled
towards the back of the couch. The move exposed the spearhead, a sharp,
bloodied aluminum triangle protruding from the merman’s scales. “By, Aph, you
need to hold him still. This is going to hurt like hell, and I don’t have
anything that’ll knock him out.”

The merman said something, and Bythos
nodded. “He said he understands. Just do it.”

“All right, here we go.” Nick braced his
left hand on the merman’s lower back, sliding his right middle and index
fingers around the spear shaft and under the head so that he could cup it in
his hand.
“On three.
One, two—"

He pulled the spear out in a smooth
motion, blood streaking the metal. The merman’s body went rigid and he
screamed, one webbed hand clutching the back of the couch. Nick let the spear
drop to the carpet and reached for the gauze, stuffing it into the bleeding
wound. “Roll him back. I need to pack the entry wound.”

 
By and Aph moved the merman onto his back
again, Nick pushing gauze against the other wound. “Ian, tear up some of those
towels and fold them into pads.”

“On it.”
Ian dropped to
his knees, ripping towels apart.

“I need to keep pressure on the wounds.
If we—" The merman’s tail wriggled strangely under his hands. “By, tell
him to stay still, he’s still bleed—
shit
!”

Nick jerked back as the merman’s scales
quivered and sank under his fingers, smoothing out as they merged into each
other. Their marine color faded at the same time, paling through seafoam, then
flushing to peach. A groove formed down the length of the tail, deepening and
splitting it. Twin rounded indentations formed about halfway down, twitching a
bit as they became joints.
The large fluke at the end split
along with the tail, each half shortening and thickening into the shape of a
human foot.

Stunned, Nick watched the tail finish
its transmutation into a pair of sleekly muscled human legs.
Normal anatomical structure, no body hair on
legs or groin, genitalia appear to be human,
the clinical part of his brain
observed, trying to drown out the frantic screaming from the other parts.
Puncture wound—

He focused his attention on the gauze
pad stuck to the outside of the merman’s right thigh. The thick trickles of
blood had stopped. Carefully, he lifted the gauze. The wound was newly scabbed
over.

“What the hell?” he whispered.

Bythos leaned over his shoulder.
“Merfolk have accelerated healing abilities, especially when they shift,” he
said, peering at the wound. “Yes, that looks about right.” He broke into the
other language again. The merman said something back in a strained tone,
lifting a hand and waggling it. “He says the pain is a seven, give or take.”

Very slowly, Nick turned and looked up
at Bythos. “Would someone like to tell me what the everlasting fuck is going on
here?”

A hand covered his. He turned back to
see the merman grinning wearily at him.

“Thanks, doc,” the mer said in hoarse
but understandable English.

****

A half hour later, Nick sat at the
kitchen table, an empty Sam Adams bottle in front of him and a half-full one in
his hand. He took a deep swig of the beer,
grimacing
a
bit as the welcome sourness scoured his throat. “Okay, let me get this
straight,” he said once he’d swallowed. “By and Aph are demigods who can change
into sea centaurs.”

“Yes,” Ian said, sitting on the other
side of the table. The twins—
twin sea gods, Nick reminded
himself—were
busy getting the merman settled in the guest bedroom. “And
they’re essentially my husbands. Which is a miniseries in itself, believe me.”

“Jesus Christ. And mermaids—mers—are
real.”

“You just treated one,” Ian pointed out.
“Yes, they’re real. So are tritons, Nereids, and a bunch of other sea creatures
humans thought were mythological.”

Nick didn’t like the way he said
humans
. “And the Greek gods—they’re
real, too?”

Ian shrugged. “I’ve only met Poseidon
and Amphitrite so far, but I’m guessing that the rest of the pantheon exists,
too.”

“Oh, man.” Nick raised the bottle,
pressing the sweating side to his forehead. “I was not expecting to walk into
Narnia when I came down here.”

“It’s not Narnia,” Ian said, taking a
drink of his own beer. “More like the
Iliad
.”

“Oh, even
better.
A ten-year war, just what we all
need.
”

“I’m hoping it won’t take ten years.”

Before Nick could ask what the hell he
meant, Bythos came back into the kitchen. The
demigod, he’s a demigod
looked tired. “Aidan’s resting peacefully
enough,” he said, heading to the refrigerator and pulling out a beer. “Are you
sure you want him in your room, Nick? He said he’d be happy to sleep on the
couch.”

His name’s
Aidan?
“He probably lost a fair amount of blood, and he’s exhausted. I want him to get
some rest,” Nick said. “He can survive for a while on land, right?”

“For a couple of days, yes,” Bythos
said, taking the seat next to Ian. “But it would be best if he could get into
the water tomorrow. It’ll help the wound heal faster.”

“Fine.
I wanted to go
swimming anyway.”

Auburn eyebrows rose at that. “You’re
going to swim with him?”

“Well, I’m not letting him go in by
himself. Even if he heals quickly he’s still going to have some muscle weakness
in that leg—" Nick waved a hand.
“Tail side, whatever.
I want to make sure he doesn’t cramp up or drown.” He winced. “Shit. Okay, that
was stupid.”

“No, it was very thoughtful,” Bythos
said. “I know this all takes a bit of getting used to.”

“That’s an understatement,” Nick
muttered. “I don’t suppose I could ask you to prove the god thing.”

Bythos reached a hand out. From nowhere,
a huge, beautifully worked silver trident appeared in his grip. “I could go
down to the water and shape shift, if you like,” he said, “but it’s still
pouring out there and I don’t think you want to get soaked right now.”

“Uh, no,” Nick said faintly, staring at
the trident. “No, that’s good enough.”

Aphros joined them, wiping his hands on
a towel. He frowned at the trident.
“Showing off, brother
mine?”

“Just proving a
point.
Our physician here wanted to see a demonstration.”

“He already did. Where do you think
those bolt cutters came from?”

Nick boggled at the other twin. “I
thought you got them from the garage.”

Aphros shook his head. “I got them from
a manufacturer’s warehouse. It’s much easier to fetch existing things than it
is to make them from whole cloth, so to speak.”

“Wait, you can bring things to you?
Without anyone knowing about it?”

“Easily.
Why?”

“I can’t carry drugs on me for
malpractice reasons. But I’d really like to put—Aidan?” Nick waited for
Bythos’s nod. “Aidan on a saline IV to replace fluids, plus give him
a tetanus
and antibiotics shot, and maybe some morphine. If
I tell you what to look for, can you get them from a hospital?”

The twins glanced at each other. “Should
be simple enough,” Aphros said. “Can the merfolk take human medicines, though?”

“I don’t know,” Bythos admitted. “But
the saline IV is a good idea.” He turned to Nick. “Tell Aph what exactly you
want and where he’d be likely to find it at a hospital. I’ll check with an
expert to see if you can give our guest human medicine.”

“Who are you going to ask?” A sudden
thrill went through Nick.
“Oh, my God.
Are you going
to talk to Asclepius?
Or Apollo?”

The demigod sighed. “We should be that
lucky.”

****

“This had better be good. I was watching
Sharknado
,” Chiron growled. The
centaur’s muscled arms were folded across his bare chest, and he glared at
everyone in the living room.

Nick felt like he was being grilled by
the worst of his med school professors again, but no one else seemed impressed
by the glowing, semi-transparent centaur in the living room. “It’ll be on
again,” Bythos said dismissively. “Besides, the plot is absolutely ridiculous.
Sharks can’t survive in a tornado.”

Chiron rolled his eyes. “I know that,
you idiot. But Tara Reid is hilarious. Anyway, why am I here?”

“We’ve got a wounded merman who took a
speargun shaft through the tail,” Bythos said, pointing at the door to the
guest room. “Nick took it out, but—”

“Whoa.” Chiron turned to Nick, giving
him a gimlet look. “You treated a mer?”

“It’s not like I had much choice,” Nick said
defensively. “Besides, my specialty is emergency medicine.”

“Yeah, for humans.”
Chiron came
closer, looming over Nick. “What exactly did you do?”

Refusing to lean away from the obnoxious
centaur, Nick went over the procedure. “I wanted to put him on a saline drip
for the blood loss and give him a tetanus shot, antibiotics, and a painkiller,
but Aphros pointed out that a non-human might not be able to tolerate human
drugs, which is why you’re here.”

Unexpectedly, Chiron nodded at that.
“Good call. Do you have the drugs?”

“In his room.”
Nick got to his
feet, wondering if he could just walk through the centaur. He barely repressed
a shudder.
Yeah, let’s
not.

They went to the guest room. Inside, one
of the bedside lamps shed a gentle light over the bed. Aidan was curled up
under the covers on his good hip, his muscled back and the upper curve of his
ass visible.

Nick did his best to ignore a surge of
interest in the merman’s body, pointing at three syringes laid out on the night
table. “I already started the IV. Just tell me if these are safe for him to
take.”

Chiron edged up sideways to the bed,
studying the mer. “What are they?”

“Tdap,
erythomycin, and morphine.”

The centaur thought for a moment, then
nodded. “They’re all good. For future reference, the merfolk can tolerate most
plant-derived drugs such as morphine, quinine, or scopolamine without problems.
Erythromycin is derived from tropical fungi, so that’s okay, too. They don’t
suffer from lockjaw very often but it does occasionally happen, so the Tdap
shot isn’t a bad idea. Just don’t give him any heavily synthesized drugs
without running it past me first.”

“Fine.”
Nick
administered the vaccination and antibiotics shots, then picked up the IV port
and injected the morphine. “Do you want to inspect the wounds?”

“Mm.”
Chiron flipped
down the blanket, exposing Aidan’s right buttock and thigh. The scabbed exit
wound on the back of his thigh looked like it had been healing for at least a
couple of days. “
Relax,
mer. This won’t hurt.”

“I know,” was the muffled reply. “Nick
did a good job.”

“Hmph.”
Chiron probed
the exit wound, leaning over the merman to look at his entry wound. Nick stayed
back, trying not to stare at Aidan’s rounded, muscular ass.

Goddamn it,
don’t leer at your patient.

Chiron glanced back at him, eyes
narrowing. For a moment Nick was terrified that he could read minds, and tried
to generate mental static.

“He should heal cleanly. Decent enough
work,” the centaur admitted, straightening up and yanking the blanket back over
Aidan. “Now, what the hell are you keeping in your closet?”

“What?”

“Your closet,
genius.
Open it.”

Confused, Nick grabbed the closet door
handle and opened it. Chiron peered at the contents.
“Gaia’s
tits.
Where do you shop, Goodwill?”

Confusion gave way to annoyance. “I had
to pack fast—”

A hand came up, silencing him as Chiron
leaned closer. Blue eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh,
shit
.”

“What?” Nick peered around the door
edge. The closet looked exactly like it had earlier—shirts and jeans hung up on
hangers, his bag shoved into the bottom, flip-flops next to it, snake-wrapped
staff propped against one wall. “What’s wrong?”

Chiron straightened up, pointing at the
staff. “Where did you get that?”

“An antique
shop.
It’s over in Olympic Beach, Ian knows the owner. Why is everyone getting on my
case about it? It’s just a walking stick that looks like–”

“—the Rod of Asclepius,” Chiron
finished.