Under the light of the silver moon, a shaggy furry beast dragged himself back into the Blaxtone estate. He climbed over the walls and limped forward with as much speed as possible, leaving behind a trail of blood.
Wavering, as if he was losing consciousness, the furry beast climbed into the Antebellum mansion through a window that had been left purposely unlocked by his manservant.
He barely had enough energy to crawl towards the fireplace before he sank down onto the oriental rug and passed out.
Hubert and Talia were sitting at the kitchen table chewing on Oreo cookies and milk, discussing the best options to deal with the Countess when they heard the THUMP!!! that sounded from the library.
They both jumped up and ran towards the sound.
"Talia. Stay out!" Hubert called out.
But he might as well have been talking to thin air. Talia had already burst into the room.
Lying on the floor and bleeding all over the beautiful cream oriental rug was a large beast with silver blond hair and amber eyes that were dulled and hazy from pain and blood loss.
She had seen the little boy Devin as a wolf pup. She knew exactly who this was.
"Oh my God! Cedric, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear my voice." She called out as she ran towards him.
Cedric nodded, panting with pain.
Good. He was aware of what was going on.
"He's badly hurt! He needs to go to the Emergency Room!" She yelled even as she began checking him for wounds.
"He can't. He's in werewolf form!" Hubert hissed.
"But if he doesn't get treatment, he's going to die!"
"We're going to have to help him survive through this ourselves. If he falls into the hands of others, he will surely die by their vicious means." Hubert insisted.
Talia grimaced. "Is there a doctor or a medical person in this mansion?"
Hubert shook his head. "We have no medical staff here."
"No choice." Talia breathed. "If we don't do something he will die. I'm just an animal nurse, but I've assisted on hundreds of surgeries. If you help me, I will try my best."
Hubert looked at her and nodded.
Talia turned back to Cedric.
"I'm going to check your body for damage. I'll try not to hurt you," she said as her expert fingers felt through his body looking for broken bones, blood, and open wounds.
His body was strangely morphed, not quite human and not quite canine. Thankfully, she had been trained in both human anatomy and canine anatomy from her days as a medical student and her work at the veterinary hospital.
There were three holes that were seeping blood.
Three bullets had entered his body. No exit wound meant it was still inside him.
"Hubert. Bring me hot water, clean towels, and whatever first aid kit you have. Hurry!"
As Hubert ran to do her bidding and to gather the rest of the household, she identified the open wounds that were bleeding heavily.
Without thinking twice, Talia pulled off her tee-shirt and began using it to staunch the flow of his blood.
By the time Hubert returned with towels and water, Talia was up to her arms in blood and wearing nothing but a bra and her ripped jeans.
It didn't matter what she wore though. Talia looked positively competent and in charge as she continued to call out at him and the servants to bring the items that she needed.
"I'm going to need your help here, Hubert." She commanded. With clear and precise commands, she explained exactly what he needed to do.
"He's been shot. I need to extract the bullet, but we don't have any painkillers."
"We do, but it's only localized stuff, nothing that would be able to knock him out."
"Bring it. We have to use what we can."
Hubert wedged a towel inside Cedric's beast mouth as Talia began using the painkillers on him.
"He's lost some blood but we don't have any to give him a transfusion. I hope we can keep him stabilized enough." She muttered as she continued working out the three bullets that were in his abdomen.
They were not that difficult to find and soon she had cleared his body of the silver bullets
"As long as he remains in his wolf form, he will be strong enough to power through this." Hubert assured her.
"Really? Does he have regenerative powers?"
Hubert nodded. "Once you clear out the bullets, his body will be able to regenerate itself, but only if he remains in this form."
"How do we keep him in werewolf form? If he loses consciousness and begins to transform, what do we do?"
"I will do my best to keep him alert and not lose consciousness. You just do what needs to be done."
Talia nodded as she began sewing up the damaged areas where the bullets had entered.
As she worked, she chanted within her mind to keep herself focused on what would have been a routine surgery for her at the veterinarian clinic.
Plenty of hunting dogs came in with bullet wounds that needed tending. They were often in the grasses chasing down game, and their owners were sometimes careless with the hunting rifles.
'He's just another canine,' she chanted in her head. 'Just another canine. Treat him like a canine and do your job. He's just another canine. Just a canine…'
It seemed like forever, but in reality it was less than an hour.
By the time Talia was done, her body was shaking with exhaustion from her intense concentration. She had been crouched on the floor for almost an hour with very little tools to work with.
What was worse was that she didn't even know if what she did was helping or making him worse.
Hubert covered her with a towel and had one of the maids take her to the bathroom so she could bathe and change out of her wrecked bloody jeans and bra.
By the time she was cleaned and dressed, it was almost two in the morning.
She went back down to check on Cedric and found him on a mattress that Hubert had brought down into the library so they wouldn't have to move him too far.
He was still in werewolf form and sleeping but it seemed as if he had stabilized.
Hubert had also cleaned up and was sitting next to him, keeping watch.
She tapped the Butler on the shoulder.
"Get some rest. I'll watch over him for awhile."
"You should sleep, Talia. You worked very hard to pull him through."
Talia shook her head. "I can't sleep right now. I'm too wound up. I might as well use this excess energy to watch over him and make sure he sleeps through the night without any issues."
Hubert nodded. "If you need anything, I'll be right over there," he pointed to the couch by the window.
She nodded as she began checking her handiwork to make sure everything was still in good condition.
It was a small blessing that Cedric was pale blond. It was not difficult to see his wounds or the areas where the blood was oozing from.
His chest area now had a few shaved spots where she had to take out some of his fur to do her surgical work. She idly wondered how his shaved areas were going to look like once he reverted to being a man again.
After about an hour, one of the housemaids handed her a blanket and she curled up next to him, continually monitoring his breathing to make sure that he would not suffer any complications.
Cedric was sleeping and still in his beast mode, but it looked like he was no longer in the danger zone.
As the night slowly turned into morning, Talia yawned and slumped where she sat. She had stayed up with him until sunrise.
Without any machines that did the job of monitoring his breathing and heart rate, all she could do was keep a vigilant eye on the rise and fall of his chest and make sure he was continually breathing.
When she saw that he had made it through the night still peacefully breathing, it was only then that she closed her eyes, intending only to rest for a moment.
That moment extended for a few hours.
When she awoke, Hubert was no longer on the couch in the corner.
Devin had somehow found his way downstairs. He was lying on the floor curled up on her left side. She extended the blanket over the boy and he snuggled under, clutching onto her as he slept.
On her right side was the Duke.
He was still in werewolf form and breathing normally, but the most curious thing was that he had awakened within the timeframe that she had fallen asleep and had taken her right hand in his.
She was holding hands with a werewolf as he slept!