The next morning I wake Eko up early so he can shower and change. I haven't said anything until now but he kind of stinks. It's not his fault, of course. I can't imagine it was easy to shower with his wings staked to a wall. I leave a towel and a change of clothes on the bathroom counter for him. It's just an oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants but it's the only thing I have in his size.
He comes out of the bathroom in just the pants. Somehow he's found a pair of scissors and trimmed his hair so it's cropped close to his head. He hands them to me without a word. I scowl. I recognize them as my surgical scissors.
"Give me the bandages. I need to rewrap my back."
Rude, much?
"No," I tell him, "You sit. I'll wrap your back."
I take out my first aid kit from a drawer and replace the scissors. Then, I pull out a roll of gauze and an antiseptic ointment. Eko plucks the gauze from my hand. I follow him to the couch and before he can unroll it, I take it and replace it with an apple and another antibiotic pill.
"You eat, I wrap."
He makes a face but sits still as I disinfect and wrap the wound. When the binding is secure I grab the sweatshirt.
"Do you want help with this?" I ask, holding it out to him.
"No," he refuses flatly.
He also refuses my help getting down to the parking garage, preferring to lean on the wall instead of me. The entire ride across town he doesn't say a word. Every time the car hits a bump I can see his jaw clench from the corner of my eye but he never complains.
The Butcher's office is in a nondescript building on a nondescript street in werewolf territory. I find a parking spot in the alley out back and we go inside. It looks like a regular office building. Stark white walls, shiny wood floors, and bright fluorescent lights. We follow a long hallway past several doors until I find the right one. The plaque reads 'EcoClean Inc.". I knock.
It takes a moment but the door unlocks and swings open to reveal a short balding man with wire rimmed glasses and a lab coat.
"You're my nine AM? Here for a deep clean?" He asks.
I nod and gesture to Eko. "That's him."
"Come to the back," The Butcher says, waving us in.
'The back' is a small exam room that looks like it could belong in any doctor's office except it has a few extra machines sitting on a metal table.
"What seems to be the problem?" He asks us.
"Magical bloackage."
"Ah, I see. No worries, a very common issue. Let's just take a look."
He grabs what appears to be a tuning fork and taps it against the bone of his wrist so it makes a ringing sound. He touches it to Eko's right shoulder, then his left, then his forehead.
"That's not it."
He picks up a retrofitted geiger counter from the table and holds it near Eko's chest. Nothing happens.
"Odd. Are you sure he isn't human? I'm not seeing any magical readings."
He wheels over an ultrasound machine and makes Eko lift up his sweatshirt so he can press the wand against his chest
"Hmmmm. Interesting. There's the issuee." He murmurs. He presses a few buttons and leans in closer. "You don't see that everyday."
I crane my neck to see the screen. "What is it?"
YOU ARE READING
Veiled Shadows
Fantasia150 years ago a seal was broken and magic flooded the world. Bloodlines that had lain dormant for centuries were reawakened and chaos reigned. Now, The Arc has taken over and order has been restored but it's a tenuous kind of peace. Anything and an...
