Chapter 4
Rowan
Rolling over with a groan, I stretched as my back popped. My body was relaxed in a way it wasn’t used to after sleeping in dusty motels or my car for too long. Daylight streamed through the windows, so I had clearly slept well because I hadn’t woken up a single time during the night.
“Morning, sunshine,” Griffin chirped, waltzing out of the bathroom with a towel slung around his hips.
“Morning,” I replied, sitting against the headboard, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “What time is it?”
“A little after seven.” Griff rubbed another towel through his hair. “Want to grab some breakfast, then go over to the clinic?”
“I should probably go to the clinic first. Give me five, and I’ll throw some clothes on.”
I tossed the covers aside. I had my patient to think about, and I hated that I hadn’t been to see him yet. After getting out of bed, I quickly located my bag, shoved in a corner on the floor, and started rummaging around for clean clothes.
Griffin frowned, narrowing his eyes at me. “You should eat. You look scrawny.”
“Ouch. You know I’ve been traveling. I don’t always remember to eat three square meals a day,” I admitted with a shrug.
“All the more reason to take advantage of the kitchen while you’re here,” he pointed out.
“After I look in on Rory,” I reassured him, grabbing the first pair of leggings and T-shirt I could find.
I scooted to the bathroom, changing into the clean clothes and bundling up the old ones to wash. That was something I’d be taking advantage of while I was here. Laundromats sucked. With my hair thrown into a low bun, I slipped on my sneakers.
“Not the most professional look, Ro-Ro.” Griffin chuckled, looking me up and down. I grimaced at the nickname.
“I’m here to help and heal, not look pretty.
If I’m here for longer than a day or two, I'll start making more of an effort, not that I need to, with how rare women are around here. Now, lead the way!” I grumbled, shoving Griff toward the door, but he was a solid wall of muscle and refused to budge. “Seriously?”
“Can I put some clothes on before I show you the way?” he asked sarcastically, running a hand up and down his bare chest.
I giggled and nodded, letting him meander over to his dresser. “Sorry, I’m a little eager to get started.”
With his back to me, Griffin pulled a shirt over his head. I turned around, giving him a bit of privacy to deal with the rest. Even though he’d literally been free-balling it in front of me last night.
“You know, the ladies usually aren’t so excited to get out of my bed, but I’ll forgive you for this, Ro.”
Ten minutes later, we were on our way to the clinic.
It was a small building just a few minutes’ walk from the main structure, through an outcropping of trees.
Morning light poked through the branches, creating dappled patterns on the ground.
There was even a gentle mist that hung in the air, and a quiet you could never find in a city.
“This place really is beautiful. I can see why you like it here.” I sighed, brushing my hand against the leaves as I walked. With a nod of greeting, two men passed us, their eyes lingering on me, curious about the presence of an outsider on their horde lands.
Not just an outsider. A human.
“I couldn’t imagine settling anywhere else.” Griffin looked around, a wistful smile on his face. I didn’t see him like that often, and I had to admit that the idea of having a soft-landing spot to count on was nice. It just wasn’t exactly doable for someone in my circumstances.
The happiness in his expression tugged at something inside me. What would it be like to settle somewhere so idyllic? Yeah, it wasn’t in the cards for me, so there was no use in imagining it, but…
I shook my head, knocking away the unhelpful thoughts. “This is a pretty sizable building. Is this all the Doctor’s office?”
We walked inside the impressive space. “Yep. He’s got five individual patient rooms, a few doctors’ offices, and some exam rooms,” Griffin explained.
“Wow.” I took in the beautifully supplied space. “And how large is the horde?”
“Around three-fifty.”
I whistled. “That’s a good ratio. I worked with a horde in Nebraska who only had two patient rooms for a pack of almost six hundred.”
Griffin led me through a metal door with a large window in the center.
“We've always had a pretty large medical center because, back in the day, we had a lot of teenagers getting into shenanigans and enforcers regularly patrolling.
Plus, at one point there were nearly a thousand members of the horde.
The Alphas like to keep up the same level that we've always had, despite not needing it as much.”
Female births were rare in the dragon community, and as they didn’t like bonding outside of their species much, that meant that the population was slowly on the decline. Three-fifty from a thousand was an extreme decline that set alarm bells off in my head.
“Is the other healer here?” I asked, looking round the rooms.
“He’s probably still asleep. He’s not here that much. Rory is through here.” He pointed toward one of the patient rooms, leading us down the especially quiet hall.
The room was dark, all the windows closed, giving it a tight, musty smell.
A couple was hunched over the bedside of an old-school hospital cot where a boy, who I assumed was Rory, lay.
He was so tiny, even for being twelve years old.
His sandy-brown hair was drenched with sweat, and he was shivering despite being unconscious.
My stomach tightened at the sight, my brain already spinning with potential causes for his condition.
Griffin cleared his throat, getting the parents’ attention. “Leah, Donald. This is Rowan, the healer I told you about.”
The two of them reluctantly pulled their attention away from their child to shake my hand and mumble their thanks.
Leah didn’t get up from her seat. Instead, she clutched Rory’s hand in a death grip, like she was terrified he would fade away if she didn’t hold on to him.
Neither parent looked like they’d gotten any sleep recently, their eyes bloodshot with dark bags underneath.
My heart hurt for them. Seeing your child suffer was a pain I didn’t wish on anybody. Shifters were usually far more robust, so it wasn’t common for their children to get sick. When it did happen, it was never good, which they clearly already knew.
“Hello, I am so sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances. As Griffin said, my name is Rowan. You’re Leah and Donald, yes?” They nodded. “Do you want to tell me what happened, in your own words? I’m sorry for jumping right in, but I think it’s best I get straight to work.”
“H-he was fine two weeks ago, then he got a stomach bug and spiked a fever.” Leah turned to look at Rory. “He hasn’t been lucid in the last few days.”
I bobbed my head. “What did the healer say?”
Donald answered, his tone clearly frustrated. “That he has a weak constitution. He’s been giving him lots of medications, but nothing’s working.”
“Do you mind if I examine him?” I asked, grabbing a stethoscope from the table and approaching slowly. I put it in my ears when the parents gave consent.
I would need Griffin to get my med bag out of my car. Even though the doctor’s office seemed relatively well stocked, I preferred using my own equipment when possible.
Rory was clammy, and his breaths were shallow. Listening to his lungs, I wasn’t happy with how raspy they sounded and asked, “What medications has the healer been using?”
Griffin spoke up. “They should be listed in Jenkins’s notes. I can go look for you.”
“Any information you can find will be useful,” I told him. “And my med bag, when you have the chance.”
He strode out of the room at my nod, steps quick, like a man on a mission. I could tell how much this meant to him.
“Okay! Be right back,” he shouted back in my direction.
When I glanced around the room, I noticed three pill bottles on the bedside table, like a human would get from a pharmacy, their distinct orange color out of place in the room.
I frowned and turned my attention to Rory’s parents. “Has Jenkins been giving Rory human medication?”
Shifters tended to lean toward herbal, more holistic forms of medicine—and for good reason.
Leah nodded; eyes still pinned on Rory. “He said they would be effective at fighting infection. Said everyone used them in the hospitals.”
I groaned, straightening after listening to Rory’s heart and rubbing my temples.
“Griff?” I called out. I could hear him leaving the office we’d passed, where he’d likely been rummaging through files, and he quickly rejoined me.
“Yeah? You find something?”
I draped the stethoscope around my neck, pressing my lips into a tight line. “I think I know what’s going on.”
“Already?” Donald asked, shocked.
I met his concerned stare, nodding again as I raised my brows.
“I’m not certain, but I already have a good place to start.
Many human medications are inappropriate for dragons.
Your DNA isn’t the same as ours. I’d bet that one of these medications is keeping Rory weak.
Once I get a good look at what’s been prescribed, I will be able to see if they contain any harmful ingredients. ”
I rolled the bottles over in my hands. They were strong stuff, probably wreaking havoc on the child’s immune and cardiovascular systems. Dosage was so critical too. The saying went, “one was medicine, two was poison.” This was a dragon with different genetics and a child, at that.
“That doesn’t sound right.” Leah worried. “Healer Jenkins went to a human medical school. He knows what medications work.”
“But Rory isn’t human,” I told her kindly but insistently. “His DNA is that of a shifter, so human medicines won’t work the same way. Sometimes they do, but the ingredients need to be checked and triple-checked. Especially for a child who has less body mass and different hormone levels at play.”