Bound Trilogy: Bound: A Supernatural Story (WLW)

Chapter Two

Penelope snapped awake and reached out to push away her attackers. Her attackers in...lab coats and... Oh God! They've already started their experiments and--

"Relax, dear." A woman in scrubs told her from beside her bed.

Pen glanced around and saw an IV connected to her inner elbow, then squinted at the harsh fluorescents. The last thing she remembered was that boy's face and the taste of blood on her tongue. Then, everything went dark. What happened? She smelled antiseptics and the doctor moved toward her with a syringe raised.

"No!" She slapped the syringe from his hand and tensed for what blowback assault he would return, slamming her eyes shut and holding her hands in front of her face.

As long as he didn't put that needle in her, as long as she was awake, Pen could fight back. She wasn't going to take anything anymore. Since the moment she left the sea, her insides had churned and she felt more out of place than ever. Nothing like how it felt being with her aunt when she snuck her to a party inland. Nothing like how at ease she felt in her own bedroom and how peaceful it was just to let the currents guide her along the ocean floor. Still, she wasn't about to take anymore lying down and if need be, she would defend herself no matter the cost. She could take it all, anything they sent her way, even risk an escape if...

Pen peeked through her fingers and watched as the doctor pulled down his facial mask, gazing at her with a fretful expression. What was he up to? Pen studied his facial features, then scented something calming in the air. Peaches and fur. The fur of a... Was he a--

"It's alright, Miss Argyris. We mean you no harm." He put his hands up and gave her a smile, crinkling the corners of his eyes and wiggling the full grown beard on the lower half of his face. Pen slowly lowered her hands and kept her eyes trained on his still raised in the air. "I'm doctor Jedynak. Xenia's step-father."

"X-Xenia...?" Pen asked as she looked at the two women who appeared to be nurses standing at both sides of her bed. She glanced back up at the doctor and he gave her a tranquil, but lazy, or perhaps tired grin. Penelope didn't sense any danger coming off of them and took in their scent. Yes, they were definitely foxes. She relaxed back against her hospital bed, but kept her eyes on Doctor Jedynak. "Where am I?"

"My clinic. The closest thing we have to a hospital in our territory. They aren't really needed on Lis land as we just shift to heal. That being said, I know your kind can't despite being classified as shifters and I would like to administer some medications through your IV." One of the nurses picked up Dr. Jedynak's syringe and walked it to a nearby table. He kept his eyes with her until the nurse returned with a fresh syringe and he took it, turning back to Pen expectantly. "Would you allow me to do so?"

"Why do I need that?" Pen felt along her body and was surprised to find an aching deep pain in her side. She lifted her shirt to find a bruise already forming along her rib cage and the pain worsened now that she was more aware of it. Pen let her head fall back against the pillow again and her neck started to ache as well. "Oh. That."

"Yes. That."

"Um..." Pen peered up at him and shook her head as her gaze shifted to his hand. That needle was big and completely unnecessary, not to mention the fact that she hated any type of medicine that wasn't natural entering her body. "I won't be needing that. Could I just have a bath and soak, please?"

"You mean with bath oils and salts?" Dr. Jedynak asked skeptically. "It will help with the inflammation, but the medications will help more. I think it would be best if--"

"No. Well, yes. But just the salt, please." She interrupted as she rubbed her side trying to coax it back down to the minimal pain she felt before she'd seen the bruises. "My body won't react well to administered narcotics or anything unnatural, actually."