Cats in Heat Read Online Free PDF

skin and veins.
    She dipped a cloth in the water, gently wrung it out all the while hissing from the hot water, gave it about thirty more seconds to cool further, and then began cleaning the wood. He flinched but still didn’t wake, his eyes flickering beneath his eyelids. Orange from the fire played over his skin, highlighting a sheen of sweat.
    If infection set in, she didn’t think there’d be anything she could do for him.
    Addie swiftly but thoroughly finished wiping away the blood and cleaning the wound. She tore through the first aid kit for the rolls of gauzed and packed it onto the long cut, putting pressure to stop the bleeding. She hadn’t noticed it dripping on the floor before but then the house was very dim with only the candlelight. Had he really been traveling for long with that kind of injury, or did shifting worsen it?
    The longer she spent there, crouched at his side, the more her brain adjusted, her mind swinging wide open in acceptance of the situation, of him and the animal that walked into her backyard earlier. Knowledge hovering on the edges of her memory pushed harder, not quite finding its way to conscious thought but there nonetheless.
    The bleeding had stopped. She sighed with relief, even if the thought of infection still worried her. She was rapidly running out of gauze from her own kit, and then her eyes settled on the box Lori had brought over.
    Thank God for her paranoid, prepper neighbor.
    Addie collected the useful items from there but paused short of wrapping it up. It needed...something.
    Something for healing .
    She blinked, startled, as the floodgate opened in her mind, her grandmother’s familiar, rasping voice next to her ear, urging her onto her feet and back to the kitchen. Potted herbs and plants waited on the kitchen windowsill and the porch beyond. She moved almost in a daze, grabbing a plant here, some leaves there, not allowing herself a moment of questioning or doubt. Soon she a small collection gathered, which she would strain in boiling water to soak the gauze in before patching him up.
    It might not do any good, but for the time being, Adelaide was out of options.
     
    ****
     
    The pale, watery light of early morning glided through the windows and struck Erik’s eyes as he opened them.
    He took in a sharp breath. Everything ached—every breath, every slight movement, even the knocking of his heart against his ribs. Fire ripped through his side and he froze, shifting just enough to see. Bandages were taped to his skin. He remembered now, running through fields and the woods, praying the rain washed away any of his blood.
    Shifting should’ve killed him. But he was cleaned up and...
    ...and he didn’t feel all that badly, come to think of it.
    He was weak. Exhausted, despite being passed out cold for some hours—whatever sleep he’d had was the restless kind that hadn’t afforded him much time to actually replenish any energy. He shivered but felt warm, sweat tickling his forehead. But the fire in his side dulled to a sting and he didn’t feel anything tear as he shifted into a sitting position.
    A quilt fell to his waist. The edge was caked in dry blood—his blood. His gaze trailed over the room, following the path of streaming light coming through the wide bay windows. An open box of first aid supplies and folded towels sat to the side. On the coffee table waited a mug of something—likely cold, but his throat was parched and he didn’t care. He lifted it, gulped down the semi-sweet cold tea—some sort of herbal concoction he couldn’t place, and didn’t care to name. It was liquid and while it didn’t quench his thirst, it helped.
    Erik’s eyes settled at last on the loveseat in front of the bay window and the figure curled up on one half of it.
    The woman from last night. Adelaide. She slept soundly, peacefully. He neither heard nor sensed any other presence in the house—just her. She lived alone and she took him in, lay there and watched over him