Broken (Otherworld 6)

"I don't need--" Clay began.

"It's your right arm, so we aren't taking any chances." He glanced at me. "Get the number, Elena."

I called Zoe. The phone rang five times. When the machine answered, I hung up and hit redial. This time, she grabbed it on the second ring.

"Hello, there," she said before I could say anything. "About time you called. I was beginning to feel--"

"I need Randall Tolliver's number," I said quickly.

A pause. "Are you okay?"

"It's Clay. His arm. It's--"

"We'll be right there. Tell me where you are."

When Tolliver arrived, he cleared Antonio and Nick out of the room, and only let Jeremy stay when it was clear he wasn't leaving. I couldn't blame Tolliver for not wanting an audience of supernatural strangers hovering over him, making sure he did his job right.

"It's infected," he said, after a quick examination.

"How badly?" I asked.

A nervous glance my way, as if I might pounce if I didn't like his answer. "It's...progressing."

"Gangrene?" Clay said, pushing himself up.

A look crossed Jeremy's face, and I knew he'd been wondering the same thing.

"Gangrene?" I said. "No, it can't be, not from a scratch. That's all it was. A scratch."

"From a decomposing corpse raised by supernatural means,"

Jeremy said.

"Which likely explains the acceleration and the refusal to respond to cleaning," Tolliver said. "But it isn't gangrenous. Not..." A glance my way, and he shut his mouth.

"Yet," Clay finished for him.

A slow nod from Tolliver. "We should still be able to get it under control. Stronger antibiotics is one way to go. Or we can remove some of the infected tissue. The latter would be more likely to work, but would cause scarring--"

"I don't care about looks," Clay cut in. "Just function."

Tolliver hesitated. "It's...in a bad spot. If I needed to go deep, it might damage the muscle. It shouldn't have any lasting effect on fine motor skills, like writing."

"It's larger motor skills I'm worried about."

Tolliver nodded, as if this didn't surprise him.

"If it would stop the spread of infection--" Jeremy began.

"Last resort," Clay said.

He met Jeremy's glance with a look that said he'd give in if pushed, but begged Jeremy not to push. I knew what Clay was thinking. If mutts found out Clay was no longer in peak fighting form, there'd be trouble.

Clay met my eyes. "Rather not take that risk." His gaze dropped to my stomach. "Not now. Antibiotics will be fine."

"Do you know what can happen if gangrene sets in?" Jeremy asked.

Clay nodded. "It'll have to come off."