But the head and neck were the most shocking. The hide had been removed from half of the head, leaving all the underlying tissues exposed. The eyeball lay outside the socket, also dissected and the steer's tongue protruded from the side of its mouth. The killer had taken the time to do a very detailed dissection of the neck, including the blood vessels and air passages. Likewise the ear and the side of the skull had been taken apart to the smallest scale.
Sam just stared, fascinated, for several long minutes. Toren moved around and looked from different angles, but she couldn't bring herself to move. "Dear Lord, please let this poor beast have been dead before all this happened." She prayed for it, but she doubted the attacker had allowed the steer to die before.
Toren finished his inspection and stood back. "We should leave. Now."
For once, she didn't feel the need to argue. She turned back to the truck. "What could have done this? A bear or mountain lion surely would have eaten part of the kill." Already her mind started blurring certain details, emphasizing others.
With Toren in the truck at her side, the rifle back in its place behind her, she started the truck and turned it around. "Only one more stop and we'll be done. I have to admit, I'll be glad when this one's over."
Toren looked at her in a way that gave her an odd feeling, as if he knew more than he were willing to say. "We should just call it a day. Come back tomorrow or the next day."
She shook her head. "No, it's less than half an hour from here. If we come back tomorrow, it's nearly three hours out of the way from the stations on the other side of the ranch. Since it's just the two of us running things for the time being, we don't have that kind of time to waste."
He relented, but she could tell he wanted to insist on stopping for the day. That dead steer must have really given him the creeps.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The ruby mist dissipated and Karly looked around, not sure whether to be pissed or surprised. One of the worst, and best, parts of being married to an angel was when he felt strongly about something, he had the power to force the issue.
She found herself too tired to argue. And how very odd was that? Karly looked around at the deep cavern her darling angel had brought them to. She followed a stray shaft of light up to a narrow slit far above. Roaring water echoed off the cavern walls and Karly momentarily considered the thin stream of water that fell from above into a wide pool to create such a racket. Romantic feelings and ideas pushed into the annoyed spaces in her head until she remembered the whole medical clinic he kept insisting he take her to. Was this it? The angel hospital thing for them to figure out what sort of danger they might be in from that monkey-man bite? That was the last place she wanted to go, but apparently she no longer had a choice.
When Kassern remained silent, she gave in. "Why are we here?" She'd felt out of sorts the last couple of days and her damn leg hurt. Worse every day. The skin stayed pale and smooth as ever, with only some mild bruising, despite the burning agony left in the wound created by the monkey-man's bite. So she was a bit short on patience. "Did you have to flash us out of the kitchen without a word to anyone?"
His eyebrow quirked in that odd little frown he wore whenever something made no sense to him. "The kitchen? That's the last thing you remember?" His tone wasn't quite disbelieving.
Vague unease settled in the pit of her stomach. What was he talking about? "I was eating breakfast, you were frowning at me."
He tilted his head. "You don't remember sucker-punching Troy? Or running out into the street, out past the shields? Or the demon you chose to stay with when I started to flash us away the first time?"
"What? That's insane. Nothing like that happened." A faint memory of sinking her fist into Troy's belly struck, followed by rising panic.
"Yes it did, Karly." He reached for her hands. "I had to restrain you to get you out of there before more demons showed up." He tugged and she went, letting him pull her close to his chest. "What's happening Karly? I can't help you if you won't tell me."
She sighed, ready to tell him about the odd thoughts and feelings that had plagued her, and the ever-increasing pain in her leg. "I should have told you from the start, but you had so much on your mind and it didn't seem important." A spear of heat shot through her leg and she winced. The pain wasn’t new, but it had never been so severe. She drew a deep breath for courage. "Then you started talking about doctors. Kassern, I don't do doctors."
Kassern slid his lips across her forehead in a series of little kisses and smoothed her hair back. "These aren't human doctors, Karly. You know that. And there's no choice. We have to know what sort of problems those things can cause by biting." He tipped her head back with a gentle finger under her chin. "We have to know if it will have any sort of lasting effect on you."