see first-hand a million little memories pop up. Dogs live in the now, so it was as if this was all happening at once. Countless games of fetch, the strong, exhilarating feeling of his body as it strove with everything he had to catch that small spherical object. Snuggles by the fire, that puppy-like sensation of fingers being raked through his thick fur over and over, and with it, the feeling of love.
Deep and abiding, never wavering, even when his humans walked past him, ignoring the balls he dropped at their feet or when he sat neatly like the goodest of boys. Rather, that love just swelled all the more intensely as Rexy strove that extra bit harder to earn his people’s attention, blossoming to almost dizzying heights when they did reciprocate. I bit back tears as I felt it—eternal, intense love. Animals, with their short lives, seemed to burn that much brighter than humans.
“Are you OK?” Nick, the vet nurse, asked as he came over to the table.
“Sure,” I said. “How’s Rex doing?”
“He’s stable enough to take into X-ray,” Stuart said. “Let’s get him on a drip, then sedated and see what we’re dealing with. Good work, Shan. We’ve gotta put aside some time to collect some data on that reiki stuff you’ve been doing. I always thought complementary medicine was a load of old bollocks, but you’ve seriously got something there. We could—”
“Doc, we need to get Rex moved,” Nick said.
“What? Oh, right, of course.”
Nick patted me on the shoulder as the two of them wheeled a now doped out Rex to take his X-ray.
I took a deep breath, then another as I stood inside the empty examination room, trying to use my own ‘reiki’ powers to calm down.
It’s OK, I told myself. You are safe and secure. Stuart is just appreciative of your work. Deep breaths, one after the other.
It worked, kinda, but as was often the case when my mind quieted, my grandmother’s voice came to me.
Never let them know what you are, Shannon, love. Never.
Chapter 3
“You OK?” Janey asked, sticking her head through the door. I smiled weakly, and she rushed over and enfolded me in a quick hug. In some ways, contact from humans was both a relief and weird. I didn’t get anything from touching them except physical comfort. I sighed, feeling my body go limp as my friend just held me for a second.
“You’ve got Izzy up next,” she said finally, reluctance clear in her voice.
“It’s OK, I’m OK.”
“You’re not, and I appreciate it.” We walked out into the waiting room together where a very cute, very excited, very nervous Samoyed waited.
“Hi, Carla,” I said brightly to Izzy’s owner, the older woman’s face instantly breaking into a smile. You wouldn’t have thought a dog that looked like twenty kilos of white fluffy cloud would get so anxious, but her head dropped down, her tail wagging furiously as she took us in, then she ducked under her owner’s chair.
“Oh, thank goodness, it’s you. She’s been…” The lady let out a long breath when she saw my expression. “Well, you know.”
I nodded and took a seat beside her, ignoring the dog but putting my hand down between the chairs.
“She’s still quite anxious?”
“Not for a while, but she always starts to get jumpy towards the end of the month. You need to set up a clinic of your own, love. I could come and see you…”
“Never set yourself apart from the power structures,” Nan said. “The cunning women that stayed as hedge witches, they were the first to be strung up and burned. No, it was the ones that became nurses and midwives that survived. Give the humans a reason they can live with to explain what we can do, otherwise they’ll provide you with one, and it won’t be to your advantage.”
“Oh, I could never do that to Stuart. This place is family to me.” I glanced over to Janey, who gave me a wink. A cold wet nose was thrust into my fingers as Izzy sniffed my palm, getting a whole bunch of information from the scents she picked up. My breakfast, which she visualised as the foods she salivated over at her owner’s feet when Carla was at the dining table, the shampoo and soap I used, which was vaguely repellent to her, and the smell of my dogs and Rex. Pain, fear, the feelings spiked through the dog, and I knew if I looked at her, I’d find her hunching down