Hedge Doctor: Omnibus Edition

Hedge Doctor: Omnibus Edition

Kate Whitaker

Copyright © 2015 Crimson Heart Publications

Images used under license from Shutterstock.com

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Except the one explicitly based on my friend from high school, but I asked her permission first.

— For all my friends from high school: The Thespians, the Tennis Team, the Debate Club, the Lunch Table, and the people who just made it a little easier to get through the day. All of you are in here, in some capacity

Table of Contents

Prom

Finals

Graduation

Thank You for Reading

— For Megan, who let me shamelessly pilfer my memories of her.

The ringing of Jeff’s cell phone pealed in the silence of study hall. Heat spread across his face as he dug it out of his bag.

Mister Hanson, we have rules about phones. Ice edged Miss Darling’s voice.

He silenced the ringer as he read the screen. It’s my grandmother. As usual, the phrase worked like magic.

Miss Darling gestured toward the door. Please, take it outside. I hope she’s doing better.

Jeff nodded, holding in a sigh, as he shoved his physics homework into his bag. I’m heading right for Mister Burns. Mr. Burns was his school-appointed grief counselor, whom he could see whenever he needed. He had no idea which one of his many cousins spread the story, but everyone knew Jeff was an orphan who lived with his ailing grandmother.

He did live with his grandmother, but he wasn’t an orphan, and Nana was in great shape for her age.

He called her back as soon as he closed the classroom door. What’s up, Nana?

Demon hunters thinking they’re invincible.

Jeff groaned into the phone as he headed for the administration offices. What happened this time?

Seth took on a floga with just his sister. They’re lucky they made it out alive, n’at. You’d think they’d know better than to take on something that big and pois’nous without any backup.

Who’s bringing him?

Rick and Matty. They was huntin’ that floga, too.

Some tension left his shoulders. Rick and Matty knew how to be circumspect, unlike most of the demon hunters he patched up on a daily basis. I’ll meet them in the basement.

I’ll let ‘em know.

As the phone died, Jeff waved to his cousin, Sheila, through the glass wall of her office.

She reached into her desk as he approached the door, already grabbing the pink pre-signed hall pass. I’ll take care of it. She leaned back her chair and called out over her shoulder. George! Jeff is headed to the basement.

Jeff glanced in the door. Behind the shiny brass plaque on his desk, his balding Uncle George waved, turned off his monitor, shut his blinds, and closed his eyes.

Shelia shook her head. Close the door, before someone sees him napping.

Jeff nodded his thanks. Having family on the staff made navigating high school a lot easier for someone like him. Sheila took care of coordinating everything, and Uncle George loved having thirty minutes to sleep whenever Jeff needed ‘counseling’.

Jeff stepped quickly, the paper immunity tight in his fist as he headed toward his locker and his herb kit.

The kit was a large, white plastic box full of jars, bags, envelopes, and a few other things he needed to make teas, tinctures, and salves.

Nothing in there was illegal, exactly, but Jeff dreaded having to explain it to school officials. Yet, he couldn’t imagine going anywhere without it. He compromised by leaving it in his locker.

He shoved the kit into his backpack and hurried to the basement access door. His physics assignment faded as thoughts of what he might need flashed through his mind.

Willow bark for the swelling, yarrow for coagulation, pennywort for the poison…

He rounded a corner and there stood his best friend, and favorite cousin, Courtney. Not many people realized that they were related. He was skinny, short, pale, and blond. Court was olive-skinned, with long, dark hair, and big. She’d hit six feet tall in fifth grade and complained constantly about finding clothes and shoes that fit. Even the orange hall monitor’s sash seemed tiny on her.

She unlocked the service door as he approached and followed him silently into the basement of the school. Dark, and a touch damp, it was a labyrinth of old things: graffitied desks, empty boilers, rusty ovens, ripped football equipment, and moldy mops littered the dusty floor. Court rushed ahead, keys in her hands, to open another door for him.

Inside was clean, sterile in fact, with its bright lights and faint bleach smell. A cabinet held towels and bandages. As he placed his kit on the table, he wondered which relative on the custodial staff put in the extra hours to keep this place clean.

Court’s voice interrupted his thoughts. I’m going to let them in.

He nodded to her as he pulled out rubber gloves, a curved needle, and thread. The silence stretched as he continued his preparations. The now-threaded needle was set on a clean towel. He needed an antiseptic wash for Seth.

He grabbed a ceramic tile, a charcoal brick, a crucible, and a bottle of water from the kit. The rig didn’t heat water very fast, but he rarely wanted boiling water for his herbs anyway.

As the water warmed, Jeff ground his herbs. He didn’t want the pieces too small. He dropped them into the center of a cheesecloth square. Years of practice had the corners up and twisted into a bag in moments. He was tying the top with a red string as the water began to bubble. The tincture was the right color and temperature when Court led the demon hunters into the small room.

Rick came in first, carrying Seth, nearly filling the room by himself. The blond man made Court seem normal sized. Well over six-feet-tall, heavily muscled, and lightning fast, he was also the nicest person Jeff had ever met.

Which made Rick’s friendship with Matty strange, to say the least. Not only was the werewolf Rick’s physical opposite, shorter and skinnier than Jeff with dark olive skin and black hair, he had a smart mouth and sharp tongue.

The two of them were the least of Jeff’s worries at the moment, though. The floga poison was already turning Seth’s wounds bright blue.

He gestured to the table as Seth’s sister, Allison, pushed past Rick and Matty, her eyes locked on her injured brother.

Jeff snapped on his gloves and worked silently, letting the habits of years take over. First he cleaned the gashes, assessing the damage as he did. He flushed the wounds with the tincture. As soon as the poison was mostly neutralized, and Seth’s flesh was merely the deep red of trauma, Jeff started to stitch the young hunter up.

Once every gash was closed, Jeff spread his homemade antibiotic paste on the stitches before taping bandages over them. That done, he peeled off his gloves, and finally took a deep breath.

Allison pulled at the end of her thick, red braid. He’s still asleep.

Hold on. Jeff wanted to kick himself. He hadn’t even thought about waking Seth. He’d been acting like the hunter could sleep off the poison in Aunt Rose’s clinic. Having him walk out would be far less suspicious than Rick carrying an unconscious body if someone caught them. Jeff rummaged through the kit and found peppermint.

He held the large, fragrant leaf in his fingers and thought of the herb garden on the roof of his grandmother’s bar. The smell of the river mingled with the damp earth as he harvested the plants. An echo of energy he got there tingled in his fingers as he enhanced the leaves in his hand. The magic ran through its veins, strengthening the medicinal qualities of the plant.

He wet the leaf with a vial of water he’d collected at the solstice, and pressed it under Seth’s nose. In moments, Seth sat up, gasping, eyes open and bloodshot.

Now comes the hard part.

Being a hedge doctor wasn’t all skipping class and sewing up wounds. He was expected to be a voice of reason. Which was hard when you were short, skinny, and a good three years younger than the hunters in the room.

His Aunt Rose had taught him to force an aura of arrogant superiority. Jeff hated it, and worse how it had become second nature to him. Still, it worked. Usually.

He squared his shoulders, frowned, and tilted his head so that he seemed to be looking down his nose. How many times am I going to have to miss class because you can’t work with other people?

Thanks, Jeff. Allison flashed a relieved smile. The expression highlited a faint scar along her jaw, where she’d been injured by a mojik.

Agonized screams echoed through Jeff’s head, and his voice came out hard. Next time, wait for back up.

Seth rolled his eyes. Yeah, because I have time to wait when floga demons are in town.

He’s right. Rick leaned against the door, his arms crossed over his chest. You should have called.

We handled it. Seth sneered.

Barely. Matty grinned. If my sister hadn’t told us what you were up to, you’d still be in that warehouse, in pieces.

Allison edged between her brother and the older men. Thanks guys, I mean it.

Jeff watched her swollen and bruised knuckles go white as they squeezed her brother’s knees. Jeff didn’t think, he just grabbed her wrist, and yanked her towards the table. Are you hurt anywhere else?

Nothing broken. So maybe a tea she can take home… borage, and…

I’m fine, Jeff.

Your hand isn’t. Is there anything else? He rubbed the white paste on her knuckles, forcing more of his magic into it, and the irritated skin paled immediately.

She flexed her fingers, then stared at him. That’s amazing.

Court glared at him from the door. She might not have the green touch, but she knew when he’d been using his.

He needed to change the subject and fast. I can’t miss much more class. Are you hurt anywhere else?

No. Allison shook her head. Just the usual bumps and bruises.

He handed her four powdered willow bark pills. Take a shower, then take the pills. Eat something and go right to sleep. He added a sedative to his willow bark. The demon hunter would pass out quickly, and hopefully would miss watching whatever bruises she had heal up in moments. Two of those are for Seth.

Allison grinned. Thanks again, and get back to class.

Hold on. He pulled out two cheesecloth bundles filled with herbs, and touched the spellform on each tag with his magic. The spell made the already enhanced herbs even stronger. These two would need the physical boost the borage could give them. Before you go out tonight, since I know you are going back out tonight, make yourself some tea.

Court shook her head in the doorway.

Allison pocketed the bundles. "You’re