Free Web NovelChapter 131: Missing Machine
Damon was evidently unimpressed with Doctor Thomas’s reasons for rejecting his request. He crossed his arms and glared down at him imperiously.
"Without the protection of Fangborne’s werewolves, you won’t even have enough living human beings to require a hospital to begin with. You should be on your knees thanking us for this."
"The town has paid you back for it with food and other necessities," Doctor Thomas argued. "Medical equipment was not one of the caveats outlined before. If things were really dire, why didn’t you bring the werewolf here instead? Or has your hatred of humans blinded you to the best course of action, Damon?"
"Shut the fuck up," Damon seethed, his hands clenching into fists as though he longed to let them fly straight at Doctor Thomas’s face, crushing his wire-rim glasses into smithereens. I sensed his anger and impatience. "You don’t know anything about me, so stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. Just give me the equipment and I’ll get out of your hair."
Doctor Thomas leaned back against his chair and cocked his head at Damon. "If you’re willing to go through all this trouble for a certain wolf, there must be a good reason. Is this for Blaise? What happened to him?"
I was startled. The doctor knew about Blaise?
Damon growled, and that seemed to be all the proof that the doctor needed. He sighed and sank back into his chair, seemingly exhausted.
"What’s the point of being a werewolf and having accelerated healing when you still need medical equipment from humans? Foolish... That boy hardly comes back to visit, and now I get news that he’s ill? Stupid reckless child... should have never sent him back with you." Doctor Thomas shook his head in disappointment. "You couldn’t take care of a plant, let alone your younger brother!"
To my surprise, Damon kept silent, even though I could see a muscle twitch in Damon’s jaw as he bit the inside of his cheek. I thought he would have launched a tirade against the doctor for insulting his capabilities. It seemed that this doctor must have some knowledge about both Blaise and Damon to comment on them like that.
From the way that Doctor Thomas spoke about Blaise, he seemed to know him well enough to be concerned for him.
Didn’t Blaise used to live with humans? Was Doctor Thomas one of them? I gave Damon an incredulous glance, wordlessly asking for an explanation, but Damon wasn’t looking at me at all. He was staring at his own hands.
Fine. I decided to take a chance and tell him a partial truth.
"Doctor Thomas, I’m actually Blaise’s mate," I said, attracting the attention of both men. The doctor’s eyes widened in shock.
"You... but you aren’t a werewolf? Right? Wait, are you? I doubt this man would let any human accompany him anywhere, even if you are Blaise’s mate."
"I’m a perfectly normal human," I said to him, choosing to keep the fact that I was also Damon’s mate a secret. Even among humans, most people only had one partner. Doctor Thomas’s mind might explode if I told him the truth, and we wouldn’t get the equipment we needed.
"I’m here because I’m worried about Blaise’s condition," I added, blinking rapidly as tears began to form in my eyes. It was easy to cry when I thought about Blaise potentially dying before we could get him help.
"He got poisoned, and we don’t have the equipment to save him. Please, if you can, please lend us the equipment. We’ll give it back to you the moment we’re done with it. It wouldn’t take more than a few days. Please."
Doctor Thomas rubbed his face with his hands, suddenly exhausted.
"I would, but I can’t."
"What do you mean you can’t?" Damon burst out in outrage. "You’re the closest thing this place has to a hospital director, what you say goes! Why do you think I’m talking to you and not your receptionist?"
"I can’t give it to you because the equipment is broken, you impatient boy!" the doctor yelled back. A stunned silence met his pronouncement. Out of all the reasons for us to come away empty-handed, I had not expected this one. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Damon’s own eyes were wide with surprise.
"What do you mean by broken? What did you bastards do to it?"
"We didn’t do anything, it was simply good old wear-and-tear rearing its ugly head," Doctor Thomas said bitterly. "The machines haven’t been replaced in five years despite constant use, so they would have broken down eventually. It’s not like Fangborne provides Everhaven with enough money to fix everything wrong with this town."
I recalled the dim streetlights and the cracked roads; the dirty chairs and broken sign outside the hospital and the tiny dilapidated shelter at the car park. When Doctor Thomas put it like that, the machines breaking down suddenly didn’t seem strange at all. ƒrēewebnovel.com
In my eyes, Everhaven seemed on the verge of breaking apart. Not even Fangborne’s entire fortune would be able to save it.
Damon gritted his teeth. "Fangborne gives enough to Everhaven. It’s not our fault that you humans are corrupt and use our money to line your own pockets."
Doctor Thomas’s eyes flashed. "Humans require more money to live on than werewolves. You would know if you had actually lived amongst us like your brother."
"Over my dead body," Damon snarled.
Sensing a burgeoning argument, I quickly interrupted them.
"This is terrible timing, but may I know how long it would take to get a new one? Or have the old one repaired?" I asked hopefully.
If it was a matter of money, surely Damon wouldn’t be stingy now that Blaise’s life was on the line. He would pay through his nose if it meant Blaise would live, I was sure of it.
"I had sent the equipment out for repairs yesterday, but the repairmen told me they were missing a few of the key parts. It’ll take a few days for those parts to arrive from out of town before they can even fix the entire thing."
