Forest Moon Rising Read Free Page A

so proud to meet you. Oh.” She put a hand over her mouth. “Sorry it has to be under these circumstances. I’m just glad JJ and I can help.”
    “It won’t be comfortable with those bruised ribs, but I think I can carry you over my shoulder to the trailhead,” JJ said, oblivious to his wife’s gushing, fan girl chatter. “We’ll drive you to the emergency room. It’s only a few miles across the river.” Middle height and wiry, he didn’t look big enough to carry me two steps, let alone one hundred yards to the parking lot.
    I’d fallen far enough downhill to almost meet the snaking path again. Could I crawl that far?
    Not with those ribs, dahling . Scrap informed me.
    Obviously, Raquel and JJ had no idea he was there.
    “If you can just get me to my car, I’ll drive myself,” I replied to JJ. If Scrap said I hadn’t broken anything, I believed him.
    “Not a good idea, Tess.” Raquel shook her head emphatically. “I’m a nurse and I can guarantee you’ll feel dizzy and maybe nauseous from the pain. Then there’s shock, which will set in as soon as the adrenaline wears off. How about if I follow you and JJ to the ER in your car? That way it’ll be available when you can safely drive home.” She efficiently relieved JJ of his daypack, placed it and her own on the path, then returned to help get me upright.
    “You’ve had the breath knocked out of you,” JJ said as he shoved one of his hands beneath my shoulders to heave, while Raquel grabbed my hands with her own to haul. “It’s gonna hurt, but I promise you, things will look better once we get you back to the cars.”
    That was not fun. Nope. No way in hell.
    About halfway up, balancing on my right foot, I passed out. As a tidal wave of blackness washed over me, I heard a demonic chuckle in the far distance.
    Round one to the Nörglein.

Chapter 2
    In February 2007 Fit Pregnancy Magazine named Portland the fourth best city to have a child.
    “A RE YOU GOING TO BEHAVE YOURSELF and stay off that ankle for a few weeks, Tess?” Dr. Sean Connolly asked me. He looked maybe thirty, a year or two younger than me. Dark circles ringed his eyes like a raccoon and his white coat needed a good washing and pressing.
    “You’ve been on duty too long, Sean,” I replied. I banked on his longing for a shower and eight hours of sound sleep before his next shift. “Of course I’ll take it easy,” I lied.
    “Good one, Tess. I don’t want you in here again for at least two months. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
    I grumbled something. So I’d taken a few falls and fencing accidents this past year. It’s not like I was stalking him.
    “You’ll have better luck putting her in a body cast and drugging her insensible for forty-eight hours,” a familiar voice said from the doorway. “If you want to know why she winds up in the ER so often, read her books. She takes her research seriously.”
    “Steve!” I called to my brother. He was a taller copy of me with sandy hair that curled too tightly and a lanky build. But unlike me, he stood six feet tall, topping me by a good ten inches.
    Not the voice I truly wanted to hear, (I’d probably never hear again from the man my heart called to) but welcome nonetheless. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Chicago?”
    “Can’t I come visit my baby sister?” He bent to kiss my cheek. “I have some good news to tell you and wanted to do it in person.”
    “You didn’t call first. How do you know I’m not on deadline and therefore cranky and dedicated to solitude?” I scooched to sit a little higher on the hospital bed and winced at the pressure on my ribs and ankle.
    “You’re always on deadline,” my best friend since kindergarten, Allie Engstrom, said coming around the corner. “Don’t worry, Steve and I won’t intrude on your precious privacy.” She too kissed my cheek. When she straightened and caught Steve’s gaze across the bed—they stood nearly eye to eye in height—something strange