Chapter 14
Fourteen
“One more stitch. You’re doing great.”
“Hah, yeah right.” My eyes remained squeezed shut as I felt the doctor adjust my hand.
Thanks to the numbing agent she’d administered, I didn’t actually feel anything, but the thought of a needle dipping in and out of my skin gave me the heebie-jeebies. The last thing I needed was to faint and have them insist I stay here longer.
“All done.” I opened my eyes to see Dr. Levine’s warm ones on me. She was the only doctor in the small town. She looked young and incredibly pretty, like she was the star of one of those TV dramas where the gorgeous doctor moves from the city to a small town and falls in love with a grumpy local.
Thankfully for me, her office was right on Main Street, a few blocks from Lori’s store.
I’d gotten blood all over the sweatshirt I was wearing—one of my favorites, unfortunately. I looked like I’d tried a tie dying experiment with my own blood.
“Want a lollipop?” Dr. Levine asked.
“I think I’m okay.”
“Let me go to the front and get you some extra bandages and antiseptic to keep the stitches clean. They should be ready to come out in two weeks. I’ll have Janet at the front desk schedule a follow up.”
“Sounds good,” I said, knowing full well I’d likely snip these suckers out myself with cuticle scissors.
There was a knock at the door before the woman from the front desk, Janet, apparently, poked her head inside. “Um, there’s a panicked young man out front.”
Dr Levine’s eyebrows drew together. “Tell him I’ll be right with him.”
Janet nodded in my direction. “He’s here for her.”
“Me?” I looked around the room as if I’d find another woman she could be referring to.
“Josie?” I heard Theo’s voice a second before his large frame towered behind the woman in the door. He pushed lightly with his hand, squeezing by her with zero effort. “Are you okay?”
“How did you know I was here?” I asked instead of answering him.
He stalked toward me, eyebrows drawn in concern as he frantically looked over my frame. He paled when his eyes landed on all the blood near my sleeves.
“Is this a friend?” Dr. Levine asked.
“Yes, it’s fine,” I said, not attempting to clarify whatever relationship Theo and I had. Friends felt close enough.
“I’ll just go get those things from the front then.” She backed away and let the door swing shut behind her.
Theo ran a hand through his dark hair and started to pace in front of me. His panicked reaction had me perplexed. It wasn’t dissimilar to the one he’d had the other night when my car had broken down.
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “It was just a cut. I tried to stop the bleeding while I walked here.”
“You walked here?” he demanded.
“Um, yeah. My car isn’t exactly Ms. Reliable, remember?” Theo had replaced the tire and fixed the engine issue before driving it back, but I’d been too nervous to take it out again. “Anyway, I fell on my way to the shop?—”
“The shop?” Damn, for such a non-talker he could really interrupt when he wanted to.
“Lori called me. I was trying to bring her this.” I pulled out the purple amulet from my pocket and held it up. He glanced at it, brow furrowed, before nodding.
“Right.” He blinked a few times. “She mentioned that. I told her I’d get it. Why didn’t you call Lori after you fell?”
“For what?” I asked, genuinely perplexed by his reaction. “It’s a cut, Theo.”
“She could have told me and I could have?—”
“Hey.” I grabbed his arm to halt his pacing. This was the first time I’d heard him come close to rambling. “Are you okay?”
He gulped in response and nodded erratically.
“Take a breath. Are you not good with blood or something?”
“Or something,” he muttered.
“How did you even know I was here?” Did he have some witchy intuition? Was he psychic? Maybe Lori really did have powers and?—
“Small town,” he said. “The delivery driver talked to the receptionist who told him Lori’s granddaughter was here. Didn’t take much to make it to the rest of town.”
“Oh,” I frowned, disappointed there wasn’t a more mystical answer. “No one’s big on HIPAA over here I take it.”
His forehead wrinkled. “Hippo?”
“Never mind,” I said, remembering the whole other realm thing.
“Can I see it?” he asked.
I held up my hand and he stepped even closer to me, ducking his head so that he could inspect it. After a second, he carefully took my hand in both of his, turning it over and examining the cut.
“It was only ten stitches,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure if that was actually a small number considering it was on my palm. The gash stretched almost half the length of it.
“I-I never bothered learning any healing magic,” he said apologetically. As if I had expected him to utter some spell and make my wound go away.
“Me either,” I tried to joke, but he met my eyes, still serious, before he resumed scrutinizing my hand. “Hey, it’s fine really.” He looked like he needed reassurance even though I had no idea why he was so bothered by this. “The cut wasn’t even that deep. They stitched me up. I’ll be good as new.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” he said. “How did you even get this while walking?”
“Fell on the path while I was talking to my mom. Sliced it on a rock.”
He winced at the word ‘sliced.’ “I can walk with you next time. You can tell me when you want to come into town.”
Who was this guy? I gawked at him, because I couldn’t believe how seriously he was taking this. “I’m fine.”
He shook his head, his concern morphing into an irritation of some kind. “Humans are so fragile.”
“What?” That had not been what I was expecting him to say. Should I be offended? “No we’re not.”
Frustration sparked in his eyes. “You live in a realm where everything is practically designed to kill you and your healers are mediocre at best.”
“Shhh!” I placed my good hand over his mouth, glancing at the door and praying to the universe that Dr. Levine had not overheard Theo refer to her as “mediocre.”
I grabbed his arm again, forcing him to look at me. “Theo. I fell on a rock. In nature. Do they not have paths and stones in your realm?”
He sighed and dragged a hand over his face. “You’re right. Sorry.” Then he shook his head, as if trying to snap himself out of whatever had possessed him. “I’m a little out of it today,” he admitted.
“I’m fine,” I said again, ensuring he’d hear me this time. “I slipped.”
Whatever was going on with him must be deeper than today. He looked nauseous but more resigned than he had a minute ago. He was finally calming down.
“Your hand is all torn up. Can you-can you even paint?”
“It’s not torn up. And it’s my left. All good.”
He nodded, his eyes still wary. “Can I walk you home?”