Chapter 55
The second they were out of his mouth, Thomas regretted his choice of words. What was he thinking? The woman in front of him was a stranger. She might not believe in magic. Aliens, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster paled compared to the magic of Driftwood Pointe and its residents.
He glared at Taz, who shrugged his tiny hedgehog shoulders. The familiar knew better than to bring anyone to the back room.
“Let me take care of Taz real quick.” Thomas hurried over to the glass aquarium, the only place in the clinic the hedgehog couldn’t escape from. He didn’t banish his familiar often, but now seemed like the perfect time for Taz to run on his exercise wheel and lounge in his fabric teepee.
“Hey! Not fair! She didn’t think anyone was here and was gonna leave with Jeff,” Taz said in a hushed whisper. “He’s not doin’ so well, boss.”
“Shh. Be a normal hedgehog and let me take care of this.”
Thomas gently lowered Taz into the enclosure and turned back to the woman and Jeff. Waves of pain met him. Taz was right. Whatever had happened to Jeff left him in agony. The poor cat struggled to breathe.
“Bring him to the table, please.” Thomas pointed to the large metal exam table in the middle of the room. He hurried to a cabinet for a suture kit, some blankets, and a few other items he kept on hand when humans came around and he needed to conceal his healing magic.
When he turned around, the woman was standing next to the table, stroking the cat, promising him that everything would be fine.
Her energy embraced Thomas from across the room, and he wondered about her magical status.
There was something familiar about her. A low buzz of energy radiated from her body, not unlike the feeling he got from the magical citizens in town.
He didn’t recognize it. But he couldn’t be knowledgeable about all magical creatures, could he?
Jeff whimpered.
Thomas shoved aside his curiosity about the woman’s magical status and rushed to the table, dropping his supplies next to the cat. It surprised Thomas to see Jeff wrapped up burrito-style.
“You stabilized him. Most people wouldn’t have thought of that.”
When he reached for Jeff, Thomas’s fingers grazed the woman’s hand. A jolt shot up his arm. His legs shook, and he grabbed the table for support.
Thomas looked at the woman. She stared back, a furrow etched between her brows.
Long black eyelashes framed her soft green eyes.
She wore no makeup, her natural appearance stirring up feelings in Thomas he’d never expected to feel again.
Blood rushed to her cheeks, making them glow.
Whether that was a byproduct of the trauma of dealing with Jeff or from Thomas’s touch, he refused to speculate.
Her striped T-shirt and faded jeans reminded him of the teenagers who infiltrated Driftwood Pointe during the summer months, but Thomas knew from the smile lines and soft creases near her eyes that this woman was closer to his own age.
He held still, not wanting to break the contact but also not wanting to alarm her.
“Meow.” Jeff let out a low grumble. “Can you focus here, Dr. T? Taz is right. I’m feelin’ bad.”
Thomas checked to see if the woman registered the cat’s comment, but the glazed look in her eyes told him she was in shock. He took advantage of her state and unwrapped the blanket. He hissed an expletive when he saw the severity of Jeff’s injuries.
“Can you help me?” the cat asked, its voice fainter than before.
“Of course,” Thomas said, knowing he only had a few minutes left before even magic couldn’t heal the animal.
He closed his eyes and placed his hands on the worst of the wounds. Saying the healing prayer three times, Thomas paused, shifted his hands to the cat’s other injuries, and repeated the process several times.
He stopped when a wave of lightheadedness signaled his waning energy. He opened his eyes and studied the cat. Jeff stretched out on the countertop, his fur still matted with blood and dirt, but no open wounds. The cat arched up and purred, then rubbed his white paw against Thomas’s arm.
“Thank you. You’re a much better veterinarian than Taz says.”
“Hey, I told you that in confidence!” Taz called out from his aquarium.
Thomas coughed, then mumbled, “You’re welcome.”
This was another reason he stayed away from normal people. Talking animals made it hard to keep magic a secret. He gathered up the cat and looked at the woman. Her expression reminded him of Taz first thing in the evening: disheveled and confused.
“He’ll be fine, thanks to you,” Thomas told her.
“You got him here just in time.” He cradled Jeff in his arms and scratched the cat’s ears.
Jeff rewarded him with a purr that rivaled a chainsaw.
“Zach, his owner, will be glad, although I suspect he’ll be irritated you ran over him in the first place. ”
The accusation brought the woman out of her trance.
“I didn’t hit him. The car in front of me did and left the poor thing to die.” She shuddered, then stared at Jeff. “Did that cat talk to you?”
For the first time in all his years of working magic, Thomas felt guilty about concealing the truth. He wanted to tell this woman, a stranger, about himself and this town, but he couldn’t. Some things needed to be kept secret.
“Poor thing is purring so loudly, it must have sounded like words. I’ve been a vet for three decades and have yet to hear an animal speak proper English.”
Jeff gave him a catty glance, and Taz mumbled, “Liar,” from his cage.
Thomas kept his eyes on the woman, though. She blinked several times, then straightened, her breasts straining against her T-shirt. Thomas’s muscles tightened. It had been so long since a woman interested him, and this was not the best time for his body to come out of hibernation.
“Right. Well, thank you for saving the cat.” The woman’s voice sounded raspier than before. “What should we do now?”