Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

I fought not to squirm. ‘I wasn’t asking for sex.’

He gave me a look.

‘I wasn’t.’ It sounded defensive even to me, which made me want to sulk about it, which let me know that I was lying to myself. I could feel the craving growing inside me. I’d healed beyond my wildest dreams, but it was going to come with a price, eventually. Of course, Nathaniel was down the hallway hooked up to IVs, too. That was a price that had already been paid.

‘I’m getting dressed. If she gets too handsy with anyone else, knock on the door,’ Micah said.

‘I’m not going to just paw at strangers,’ I said, sullenly.

He smiled. ‘We have more guards here than when you passed out; most of them are willing food for you, and almost none of them have my self-control.’

I started to cross my arms, but the IV made it too hard. I fought not to pout at him. ‘I’ll be good.’

‘You’re always good, Anita; just don’t do anything you’d be embarrassed to have Edward see.’

‘There are police out in the hallway waiting to help spell me at Anita’s bedside. Could we all start calling me Ted, just for practice?’

Micah nodded. ‘Anita, don’t do anything you wouldn’t want Ted to see.’

‘You’ve made your point,’ I said.

‘How about there are other police in the hallway helping watch over your room just like they are dad’s. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want them to walk in on, or how about my mom, my sister, my brother. They’ve been checking on you, too.’

I sank back into the pillow, all the fight and sullen suddenly gone. ‘You’ve made your point.’

‘Good. I love you,’ he said.

‘I love you, too.’

He closed the door behind him and the room suddenly seemed even darker than it had been. There was a knock on the door, but it opened without waiting for me to say Come in . I wasn’t surprised that it was my doctor. I was a little surprised that he was a vampire and my doctor.

Dr Cross, the vampire, was tall and thin, with dark hair that most people would have called black, but I had my hair and Jean-Claude’s to compare it to. The vampire laughed enough to show dainty fangs. ‘Yes, I know, a vampire called Dr Cross, it is rather ironic, but I was Dr Cross before I became undead.’

‘So just a coincidence?’ I said.

He nodded happily, unwound his stethoscope from his neck, and began to listen to my heart. The front bangs were thicker on one side, so they fell forward as he bent over, almost falling into his eyes, but not quite. I had a sudden urge to reach up and smooth his hair back from his face. It wasn’t like me to want to touch strangers.

I heard the shower start in my bathroom, which meant Micah was in there all naked and soapy. Joining him seemed like such a good idea.

Dr Cross was over six feet and not as comfortable with his height as most of the people in my life, so he stayed bent over me too much, and his hair spilled forward as he opened the neck of my hospital gown enough to reach in and touch the stethoscope to my chest. He kept his hand down the front of my gown as he glanced back at Edward.

‘I’m going to have to look at the wound site, Marshal Forrester; I think a little privacy might be in order.’

‘I’m fine,’ Edward said, watching us.

‘A little privacy would be nice,’ I said, frowning at him.

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘I won’t eat her, promise,’ Dr Cross said with a smile, but his hand was still down my gown, the stethoscope held motionless between my breasts. He should have moved his hand out as soon as he was done, but he hadn’t. I wondered if he realized he was doing it. My heartbeat was speeding up. What was happening to me? I had better control than this.

‘I’m not worried that you’ll eat her,’ Edward said, smiling back.

I frowned harder at him, and he smiled like all the angels were tap-dancing at his side. I wanted to tell him to leave, at the same time that I knew Dr Cross and I weren’t trustworthy on our own. Part of me didn’t care.

Cross looked back at me. His eyes were brown with an irregular circle of gray around the pupil. I wondered if he thought his eyes were brown or hazel.

‘Dr Cross.’ Edward said it sharply.

The vampire startled, as if he hadn’t realized he’d been motionlessly bent over me staring into my eyes. ‘Sorry, I must be more tired than I knew.’ He got very brisk, putting back his stethoscope around his neck, pushing down the sheet, and rolling up my gown. The gown was huge on me, as most of them always were, so it was a lot of cloth to get out of the way until he could see my lower side. ‘It might have been quicker to go from the top,’ he joked.

‘Maybe,’ I said.

‘One size does not fit all,’ Edward said.

The doctor glanced back at him smiling, his hands wound in the cloth of my gown. He was frowning as he gazed at my bare side. He put his back to Edward so he didn’t flash my nakedness under the gown to the other man. I appreciated his concern for my modesty. His bangs swung out from his face just above me so that I could actually not see his eyes for the fall of hair. It bugged me. I wanted to see his eyes.

Dr Cross touched my side. ‘Remarkable; the scar looks weeks, months old.’

I looked at where his hand was pointing. There was a new white scar tracing the edge of my hip. It looked like it had hit just under my body armor. ‘If it hadn’t been a silver bullet I’m not sure there’d be a scar,’ I said.

He looked up at me, smiling. ‘Really? I know theoretically that nonsilver bullets don’t hurt you, or me, but I’ve never tested the theory.’ He laughed at the thought of being bulletproof.

‘I haven’t been shot by a nonsilver bullet in a while. I don’t honestly know.’ I could see the gray around his pupils again. It made the brown of his eyes seem paler, or maybe they were just that light a brown.

‘Dr Cross,’ Edward said, his voice a little sharp.

The doctor startled, blinked, and turned to look at Edward. ‘Yes, Marshal Forrester?’

‘Can Marshal Blake be released?’

He looked at my hip, and the gown spilled back to block his view, so it was just natural for him to move back more of the gown until he bared most of my lower body. His fingers traced the scar, and then his fingertips traced the line where my leg met my groin. He hadn’t touched anything he shouldn’t yet, and normally I would have been pissed, but his hair had fallen down across his face again. I wanted, needed to see his eyes.

I touched his hair. He raised his head to meet my gaze. I swept his hair back from his face. His eyes widened, lips half opened. He looked startled, almost frightened.

‘Anita!’ Edward’s voice made me startle. I dropped my hands away from the doctor.

Dr Cross stood up abruptly and pulled down my gown over my body. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘what was I saying?’

‘You were saying that Marshal Blake looks good.’

‘Well, yes, she does, very good, I mean, she’s quite beautiful …’ The doctor frowned as if trying to gather his thoughts and failing. He knew he was being inappropriate, but he couldn’t seem to help it.

‘I meant her wound looks good, as in healed,’ Edward said.

‘It does, of course, that is what I meant.’ He tried for brisk again. ‘I would like an X-ray just to make a hundred percent certain that the pelvis crack is healed completely. Bones can take longer to heal even with shapeshifters.’

‘What would it entail to get her X-rayed?’

‘I’m not sure I understand,’ Dr Cross said.

‘I mean, would she have to be on a stretcher or in a wheelchair?’

‘Wheelchair should be sufficient.’