“Look.” He brushed aside the wound where he’d carved out the other bullet. The skin had already knit closed. A light tug would split it open again, but this close to a shift, he healed really fast. “Losing time,” he said, pitching his voice to a low threat. “Must do this now.”
“W-what?”
“Don’t argue. Just do.”
Annoyance washed through her features, but was quickly smoothed out. Then she hardened her jaw as she glared down at him.
Oh hell. He knew that look. He knew her face, too, but damned if he could remember how. She was so damned familiar, but he couldn’t place her.
“I do this for you, you do something for me.”
“You shot me.”
“You attacked me.”
“I roared.”
“You were a freaking bear. Now agree or you dig that shit out yourself.”
God, he hated negotiation and time was running out. He was already losing awareness of exactly where the bullet was in his body. “Fine. Dig now.” Easy to agree when he had no intention of remembering this promise.
She grimaced and dropped down to her knees beside him. Then she tossed aside her purse and wiped her palms on faded blue jeans before taking the knife from his hand. “This is not smart.”
There were a lot stupider things, but he didn’t have the breath to say that. He used his left hand to point to where the bullet was. “Cut here. An inch.”
She set one palm on his chest, surprisingly cool though there were beads of sweat on her forehead. Or maybe that was because his temperature was still running hot from his shift.
Pain sliced through his consciousness as she cut, but he controlled his breath so that his chest didn’t jerk under her.
“Find. Bullet.”
“I see it. I think.”
Really? Good for her. She was ten times steadier than he expected. As if she had some medical training. Or disaster training. “You. Nurse?”
“No, I’m not a nurse, you sexist pig.”
Hope spiked. “Doc?”
“You wish.” She dug her fingers in and it took all his attention to not react to the pain. He needed to keep his chest still while she worked, but God, he wanted to scream.
“Got it!” she cried as she pulled it out. “It’s done. I’m done. You can heal it now.”
He looked at her, his breath still coming in short pants. “Not magic trick. No wand—”
“Whatever. Just do it.”
He exhaled and his eyes drifted closed. Let her think he was doing some meditation bullshit. His body would heal as all bodies did. One cell at a time in its own time, which, admittedly, was really fast right now. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he could center himself fully inside his human body. He could mentally run through a list of his organs as if tapping each one. Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys. He rolled through the whole litany until he hit his skin. In his mind’s eye, it sealed together in a seamless line exactly as it should and the blood vessels beneath worked just as they ought. All perfect human normal.
A few minutes later he heard her move restlessly beside him. “Is it done? Are you all better?”
His eyes opened and shot her a look. Now that the pain was fading, he was better able to think. What he thought about now was her face and body. Caramel skin on a muscular frame. Her dark brown hair was pulled tightly back into a thick bun, and there was a broadness to her nose that should have looked odd, but beneath those large chocolate eyes, she looked absolutely perfect. That is if he ignored the hard jut of her sharp chin.
“I know you,” he said.
Her eyes widened for moment, then slowly narrowed the longer he stayed silent. “Don’t stop there. Keep thinking.”
He was, but there was a lot to process. Sure he was absorbing her physical details, but he was also just realizing that it was cool outside and the air smelled of spring. That the birds were back to twittering and their song was about hatching and feeding young barely out of the shell.
