AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pointing sharply at my arm, she said, “Let me see it.”
There really wasn’t any point in arguing with her—as if that ever stopped me from trying—so I carefully loosened my grasp on the towel. She peeled it back, which had me hissing in pain, and she prodded at the wound with her gloved fingers. Apparently satisfied I wasn’t going to bleed out, she gave a curt nod and gestured for me to keep applying pressure.
“Fine,” she said tersely. “You win this time.”
“Oh yeah?” I pressed the towel against the gash again. “What do I win?”
“Not having me lecture you the entire time I’m suturing your arm.”
I shrugged. “You’re going to lecture me anyway.”
“I will, but I won’t be jabbing a needle into your skin to emphasize my various points.”
That made me shudder, which only made me realize how shaky I was from adrenaline and blood loss.
She sobered and touched my shoulder. “Why don’t you go sit? I’ll bring you some water and we can wrap that up properly.”
I nodded, and I retreated to my office across the hall. Sinking into my desk chair, I sighed, relieved to be off my shaky legs. This wasn’t that out of the ordinary. Getting clawed, bitten, stung, and burned came with the territory of treating exotics. Especially exotics people had no business owning. Everyone thought a raróg wasso cute, and everyone who had one wasso happy, but Jesus fuck, couldn’t people be content with a parakeet or something? They were about the same size, way lower maintenance, and—most importantly—less dangerous. Even at parakeet size, a critter that had aspects of both falconanddragon could still fuck up someone’s world by biting, burning, or—as was the case of my patient Elzbieta—clawing the ever-loving hell out of flesh with her too-sharp talons.
“I guess I should’ve taken her to the groomer to get her nails trimmed,” the owner had said as I’d wrapped the towel around my arm. Yes. Yes, that would’ve been advisable. In fact, maybe we needed to update the clinic’s policies.
Eh. That could be dealt with later. My arm would heal. And at least I hadn’t been tangling with a basilisk this time.Thathad sucked.
“Secure the hood over her eyes,” I’d said.
“Make sure the hood won’t come loose,” I’d said.
Spoiler—it came loose.
The furious lizard had whipped its head, knocked off the hood, looked right at me, and…
That was the last thing I remembered. Good thing our clinic made sure everyone was up to date on using the defibrillatorsandwe’d had a low-level necromancer on staff who could get my heart started enough for the defib to do its thing. Otherwise, that would’ve been it for Dr. Segreto.
Stuff like that really did put an injury like a raróg scratch into perspective. Yes, it was deep. Yes, it hurt like hell. And yes, it maybe kind of might’ve benefitted from being sutured. But I hadn’t dropped dead on the floor this time, so it was all good.
As long as it stopped bleeding enough that I didn’t pass out or get blood all over the place, I probably wouldn’t even get too far behind on my appointments today. No,thatwas bound to happen when I saw my eleven o’clock, which was an incredibly foul-tempered hellhound named Muffin who was highly displeased about his cone of shame. That appointment was bound to be—
My office door flew open, almost startling me out of my chair as Julie, the receptionist, came in, her eyes wide.
“Dr. Segreto, there’s—” She gasped as her gaze darted to the bloody towel around my arm. “Oh my God. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Looks worse than it is.” I smiled through the pain. “What’s up? You seem…” I inclined my head. I wouldn’t say she looked panicked, but something clearly had her off-balance. She wasn’t one to be rattled by emergencies, either, so to say I was alarmed would be an understatement.
“It’s your ex.” She swept her tongue across her lips. “He’s here, and he’s asking to see you, and…” Her brow pinched. “Something’s wrong.”
Horror shot through me and I jumped to my feet, but my adrenaline-soaked brain reined me back in. I wobbled a little as the blood loss caught up with me, and I grabbed the edge of the desk.
Julie appeared beside me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good. I’m good.” I sank back into the chair and willed the room to stop spinning. “And… my ex? Something’s wrong?” I peered up at her. “What do you mean? And are we talking about Owen?” I couldn’t imagine who else it would be—he was the only man in this city I’d ever dated.
“Yeah, it’s Owen.” She glanced toward the open doorway and shook her head. “He just came in, looking like he’d just seen something terrifying, and he said he needed to see you.”
I swallowed. “Tell… Tell him to come back to my office.”
“Okay.” She gave my arm another uneasy look, then headed back toward the lobby.
Owen?Here?And he wanted to see me? That didn’t make any sense at all. I couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of crisis would have him freaking out, never mind in any way that would make him want to be in the same room as me.
