Page 43 of The Doctor's Truth

Then he sticks his arm at me, his small hand in a fist, forearm upward. He points to his wrist. The skin there is covered in small, angry pricks—scars from where doctors and nurses have broken into his veins again and again and again to get to the bottom of his ailments.

The scars on my wrist? They’re a little different. I like to think of it as an I Survived Adolescence and All I Got Was This Fucking Baggage souvenir.

Instead, I smile at him and say, “You’re right. We do match.”

Then I snap the leather cuff back over my wrist. Out of sight, out of mind.

“I want to swim with the sharks,” Jason announces suddenly as he and Kenzi finally catch up to us.

“Me too!” Otto says.

“Yeah? Come here, I’ll toss you in the tank.”

Otto laughs at that and darts away as Jason comes after him.

I fall in step beside Kenzi. She links her arm in mine, and this feels weirdly comfortable. The four of us on a family outing. We walk through a tunnel that’s built in the middle of a tank. On either side of us and above us, through the Plexiglas, small sharks and stingrays and multicolored fish jet back and forth.

“I guess the sharks were on the nice list,” Kenzi remarks, pointing to a faux Christmas tree installed in the bottom of the tank.

I groan. “I hate the holidays.”

Kenzi slips her hand over my chest. My body is unaccustomed to things like gentle touches, and instinctively I feel myself recoil.

“What’re you doing?”

“Checking to make sure you still have a heart.”

“You’re wasting your time. I took that out with my appendix. Just another useless organ holding me back.”

She knits her eyebrows. “You’re joking.”

“Yes. I’m joking. I still have my appendix.”

“No…” She stops us suddenly and stands in front of me, forcing my gaze to meet hers. “I mean…the Donovan I knew only wore black and was cynical, sure, but he had a big heart.”

I press my lips together. “Yeah, well. When you grow up as the island punching bag, you either give up and roll over, or you grow fangs.”

She frowns at that, then moves her hands to my face. She pushes my upper lip back, exposing the gums. “Hold still, vampire. Checking your teeth.”

“All the better to eat you with, my dear.”

24

Kenzi

At least Donovan is smiling again, so that’s progress.

It does worry me, the coal black of his eyes. The years have hardened him.

And who could blame him? I remember how terrible the kids were to him growing up. But still, he didn’t leave. He stayed here and stuck it out.

I understand the impulse to turn your heart to stone before someone breaks it again.

But, for a minute, we’re kids, playing around the aquarium. I’m baring his teeth, he’s struggling to get away from me, when we hear, “—Dr. Donovan?”

I take my hands away from his face, and we both turn to see a woman behind us. She’s wearing a ripped band shirt and long dangling earrings.

“Hey,” Donovan says, and his smile is genuine. Donovan is a man who reserves his affection only for the deserving, so when he takes her in a light hug, I already know that she’s a good person. He peels back and turns to me, motioning to her. “Kenzi, this is Maria. She lives on the island.”

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