Page 602 of Flirting with Darkness

“It’s Rachel, actually,” the woman remarked dryly, pursing her lips.

She held up a small light.

The shockingly bright beam went straight into his eyes. Wincing and grimacing, he turned away, closing his eyes, but she laid a hand on his forehead, holding one of his eyes open as she peered down into his face.

“Jesus, Ghost,” she muttered. “Stop being such a baby. Just how hard did you hit your head, anyway?”

He froze, long enough to stare up at her.

She turned off that tortuous bright light, and stuck it in the pocket of a white coat.

“A… d-doctor…” he stammered. “You are a doctor?”

She quirked a dark eyebrow at him.

Frowning, she folded her arms.

“Really?” she said. “Now? Are we going to play this little game now, Lazarus Aslanov?”

He gaped at her openly.

She didn’t seem to notice.

She rolled her eyes, her voice overtly sarcastic. “Yes, Laz. Women aredoctorsin this time period. We have covered this. You’d think we covered thisad nauseumby now, given all the times I’ve stitched you up and set broken bones and whatever else.”

Her voice grew a touch louder as she leaned over him.

“We womenfolk can do alotof things now that we don’t all live in the Victorian era, Ghost… including kick the asses of dumbass time-travelers who think it’s friggin’hilariousto express amazement every time we remind him we can do more than birth babies and make beans on toast…”

Ghost could only stare at her, speechless.

After a beat, the pretty doctor with the curly black hair looked flatly at someone standing next to her.

“I think it’s safe to say your boy isnotokay,” she stated wryly. “I think you’d better leave him here with me for a few hours, Nat. I should probably give him a M.R.I. Unless he’s hungover as hell, his brains appear to be scrambled if he doesn’t remember hisgood friend Rachel who fixes him…”

Humor reached her words as she continued to study Ghost’s face.

“…his good friend Rachel who has saved his butt alreadytwice this month.Free of charge, incidentally. Since his 19thCentury ass refuses to register with the NHS, and he’s too much of a cheapskate to pay me in anything but grief and bizarre trinkets from other time periods…”

She raised her voice more at the end.

Still, when Ghost didn’t answer her, worry reflected in her dark eyes.

Ghost still hadn’t managed to make himself look at the other woman standing there. Somehow, he wasn’t sure he could handle knowing the face attached to that voice.

Still, his overwhelming feeling remained shock.

Shock.

Disbelief.

Mind-numbing disorientation.

It struck him again that these people knew him.

Theyknewhim.

The thought both filled him with fear and ignited a wariness born of years of living on the streets. He was vulnerable here. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know anything about these people, yet they clearly knew things about him.

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