Page 109 of Blood Bound

I breathe out a sigh and run my palm over my belly, straining hard but still hearing the little thumps.

VALENTINE

Iopen my eyes, and it feels like a jackhammer is hitting me right between the eyes. Constant thrumming and my body hurts all over as if I’ve been in a sparring match with Gabriel. Immediately sitting up straight at the thought of my Maker, I realize my error too late when my eyesight goes white.

“Easy there, cowboy; still got a buncha these in ya,” a soft, gentle voice speaks to me and slowly pushes me back down.

“W-what… who…?” I stutter, trying to get my eyesight to focus on my surroundings, but all I see are stark white and bright lights. “Where… am I?”

“In my clinic,” she answers again and I feel something being pulled out of my chest and clattering on a tray. “There ya go, good as new! Well, almost new; here.”

A clinic? Wait, is this a human?

She shoves the end of a blood bag in my mouth before I can ask her, and my bloodlust takes over. When that bag is finished, she hands me four more. I can feel my wounds slowly healing and my eyesight slowly comes back just as I finish the last bag.

“Why… can’t I see?”

I feel her hands on either side of my face. “Well, when I found you on the side of the road, you had two thin baobab stakes shoved into them. Had to work carefully to remove them.” She says just as my eyesight returns and I find myself staring into a pair of clear green eyes.

Blinking, I feel the blood rushing to my head when a smile forms on her face when she says, “Hi there.”

A blush forms on her pale cheeks, matching the fiery color of her hair. She lets go of my face and places her hands in the pockets of her doctor’s coat.

Because of what I’ve been through the last few days, I can’t help but feel suspicious. I get to my feet and have her up against the wall in a split second, but she surprises me by holding a syringe to my throat.

“Filled with baobab pulp; now is this any way to treat someone who saved your darn life?” she says, with no hint of fear at all. “Let me down or so help me, I’ll stick those right back in you.”

She cocks her head towards the baobab stakes and, without thinking; I remove my hand from around her neck and I take two steps back. “How long have I been here?”

“Nearly two days, give or take. Those toothpicks and bullets went deep; took me forever to get them out,” she says, rolling her r’s in an odd way. Two days? Fuck.

“Why did you help me if you know what I am?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at her kindness. After what Amara did and how she fooled me with fake memories, there’s no way I’ll trust anyone now.

Rubbing her neck, she shrugs. “Because I’m a doctor and I took an oath?”

This makes me laugh and I lean against the wall, crossing my arms. “Does that oath extend to vampires?”

“It’s what my Mamma did and my grandmama did before her; we treat humans and supernatural creatures.” She says matter-of-factly as if she’s simply telling me the news.

I frown. “Are you a witch?”

She giggles and that sweet smile is back. “Heavens, no. ‘Fraid I’m just a lil ol’ human trained to treat the good, bad, and frightful.” She says, that cute accent slipping into her voice again. I wonder why she hides it when it suits her so much.

Humans who are trained to treat supernatural creatures? I’ve never heard of that before and I’ve been alive for decades. Is this something new? Something Gabriel is aware of? If not, I better tell him about it; I’m sure Kat will need one when she gives birth.

I lift from the wall. “Well, thank you for your help, but I have to get going—”

“It’s 5:30 pm, I don’t think you’re going anywhere right now unless you fancy a permanent tan,” she says, then points to the ceiling. “Sun’s still out.”

“Ah, fuck!”

“Mind your language in my clinic,” she says in a reprimanding tone, raising her eyebrow at me and crossing her arms.

I scoff at this human’s nerve to speak to me as if I’m a misbehaving toddler. But then again, I have had no one try to put me in my place before - not even Giselle.

“Apologies, ma’am, but cursing is imbued in my language like a ghoul attached to his old home,” I grin, leaning back against the wall and placing my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “I say fuck and shit before I can even think about it.”

She shakes her head. “So foul. If I could swat your mouth with a wooden spoon, I would.”

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