Page 59 of Anaki

Anaki pursed his lips and nodded. “That’s not what I need. We’ll go see Nadia then. Luis, you wanna come?”

Warmth filled me because Anaki wanted to include Luis. Then again, this was Anaki we were talking about.

Luis shook his head. “Nope, we are going to Tajah’s shop. She’s got witchy stuff in there, and I get to finally meet a warlock!”

Beretta half-laughed, half-purred and pulled Luis from Anaki’s arms. Her golden cat eyes twinkled. “Don’t worry, we will take good care of him. Have fun, you two.”

As Luis waved and blew me a kiss, his smile stretched from ear to ear, radiating pure joy. Beretta’s footsteps were light and carefree as she walked him to the door.

Abuela, on the other hand, moved slowly and deliberately, her gaze lingering on each of us before she passed by with a gentle touch on my shoulder. I leaned into her warmth, comforted by her presence. Even if she was crazy, she was familiar.

When I opened my mouth to ask if soul mates were truly real, she quickly shut it with her hand.

“Yes, mija.” She snickered and laughed. She laughed and laughed until she cackled and strode out the door like a crazed lunatic.

“I missed that. What just happened?” Anaki asked.

I sighed dramatically and shook my head. “I should have put her in ahome.”

The clinic was just a small room, with a simple bed beside a sink, and cabinets filled with medical supplies lining the walls. The air was thick with the sharp, sterile smell of ozone, a metallic tang that prickled my nostrils. A few pieces of medical equipment sat in the dimly lit room; an ultrasound machine dominated one corner, while other unfamiliar devices cluttered the space.

I didn’t go to doctors' offices often, only to manage my pain. Even then, we paid cash. I held onto paper records, which was easy in Venezuela at the time, to keep myself out of any electronic system.

Not that it didn’t help with their club hacker.

Nadia flipped through the paperwork that Abuela had already given her. Abuela needed a good scolding for just giving up information about ourselves. While I did believe these people were good at heart, mostly, you just don’t give everyone your private medical records.

“You’ve had this awhile, and it says you have had to use a cane for several years. Some days you need a wheelchair?”

Anaki was outside. He wanted to come into the room, but Nadia saw the hesitation before I could even answer. Bear appeared out of nowhere in the hallway and pulled him to the side, saying he needed to talk to him, thankfully. I didn’t want to reject Anaki, but I didn’t want Anaki to feellike I was more fragile than I already was.

I still needed that good dicking later.

“I do have relapses. I have constant pain, but with the medications I am on, it keeps the pain down to a minimum. I’m not sure how much you know about it. After I had Luis, it progressed more, and with the way it’s going, I thought I might be in a wheelchair sooner.”

Not going to school functions, such as sports, would be heartbreaking when the time came. I didn’t want Luis to grow up without a mother being present in his life. Abuela was getting older, so who was going to look after him?

“And now?” Nadia asked as she looked up from the clipboard.

I folded my arms over my lap. “To be honest, the past couple of days, I haven’t hurt.”

Nadia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t hurt? Like, at all?”

I tilted my head in thought. “A few times I did. It wasn’t horrible, but I noticed… and this might sound crazy, but when Anaki is around, I don’t feel pain. It may be because of adrenaline or something, you know? Just the excitement.”

Nadia flipped a few pages and took notes. “I don’t find that crazy at all, actually. Did you notice any pain if he left your side?”

I tapped my fingers on my lap. “He left for an afternoon to go get some clothes, and my pain returned, but when he came back”—my eyes widened just a bit—“it went back to a dull ache, then faded when I was by his side later that night.”

Nadia pressed her lips together as she tried to hide a smile.

“Does Anaki have magic? Is that why I am feeling better around him?”

Nadia bobbed her head back and forth. “Not the magic you are thinking. It has something to do with Anaki, though.” She put her pen down.

“Then, what is it? If he is making me better, then I need to know howhe’s doing it. I don’t want to hurt him in the process. It doesn’t hurt him, does it? I’m not sucking his energy or whatever, am I?”

Nadia scrunched up her nose and let out a burst of laughter. “No, no. It isn’t anything like that. Anaki’s dragon is helping you, that’s all. Both he and his dragon care for you very much. He claimed you in front of the entire bar last night when he took off with you. It was even more obvious when you walked in this afternoon with his scent all over you.”

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