Page 2 of Cursed Touch
He looked at the dog bite and the small pool of blood forming on her plastic floor mat. His jaw clenched at the sight. Pulling out a pen light, he examined Tyler’s eyes before pressing two fingers against his neck. Vanessa watched with worry over her friend and intrigue over the stranger whom she assumed was a doctor. Before she could think further, he stood as a woman pushed a hospital bed out to them. Vanessa stepped back and watched them heave Tyler onto it.
He stabilized Tyler’s leg, his fingers probing the skin around the wound. “What happened to him?” the doctor asked, his intelligent brown eyes captivating her.
Vanessa mentally shook herself, demanding she focus on Tyler and not the attractive man. “I don’t know. He says a dog bit him, but that looks putrid. As I pulled up, his body began convulsing. He also lost consciousness on the way here.”
“Are you family?” a woman in scrubs asked as Tyler disappeared with the mysterious doctor at his side.
Vanessa shook her head. “He’s a friend.” It was not entirely a lie, as she probably knew Tyler the best out of her neighbors. He was a nice guy, and they chatted briefly whenever they were outside at the same time.
The woman nodded. “Why don’t you sit over here, and when we know more, someone will come get you?”
It was formed in a question, but Vanessa knew it was more of a statement. “Okay, but let me go move my car first.”
Vanessa wiped the sweat off her brow as she returned to her car. She was suddenly wiped and ready for a nap. She slid into her car and released a heavy sigh. Whatever had bitten Tyler needed to be put down before it killed someone.
She rounded the hospital until she found a dumpster. After pulling up closely, she put the car in park and moved around to the passenger side. Carefully, as so not to touch the blood, she removed the mat and tossed it into the large green bin.
“At least he didn’t get any on the carpet,” she muttered and shut the door.
Chapter 2
“Dr. Knowlen will have you all patched up in no time. It’s a really good thing your girlfriend brought you in,” Carter told the man, as he gripped the end of the bed, hoping he looked casual.
“Girlfriend?” Tyler asked, his brows pinched together.
An image of the short-haired brunette who had stolen the breath right from Carter’s lungs came to mind. “The woman who brought you in?”
“Oh,” Tyler said with understanding as he leaned forward to inspect the bite. His eyes narrowed before meeting Carter’s with question.
Neither spoke, but Carter was sure the man suspected something had happened outside the scope of standard medicine. Before Tyler could ask, Carter gave him a curt nod and slipped out of the triage room. He could not risk anyone learning of his gift.
He hurried down the hall to the bathroom and locked himself inside. Leaning against the door, he shut his eyes as his head swam. Tyler had been on the verge of dying when he arrived. Carter had begun healing him outside, magic he could do in front of distracted patients, but once he’d gotten inside, he helped the man a little further along. It seemed it would take him an extra second to gather his energy after using so much magic.
The woman floated into his thoughts, and he recalled the way his body had vibrated at her nearness. It was the strangest reaction he’d ever experienced to a woman. When he cupped her shoulder to get her attention, the zing that had shot through his fingers surprised him. She lit his body on fire, stirring his dick like no one ever had.
“She’s here with her boyfriend, you dimwit,” he said and pushed off the wall.
Carter splashed cold water on his face and patted it dry with paper towels. “It’s a good thing you’re done for the day.”
He was only at the hospital as a favor to a colleague who had asked him to consult on a particular patient. Carter’s years of emergency care were behind him after specializing in pulmonology. At least, he’d thought they were, before he learned his family were witches and came from a long line of magic users.
Growing up, he had believed something was wrong with him. He even considered he was a superhero of sorts in his younger years. Whenever he’d gotten injured, he healed much faster than his peers. In time, he secretly mastered the art of healing others. It was what drew him to his profession.
He had managed to keep his gift a secret until last year, when everything turned upside down. His sister turned twenty-one, unleashing her bound powers and attracting the attention of things that went bump in the night.
He now walked around with the knowledge that werewolves, demons, witches, and God only knew what else actually existed. The world of magic contradicted his medical education, but so did his life-saving gift.
Carter checked in with the desk again before waving them good-bye. A quick scan of the lobby left him deflated when he did not see the woman. She was probably in the back by now, sitting with her boyfriend while he was treated.
Treated for a dog bite.
He thought on all his knowledge of dog bites and treating them, but nothing matched what he had seen today. A little voice in the back of his head warned him it was supernatural, but he refused to jump to that conclusion every time he heard of a strange case.
Sliding behind the steering wheel, he rolled his head back and forth and sighed. Carter had been healing people for as long as he could remember—both with medical advances and his magical ones. As he thought on the last year and the patients he knew for a fact were not human, his brows narrowed.
Facts were facts, and as he sat in his car with beads of sweat forming along his back, he realized one key fact. Human injuries, no matter how severe, did not tire or affect him, but injuries caused by magical beings sure did.
Carter pressed the brake and pushed the start button to his Audi A6. He backed up carefully, all the while analyzing the image of the bite and Tyler’s symptoms. As he approached the streetlight that would take him home, he maneuvered the car into the left turn lane but then checked his rearview mirror and turned the wheel right.
