Flatline (Medicine and Magic Book 1) Read online

  “You know what? I’ve never seen anyone using a sword out by the river. Anyone who would think to do that would run the risk of getting shot.”

  “You might be surprised.” I turned away before I said anything else that might make Derek question me further. “Let’s watch him a little longer and then I’ll be back to stitch this up.”

  “You’re the doc.”

  I left the room and headed back to check the track board. As I did, a chill worked down my spine and I froze in place. It wasn’t death—that was a chill that seemed to grip my chest and squeeze, leaving me with a feeling of nausea—but something that was near enough to it. And it was something that I hadn’t expected to detect, at least not here.

  Magic.

  There was someone nearby using magic.

  That shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Minneapolis was a large city, inhabited by plenty of magical beings, thanks to the ley lines that ran through the city, drawing them. From what Gran told me, the Mississippi River ran along one such ley line, and it was a powerful one. Ley lines like that were magical reservoirs, and they pulled others with power to places like this. They were the reason we had the various factions of vampires, though the longer northern nights didn’t hurt, and they were the reason we had so many shifters. With the river, we were close to the Veil.

  But I could go months without picking up on someone using magic. The fact that I felt it now, especially after so recently dealing with magic, made me wonder why. There had to be a reason that was more than about coincidence.

  “You okay, Dr. Michaels?”

  I looked up to see Val, one of the nurses, watching me with something bordering on amusement. After what happened with Locks after Dorn had died, the rumors had continued to run rampant in the ER and I was certain there were nurses who still thought I was hiding something. I might have to go out drinking with them sometime just to convince them I wasn’t pregnant. Either that or I could have a little fun with the rumors. That might be better anyway.

  “I’m fine. I’ve just been a little off the last few weeks.” I shrugged and turned my attention back to the track board, looking for the next patient I would see.

  There were several options, but none were all that interesting. Did I see the screaming baby with a cough or middle-aged dude with the belly pain?

  “Which one do you have, Michaels?”

  I turned to see Dr. Roberts striding up behind me. He was tall—probably six foot four—and had the build of the basketball player he claimed he once had been in college. He always managed a quick smile that won over most of the others in the ER, but I’d been around him enough to know that he was more than a little smarmy.

  “I was just looking,” I said.

  “I’ll take the kiddo. I might sing to her and see if I can’t get her to stop crying.”

  Val sighed, and I turned away so I didn’t gag.

  “Careful, Brad. You might end up making her cry more,” I said.

  He shot me a glare that I ignored as I hurried down toward the belly pain. I paused at the computer outside the room to look up the relevant information about the guy. Mid-forties. Pain started two days ago. Now severe. EMS ride from a dozen blocks away. There wasn’t anything else in the chart that would help. At his age, that wasn’t uncommon.

  “Mr. Roger Niles?” I rubbed a ball of foam disinfectant on my hands as I entered and put on a big smile. Now that we were rated on everything from how nice we were to whether we washed our hands, every detail mattered. “I’m Dr. Michaels. I understand you’ve been having some belly pain?”

  The man nodded. “It hurts, doc. Can’t you give me something to take the edge off?”

  Was this guy a drug seeker? As the county hospital, we had plenty of people come through the doors who only wanted narcotics. It was easy enough to give them what they wanted, but that wasn’t the right thing to do most of the time.

  “Where does it hurt?”

  “Everywhere. It hurts everywhere,” he said, clutching his stomach.

  I did a cursory exam, looking for signs of a surgical abdomen, but there were none. His vitals were otherwise stable, which was reassuring.

  “I’m going to order some labs and a few x-rays, and I’ll be right back in.”

  The man moaned again and when I reached the door, he managed to call out. “Are you going to do something for this pain?”

  “Of course. I’ll do everything I can to get you comfortable.”

  I stepped out of the room and over to the computer to enter the orders. A few labs and a CT of his abdomen would give me a better idea about what we were dealing with. He certainly seemed like the pain was real, but I’d seen drug seekers who could be quite convincing, and I wasn’t entirely convinced that he wasn’t one. Abdominal pain was all too easy to fake and could be incredibly difficult to pinpoint a cause.

  “Hey, Michaels.”

  I looked up to see Jen, my best friend and one of the other residents, waiting for me. She always managed to get me to smile even when I was exhausted. Like now. “What’s up?”

  “There’s a guy waiting for you in the lobby. I was out talking to a family when I saw him.”

  “What guy? A patient?”

  Jen smiled. “An incredibly attractive guy. I almost need a shower just from seeing him. He asked for you by name. If he hadn’t been asking for you, I would have offered to play doctor with him.”

  “You are a doctor.”

  “Exactly,” she said with a grin.

  My spine started to tingle. After the chill I’d felt before going in to see Mr. Belly Pain, now to have some stranger appear at the desk? What if he wasn’t a stranger? Could Aron have come for me? “What did he look like?”

  “Do I need to draw you a picture? Wait… maybe I should go take a picture. For safety reasons.” She pulled her phone out from her pocket and winked before heading back toward the front desk.

  I waited in the hall for a moment. Did I really want to go and see if Aron had come to see me? A part of me did. I couldn’t deny the same appeal that Jen felt—he was incredibly attractive—but a guy like that was just as likely going to end up with me dragged in front of the council to explain my magic, and that wasn’t something that I could do.

  Jen leaned out of the doorway to the front desk. “If you take too long, I can’t promise what I might do.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a brief sigh. There was nothing but to go and see what he wanted.

  When I got to the desk, I caught sight of Aron immediately. He was hard to miss. A black t-shirt did nothing to hide the sculpted body. Slim jeans were probably not practical for running. The black leather jacket added to the overall picture.

  “Dr. Michaels,” Betty said. She didn’t look up at me. “Damn, but he’s a fine-looking man.”

  “I’ll let him know you approve.”

  I stepped through the half door leading out into the packed waiting room. With this many patients, it would be a busy shift and I didn’t need the kind of distraction that Aron would bring, but I had suggested that he come to the ER.

  “Did you come for me to finish taking care of your injury?” I asked.

  He frowned and tapped on his chest. “Dr. Michaels?” he said, staring at my nametag clipped to my pocket. As much as I wanted to deny it, there was a part of me that wanted him to look.

  “That’s me. You came to talk?”

  He looked around the busy ER before his gaze settled on me. When it did, I felt the chill along my spine. This time, I knew it came from him. Whatever he was doing triggered the chill. I steeled myself, trying to prevent him from magically probing me, but flushed as the thought of other probing came to mind.

  “Is there somewhere else we could go?” he asked.

  “I’m working. I can’t leave.”

  “Fine. Is there somewhere else we can go here that might be a little more private?”

  I glanced over at the desk. Betty and Jen were talking to each other and I could almost imagine what was going through their minds. Jen held out her phone and snapped a quick picture.

  Great. As if I didn’t have enough rumors rolling around the ER about me. Now they would add in Aron and probably claim he was the father of the baby they were convinced I was having.

  “There’s a family conference room we could use,” I said.

  I led Aron over to the door and punched in the code, pulling the door open. Thankfully, the room was empty. If it hadn’t been, I might have needed to take Aron outside. That still might not be a bad idea. I didn’t need the magical world getting mixed up in my regular world. There was a reason I had gone into a career this side of the Veil. It protected me. Having a knight of the council come to my place of work put me in the kind of danger that I didn’t need.

  “What is it?” I asked when we were in the room. “Did your wound get infected?”

  “I told you that I was fine,” Aron said. Despite his protestations, he still rubbed at his chest.

  “Fine? There aren’t too many people who can take a sword to the chest and be fine.” Though, if anyone could, it would be one of the knights. With his likely connection to magic, he would be pretty well equipped to handle something like that. “But if you’re not here about your injury, then why are you here?”

  He glanced down at my name badge again before fixing me with his intense stare. The cold chill in my spine intensified.

  “Stop,” I said.

  “Stop what?”

  “Whatever magical interrogation you’re doing. Just stop.”

  He frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I can feel it. So cut it out.”

  “You shouldn’t be able to simply feel anything.”

  “Well, I can, and I’m getting a little tired o
f it. If you’re not going to tell me why you came and interrupted me at work, I’m going to have to get back to my patients. You see, most of them don’t have the ability to heal themselves from potentially fatal stab wounds. Most of them rely on traditional medicine.”

  He looked up at me, probably trying to decide whether or not he was going to criticize the fact that I worked on this side of the Veil. Most of the magical types I knew—which wasn’t that many since I tried to stay on the straight and narrow—couldn’t understand why someone would choose to live a life away from the Veil. There were advantages to that life, and to the magic, that weren’t available otherwise. My youthful grandparents were a testament to that.

  “How long have you been a doctor?” Aron asked.

  That wasn’t the question I expected from him. “What?”

  “A doctor. How long have you been one?”

  “What’s that have to do with anything?”

  “I just want to know how much experience you have.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “Is this your way of trying to find out if I was wrong about your injury? You’re not the first stab victim I’ve seen. There are enough cases of pneumothorax that come through here for me to know what treatment is needed.” That didn’t even count the likely stab wound that was here tonight.

  A thought occurred to me. Could Aron know what had happened to the guy?

  There weren’t that many people who came through here with sword wounds, and with a completely through-and-through wound like that, it would either be a sword or some sort of long-bladed knife.

  “Is there a reason you don’t want to share your experience with me?”

  I glared at him. Despite his obvious attractiveness, he struck me as incredibly stubborn, not a trait that normally did much for me. I didn’t need my men to be docile, but I wasn’t all about the alpha male type. Aron struck me as very alpha.

  “I’m a resident physician. Second year.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “Are you serious? Don’t you watch any TV?”

  “No.”

  A guy like him probably didn’t watch any TV. Then again, I didn’t think many magical beings on the other side of the Veil did.

  “Fine. A resident is a physician in training. I finished medical school—almost top of my class—and I’m in my second year of training.”

  “An apprenticeship, then?”

  I shrugged. “Something like that. When I finish my residency, I can take an attending physician position.”

  I didn’t think I could ever stay at a place like Hennepin General. I had no interest in teaching residents. Not that I minded working with students at times, but it wasn’t my strong suit. I didn’t have the necessary patience for it, though the same could be said about Dr. Locks. Laziness kept him here.

  “And an apprentice physician has the kind of knowledge that you do?”

  “It’s not like I’m only a year into this. I went to medical school for four years beforehand.” And I was smart, I thought about adding, but didn’t. There was no point in bragging to Aron. I got the sense that would only raise more questions about why I didn’t spend my efforts on the other side of the Veil. “Why all the questions? For someone who’s not that interested in traditional medicine, you’re sure asking a lot of questions.”

  “Because, Dr. Michaels, there is one among the mage council who has need of your particular skills.”

  5

  Aron waited until after my shift, loitering in the waiting room. As if that wouldn’t raise any more questions. Considering the time we’d spent in the family conference room, tongues were already wagging. I didn’t need any more attention on me than I already had, but it seemed like there wasn’t going to be much choice in the matter.

  I finished taking care of the sword injury, stitching him up and sending him on the way. By the time I left the ER, Aron joined me on the street. “I thought you would come find me before leaving.”

  I glanced over at him. Despite the chill in the air, he didn’t pull his jacket closed. He probably thought it made him look better, which it did, but I wouldn’t tell him that. “I figured I would test that tracking ability of yours. Yep. Seems to work.”

  He frowned. “You don’t even know where to find the council.”

  I decided not to clue him to the fact that my grandparents both worked on behalf of the council. That would only lead to more questions—the kind that I had been trying to avoid. “I don’t, but I was thinking that maybe I could avoid them.”

  “But I came to you for help.”

  I paused at a streetlight. It was almost nine o’clock and dark, and cars whizzed by on the street. I had half a mind to push him out into the street. “Do you think that somehow grants you the right to harass me?”

  “Dr. Michaels—”

  “Doctor, now?”

  “Isn’t that how it goes?”

  “Yes, it is Dr. Michaels. Not Nurse Michaels. I spent too long studying to not be granted that title.”

  “I meant no offense.”

  “Of course not. Men like you never mean offense. It just comes naturally.”

  The light turned green and I started across the street. As I went, I realized that he might follow me home, and I had no intention of allowing that. Not only would it raise questions with my neighbors—and I had enough of a time with Marvin keeping tabs on me as it was—but it would put me into a precarious position of needing to worry about the council finding me more easily.

  Maybe it would be better for me to take a more roundabout way to my condo. It meant that I would have to spend more time with Aron, which wasn’t something I necessarily wanted, but I figured I could ditch him at some point.

  “You don’t seem to care that much for me,” Aron said.

  “It’s not you. It’s your type.”

  “What type is that?”

  “I don’t know. Probably the kind who thinks they need to do everything for a woman—”

  “When did you decide that was my type?” He easily kept pace with me, and I made a point of keeping my attention fixed straight ahead of me. I didn’t want to make him think that I wanted to be looking his way. That would sort of defeat my argument.

  “The moment you thought you needed to protect me from a guy with a knife.”

  Aron laughed. I glared at him, but it did nothing other than make him laugh harder. “That’s what you’re upset about? I thought I could help you when some thug thought to jump you. I didn’t mean to offend you. Besides, it wasn’t like I knew you were as capable as you are.”

  We walked another block before I shook my head. “Karate,” I said.

  “What?”

  “I take karate. And jiu-jitsu.”

  “Why would you feel the need to study like that?”

  I didn’t dare tell him the truth. There was something about the effort of working through martial arts, the training and the mental focus, that helped me avoid the sense of the dark magic inside me. There were times when that dark magic called to me, and without the training, I might have been seduced by it.

  And it wasn’t only the martial arts training that allowed me to ignore the dark magic. The time in the ER, time spent feeling the cold pull of death, somehow satisfied it as well. Knowing that made me uncomfortable, almost as if I were taking advantage of the fact that I would be around death, but it didn’t change the way I treated patients. There were plenty I couldn’t save, and that seemed enough to satisfy the darkness inside me.

  “I want to make sure no idiot can get the jump on me. Minneapolis can be dangerous.”

  He started laughing again.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Only that there aren’t too many who would claim that Minneapolis is dangerous.”

  I looked over at him, flashing him the sweetest smile I could imagine. I probably didn’t manage to make it look nearly as sweet as I intended. “Then why are you here?”

  “I thought you didn’t want to help.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Don’t you have an oath?”

  “To the mage council? Pretty sure I wouldn’t be stupid enough to take one of those.” Any oath made to the council would be binding in a way that the Hippocratic Oath was not. Sure, I might have said the words that I would do no harm and that I would help all I could, but it didn’t have the same effect as a magical oath made to the council of mages. That was binding in a way that tied your soul.