The Doctor Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 11

  “Skylar! I feel like a new man!”

  “You’d better,” Dymphna grumbled. She was sitting, half on the chair and half on the bed, and she looked pale and drawn.

  “You and I both know you did too much today, D.”

  Skylar stepped back to get a full look at Selby. It was indeed incredible. He looked like he had been out in the sun until he was cooked like a lobster all over, but that was miles away from where he had been. Skylar also appreciated for the first time just what a good job Leo had done on Selby’s face. He even took away some of the stress lines. Her brother looked tired, but excited.

  “This woman is fantastic!”

  Dymphna smiled weakly. “I know I did too much, but it was going so well.”

  “I had to force you out of your healing trance. I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen.” Leo put his hands on his hips.

  “Well look what I did!”

  Sensing a serious sibling argument coming, Skylar interrupted. “While you guys are glaring daggers at each other, dinner’s getting cold. I know that I, at least, would like to eat something this century.” Selby pitched in by laughing.

  Luckily Selby could get down the stairs on his own power, but Dymphna needed both Leo and Skylar to get to the kitchen. She seemed to be improving even as they were bringing her down. She plowed into the steak with a ferocity that made everyone laugh. It was good to hear Selby laughing unreservedly again. By the time that she had powered through three pieces of cake, Dymphna was clearly feeling much better.

  “I know it’s only about eight, but it’s time for me to go lay down. Don’t bother waking me in the morning, just let me sleep,” Dymphna yawned, but was able to get to her bedroom under her own power.

  “I’m more exhausted than I’d like to admit. I’ll find my bed too,” Selby ventured.

  “Movie night then, Leo. You can choose since I’m going to make sure Dymphna makes it to bed.”

  Indeed, Dymphna was working on passing out on her bed without even taking off her shoes.

  “Hey girl, you did good work today. Now finish it like a champ.”

  Dymphna muttered something, but it was lost in the blanket. She lifted her head a bit. “Be careful, Skylar. You don’t know what you’re getting into if you go for my brother.”

  Skylar decided Dymphna was delirious. Or insightful. But either way, after she began pulling off Dymphna’s shoes to show her how serious she was, Dymphna agreed to undress before she slid between the covers. Appeased, Skylar went back down to see what movie Leo had picked. Predictably, it was The Empire Strikes Back.

  “Star Wars again?”

  “You betcha. The old ones are the best. Now come sit down next to me.”

  Too pleased to comment, Skylar scooted close to him and slid his arm over her shoulders. He grinned as he positioned her to be more comfortable on his chest. She kissed his abs through his shirt.

  “If you don’t stop, we’ll never get to the movie.”

  Skylar mock-pouted. “I suppose.”

  Indeed, they made it through about thirty minutes of movie with only cuddling and Leo tracing slow circles on Skylar’s back. Finally, she had had enough. She pulled away until Leo’s arm fell back against the couch. He looked over at her with a quizzical expression. Skylar moved back in, kissing a line from his breastbone up to his lips. She took an extra long time there before pulling back to smile.

  “I would prefer to not watch the movie, I do believe.”

  “Skylar.” The word held both warning and anticipation. “Do you know what you’re getting into?”

  “I’m tired of the thinking and the questioning and the trying to understand what you all have grown up with. I believe the question is more whether you know what you’re getting into. I want this, and I want you.” She restrained herself from confessing her love by straddling his lap and kissing him again. “So, Pantaleon, what do you want?” The lights from the movie played over his face as she cupped his cheek in her palm.

  He didn’t even hesitate. “I want this, and I want you.”

  Skylar pulled away from the kiss just long enough to slide her shirt up and over her head, shaking her hair as it came down in long waves.

  Leo groaned. “What you do to me...” He reached back for the clasp of her bra. She had deliberately put on her sexy lingerie and he clearly appreciated it. “These,” and he cupped her breasts in his hands, “are perfect.” To prove it, he laved one with his tongue. When he sucked it into his mouth, she groaned and threw her head back. “Delicious, too.” He moved to the other breast to give it the same treatment. But before she had had enough, he came up to press his lips back on hers. He kissed her passionately, diving his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers.

  Skylar broke it off. “I think you have on far too much.” She bent to pull up the hem of his shirt, only mostly impeded by intermittent kisses. She tossed it back over her shoulder and gave him a come-hither look. He resisted, and instead, he flipped her over onto her back. She giggled as he tried to move her gently and partially succeeded. She kept giggling as he fumbled the clasp on her pants and slid down the zipper.

  Then, with one deft maneuver, he lifted her ass and pulled off her pants and panties. Sklyar stopped giggling. He toyed, almost absently, around her clit. “I’d love to linger and taste you here,” Leo pressed a finger into her, “and here. And I will. But for tonight, I find myself too eager to get to the prize.”

  “I would agree. Now get your pants off already!” She laughed as he reached for them immediately. Skylar purred as she took him into her hand and softly pumped him up and down. Then she stopped and timidly asked him, “What about a condom?”

  “For the first time, and the bonding, we need to be, well, unprotected.” He looked sheepish. “D confirmed that there’s no risk beyond pregnancy. Are you on birth control?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It doesn’t always work on witches,” he explained.

  “I’m willing to take that risk. Now let’s get back to the fun part.”

  Leo heartily agreed and kissed her more as he guided himself to her gate. “No going back,” he warned.

  “Stop talking.” She grabbed his ass and pushed him inside her tight passage.

  They both moaned at the same time.

  Leo began to move slowly, but neither of them could stand that, and he started to move faster and faster within her. Skylar’s breathing got shallower and shallower, and he knew she was close. To tip the balance, he reached between them and rubbed her breasts roughly with his fingers. She cried out his name as she came, hard and fast. He wasn’t far behind. Spent, he collapsed on top of her.

  Skylar felt dizzy, and she had to blink her eyes a number of times before the room came back into focus. Leo pulled back, but she didn’t really even notice. It seemed her eyes were still pointing in the wrong directions. She pressed a hand to her forehead, closed her eyes, and it started to feel a little better.

  “Skylar?” Leo’s voice came through the fog. “Oh god, I forgot. The joining is always hard on the woman. Come here, sweet.” She was only vaguely aware that he grabbed a blanket to cover her and sat down and pulled her head into his lap. “Hey now, it’s going to be alright.” He petted her hair until she stopped shaking. “There you go.”

  Coming back to normal, she watched listlessly as he flipped off the movie and got dressed. He gathered up her clothes as well, including the bra that was draped across the corner of the television. Leo gathered her up into the blanket and picked her up to cradle her in his arms. She smiled weakly at him as she gripped her clothes to her chest. He was gentle as he ascended the stairs and kicked open her door. As he softly laid her down on the bed and smoothed the covers over her, she smiled.

  Skylar reached out for his hand as he made to leave. “Stay.” Her voice was hoarse and scratchy. “Please.”

  He couldn’t resist and sat down next to her on the bed. “Magic takes its toll. D and Selby aren’t going to be the only ones going to bed ear
ly tonight. You’ll feel better, and different, in the morning.”

  He watched her fall asleep and took inventory of how he felt. Different was certainly a word to describe it. He felt somehow more, as if he had found something to glue all the separate elements of his life into a better whole. When he looked at Skylar, he was no longer a man appreciating a beautiful woman. Instead, he was a witch admiring, and loving, his mate. He had denied any thoughts of love, even love for Skylar, until this night. But with the subtlety of a train, it slammed into him.

  But then, ruining the moment, his cell phone rang from downstairs. It was the cell phone reserved for his work, so he sighed but hurried off to answer it.

  “Dr. Ward,” he ground out.

  “Sorry to interrupt your evening, Dr. Ward, it’s Nancy,” an ER nurse he knew commented in a placating tone, almost as if she was gesturing too, “but there’s been a fire.”

  “OK,” he allowed, “go on.”

  “As I said, there was a fire. Apparently, one of the older apartment buildings had a tenant who placed a hand towel on an open burner and had turned the fire alarm off. The building went up in flames. No casualties yet, but we’ve got ten people here in the ER, two critical. Dr. Goldman said that you were the best there was, especially since these people don’t have much money or they wouldn’t have been living there.”

  “Ego stroking? I thought better of you than that, Nancy.”

  She laughed. “You’re not like most other doctors. They like ego stroking, especially when it’s true.”

  “So basically,” and Leo was already tightening the laces on his sneakers, “Goldman wants me to come in and use whatever skills I can muster to help people. And he knows that I wouldn’t resist such an offer.”

  “Basically, yes. He knows how much you dislike the ER, so he’s working to get the patients he wants you to see to an OR.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be there presently.”

  He stopped to write two notes, one which he left on the kitchen table, and one which he left in Skylar’s room, just after kissing her forehead and wishing he could stay behind. He’d be back as soon as he could anyway. He found himself wanting a lot more time with Skylar, and he figured that was natural as the bond settled in. But there was no time for magical mating when he needed to get to his new patients, so he disappeared from the house quickly and sped all the way to the hospital.

  Nancy, a likable brunette who looked frazzled on the edges, met him at the doors to the ER. The hospital doors, not the ones from the outside. She bustled away, and they walked while she got him up to date. “Goldman wants you to begin with the two critical ones. The woman hasn’t been stabilized enough to get her to the OR, so we’re starting on the man.”

  “Who all is in this ‘we’?”

  “Dr. Reinhard, Beth, Callie, you, and me. As I said, there were a lot of victims.”

  “So we’re running lean. We’ll figure it out.”

  Leo scrubbed in and called out to the other room, “Hey Richard, what have we got?”

  “Male, age 35. Name’s Theo Smith. Third and fourth degree burns, which I’ll leave to you, and severe smoke inhalation. I’m trying to make sure it doesn’t harm anything else as well as the lungs.”

  “Predictions?”

  “I hate that, but I’d say he’s got a thirty percent chance of making it, and it won’t be a walk in the park for him or for us.”

  Leo checked his magical shields and strode in, gloves in the air. Despite the shielding, he could still feel part of the man’s pain. Strangely enough, though, not as much as he would have expected to. No time to contemplate that, he moved into surgeon mode, as he liked to call it, and it was a long operation, particularly with only two doctors and three nurses. Five hours and a clothes change later, he, Reinhard, and the nurses exchanged high fives.

  “Looks like he’ll pull through,” Richard proclaimed. “Which means that he’s not my problem until I wake up from a short power nap.” Nancy laughed.

  “Good work to everyone,” Callie put in. “I’d hate to say we should do this more often, but if there’s cause, we did work together wicked well.”

  “Here here!” Leo toasted with his Red Bull. Beth went off to find out what happened to the other patients while everyone else slumped into chairs. “We still have a long night ahead of us, don’t we Nancy?”

  “Likely yes. We’ll know more when Beth returns, but I imagine that if you can lend a hand with some of the less severely injured, it would be most appreciated. Reinhard here,” and she gestured to his already sleeping form, “has had enough and needs to seek the crash room.” Callie volunteered to help him find it, and ended up with a large part of his weight leaning on her for support. “At least he managed to make it through the surgery.”

  “All that adrenaline gets to you. It almost makes you forget you’re bone deep tired.” Nancy nodded enthusiastically.

  Leo had a sudden idea. “Look, I’ve got this nurse who wants to retire soon, but I’ve been asking her to stay until I can find a suitable replacement. You’re very good, you know, especially under pressure. Can I convince you to make a switch from the emergency room to plastic surgery?”

  “Are you kidding? I’ve been waiting for such an opportunity. It’s not that I don’t love the ER, it just seems that we’re always patching someone up just to hope for the best. It’s the constant strain of never knowing when a critical patient is going to come in, and then dealing with it when they do come in. Plus, and I know it’s not supposed to really get to me for my own health, but I hate losing patients.”

  “It’s hard work, and I may still call you in on emergency nights like tonight. But the pay and the rewards are certainly better. I’ve just got a hunch that we’ll work together well.”

  “I can see you’re an excellent surgeon, and I really would love to move over.”

  They shook on it. “Consider it done. I won’t pretend to know what kind of paperwork you’d have to do over here, but anything you need from me to complete the transfer, I’ll do.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Ward. Really.”

  “You will have to call me Leo.” They grinned.

  Beth returned, looking even more tired than before. “The woman will likely make it, though not in as good of condition as her husband here. There’s a lot of patching up to do downstairs though.”

  “Can you...?” Nancy’s question hung in the air. Good, she knew of his aversion to the pain in the ER. That would be helpful in his new nurse.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Once more into the breach,” Beth grumbled as the headed back for the ER.

  Four more hours later, Leo was in his car on the way home. It was about eight am, and he was more than ready to seek out his bed. But rather than head straight to the bed that he could hear calling, he stopped in Skylar’s room to smooth her hair off her face and ensure she was still sleeping well.

  “See you later, sweetheart.”

  Then he went to bed around eight thirty.

  Skylar woke up dazed and slightly confused. She didn’t feel normal at all. She sat up and assessed her situation. All of her limbs seemed to be working fine, but she felt like there was something more about all of it. For one thing, she felt more relaxed than she had in years. But better yet, she felt happier than she had in years either. Apparently, this magical bonding meant a lot, and it wasn’t just a nice story to explain why two people would be so quickly attracted to each other.

  Stretching languorously, she noticed the note from Leo on the pillow. “Sorry, darling, but there was an urgent need for me at the hospital. Hopefully by the time you read this, I will be home, but please let me sleep. Last night was magical, in more than one way, and I can’t wait until I wake up and give you more kisses.” He signed his name below. It was sweet, and Skylar put it on the nightstand as she got showered and dressed.

  She peeked around Leo’s door to see that he was, in fact, sleeping, though it looked like he slept where he fell.

  “Wakin
g up at ten this morning?” Dymphna asked, sipping a cup of coffee. Then she looked at Skylar and her eyes widened. “So that’s how it is.”

  Skylar couldn’t hide her blush and grin. “You can tell?”

  “Oh yes, yes I can.”

  “And how do you feel about it?” Skylar asked timidly.

  “I couldn’t be happier!” She squealed and grabbed Skylar in a hug. “So we’re sisters now.”

  “Sisters?”

  “I suppose one of us didn’t tell you. More the fool us. But bonding with someone means you’re essentially married to them in the magical community. Since everyone knows about magic, you can file for legal binding or have the whole wedding thing.”

  “I really didn’t think that far. But what’s done is done, and I can’t say I regret it. After all, being married to a man like that is hardly a punishment. But wait, how do I explain it to Selby?”

  “I heard my name,” Selby said as he sauntered into the kitchen. “Oh coffee!”

  “Selby, you know things work differently in the magical community?”

  “Sure, I suppose.”

  “While you and Dymphna were asleep, I magically married Leo.”

  “I see. I could tell there was something between you two. Well, are you happy about it?”

  “Yes, very.”

  He munched on a piece of toast before grimacing. Dymphna had burned it pretty badly. “Then that’s good. I’m all for something that would both make my sister happy and bring her more into this group of people she belongs in. We’ll have a nice little wedding, and that will be that.”

  “You’re very practical, Selby.”

  “What’s done is done. And it’s time you found someone to make you happy.”

  “Thank you,” she threw herself around his throat. “Thank you.”

  Skylar scrambled some eggs and made fresh toast to replace Dymphna’s cooking efforts.

  “I’ll stick to making coffee,” she offered.

  “I’ll teach you how to cook when we’ve got some time.”

  “That would be great.”