Chapter Eighteen
Asher
I felt the energy shift after Echo and Rose exited the office and started walking to the nurses’ station.
Something inside me was roaring to go to Echo and kiss the shit out of her. To acknowledge whoever was throwing off the energy of lust and make my claim known.
“Still a normal man,” Draco commented. He’d been asking questions here and there about my people. In all his thousands of years being alive, he’d never met someone who wielded magic that wasn’t from the gods.
We managed to get some info out of one of the nurses that was closest to Amanda. Well, as close as one could get with the girl. She obviously liked to keep her distance from people.
Amanda had a crush on one of the male nurses over in the ER. That’s why she’d broken up with her boyfriend from the restaurant—she wanted to be free for Neil.
While the girls were in the office, we’d walked over to talk to Neil. He’d been really broken up about Amanda. Apparently he had a crush too, but was too shy to make a move. Now he regretted not going for it. He couldn’t recall anyone having an issue with her, and as far as I could tell, no one did.
“Let’s go see what they found.” Draco and I met them at the desk, just as they were leaving the ward.
“We’re going to talk with Dr. Dorian,” Rose told us, and as if he couldn’t resist himself, Draco leaned in to kiss his girl’s cheek then pulled her into an embrace. Love.
I saw Echo watching them but couldn’t discern what she was thinking. Was she envious? Did she think it was odd that they were so lovey?
“I missed you too, kitten, how about a kiss for me?” I guess I went for asshole rather than romantic before I could stop myself. Rose snickered, and I even caught a flash of a smirk on Draco’s face.
Echo looked at me, probably debating what animal she would turn into later so she could torture me.
But then her hands gripped my shirt and pulled me in for a hard kiss, a kiss that seared my soul and claimed me as hers right in front of everyone. The same kiss I had been aching to give her moments before.
It lasted only a few seconds, but the tingling feeling coursing between us would last for days.
“Go, Echo!” Rose gave Echo props then the two girls dragged us in the direction of a waiting nurse.
Dr. Dorian and I had never had the pleasure of meeting, but everyone else has met him a time or two.
His office was tidy, a workaholic with no family, if I was going by the lack of personal effects in the space.
The man himself seemed okay. He greeted everyone and got straight to business.
“Amanda Johnson was a special girl, like you all. Which is something I gather you haven’t gotten from anyone else you’ve talked to.”
It was something I’d been wondering, and when Echo looked at me, I knew she’d been wondering the same thing. Whoever this killer was, he or she was killing people with gifts.
“I have reviewed every case that was filed about cuts like these in the past fifteen years. Every one of them had gifts,” he continued then paused for our minds to catch up.
Rose didn’t question that he knew everyone had powers, but Echo did.
“How did you know I have gifts?” Her question came out a little harsh. She was all about keeping things to herself—her being outed was not on her agenda.
The doctor stared her in the eyes, not once blinking at the face that was giving him a glare of death. Strong man.
“Esme isn’t the only one in the hospital that’s treated the gifted. I know a thing or two.” This man was honestly not afraid at all of the crew in front of him. His head turned to me, and it tilted sideways slightly.
“You I haven’t figured out, but assuming you’re with them, then you are either gifted or special in your own way. Regardless, I thought your crew would want to know that the killer is targeting those like you. Reporting my finding to the police would make it public knowledge, and that is not something I think would be good. My hospital is busy enough without the extra chaos that is already brewing.”
Dorian actually seemed a little mad once he was finished.
“Thanks for the tip.” Draco was the one to speak up in the silence echoing in the office.
The doctor turned his stare to Draco, who he hadn’t really looked at until now.
I checked the energy in the air, and I could tell that Rose was feeling everyone’s emotions, both of us hypervigilant for anything off.
Nothing. There was nothing that I would consider dangerous, and actually nothing at all, as if the energy in the room was frozen instead of flowing naturally. I bet if the doc had a plant in here it would never die and stay in perpetual bloom. It was odd, something I hadn’t seen before. Like time had stopped in the room, but everything kept moving on as if nothing happened.
“If you need help with this case from a medical standpoint, I’d like to offer my services. This is my city, and I’ll be damned if some serial killer is going to take my people away like that.”
Okay then.
The good doctor was on our side, and he was angry enough that he wanted to catch the killer.