1
Kyle
“Good evening, gorgeous! Tell me something to make me smile. I’ve been flat out since I clocked in and I could use a breather.” I breezed into the patient’s room, smiling at the octogenarian dame who’d been a favorite patient of mine over the past few years. I’d used my healing gift a few times to prolong her life. Recently though, her more frequent hospital stays were evidence that time was running out for the old girl.
“Kyle! I was hoping you’d be my nurse. I deserve you after what I put up with today. That girl they had taking care of me on day shift was a joke. She only came in to check my vitals. Nothing else. I could’ve been lying here rotting and she wouldn’t have known. She never even came when I rang the bell to tell them my lunch wasn’t to my taste. I told myself to hang in there because my Kyle would be here, I just knew it.”
Dorothy Perez was a pouty drama queen and I adored everything about her. The tightly permed blue hair. The Southern matron proper attire—even at the hospital she wore a proper gown and robe. And all the attitude that was delivered with a deep, raspy voice, sounding like it came from a lifetime of smoking while sipping bourbon over shards of glass. She could have been Harvey Fierstein’s sister and damned if she didn’t make me grin every time she opened her mouth.
“Ah, Dottie. Quit yer joshin’. You and I both know the food was shite, so why waste your breath pointing it out? Layla knows it too, which is why she didn’t answer your page. You’ve made a name for yourself around here, I reckon. I’m the only one who knows what a corker you are. The rest of them are afraid of you, more’s the pity. Now give us your arm so I can get your vitals. If you’re a love, I’ll have a chokky for my good girl when we’re done.” Whatever it was about the lady, it definitely brought out my full Aussie, no matter that I’d been in America for a few years.
Dottie smiled then her eyes suddenly went vacant. My pulse jumped, thinking she was about to code. Instead, I felt ancient shifter magic swirl around us as she clutched at my shirt, dragging me closer with a strength I wouldn't have guessed she had. Her eyes fixed on mine, locking me into her gaze as she spoke.
“Tonight. The Fates have decided it is time. I am leaving this plane and you will need the gift I have for you. Accept it and go where you’re directed, this is the next stage of your journey. You have a job to do and people to lead. It is time to pick up the mantle and begin the rest of your life, young Kyle.” Her eyes fluttered shut and she leaned back against her pillow, resting the back of her hand artfully against her forehead. Never let it be said that a peacock shifter didn’t know how to work a room.
I let her recover while I went about taking her vitals. I didn’t ask about the gift she’d mentioned or any other part of her message. She’d get there in good time, I reckoned. Aside from the modern human medical care I was providing, I took a moment and tapped into my own gift.
All shifters had access to magic, being that we were somewhat magical creations anyway. We all had different gifts of varying abilities. I so happened to have the healing arts to call on, which was probably why I chose a career in medicine. Breathing in slow and deep, I opened my senses to the room.
The scents wafted up my nasal passage and I mentally “tasted” their bouquet, much like one would with a fine wine. It would be hard to explain if I were put on the spot, but it was just how my gift worked to diagnose illness. From there, I had different tricks and methods of healing, depending on what was wrong. In Dottie’s case, I didn’t pick up on anything more than her normal arrhythmia that she wouldn’t let me fix and a slight case of bronchitis.
I left the room, signaling to the ER doc to officially diagnose her. After I finished my rounds and came back with her medicine, she cracked open an eye. “It’s not time, so don’t go peeking for your gift yet. I’ve been sitting on this for a few months now. I knew I would be shown when it was the right time to give it to you. You will return to my room when the time is right, and you will stop long enough to get the yellow envelope you will find on my nightstand. I will have moved on, and that’s okay. This is where we say our farewell, my friend.”
I stared at her for a moment like she’d lost her mind… because it sounded like she had. I might have been an easy breezy guy, but I also didn’t put up with bullshit. “Umm… excuse you? No. I don’t think so. You might have the gift of prophesy but I am a healer. I will bring your ass back long enough to say my good-bye if you try to cheat me. And you’re not dying just so I can have some bollocks adventure or whatever you’ve got your feathers ruffled about. Now tell me it’s all good, and forget the bull.”
Her sparkling eyes betrayed the mulish frown stubbornly toying at her lips. “As much as I love you, I have to let my spirit go tonight. Either that or you’ll try to take me along and you don’t need an old lady slowing you down while you’re on the run.”
“Are you for real or are ya messin’ with me?” I whistled through my teeth at her serious nod.
“As I believe your people would say, this is fair dinkum, mate. I’m telling you the truth. Fate is going to change your life tonight and you need to be ready to act on a moment’s notice. You don’t need me slowing you down,” she repeated that last line sadly, but was holding firm.
Except that still didn’t work for me. “Yeah… no. If I’m to go on the lam to parts unknown, I’ll be needing a sidekick. You’ll be staying on this plane if you want me to take this gift of yours, or I’ll leave the envelope lying here just to be a brat. I won’t leave without you and it might look a bit odd to see a nurse running through town dragging the beautiful corpse of his favorite patient.”
“Dammit, Kyle. You are a brat. Damn it, I’ll have to go with you. It seems I can’t trust you to do what I want.” Dorothy sniffed, trying to glare but not quite pulling it off. “Fine. I’ll let Sandy know to ready the RV.”
“Obviously, you can’t go on the run without your luxury RV,” I agreed with a sunny smile, glad to have gotten my way. I didn’t really believe we were going anywhere, but I still felt I’d won somehow.
Pulling a Dove dark chocolate out of my pocket, I passed it to her with a bow. “Your chokky, milady. You know the drill, don’t read the quote inside without ending it with ‘in the bedroom.’ I’m off to my next patient, but I’ll be back to check in on you before you know it.”
She opened the candy and started cackling. “Perseverance is a synonym of victory…”
We looked at each other and finished it together. “...in the bedroom!”
I was still laughing when I headed out of her room. “Oh, Kyle?” I glanced back to see what she needed. Dottie blew me a kiss. “Have fun visiting your favorite law enforcement figure. Tell him to pick up some new Chapstick when he stops at 7-11 for his coffee. He won’t want to use his current tube much longer.”
Waving a hand, I kept going. I wasn’t going to ask how Dottie knew about my obsession with the prison guard who brought patients over from the local jail or about his Chapstick needs. There shouldn’t be any reason for her to know he existed. But then again, the woman was psychic so… yeah.