“Dr. Vale, you have your first patient of the day and Liz here can take you to your office when you’re ready,” Donna tells me with an overly bright smile. She gestures to the dark-haired woman standing from the table with a fake simper while the other nurse looks on in jealousy.
Donna’s playing matchmaker.
I want to tell Liz to sit her ass down but the threat of Varcolacus makes me eat my words. I shoot Liz an easy smile and give Donna a nod of thanks. “Thank you, I’m in your debt.”
“You’ll just have to owe me one, Dr. Vale.” Liz grins at me and comes closer than she needs to. Sickly sweet perfume fills my nose when she steps into my space and her arm brushes mine on her way past me. I ignore the flirtation in her voice and give the rest of the group a nod goodbye.
“It’s been a pleasure. I look forward to working with you all.”
A round of waves and ‘have a great first day’ follow me out the door and into the hallway where Liz is waiting for me. If there’s a god, she’ll keep it semi-professional and I won’t have to reject her on the first day.
“Say, since you owe me and all, I know exactly how you can repay me,” she says as we walk down the hallway towards my office. It doesn’t take a genius to know where it is with how smallthe hospital is and I’m half-tempted to stop her and tell her that I need to piss so she has to leave me alone. I don’t, though, I take the bait Liz dangles in front of me because it’s what a human would do.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” The fake cheeriness in my voice makes me want to vomit. I sound like a fucking idiot. If I could, I’d stake myself.
“Coffee,” Liz tells me and touches my arm. “How about tomorrow? We can go for coffee before work. I noticed you had a cup from The Perky Perch. Their lattes are to die for.”
For as desperate as Liz is for trying to start a workplace romance, she’s observant, I’ll give her that. “Coffee sounds great.” I raise the cup I’m still working on. “I’m going to need at least two more of these to function properly today.”
Liz claps like I just scored a touchdown and beams at me. “Oh you are so right. I’m a caffeine addict. There’s nothing better than a hot cup of coffee on a cold morning. Just the thing to warm you up. I’ll show you my favorite off the menu stuff when we go.”
“Off the menu?”
“Yeah, locals only but you live here so you’re a local now.” She smiles at me, eyes lingering for far too long to be anything other than flirting. “You know, you’re going to love it here. You’ll see. Everyone that comes to town is meant to be here and you? I have a good feeling about you and this town.”
God. I fucking hope not. Vesper Point is a pit stop on my way back to my real life.
“You know, I think you’re right,” I lie to Liz with a smile on my face.
“I don’t need the doctor. This will heal. I just need time to walk it off,” the grizzled fisherman grumbled while his wife tutted over him.
“You’re too old to walk it off. There’ll be no walking if you don’t see to it. Isn’t that right, Dr. Vale?” She gave me a look that rivaled any vampire hunter. Naturally, I agreed with her. I wasn’t about to take a woman of her power on my first day on the job.
“That’s right. Mrs. Dunn.”
The pair of them were the most action I saw all day until Father Paretti rolled in. He came in complaining of chest pains and his hands going numb. It didn’t take a rocket scientist or in my case, a doctor, to know that the priest was suffering from high cholesterol. I could smell it on him even without knowing about his chest pains and numbness. He was one good burger away from a heart attack. From the looks of him that could be as soon as lunchtime. Not my normal fare but that was life in a small town.
“Listen, we’re in the high risk zone,” I said, tapping my pen on the bloodwork reading. “You’re going to have to make some big changes, Mister Paretti and-”
“Father Paretti,’ he corrected me.
High cholesterol ass having dick.
“Father Paretti,” I said again with feigned sincerity, “you are showing high cholesterol. We need to work on these numbers if we want to keep you with us. That means lean meats, high fiber and greens, and if I were you, I’d cut back on smoking.” He might be fooling his parishioners but a vampire’s nose never lies. The padre was putting down a pack a day easy.
“Thank you for your concern, but the Lord will determine my time here, Mister Vale.”
“Doctor,” I corrected him with a smile that I know got under his skin in a big way. “Doctor Vale.”
Father Paretti narrowed his eyes but answered correctly all the same. “Right. Doctor Vale.”
Probably not the best idea to get into a bitch snit with the priest but you had to make your own fun sometimes. I spent my day taking inventory of my office. It was small but had a nice oceanview. My inventory session took all of 5 minutes and amounted to a large mahogany desk, three desk chairs, one for me and two for patients, a bookcase full of medical journals from the 80’s and 90’s, and a cabinet with a box of tourniquets, syringes, tubing, and blood bags. Interesting that the items particular to blood would be here waiting for me when there wasn’t so much as a tongue depressor in the office. It didn’t sit well with me. It was almost like someone had gotten the space ready for me but who would know I would be after blood?
I lean back in my chair and look again at the supply cabinet on the opposite end of the room. No one knows what I am here. At least, humans don’t.
There are, of course, non-humans in Vesper Point and according to Aubrey one right here in the hospital, isn’t there?
“Any vampires?”
