Kay nodded carefully, grateful the police had arrived when they had. “Thanks.”
They sat in silence while her stomach heaved and squirmed. The foulness of the dark Shadows still prickled over her skin, and she breathed deeply, willing away the black spots at the edges of her vision.
The ambulance pulled up and the officer reached out a hand to help Kay up. “Do you think you can stand?”
Kay made it onto her feet, but the movement jarred her head and suddenly the churning nausea overwhelmed her. She had to spin away to throw up in the corner of the bus shelter, heaving out the rotten taste of the dark Shadows. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grimaced. “Sorry.”
The police officer wrinkled her nose. “I’ve seen worse. Come on, let’s get you into the ambulance.”
The ambulance was quiet and peaceful compared to the uproar going on outside, and the tension in Kay’s shoulders released slightly despite the acid taste in her mouth, the thudding in her head, and the burning pain in her arm.
Two paramedics were bustling around inside, and she followed their direction to sit quietly on the stretcher. The first came up to her and smiled reassuringly, pulling on his medical gloves while the older man stepped outside. “Hi, I’m Ethan. I’ll be your friendly paramedic today.”
Ethan was at least six feet tall, judging by the way he had to bend over in the ambulance, with black hair and a square jaw dark with stubble. His short-sleeved uniform highlighted tanned forearms which flexed in a way she’d bet had nurses swooning in every A&E in London. His dark chocolate-colored eyes were deep and concerned as he watched her. Damn, he was unnecessarily attractive.
He had a quick look at the back of her head and then crouched down next to her to strap on a blood pressure cuff. It seemed unfair that he had to smell good too.
“I heard you went all Superwoman out there,” he said with a wry smile.
“Hell no.” Kay gave a horrified shake of her head and then stilled when the movement shuddered through her battered skull. “That cape is insanely impractical; she’s just asking to get sucked into a jet engine.”
Ethan checked the monitor, and then turned her arm to look for anything in the wound before methodically cleaning the jagged cut. “How about Wonder Woman then?” he asked.
“Well, she rocks the sword as an evening accessory, but still, fighting in a tiny skirt and a corset.” She rolled her eyes. “And we’re not even going to talk aboutWonder Woman 1984.”
He grinned as he worked but didn’t disagree.
“If you say, ‘Black Widow,’ we can’t be friends,” Kay teased, drawn into the joke despite the pain, as Ethan finished applying a surgical dressing to her arm.
He chuckled before growing more serious. “I’ve cleaned the cut and bandaged it for you, but it’s pretty deep. You’ll need to go to the hospital for stitches. Let’s check out the rest of you and have a proper look at that head.”
Everything ached, but nothing was serious. Kay just needed to get this over with so that she could call Elizabeth, find Zach, and go home. Not that leaning back and letting the ridiculously attractive paramedic take care of her was a terrible hardship.
A tingling feeling spread over her arm, subtle vibrations of warmth and wellbeing unfurled through her body as the pain eased for the first time, and she sat up in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“Looking over your arm for any other damage and checking for breaks, but everything looks good.” He turned away and started packing up the dressings.
Kay stared at Ethan, trying to remember if she’d ever met him. No. As a Guardian for the London Circle, she’d met all the local Dru-vid and she definitely would have remembered Ethan. And yet…. “I mean the other thing.”
He looked up, face blank. “Ah… there’s no other thing.”
Kay raised both eyebrows in disbelief. “It’s okay. I know. Are you in a Circle? I don’t recognize you.”
He glanced down at the floor as if looking for graffiti. “A circle?”
“Not that kind of circle. You know… a Circle with other Healers. People like you.”
“Like me?” His forehead wrinkled. “I’m starting to worry you might have hit your head really hard. You were sick, weren’t you?” He took out a penlight and shone it in her eyes.
“That wasn’t why I was sick.”
“Okay,” he said, unconvinced but playing along. “Why were you sick then?”
“You’re a Healer, you tell me.”
He packed away the light with a grunt. “Are you dizzy?”
“No.”
