Page 44

We leaned against one another as we slid into a book, one of my many omegaverse novels, this one about stepbrothers falling for an omega who ran a gas station with some punny name like Two Alphas Pump One. I scrutinized the page and frowned.

“Gas station. We pop in, get some drinks, pay, and get out.” She nodded once, and we slid into the new world, making my stomach flip and jar my fragile constitution.

I caught myself leaning on the side of a building by a dented metal freezer filled with ice for sale, retching as I finally discovered where the grapefruit flavor was.

Aftertaste.

It was not better the second time. “I’m having trouble getting used to diving.”

“Yeesh.” She stared at me before patting my back and urging me on. “Gotta get used to it.”

I nodded vaguely as I rested my hand on my stomach and migrated to the coolers. They had several flavors of seltzer that sounded good—peppermint, ginger, lime leaf, and rose. Whoever wrote that world had taste! I filled my arms with the cold cans while she did the same and added a pile of snacks and odds and ends with it.

I checked out ahead of her, paying with my ill-gotten gains from the treasury mystery novel we visited. Not like whatever I paid them with would destabilize an economy or come back to haunt me.

The man at the counter smiled at my assortment and bagged it for me. “Been there. Good luck.”

I nodded. “Been a long week.”

He sighed fondly. “It goes by fast, I promise.”

I nodded and left the store, feeling a little better as I waited on Jess to come jogging after me, bag of odds and ends in her arms as she took me around the corner to grab our keys and exit.

As we returned, Jess pulled out some mangosteen-flavored energy drink while I enjoyed my peppermint seltzer, sipping at it mindlessly as I continued day two of my week-long journey to finish the unreasonably large book and report.

Jess got up after a while and rummaged for her keys before heading outside. I didn’t think much of it until she returned with a leather doctor’s bag and a mad grin on her face. “Wanna play doctor?”

“Only if Zeke is the doctor.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Yeah, no, I don’t want to play doctor that way. I’m a healer and I wanted to check you up. You seem poorly.” She sat on the counter cross-legged and opened the bag, rummaging around in it with her arm far deeper than the bag should have gone.

“I meant to ask about health insurance. I should get a checkup.” I flinched as she scowled at me.

“You don’t need it. You have me. Trust me, I’m a doctor.” She grinned.

“With a medical license and everything?” I raised a brow as she nodded.

“Yep! Nothing I can’t fix with the right book and time. Human doctors don’t do the mystical community any favors.” She dug in the bag and held out a tiny little plastic cup. “Go pee.”

“Ew, no! Why?” I stared at the offensive thing as she gestured it at me like a weapon. The entire time, I leaned back away from it.

“Duh, check you for disease and parasites and stuff.” Her insistent look made me wilt, and I relented.

“Fine.” I snatched the cup and marched off. “And only because I have to pee again.”

Her smirk seemed to follow me all the way to the bathroom.

I did my business efficiently before stepping out to give her an overflowing sample in the little cup, before walking out with it held in my hand as if it were radioactive.

She nodded once and took the sample back to the bathroom with her bag and set up all sorts of strips, tools, and glassware.

I sat down at the desk and went back to my reading while she did who-knew-what with my piss and ignored her as she returned, damp hands clutched to a folded-out sheet of paper with far too many creases, grumbling about waiting for thirty minutes.

“What all are you testing for, again?” I drummed my fingers on the desk as I turned my head toward her, and she shrugged.

“General list of a few things. I want to make sure you didn’t pick up anything from one of the books…” She waved me off and leaned into my bakery novel once more. She bit her lower lip, kicking her feet a little as she read through another chapter with all the fierce joy of a child on Christmas morning.

I opened a seltzer and went back to reading, balancing my own malaise with the growing irritation in my very core. I swore I could have smacked someone for breathing.