The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) Read Online Free
Author: Nicola Claire
pin down. "I'm Doctor Peters. How can I help today?"
Sonya's eyebrows swept up at the doctor's name, a question on the tip of her tongue. I shook my head minutely. Even if the good doctor had the same tanned skin and dark haired features, she didn't look a bit like Theo. And Peters was a common enough name.
I hedged a little in my story telling, receiving more raised eyebrows from Sonya behind the doctor's back. But admitting I'd fallen into a pit on my run just sounded stupid, so I told her I'd lost my memory from the past two days and had woken this morning thinking it was Tuesday, not Thursday. I also mentioned I might have knocked my head in a fall, because I woke on the floor, not in bed. It was as close as I was going to get to the truth, but I felt it was enough for the doctor to carry out the appropriate examination.
She was, of course, suitably worried on my behalf and ran a battery of tests. Six hours later, though, I was none the wiser.
No injuries evident. No miscellaneous and unaccounted for drugs in my blood. Nothing on the MRI to indicate a brain tumour. In other words, the doctor was as stumped as us. I bit the inside of my mouth in a mixture of anger and fear. Why did this have to happen to me? And more importantly, who did it? Because there was no way I could accept I had simply fallen in that pit and gone to sleep. I was uninjured, even to the point that the thorns which had maliciously torn my skin, left not a single mark.
No knock to the head. No evidence of foul play. But I couldn't get past the feeling that something bad had happened. Something I had no part of other than being the victim in the end. And the way Theo had reacted, none of it made any sense.
I felt so very alone in that thought. Even though Sonya was with me and had stayed by my side the entire time, and the doctor was still in the cubicle giving soothing, yet useless platitudes to ease our minds. I was all alone. Because neither of them could possibly understand what I was feeling. I wasn't bruised, but I felt battered inside. Scared and lonely. I would never run through that Rose Garden again. And that just made me mad.
I clenched my fists in my lap and tasted blood on my tongue when my teeth broke the tender flesh on the inside of my mouth. It was salty and disgusting, but right then I didn't care. I was done with this place and I desperately wanted to just go home and curl up in bed.
I slipped off my perch and did up my jacket. As I turned to the doctor to thank her for her efforts, I was met with my second white face that day - from someone who was normally naturally tanned. Dr Peters looked shocked and a little frightened, if truth be told. She backed away from me as though I was a leper, but being a doctor I thought that analogy was all wrong. Hell, everything was all wrong right now. Nothing made sense and the woman before me trying frantically to get out of the tangle of curtains behind her, while keeping me in her sights, was currently the most wrong thing in my world right then.
Including the flash of gold that threaded through her eyes.
I blinked back at her in shock, watched as she battled her unseen demons and tore from the cubicle in a rush. The curtains smoking slightly, leaving a burnt material smell on the air that threatened to choke.
"What the fuck was that?" Sonya demanded, but all I could do was gape like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe. I shook my head, feeling my knees crumble slightly beneath me. My heart pounded painfully in my chest and I noticed my limbs were shaking. I'd just had a clean bill of health from a medical professional, yet I hadn't felt this ill in a very long time.
I swallowed down my visceral reaction and decided it was best to get away from Doctor Peters as fast as I could. She'd looked frightened when I first saw her pale, but when she parted those curtains and finally ran from the room, the feeling I got was no longer fear, but something else.
It didn't make any
Sonya's eyebrows swept up at the doctor's name, a question on the tip of her tongue. I shook my head minutely. Even if the good doctor had the same tanned skin and dark haired features, she didn't look a bit like Theo. And Peters was a common enough name.
I hedged a little in my story telling, receiving more raised eyebrows from Sonya behind the doctor's back. But admitting I'd fallen into a pit on my run just sounded stupid, so I told her I'd lost my memory from the past two days and had woken this morning thinking it was Tuesday, not Thursday. I also mentioned I might have knocked my head in a fall, because I woke on the floor, not in bed. It was as close as I was going to get to the truth, but I felt it was enough for the doctor to carry out the appropriate examination.
She was, of course, suitably worried on my behalf and ran a battery of tests. Six hours later, though, I was none the wiser.
No injuries evident. No miscellaneous and unaccounted for drugs in my blood. Nothing on the MRI to indicate a brain tumour. In other words, the doctor was as stumped as us. I bit the inside of my mouth in a mixture of anger and fear. Why did this have to happen to me? And more importantly, who did it? Because there was no way I could accept I had simply fallen in that pit and gone to sleep. I was uninjured, even to the point that the thorns which had maliciously torn my skin, left not a single mark.
No knock to the head. No evidence of foul play. But I couldn't get past the feeling that something bad had happened. Something I had no part of other than being the victim in the end. And the way Theo had reacted, none of it made any sense.
I felt so very alone in that thought. Even though Sonya was with me and had stayed by my side the entire time, and the doctor was still in the cubicle giving soothing, yet useless platitudes to ease our minds. I was all alone. Because neither of them could possibly understand what I was feeling. I wasn't bruised, but I felt battered inside. Scared and lonely. I would never run through that Rose Garden again. And that just made me mad.
I clenched my fists in my lap and tasted blood on my tongue when my teeth broke the tender flesh on the inside of my mouth. It was salty and disgusting, but right then I didn't care. I was done with this place and I desperately wanted to just go home and curl up in bed.
I slipped off my perch and did up my jacket. As I turned to the doctor to thank her for her efforts, I was met with my second white face that day - from someone who was normally naturally tanned. Dr Peters looked shocked and a little frightened, if truth be told. She backed away from me as though I was a leper, but being a doctor I thought that analogy was all wrong. Hell, everything was all wrong right now. Nothing made sense and the woman before me trying frantically to get out of the tangle of curtains behind her, while keeping me in her sights, was currently the most wrong thing in my world right then.
Including the flash of gold that threaded through her eyes.
I blinked back at her in shock, watched as she battled her unseen demons and tore from the cubicle in a rush. The curtains smoking slightly, leaving a burnt material smell on the air that threatened to choke.
"What the fuck was that?" Sonya demanded, but all I could do was gape like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe. I shook my head, feeling my knees crumble slightly beneath me. My heart pounded painfully in my chest and I noticed my limbs were shaking. I'd just had a clean bill of health from a medical professional, yet I hadn't felt this ill in a very long time.
I swallowed down my visceral reaction and decided it was best to get away from Doctor Peters as fast as I could. She'd looked frightened when I first saw her pale, but when she parted those curtains and finally ran from the room, the feeling I got was no longer fear, but something else.
It didn't make any
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