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“Well, then.” He turns from affable social salon host to all-business physician in a couple of seconds. Now more than ever, my brain compares him to the genius scientist fromJurassic Park. Nicknaming test tubes one second, breaking down velociraptor genes the next. “Shall we figure out what’s going on here, Kara Beara?”
I seize my chance to get even on the teasing chuckles. “Kara Beara?”
She glowers. “He’s known me since I was a kid, all right?”
“And it’s way better than the one he has for me,” Kell whispers.
“And how haveyoubeen, Mademoiselle de la Kell? You didn’t say much in your text.”
Kell stuffs a moan into the depths of her throat. “You can say I told you so, but only without laughing.”
Kara catches her from following the doctor down the hall. “But whatdidyou say in the text? Everything? I mean…the thing you and Jaden suspect?”
Kell rolls her eyes. “On a phone that Veronica may or may not be tracking? I didn’t even say the issue had to do with you, though I think he snaggedthathint as soon as we walked in.”
“Of course I did.” Though Doug’s a good ten feet ahead, he’s already stopped and opened an exam room door. The tiled corridor has likely become a megaphone for Kara and Kell’s exchange. “Not to say that it didn’t come as quite a stunner. But the perspicuities are plentiful—and, I might add, endearing.”
“Wait,” I cut in. “Perspicuities? So, you can already tell?”
I work at keeping calm about it. No need to get riled if the man’s just drumming to his own beat and experimenting about who’ll follow. But if he’s already seeing evidence of Kara’s condition, has anyone else noticed? Anyone like that weasel, Ellery Gentry? Worse, to spies we might not have seen? Was Hecate there, lying low along the walls? Or even Hades?
“Ssshhh. There, now. Let’s all take a second and go to our peaceful trees.” Doug smooths the air with a reassuring hand. “I only had a vague inkling based on mademoiselle’s urgent text.” He ignores Kell’s grimace, continuing the explanation while waving us into the exam room. “Requests for immediate appointments are usually due to one of a few health concerns. As soon as there’s a strapping but terse boyfriend along for the visit, the list gets whittled.”
At least that prompts Kell into a spurting laugh. “Strapping. Ohhh, yes. I’m going to borrow that one.”
“Don’t you dare,” I snap.
“Terse is the more important part,” the doctor adds. “That’s a warning as well as an observation, my boy.” A one-two punch that’s given with his assessing gaze down my stiff form. “Demigods can keel from coronaries too. On the other hand, demigods aren’t supposed to be capable ofthis.”
“Huh?” Kell demands. “Why not?”
“What facet of that answer do you want?” the doctor flings. “Biblically, hell and its denizens are solidno no nosfor the heavenly ones. Socially, there are a lot of awkward extra layers. But most logically, there’s the biological factor. Demon females are as fierce and formidable as lionesses, but even a lion will collapse if an elephant tries to get busy.”
Kell gives up her confusion for a sharp snicker. “Hear that, mister? You’re an elephant. Nowthatsounds better thanterse, right?”
“Yes, but your sister’s also a hybrid,” Doug says. “That changes up the dynamic, I’m thinking.”
“Thinking?” I break in. “Orknowing? The signs you’re seeing. What are they?”
Dr. Doug extends a gentlemanly hand to Kara, helping her onto an elevated chair. The thing looks more like a bar stool than an examination apparatus.
“The instinctive hand on the stomach, already protecting what’s inside,” he replies. “And of course, your own posture toward her—attentive and focused…”
“But Doctor,” Kara says, reaching for me. “He’s always like that.”
“Hmmm.” He’s as clinical as if she’s commented on my insomnia. “Well, there’s always…that.”
I’m not sure what words spill out of my mouth once I follow the direction of his nod toward Kara’s middle. My muteness is inconsequential, since Kell’s eruption is better at expressing things for us both.
“Holy. Shit.”
Another assessing hum from Dr. Doug. “I really don’t thinkthat’sit.”
“Okay, then. What is it?”
My syntax seems confrontational, but the look on Kara’s face holds me to a civil tone. TheOof her lips and wide circles of her eyes are painted by the red and purple light that’s thrown up onto them…
Reflections from the glow that sneaks past the seams of her button-front blouse.
