Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood #7)(134)

God only knew what Doc Jane had found.

“I’m not scared of going under the knife,” he said to his shellan. “As long as that female’s got the handle of the damn thing.”

“Would she do brain surgery?”

Good point. “I don’t know.”

He absently played with Beth’s Saturnine Ruby, rolling the heavy stone around and around.

“Do me a favor,” he whispered.

Beth’s hold tightened on his hand. “Anything. What do you need?”

“Hum the Jeopardy theme.”

There was a pause. Then Beth burst out laughing and swatted his shoulder. “Wrath—”

“Actually, take your clothes off and hum it while doing some belly grooves.” As his shellan bent down and kissed his forehead, he looked up at her through his wraparounds. “You think I’m kidding? Come on, we both need the distraction. And I promise I’ll tip well.”

“You never carry cash.”

He extended his tongue and swept it over his upper lip. “I plan on working it off.”

“You are outrageous.” Beth smiled down at him. “And I like it.”

Staring at her, he got good and afraid. What would his life be like if he were totally blind? Never seeing his shellan’s long dark hair or flashing smile was—

“Okay,” Doc Jane said as she came in. “Here’s what I know.”

Wrath tried not to scream as the ghostly doctor put her hands in the pockets of her white coat and seemed to gather her thoughts.

“I see no evidence of a tumor or a hemorrhage. But there are abnormalities in the various lobes. I haven’t looked at a CAT scan of a vampire brain before, so I have no idea what is structurally consistent within the range of ‘normality.’ I know you want only me to see it, but I can’t call this, and I’d like to have Havers review the scan. Before you say no, I’ll remind you that he’s sworn to protect your privacy. He can’t reveal—”

“Bring him in,” Wrath said.

“This won’t take long.” Doc Jane touched his shoulder and then Beth’s. “He’s right outside. I asked him to wait in case there was a problem with the equipment.”

Wrath watched the doctor go through the little monitoring room and out into the hall. A moment later, she returned with the tall, thin physician. Havers bowed to him and to Beth through the glass and then went over to the monitors.

Both of them assumed the identical pose: bent at the waist, hands in the pockets, brows down low over their eyes.

“Do they coach them to do that in medical school?” Beth said.

“Funny, I was wondering the same thing.”

Long time. Long wait. Lots of that pair on the other side of the big bay window talking and gesturing at the screen with pens. The two eventually straightened and nodded.

They came in together.

“The scan is normal,” Havers said.

Wrath exhaled so hard it was practically a wheeze. Normal. Normal was good.

Havers then asked a bunch of questions, all of which Wrath answered, none of which he was particularly aware of.

“With deference to your private physician,” Havers said, with a bow toward Doc Jane, “I would like to take some blood from your vein for analysis and perform a brief examination.”

Doc Jane chimed in, “I think it’s a good idea. Second opinions are always good when things aren’t clear.”

“Work me up,” Wrath said, giving Beth’s hand a quick kiss before releasing it.

“My lord, would you be so kind as to remove your glasses?”

Havers was quick with the spearing-light-in-the-eyeball routine; then he moved around for an ear check, followed by a heart check. A nurse came in with blood-drawing shit, but Doc Jane did the pierce-and-pull on his vein.

When it was all done, Havers double-pocketed his hands again and sported another one of those doctor frowns. “Everything seems normal. Well, normal for you. Your pupils are nonresponsive, for all intents and purposes, but that’s a protective mechanism because your retinas are so photophobic to begin with.”

“So what’s the bottom line?” Wrath asked.

Doc Jane shrugged. “Keep a diary of the headaches. And if the blindness happens again, we’re all coming back here immediately. Maybe a CAT scan while it’s occurring will help us pinpoint the issue.”

Havers threw another bow to Doc Jane. “I’ll let your physician know about the blood tests.”

“Good deal.” Wrath looked up at his shellan, prepared to go, but Beth was focused on the doctors.

“Neither of you seem very happy about this,” she said.

Doc Jane spoke slowly and carefully, as if she were choosing her words with precision. “Anytime there’s an impairment in function that we can’t explain, I get twitchy. I’m not saying this is a dire situation. But I’m not convinced we’re out of the woods yet just because the CAT scan was okay.”

Wrath slid off the examination table and took his black leather jacket out of Beth’s hold. It felt fan-f*cking-tastic to pull the thing on and ditch the patient role his bitch-ass eyes had forced him into.

“I won’t screw around with this,” he told the coats. “But I’m going to keep working.”

There was a chorus of you-need-to-chill-for-a-couple-of-days, which he blew off by leaving the examination room. The thing was, as he and Beth strode off down the corridor, an odd sense of urgency gripped him.