Coming in, Jacklyn had been feeling better, more clearheaded. Apart from when Matt carried her, the pain in her side had turned into a manageable ache. She could see things. The world didn't spin.
Paula the Vet cleaned up the slash in Jacklyn's side. It started seeping.
The world started spinning again.
Jacklyn closed her eyes for a moment, still on her side on the examination table. When she opened them again she couldn't focus. The blurriness was back in force. She leaned on reflex to compensate for the shifts in the room and almost fell off the examination table.
Paula caught her.
"Are you feeling okay?" she asked.
Jacklyn grabbed hold of the edge. She mumbled something. Her lips felt numb and her tongue seemed like a stiff foreign entity squatting in her mouth.
Jacklyn felt the wound split open. A first trickle of warm blood found its way across her lower back.
Paula cussed. She pushed fresh compresses on the wound, but Jacklyn felt them getting warm and heavy fast.
This wasn't good, but she couldn't make words anymore. Even so, she wouldn't have known what to say. Her mind was blanking out white like she was caught in a snowstorm.
A numbness spread through her body. The warm blood pooled around her, bad smell but like a nice bath. She heard the first blood drops hit the floor, wet splotchy sounds, like big rain drops. Then the sound stopped. Not because she stopped bleeding, but because the blood turned into a steady stream.
Jacklyn was coming apart. Somehow she knew and there was nothing she could do.
Paula called Matt's name.
It was a blur, but Jacklyn was pretty sure Matt came running.
Someone was with him. What was the old man's name again?
"What the hell happened?" Matt asked Paula.
"I cleaned the wound really gently, but she suddenly started bleeding. It's like the cut opened up from the inside. It's like it's getting deeper. How can she bleed this much? What is this?"
"She was in better shape before?" Jojo asked.
"She'd stopped bleeding. She started to make sense."
Jojo held up the coat. "She wore this?"
"Shit," Matt said. "Help me put it back on."
Jacklyn moaned when they lifted her up. A searing pain shot from her side making every cell in her body scream. She heard her big horsey heart beat like a mad drummer. Then it began to beat slower and slower when life continued to pour out of her side and pool on the floor.
Matt wrapped the coat tight around her. She couldn't see him, but felt the warmth of his hands and the dark abyss of his feels.
All those feels.
He put his forehead to hers. She felt his hand in her hair.
YOU ARE READING
Shifting Life
Paranormal[COMPLETE] Magic is all about the rules. You mess up, you fix it. Or pay the price. Not that Jacklyn Morse has a choice. She's a new shape shifter paying the price for saving a notorious thief who is as hot as the supernatural loot he's stolen. To J...
