Unwilling (Book One of the Compelled Trilogy 1) by Kristen Pike Read Free Book Online Page B

be a doctor, he was useless at anything else, empty without a stethoscope in his hand.
    Vordis looked around his practice again. He hadn’t had a patient for weeks, the little bell over his door hanging unwrung, except for when he himself had to leave; he ached to hear the obnoxious tingling that he normally hated. He could dust. Again. He could scrub the floors. Again. His back twinging in pain as he bent over, wiping the coarse brush across the wood. He could straighten his medical tools. Again. Though he knew that they were already lined up, sanitized with no use, gleaming under the sunlight begging to be held in his wrinkled palm, feeling as useless as he did.
    Vordis rubbed his soft fingers over his watery eyes. Who was he kidding? He had dried up months ago, ever since damned Daniel Murphy. Word had spread fast after he had sliced the kid’s leg open, like wildfire, and its implications; that he was too old to practice medicine, had devastated his business.
    Vordis wobbled to his feet, his back crying out in pain as he did so. Hunching, he walked to the back of the large house where he lived and treated – used to treat- patients.
    I’m closing my doors, he thought with disbelief, even as he began writing out a sign with shaky handwriting.
    Incompetent.
    To old.
    Not good enough.
    It had become his litany over the last month, wrapping around him like an old familiar blanket but with all the comfort of a pit of poisonous vipers.
    The bell at the front door jingled and Vordis frowned. His hearing might not be up to par but he wasn’t so far gone as to be imagining things in his head. Was he? Vordis turned slowly, which was how he did everything now a days, slowly, and with pain.
    A young pair stood just inside his doorway, the girl looking uncomfortable, the boy, just behind her, examining his office, his eyes finally resting on Vordis himself. Vordis straightened his back under the newcomers’ scrutiny. Holding his head high, he smiled at the pair as he made his way toward them, trying not to shuffle his feet and hunch back over though his back was screaming at him to do just that.
    Vordis expected the boy to speak, but the girl addressed him instead. “Are you the doctor? Dr. Vordis Hamlin?” She asked, her voice soft and fragile, reminding him of his own daughter who was grown and moved to Fedway with her husband.
    “Yes, that’s me, how might I help you?” Vordis tried to speak without rasping, but he found he was a little short of breath these days, he looked them over for any sign of injury or illness but they both appeared to be healthy. Damn.
    The girl looked back at the boy, her black hair swinging around her shoulders. The boy smiled encouragingly at her, his eyes lighting up when he looked down at her. The girl turned back to him, “Well, I had a… um, a proposition of sorts, that I would like to discuss with you.”
    “Oh, yes?” he stopped to take in a ragged breath, “why don’t we all go upstairs and I’ll put on a kettle of tea.”
    “Of course.” The girl smiled, “I’m Rowan, by the way, Rowan Chase. And this is Jace Tarrow.” The girl, Rowan, said.
    “It’s a pleasure,” he said, “to meet the both of you, this way, up the stairs.” Vordis turned, hoping they were following him as he made his way to the back of his medical practice where a set of creaky narrow steps led up to the second floor. He started up them, each step announcing the ascent into his tiny cramped home.
    At the top of the stairs was a heavy door that he pushed open, the bottom scraping the wood floor. Vordis scanned the small one room to make sure it was suitable for guests. He had a few dishes sitting on the counter, and a pot hanging over his wood stove from last night, and his bed was unmade, his blankets sitting in a knotted heap atop his rock hard bed, but it was acceptable. After all this was a last minute invitation, had he known he would have company he would have hidden his dishes and at least