Chapter Fourteen

Rubbing sleepy eyes, Carin walked out of the supply closet into the makeshift hospital room with a new vacu-tainer and several clean glass tubes to hold fresh blood samples. She’d left the room dim so her patient could rest when she returned to consciousness. There was only one problem—her patient was gone.

“Strange,” Carin mumbled aloud, setting the vials down on the small metal tray next to the bed with a quiet clink. “She was just here when I checked twenty minutes ago. Maybe she took a potty break.” But her intuition didn’t think so.

Backing away from the empty bed, she carefully watched her back while making her way to the light panel on the wall across the room. Her fingers worked one of the little switches. Nothing happened. With growing frustration, Carin tried another, and another until all six had been flipped up and down several times. But the room remained shrouded.

Heavy drapes blocked out the dawning sun. Damned good thing she could see in the dark almost as well as a vampire. If not, she would have missed the shadow near the window. And that damned shadow had just yanked the phone off the wall and was now rushing her way.

Well, this can’t be good, she thought as her back hit the floor and the air whooshed from her lungs. A pair of dark, maniacal eyes stared down at her as a cute little button nose pressed its tip against hers. Sher. A completely healed Sher.

Wow, guess the medicine worked better than I expected, Carin thought, followed by an annoyed, “Hey! Get the hell off me.”

“Sorry, can’t do that,” the petite pixie replied, baring a bit of fang with each slowly spoken word. Head cocked to the side, Carin took in the female sitting on top of her stomach. So this was Sher? Cute, except for the madness lurking just beneath the surface.

Letting her empathic abilities ease from the tight rein she always kept on them, Carin reached out and almost recoiled at what she sensed. Dear darling Sher was certifiable. Thoughts and emotions from one end of the chaos spectrum to the other swirled in, around and through her, growing more frenzied the longer she held Carin on the floor. Okay, girlfriend, scientist to the forefront. You’ve been in this tough spot before. Get some damned answers.

“You’re Sher, right?” Carin asked quietly, hoping her tone and a noninvasive caress of calm psychic energy would ease the nutball sitting on top of her. Instead, the nutball snarled.

“Wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing out of bed?” Carin asked, nonplussed. Hell, she’d survived a rogue vampire attack and kidnapping by one of the most notoriously brilliant criminals on the planet. No way in hell was she going to cower before some vampire chick having a bad hair day, crazy or not.

“And who are you, exactly?” the female asked cautiously. Easing back to sit on Carin’s thighs, Sher grabbed her by the lapels and raised her back up off the floor. Carin kept her hands at her sides. Oooh, but Lord knew she’d rather stomp a mudhole in the female’s backside. Instead she remained perfectly still while she was sniffed about her neck and hair. What the hell? Was this a female vampire or a damned dog? Oh, that’s right—nutcase. Okay, back to business.

“I’m your doctor,” Carin replied calmly.

“That’s obvious. But I meant, who are you? Your scent seems familiar.”

“That’s because I was wearing this lab coat while my brother was in here. It’s probably his scent you’re catching.”

“Your brother? Who?”

“Alaan Serati…”

“How?” Crazy Lady cut her off, buried her nose in Carin’s lab coat and inhaled again.

“Long story,” Carin replied with a slight smile. “I assume we don’t really have time for it. So, uh, whatcha up to? And how are you alive after all these years?”

The woman flashed a diabolical smile. The typical “you’re going to die so I may as well tell you” thought brushed across her mind. Carin almost smiled.

“Years ago Lowan’s Second, a man named Myles, used me as a bargaining chip with the guards who were responsible for Lowan Hatsept. I was…taken.”

Uh-huh, and from the lust-laden expression that overtook the woman’s features, she meant she’d been literally taken.

“Why didn’t you contact anyone, let someone know you were alive? I’m sure that sometime in your six years in a Hatsept harem you got near a phone a time or two?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because Lowan…”

“…should be here any minute. But I’ll be done with you by then.”

“What the hell have I ever done to you? I don’t even know you.”

“Just because you’re related to that Serati bastard. Everyone always acted as if he were larger than life, when he was really just a big mama’s boy.”

“Mama’s boy?” Certainly they weren’t talking about the same Alaan Serati? This couldn’t be the woman Alaan would have moved heaven and earth for? And who’d supposedly loved him in return. Damn. Lowan must have really messed her head up good.

“Alaan never really loved me. It was always about what his mother wanted, or what the Council wanted, while all he ever did was treat me like a damned china doll. Hell, he wouldn’t even have sex with me, claiming it was to honor me until we were officially joined. But he was a liar,” she snarled into Carin’s face. “Alaan wouldn’t touch me because he didn’t really want me. Clan Serati only wanted to tie our families together for the Matriarch’s political gain, the old crone!”

What? Now Carin was pissed. Because of this one female Alaan had kept his heart hidden, had remained alone for so many miserable years. Even when everyone thought she was dead, this woman had caused so much trouble between Alaan and Tameth. Now here Sher was, aiding a rogue just to hurt Alaan all over again? And all because he’d been nice to her? Respected her? Oh, hell no! Nobody, crazy or not, fucked with her family and got away with it.

“So just lie still and it’ll be over soon. And when I’m done, we’ll take care of Alaan,” Sher whispered.

Carin’s nostrils flared angrily. Not bloody likely! Consider yourself upgraded from nutball to sadistic nutball.

“Why is it you vamp bitches think you can always pick on me just because I’m human? Tell you what, endanger my family and your ass is toast. Burnt. No butter. Now get up off me or I’m gonna have to beat you down,” Carin said menacingly, meaning every word to the depths of her soul.

“Mama? Mama, are you in here?”

Aw, hell. The little munchkin’s timing really sucked. Carin got Sher by the ankle just as the woman lunged towards the door and the small but confident voice calling for Carin.

“Run, baby! Run!”

“But Mama…”

“Don’t you dare ‘but Mama’ me, girl,” Carin said with quiet finality, holding onto a squirming, hissing Sher. Damn. One of the woman’s bare feet got loose and connected solidly with Carin’s lower jaw. Ouch, that hurt.

Sher bounded to her feet and took a single step. Carin tackled her from behind and they came to a skidding halt a mere few feet from Alaina’s little tennis shoes.

“Get your behind out of here, right now,” Carin hollered, fingers wrapped firmly around the throat of a struggling Sher. “I can’t have my baby see me beat the hell out of someone. It would be traumatic for you. Now go find your daddy.”

Immediately the sound of little feet echoed down the hall, then disappeared altogether. Carin released Sher’s neck, got a couple of handfuls of hair and swung the woman away from the door and deeper into the room.

The bond with Bix flared. Oh, now what?

“Carin! What’s going on? Alaina just ran out into the courtyard babbling something about the short dark-haired lady and Mommy not being friends.”

“It’s Sher.” She hurriedly sent her husband a mental picture of the situation and said, “Bix, I can’t concentrate on kicking this bitch into the next century with you distracting me. Just get your butt in here.”

With a flick of her wrist, Carin locked the door, knowing Bix would still be able to get in. After all, the men in her life were notorious for breaking down doors.

Carin turned back to a growling Sher. God, she wished she had incisors right about now. But no worries. She’d settle for beating the snot out of Sher the old-fashioned way.

“Now, little Miss Traitor. It’s just you and me.”

 

 

 

A woman clothed in what looked like an open-backed hospital gown flew by just as Alaan stepped out of the library. A familiar dark skinned woman ran right behind her. Sher? Carin? What the hell?

Suddenly everyone was screaming.

Sher called frantically. “Help, she’s trying to kill me!”

Carin yelled after her, “Damned right! Stop her Alaan!”

Shaking himself out of the surprise of seeing a formerly unconscious Sher running down the hall and away from Carin, Alaan moved into action. The gowned figure was no more than an arm’s length away. He reached out and the fabric of the light blue garment rasped against the tips of his fingers.

Out of nowhere, a raging Bix flew down the front staircase, jumped the last eight steps in hot pursuit. And landed on top of Alaan.

Sher was out the front door and disappeared into the surrounding brush as the Head Seeker and his Second sprawled in a tangle of arms and legs in the middle of the front foyer.

“Damn it,” three voices fumed together.

It was a rare thing for either of them to screw up while in pursuit of an enemy. But at this moment, neither man wanted to look up, knowing they’d find Carin glaring daggers at them in her classic pose—hands on hips with her serviceable leather shoes tapping a cadence on the tiled floor.