Chapter 10
As Tiffany came awake, her body felt weighted and achy. No part of her person seemed to want to function, not her eyelids, limbs, especially not her groggy brain. Eventually she managed to open her eyes, then blinked several times. When she could finally focus, she realized she laid in a hospital bed and that fact was punctuated by a horrendously loud, irritating beeping sound. She twisted her head to the left and saw a heart monitor and some thin, colored cords running from it to her, plus a blood pressure cuff had been wrapped around her left arm. There was an IV in the bend of her right arm and a fat, white close pin squeezed her index finger.
“What the heck is going on?” she muttered hoarsely, wracking her brain for explanations. Her throat hurt like hell and her mouth was so dry she felt like she’d been sucking on cotton balls.
Memories started to quickly surface and she recalled being crazy sick, like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life. She remembered the poker hot, stabbing stomach pains which had ratcheted up to such an insane level, she’d wanted to scratch her eyeballs out of her head. At some point between the pain, vomiting and diarrhea, Christian had shown up, pummeling her with all sorts of doctor questions. The last thing she remembered was Christian carrying her to his truck and placing her in the back seat. He must have brought her here. Wherever here was.
On her next inhalation, she caught wind of his familiar, sexy scent and glanced to her far right. She licked her dry lips and grinned. He was crashed in one of those big, vinyl hospital chairs. His arms were crossed over his stomach and he wore jeans, a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and cowboy boots. He had a pillow propped awkwardly behind his head and looked sweet all snuggled into that chair.
Unfortunately, she felt too crappy to enjoy the view.
Tiffany had no idea how long she’d been asleep, but judging from her aching muscles and backside, probably a day or two. The mysteries about what had happened to her mounted and she intended to get answers as soon as Christian woke up. She didn’t want to wake him, but she had to pee and didn’t possess the ingenuity to get there on her own. Too much stuff was attached to her body. Well, she had to get free because she couldn’t hold it much longer.
She lifted the covers and saw she wore a hospital gown, then wriggled her arms out of it and started pulling off the sticky things attached to her chest. That caused the monitor to go AWOL. God! The thing was insanely loud! Her eardrums felt like they were going to burst. “Shut up!” she growled, then swung her feet over the edge of the bed and began tossing the sticky things with the attached wires on the floor.
“Tiffany! Honey, what are you doing?”
She glanced over her shoulder. Christian stood on the other side of the bed gazing at her with an expression of awe and joy like a man who had just had an encounter with the Virgin Mary. “Getting this crap off of me. I gotta pee. And please turn off that screaming thing. It’s making my head pound.”
He chucked then came around, punched a couple of buttons on the heart monitor, which thankfully caused the screeching to stop. “Shoo. Thanks for shutting off that noisy thing.”
“Your welcome. Here let me help you with those.” He pulled up her gown and began to assist her with the sticky chest things, which was kind of embarrassing. Since he’d probably put them there, she needn’t be prudish she supposed.
Moments later Katie ran into the room with a worried expression, then flashed a bright smile. “You’re awake, Tiffany! How wonderful. Is everything okay, Dr. LaMond?”
Tiffany yanked down her gown and scowled at her. She was just doing her job by checking on her heart monitor, but Tiffany wasn’t too happy she’d picked such an embarrassing moment to do so.
“Everything’s just fine, Katie. I have this.”
She looked a bit suspicious but nodded, closing the sliding glass door behind her.
“That was an odd look Katie just shot my way. She probably thought you were feeling me up.”
Christian cleared his throat. “Right now, you’re my patient, Tiffany. And I don’t give a shit what she or anyone else thinks. Neither should you. It’s your health I’m concerned with at the moment.” He righted her gown the rest of the way then gazed down at her with a worried look. “How do you feel, Baby?”
She winced, still so miserable the nice endearment barely registered. “Like death warmed over. I ache so bad, my head’s pounding and my throat feels like I swallowed a package of razor blades. What the heck happened to me?”
He swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing, his expression guilt ridden. “Christian? What happened? How long have I been here?”
“I had to intubate you and that procedure is rough on the throat.”
“Intubate? What’s that mean?”
“We’ll discuss everything in a moment. Let me get you to the bathroom.”
Her bladder wasn’t going to argue with that. He unhooked the line running to the needle in her left arm, ripped off the blood pressure cuff, then helped her stand. “Are you dizzy?”
“No. Sore and stiff is all. Just get me to the damned bathroom before I explode.”
He chuckled, then obliged. Once relieved, she exited the tiny rest room and found him pacing outside wearing that weird guilty expression again, which stymied her because she’d never seen him like this. Whatever bug had gotten the better of her, must have been bad.
She walked back to the bed and plopped down on the edge. “So, what happened? How long have I been here?”
He stared at her for several moments, swallowed hard, then replied. “Four days. Tiffany, you were poisoned.”
She gawked at him, unable to wrap her mind around the words he’d just spoken. “You can’t be serious.” But his expression was dead pan, which explained why he’d been acting so strange. “How? With what?”
“A cocktail of sorts, primarily arsenic and cyanide. I suspect you ingested it. At some point, I’ll need to go over in detail everything you ate or drank the day you fell ill and several prior. When you feel up to it.”
She raked a hand through curls as tangled as her brain then glanced at the floor. This made no sense. She was a nobody. A computer geek. Who would want to kill her? Then again, maybe there was no logical reason. The V clinic’d had three mysterious miscarriages. Were they connected? “Has this happened to anyone else?”
Christian nodded. “Several of my patients who miscarried were also poisoned with the same substances.”
“Oh, my God,” she breathed. No wonder he looked so exhausted and serious. He had a homicidal epidemic on his hands. It made no sense. Who in their right mind would want to harm pregnant ladies? Or her for that matter. “Do you have any idea who could be responsible?”
He shook his head. “Noah, Asa and I are trying to get to the bottom of it, but unfortunately we have no solid leads yet. Nathan feels the person responsible could be connected to him, but I doubt it. I think it’s someone here. Did anything unusual happen the day you got sick?”
Tiffany blinked a few times as she thought back to that awful day. “Well, I had an episode in the break room with Blake that morning. He was asking me way too many personal questions, particularly about us and I blew up on him. I can’t say it was my finest hour, but he’d been asking for an ass chewing.”
Christian chuckled. “I heard all about it from him. Tell me your side. What did he say to you?”
Tiffany didn’t really want to answer because Blake’s questions had embarrassed her, but she also knew where Christian was going with this and if Blake had poisoned her she’d see him hung out to dry for it. “The gist of it was that he thought we were an item. I told him we were just friends then he asked me why I let you bite me in a real judgmental way. That’s when I lost it.”
Christian nodded. “I figured it had to be something like that. Was there anything else he said that bothered you?”
Tiffany tapped her chin, thinking. “Yes, he said vampires and humans sometimes marry without the human becoming vampire. I didn’t know that so I asked questions. I just got the feeling he wasn’t cool with that. Maybe I’m wrong. You think he could have done this to me and to the others don’t you, Christian?”
He gave her an indecisive frown. “I don’t know. You must have consumed the poisons here. At any time did he bring you food or drink or did you leave a plate or beverage alone with him?”
She didn’t have to think hard on that one. “Yes. I sat down to lunch with both Blake and Katie. I was about halfway done with my veggie burrito when I got a call back from a software dealer. I left to take the phone call in my office, but when I got back to the lunchroom both Blake and Katie were gone. In fact, everyone was gone. Christian, if he messed with my food— If he did this to me and to those patients of yours I’ll kill him.”
Christian’s features darkened. “You’ll have to stand in line, Darlin’. But I don’t want to jump to any conclusions just yet. I have a surefire way to find out if he’s responsible though.”
“What’s that?”
“Enchantment.”
Tiffany didn’t know much about that particular vampire gift because her mom and sister Dannie had never learned the skill. “Are you sure it will work?”
“Positive. I’m very proficient at the task and he’ll never know or rather remember that I probed his thoughts and asked him pointed questions. He’s off today, but he’ll be here tomorrow. I’ll deal with him then. Right now, you’re wellbeing is all I’m concerned with.”
“I’d have to say I feel pretty darn good for someone poisoned with arsenic and cyanide. Am I going to be okay, Christian?” She didn’t know much about the poisons other than somehow, they ate up a person’s insides. She didn’t feel sick to her stomach any longer, just sore in her joints and muscles.
“Right as rain, Darlin’, but there’s more I need to tell you.”
“Sure shoot. I want to know everything that happened.”
He paused there and squeezed his eyes closed for a few seconds. “Darlin’, you were dying and I uhm…” He paused again and cleared his throat. “I had to make a drastic, split second decision in order to save your life.”
He appeared both guilty and despondent which scared her. Her heart began to thunder in response. “Drastic how? What did you do?”
“I turned you.”
Tiffany’s mouth popped open and she glared at him. He couldn’t have. She didn’t feel any different. She lifted her arms and looked herself over, not even sure what she was looking for. Then it dawned on her why her hearing seemed so amplified. Christian’s voice although low and soft sounded louder than normal and her head still throbbed from that screaming heart monitor machine. “No. No it’s not possible.”
“It is, Tiffany. I’m so sorry. I know how you felt about—”
She cut him off. “If this is true— It can’t be. It just can’t.” She darted back into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. “Oh my God! No!” Her eyes were now a rich shade of amber and they had that weird sparkling thing going on common to all vampires. Fear and anger shot through her body like a rocket. How dare he do this to her when he knew how she felt about becoming vampire.
She heard Christian sigh and approach her. “Tiffany I had no choice. You were dying. It was the only thing I could do to save your life. Just let me explain what was happening to your body in that crucial moment.”
She didn’t care what had happened, because right now because she felt like she had died. Inside. Christian had betrayed her, turning her when he knew full well where she stood on the subject.
She slowly turned and faced him wanting to haul off and belt him more than she’d ever wanted to hit someone in her life. “Who the hell do you think you are playing God with my life? You had no right!” She shoved him out of her way and began to look for her clothes, yanking out drawers of a utilitarian dresser with a speed and strength that definitely wasn’t human.
“Tiffany, I couldn’t let you die.”
She stopped her search and swung toward him, finger pointed. “Yes, you could have. If it was my time to go, then it was my time. You knew how I felt about becoming vampire. It was not a life I wanted. I’ve accepted the fact my mom and Dannie were turned and my whole frickin’ family are pretty much vampires, but that didn’t mean I wanted to join the club.”
“Calm down, Tiffany and look at this thing logically. You’re still you, okay? In a slightly altered body, yes, but if I hadn’t taken the measures I had, the body you had that night would be laying in a morgue right now.”
Tiffany glared at him, so angry at the moment she didn’t know what to believe, what to feel or think. The only real thing in her head right now was getting the hell out of this place.
She stalked over to a little closet, pulled the door open and spotted on a shelf the sweats and hoody she’d been wearing the night he’d foisted this nightmare on her. She grabbed the pants stepped into them, then ripped off the hospital gown and replaced it with her sweat shirt.
He sighed again, then came around in front of her. “Tiffany, I can’t let you leave. You’re nowhere near ready to go home. You aren’t fully recovered and I have more tests--”
She shoved him in the shoulder and strode off toward the door, saying as she went, “Save it. Just try and stop me, buddy. You’ll be spitting teeth like sunflower seeds.”
There was a whooshing sound, then Christian stood in front of her, his expression as fierce and determined as she was to get the heck out of this place. “Nice move, vampire boy, but you’d better get the hell out of my way. I ain’t playing here.”
“Neither am I. Now you either get your ass back in that bed or I’ll put you in it and tie you to it.”
Rage and the need for freedom to go home lick her wounds and try to make sense of all this built inside her like a perfect storm. “One last warning, Christian. Get the hell out of my way.”
He reached out and braced his hand on the door jam. “I know you’re confused and angry, Tiffany, but there is no way I’m letting you leave. I can’t. I have many more tests to run on you because you’re not fully recovered. Now get your butt back in that bed and let’s talk about this. Give me a chance to explain why I made this decision.”
He was right about one thing. She wasn’t prepared to face this, but she was done arguing with him and in no mood for explanations because they didn’t matter. She had been in bad shape no doubt, but he’d turned her to eliminate what he thought was his biggest problem keeping them from a romantic or sexual relationship. Tiffany couldn’t figure out what he’d hoped to gain by doing this to her. Well, he was about to find out he’d destroyed their chance at any sort of relationship! Including friendship.
With lightening quick moves, she didn’t even know she possessed, she grabbed him by the shoulders and drove a knee straight into his crotch. He let out a groan, then a second later his body folded forward and slumped to the floor. She hated what she’d just done, but he’d been begging for it. Not knowing how quickly vampire males recovered from being racked, she yanked the door open and fled down the hall like a bat out of hell.
Katie hollered at her to stop as she ran by the nurses’ station, but she didn’t spare her a glance. At the end of the hall she spotted an elevator, but decided that means of escape too risky. Her gaze darted about and she spied a stairwell. She dashed inside and up two flights, rather amazed by how quickly and efficiently she’d covered the distance.
Once she reached the V clinic level she knew she was home free. As soon as she hit the sunny New Orleans street her eyes began to burn like someone had doused them with acid. She went blind instantly and began to scream in agony. Simultaneously, her head exploded with a deafening roar. A myriad of excruciatingly loud sounds pummeled inside her head like bullets being discharged into a barrel, with her inside.
Traffic, blaring car horns, voices, music and other city racket beat her eardrums into pulp. The torturous system overload brought her to her knees faster than she’d brought Christian to his and made her realize why Christian had been trying to force her to stay. Vampires couldn’t go into daylight without sunglasses and she had just stupidly done one of the very things that terrified her most about their lives.
Seconds later, some external force grabbed her off the ground and whisked her away. Her sight and sound were so compromised she had no idea who had her or where they were taking her. The intense pain in her eyes and head had weakened her, but she still had her tongue. She used it to curse her abductor and his lineage all the way back to the Mayflower.
* * *
Christian was sick at heart as he assisted Noah in fighting Tiffany into vampire restraints on her hospital bed. However, Noah had been right in insisting upon them. She was completely out of control. When Noah recovered Tiffany from the street and brought her back into the hospital, she’d been viciously fighting and cursing him. He’d joined the fray to help Noah and received a bloodied nose for his efforts.
Her strength was incredible, born of her new, stronger body and the adrenalin rush of fear and rage. However, as much as he hated this, neither of them could afford another episode similar to the one that had just occurred. The entire hospital was in an uproar. Patients were firing questions at staff about what was happening, while nursing tried to calm and corral patients and their family members to wherever they were to be.
He supposed it could have been worse. It was Sunday. There were no patients or staff present in the V clinic, just a handful in the hospital where Tiffany resided.
“Let me go!” she screeched, bucking against their hold like a wild bronc. “I swear to God, Christian, when I get ahold of you I’m going to skin you alive with a very dull, serrated hunting knife.” Her blazing gaze shot to Noah, and she ground out through clenched teeth, “As for you, asshole, you’ll be wishing for a very dull knife before I get done with you.”
Noah glared at her and yanked the ankle restraint in his hand taunt as a bowstring. “Shut your mouth you stupid, little guttersnipe. What you did just now could cost us this practice if the wrong people were witness to your stunt on the street. We’ll be lucky if none of our patients go into premature labor after the chaos you just caused here.”
Christian understood Noah’s outrage, but he wasn’t about to let him hurt Tiffany. “Stop that!” He shoved the man back and gave the restraint some slack, then covered her with a sheet and blanket.
She trembled with rage. Tears swam in her eyes and he was sure they weren’t just from the painful results of the sun. “I’m so sorry, Darlin’. As soon as I can, I’ll take these off, but until you simmer down and listen to reason, I can’t risk it.”
She ceased fighting the restraints and stared at him, her new, beautiful amber eyes filled with desperation. “Please, Christian, I won’t try to leave again I promise and I know now that I can’t without sunglasses. You have to get these things off of me or I’ll lose my mind.”
Her tone was pleading, her expression sincere. He hated this decision worse than anything he’d had to do as a doctor in his entire career. He wanted to believe her desperately. Christian took hold of the ankle restraint to unbuckle it, but Noah grabbed his wrist.
“I know how hard this is for you, but this is necessary and you know it,” Noah said.
Christian glanced between Tiffany’s pleading features and Noah’s stern, determined ones then settled on Tiffany’s. “Do you promise to stay in this bed and cause no further trouble? And will you simmer down and finally listen to me so I can explain why I did what I did?”
“I know why you did what you did. You thought if I was vampire nothing would stand in your way—” Her furious gaze cut toward Noah. “You need to get the hell out.”
Christian nodded once and Noah complied without a word.
Once he’d closed the door to her ICU suite, Tiffany said, “No doubt I was in bad shape when you made the decision to turn me, but nothing you can say will ever convince me that it was my only option for survival.”
“Tiffany that’s not true. You coded. Your organs were shutting down. You had severe internal bleeding. You really would be dead right now if I hadn’t given you my blood.”
Her eyes narrowed menacingly. “Your blood? Now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you did this for your own purposes. I know what a blood bond is. We share one, right?”
She did have him there and he could see the very sad place she was going with this and that nothing he could say would sway her to believe the truth. “Yes, Tiffany, but that doesn’t mean I would connect to your thoughts without your permission.”
“You will never have my permission!” she exploded. “Get these damned restraints off of me. Now! I’m calling Mom or somebody to come get me. I can’t stand to be tied down and I can’t stand you either right now.”
“I can’t do that, Tiffany.” Noah was right. She’d just received a reeling revelation which few people could take without unleashing volatile emotions and actions. Tiffany’s temper was hair trigger on a good day.
“I’m so sorry, Tiffany, but I have to think of not only you but the V clinic and other patients. You can’t imagine the ruckus you caused just now with patients and staff. The restraints stay until I determine you’re stable enough mentally and emotionally for me to remove them. But I will call your mother for you.” Maybe Mia could knock some sense into her head.
She pressed her lips together in a hard line and stared straight ahead at the wall, breathing hard. “I’ll never forgive you for this. Any of this ever!”
“Tiffany, I’m sorry, if you just let me finish explaining things—”
“Fuck you! Fuck your explanations. Just get the hell out.” She shot him another scathing look. “I mean it. Get out!”
He’d known she would probably take the news poorly, but he hadn’t expected her reaction to be this bad. He felt soul sick for everything she’d been through and all he’d done to put her in this state of mind.
More than anything, he wanted to set her free, take her in his arms and never let her go. That inclination was not an option. The girl had been a wild thing as a human. Now as a new angry and frightened vampire she was a raging force of nature.
“I hope to heaven you can get through to that wild child,” Noah snapped once they were in the hallway alone outside Tiffany’s room.
“Me too,” Christian replied hoarsely, then fingered his nose and winced. Man, she packed a punch and a knee--his balls still throbbed, his pride too. He’d be hugely pissed she’d gotten over on him if he didn’t feel so sorry for her. “But you know this wasn’t a normal turning, plus someone tried to kill her. She’s scared and confused, angry at me because she made it emphatically clear she had no desire to become vampire. Who could blame her for acting out?”
“Be that as it may, you had better find a way to reign in that little hellion when you do take those restraints off of her. All of us have put far too much time, money and effort into this practice to watch it implode over the foolish actions of some untamed brat parading around like a lunatic throughout and in front of our clinic. We will be lucky if we don’t encounter the police and who knows what other human entities over this incident.”
“I know she’s a handful, but she’s my handful and I’ll keep her in check. Why don’t you go home, enjoy the rest of your Sunday and quit worrying about Tiffany’s display in front of our clinic. For God’s sakes, this is one of the seediest parts of New Orleans. Every other day there’s some drunk, prostitute or tweaker parading around in front of our building half naked or all jacked up.”
Noah actually laughed at that. “You have a point. Very well. Do what you feel you must with her and while you’re doing so, know you have my deepest sympathies.”
Christian shook his head as he watched him stride off down the hall. He didn’t care that the man found Tiffany uncouth. He loved her and had never realized that fact so clearly as those long days he’d tread on the cusp of losing her to eternity. God spared her. Mia said as much. He’d like to think it was for him, for them, but that seemed premature given her current state of mind.
By nightfall, Christian realized he needed a hell-of-a-lot more than sympathies. He needed a miracle. He stood in the door to her room, his shoulder resting against the jam as he watched her sleep. A short while ago he’d given her a sedative. Otherwise she would have laid awake all night brooding and staring across the room at the wall as she’d been doing most of the day since he and Noah had wrangled her into bed.
He’d removed the restraints, but gave the staff strict orders to treat her as a flight risk. He’d told her if she tried to leave again, the restraints would go back on. However, if she did make another attempt, she wouldn’t be able to get out of the building. It was locked down tight from the inside and outside for her protection.
Christian had no idea what to do to get her to listen to reason. Tiffany had gone inside of herself and his explanations for why he’d turned her had gained him nothing more than a grunt or a ‘screw you’.
When her family arrived this morning, she’d begged them to take her home. When they refused she clammed up. She was angry with them too for insisting she needed to be under medical supervision. Specifically, his. Had she endured a mere turning, Christian probably would have sent her home with her mother, but he needed to monitor her and continue running tests until he was certain she was one hundred percent healthy. Just like his patients, she had VHS, a residual result from the poisons. The results kept getting better with each blood sample he drew from her, but until her blood was clean he didn’t want to let her go home.
He’d spoken with Mia a short while ago before she and the rest of the family left for the night. All of them were grasping at straws for ways to bring Tiffany out of this funk, but their efforts had failed. Tiffany was angry with the situation, but mostly with him. Although he understood, it still hurt him that she thought his motivations for turning her in any way profited him. Yes she was his life mate and of course if given the choice he wanted his life mate to be vampire, but those thoughts never entered his mind that night he gave her his blood. He’d been too damned busy doing what needed to be done to keep her breathing. Why couldn’t she see that?
Christian left her to hunt down a snack. He’d just bit into a stale sandwich he’d scrounged up in the break room fridge when Betty walked into the room. She’d come back on shift for the night about an hour ago.
She gave him a concerned look and said, “How are you holding up?”
He laid the thing on the countertop and rolled his shoulders trying to work out a couple knots embedded deep in his back muscles. “I’m okay. What’s been going on?” He’d been so consumed with Tiffany, he had no idea the status of his maternity patients.
“It’s been a joyful, but fairly uneventful evening. Four deliveries. Mothers and babies are all fine. Dr. Langston finally went home to get some rest. Dr. Bradley is on call as you know. He’s retired for the night in the doctors’ suite.”
Christian nodded, grateful his partners were getting much needed rest.
“How is she?”
Christian hunched a shoulder. “Mad at the world at the moment and even madder at me.”
Betty laughed softly then gave him a compassionate smile. “She’ll come around. She can’t stay angry forever.”
Christian rolled his eyes. He would lay no bets on that one.
Betty glanced at his sandwich and frowned. “Let me find you something better than that to eat. Julio is the prep chef tonight for tomorrow’s meals. I’m sure I can talk him into making you one of his amazing chicken taco salads.”
That did sound good. He was starved for food and blood. He smiled. “Well, if you can wrangle one out of him, I’d be much obliged.”
She returned a grandmotherly sort of smile and patted his forearm. “It would be my pleasure. Go rest. I have things covered.”
Christian knew sound reasoning when he heard it. “Thanks. I’m going to take a transfusion, then I’ll be in the doctor’s suite.”
Betty beat him there with the taco salad which was sitting on the coffee table when he arrived along with a glass of iced tea. The doctor’s quarters were swank. He and Asa had spared no expense when they’d remodeled an old warehouse into the clinic, figuring they’d be sleeping here more nights than their respective homes.
There were three bedrooms with king beds. The common area had a kitchenette, bathroom, a couple leather sofas and recliners, a 60” holoscreen with cable, and a work out area.
Christian made quick work of the salad. Exhaustion set in so hard, he didn’t even make it to his bedroom, but fell asleep sitting upright on the couch.
Someone shaking him rousted him out of a deep, sound sleep. He gave a start and looked up. It was Asa and he looked seriously pissed. “What’s wrong? What time is it? Did I oversleep?”
“Five in the morning. Time has nothing to do with why I woke you or why I just about strangled a certain incorrigible female.”
“Tiffany?” Shit! What had she done now?
“Yeah. I met your lovely life mate,” he growled through clenched teeth. “You must have done some really bad things in a past life for God to have saddled you with that one.” He thrust out his right arm. Just above his wrist were two nasty looking puncture marks. “She figured out one thing her fangs are good for.”
“She bit you? How the hell did that happen?” He gained his feet and glared at his furious partner, feeling bad for him and pissed at that brat life mate of his.
“She bolted again. Me and two of the male CNA’s caught up with her in the upstairs waiting room. She was trying to break the bullet proof glass front doors by pummeling them with a metal chair.”
Unbelievable. However, given everything he’d witnessed her do in the last twelve hours, perhaps not so much. “Did she?”
“No, she’s strong, I’ll give her that, but not that strong.”
“God, I’m sorry, Asa. What happened next?”
“I tried reasoning with her, but that didn’t work. Next the three of us tried corralling her back toward the elevators. That just pissed her off more. She charged me and tried the same number on me as she did you the other day, but I was a little quicker. I grabbed her, we wrestled for a few minutes--and by the way, she could get a job with the Navy teaching sailors how to cuss--then I got hold of her around the waist and thought I had her…” He broke off and muttered a curse he’d heard Tiffany use a number of times. “She sank her fangs in my arm and I hit the floor like a sandbag, then it was on between her and Billy and Jason. They’re big boys, but she scared the hell out of them. Both have multiple bruises and contusions. Jason’s nose is broke.”
“Shit!”
“Oh wait, I’m not done yet. It got even uglier from there.”
“Uglier how?”
“Let’s just say we need to go shopping for furniture this week. She tore up every piece we had in the waiting room by throwing them at me and Billy and Jason. It took the three of us, but we eventually wore her out and got her back into bed and restraints. I’ve never seen Betty so mad in my entire life. It’s the first time since I’ve known her that I heard her cuss.”
Christian had had it. He was done feeling sorry for Tiffany. She needed some sense knocked into her. He stormed off, while a storm of outrage gained hurricane proportions inside of him.
He slammed back the door to her room, literally shattering the glass within its’ frame. Her gaze immediately shot his direction. For a brief, second he witnessed fear in her eyes, but defiance and anger quickly swallowed the emotion. “I’ve had all of your bullshit I’m going to take, woman, and so has everyone else in this place. You want to go home so bad? Fine. Go home.”
He strode to the bed and began ripping off her restraints. “But keep in mind you’ll be walking there barefoot at night, through the streets of New Orleans which this time is ripe with thieves, thugs, hookers and every foul element of person imaginable, including feral vampires. I know you know what those are.”
She sat up in the bed and rubbed her wrists, still glaring at him with fury and resentment. “I don’t care. I can take care of myself.”
Christian slammed his arms over his chest and glared back. “Just because you killed one feral vampire doesn’t mean you’ll be so lucky the next time. The males are ten times worse, the stuff of nightmares. If one catches you, let’s just say your life would be easier as slave in a human trafficking ring. But if that doesn’t bother you there’s the door.” He pivoted and gestured.
She stared at it and swallowed hard, her bravado seeping out of her like water through a sieve. “Fine. I’ll call Mom to come get me.”
“Oh no you won’t. You’ve disrupted enough lives tonight. No one in this place is going to give you access to a phone.” He rounded her bed, grabbed the land line off the bedside table and ripped it from the wall. “But you have my word you’ll be going home with your mother tomorrow, well or not. This place couldn’t take another day of your destructive ass.”
She didn’t respond, but he could see the wheels turning in her head. He just hoped they turned in the direction of common sense. He’d done all he could and he was done pandering to her brattish behavior. Of course she couldn’t get out of the building, but if she wanted to give it another shot, he’d let her.
Christian tossed the phone on the floor and stalked out.