Chapter 25
Tiffany heard footsteps running down the hall outside her cubicle. Her heart lurched in her chest because she knew Christian, Nathan and his men were in the building. Seconds later her hopes were dashed when she heard Charla hollering at Katie.
“Get the one in room four, Katie. I’ll get this one. Hurry!”
“Oh God. What does she have planned now?” Tiffany murmured.
Seconds later Charla snatched back the curtain and rushed inside, a syringe in her hand.
“What are you going to do with that? What is it?” Tiffany demanded, her terror ratcheting up to the point her entire body began to shake.
“I’m sorry, Tiffany, but the building has just been breached. Whoever found us is here for one or all of my test subjects. I can’t allow that.” Charla took the cap off the needle as she stepped up to the bed. She was clearly frazzled. Her hand shook as she reached for her arm.
“Whoa. What do you mean you can’t allow that?” Tiffany scooted her body as far to the opposite side of the bed as the restraints would allow, but that caused her right arm to be stretched out and vulnerable.
“I can’t afford to leave witnesses. You know too much about my cause. I’m sure if they’re after my test subjects, they won’t applaud my efforts to cure vampires of their disease.”
She was going to kill her. Dear God!
“Think rationally. If you kill me and the others they’ll kill you. All of you.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I still have one card left up my sleeve.” Charla flashed a maniacal smile, inserted the needle into the rubber cap of the shunt in her right arm and depressed the syringe.
“God no! What was that?” Tiffany asked then screamed out, “Christian! Hurry! I’m in here!
Charla glared at her with shock. Doctor La Mond! I should have known. You’re blood bonded to him!”
Obviously, that fact had never crossed her mind until this moment because she appeared both enraged and terrified at once.
“That’s right, and you’re a dead bitch walking. Get that straight. Whatever you just did to me, expect retribution to be tenfold.”
She glanced back at the opening in the curtain for a second, spite in her eyes. She dropped the syringe on the floor, then herself on the folding chair next to the bed. “He won’t kill me. He doesn’t have it in him.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. You ought to know vampires are far more animalistic than humans. If you kill me that’s grounds for extermination in our world.”
She’d lost and Tiffany could tell she knew because confidence drained out of her like running water down a sink. Apparently, they’d both lost. Tiffany could feel the effects of whatever Charla had given her, sucking her into darkness. A ray of hope cut through as Christian and Asa rushed into the room seconds before the lights went out in her head.
***
“Tiffany. God, no!” he hollered as he rushed to the side of the bed.
He ignored Katie, Charla, whoever she was, because he knew Asa had her in the sights of his gun. He laid his own on the end of Tiffany’s bed so he could check her pulse. He found it weak and thready. Her skin color was as gray as a two-day old corpse. He lifted her eyelids finding the irises almost brown, with pinpoint dilation. He was losing her and fast.
He spun around and thrust out his arm and in one swift move using telekinesis, he lifted the woman of the ground and applied stricture to her windpipe. He could have easily lifted her off the ground with one hand wrapped around her miserable neck, but he wanted to scare her into a fast confession.
Charla started coughing and scratching at her throat while her legs dangling a foot off the floor kicking and twitching. Her face began to redden, but Christian felt only a homicidal need to watch the life drain out of this monster who’d drugged his woman.
“What did you give her and do you have an antidote? Tell me now or your death will be so long and painful you’ll be begging Asa there to blow a hole in your chest. He let her feet touch the floor and released enough pressure on her neck for her to speak, but she just coughed and sputtered. Hatred blazed in her blue eyes. The same emotion drove him like a Sherman tank. “Tell me what you gave her or I’ll finish choking you then start skinning you alive with the dullest scalpel I can find around here!”
The terror in her bulging eyes didn’t faze him in the least because he knew—he’d felt—Tiffany’s mere minutes ago when he’d heard her scream his name. Let the woman feel helpless and horrified that her life could be seconds from being extinguished.
“M-morphine,” she choked out.
“How many cc’s? Exactly.”
“A hundred.”
“You murderous bitch!” He released her and gave her a mental shove of far less force than he wanted. She stumbled over the chair and fell to the floor.
Never in his life had he laid a hand on a woman. He wanted to punch her repeatedly until there was nothing left of her face. It enraged him that he couldn’t. If she were a man she’d be dead by now.
“You’d better tell me you have Naloxone somewhere in this little shop of horrors you’re running here.”
She sat up and brushed some stray hairs from her face. “I do.”
He couldn’t believe it, but he was grateful. “Get it. Now!”
“Before I give it to you I want your word you won’t harm me or Katie.”
Christian laughed at her attempt to bargain. “So, you are Charla. The only promise you’ll get from me you mental bitch is certain death if you don’t go get the Naloxone right now!”
She blinked at him. Indecision seemed to war with common sense.”
“I said go get it! Asa?” He glanced at his friend.
“I got her.” He grabbed Charla by the upper arm and hoisted her to her feet. With the gun barrel flush to her spine, he escorted her out of the room.
Christian spun around and began to tend to Tiffany. Down the hall, he heard two of the other men bark orders.
“Lay down on the floor! Hands behind your head!”
He could only assume they shouted at Katie. He just prayed she was the only one left in this monstrous ring.
He tuned out the noise and focused on Tiffany’s heartbeat as he checked her blood pressure. As he assumed, it was dangerously low. His hands shook as he unstrapped her restraints. Normally, he always remained calm in a crisis situation, but this was Tiffany.
Minutes later Nathan came into the room with Charla, who was now handcuffed. Christian knew Asa turned her over to him in order to help the other women who had probably been given lethal doses of morphine too.
Nathan handed him a vial of Naloxone and a syringe. Charla had left the shunt from an IV in Tiffany’s right arm. He used it to get the antidote into her system pronto. Not trusting what might be in the half empty saline solution on the pole, he rifled through some drawers until he found a fresh unwrapped unit of saline drip. He had her hooked up in mere seconds because he moved around the room, her bed with vampire speed. Having done all he could for her at the moment he turned his attention back to Charla. Hopefully he’d just solved one of Tiffany’s problems, but now he had to solve the mystery of the serum.
“Is there an antidote for this serum you been pumping into these women’s systems?”
“No and I wouldn’t give you one if there were. I’ve worked too hard to give these unfortunate vampires their human lives back. I don’t expect you, a born vampire to see that as a noble thing, but these turned vampires will thank me some day. So, will the babies who will be born human instead of vile freaks of nature with an unholy lust for blood.”
Christian’s fangs began to extend because his emotions were off the charts. He didn’t try to stave off the natural reaction. He wanted to scare the hell out of her. “I’m having a pretty unholy lust right now. You’d better start talking. List everything in that serum and what you know about reversing the affects.”
“You wouldn’t dare bite me! Please. I’d rather die.”
“That can be arranged, but don’t worry. I wouldn’t drink your blood if you were the last breathing human on earth, but I have no problem ripping out your throat if you don’t start talking and quick.”
She swallowed hard several times, then said, “I didn’t create an antidote nor a plan to reverse the turning. The only thing I can think of would be vampire blood. I’ve been taking hers a unit at a time and replacing it with human blood over the last three days. Her red cell count is about eighty percent human. Eventually the serum would have destroyed the rest of her vampire red blood cells and altered her DNA prior to what it was before you turned her.”
“No, it wouldn’t have you crazy bitch. I’m not going to get into a scientific argument with you, but that serum has done nothing but made these women sick. If Tiffany dies, I really will kill you. I may anyway.” He turned to Nathan and said, “Get her miserable ass out of here, but keep her close in case I need to ask her some questions. If you could find out how the other women are doing, I’d appreciate it.”
“Not a problem. Just take care of Tiffany.”
“You know I will.”
He began immediately getting his blood into Tiffany’s body, fearing what he now did would be like turning her all over again. He’d have given anything to have her at the clinic. Unfortunately, he couldn’t move her yet. At least there were medical supplies in this heinous place.
He’d just finished drawing a second unit of blood from himself when Asa walked in. He looked as forlorn as Christian felt. “Bring me up to date.”
“The good news is our men captured Katie before she was able to give our two pregnant patients morphine. They’ve been heavily sedated for three days, but they’re awake and stable now. There are no signs the serum is making them sick like those two girls and Tiffany. Their vitals are good and both baby’s heartbeats are normal.” He glanced at the unit of blood in Christian’s hand and nodded. “I had the same notion. The life mates arrived about twenty minutes ago. All three women are receiving units of their mate’s blood as we speak.”
“Okay. That’s good. So, what’s the bad news? Mrs. Jennings? Teresa. What about her?”
“The real Katie got to her. I have her stabilized with the Naloxone but she’s still unconscious. The baby’s fine. Jesse, her life mate’s a mess, like the other men.”
Christian related explicitly. “I can’t think of any reason they’d want to kill these women other than spite. Can you?”
“No. We found them so they knew the gig was up. Leaving no witnesses, maybe? She may have thought dead people tell no tales. Maybe she thought she could escape this place and us somehow.”
“What she had in mind is anyone’s guess. The woman is obviously mad.”
Asa scratched his temple. “I’ll tell you, that brother of theirs is a strange one. He knew they’d try to kill all the women when they heard us busting down the doors. He was in the front of the building trying to protect those two young girls from Charla, not us. He had nothing good to say about that woman, but he made ample excuses for the feral one, Katie. The real Katie. This whole thing is just so bizarre. Apparently, they’ve done all this here and at the V clinic in order to make sure the serum was safe for Katie. You’re going to love this next one.”
Christian sighed and looked at Tiffany, who should be starting to wake any time now. “No, I’m not. I’m so frustrated and disgusted we hired that insane woman I don’t think I’ll ever get over feeling guilty about that. But go ahead.”
“The two sisters planned to market the drug for fledgling vampires and pregnant women who didn’t want their babies born vampires. They actually thought they could perfect the serum one day and offer it to all vampires because apparently in their minds all vampires have a secret longing to be human.”
“Every species has advantages and disadvantages and all learn to cope both ways. They really are insane if they think vampires would be lining up to buy their stupid drug. I can’t understand how they thought it was working. Did the brother say if anyone ever tested a hundred percent complete for human blood?”
“That would be negative, which is why he stopped giving it to his sister and the others about a week ago. Apparently, they were taking it orally and he was in charge of giving it to them at mealtimes. He thought the whole notion of turning vampires human was ridiculous and that the serum was making everyone sick, which it was. His sisters of course had no idea what he’d been doing.”
Christian didn’t know what to make of that. He didn’t care right now. He just wanted Tiffany to be okay. He faced her, disgusted and furious over what she looked like and what she’d been through. Once this was over and Tiffany was well, all three siblings would be dealt with and severely.
***
Tiffany didn’t want to wake up, but someone kept patting her hand and she heard a familiar, welcome voice, say, “Wake up, Darlin’. Open your eyes for me.”
“Christian,” she muttered hoarsely. His deep, sexy Texas accented voice was stamped on her very soul, music to her ears. She entered the land of the living eagerly.
She batted her eyes and glanced about a hospital room. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised. Since the day she’d went to work for Christian, she’d spent the majority of her time in one. Bad, recent memories started zipping around in her brain. She glanced about the room relieved to see it vacant of Charla, Katie or Terry.
Christian stood beside her bed, holding her hand. That she liked because it warmed her insides like a gently roaring bonfire. If Christian was here smiling at her she knew she was in a safe place. “Where am I?”
“The V clinic hospital and you’re doing really well.”
She let out a long, tired breath. “I’m taking it you got me out of there in one piece.”
He smiled. “We did. I won’t lie to you. You were a very sick girl for about twenty-four hours, but I gave you my blood and some other treatments which aren’t important right now. The point is you’re much better. Your color is back. Your amber eyes are shimmering with brightness and life. All in all, you’re doing great and you look beautifully, perfectly whole to me.”
“My head’s swimming though. It must be your sexy scent.”
He laughed. “You’re definitely doing better.”
“Just get me out of here and I’ll be stellar.” She felt a bit foggy headed, but otherwise, good. Tiffany was ready to go home. Preferably with Christian where she could recover privately, just the two of them. There was something to be said about having a doctor for a life mate. She grinned. “Seriously, Christian. Take me home. Our home. Wherever that ends up being.”
“I will very soon, but right now come here.” He took a seat on the edge of the bed and cupped her cheek. “It feels like it’s been a lifetime since I’ve had you in my arms.”
Tiffany sat upright and leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so tight to his body she could barely catch a breath, but the embrace was so perfect.
His familiar scent evoked treasured memories and such an array of warm, delicious emotions, primarily smoky desire. Every second they’d ever spent together from the first day she’d met him so many years ago until now, flit through her mind like a collection of photographs spinning at warp speed on a projector wheel.
Then he made her homecoming complete. He kissed her, loved her mouth with a sizzling hot possessiveness that melted into the very core of her soul branding her his for eternity. She grabbed his head and put every ounce of her love into that steamy kiss. She felt the evoked emotions rain into both their hearts, entwine and become one which caused them both to shed tears. The drops mingled together on their cheeks and lips, the salty taste so warm and dear, it just made Tiffany cry more.
The kiss was so perfect the moment could have gone on forever if applause hadn’t penetrated their cocoon of ecstasy. Christian finally released her and they turned their attention toward the entrance where her entire family had gathered inside the room. Even the kids clapped, each grinning and shouting woots or cheers for her and Christian’s reunion.
“What an awesome family I have.” She sniffled, wiped her cheeks and looked up at Christian just as he took her free hand. “What an awesome you I have too.”
He grinned and backhanded the tears on his own face. “I love you, Baby. The way I feel right now I never want to let you out of my sight again.”
“Well the way I feel right now, that’s alright with me. Of course within the rules of personal boundaries and such. You know how I feel about the remote.”
He chuckled. “Whatever boundaries you want are fine with me just so you know that from today forward you’re mine forever. And one of these nights soon you’ll be mine in every way. Any problems with that?”
Tiffany twisted her lips into a thoughtful purse. “Kind of.”
He appeared disappointed, making her feel bad for teasing with him. She squeezed his hand and whispered, “I don’t want to wait until one of these nights. How about tonight.”
That put the smile back on his face and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Sounds perfect after a few hours with your family first. They’ve been just as sick with worry as I have.”
He hitched his head toward her grinning gang who watched their happy reunion. One that every single-family member had been praying to happen for days she was sure.
She looked up at Christian and shrugged. “Okay, but tonight’s ours.”
He pulled her back into his arms and said, “Exclusively.” Christian kissed her again, sweeping her back into the place she loved most in the world. His heart.