Chapter 7 Darla
Darla
Martha was waiting for us in the hospital parking lot, already positioned on the driver’s side of a Sapphic Security SUV.
It was black and non-descript, but all of our vehicles were armored, with bulletproof windows and souped up engines that could facilitate a fast getaway.
They weren’t one hundred percent street legal, but given that the company contracted with several government agencies, no one bothered us about it.
My mate went right into the back seat, so I got in the front with Martha. She’d been sitting on her ass at the desk all day while Kathryn and I were on our feet, I was fine with her driving.
“Which house are we going to?” I asked.
The company had several safe houses in the general area.
“Tacoma.”
“Was your team able to get my stuff?” Kathryn asked from the backseat. “I realized I never gave you a key.”
Martha snorted. “We don’t need keys. They picked up a few clothes as well as any prescription medication and your iPad. Your gear’s in the back. If you want to make us a list, we can grab more later.”
“Oh. Okay, thanks.”
She mumbled under her breath, “It’s not weird at all for strangers to go through my stuff.”
I didn’t think she meant to say it out loud, but of course we heard it.
“She’s got zero security,” Martha said to me. “The doorman is incompetent. Angie said all she had to do was lean forward enough to give him a peek of her boobs and he let her up. She picked the lock in five seconds.”
I made a mental note to text my coworker to thank her for flashing her cleavage to help my mate. Our team believed in using all the tools at our disposal to get a job done.
“I’ll fix the security problem,” I said.
I’d fix it by moving Kathryn in with me, but I figured it was too soon to mention that in front of the woman who didn’t know she was my mate yet.
She’d know soon enough. I’d heard the stories from my sister about how one agent after another succumbed to the mate bond while providing protection.
I’d hold out as long as I could, but there was no way Kathryn wouldn’t know who she was to me sooner rather than later.
The fact that she already knew about supes would make it easier.
At least I hoped so.
“You find anything today?” I asked Martha.
“Negative. My trainer was hovering all day. You?”
I told her about the visit from Dr. Xi, then something struck me. Turning to look at Kathryn, I asked, “What did Xi mean about seeing your name in the logs?”
“When I was looking for Seth I knocked and when no one answered, I tried my key card to see if I could get in. It didn’t work.”
“How’d you get in then?” I asked.
“There are multiple doors, one of them hadn’t latched after the last person left so I got in that way.”
That explained why Xi brought it up. She wanted to see if Kathryn would cop to being inside or if she’d lie about it, not realizing that the doctor could pick up her scent inside the lab.
Now that she had proof that my mate had been there, I wondered how she’d play it.
Xi knew she’d been there, but what she didn’t know was how much, if anything, Kathryn had seen.
I wondered who else was involved. Trying to change humans into shifters was dangerous and I had no doubt the experiments were expensive. The doctor wasn’t working alone.
The drive to the safe house in Tacoma took twice as long as it should, thanks to the infamous Seattle traffic.
Somewhere along the way Kathryn fell asleep, her face pressed against the back window.
I thought I’d have to carry her inside, but the instant the car stopped she woke with a start.
I guess as a doctor, she was a light sleeper, the same as me.
“Are we there?” She looked adorably sleepy.
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Good, I’m so hungry I could chew off my arm.”
She opened the car door, and I flew out of the car, keeping her from getting out with my hand on the door.
“Whenever we’re coming in or out, wait for me to make sure it’s safe before you proceed,” I instructed.
“I thought this is the safe house, are you saying the safe house isn’t safe?”
“I’m saying we always check it out, just in case.”
Martha sent me an amused look. “I’ll get started.”
I waited at the car for Martha to give us the ‘all clear’, my hand resting on the butt of my gun. My coworker was efficient, returning five minutes later. I knew she’d been checking doors and windows as well as scanning for listening devices.
“We’re good,” Martha called from the porch.
The house was a three bedroom ranch, with one bedroom near the kitchen and the other two on the back side of the house. Martha wisely took the bedroom by the kitchen so I could stay next to my mate.
She understood. She’d met her mate Emily on a protective detail.
Kathryn went to take a shower while Martha made dinner. She knew better than to ask me to do it. After so many years in the military, I could scarcely microwave a pizza. The last time I tried to cook when we were on assignment together I’d set off the fire alarm.
I waited in the bedroom next door, listening to my mate move around and trying not to think about the fact that she was naked in there, water sluicing off her body.
My fangs ached just thinking about it. She came out ten minutes later wearing yoga pants, an oversized sweatshirt, and thick socks.
Her wet hair fell down past her shoulders. She was adorable.
Kathryn looked startled when I appeared in front of her door as soon as it opened.
“Y’all are fast, huh?” she asked, her hand going to her chest.
I shrugged.
She gave me a long look. “Is it rude if I ask what kind of shifter you are?”
“Technically I’m not a shifter. I’m a vampire.”
“Ah, sorry.”
I watched her closely, looking for any signs of being freaked out, but she just looked curious, the same way she did when she was examining a patient with an issue that wasn’t immediately evident.
“Our branch of Sapphic Security has a lot of vamps. We prefer the rainy climate here,” I explained. “We’re not fond of the sun.”
“Is Martha a vampire too?” Kathryn sounded fascinated.
“She’s half wolf shifter, half vampire,” I said. “She’s an anomaly, it’s pretty rare for vamps to mate with shifters.”
“Because the snobby ass vamps think they’re better than shifters. Goddess forbid they mate with the dirty shifters,” Martha called from the end of the hallway. “Are you girls going to stand there gossiping all night or are you ready to eat dinner?”
“Oh crap, I didn’t mean to offend her,” my mate said as Martha walked away.
I grabbed my mate’s elbow, feeling the heat of her skin through the fabric of her sweatshirt. I breathed through my mouth to keep myself from vamping out at her sweet scent as I led her down the hallway.
“Martha’s pathologically incapable of being offended,” I explained. “Most supes are the same way. We mostly don’t care what other people think.”
“Well that’s freeing.”
We ate dinner in silence for several minutes. Martha grilled steaks for dinner -- super rare for us, medium for Kathryn – as well as making mashed potatoes from a box, along with gravy and a salad. Simple but good, just like the woman herself.
“Is the other lady joining us?” Kathryn asked out of the blue. “The one who’s going to work on the IT stuff?”
I wasn’t clear if she was working at the office or if she was also going undercover at the hospital.
“Wanda is staying at her own house tonight,” I explained. “Her mate just got back today from doing some shows in Las Vegas.”
“Mate? Oh, that’s what you call a partner? Okay. What kind of show was her mate doing in Vegas?”
“Wanda’s mate is Tasha Blue,” Martha said.
Kathryn’s eyes grew as big as saucers. “The famous musician?”
We both nodded.
“Wow. How on earth did a bodyguard hacker meet one of the most famous women in the world?”
I could see her trying to imagine the two of them together.
I’d been around the couple several times since I moved to Seattle and I still couldn’t figure it out myself.
They were complete opposites and seemed to have absolutely nothing in common, but fate knew what it was doing because they were somehow perfect for each other.
“Wanda was her bodyguard. There was a stalker incident, and she suspected someone on the inside was behind it, so they brought on Sapphic Security to investigate.”
Kathryn nodded. “And what about you Martha? Do you have a partner? I mean a mate?”
My coworker nodded, her face turning soft. “Yeah, her name is Emily.”
“How’d you meet her?”
“I was her bodyguard.”
“Is she famous too?” Kathryn asked.
Martha shook her head. “No, she’s an accountant.”
“Why would an accountant need a bodyguard?”
“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got on the radar of the mob. They put a hit out on her.”
“Goodness,” Kathryn laughed. Y’all have colorful lives, don’t you?”
“We took care of the threat against her and now we’re living together, so it all worked out,” Martha said.
“Do you all meet your mates when you’re protecting them? Talk about workplace perks.”
She was kidding, but she was also correct. “Pretty much.”
Kathryn’s eyes swung to mine. “What about you? Did you find a mate while working on a job?”
My eyes swung to Martha and back.
“This is my first bodyguard assignment. I’ve mostly been back-up until now. But I’m fully qualified to protect you,” I rushed to add, suddenly afraid she was going to call Lois and demand a more experienced person to protect her.
“Well, I’m not totally sure if I even need a bodyguard,” Kathryn said. “But when I saw what happened to poor Seth, I got freaked out and my father insisted.”
She needed a bodyguard. I’d seen the calculation in Dr. Xi’s eyes. She’d take my mate out if she got the chance, especially now that she knew Kathryn had been inside the lab, but I didn’t want to freak her out by telling her that.
“Were you close to him?” I asked. “Seth?”
She nodded, her expression sad. “Yeah. He was one of my best friends.”
I couldn’t help the little jealous growl that came next, and I knew that both of my dinner companions heard it too. It didn’t stop me from demanding, “Did you date him?”
Kathryn’s head tilted to the side, studying me. “No, he’s like a brother to me. Was like a brother to me. And I was like a sister to him,” she added.
“Good.”
She gave me another one of those puzzled looks.
“Even if he had liked me that way, it wouldn’t have worked out. I’m a lesbian.”
“Good,” I said again.
Martha shook her head, trying not to laugh. “You know what, I’ll let you two clean up since I cooked.”
She got up, taking her plate to the kitchen. She grabbed a fistful of cookies and a bottle of water, strolling out of the room. “We’re wheels up tomorrow morning at seven thirty. Call me if you need me. Good night you two.”
“Why do I have the feeling something’s going on here that I don’t understand?” Kathryn asked.
“Tell her,” Martha called from the hallway. All of us supes had very good hearing.
“Tell me what?” Kathryn asked.
Damn Martha. I wasn’t ready yet. The mate thing was new to me.
I was hoping to talk to my sister first, get her advice on how to handle it.
But with Kathryn staring at me, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.
I knew instinctively that my mate would be angry if she found out I was keeping information away from her.
“Maybe we should get more comfortable for this conversation,” I suggested. “Let’s leave the dishes for now and go talk in the living room.”
“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Kathryn asked.
She wasn’t alone there. I hoped I wasn’t making a mistake pouring my heart out so soon.