Chapter 12
Kathryn
Istared sightlessly into the traffic while Yuri and Darla talked quietly in the front seat. I had a lot to think about. What to do about my blown up condo. How we could stop whatever Xi was involved in. But instead, I focused on the kiss.
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
All night, every time I closed my eyes I could feel Darla’s lean body beneath me, the feeling of her tongue tangling with mine.
I hadn’t meant to jump her like that – I’d never done anything like that in my life -- but I’d certainly enjoyed it.
Maybe a bit too much. I mean, what would even come from this?
Eventually this whole thing would be over, and I’d hopefully be able to go back to my normal life.
And my normal life didn’t really fit with an adventure-seeking vampire and her band of supernatural bodyguard friends.
And that’s assuming that I really was Darla’s mate, and this wasn’t just some crush that she’d misinterpreted as a mate match.
Maybe we could have a fling though? I’d been single for several months and I had a lot of pent-up sexual frustration to work off.
Then I realized that I was kidding myself. I couldn’t have a casual fling with Darla. I scarcely knew the woman, but I was already developing feelings for her. Strong feelings. And for a person who’d carefully kept every relationship casual since high school, that was scary.
“What’s up with the new janitor?” Stacy asked Darla as we took a coffee break in the employee lounge.
We’d only been working for four hours but I was already exhausted. Probably because I had barely slept last night. Thankfully tomorrow was my day off.
“He told me he’s a friend of yours and you can vouch for him.” Stacy gave Darla an expectant look. “I know you said you’d worked together.”
“He’s a good guy, super sweet and kind,” Darla said slowly. “I’ve only known him for six months, but my friends have known him for longer. He and his brothers own a great restaurant and his brother’s ma--, uh, wife, is best friends with my sister’s wife.”
Stacy blinked as she processed the convoluted connection. “So he’s what? Based on his size, I’m guessing bear shifter.”
If Darla was surprised that Stacy figured it out so quickly, she didn’t show it. Then again, Stacy’s sister was married to a wolf shifter who worked for the Fire Department, she was more aware of the shifter world than most humans.
“Yeah, he’s a bear.”
“He asked me out a couple of times,” Stacy said. “At first I said no, then I suggested tonight but he says he’s busy with a ‘work project’ tonight.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “I’m not sure what kind of project a janitor needs to work on after hours.”
I was surprised Yuri hadn’t mentioned the mate thing yet. Maybe he was trying not to freak Stacy out.
“Yuri and his brothers are involved in a lot of business ventures,” Darla lied smoothly. “They own a restaurant too.”
“He’s a great cook,” I supplied before I realized that I’d revealed too much.
Stacy frowned. “You know him too?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I just met him, but we all had dinner together last night.”
“Well next time invite me. That bear is one hunk of man. He’s enough to make me reconsider my ‘no men’ rule.”
I guess Stacy wasn’t the only human feeling the pull of the supernatural mate bond.
As we exited the staff lounge we heard a crash. Down the hallway, Yuri had knocked over a bucket, spilling some water on the floor. Stacy rushed over to help him.
“He’s not very good at this janitor job,” I whispered to Darla.
“He’s better than he appears,” she said, nodding at where Stacy crouched beside him, helping him wipe up the water while Yuri made puppy dog eyes in her direction.
My pager went off, and Darla and I headed towards the Fishbowl. Martha was there, chart in hand.
“Foreign object stuck in body,” she said, her eyes sparkling with humor.
I didn’t need to ask any questions to know where that foreign object was stuck. We dealt with a shocking number of butt-related accidents in the Emergency Department, and everything from sex toys to household objects to vegetables eventually showed up between someone’s cheeks here.
“On it.”
We headed into the exam room where a middle aged man was laying on his belly, ass propped up by a pillow under his hips.
I chanced a glance over at Darla, who looked taken aback. She’d probably assumed that this was a projectile injury, not a sex thing. I’d felt the same way the first time I’d encountered one of these cases.
“I’m Dr. Kathryn,” I told him, as usual using my first name to make myself more approachable to the patients. “This is my medical assistant Darla. Can you tell us what happened, Mr. Johanson?”
“I, uh, slipped and fell and this screwdriver went up my bum hole,” he mumbled into his pillow. “We… I tried to get it out, but the handle somehow detached from the rest of the screwdriver.”
“You were walking around naked and fell on a screwdriver?” Darla asked incredulously.
I gave her a quelling look. It was always the same story – they were walking naked and fell on something. There was no sense arguing about it, it would only heighten the patient’s embarrassment.
“Okay, I’m going to take a look and see where it is, try to stay still please.”
After confirming that the patient did, in fact, have the handle of a screwdriver lodged up his rectum past the point where we could pull it out manually, I input an order for him to be transferred to the surgical department for removal.
“They should be down to get you in about twenty minutes, Mr. Johanson,” I told the patient. “In the future, please try to stick to items intended for anal use, and those with a flared base to keep from getting drawn up too high in the rectum, okay? You’re lucky you didn’t perforate something.”
“Yeah, okay, thanks Doctor.”
As we walked out, Darla bumped me with her shoulder, sending me an apologetic look.
“Sorry about that. I know it was unprofessional of me. We didn’t get a lot of naked people falling onto screwdriver handles in the military.”
“Wait until Christmas,” I told her. “You’d be surprised how many people fall on tree toppers and phallic-shaped Christmas tree ornaments while walking around their house naked.”
She burst out laughing then, and it was the first time I’d seen Darla just let go. I couldn’t help but stare as her entire face lit up with a smile. God, I really liked her.
“What?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing, you just have a beautiful smile.”
We stood there in the hallway staring at each other like a couple of lovestruck teenagers until Martha walked up. We both immediately got serious.
“Boss wants us to meet at HQ after your shift,” she said quietly. “She has updates.”
“Roger that.”
Later that day Yuri, Darla, and I drove to the Sapphic Security offices. Martha was already there when we arrived, sitting in the conference room with Lois, Wanda and Cassie.
“Wolf Boss,” Yuri greeted Lois with an inclination of his head.
“Bear.” Her voice had a touch of softness. “Thanks for stepping in to help the team.”
“Brothers and I are always happy to help friends,” he replied.
Lois’s assessing gaze turned to me and Darla.
“She knows she’s my mate and we’re not doing anything about it right now,” Darla said quickly, even though she hadn’t been asked a question.
Lois nodded. “Get your asses in seats, we have news for you.”
Once we were all settled around the table, Lois nodded at Wanda. “Tell them what you found.”
“I finally broke into Xi’s email, although I’m still working on her document files,” Wanda said.
“There are multiple emails back and forth written in Chinese. I traced the ISP to a network in Beijing. After running the emails through translation software, it appears the doctor is working for the Chinese government.”
“Doing what?” I asked.
“They’re hoping to create a small army of enhanced shifter agents embedded in U.S. cities, Americans who won’t raise suspicions but can be triggered to shift into their animal forms to carry out missions for the High Command.”
“Why not just recruit natural born shifters?” I asked.
“Shifters share their body and mind with their human sides. They exist together, but the human side always has the ultimate control. China wants shifters who suppress their human sides and act as the perfect soldiers for them – no thinking or free will. Just animal instincts. And since they’re already in the U.S.
, they can be activated at any time without arousing suspicion at the borders. ”
“Jesus.”
“They call it Project Metamorphosis,” Wanda continued.
“Xi promised them she could make fifty new shifters by the end of the month. She’s injected twenty-three with the shifter serum so far, but it appears that she’s lost at least some of them along the way, including your friend.
She recently asked for an extension on the project delivery deadline.
She was kind of vague about what was going wrong, and it’s unclear how many, if any, humans survived the transformation.
That’s why we need to get into her files. ”
“Tell us again everything you remember about your visit to the lab,” Lois ordered.
Then she seemed to remember that I was the client and her face creased into what I was pretty sure was supposed to be a smile. It looked painful.
“If you don’t mind,” she amended.
Closing my eyes, I tried to recall everything I’d seen as I went through the lab. Then I described seeing several windowed rooms.
“Were there people in all of them?” Cassie asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw Seth and my focus was on him until I heard someone come in. Then I got out of there.”
“Who came in that night?” Lois asked. “Xi?”
I shook my head. “No, it was a male voice I heard.”
“Describe what you noticed about Seth,” Darla asked, her hand going to my thigh underneath the table. “Every detail you can remember.”
“He said he was feeling unwell before he left for the lab and that Dr. Xi advised him to come in if he was feeling side effects. He was obviously dizzy and sweaty. I noticed that he seemed to have more arm hair and facial stubble than he normally did,” I recalled.
“I thought it was just a trick of the light but when I saw him in the lab, he definitely had… fur on his arms and legs. His pants were on his waist and hips, but the legs were in tatters. His legs were probably twice the size as they usually are.”
I paused, closing my eyes again to better concentrate.
“His arms were larger too, covered in fur, but he still had human fingers, curled like he was trying to scratch something and froze there. When I looked up, his hair was longer and thicker, and part of his face was covered in fur, but the rest of it was…” I paused, willing myself not to cry.
“It was still his human face. His mouth was twisted in pain, and his eyes were open wide, but he was definitely dead. He wasn’t breathing, and rigor mortis had already started. ”
“We need to get into that lab,” Wanda said. “It’ll be easier to access the files from the inside.”
“I agree,” Lois said. “We’re going in. Let’s make a plan.”
“I’m going too.”