Chapter 20 Kathryn
Kathryn
“Darla’s been gone a long time,” I said worriedly.
Stacy sent me an amused look. “When are you going to admit that you two are together? It’s so obvious you’re hot for each other.”
“The way you’re hot for Yuri?” I shot back.
Her expression got a little sheepish.
“There’s something about him. I can’t explain it. I mean, we haven’t even kissed or gone on a date yet, but I can’t stop thinking about him. It’s like we’re somehow… I don’t know, tethered together?”
“He seems like a great guy,” I replied.
“Yeah, he does. It’s just weird because I literally swore off men two months ago after Brad. I was so done. But with Yuri... it’s like everything’s different. Does that sound crazy?”
I knew the feeling, because I felt the same way myself. But I remembered Darla explaining how humans felt the mate bond, just not as strong as the supernaturals did. Before I could explain what was happening, Martha popped her head into the room.
“Still no word from Yuri or Darla?” she asked.
“No, I’m starting to get worried.”
“Let me call Lois and see if either of them has checked in,” she said, coming inside and shutting the door behind her.
She pressed a button, then put the phone to her ear. “Hey Lois, do you know the status of Darla and Yuri?”
Martha’s eyes shot in my direction before she said, “Mm hmm, yeah I understand… can’t you just drive on the shoulder or something and go around the wreck?”
She winced and held the phone away from her ear as Lois yelled loud enough that I could hear it.
“Okay, I’ll keep an eye on them until you get here. Yes, I understand.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“Yuri’s boss sent him to the lab, and he never came back. Darla went after him, but now she’s not answering her comms either. Lois is on her way with a team, but there’s some big crash on I-5 and they can’t get out of it.”
“We need to find them before something bad happens,” I said.
Martha shook her head. “No, we wait here for the team.”
“What is going on here?” Stacy demanded. “Kathryn, tell me everything now. Is Yuri in danger?”
Someone knocked on the door, interrupting us. “Dr. O’Brian, Stacy, you’re done. The next shift is here.”
We thanked the clerk, and once she left, I told Stacy the whole story. As she listened, her eyes filled with tears.
“Poor Seth, he was such a good guy and so devoted to his little girls.”
“He was the best,” I agreed.
Her spine straightened, a determined expression on her face.
“So we’re dealing with an evil doctor working for the Chinese government and her army of rogue shifters? And they probably have Yuri and Darla.”
“Yes.”
“We have to do something,” she said firmly. “We can’t just stand here while those assholes are doing God knows what to the people we love.”
I nodded, letting her know I agreed, then I sent Martha a determined look. “I’m going down there to see if I can help, with or without you.”
“Me too,” Stacy said.
“No. Absolutely not,” Martha said. “Lois will kill me if I take civilians into a dangerous situation.”
“Well Lois isn’t here, is she?” I asked. “I’m not willing to risk my mate because of a traffic jam. Besides, I’ve got an idea. I just need to get my purse.”
Ten minutes later Stacy and I stood at the main door to Dr. Xi’s lab, Martha waiting around the corner. I knocked, and a guy I’d never seen before opened the door, looking at me like I was a speck of dirt under his shoe.
“Yes?”
I pushed myself up to my full height. “I’m Dr. Kathryn O’Brian, I’m here to see Dr. Xi please.”
“And you are?” He lifted his eyebrows, as his gaze traveled over Stacy, his gaze lingering at her breasts for a long moment.
“My eyes are up here, buddy,” she snapped. “My name is Stacy, I work with Dr. O’Brian.”
“Hold on.”
The door closed. A few minutes later, Dr. Xi opened the door. Looking visibly irritated.
“Dr. O’Brian, what is it? I’m very busy down here and I’m afraid you don’t have an appointment.”
“I wouldn’t think colleagues need an appointment,” I said, giving her an approximation of a friendly smile. “I want to talk to you privately. About your shifter experiments.”
Her eyes widened fractionally, telling me that she was surprised by my comment.
“Dr. O’Brian told me all about it, and I want to sign up,” Stacy said loudly. “I’ve always wanted to be a shifter, it sounds so cool.”
“I guess I could spare five minutes,” Xi said, her expression calculating. “Come back to my office.”
She led us along the south side of the lab, keeping as far away from the exam rooms on the opposite side as possible. My eyes darted over there as we walked, trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of Yuri or Darla, but this far away, all I could see was the reflection of the glass.
When we got to Xi’s office at the back of the lab, she closed the door behind us, gesturing to the small table on one side.
I didn’t like being trapped in here with her, but then again, I didn’t want to blow our cover story.
Stacy and I sat across from each other, forcing the doctor to sit between us.
“I’m curious, Dr. O’Brian, how is it that you know the nature of my experiments?”
“Well there’s been rumors,” I lied, breathing slowly to try to mask any physical signs that I was lying.
“You were in here that night, weren’t you?” she asked. “The night you were looking for your friend. What was his name again? Sean?”
She knew I had been, but she wanted me to admit it. I took a quick breath, reminding myself not to let her bait me, and kept my neutral doctor face on.
“His name was Seth,” I emphasized. “As I said, I’d heard rumors about your project, and then I saw the physical changes in Seth, which helped me put two and two together.
I grew up on military bases around a lot of shifters, you know.
When I saw Seth’s body on your table, halfway shifted, it confirmed my theory. ”
Xi showed no reaction to my words. “If you were inside the lab, why didn’t you say anything before this?”
“I wanted to do my own research,” I said. “I wanted to figure out if what you were doing was possible, and if I could replicate it on my own.”
“Replicate it?” she sneered. “You’re no researcher.”
“You haven’t figured out how to combat the cardiac arrest some of your subjects experience due to the stress of the shift,” I said.
“Natural born shifters have much stronger heart muscles. But I believe we could lower the human subjects’ body temperatures enough to slow down their heart rate and reduce the inflammatory load during their first shift, thus decreasing the strain on their heart.
If we could develop a higher strength antipyretic, something stronger than acetaminophen or any of our usual treatments, it could work. ”
Xi lost a bit of her icy composure. I’d surprised her. I’d learned a lot that day when I did research at the library.
“One thing I can’t figure out,” Stacy spoke up. “Why is it a secret? I bet people would be lining up at your door at the chance to be a shifter. The super immunity, fast healing, stronger senses, my God everyone would want that.”
“The U.S. government doesn’t like such… transformations.” Xi’s voice conveyed her disapproval of that stance. “That’s why they endeavor to keep so much of the population in the dark about the very existence of shifters.”
“But other governments?” I pressed. “Surely someone else would love to utilize your research.”
“I’ve had some interest from other governments,” she said cagily.
“I’d like to sign on to be a co-researcher,” I said, giving her my most earnest look. “I think we could win a Nobel prize in medicine if we can perfect this technique. Then we can write our own checks, everyone will want to fund this research.”
“You surprise me, Dr. O’Brian.”
Xi opened her mouth to say something else, but she was interrupted by the sound of a loud roar, loud enough that it seemed to shake the glass windows. Before we could react, the same man who’d let us into the lab ran into the office, his eyes wild.
“Dr. Xi! The bear is awake, and he’s pissed. We can’t get close enough to him to safely shoot him.”
Xi was on her feet immediately, Stacy and I right behind her.
We raced across the lab where two other workers were standing nervously, both of them holding tranquilizer guns.
Through the window I could see the largest bear I’d seen in my life.
He was standing on his hind legs, giant paws pounding against the window as he roared.
His front legs were free, but the back ones were chained to a stainless steel table.
It looked like he’d just dragged it behind him.
The doctor skidded to a stop, giving her employees a disdainful look.
“Calm down,” she ordered. “These windows are built to withstand a bomb. A shifter can’t get through.”
Wordlessly, one of the workers pointed to the corner of the window, where a crack was forming in the glass.
“Yuri!” Stacy called through the window. “Is that you?”
The bear looked at Stacy, and sure enough, it had Yuri’s eyes. Stacy stepped closer, her face concerned.
“It’s okay honey, we’ll get you out of here.”
Yuri immediately stilled, the sound of his mate’s voice clearly calming him. Stacy placed one palm against the glass, and Yuri did the same on his side, holding up one large paw. It would have been sweet if people weren’t trying to kill us.
I moved closer to the window, eyes searching until I saw the body on the floor in the far corner. It was Darla. She was laying on her belly with a dart sticking out of her thigh, her face turned towards the window.
“What did you do to my medical assistant?” I asked Xi.
I saw Darla open one eye, then close it again. Somehow I knew she was pretending to still be passed out.
“She’ll be fine,” Xi said dismissively. “I just put her asleep for a little while.”
Yuri roared again, slamming both of his paws against the window, making the glass splinter even more. Xi hissed at him, but she had to know that her fox was no match for a giant bear.
“Get in there,” she told the two people with tranquilizer guns. “Give him a double dose. He shouldn’t have woken up already.”
“I’m not going in a room with a fucking bear,” one man screeched, turning on his heel to run away.
“I quit,” the other man said, dropping the gun and following his coworker.
When I looked behind us, I realized that all the lab workers had disappeared. Whether they’d all left or they were hiding, I couldn’t tell.
Cursing to herself in Mandarin, Xi picked up the gun, turning the dial to increase the sedative level. When she opened the door to the exam room, Yuri’s bear rushed forward, but it was too big to fit through the door, only able to get one arm outside the room.
Xi aimed the gun then paused when she heard the click of the gun I had pointed at her.
“Put the sedative down, Dr. Xi,” I said calmly, holding my gun with both hands just like my father had taught me. I was pleased with how steady my hands were even though I hadn’t been to the shooting range in months.
“Oh please, you’re not going to shoot me, Dr. O’Brian,” she scoffed.
Moving quickly, she pulled Stacy in front of her like a human shield, one arm bent around her neck while the other pointed the tranq gun at Yuri. The bear roared again, the sound angry and terrifying.
“I won’t hesitate to snap your little friend’s neck right before I shoot the bear,” she said coldly.
“Why are you doing this?” Stacy cried, her voice a little muffled from the arm around her neck. “Why would you hurt people like this? You’re a doctor, you’re supposed to help people.”
“Stupid girl. As your friend said, if we pull this off, we can write our own checks,” Xi said.
“Do you know how ridiculously low the pay is for research work? I’m making more in one month on this project than I make all year working for the hospital.
Once I prove my system works, I’ll be rich beyond my wildest dreams.”
I felt a pang of sadness. The doctor had taken an oath to do no harm but abandoned it for greed. Why was it always about greed?
“Let Stacy go and drop the gun,” I told Xi. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
“Please,” she scoffed. “I doubt you even know how to shoot that thing, but even if you do, a little gun like that isn’t going to hurt me. Bullet wounds are nothing to a shifter.”
“Unless they’re silver bullets,” I said evenly. “I understand those hurt a lot.”
She studied me carefully. “You’re bluffing.”
“Are you prepared to find out, Dr. Xi?”
Xi’s arm tightened around Stacy’s neck, making her eyes bulge.
Meanwhile Yuri had moved back to the window, pounding it with his massive paws in an effort to escape.
I heard a growl, and then Darla appeared at the door, all vamped out.
She looked taller and wider now, her eyes blood red, fangs and claws extended.
Unlike Yuri’s bear, she was able to get through the door, but she paused, waiting for Xi’s next move.
Dr. Xi turned the gun on Darla while tightening her grip on Stacy’s neck. When I saw her finger twitch, I knew she was going to shoot. If it was true that there was enough sedative in that gun to kill Yuri, it would surely kill Darla.
I’d waited too long to find the perfect woman to lose her now.
I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and shot Xi right in the temple.
It was a perfect shot, one my father would have been proud of.
The doctor’s shocked gaze turned to me and her hold on Stacy loosened enough that my friend was able to pull away and run towards Yuri.
I saw the exact instant that Xi realized that I wasn’t bluffing about the silver bullet. Both of her hands went to her head as she screeched in pain. Blood gushed out from around her fingers and her body began shaking. As a physician, it took everything in me to let her die.
Then again, there was nothing I could do for her anyway. Silver bullets were fatal for supernatural creatures. As soon as the metal hit their bloodstream, they were poisoned from the inside out. There was no antidote.
Xi dropped to the floor just as all hell broke loose.