Page 44 of Guarding the Doctor
“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 holdon Stacy loosened enough that my friend was able to pull away and run towards Yuri.
