Page 8 of Guarding the Doctor
“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, notrealizing 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.”
