Page 4 of Guarding the Doctor
“Are you Kathryn?” I asked.
She was human, but she felt something too, I could tell by the dazed expression on her face.Mine!the voice sounded in my head again.
“Yes. I’m Dr. Kathryn O’Brian.”
Her voice was sweet but no-nonsense. It did funny things to my belly.
I reached out my hand, and when she took it, I curled my fingers around hers, feeling the electricity flowing between us.
“I’m Darla Pavlovski. I’ll be your bodyguard. I promise that I will keep you safe.”
Kathryn nodded as I released her hand. She shook herself a little, like she was coming out of a trance, then looked around as if she’d just realized other people were in the room besides us.
“It’s nice to meet you, Darla,” she said absently. “My father said y’all would have a plan for whatever is going on at the hospital?”
“Dr. O’Brian, please have a seat,” Lois said in her working-with-clients voice. It was only slightly less terrifying than her talking-to-staff voice. “We have some questions for you.”
Kathryn
As I walked towards the conference room table, Darla glared at one of the women. The woman promptly hopped up and moved to another chair, looking between me and Darla with a smirk. I had a feeling something was happening that I wasn’t privy to.
“Have a seat, Kathryn,” Darla said softly, gesturing to the newly vacant chair.
Once I sat down, she took the chair next to mine. I could feel this weird almost vibration between us. I’d never felt anything like it before. I was… drawn to her, it was the only way I could describe it. I had the strangest urge to crawl into her lap.
With a discipline born of years working as a doctor, I kept my face neutral and turned my attention to the terrifying womanwho introduced herself as Lois. She was obviously in charge here.
“Tell us what happened, start at the very beginning,” Lois ordered.
I went through the entire story, starting with Dr. Xi recruiting staff for her clinical trial and finishing with what I’d seen in the lab.
“It sounds crazy, but I think they’re trying to turn humans into shifters.”
“You know about shifters then?” Lois asked.
“Yeah. Y’all have slightly different biology than full humans,” I explained. “After so many treatment issues, now they teach a unit of shifter biology in medical school. Although with my father having shifter units under him in the military, I was already aware of their existence.”
Lois nodded approvingly but didn’t say anything. She scratched a few things out on a legal pad, her forehead creased in concentration, while everyone else in the room watched her. She finally looked up and pinned me with a look. I resisted the urge to shrink back.
“The best option would be for you to take a leave of absence from work and let us put you in a safe house until we can figure out what’s going on. We don’t know if whoever came into that lab last night realized that it was you who was there.”
“No,” I said immediately. “The hospital is already short-staffed. I can’t leave my patients.”
“The General said you’d say that,” Lois replied with an aggrieved sigh. “That’s why we have Plan B. Darla here was a medic in the military. We’re going to insert her as your medical assistant. She’ll stick by your side and be your personal protection while you’re working.”
Darla was going to stick by my side? That sounded good, and not just because I needed protection. I mean, my father was right, I totally did need protection. Even I could tell that what I’d seen in that lab was dangerous. It was more that I wouldn’t mind spending some time with the hot bodyguard who was giving me those intense ‘you’re so sexy’ looks right now.
“And when I’m not working?” I asked. “What happens then?”
“We’ll transport you to a secure location. It’ll be easier and less obvious than adding security to your condo.”
I didn’t ask how she knew I lived in a condo. Lois struck me as a person who did their homework.
“We’ll have a team there at night to stay there with you.”
Next to me, Darla made a growling sound that made my hair stand on end. I eyed her curiously.
“Yes, you’ll be there too, Darla,” Lois snapped. “Don’t forget what I told you.”
