Good to know. Stealth always helped on reconnaissance missions.
Sliding glass doors parted, cold air blowing outward as he walked into the building. The mattress-on-wheels disappeared behind another set of closing double doors, this set metal instead of glass. Jamie quickened his pace, slipping between the doors before they shut.
“Hey!” A blue uniformed female ran toward him. “You can’t just walk in here.”
Goddess’s toes. He needed an invisibility spell. A spell he never bothered to learn once his inability to use magic became evident. But he had tried—with varying levels of success—reaching into a human’s mind and blocking himself from their sight. Would it work in this place?
Nothing for it but to try.
Slipping into the female’s mind was easy. No resistance at all to a Draconi’s telepathy. He found the image of himself in her mind and blocked it.
The female halted, lines etched between her brows, as she stared at him. “Huh. I could have sworn I saw…well, long evening.” Shaking her head, she turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Yes! Jamie held the victory shout in his mind. Amazing how well his magic, and apparently his telepathy, worked in this strange city.
All thoughts for another day. Right now, he needed to protect his female and then rescue Erik. A jolt of worry for his friend shook his gut. What if Erik was dead? What if he couldn’t find his friend? Nonsense. Finding people was his specialty. Draconi magic ran strong in Erik’s veins. No need to worry about his friend.
So why did a chill snake down Jamie’s spine?
Probably due to the chill in this building. Powerful magic to turn the warm outside air into a chillbump-inducing cold.
No time to think on the cold air. His standing around already lost him sight of the mattress-on-wheels. Adrenaline fired along his nerves as his heart punched an uneven rhythm.
Jamie closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Focusing on the female, he searched for her spark of energy, her unique flicker of life. There. Not far from him. Holding steady.
He quick-stepped down a hallway with a floor made from a shiny material he’d never seen. So many new things in this city. None of which he had time to ponder. Or explore.
Doors with metallic handles and rectangular windows dotted the sides of the hallway. White-coated, uniformed males and females darted in and out of the rooms carrying strange looking bags and devices. Despite the oddity of both the place and the equipment, he knew this was the healing ward. And what a ward. Keara would love to visit this place and practice her healing arts.
Not that she’d ever get the chance. Females rarely left Draconia.
The room at the end of the hallway beckoned to him, a soul-deep calling. He peered through the window at the white-coated male and female—who he assumed to be healers—as they assessed the injured female. At least he assumed it to be an assessment. Why else would they flash a small light in her eyes and check the fluid bag attached with tubing to her arm?
But were they healing her? Or simply observing her?
He did not see any evidence of healing energy spilling from their palms into her body. Maybe they weren’t healers?
Jamie jumped back and tried to act inconspicuous as the two white-coated healers walked out of the room. His attempt worked as the two only glanced his way before scurrying down the hall, talking about the patient needing a scan.
A scan? But the thought fled as his sight flickered, black spots dancing along the periphery, accompanied by a whirl of dizziness. Jamie slumped against the wall, his fingers curling into his palms, the dull pain enough to keep him conscious.
The vision blotted out the hallway, showing him a scene of the tall giant who captured Erik walking into the female’s room. Jamie watched, impotent, unable to move, unable to help, as the giant carried the female out the door and down the hall, the gray mist of death clinging to them like a shroud.
And then the vision disappeared, Jamie’s sight returning to normal, his heart pounding like a blacksmith’s hammer, his breath the short gasps of the grieving.
Jamie wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers as he stared at the door to the female’s room. She was not going to die. He was not going to allow that vision to come true. He had not traveled all this way to wherever this place was to lose the reason for his visit. He could not leave her to her fate.
Jamie pushed off the wall, stepped across the hall and shoved open the door to her room.
Chapter Four
The squeak of hinges snapped Parker’s attention to the door. Hottie stood in the doorway, one hand on the frame, the other on the handle, a look of determination plastered on his face. A look she was familiar with. A look she saw reflected in her mirror on a daily basis. A look mirrored on her coworkers’ faces when working a case.
A look she never thought to see directed her way.
Which was a bit unnerving, but not nearly as unnerving as the realization he’d followed her. He stood in the doorway like he owned the place. Or owned her.
Her limbs shuddered like a car without shocks. He. Followed. Her. Was he stalking her? Was he with the ones who tried to kidnap her? What was he doing here? More to the point, how did she get rid of him? Her muscles might be coming out of a deep freeze, but that didn’t mean she could hop off the bed and toss him out the door.
Where was the damn call button?
Parker patted the mattress. Hottie took a step closer. Then another. No button. Her heart shook an uneven rhythm, a warning drum in her veins. Her hand moved faster against the mattress, searching, seeking, not finding.
Damn it.
“Be of ease. I mean no harm.”
She stilled, her hand paused mid-pat as if his words flipped her off switch. Deep and soothing, his voice stroked across her frazzled nerves, slowing her racing heart.
If he could bottle that sound, women would fall at his feet. What was she thinking? Sexy voices and good looks did not mean pure hearts. She should know.
Parker cleared her throat. “Who?” Her voice squeaked like a loose wheel. Another round of throat clearing, and she tried again. “Who are you?”
He smiled.
Her heart started a pounding rhythm, only this time it had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with sexual magnetism. Damn it.
“My name is Jamie. What is your name?”
She wasn’t really going to tell him, was she? Her mouth opened, making the decision for her. “Parker.” She cleared her throat before her voice got any other smart ideas and started giving him her life story and inviting him back to her house. Which would enter the realm of too dumb to live. She should not trust this stranger, no matter how her body reacted to his presence. “Why did you follow me?”
“I’ve come to help you.”
Help her with what? Taking her to Grizzly and crew? Getting her job back? Maybe he knew what drug she was given, which would help the doctors reverse the effects. Although it did seem to be wearing off, her voice almost normal, her strength returning in increments. But not quick enough to jump off the bed and run out the door. Damn it.
“Help me?”
“You are marked for death.”
A chill attempted a slide down her spine but she shook it away, swapping it for a shot of disbelief. “What are you? The Grim Reaper?”
“What is this Grim Reaper?” His brows slammed down.
Parker failed to stop the eye roll. Where was he from to have never heard of the Grim Reaper? Mars? Well, he did have an accent, so maybe she should cut him some slack. “Death personified.”
His eyes flared. “I am not this personification of death. I’ve come to stop your death. Not aid it.”
“That’s…” nice of you? What did she say to that? “Why?” Because in the grand scheme of things, that pretty much summed it up.
“It is a calling. And they come. You must hurry.”
“And how do you expect me to do that?” Being drugged meant hurrying was no longer in her vocabulary. Bes
ides, how did she know he spoke the truth?
He took a step toward her. “I will help—”
Parker shrank as far away as she could. Which turned out to be a whole inch, as if that would help. But she found the call button and put her thumb to good use pressing the thing. What were the chances of a nurse arriving before he reached her?
And the answer would be none.
Jamie placed his hand against her arm, and a fission of electric energy sparked between them. His gaze captured hers, breaking and entering into the deepest recesses of her soul, igniting emotions she thought long dead.
What would it be like to be loved by a man who could call up these feelings each time she looked at him? To know he would do anything for you? To be put into the local mental institution for losing one’s mind over a potential kidnapper? Wake up, Parker, and stop living in fantasy-land.
The squeak of hinges snapped her attention from the man who had the potential to be anything from her kidnapper to her lover and focused on the nurse. Thank god for interrupting nurses.
“Did you need something?” The nurse’s gaze jumped from Parker to Jamie as she took a step into the room. “Who are you?”
“Her friend. She needs to be moved.”
Parker opened her mouth at his gall, but the nurse spoke to Jamie, ignoring her as if she was nothing more than a discarded candy wrapper.
“We’re planning on admitting her.” The nurse put a hand on her stuck-out hip, her gaze traveling from Jamie’s head to below his belt with a slow trip back to his eyes.
Hello, this is a hospital, not a bar, lady. And I’m the damn patient over here. But for once the words stuck to her tongue. Probably because she’d never seen such unprofessional behavior in the ER staff. Shock tended to silence a person.
“Admit her to what?” Jamie’s brows furrowed.
Clearly hot as hell didn’t mean smart as Einstein. Damn it. Not to mention the real problem here, him answering for her. As if he had some sort of right.
About time she spoke up for herself before flirty nurse and Jamie made all her decisions like she was some sort of child. “Just overnight, right?” For observation, since her muscles seemed to be returning to normal. By morning she should be good to go. Go where was the problem. And one she’d think about tomorrow.
She had more pressing needs now. Like getting rid of Jamie, the potential kidnapper. But did she really want to get rid of him? Of course she did. Right?
What if he spoke true? What if he was here to save her, not harm her? He spoke with conviction, his body language in line with his words, like he believed what he said. So did the local delusional patient. Didn’t make him right.
“Yes, overnight. Your friend can come to your room.”
“He’s not—”
“That would be good.” Jamie smiled at the nurse who thrust out her chest like she was some kind of preening bird.
Parker clenched her jaw tight enough to make her teeth ache. How dare he insist on following her. She would…what exactly? Lay here and glare? Hit the call button and hope for a male security guard? Scream like a sissy? As if that would happen.
“He’s not—”
“I’ll get an orderly and be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” More eye batting from the nurse at Jamie. And then she slipped out the door, leaving Parker alone with a hovering hottie and a bad attitude.
Her hand ached for the grip of her Glock. “You can’t keep following me.”
“It’s not following. It’s protecting.”
“Protecting? From what?” The kidnappers? Or was he in cahoots with them and thought he was saving her from something else? His one-brow-cocked gaze raked the length of her body, sending heat straight to her cheeks.
“Yeah, I drank something I shouldn’t, but so do plenty of other women with much worse results than this. What makes me so special?”
He pursed his lips together, stared at the ground for a heartbeat.
What was he hiding? Right when her thoughts started spiraling along various scenarios, he spoke. “You came to me in my dreams crying for help. Each night for a week. How could I not seek you out?”
And didn’t those words sink straight into her stomach like the tang of fizzy pop. Since when was she a hot man’s dream woman?
Yeah, she needed her Glock in her palm so she could use it to whack some sense into her head. What difference did it make if a hot man dreamed about her?
Not one bit. Not at all. Liar, liar.
Clearly she ingested a paralyzing agent mixed with an aphrodisiac. Why else would she be thinking such thoughts while lying drugged in the ER with a possible stalker beside her bed?
Parker cleared her throat. “And now that you’ve found me?”
“You are not safe here. You need to leave.”
“I’m in a hospital. With security guards, security cameras and other various eyes.” Which didn’t necessarily make the place secure—Jamie’s presence busted that theory—so maybe he proved his point.
Not that she would allow him to haul her away. If she left with a stranger it would be on her terms.
“Detective Parker?” A familiar voice snapped her attention to the door, and she smiled as Dr. Dover walked in the room. She should correct him of her current lack of badge status, but didn’t want to broadcast her shame and anger over today’s not-so-pleasant events. Besides, she wasn’t giving up her status without a fight. “They told me you were in here. How are you?”
“Dr. Dover. I was wondering where you were.”
As a detective, she knew the ER staff almost as well as her own department staff. And Dr. Dover had always been enjoyable to work with, not to mention pleasant eye candy. But he had nothing on Jamie.
Dr. Dover stepped closer to the bed but did a double take, his eyes flaring, with one glance at Jamie.
A low growling filled the room, the sound an animal makes when protecting its own. Jamie stood with his back to her, seeming to have grown in size. Must be a trick of the lighting or a side effect of the drug. Men did not grow larger in the span of a minute.
And then Jamie stepped to the side, out of Dr. Dover’s way, his hands scrubbing down his face. With one last glance Jamie’s way, Dr. D stepped beside her, resting his large palm against her forearm. Unlike Jamie’s touch, his elicited no response, which ruled out the aphrodisiac mixed in with the drug. God only knew Dr. D had captured her attention in the past before the Great Fiancé Debacle.
“They said you’d been drugged?” His gaze cut from her to Jamie and back, his brows furrowed.
She shrugged. “Yeah. Paralyzing agent. It’s wearing off.”
“Good, good. You’ll be admitted…” The rest of his words faded as her attention snapped to Jamie. Who took slow steps to the door, head cocked to the side as if he heard a noise.
A noise in the ER. Definitely something to get excited about.
And yet, her pulse quickened, her muscles tensing under her hospital gown as if they expected to sprint a race. Dr. D continued to speak, his mouth moving, forming syllables her ears failed to convert into meaning.
“…all right? Detective?” Dr. D shook her arm, concern stamped on his face.
The crash of doors slamming into a wall caused her to jump, a shot of adrenaline spiking her system. Loud voices echoed down the hall as footsteps pounded a rhythm against the linoleum floor.
“I’ve got to go. Multiple vehicle accident. I’ll check back…” his eyes narrowed on one of the machines near the bed, his hand reaching out and giving it a thump. “Why is the pulse-ox not working?” He shook his head as he gave it another thump. “How weird. I’ll have someone exchange it. Gotta run. They’re bringing in the survivors now.” A final pat on her arm and he dashed out the door, the click of the jamb lost in the scramble of a busy ER.
Once again leaving her alone with a man she knew little about. A man who was currently pacing a track in the linoleum.
“Have a seat, why don’t you?” Parker pointed to the chair stuck in the c
orner like a disobedient student.
Jamie ran a hand through his hair then did as she asked, picking up the bag containing her clothing and purse before parking it on the plastic chair.
“Do you mind handing me that bag?” So that’s where they put her personal items. She needed to check her messages, return the voice mails…
Oh wait. Since she was suspended from the force, who did she have to call? Talk about a sad commentary of her life.
“As you wish.” This time she didn’t shrink when he walked to her side, placing the bag between her arm and torso.
Jamie returned to the chair, the plastic squeaking as he sat. “You need to leave.”
“I need to remain overnight for observation. Leaving is not an option.” Especially with you went unsaid.
“They’ll return for you.”
Her spine morphed into a column of ice, the hairs on her neck rising to escape. How did she know they hadn’t already returned for her in the shape of the hottie sitting in the corner?
“How do I know they haven’t already?”
****
Jamie straightened as her words sank deep. She thought he aided the kidnappers? Hadn’t he explained why he was here? How could she think he meant her harm? He’d traveled who knew how far to rescue her and she still thought ill of him? How could she think his following her meant anything other than protection?
“I said I’m here to protect you from those who mean you harm.”
“How do I know you tell the truth?”
“You insult me.”
“Well? Think about it. You show up right when I’m being kidnapped—”
“And was hurt.”
“How do I know that wasn’t planned?”
“I would not volunteer for that kind of pain.”
“Yeah, being Tasered isn’t pleasant, but if done correctly it won’t kill you. Everyone knows that. And it makes it easy to plant someone to play on my emotions Make me trust them so then they can lead me to the real threat.”
The Detective's Dragon Page 4
