Dark Experiments

by Lana Campbell

  She shoved him in the shoulder and strode off toward the door, saying as she went, “Save it. Just try and stop me, buddy. You’ll be spitting teeth like sunflower seeds.”

  There was a whooshing sound, then Christian stood in front of her, his expression as fierce and determined as she was to get the heck out of this place. “Nice move, vampire boy, but you’d better get the hell out of my way. I ain’t playing here.”

  “Neither am I. Now you either get your ass back in that bed or I’ll put you in it and tie you to it.”

  Rage and the need for freedom to go home lick her wounds and try to make sense of all this built inside her like a perfect storm. “One last warning, Christian. Get the hell out of my way.”

  He reached out and braced his hand on the door jam. “I know you’re confused and angry, Tiffany, but there is no way I’m letting you leave. I can’t. I have many more tests to run on you because you’re not fully recovered. Now get your butt back in that bed and let’s talk about this. Give me a chance to explain why I made this decision.”

  He was right about one thing. She wasn’t prepared to face this, but she was done arguing with him and in no mood for explanations because they didn’t matter. She had been in bad shape no doubt, but he’d turned her to eliminate what he thought was his biggest problem keeping them from a romantic or sexual relationship. Tiffany couldn’t figure out what he’d hoped to gain by doing this to her. Well, he was about to find out he’d destroyed their chance at any sort of relationship! Including friendship.

  With lightening quick moves, she didn’t even know she possessed, she grabbed him by the shoulders and drove a knee straight into his crotch. He let out a groan, then a second later his body folded forward and slumped to the floor. She hated what she’d just done, but he’d been begging for it. Not knowing how quickly vampire males recovered from being racked, she yanked the door open and fled down the hall like a bat out of hell.

  Katie hollered at her to stop as she ran by the nurses’ station, but she didn’t spare her a glance. At the end of the hall she spotted an elevator, but decided that means of escape too risky. Her gaze darted about and she spied a stairwell. She dashed inside and up two flights, rather amazed by how quickly and efficiently she’d covered the distance.

  Once she reached the V clinic level she knew she was home free. As soon as she hit the sunny New Orleans street her eyes began to burn like someone had doused them with acid. She went blind instantly and began to scream in agony. Simultaneously, her head exploded with a deafening roar. A myriad of excruciatingly loud sounds pummeled inside her head like bullets being discharged into a barrel, with her inside.

  Traffic, blaring car horns, voices, music and other city racket beat her eardrums into pulp. The torturous system overload brought her to her knees faster than she’d brought Christian to his and made her realize why Christian had been trying to force her to stay. Vampires couldn’t go into daylight without sunglasses and she had just stupidly done one of the very things that terrified her most about their lives.

  Seconds later, some external force grabbed her off the ground and whisked her away. Her sight and sound were so compromised she had no idea who had her or where they were taking her. The intense pain in her eyes and head had weakened her, but she still had her tongue. She used it to curse her abductor and his lineage all the way back to the Mayflower.

  * * *

  Christian was sick at heart as he assisted Noah in fighting Tiffany into vampire restraints on her hospital bed. However, Noah had been right in insisting upon them. She was completely out of control. When Noah recovered Tiffany from the street and brought her back into the hospital, she’d been viciously fighting and cursing him. He’d joined the fray to help Noah and received a bloodied nose for his efforts.

  Her strength was incredible, born of her new, stronger body and the adrenalin rush of fear and rage. However, as much as he hated this, neither of them could afford another episode similar to the one that had just occurred. The entire hospital was in an uproar. Patients were firing questions at staff about what was happening, while nursing tried to calm and corral patients and their family members to wherever they were to be.

  He supposed it could have been worse. It was Sunday. There were no patients or staff present in the V clinic, just a handful in the hospital where Tiffany resided.

  “Let me go!” she screeched, bucking against their hold like a wild bronc. “I swear to God, Christian, when I get ahold of you I’m going to skin you alive with a very dull, serrated hunting knife.” Her blazing gaze shot to Noah, and she ground out through clenched teeth, “As for you, asshole, you’ll be wishing for a very dull knife before I get done with you.”

  Noah glared at her and yanked the ankle restraint in his hand taunt as a bowstring. “Shut your mouth you stupid, little guttersnipe. What you did just now could cost us this practice if the wrong people were witness to your stunt on the street. We’ll be lucky if none of our patients go into premature labor after the chaos you just caused here.”

  Christian understood Noah’s outrage, but he wasn’t about to let him hurt Tiffany. “Stop that!” He shoved the man back and gave the restraint some slack, then covered her with a sheet and blanket.

  She trembled with rage. Tears swam in her eyes and he was sure they weren’t just from the painful results of the sun. “I’m so sorry, Darlin’. As soon as I can, I’ll take these off, but until you simmer down and listen to reason, I can’t risk it.”

  She ceased fighting the restraints and stared at him, her new, beautiful amber eyes filled with desperation. “Please, Christian, I won’t try to leave again I promise and I know now that I can’t without sunglasses. You have to get these things off of me or I’ll lose my mind.”

  Her tone was pleading, her expression sincere. He hated this decision worse than anything he’d had to do as a doctor in his entire career. He wanted to believe her desperately. Christian took hold of the ankle restraint to unbuckle it, but Noah grabbed his wrist.

  “I know how hard this is for you, but this is necessary and you know it,” Noah said.

  Christian glanced between Tiffany’s pleading features and Noah’s stern, determined ones then settled on Tiffany’s. “Do you promise to stay in this bed and cause no further trouble? And will you simmer down and finally listen to me so I can explain why I did what I did?”

  “I know why you did what you did. You thought if I was vampire nothing would stand in your way—” Her furious gaze cut toward Noah. “You need to get the hell out.”

  Christian nodded once and Noah complied without a word.

  Once he’d closed the door to her ICU suite, Tiffany said, “No doubt I was in bad shape when you made the decision to turn me, but nothing you can say will ever convince me that it was my only option for survival.”

  “Tiffany that’s not true. You coded. Your organs were shutting down. You had severe internal bleeding. You really would be dead right now if I hadn’t given you my blood.”

  Her eyes narrowed menacingly. “Your blood? Now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you did this for your own purposes. I know what a blood bond is. We share one, right?”

  She did have him there and he could see the very sad place she was going with this and that nothing he could say would sway her to believe the truth. “Yes, Tiffany, but that doesn’t mean I would connect to your thoughts without your permission.”

  “You will never have my permission!” she exploded. “Get these damned restraints off of me. Now! I’m calling Mom or somebody to come get me. I can’t stand to be tied down and I can’t stand you either right now.”

  “I can’t do that, Tiffany.” Noah was right. She’d just received a reeling revelation which few people could take without unleashing volatile emotions and actions. Tiffany’s temper was hair trigger on a good day.

  “I’m so sorry, Tiffany, but I have to think of not only you but the V clinic and other patients. You can’t imagine the ruckus you caused just now with patients and staff.
The restraints stay until I determine you’re stable enough mentally and emotionally for me to remove them. But I will call your mother for you.” Maybe Mia could knock some sense into her head.

  She pressed her lips together in a hard line and stared straight ahead at the wall, breathing hard. “I’ll never forgive you for this. Any of this ever!”

  “Tiffany, I’m sorry, if you just let me finish explaining things—”

  “Fuck you! Fuck your explanations. Just get the hell out.” She shot him another scathing look. “I mean it. Get out!”

  He’d known she would probably take the news poorly, but he hadn’t expected her reaction to be this bad. He felt soul sick for everything she’d been through and all he’d done to put her in this state of mind.

  More than anything, he wanted to set her free, take her in his arms and never let her go. That inclination was not an option. The girl had been a wild thing as a human. Now as a new angry and frightened vampire she was a raging force of nature.

  “I hope to heaven you can get through to that wild child,” Noah snapped once they were in the hallway alone outside Tiffany’s room.

  “Me too,” Christian replied hoarsely, then fingered his nose and winced. Man, she packed a punch and a knee--his balls still throbbed, his pride too. He’d be hugely pissed she’d gotten over on him if he didn’t feel so sorry for her. “But you know this wasn’t a normal turning, plus someone tried to kill her. She’s scared and confused, angry at me because she made it emphatically clear she had no desire to become vampire. Who could blame her for acting out?”

  “Be that as it may, you had better find a way to reign in that little hellion when you do take those restraints off of her. All of us have put far too much time, money and effort into this practice to watch it implode over the foolish actions of some untamed brat parading around like a lunatic throughout and in front of our clinic. We will be lucky if we don’t encounter the police and who knows what other human entities over this incident.”

  “I know she’s a handful, but she’s my handful and I’ll keep her in check. Why don’t you go home, enjoy the rest of your Sunday and quit worrying about Tiffany’s display in front of our clinic. For God’s sakes, this is one of the seediest parts of New Orleans. Every other day there’s some drunk, prostitute or tweaker parading around in front of our building half naked or all jacked up.”

  Noah actually laughed at that. “You have a point. Very well. Do what you feel you must with her and while you’re doing so, know you have my deepest sympathies.”

  Christian shook his head as he watched him stride off down the hall. He didn’t care that the man found Tiffany uncouth. He loved her and had never realized that fact so clearly as those long days he’d tread on the cusp of losing her to eternity. God spared her. Mia said as much. He’d like to think it was for him, for them, but that seemed premature given her current state of mind.

  By nightfall, Christian realized he needed a hell-of-a-lot more than sympathies. He needed a miracle. He stood in the door to her room, his shoulder resting against the jam as he watched her sleep. A short while ago he’d given her a sedative. Otherwise she would have laid awake all night brooding and staring across the room at the wall as she’d been doing most of the day since he and Noah had wrangled her into bed.

  He’d removed the restraints, but gave the staff strict orders to treat her as a flight risk. He’d told her if she tried to leave again, the restraints would go back on. However, if she did make another attempt, she wouldn’t be able to get out of the building. It was locked down tight from the inside and outside for her protection.

  Christian had no idea what to do to get her to listen to reason. Tiffany had gone inside of herself and his explanations for why he’d turned her had gained him nothing more than a grunt or a ‘screw you’.

  When her family arrived this morning, she’d begged them to take her home. When they refused she clammed up. She was angry with them too for insisting she needed to be under medical supervision. Specifically, his. Had she endured a mere turning, Christian probably would have sent her home with her mother, but he needed to monitor her and continue running tests until he was certain she was one hundred percent healthy. Just like his patients, she had VHS, a residual result from the poisons. The results kept getting better with each blood sample he drew from her, but until her blood was clean he didn’t want to let her go home.

  He’d spoken with Mia a short while ago before she and the rest of the family left for the night. All of them were grasping at straws for ways to bring Tiffany out of this funk, but their efforts had failed. Tiffany was angry with the situation, but mostly with him. Although he understood, it still hurt him that she thought his motivations for turning her in any way profited him. Yes she was his life mate and of course if given the choice he wanted his life mate to be vampire, but those thoughts never entered his mind that night he gave her his blood. He’d been too damned busy doing what needed to be done to keep her breathing. Why couldn’t she see that?

  Christian left her to hunt down a snack. He’d just bit into a stale sandwich he’d scrounged up in the break room fridge when Betty walked into the room. She’d come back on shift for the night about an hour ago.

  She gave him a concerned look and said, “How are you holding up?”

  He laid the thing on the countertop and rolled his shoulders trying to work out a couple knots embedded deep in his back muscles. “I’m okay. What’s been going on?” He’d been so consumed with Tiffany, he had no idea the status of his maternity patients.

  “It’s been a joyful, but fairly uneventful evening. Four deliveries. Mothers and babies are all fine. Dr. Langston finally went home to get some rest. Dr. Bradley is on call as you know. He’s retired for the night in the doctors’ suite.”

  Christian nodded, grateful his partners were getting much needed rest.

  “How is she?”

  Christian hunched a shoulder. “Mad at the world at the moment and even madder at me.”

  Betty laughed softly then gave him a compassionate smile. “She’ll come around. She can’t stay angry forever.”

  Christian rolled his eyes. He would lay no bets on that one.

  Betty glanced at his sandwich and frowned. “Let me find you something better than that to eat. Julio is the prep chef tonight for tomorrow’s meals. I’m sure I can talk him into making you one of his amazing chicken taco salads.”

  That did sound good. He was starved for food and blood. He smiled. “Well, if you can wrangle one out of him, I’d be much obliged.”

  She returned a grandmotherly sort of smile and patted his forearm. “It would be my pleasure. Go rest. I have things covered.”

  Christian knew sound reasoning when he heard it. “Thanks. I’m going to take a transfusion, then I’ll be in the doctor’s suite.”

  Betty beat him there with the taco salad which was sitting on the coffee table when he arrived along with a glass of iced tea. The doctor’s quarters were swank. He and Asa had spared no expense when they’d remodeled an old warehouse into the clinic, figuring they’d be sleeping here more nights than their respective homes.

  There were three bedrooms with king beds. The common area had a kitchenette, bathroom, a couple leather sofas and recliners, a 60” holoscreen with cable, and a work out area.

  Christian made quick work of the salad. Exhaustion set in so hard, he didn’t even make it to his bedroom, but fell asleep sitting upright on the couch.

  Someone shaking him rousted him out of a deep, sound sleep. He gave a start and looked up. It was Asa and he looked seriously pissed. “What’s wrong? What time is it? Did I oversleep?”

  “Five in the morning. Time has nothing to do with why I woke you or why I just about strangled a certain incorrigible female.”

  “Tiffany?” Shit! What had she done now?

  “Yeah. I met your lovely life mate,” he growled through clenched teeth. “You must have done some really bad things in a past life for God to have saddled you with
that one.” He thrust out his right arm. Just above his wrist were two nasty looking puncture marks. “She figured out one thing her fangs are good for.”

  “She bit you? How the hell did that happen?” He gained his feet and glared at his furious partner, feeling bad for him and pissed at that brat life mate of his.

  “She bolted again. Me and two of the male CNA’s caught up with her in the upstairs waiting room. She was trying to break the bullet proof glass front doors by pummeling them with a metal chair.”

  Unbelievable. However, given everything he’d witnessed her do in the last twelve hours, perhaps not so much. “Did she?”

  “No, she’s strong, I’ll give her that, but not that strong.”

  “God, I’m sorry, Asa. What happened next?”

  “I tried reasoning with her, but that didn’t work. Next the three of us tried corralling her back toward the elevators. That just pissed her off more. She charged me and tried the same number on me as she did you the other day, but I was a little quicker. I grabbed her, we wrestled for a few minutes--and by the way, she could get a job with the Navy teaching sailors how to cuss--then I got hold of her around the waist and thought I had her…” He broke off and muttered a curse he’d heard Tiffany use a number of times. “She sank her fangs in my arm and I hit the floor like a sandbag, then it was on between her and Billy and Jason. They’re big boys, but she scared the hell out of them. Both have multiple bruises and contusions. Jason’s nose is broke.”

  “Shit!”

  “Oh wait, I’m not done yet. It got even uglier from there.”

  “Uglier how?”

  “Let’s just say we need to go shopping for furniture this week. She tore up every piece we had in the waiting room by throwing them at me and Billy and Jason. It took the three of us, but we eventually wore her out and got her back into bed and restraints. I’ve never seen Betty so mad in my entire life. It’s the first time since I’ve known her that I heard her cuss.”