More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (24 page)

Katya could practically scent the doctor’s irritation when she turned back to her. “If you won’t leave, then go brood in the corner. Agent Sheridan is here to protect me in case the girl decides to tear me to wee bits.”

Tag grumbled or maybe growled, but he retreated a couple steps.

“Do you intend to begin shredding, or may I check your pressure?” The doctor’s brusque voice held just a hint of sarcasm that had Katya dragging her gaze back to her.

When the doctor lifted the blood pressure cuff and gave it a smart shake, Katya nodded.

“Ms. Shaffer, my name is Brit Mahoney. I’m the lead scientist and the only doctor who deals with the health of Incog’s crossbreeds,” Dr. Mahoney continued as she swiftly strapped on the cuff and pressed a stethoscope to Katya’s arm. “I treated you briefly when you first arrived, but your mate has been determined that I keep my distance from you since. I’m going to endeavor to get as much information from you as I can before he returns.” She targeted Tag with a murderous glance as she began to pump the bulb. “He may be her mate, Taggart, but I am her doctor, whether he likes it or not. Now remove yourself from my head so I can concentrate.”

Katya turned a confused gaze to Kel, who was smirking. “Tag and Doc are frequently at odds. Taggart,” Kel said with an exaggerated simulation of the doc’s lilt, “likes to drag his knuckles in her head. It’s fun to watch.”

“He’s an overbearing Neanderthal,” Doc snapped as she pulled the stethoscope off with a frown but left the cuff in place. Her dark red brows knitted together as she leaned in closer to study Katya with an intensity that made her want to squirm. “You’re a crossbreed with predominant Sanguen characteristics,” Doc murmured and motioned to Katya’s lip. “May I?”

Katya gave a hesitant nod. “Crossbreed?”

Doc gently pulled up her top lip with a low, affirmative sound. “Regardless of what scientists have attempted, species cannot be altered after birth.” Those strange blue eyes were inhuman in their focus as Doc looked her over, lowering her gaze to Katya’s belly. The frown on her pale features deepened. “That wasn’t in my preliminary blood workup,” she murmured to herself. “You—”

Tag stepped forward, and the doc spun to glare at him for a long moment.

Katya got the impression Tag was speaking telepathically to the doc again, and whatever he said made the brisk woman even more annoyed.

“This is dangerous,” Doc snapped and then turned to face Katya. “Your blood pressure is too low for my comfort. I would already have enough blood stocked to transfuse you if I had been allowed to assess you properly. As it is, we shall have to make do.”

“Make do?” Katya frowned as Doc disappeared into a room with some serious biometric security protecting it.

“Indeed.” Doc’s voice echoed from the opening. She reappeared with a bag of blood. “We can address the issue for now, but you will eventually have to heed the demands of your body, Ms. Schaffer. Your blood count is obviously low and unable to sustain your body, particularly in the heightened state caused by your adrenaline rush. Luckily, Agent Sheridan was present to bring you immediately here. And you may thank the Neanderthal for administering chest compressions.”

So that was why her chest hurt like hell. Katya rubbed at the ache and cast Tag a hooded gaze where he’d once again positioned himself near the doc but quickly turned away from his watchful stare.

Glancing down at herself, she shuddered at the heavy splatter of blood that covered her. It even stained her hands, and she rubbed them on her black pants, the tight, dry feel of it uncomfortable on her skin. The blood was everywhere. Her heart rate spiked again, and she took slow deep breaths, fisting her blood-caked hands against her legs. She could feel their stares. She could feel their anxiety each time her heart monitor started to accelerate. Were they afraid she’d go all postal again?

Did she blame them?

“Raife’s body is already changing to accommodate you. Nature makes allowances for all her creations, Ms. Schaffer, even the ones man sees fit to trifle with.” She moved to the stainless-steel counter and drained the blood into a beaker. “As your mate, it is his responsibility to provide for you. Nature has already ascertained that he is capable.”

Kel stepped forward to raise the head of the gurney when Dr. Mahoney motioned to her. The shift had Katya’s head reeling and her heart monitor skipping. She took deep breaths to stabilize both.

“What do you mean by saying Raife’s body is changing?” Katya asked as she accepted the glass beaker into her hands, wincing at the dried blood that stood in vivid contrast against the pale skin of her fingers.

“Raife is developing
polycythemia
.”

“
Polycythemia
? I don’t understand,” Katya echoed and dropped her gaze to the thick red liquid in the beaker. It smelled of Raife and yet didn’t. It lacked his heat. His vitality. Despite the lack, her hunger still surged to the fore, but she could manage it. The slow, uneven beep of the heart monitor gave her confidence.

“It means his RBC count is increasing at an accelerated rate, Ms. Schaffer. Each crossbreed mating is unique to the pair. A pureblood Sanguen male naturally produces the needed volume for his mate at the appropriate time, but Raife is a pure Drachon. You obviously require the added sustenance. As your biological mate, his body is changing in an attempt to supply it.”

“He’s a walking blood bank for a bloodsucker. I’m sure he’ll love that.” Her words sounded dry and brittle with self-loathing, even to her own ears, and she winced. This entire situation was so far out of her control, she was starting to sound pathetic.

“Damn, Kat.” Kel frowned. “Don’t give Raife too much credit or anything. The man’s only been crazy about you since you were a kid.”

A little swell of shame from Kel’s words heated Katya’s face and tightened her throat as she brought the beaker to her lips and drank it down. It was cold. Sterile. But it soothed the ache to a degree, although she knew the hunger would return. It stalked her, even into her sleep. Her dreams of late had been dark and erotic. Frightening. Had they been a warning of the true nature of the beast Dr. Rupple had created with his tampering?

The doc watched Katya, red brows pulled together. “I cannot speak for your
mate
, Ms. Schaffer. Perhaps that is a discussion you should take up with him. Maybe even before he throws a clot from the abundance of platelets and expires from a brain aneurism.”

“Doc!” Kel snapped furiously, and her defense after the reprimand only moments before made Katya feel worse. “Kat just took out a handful of those mindless bootlickers protecting her
mate
. Cut her some slack.”

Katya heard Tag move restlessly from the other side of the room, and the doc turned to glare at him.

“You are absolutely right,” Doc snapped at Tag. “I
don’t
understand. Your people won’t permit me to. Evidently Drachon mates”—Doc motioned to Katya—“are not permitted to know either.”

Tag moved so quickly Katya barely saw him until he was nearly on top of the doc, who only continued to glare at him in irritation. “Don’t go pounding your chest in my head, Taggart. I am not in the habit of mincing words, nor will I start now. At this point, your precious secrets will only end up killing them both. Silence may have once served to protect the Drachon, but that time is past.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Katya looked from the doc to Tag and back. What secrets? She didn’t like the threat to either her or Raife. Something very elemental and raw rose up in response to it. She rubbed at her temples as the buzzing in her head intensified.

“Damn it, woman, just answer the asshole. He’s frying my brain,” Tag snapped and stepped away from the doc.

Raife. That incessant buzzing was him trying to contact her? She’d inadvertently blocked him when she’d woken up feeling so threatened. She’d learned quickly in the lab to keep her mind sealed tight from the moment she gained consciousness. Tentatively, she mentally opened herself just enough. Rage and concern blazed at her through the crack. She gasped at the onslaught.

“Katya, you better fucking answer me right now.”

“I’m fine.”
She sent the hesitant thought to him. It sounded as though a locomotive was plowing through the halls just outside the lab, and Tag cursed.

Kel chuckled. “Saved by the dragon. And just when things were getting interesting.”

The steel door was slammed back off its hinges, the distinct impression of two large hands embedded in the steel where he’d pushed it away. The doc threw her hands in the air and paced away.

Raife kept coming without sparing even a glance at the others. He didn’t stop until he stood next to her gurney, staring down at her. Katya gasped as his heat rushed over her, drawing her nipples into hard points, and she hunched her shoulders forward to hide the effect it had on her body.

Bloodstains darkened his black shirt and BDUs. The dark material was ripped away from his chest, and she could see the mating scratches. She felt her face heat up at the sight of them. They almost felt intimate, as though a part of her were on display too. It made her feel vulnerable.

His golden eyes blazed, his gaze roving over her, before moving on to the others. His frown darkened as he stared at each person in the room, and she knew he couldn’t possibly miss the tension.

“What the fuck is going on here?”

Chapter Eighteen

The last hellish hour had been the worst in Raife’s entire life.

Gideon had called in the cleanup crew. Gideon had updated Forestor. Gideon had set up a place to rendezvous with the helo. For Raife, just keeping his dragon from going into total rage had taken most of his concentration. Luckily, Gideon was still of sane mind, because Raife had been out of his. When Kel disappeared with Katya, she hadn’t been breathing. Every time he attempted to reach for her, there was only blackness, and that scared the hell out him, despite Tag’s assurances she was alive.

As it was, even being in the same room with her, he still felt a chasm between them, barely able to sense more than a trickle of her emotions. There was a faint suspicion and guilt tainting her but otherwise…nothing. She hadn’t been so closed down since he’d first rescued her.

The doc just looked as irritated and coldly clinical as she usually did. Is that what put Katya on alert? He hadn’t wanted to subject his mate to the doctor until she was more at ease, considering what she’d gone through in that research facility he’d pulled her out of. The doc meant well, but she still put
him
on edge with those eyes and the way she had of looking at you as if you were smeared on a slide under her microscope.

The rapid beeping of the heart monitor drew Raife’s attention, and he frowned at the cords that led from the thing and disappeared into Katya’s hospital gown where she lay back against the raised head of a gurney. He’d known she’d been in a bad way, but the sight of those wires jarred him. Raife helped her up when she struggled to sit and maneuver her legs over the edge. He could see the effort cost her by the way she leaned forward, short of breath. She didn’t attempt to stand up. He frowned down at the top of her head. Dried bits of…Guardian clung to her hair, and he sighed. She was alive. He could work with that.

“Doc, fill me in on what’s going here?”

Doc folded her arms over her chest. “Several things, actually. First of all, your mate seems intent on fighting her nature.”

Raife looked back at Katya when he felt a faint swell of fear come off her. She lifted her head, but she avoided his gaze as she began pulling the wires from beneath her shirt with impatient tugs that sent the heart monitor into ear-piercing shrieks.

With a sigh of exasperation, the doc stomped forward and pressed buttons to silence the squawking machine before turning back to him. “Secondly, you and this Neanderthal here”—she motioned to Tag”—are keeping dangerous secrets. Ms. Schaffer is the first Drachon crossbreed I’ve encountered and I cannot adequately treat her if I’m not given full disclosure on what constitutes a Drachon pairing.”

Obviously the doc suspected something, but how much did she
know
? Raife directed the thought at Tag.

Tag crossed his arms over his chest.
“The doc figured out Katya was pregnant, but Katya only suspects we’re keeping something from her. I don’t think she knows what yet.”
His lips thinned as he watched Katya struggle to breathe.
“I don’t like this. Your mate is unstable right now, and I’m damned uncomfortable with her so close to the doc. You know the doc is as close to human as an Arcane can get.”

“She doesn’t pose a danger to anyone in this room.”
He shot a pointed glare at Tag, who met it with a hard stare.
“And you damn well know it.”

“All I know is that your mate went into a rage. I heard the reports coming in, Merrick. What she did…what she’s capable of…”
Tag cast a glance at the doc, and his jaw tightened.
“She’s dangerous.”

“I know you guys are talking about me,” Katya snapped a little too breathlessly as she slid to her feet. Raife braced her with an arm around her waist, but she shrugged him off. “You don’t have a right to keep secrets about my life.”

Katya was inhaling slowly with her head bowed, her frailty palpable. Less than two hours ago, she’d neatly and efficiently dispatched seven fully trained Guardians. Okay, maybe not neatly, he admitted after remembering the amount of body matter that littered the Defoes’ once homey kitchen. She was definitely dangerous. Lethal. She had the instincts of a female Drachon protecting her family but with a hell of a lot more firepower, and that probably scared her shitless.

Seeing it had terrified him, but now that she was safe at Incog, he was willing to admit—if only to himself—the memory of it gave him a wicked sense of satisfaction. Drachon liked their women a little vicious, and he was no different.

“I’m sorry, man,” Tag said and turned to face Katya. “You’re unstable, and you pose a risk to all of us. I’m recommending to Forestor to have you confined until you’re…better.”