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  “Don’t see him,” one of the males said at last and the other grunted in agreement.

  “But I was so sure,” she insisted. “I saw him go in!”

  “Sorry, Darleen—he must have gone in a different room,” the first male said dismissively. “Now look, why don’t you go back to the nurses’ station and let Bill and me hunt him? It’s not safe for you to be looking for him.”

  The female gave a miffed-sounding reply but I didn’t catch it—they had already closed the door and moved on.

  I held my new color for a few minutes and then, with a sigh of relief, I let myself revert to my normal dark tan. In the presence of the new Empress, of course, I would automatically take on the gold skin-tone that only the Imperial Guards are permitted to use and when I began to serve her, my skin color would match her mood—but only in private. Out in public what the Empress was thinking and feeling must be kept secret—so my skin would remain gold at those times.

  But just now, I wasn’t with my new mistress and so I could relax and let myself be the color I had been born with.

  Speaking of the new Empress, I had to get out of this closet to find and protect her. But how could I do that with everyone in the House of Healing looking for me?

  My question was answered when my eyes fell on another stack of fabric—this one light green. It looked like the color of the strange, baggy clothing Charlotte and her colleague had been wearing the night before.

  Unfolding one of the stacked garments, I saw that it was so. The shirt I found was much too small for me but after rummaging around in the pile, I finally located one that fit—albeit tightly—over my chest. The trousers were a different problem—none of them were long enough for my legs and the thin material showed my continued erection embarrassingly.

  Because I was still hard. I didn’t know why—I wasn’t full of desire, not the way I had been the night before when the new Empress’s blood had begun to work on me and I felt her cool touch on my fevered skin. So why…?

  I felt that tug behind my navel again and suddenly made a connection. The Goddess-Empress was said to have sacred blood because it called her people to her. Of course, it was just a saying but what if there was some truth in it? What if the tug I felt was leading me in the direction of my new mistress?

  The minute the thought occurred to me, I knew it to be true. The tug was leading me to Charlotte—maybe even because she was in danger! I had to get to her.

  I found another stack of linens—this one of the white coats so many of the staff wore here. Most were too small but there was one labeled XXXL that finally fit. Shoes were a problem—they had taken my boots. Then I saw a small, rectangular box marked, Shoe Covers. Inside I found pale blue ovals of thin cloth that were clearly meant to stretch over the feet. They were a tight fit for me, even without shoes on, but I made do. After all, they only had to get me out of the House of Healing and on my way to find Charlotte. I felt instinctively that she had left the area and was on the move.

  At last, I looked almost Earth normal—well, except for my size. Crouching a little to disguise my height, I ducked my head out the door. No one was watching so I stepped out, keeping the too-tight white coat wrapped firmly around myself to hide my continued erection. Gods, I wished it would go down! It was extremely uncomfortable to be sporting such an obvious mark of desire, not to mention the discomfort of trying to walk with the rigid shaft between my legs.

  There was a sign at the end of the hallway marked Exit with an arrow beneath it. The tug behind my navel told me to follow it. In fact, it tugged so urgently I had to fight the desire to run. Was the new Empress in danger? I had to find her soon! But I knew if I went racing down the halls again, I would only attract attention to myself. Trying to look as though I belonged there, I strode confidently down the hallway at a brisk pace.

  Hang on, my new mistress, I thought as I followed the urgent pull that guided me forward. I am coming for you—I swear I am!

  Chapter Five

  Charlotte

  I had an uneasy sense of being watched as I pulled into my assigned parking space in front of building 4 in the Sunshine apartments. It was actually a retirement community which wasn’t supposed to admit anyone under sixty-five. But I reminded the landlady of her granddaughter and I had explained my situation—lowly intern who barely gets any time off—and how hard it was to find someplace decent to stay near the hospital.

  She had taken pity on me and I after I had practically sworn on a stack of bibles that I wouldn’t bring home strange men or have any wild parties, she had rented me a small one bedroom ground floor apartment with faded blue carpet and a shower that sometimes went ice-cold when one of the upstairs tenants flushed.

  It wasn’t the nicest place in the world, but that hardly mattered because I almost never saw it. I lived at the hospital for the most part, only dashing home occasionally to pick up a few things and take intermittently icy cold showers.

  As I got out of my Spark and clicked the alarm key, I told myself I was being foolish and paranoid. There was no one around to watch me but Mr. Peterson—the old man who liked to feed all the stray cats in the apartment complex. He was my next-door neighbor and the scent of cat urine frequently wafted from his open door when he came out to put down food for the “outside babies” as he called the strays.

  “Well, howdy there, Doc,” he said, smiling jovially at me as ten or twelve cats of all shapes and sizes twined around his skinny legs. “Haven’t seen you in a coon’s age. You been busy down to that hospital of yours?”

  I smothered a small smile. Mr. Peterson might smell of cat pee but I liked his folksy way of talking. He’d told me once he was “born and bred” in Texas and though you could take the man out of Texas, you clearly couldn’t take Texas out of the man.

  “Yep—a little busy,” I answered, coming up the walk. “You got some new strays today?”

  “Appears I do.” There was an unmistakable note of satisfaction in his voice. “Lots of outside babies today, just doing what they do.”

  “So I see.” I smiled at him and yawned. “Well, I’m just coming off a twenty-four hour shift so I’m going to see if I can catch some shut-eye before my next shift at the hospital.

  My words were an unsubtle hint—Mr. Peterson was a bit deaf and completely addicted to daytime TV. I was hoping he would know I was asking him to keep the volume on his old-fashioned, boxy TV set down to a dull roar while I was trying to sleep. The walls at the Sunshine apartments were paper-thin and it was really hard to sleep through the constant game-shows and soap-operas I could hear going on in my neighbor’s living room.

  If he got my hint, he didn’t acknowledge it at all.

  “You have a good sleep then, Doc,” he said cheerfully. “I’m just gonna finish feeding the outside babies and then I have to feed my inside ones.”

  “You do that,” I said, nodding. I had never asked how many cats Mr. Peterson had but counting both the indoor and outdoor ones, I was guessing the number was upwards of fifty.

  Letting myself into my apartment, I took a deep breath and sighed in relief. Here I was, home at last, about to get some much needed sleep. Yes, I’d had a crazy night and yes, my only friend was mad at me but I was finally going to get some rest.

  Well, the only friend near enough to hang out with, anyway, I amended to myself. I thought guiltily of the way I had put Leah off the last two times she had called me. I should have talked to her but I was so busy with the hospital and that damn blue worm had been driving me nuts…

  Speaking of the blue worm, it occurred to me that it had been over twelve hours since I had last been plagued by him. That was like a record, right? Maybe he was finally going to leave me alone!

  I had a happy feeling that I was right—that everything was suddenly going to go my way. The worm hallucinations were over, my strange patient from the night before was safely sedated, Mr. Peterson would keep his TV down and I would have the best sleep of my life. Then I would go back to the hospital and m