Darkness Read online

  Don’t leave me, Kat. Don’t die. Keep fighting, he silently urged her. I’ll do anything if you just stay with me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Why is it taking so long?” Darkness cradled his bleeding fist, ignoring the hole he’d just put in one wall.

  Fury sighed. “Do you feel better? Allow Paul to bandage that. You’re going to slip on your own blood.”

  Darkness refused to stop pacing. “They’ve had her for ten hours.”

  “It takes time,” Fury reminded him. “You insisted on them giving her the healing drugs. They had to put her in deep sedation and stabilize her heart before they operated to stop the internal bleeding. No news is good news. It means she’s still alive.”

  He halted. “Maybe they are afraid to tell me.”

  Trey sipped his coffee. “I would be.”

  “You’re not helping,” Ellie muttered.

  “Would you want to tell him? He’s scary when he’s pacing and randomly striking out at walls.” Trey arched his eyebrows. “They’d tell you though. I was trying to lighten the mood. She’s hanging in there.”

  “Why are you even here?” Darkness glared at the human.

  “I want to know how your girlfriend is. I’m rooting for her.”

  “Shouldn’t you be at the task force meeting?”

  Trey hesitated. “I wasn’t invited. I’m suspended for a few days.”

  “Tim suspended you?” Darkness growled. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Easy there,” Trey murmured. “You want someone to pulverize but it had nothing to do with you or what we did on scene last night.”

  “Why are you suspended?” Fury frowned. “I haven’t heard anything about it.”

  “It’s between Tim and me. I broke a rule of his. He’s pissed but he’ll get over it. I’m not saying anything more.” Trey grew quiet.

  Darkness resumed pacing. Justice entered Medical and Darkness glared at him. “Do you have something to say to me?”

  Justice glanced at Fury.

  “No word yet.” Fury looked at the clock. “She’s a fighter.”

  “For a human?” Darkness snarled. “Is that what you meant?”

  Fury lifted his palms. “Stop. You are looking for a fight and I’m not giving it to you.”

  “Don’t look at me.” Justice shook his head. “I read the reports and I don’t have a problem with anything your team did. We returned the paramedic to her home. She’ll have a good story to tell and was very understanding of the stressful situation. There won’t be any problems with the human authorities. I did want you to know that the police recovered a body from Katrina’s home. It’s Robert Mason.”

  That saved Darkness the trouble of hunting the male down and killing him.

  “Are they sure?” Fury looked skeptical. “I saw some of the news coverage. There wasn’t much left of that house.”

  “They had positive identification. He was a priority since he’s FBI and because of the association to the NSO. They pulled dental records and immediately compared them at the coroner’s office. Jessie’s father put pressure on them too. It’s him. There’s no doubt. His body was heavily damaged but enough was left for them to make other distinctions as well.” Justice walked over to the pot of coffee and poured a cup. He turned, studying Darkness. “We’re getting heavy inquiries from the press about what went down last night but it’s being handled. Her family is in communication with Missy. We won’t allow them access to Homeland but Missy assured them everything was being done for Katrina.”

  Darkness scowled. He didn’t know much about Kat’s family. He hadn’t asked. “They wish to see her?”

  Justice nodded. “They have to fly in. They are living in other states. She had Missy listed as her medical contact at the FBI. That was lucky for us since the female is here and hasn’t protested anything our medical staff has done.”

  “She probably doesn’t realize how dangerous that healing drug is,” Fury rasped.

  Darkness glared at him.

  “I’m not saying you did wrong by demanding she be given it,” Fury quickly stated. “I’d have made the same decision.” He shot a meaningful look at Ellie. “I just hope her friend is kept unaware of the side effects.”

  “What are they?” Ellie inched closer to her mate.

  Fury took her hand. “It was tested on Species but when they tried it on humans it caused heart attacks and massive strokes. It was too powerful for them to withstand.”

  “Think massive amounts of amphetamines,” Trey added. “I learned about it when they put True’s mate on it after she was shot. It accelerates the healing process but it can also raise the heart rate too high, causing severe arrhythmia and heart attack. The patient can also stroke out because their blood pressure goes through the roof.” He stared at Darkness. “You had to take the risk. I’m sure she’s still here because of the drugs. It’s given her a real chance at survival if they can just keep her stabilized. It’s got to be a fine line between keeping her vitals high enough to keep her alive but low enough to combat the side effect of the drugs.”

  “Well, Jeanie is great now.” Ellie smiled. “The drugs saved her. We just need positive thinking. They’ll save Katrina.”

  “Kat,” Darkness growled. “She likes to be called that.”

  “Don’t,” Fury growled back. “You want to pick a fight? Not with my female.”

  “I’m frustrated.” Darkness calmed. “Sorry, Ellie.”

  “It’s okay.” She kept her smile in place. “You wouldn’t be the only Species to ever get testy with me.”

  The door across the room swung open and Doc Alli came out. She’d changed from her scrubs to a shirt and shorts set. Her sandals were quiet on the floor as she approached. Her expression masked her emotions but she locked gazes with Darkness, walking directly up to him. She stopped.

  “That’s one tough lady you have in there, Darkness. I didn’t want to come out to give you news until I was sure she was going to make it, barring unforeseen circumstances.”

  He let the words sink in.

  Doc Alli grinned. “It was touch and go. I won’t lie. We had a hell of a time figuring out what dosage she could withstand but giving her enough to help her. The paramedics on scene were wrong. Her lung was bruised but it hadn’t collapsed. She had hairline fractures along her rib cage on that side but they’ve mended. We also didn’t find any internal bleeding so we didn’t have to operate. She just got bruised to hell, has a severe concussion and needed stitches in three places. She lost a lot of blood from those sites, which explains her scary vitals when she came in. She was suffering from extreme shock. She’s Trisha’s blood type. That was lucky. Treadmont insists on keeping all mate blood types on hand just in case one of us ever needs it.”

  “May I see Kat?” He was afraid to believe her.

  “Yes. I’ll take you back. We have her hooked to a lot of monitors. I want you to be prepared for that. Treadmont and Trisha are staying with her. She’s healing so fast we already had to remove the stitches so you won’t see those. Next time we’ll just use staples if we ever have to use the healing drugs on one of us. We’re keeping her sedated to manage her heart rate and blood pressure. We brought her around once to make sure she…”

  “She what?” Darkness didn’t like the way her grin faded and worry flashed in her eyes.

  “She took a severe blow to the head. We had to put her down fast when her heart rate rose too high but we wanted to make certain she was okay. The scans we did when she arrived showed some swelling but it’s gone now.” Doc Alli reached out and placed her hand on his chest. “We were worried about damage.”

  “She’s fine though, right?” He felt sick.

  “It was a closed head injury. You got her to us fast and we immediately began the drugs. We think we caught it in time before she suffered permanent injuries. The scans look great now. There’s no bleeding. We’ve been running scans every hour to watch her. The last thing we wanted to do was open her up. We don’t h