Defeat the Darkness (Hearts of Darkness) (19 page)

Chapter 24 Research

Max’s the next morning

Max stood shirtless at the counter, looking like a Chippendale in his black slacks and skin as Shelby came downstairs for breakfast. She would have put the thoughts of sex out of her mind if her muscles weren’t reminding her how darn good it had been. After several months of celibacy, she hurt in places she’d forgotten existed.

“Coffee smells awesome. Any beignets left?”

He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “I saved two for you,” he said, turning and handing her a cup.

She took a step back and sipped to test it. The coffee was just the way she liked it. Sweet and creamy, and so was the man. It took all her self-control not to openly ogle him and the way those broad shoulders flared, narrowing to his waist and tight ass, were definitely ogle-worthy.

“Two for me?” She picked up one of the beignets and asked, “What about you?”

If he caught her admiring him, she’d never live it down. Turning aside, she drank her coffee and tried to concentrate on anything else.

“I ate my share while you were in the shower. Not taking any chances. For a little thing, you sure know how to pack away the food.”

“I never wanted to be known as one of those delicate Southern Belles who acted like they never ate.” She shoved a sweet powdered piece in her mouth and moaned as she licked her lips.

Max’s eyes lit up with interest.

“Thanks. This is perfect.” She lowered her lashes and lifted the mug.

“You need a ride to your place to pick up a few things before I take you to the hospital?” Max asked.

“No,” she snapped before she realized it. She couldn’t face the apartment, not after what happened with Kyle or last night. “It’s okay,” she added, trying to cover her over-reaction to his simple question. “Thanks, anyway. I have clean scrubs in my locker.”

She finished the coffee and wiped her lips with the napkin then washed out her cup. “Maybe tomorrow, after my shift.”

“Ah? Are you ready to go back to work?”

“Don’t be a pest about this—”

“Not him.” Max growled. “The drug.”

“Oh. Oh, I-I’m okay, I’m sure.” But was she?

“I want to get started on your tests before my committee meeting this morning.”

A sharp pain from the memories choked her. She’d forgotten about the tests. Perhaps “forgotten” wasn’t the word. She’d “blocked” the memories. Every time one pushed into her conscious thoughts, she fought back, replacing it with childhood and adolescent memories of Max. Those she could face, those carefree days before puberty interfered. Despite her denial, she did feel strange about hopping into bed with Max. Rebound sex or not, seducing him was highly unlike her.

“How long will it take you to get ready to leave?

“Give me ten minutes. I have to do something with my hair.”

Max’s gaze rose to her hair. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. She tried to smooth it by running her fingers through it, but it was wild and snarled from the shower.

“Don’t say anything. I ran out of detangler.”

“Sorry, I used the last of it. Not used to sharing.” Max’s hands went palm out and his eyes opened innocently, but she saw the smirk tempting his lips. “There’s probably spray something or other in the guest bathroom that will help.”

Yes, there would be.
The subtle reminder of her presence in his bed and using his bathroom sent heat to her cheeks. She wasn’t ready to discuss the multitude of intimacies they shared all night and as usual, Max intuitively sensed her reluctance to examine what happened between them.

“Come here.”

The tone in his voice signified his determination and a sexual spark of interest glimmered in his expression. It made her heart race, but she was drawn to him anyway. She couldn’t refuse without creating suspicion.

“Okay, but I’m not counting this in my ten minutes,” she said as she approached.

He lifted her chin with one finger and ran his thumb across her lower lip. “We don’t have to talk about anything yet. Okay?”

She blinked and swallowed. Shelby didn’t dare try to speak. She nodded as he scooped her into his arms and kissed her.

Wow! What a kiss.
Max released her and she stumbled back trying to catch her breath.

“Don’t think there won’t be more where that came from.” He swatted her ass, then pulled his shirt off the chair. “Now get going. We have a lot to do today and I want to get home early so we can go over the test results.”

When she glanced over her shoulder, he’d already put on his shirt and was tucking it in. It was a crime to cover up all that muscle.

~~~~

Ten minutes later, almost to the second, Shelby crossed the kitchen, heading to the garage. “Meet you in the car,” she hollered into his study.

“Be right there.”

The garage had no window, so without the overhead florescent, it was dark when she stepped down the first step and started to close the door behind her. She backed up and tried the light switch.
Nothing.

Goosebumps rose over her skin and the hair on the back of her neck bristled. An unusual scent in the garage almost sickened her. What was it? She couldn’t recall. It was one of those scentual memories leaving you with the emotion without being able to identify the cause. Sometimes the memory was positive, like fresh mown grass or warm spring rain. Not this one. Fear consumed her, froze her to the step, and prevented her from flipping the switch.

Was this reaction a result of the drug? Some sort of flashback? A rebound side effect?

Max’s arm reached around her and he pushed the garage door opener. As the door lifted, light flooded the garage.

“The switch didn’t work when we drove in last night. I need to look at it later.” He stared at her as she scanned the garage and shook off the hallucination. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just freaked myself out.”

“After your experience, it’s not a surprise.” He took her arm and immediately stopped. “What’s wrong? You’re shaking. What happened? It’s more than you’re letting on.”

“Yeah, well, I remembered something about the night in Guatemala. The scent of sulfur. I thought I smelled it when I stepped out here.”

Max sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything. Maybe you should be checked out physically when you get to work.”

“Please, no.” The last thing she needed was sympathy from her coworkers. “I don’t want anyone to know what happened.”

“All right, but we may need to run more tests. The drug could have affected something besides your olfactory senses. I’ll add a few other tests to the chemical analysis, too.”

Max helped her into the car and then walked around to the driver’s side. When he climbed in, and closed the door, he looked serious. “Promise if anything else happens you’ll tell me.”

“Promise. Scouts’ honor.” She held up two fingers.

“You were never a scout.” He glanced at her then back to the rear view mirror.

“True. Mrs. Dalton ran the program like a Confederate General. What a pain. I had to learn all my scouting tips from you.”

“Swear on our friendship.”

Shelby puffed out a breath. “Good grief, Max. You’re getting paranoid.”

He glared at her. She knew that look. She wasn’t winning this argument. He was stubborn that way.

“Okay...on our friendship.” She flipped him the bird.

“Geezus!” Max laughed and shook his head. “You are incorrigible.”

“I think it’s one of my finer traits and one you always admired most about me.” She grinned proudly at him. “We have that in common.”

The streets were busy, yet traffic was light. Max turned into the hospital parking garage and found a spot near the elevator. Shelby didn’t wait for him to open the door. She stepped out of the car and took a deep breath. Suddenly a flashback of the smothering humidity in Guatemala assailed her senses. Her knees buckled. She gripped the door, took a deep cleansing breath, and shook off the dizzy spell.

“Shelby, you are not okay!” Max said, the concern evident in his voice as he rounded the car and took her arm.

“I’m fine. This heat is oppressive and it’s not even seven yet. Any rain evident in the forecast?”

“No. Just more of this wet air.”

Typical city scents like exhaust, garbage, and old urine assaulted her, not the dank moldy scent of the jungle even though the similar humidity hovered around ninety-nine percent.

“Look Shelby, I want to see you at lunch. Can you get away?”

“Sure. I wasn’t supposed to be back to work yet, anyway. I just need to check in and pick up a new schedule for next week. I’ll walk over to your department and wait for you when I’m done.” The familiar hospital neighborhood calmed her nerves. It was good to be back, she thought and stepped in when the elevator door opened.

He pushed the buttons for their respective floors and held the door open when the car reached her floor. “Shelby, you going to be okay?”

“Sooner or later.” She stepped back into the elevator and gave him a quick friendly kiss. “Stop worrying. I’m tougher than I look.”

She stepped out as he said, “Tough is good. Brittle isn’t.”

“See you at lunch.” When the door closed between them, Shelby exhaled and glanced around, still feeling a little shaky.

What was she even doing here? What was up with her? Getting the results back from her drug tests was looking more important than she’d first thought. It was too soon to go back to work. She couldn’t risk hallucinating while working with patients. She’d have to put off starting her work schedule until they knew more. A week should be enough time for Max to figure out what the drug was and for the effects to clear her system.

~~~~

Max carried the bag with the specimens for testing to his lab. The place was empty for the time being. He had about an hour to run his tests before his team showed up for work. By then the results would be programmed into his personal computer to avoid questions.

Besides, he wanted to start Shelby on a blood cleanse if he could talk her into it. After the incident in the garage this morning, he was more concerned about the long lasting side effects of the drug she ingested than he’d been at first. If it hadn’t cleared her system by last night, he needed to run more tests as soon as possible to find out what was going on with her. She wasn’t sharing everything. Those hallucinations were serious. The sooner he finished the tests the sooner he’d have the results.

He put the bag on the table, prepared the specimens, and ran the centrifuge. After he set up a few slides with her blood samples, he made a pot of coffee and waited. Once the coffee was finished dripping, he intended to examine the slides briefly before the first tests results began uploading to his computer.

The first glimpse of the slides drained the blood from his head. It was a good thing he was sitting down. He picked up the first one and the next, physically rechecking to make sure they were the
ones he’d just prepared. There weren’t any other samples around or anyone else to mess with his head. He opened the files that started popping up on his screen and held his breath. Something was wrong. Her blood contained some sort of mutated blood cells he’d never seen before. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach wouldn’t lighten up. It tightened as he considered and rejected every option. The computer program was spitting out error messages with every result.

He entered the data into the computer and added the details as the computers recalculated the new results from the tests he’d run.

“Holy shit!” Nothing looked good. The hair contained remnants of a paralytic drug, probably some native plant. The urine sample confirmed small traces left even after more than forty-eight hours. That alone confirmed she’d been heavily drugged, or this stuff was extremely potent.

He reached for his phone, scrolled the recent calls, and pressed send when he reached Dr. Salazar’s number. If anyone knew about the effects of Guatemala’s native plants, he would.

After three rings, Max found himself clenching his teeth, impatient for an answer. Fortunately, the doctor answered on the fourth ring. Max couldn’t take much more tension.

He explained what happened to Shelby and his findings so far to Salazar. He left out the part about Amyra and Kyle sprouting fangs. The doctor confirmed the potency of the suspected drug and the potential side effects, but the blood mutation didn’t factor into it. He suggested Max run a DNA panel on Shelby’s blood to determine the cause of the mutated blood cells and asked about hallucinations. Desperate for answers, Max decided to share the whole story, vampire hallucination and all.

Salazar didn’t sound surprised considering the weirdness factor. He offered to look at the test results if Max didn’t mind sending them. Finally, he asked about Shelby’s physical and emotional condition, and then he offered his condolences when Max told him about the bites and the break up with Kyle.

He breathed a sigh of relief after the phone call. Dr. Salazar had an international reputation for being one of the foremost authorities on third world health problems. If Shelby picked up
something while she was in the jungle, Max felt better knowing Salazar would look over the results. He keyed in the codes and sent the data to Salazar. The rest of his team was due in any time, so he cleared all the data and samples out of the lab. He locked them in his personal office safe. After he checked to make sure he didn’t miss anything, he collapsed into his chair and exhaled. He had no idea what he was going to tell Shelby when she showed up for lunch.