Yearnings: A Paranormal Romance Box Set (45 page)

Here, alone in the dark.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 9

Was it lack of oxygen, or was there really a red glow emanating from the blood bank? Had the emergency lighting kicked in? Was there hope?

Then a low growl rumbled from the room. Deep. Bestial.

It echoed in her bone marrow. The only time she had ever heard such a terrifying sound had been when her family had gone to see feeding day at the zoo. Except the big cats’ meals had been delayed, and over a dozen angry lions rattled the bars until they shook dust from their moorings.

Sal hadn’t been back to the zoo since.

A snarl made every hair on her body stand on end, responding to a prehistoric cue. The same panic filled her chest that had filled a Neanderthal’s heart thirty-five thousand years ago. Adrenaline demanded that she fight, or give flight. Death was on the prowl.

“
Are you afraid?” he whispered as he showed her his knife.

The red light pulsed steadily, like a heartbeat, and the sound from the beast’s maw filled the narrow hallway.

Sal squeaked, “Terrified.”

“
May I?” The man reached out.

The world no longer made sense. Had this man really killed Maria?

And if he had, why not just kill her as well?

If he wanted Sal dead, she would be dead, a dozen different ways.

While she had no idea who this hulking man was, the fear she felt for him paled in comparison to that throaty growl emanating from around the corner. There was an evil that could have torn her friend to pieces. Now his sharp knife no longer seemed all that scary, instead Sal viewed it as an asset. It was the only weapon that stood between them, and … well, whatever was coming around the corner.

The only thing she knew—their attacker wasn’t human.

If she had to choose between it and him …

Risking to trust him in this small way, Sal placed her hand in his, but he betrayed it. In a blinding flash, the man used his knife to slice her wrist.

“
What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed.

A guff came from deep within the red glow. Paws padding through Maria’s blood made a sickening sucking sound. Sensing a meal in the making, it came. Her blood drew it.

Panicked, she looked at the man. Why had he done such a thing? Did he, in fact, mean her harm? Was he going to throw her to that creature? But the man concentrated on dripping her blood upon his blade.

To her amazement, with each drop, the steel glowed more brightly. When the length of the metal glistened white, the man raised it in defiance.

“
Smell her fear, beast. Know that my blade is rich with it,” he growled, almost as feral as the creature. “Come—if you dare!”

A roar burst forth, shaking the walls as it exploded into a full charge.

The man shoved her behind him. “Run!”

She didn’t need his urging as she took flight down the hallway. Red permeated the air. An inhuman scream echoed off the walls as she heard the clash of steel, but still she ran, turning the corner of the hallway, sprinting for the stairwell door—only to find it locked.

“
No!” Sal pounded on the door as the fierce battle inched closer.

The dark landing soon glowed an angry red. The man stumbled into view, his once-pristine coat slashed and bloodied in the fight. How could he fight so valiantly to protect her, but still cut her so? When she looked down at her wrist, the cut had already healed. A thin, pink mark was all that was left of the gash.

Ever since the hallway had turned burgundy, nothing made sense. How could this stranger in leather be defending her from some creature?

In a sweeping motion, the man raised the knife high above his head.

The steel that had turned pure white was now tainted black with dark blood.

Arcing it downward at the creature, he yelled, “Enough!”

As the blade met its mark, an explosion rang out.

Thrown backward, Sal’s head slammed against the door.

The world turned red, and then black.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 10

Confused, Sal squinted under the bright lights. A maelstrom of activity swirled. The loud clang of instrument trays and shouts of vital signs buzzed in her ears. Sal would know those sounds anywhere. She was in Trauma One. Only this time, she wasn’t the doctor. She was the patient.

“
She’s coming around!”

As Sal awoke, the panic did as well. A growling rumbled at the base of her skull as Sal struggled to rise. She had to run away, and run fast.

“
Babe, hold still, they’re trying to get your blood pressure.”

She swung around to face the man holding her, but it was only Richard. Who else did she think it could be? Despite her mind knowing that she sat on a gurney in Trauma One, her heart pounded as if it were still in that lethal hallway.

“
You’re safe, honey,” her fiancé reassured her.

Then why didn’t she feel it? Dread filled her heart, and her muscles ached to be used, but there was nowhere to run.

“
How did I get here?” she asked.

Paul tightened the blood pressure cuff as he answered. “I went down to check on the blood …”

Sal tried to meet his gaze, but the light was too harsh for eyes grown accustomed to pitch-black. When had they gotten the lights back on? How long had she been out?

“
Dr. Calon, did you see anyone down there?” a female voice asked.

“
Detective, can’t this wait?” Richard demanded.

“
It’s best when it’s fresh in her mind,” she said.

At first, Sal’s throat wouldn’t respond. After clearing her throat, she found she still couldn’t speak. Not because of any ailment, but because she couldn’t remember what happened. No matter how hard she tried, the memories eluded her—settling in her mind only as fragments.

“
There was a red light. A growling …”

Although everyone else seemed skeptical, Paul nodded in agreement.

“
Maintenance was down there getting the old steam generator online. In the dark, that probably sounded pretty damn scary.”

That couldn’t be it, could it? The harder Sal thought, the less she knew. Could all the terror she felt have just been maintenance workers?

“
Richard, you’ve got to keep her arm out,” Stacy demanded as she flicked a penlight in Sal’s eyes.

“
I’m fine,” she insisted, but Manning still fussed.

Paul expertly nudged Stacy out of the way, then gave Sal a reassuring smile, only the expression was tainted by sadness. Why was Paul sad?

“
Maria!” she shouted. “Oh God, she’s—”

Richard gripped her against his chest. “We know, Sal. We know. There was nothing you could do.”

But there had to have been something she could have done. Someone else had been there. Hadn’t he? If she closed her eyes, Sal could smell his musk, or was that her own fear?

Richard cradled her face in his hands. “Do you remember something?”

Her fingers found the skin on her neck. It was still sore, but not bruised.

She could feel her lungs struggle to breathe, but her trachea had been pinched off. How could that have happened?

The detective couldn’t hide her impatience. “Maybe you can walk me through what happened. We know you made it to the blood bank, since you had blood on the bottom of your sneakers. Why don’t you start there?”

Sal doubled over, nearly heaving. The blood that the detective referred to was Maria’s. She’d stepped in her best friend’s blood.

Richard kept his arm around her, but stood to his full height. “That will be enough. You don’t actually suspect her of this crime?”

The detective had to shake her head.

“
Clearly, then,” her fiancé explained, “if she remembered anything of value regarding her best friend’s murder, she would tell you.” He raised his voice another octave to quiet the detective. “The harder you force her to relive the traumatic events, the deeper you will drive her away from the very memories you need.”

“
She’s a material witness. I can hold her until—”

Sal stiffened. She didn’t want to stay here. Didn’t want to be questioned anymore. She just wanted to crawl in a hole and sleep until this could all become just a vague nightmare.

Richard flipped his cell phone open and hit a speed dial number. He waited patiently while it rang.

The detective’s frown was back. “Who are you calling?”

“
Your Chief of D’s,” he said casually. “I’ve been treating his daughter for PTSD. You might have read about it in the papers.”

“
Who hasn’t?” Paul snorted, freeing Sal from the blood pressure cuff.

The girl they referred to had been assaulted in Golden Gate Park, and even though she wasn’t that physically injured, the college student had descended into a near-catatonic state. After three other psychiatrists had failed, Richard coaxed her back into true consciousness. Then, to prove his reputation had been earned, he helped the girl remember and identify her attackers. After they had been convicted, her father had given Richard a commendation from the department.

“
Fine,” the detective admitted. “But I need her down at the station first thing tomorrow morning to make a statement.”

Richard snapped his phone closed. “I’ll drive her there myself.”

As the detective left, Manning tried to maneuver her fiancé out of the way. “You might have spoken too soon, Richard. I’m not sure if I’ll be releasing her any time tonight.”

“
I’m taking her home,” Richard stated. “
Now
.”

“
But I’m still waiting on blood work and …” Stacy stammered.

“
We both know her CT was clean. So just call me with the lab results, and I’ll monitor her mental status at home.”

“
But—”

“
Get the paperwork ready, Stacy,” he said with a finality that shut even Manning up.

Without a stethoscope constantly around his neck, it was easy to forget that not only had Richard gone to medical school, but he was a senior clinician, outranking everyone in the room.

Sal had never been so grateful to Richard as when he draped his coat over her shoulders and escorted her out of the trauma bay. The lights were too bright. The noise too loud. The pain too sharp.

Maria was dead, and there wasn’t a thing she could remember. Was she there when her best friend was killed? Had she done anything, absolutely anything at all, to save her?

With Richard at her side, she made it toward the ambulance doors and was almost gone when EMTs pushing a gurney passed by them, its occupant draped with a white sheet. The mid-region was stained burgundy.

Maria.

She reached out to the passing body, but Richard pulled her back.

“
Come on. Let’s get you home.”

He wrapped his arms around her in a protective manner, but they felt thinner than she remembered. The embrace, while meant to be reassuring, felt only soft. His shower-fresh scent gave her no comfort.

With a wobbly gurney wheel squeaking, her best friend’s body rolled past.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 11

Sal stood at Richard’s bedroom window, watching the rainfall. If only she could cry as easily as the heavens. None of what had transpired felt real. From the smallest detail of missing a suture placement not once, but twice, to her best friend meeting a bloody end in the basement.

Arms wrapped around her waist, she stared at San Francisco from her vantage point atop Nob Hill. The Victorian home had been built at the turn of the century to provide the most magnificent view of the bejeweled city.

To the left was the glimmering Golden Gate Bridge. To the right was the now- dark Bay Bridge, and somewhere out in the blustery bay lay Alcatraz Island.

Beneath her, entire swaths of the city were still black, which only made the twinkling reds and greens of Chinatown all the more stunning.

Lightning danced across the horizon and thunder grumbled, but they were far off. Only distant reminders of the chaos that had crashed into her life. She glanced behind her. Richard was still asleep, his swimmer’s body only partially covered by the goose down comforter. If only she could have found sleep with such ease.

Fear clutched her belly. The desire to run was nearly irrepressible. It took conscious effort not to put on her shoes and just head out into the night. She knew that whatever happened down in the basement must have been horrible to make her so skittish, but not being able to remember the details somehow made it all the worse.

Richard had tried to soothe her, but each time Sal came close to snatching a fleeting memory from the ether, her throat closed off, and the only thing that came out was a moan.