Chapter Eight
Charlotte
I went to the door with a glaring Kristoff right at my back. He was keeping to the shadows, such as they were, but I could tell his big body was coiled tight as a spring, ready to jump into action if he thought I was in danger in any way. God, he really took his job seriously! I had the uneasy feeling it was going to be next to impossible to get rid of him.
I have to admit, my heart was hammering in my chest as the door swung open. What if Kristoff was right? What if it was another assassin droid coming to attack me?
What met my eyes was the last person I had expected.
Dr. Drake Hunter stood there, his brown hair slicked back and a self-satisfied look in his baby-blue eyes. He was dressed in tight jeans and there was a motorcycle helmet under one arm. He was the “cool” doctor at North Florida Regional and he had every nurse, tech, and PA in the place swooning over him.
“Dr. Hunter?” I said blankly. “What are you doing here?”
He looked me up and down and gave a long, low whistle.
“Well, hello there, Charlotte. Aren’t you looking lovely today.”
I suddenly remembered that I was wearing nothing but the black lace teddy and the robe that went with it. Then again, it wasn’t exactly like I’d had time to change, what with all the craziness that had happened to me in the last half hour.
“How can I help you?” I said, not bothering to keep the dislike out of my voice. I know lots of women who think that confidence is sexy—and it is, if you think the man being all confident and in your face can turn you on. But one shake of Dr. Drake Hunter’s neatly manicured hand had been enough to let me know he couldn’t do a damn thing for me sexually. Not that anyone could but still—his arrogance was annoying.
“Now, Charlotte…I think we got off on the wrong foot the other day.” He gave me a blindingly white grin that all the other women at the hospital found completely charming and I just found irritating.
“You mean when you asked me out and I turned you down?” I said bluntly.
I’m not usually so rude but my heart was still pounding hard—here was another person from the hospital who shouldn’t know where I lived showing up on my doorstep. Was he an assassin-droid? I didn’t see a glint of silver in his blue eyes and he was a lot more articulate than the Carlos-thing had been but still, maybe whoever it was that wanted me dead was stepping up their game with an upgraded model.
Dr. Hunter’s grin slipped a little but he clearly wasn’t one to give up.
“Well yes—I was thinking I just caught you at a bad time,” he remarked. “Your Attending said he sent you home so I thought maybe with a little privacy…”
“You thought if you cornered me at my home I’d agree to go out with you?” I demanded. “How did you even get my address?”
“I’m friends with Linda, in Records—she looked it up for me. She was actually pretty jealous when I told her why I wanted to see you. I, uh, think she has a little crush on me.” He winked at me knowingly—damn, would nothing puncture his huge ego?
“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I just don’t think—”
“You don’t have to think about it at all, baby.” Before I knew it, he had captured one of my hands and was staring soulfully into my eyes. “Just come with me. I’ll take you for a ride on the back of my Harley and then afterwards we can spread a blanket under the stars…”
“I don’t think so,” I began but suddenly Kristoff was standing beside me, glaring down at Hunter. His skin had taken on that strange gold sheen again that I had seen the night before in the ER and his eyes were whirling with rage.
“Hands off,” he growled at the startled Dr. Hunter.
Hunter dropped my hand abruptly, but held his ground.
“Who is this?” he asked me, his eyes never leaving Kristoff’s tall form. “Is he, uh, from another hospital?”
I blessed the fact that Kristoff was wearing the stolen scrubs and lab jacket from the hospital.
“Yes,” I said quickly. “This is, uh, my brother, Kris.”
“Your brother?” He raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Forgive me for saying so, but you two look nothing alike. What’s the deal with his skin?”
“That’s because I was adopted,” I said, which was the one truth in the stew of lies I was telling. I ignored the skin question—there was no plausible explanation as to why my companion suddenly had a golden sheen to his dark tan skin. “Kris is visiting from Minnesota where he’s a resident at St. Paul’s.”
“St. Paul’s, huh?” Hunter frowned, clearly not buying it. “If he’s here visiting on vacation, why is he dressed in scrubs?”
“He, uh, thought he might come with me to do afternoon rounds,” I said weakly—I could feel my house of lies collapsing but I wasn’t quite ready to give up on it yet.
“I thought your Attending sent you home to get some rest,” Hunter said, still frowning.
“He did but I’m, uh, perfectly well rested now and I was about to go back,” I said.
“Dressed like that?” He eyed me incredulously.
“I was about to put on my scrubs,” I said. “You just…caught me at a bad time.”
Hunter started to ask something else but Kristoff glared down at him.
“No more questions,” he said in that deep, dark voice of his. “You will leave now. You are not wanted here.”
“Well aren’t you just fucking rude?” Hunter snapped at him. “Charlotte, I think you’d better reign your extremely tall brother in. If he even is your brother.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, wasn’t there an extremely tall patient who escaped from the psych ward today?”
“Was there?” I said, trying to sound unconcerned. “That’s strange.”
“Yes—a patient I heard you were treating in the ER last night.” Hunter’s face grew rigid. “What are you doing, Dr. Walker? You know this kind of thing is a serious breach of ethics.”
Great, when he wanted to go out with me I was sweet little “Charlotte.” But the minute he thought he’d caught me with another man—and a patient at that—I was suddenly the much more formal “Dr. Walker.”
“What I do is none of your business,” I said stiffly. “And speaking of a breach of ethics, I think getting a fellow employee’s address so you can harass them at home is pretty unethical. In fact, I’m sure my friend, Marge, in Human Resources would love to hear about it.”
At last he stepped back, his face dark with anger.
“Fine. I was trying to do you a favor,” he snarled. “Just trying to brighten up your sad, pathetic little life.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need it brightened badly enough to go out with you,” I snapped back.
I could tell from his face that I had gone too far. Dr. Hunter outranked me at the hospital—he was a Resident and I was just a lowly intern. I had just burned a bridge there was no rebuilding and it could have a serious impact on my future career.
“You’ll pay for that,” Hunter said tightly. “You just flushed your career down the toilet, little girl. Remember that the next time you want in on a surgery and you’re stuck on endless rounds giving enemas and cleaning out stomas.”
He turned and marched off, leaving me fuming with rage. Okay, so he hadn’t been an assassin-droid after all. But I kind of wished he was—it would have been better than the conversation we’d just had and the inevitable outcome.
I went back in my apartment and slapped the door closed only to find Kristoff standing there, staring at me appraisingly.
“What?” I snapped. “I hope you’re satisfied. Now he’s going to go tell everyone at my work that I’m harboring a crazy escaped psych patient in my apartment.”
“I wouldn’t have been labeled ‘crazy’ or had to escape if you hadn’t ordered me drugged and tied to that metal sleeping platform,” he reminded me, frowning.
“Well, what was I supposed to do?” I demanded. “You nearly choked my friend Sebastian to death! And he was just joking around with me. I??
?m surprised you didn’t try strangling Dr. Hunter just now when he got nasty with me.”
“I didn’t think you needed my help,” he said mildly. “You acquitted yourself very well. I can tell already you’ll make a formidable Empress.”
“Not that again.” I threw up my hands and went to sit back on the couch. “Look, do you know how tired I am? I’ve been up for well over twenty-four hours and the last hour of that has been running from an assassin-robot and arguing with a seven-foot tall alien who seems to think I’m the queen of the universe. Not to mention flushing my medical career down the toilet by insulting a Resident. It’s crazy.” I felt tears of self-pity pricking behind my eyelids and blinked them away angrily. “I just can’t deal with this right now!” I said, my voice trembling much more than I wanted it to.
Unexpectedly, Kristoff’s eyes softened and he came to sit beside me.
“My Lady,” he murmured, looking at me earnestly. “I see how weary you are. Why don’t you take your ease and sleep for a time? I will guard you that your sleep may be free of fear.”
“You talk like an escapee from the Renaissance Festival, you know that?” I said, but there was no anger in my words, only a weariness so deep I felt it all the way down to my bones.
Suddenly I was so tired I could barely move and I wanted to sleep more than I’d ever wanted anything else in my whole life. When I woke up, I could fight with my new, unwanted houseguest some more but for now, I simply couldn’t find any more energy to deal with him or any of the rest of the crap going on in my life.
“Sleep,” Kristoff urged me.
I wanted to agree with him, get up, and go slide into bed. Even with the racket coming from Mr. Peterson’s TV on the other side of the wall, I felt like I could sleep about a hundred million years. But I was so tired, I couldn’t even nod my head, let alone get up and go to bed.
With a little moan of pure exhaustion, I scrunched down and laid my head against the arm of the couch.
I’ll just take a fifteen minute power nap, I told myself. Then I’ll get up and get everything worked out. But right now I just need some time…just a little time to recharge…
So telling myself, I drifted off and knew no more.
Kristoff
I waited until she was deeply asleep and then I gathered her into my arms and carried her into her sleeping chamber. She sighed deeply and turned her face towards me, nuzzling against my chest in her sleep. The innocent gesture made my heart tighten strangely though I could not have said why.
I slid her between the sheets of her sleeping platform and debated taking off her outer garment, which was a type of robe. I didn’t want to overstep the boundaries she might perceive between us but actually, there are no boundaries between the Goddess-Empress and her personal guard when it comes to such things.
As the Empress must be protected at all times, it is considered best to have her surrounded by attendants she can trust and so we of the Imperial Guard are trained in all aspects of personal care and comfort. We are able to give a soothing massage as well as fight off a would-be assassin. We are as capable of bathing and tending our Empress as we are of finding out and foiling a deadly plot against her life.
My old mistress, Sundalla the 999th never required such intimate services of me, though she confided in me a great deal. But I knew that past Empress’s had used their Guards for much more than just protection. And why not? Our bodies are sworn to the service of she who sits upon the Golden Throne. We are there for the Empress to use in any way she sees fit.
There is no shame in such service—only honor and loyalty and the pleasure of a job well done.
I decided at last that Charlotte would sleep easier without her outer robe. Carefully, I untied the sash that held it closed and slipped it from her sleeping limbs.
Then I wished I hadn’t done it.
She was too beautiful, lying there with her silky blonde hair spread over the pillows and her long limbs carelessly splayed. She was full figured, with ripe breasts and rounded hips—lush and gorgeous in a way I didn’t think she was at all aware of. The tips of her pink nipples poked through the fragile black lace of her small sleeping outfit and the V between her thighs was capped with a mound of silky-looking blonde curls.
For a moment I thought of some of the other, more intimate duties I had heard past Guards had performed for their mistresses…and then I pushed the thought away.
I made myself pull the coverings over her, hiding her luscious body. It was wrong to think such things about the female I had sworn myself to. Wrong and strange. I had never had such problems in my service before. Of course, my old mistress was forty cycles my senior and had once confided to me that her desire for any male had died when her bonded mate and Consort had passed into the other realm.
It’s only her blood calling to me, I told myself uneasily. My chastity is dedicated to her along with my life. These feelings will pass…they must.
Speaking of her exulted blood, I was cautiously relieved that, despite the large amount of it she had given me, Charlotte didn’t seem to be showing any signs of the Calet Sanguis, also known as the Burning Blood. It is the sickness which most often occurs following the Culling of the Consorts ceremony, after the Goddess-Empress has given her blood to the ones the Council deems worthy of her attentions.
Of course she hasn’t experienced the Calet Sanguis, I told myself sternly. Your blood isn’t rarified enough to call to hers, no matter how much of her own blood she pumped into you!
It was a ridiculous thought and I pushed it from my mind. I was there to protect and serve—nothing else. Accordingly, I looked around for another way to serve her.
There was a pile of clothing which needed washing on the floor and I thought I remembered seeing a machine in the closet by her food-prep area that had pictures of clothing on it. Perhaps I could figure it out.
Gathering as much of the clothing as I could, I slipped out of her sleeping chamber and went to make myself useful.