Love Is in the Air (6 page)

“Are you paying attention, or are you going to wake me up fourteen times today asking me questions that I’ve already answered?”

Without even looking at the board, Sal stated, “Curtain four needs an enema. We’re waiting on a surgery consult to clear the sprained elbow, and as soon as a telemetry bed opens up in the step-down bloodward, Trauma One will be transferred.”

Clearly disappointed that Sal had been listening, Manning tossed a pile of charts onto the desk. “Well, since you’re so familiar, you can sign them all off.”

Stuff it
, Sal thought. Charting was the worst part of their job, tedious and boring, but Paul stood behind Manning with his hands clasped in prayer, silently begging Sal to agree.

“Fine,” Sal acquiesced. “But if I get slammed, you’ve got to do mine tonight.”

Stacy just walked off. Typical. Sal turned to the small sea of younger residents, interns, and medical students. “All right, Feldon, supervise—”

“Dr. Calon?” a baritone voice asked from behind her. Startled, Sal turned to find the Chief of Emergency Medicine waving her over. “Would you mind stepping into my office?”

Her muscles tensed in one painful second. Those were the most dreaded words you could hear from Dr. Bersher. No one went into that office and came out unscathed.

You were either fired, or… Well, you were fired.

CHAPTER 15

If you got a summons to Dr. Bersher’s office, you might as well call the unemployment department. Sal glanced around. The entire staff had the same stricken look. There the Chief stood, his office’s huge window looming beside him—a one-way glass that made it all the better for him to spy on the ER.

Until she had come to San Francisco General, she’d never seen anything like it. At first the concept had been creepy, thinking that Bersher could be watching at any moment, but after a while it became reassuring to know that he was there.

It certainly kept things moving. If more than five charts sat in the rack, he’d come barreling from his office, barking orders. No one wanted the Badger to leave his den, so the SFGH emergency room ran more efficiently than any she’d ever worked in.

How she wished he’d been here last night.

But now…

He must have sensed the staff’s reluctance to have her enter the axing room. “Please. I don’t bite.” Yet his tone proved otherwise.

Clearing her throat, she joined him. “Dr. Bersher, I didn’t realize you’d come back early from your vacation.”

“I felt my presence was needed.” He urged her forward. “As is yours in my office.”

As she entered, Sal realized that she had no idea what to expect. No one who still worked here knew what the interior looked like. To her surprise, the office was far more comfortably appointed than she would have guessed.

An executive chair was placed behind an antique mahogany desk, with two mission-style chairs opposite. An overstuffed leather couch ran along the far wall. Why he had extra seating, she didn’t know, since he had, at most, five people visit over the course of the year.

The Badger wasn’t into formalities, as he spoke before either of them had a chance to sit down. “As you might be aware, Maria’s family has chosen to fly her body home to Dallas for burial there.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Sal answered, realizing she had always thought that Maria came from Fort Worth. How could she call Maria her best friend, when she couldn’t even properly identify which of the Texas cities she came from?

“I still feel that it’s important for the staff to have closure, so I have arranged a small memorial service tomorrow afternoon in the chapel.”

Sal found the words hard to speak. Any thought or emotion having to do with Maria felt heavy. So heavy that she felt like she would break just trying to convey it. “I think everyone would appreciate that.”

For the first time in the three years she had worked here, her boss seemed reserved. Almost timid. “I have been talking with the staff, and I know this may be hard for you, given the circumstances, but they would like for you to speak on their behalf.”

“I don’t understand.”

“They feel that you were the closest to her, and if we only had enough time for one person to give a eulogy, it should be you.”

Sal just stood there, blinking. She didn’t even know where Maria grew up. How could she eulogize her? “I… I don’t know if…”

“You loved her, and they love you, so anything you say…” he said softly, then opened the door. “Now why don’t you get some work done?”

Still in a daze, Sal exited the office. Had the Badger actually been nice to her? When she looked up, she found the entire staff watching her with an anticipation that bordered on terror. Knowing that her boss was probably watching at this moment, Sal just gave a little thumbs-up sign. A cheer erupted from the cluster of staff, which brought a smile to her lips.

Yep, she was home.

CHAPTER 16

At 11:29 p.m., Sal plopped down in the residents’ office, feeling every inch of the unforgiving metal chair. She carefully set down her laptop, but let the heavy stack of charts slide haphazardly onto the desktop.

Well, if she wanted distractions, she’d gotten a lot. She’d lost count of the number of patients after they hit the thirty mark. It seemed the City had held its breath after the violent storm, and then in a rush exhaled, right into the emergency room. It was all in those charts. Fractures, colds, herpes, and one strange case of heat exhaustion.

She tried to turn on the small lamp that looked like it had been out of style even back in the seventies, but it didn’t work. The bulb was burnt out. Out of the eight residents, it seemed that she was the only one who knew how to change it. However, tonight she was so tired that instead of walking all the way to the other end of the emergency room to the supply closet, she just pulled up the blinds to let in some light.

As Sal looked out over the ER, she realized that the Badger had remodeled the residents’ office to mimic his own—kind of like a mini-den. Her office might not have one-way glass, but she could survey the width and breadth of the department.

Of course, there were a few other differences, such as no leather couch. Hell, no leather anything. Just two bunk beds with threadbare sheets, this rickety desk, and a tiny refrigerator that couldn’t even hold a full six-pack of soda, but it was her domain.

Well, maybe not her kingdom, but certainly her responsibility, one that she had fulfilled today. Despite the insanely high volume of patients, everything had gone smoothly. Maria would have been proud of her staff.

Not a single complaint as they worked through the day without even a break. If only the selection committee coveted efficiency more than pomp.

Unfortunately, Sal couldn’t rest on her laurels. It was getting late, and she had about two hours’ worth of charting to do in under thirty minutes.

She certainly couldn’t count on Stacy to pick up her slack.

As Sal settled in for some power-charting, the excitement of the day waned. Her mind wandered back to last night’s pain rather than to which anticonvulsant she had started for the epileptic. How could she feel the terror of the hallway without knowing the cause of it?

“Dr. Calon?” A meek female voice startled her from the other side of the doorway. Unlike the Badger, Sal had an open-door policy.

“Yeah, what do you need?” She answered kindly, knowing that only a medical student could sound that terrified. Soon, they’d realize that she and Manning treated their students very differently.

“Um, Paul asked me to bring the labs on Mr. McMillon.”

Sal glanced at the urinalysis. Mr. McMillon, if that was his real name, had been playing with someone he shouldn’t have. “Have the lab culture it and start one hundred thousand units of Pen G.”

Sal looked up at the fresh-faced student. Had she ever been that young? Well, it was time for this student to earn her keep. She pulled a maneuver straight out of Maria’s playbook. Her friend would be proud.

“And have a talk with the patient about safe sex. He also might want to upgrade his ‘adult entertainment.’ Remind him that even in this instance, you basically get what you pay for.”

The girl’s face blanched as she stammered, “ What… I can’t… I mean… Shouldn’t it be you?”

“Sorry.” She shooed her away. “Consider it a rite of passage.”

Chuckling at the student’s stunned look, Sal went back to her charts.

Okay, sometimes she and Stacy
were
alike.

CHAPTER 17

Sal hit the key that stamped her electronic signature onto the thirteenth out of a gazillion charts. She looked at the little clock on her laptop. She’d never be done by midnight.

Pulling out her cell phone to call Richard, Sal stopped short. The hairs at the back of her neck trembled. There was no lightning, yet a bolt shot through her body. No thunder rumbled, yet her body shook. Sal worried that she was having a panic attack, until she felt the heat at her back.

Gulping, she knew exactly who stood there. The man.

In his presence, her missing memories didn’t flood back. Instead, every gruesome detail of Maria’s dead body and the terror of the crimson hallway simply reappeared—as if someone had hit the ‘Restore’ button, and she suddenly had access to the movie of her blood dripping onto the man’s glowing knife. She felt horror and relief swirl uneasily in her belly.

While getting her memories back had been her goal, their sudden reappearance threatened to unbalance her. She had been terrified enough living through them. Now within this instant, she was forced to relive it all as if were new again. Tears threatened. She didn’t want to step back into the moment she’d found Maria dead, but she couldn’t stop it.

Clutching her midriff, Sal felt like retching. She felt like running. She felt like dying. Then these displaced memories seemed to find their place amongst the others. As they settled in, the racking pain subsided.

She thought the worst was over, and then another wave of horror crashed over her, knocking the wind from her. The memories represented a loss even greater than Maria. The world she knew, with order and science and logic, no longer existed.

The man behind her, who could make memories flutter away and then reappear, proved that. These stark, graphic images of that crimson hallway forced Sal to accept the unacceptable. Horrible, nasty things stalked the night that were far more terrible than any fairy tale her grandmama used to tell. Not only did they stalk, but they killed.

As the memories sorted themselves out, Sal realized that she should have died last night. She would have, if not for the man standing behind her. Sal owed him her life, but didn’t even know his identity.

“Do you have a name?”

“Tyr,” his voice rumbled. “I have need of more blood.”

Of course he did. What else would a man who defied the laws of nature want? Her wrist should be red and horribly inflamed from the slice he took the night before, yet even Sal couldn’t tell where the thin scar stopped and her normal skin started. Who else could do such a thing?

Rising, she turned to face him. Tyr’s eyes were as glacially blue as the night before, but the ragged cut running down his neck was certainly different. Her instinct was to rush over and tend to the injury, but his harsh gaze stopped her.

Sal felt her hand reach out to steady herself against the table. Just that look brought back such horrible sensations. Her throat ached where he had grabbed her and lifted her off the floor. The force of his commanding tone, compelling her to act against her own will.

If Tyr hadn’t saved her life, she would have hated him. That emotion was now reserved for only one. The creature that claimed Maria.

Reshaping terror into anger, Sal asked, “What killed my friend?”

“The beast matters not. We speak only of blood.”

Sal could feel Tyr’s words insinuate themselves into her mind, warping her thoughts so that she agreed with him. That she didn’t care what had killed Maria. That she only wanted to serve Tyr’s request.

Despite the force of his words, Sal didn’t comply. In a very real sense they held equal power over the other. He wanted blood. She wanted to understand what in the hell happened last night.

“If you want blood so badly, you’re going to tell me.”

Sal strained against his will and took a step forward.

His eyes narrowed, and the command came as a bark. “Halt.”

That single word nearly pressed her into obedience. She could feel his will try to bend her. Even though Tyr had spoken the command only once, the word and, more importantly, his desire, echoed again and again in her mind. Each time she tried to pick up her foot, the word resisted any effort.

Somehow he had delivered his will to her mind, and it set root there.

Sal had felt the effect of his edicts last night. They even lasted into the day. Tyr’s presence somehow lay in her subconscious, skimming just beneath the surface, until it was needed to keep her in line. This near, Sal felt that Tyr could raise or lower her heartbeat on a whim. His commanding presence acted like a pheromone, only amplified a thousandfold.

Yes, it was just like a hormone. And as a doctor, Sal understood hormones. They were nothing more than protein messengers for the body.

Her mind could accept or reject the message they carried.

Despite her body wishing desperately to obey him, Sal concentrated on her left foot. No one controlled her like this. She was a woman of science.

Tyr couldn’t possess mind control power, no matter the evidence to the contrary. Perhaps he had created an aerosolized form of GHB or some other hyper-suggestible psycho-pharmaceutical, but chemicals she could resist. To serve Maria’s memory, she had to.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Sal said, taking a lurching step forward. Her muscles shook as if she’d run two marathons back-to-back, but she’d defied him and his command.

When Tyr’s lids narrowed, it appeared in concern rather than simple concentration. His eyes surveyed her as she kept her lips drawn tight. Clearly, he didn’t like what he found. His anger became a palpable force. It took every ounce of concentration, but she didn’t flinch from his fury.