Authors: T J Michaels
Hold up. Why in the world was she sitting here comparing Sidheon to Bix?
Girl, get it together and deal with the man standing in front of you.
She painted on a sugary smile and motioned for him to come on in. Wanting to get back to whatever was on the specimen cart, she really wished he would just go away. Boy did his timing suck.
“Hi, Aleth,” she said in the friendliest tone she could muster.
“Hello, Dr. Derrickson. How was your trip to Colorado?”
“It was cold. Training was good, though. What can I do for you, Aleth?”
“My assistant misplaced my specimen cart. Do you mind if I check yours to see if you received mine by mistake?”
She motioned to the cart she’d just wheeled over to the door. “Sure have at it. I had time to take a few of the specimens out, only to put them all back again.” She watched his face tighten almost imperceptibly, and went on chatting. “I’m so far behind, Aleth. Haven’t had time to analyze anything. A new program coordinator showed up this morning and I’ve been trying to get him up to speed.”
“New program coordinator?” Sidheon asked.
“Yeah, some guy from Venture Pharma Biotech Capital is here. He’s taking over one of Charles’ projects while he gets the new plant up and running in Puerto Rico.”
“How many projects is this new person going to oversee?”
“So far, just mine. Venture has a large stake in the new cancer drug I’m developing.”
Carin almost breathed a sigh of relief when Sidheon’s brow cleared and a small smile appeared across his thin lips. Something told her to be very careful with him.
“Do we know anything about this Venture Pharma person? Like his name?”
His voice was just a bit too syrupy for Carin’s taste. She knew a snow job when she heard it. After all, she was delivering one herself.
“Oh, I guess it is a he, isn’t it?” Along came her smoothest impression of a scatterbrained scientist. The man was fishing. Fine, he’d come up with nothing on the hook. Her words somewhat breathy, she said, “Let me think, what was his name?” She tapped her pen against her chin and looked towards the ceiling. “Geez, I can’t remember. Give me a minute and I’ll think of it, I’m sure.” She instinctively cleared her mind of thought, looked ridiculously distracted and went back to writing in her notebook. All he got out of her was an occasional absent-sounding “Hmmm” and “interesting” followed by a “What was I doing again?”
She could feel Sidheon’s patience begin to run thin when it became obvious she wasn’t going to elaborate on this new addition to the staff.
With an annoyed huff, he asked, “Do you mind if I have a look at the specimens?”
Carin raised her head, her expression clear and bright. “I’m sorry, what did you say, Aleth?”
“I asked if I could take a look at—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Oh sure, sure. It’s all yours.” She went back to writing, then said as an afterthought, “Actually, if you want, just go ahead and take it. I won’t get to it before tomorrow afternoon anyway. If it’s not yours, leave it in the hall. The QC lab folks will come and get it, and maybe we’ll both find our stuff in the process.”
“Excellent suggestion. Thank you very much, Dr. Derrickson.”
“Please, Aleth, when are you going to start calling me Carinian?” she chimed, her expression as sweet and as syrupy as his voice had been moments before.
A knock sounded on the open door. Carin glanced up and flashed a genuine smile to one of the QC lab techs. Reyna was a sweet girl, fresh out of college. Short with reddish-brown hair, creamy fair skin and a nose dotted with an abundance of freckles, Carin thought she looked a lot like Heidi with a haircut.
“Hi, Reyna. Come on in.”
“Hi, Dr. Derrickson. Dr. Sidheon,” she said with a polite nod. “We left the QC carts in the hall as we always do, but somehow they got all mixed up. Dr. Lee brought this one back downstairs to us. It looks like it belongs to you, ma’am.”
“Thanks, Reyna. Just put it over there.” She motioned to the spot next to the door where Sidheon’s cart had been sitting.
“Sorry for the mix up, doctors.”
Carin replied with a gracious, “No problem.”
Sidheon looked at the girl like she was a complete moron and said nothing. Instead, he smiled tightly, wheeled his cart out into the hallway, and disappeared.
Reyna twisted up her mouth and snapped in disgust, “Well, don’t some of us think we’re all that?”
Carin smiled, let out a sigh of relief at his departure and went back to work as Reyna closed the door on her way out. After a few moments of unease, she got up and threw the deadbolt home.
Sidheon chuckled all the way to his own rooms, locked the door and began checking the contents of his spec cart.
The good doctor had always been friendly, though somewhat cool towards him. Now he knew why since Dr. Derrickson wasn’t very good at hiding her thoughts. She’d projected them so loudly, even a young, untrained vampire could have picked them up before she’d cleared her mind and tried to play dumb on him.
Sidheon had suspected there was some latent psychic talent there, but he couldn’t recall any time when she’d blasted her thoughts out in a torrent like she had today. She was obviously shaken by something, and her anxiousness magnified her psychic abilities. Luckily she had no idea or he wouldn’t have learned of her wariness of him. He wasn’t offended, but rather impressed. Carin was a smart woman not to trust him.
Based on the cheesy explanation she’d given for handling his vials, it made sense for her scent to be all over the little glass containers. Made perfect sense, in fact. Would have even been believable if she hadn’t been so worried about getting caught.
And now she posed a problem. It wouldn’t take Carinian Derrickson much time to figure out how the serum and blood affected the skin samples. But if she figured out both the blood and skin came from his body, and neither specimen was human, he’d have a mess on his hands.
For all he knew, she could be working with the tall man he’d spotted entering her labs earlier. She’d claimed he was a new project coordinator, but Sidheon had immediately sensed the man was a prime male vampire. Damn it all to hell and back. He couldn’t afford to have Carinian spill what she knew. Especially not to a fucking Council assassin.
After each glass vial was secured in the safe, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed.
“I’ve found the cart, you imbecile. But there’s a mess you’re going to clean up.”
The voice on the other end of the line ratcheted up a few octaves. “What? Why? If you found it then there’s no need to—”
“Shut up, you idiot,” Sidheon growled into the phone. He clamped his thumb and forefinger over the bridge of his nose and sighed. He would never understand how such a brilliant biochemist like Dan could lack the most common sense. “There
is
a need, and since you lost it in the first place you’re going to take care of it. Do you understand me, Dan?”
A long silence followed. His ridiculous assistant was all ears.
“Dr. Derrickson had the cart. I want you to make sure she doesn’t have a chance to tell anyone what was in it,” Sidheon said, his tone somewhere between bored and condescending.
“But why—”
“Because, there’s a prime male vamp on the biotech campus I’ve never seen before. The same vamp happened to be in Dr. Carinian’s labs today. Any further questions?”
“No, sir. I’ll take care of it, sir.”
“You’d better, Dan, or you’ll be my next biotech experiment.”
Chapter Six
Carin’s plan was to stick around this big blue ball they called Earth for as long as she could, not die at an early age like all the rest of her family. Not only did she plan to enjoy life well past ninety, she wanted to be here until she met up with Jean Luc Picard and the Starship Enterprise. Hell, she wanted Jean Luc to play a song on his flute for her, then take her on a romantic interlude on the holodeck. And after she’d screwed Jean Luc’s brains out, she’d dump him for Commander Data.
Who the hell wanted to die? Nobody in their right mind actually looked forward to the day when they discovered what it was like to slip from this life into…into what? Most people believed death was a great step into the beyond, a step we all must take. Carin didn’t agree. As far as she was concerned, death was overrated.
Her grandmother had succumbed to a flesh-eating disease at age sixty-two, her mother to lung cancer at forty-seven. Her sister died at thirty-nine from a freak blood clot that developed in her leg on a long flight and traveled up to a major artery to block it. Carin had no grandparents, no parents, no aunts or uncles. No one. The thought of loving someone just to lose them overwhelmed her with a grief too profound for words. Every person close or important to her had been taken one way or another.
As tired as she was, Carin forced herself to keep working. She would find a way to become something other than destined-to-die-young if it killed her. A type of vampirism seemed to be the best option, and she was close.
Although something inside of her reached out for Bix, trusted him, he would never understand her reasons for secretly tampering with her own genes. He’d probably tell his superiors on her, like anyone else in their right mind would. But she couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t afford to lose her job, her reputation, and most importantly, access to the lab. Her secret had remained safe for years and it would stay that way. Connection, attraction, or not, Mr. Bix would remain in the dark along with everyone else. Now, if she could just get her thoughts off the man and under control before she let something slip.
She was on the verge of a breakthrough when her cell phone rang. Whoever it was had shitty timing. Snatching it off the lab table, she flipped it open without bothering to check the caller ID.
“Derrickson here,” she said shortly, shifting the phone from one ear to the other.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart? Ooooh, yummy.
Bix’s sexy voice floated through the earpiece and made its way down her body. She glanced at the ceiling as her stomach danced with a mix of longing and annoyance. Hadn’t she just seen him this morning, and not under the best of circumstances? The bastard was her project coordinator and would be snooping around her lab. She didn’t like the idea one bit, so why was she so damned happy to hear his voice? The grin melted off her face and she rolled her eyes on an impatient sigh.
“What do you want, Bix? I’m kind of busy here.”
“You working late?” he asked.
“I’m always working late,” Carin said absentmindedly as she reached for yet another notebook to place the results of the improving tissue and serum tests.
“Great, I picked up some dinner. I’ll bring it over.”
“Wait…”
“Be there in half an hour.”
“But, Bix…” The line went dead. Damned man. She didn’t have time for this right now. She catapulted out of the chair and grabbed onto the edge of her heavy wood desk as her stomach went one way while her head went the other. Lord, she was dizzy. Perhaps eating would be a good idea after all considering it was now evening and she hadn’t bothered to take a proper lunch. She made her way across the room, loaded her arms with beakers and glass containers, and moved to one of the large sinks. Her hands in a pair of non-latex gloves, she wiggled her fingers in front of the sensor to get the hot water running and started giggling. Bix was coming over. She couldn’t wait to see him. No, wait, that wasn’t right. One minute she was glad to see the man, the next she wanted to stick him in the ass with a pitchfork. Yep, she was definitely working too hard. And definitely horny, er, hungry. For food, damn it.
Bix eased open the door to Carin’s lab, made his way to a table off to the side of her work area, and watched her jot notes into a thick notepad. After looking into the microscope, she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling with a loud, frustrated grumble. Rubbing her temples, she muttered to herself before taking more notes.
Concentrating on whatever was under the microscope, she screwed up her face into a fierce frown. She peered harder at the specimen as if her gaze could make the anomaly correct itself. He could tell, no, could
feel
, she was at a total loss.
“What am I doing wrong? I’ve modified this blasted serum twenty times already.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath and pushed away from the lab table, taking her temper out on the top of the stainless steel surface. Cursing, his little hellion smacked it loudly with the flat of her hand. He smiled as she rubbed her palm on a wince, stood abruptly and turned to retrieve a new sample from the specimen cart beside her.
She almost ran smack into him.
“Damn it, Bix, will you please stop moving around here like a damned cat? You scared me half to death,” she growled, reaching past him to get the vial she was after.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” But he knew his grin told another story. Her little show of temper amused him, but she didn’t look like she’d appreciate knowing that right now.
Bix’s eyebrows inched up as he listened to her speak into a little digital voice recorder. What the hell was the woman up to?
“Skin cell sample has stabilized. Collagen and melanin content increased significantly, which is good. Toxins in fat cells underneath the skin decreased. Before application of serum, vitamin D level was normal. After application, absence of vitamin D occurs and affects the epithelial layer.”
She barely looked up when he set an assortment of plastic bags filled with containers on one of the cleared lab tables. He’d selected something he hoped would appeal to her senses and was pleased when he heard her stomach growl. But she didn’t budge from her stool, determined to figure out whatever was puzzling her.
Bix let her work while he removed paper plates, napkins, cups and plastic forks out of one of the bags and made a place setting for both of them. Cups were filled with cold cranberry juice and several take-out boxes were arranged in the middle of the table. A couple of Bunsen burners rummaged from one of the supply cabinets took the place of candles.
He turned and watched her hand make its way to the small of her back to massage the tense muscles there. All the while, her eyes remained plastered to the microscope lens as her fingers worked their way into the hollow of her spine, just above the curve of her ass. His gaze dropped to that sensual slope where toned thighs gripped the stool she sat on. His mouth started to water.