Tainted Blood (42 page)

Marcus protested, and in a voice that would make you wet yourself, Felix said to him, “Why would we let a sniveling, back stabbing, piece of scum like you raise one of our own? You do not deserve to breathe the same air as us.” He took a step forward and Marcus took two steps back. “You will most likely be exiled.”

Marcus actually challenged Felix, taking a step closer and everything. “I will file an appeal.”

“I wish you the best of luck with that; now, get out of my hospital.”

Marcus hurried to leave the room, losing his footing and catching himself before he face-planted.

“Oh, and Marcus,” Felix said as Marcus pushed past Carter and me. Marcus stopped and turned around slowly. “Just so you are aware,” Felix told him, “an appeal would be a waste of time for both of us. I am head of that committee and I am telling you now that your request has been denied.” Felix closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now get out.” Marcus took off running.

Felix was so awesome.

“How is it the two of you find trouble no matter where you go?” he asked.

We didn’t respond. I was speechless, and Carter, well, he was busy trying to stay upright. He was going pale and kept shaking his head like he was trying to stay conscious.

I heard Felix’s throaty chuckle a moment later. “Control your emotions, Delaney.”

I looked at him in confusion, and Carter started to sway and his eyes fluttered as Felix started toward us.

“Let go of him, Delaney.”

I looked down at my hands wrapped around Carter’s arm. I let go and stepped away from him. Felix stepped in front of Carter and patted his cheek. “You’re fine,” he told him and then began walking back down the hallway.

Carter shook off whatever had happened to him, and when I saw that he was fine I hurried after Felix. Carter followed.

“Felix?” I said as I caught up to him.

“Not now,” he told me in a tone that was short and final. I stopped where I was and watched him go.

“What the hell just happened?” Carter asked as he stood beside me.

That’s what I wanted to know…

We walked slowly through the dimly lit, hospital halls until we reached the room where we’d left Felix before the whole Felicia fiasco. He was packing away the vials into his black doctor bag.

He turned to the two of us standing outside the door, the black doctor’s bag stuffed under his arm. “It amazes me the trouble the two of you can find,” he said to us, his sky blue eyes holding us in place. He walked past us, and we followed. He continued to speak, “Believe it or not, there is a silver lining to what just happened.”

“What’s that?” Carter asked.

Felix stopped at a closed door and pulled his keys from his pocket. He unlocked the door then stepped inside. The open door revealed an office just like you’d expect a doctor to have. There was a desk and chair with two chairs on the opposite side. Felix was unlocking a tall file cabinet in the corner and stuffing the black bag inside. He slid the drawer closed and locked the cabinet, then turned and faced us.

“Justin was a fine soldier. His record was spotless. I had my eye on him for bigger and better things until, well, you know.” He stepped out of the office, locking the door behind him, and then he continued as he walked away. We were right beside him, jogging to keep up. “I had not been able to figure out why a soldier like Justin, with such a pristine record, would break such an important law. The penalty for not recording a bonding within the allotted timeframe is severe. All warriors are aware of this. It is a part of their contract.”

Carter and I exchanged a look. Warriors, soldiers, severe penalties, contracts… It was all too much to consider at once.

Felix stopped abruptly, and we both ran into the back of him and bounced off.

Catching our balance, we discovered why Felix had stopped so suddenly. Amber was stepping out from the next office door. I was stunned to find her wearing a long, white doctor’s coat and I wondered how many professions this woman had. Her coat wasn’t buttoned and it revealed a glimpse of another elegant dress. It was a blue that matched Felix’s eyes, and from what I could see of it, I could tell that it hit mid-calf and flowed around her like most everything she wore. The dress had a bunched-up, crisscross pattern across the top, and it was a lower cut than most anything I’d seen her wear. Granted, I’d really only seen her at the college for short periods of time.

“Felix,” she said in greeting.

“Hello, Ambrose.”

“I received a call that my patient went into preterm labor, again. Thank you for taking care of her while I was away.”

He nodded in response and she began to walk away from him. “Actually,” he began and I could’ve sworn he seemed flustered. She stopped and returned her attention to him, her hands in the pockets of her lab coat. “We were just on our way to see Miss Harding.” He paused for a moment then continued, “We have a bit of a mess to clean up.”

“Oh?” she questioned.

He fell in step
beside her as she continued to head in the direction of Felicia’s room. We followed and listened in silence as Felix told Amber what had happened with Felicia and Marcus. Once he’d got her caught up, he finished telling us what he’d been getting at before bumping into Professor Amber. The three of us listened while Felix told us that during the commotion of getting Felicia settled, he discovered that Marcus was mated to her, not Justin.

“How can you tell?” Carter asked, engrossed.

Felix stopped, as did the three of us, we were near Felicia’s room. Felix turned to us and explained, “There is a certain aroma that a female carries once bonding has occurred. It is the same odor that the male secretes during the mating process, and when he is defending or protecting his mate or even his offspring. Marcus secreted Felicia’s matching scent today.” We stared back in awe. This information was not in any of the vampire information I’d read and I wondered if I’d missed that section or if it had been conveniently left out.

“If it makes the two of you feel any better, you inadvertently did a good thing.” He grinned at us.

“Why would she lie?” I questioned.

“How do you mean, dear?” Amber asked.

“Why would she say the baby is Justin’s?”

Felix answered my question, “She
doesn't seem to understand that
the
vampire offspring gestation period takes half the time as human gestation
. She seems to think she is having a normal, human pregnancy when in fact, will gestate in half that time. Her bonding with Marcus was probably more recent. So she has probably calculated back farther than when they’d mated, which would make her think that Justin fathered the child.”

My first thought was, “slut” and I desperately hoped Felix hadn’t heard me. Then I felt guilty for thinking that of her, but since she was a friend of Avery’s, it was highly likely.

“We cannot be positive of the father until the infant is born,” Amber interjected. “Now,” she continued, “you mentioned a mess that you need to tend to?”

Felix’s eyes settled on Carter and me. “I am going to set the record straight. I do not want Felicia thinking the two of you are the cause—”

Amber cut him off. “Excuse me?” His eyes shifted to her. “You are going to do no such thing. This poor girl has approximately four weeks left before she can safely deliver that infant. I will not have you upsetting her any further.”

Felix blinked in surprise, as did Carter and I.

“What you will do is go in there and erase the memory of today.” Her tone had stayed low and steady. She never raised her voice or even sounded upset. She was just straight and to the point and Felix obeyed.

Once he had disappeared into Felicia’s room, Amber said to us very quietly, “He tends to forget that I am not the young girl I once was.” She smiled slightly.

When Felix returned he said, “I apologize,” to Amber in what he considered to be a quiet tone.

Amber pulled her hands from her pockets and patted his upper arm. “I know you mean well.” Before she glided into Felicia’s room, she told Carter and me that she would see us that evening in class.

Felix’s eyes followed Amber for a moment then walked away. We hurried to catch up.

On our way out of the hospital we walked by several closed doors and a few open rooms that contained patients. One particular patient caught my eye, and as I
passed
by the room, I paused then backed up. I stood in the doorway of my former English Professor’s room. Felix was beside me a moment later, as was Carter. Felix explained that Professor McBaldy was on life support. Felix didn’t actually call him Professor McBaldy, he called him by his real name, Stanley Stuart. The poor guy was full of tubes and attached to a machine that beeped steadily.

“He will unlikey make it much longer,” Felix told us.

I watched the line bounce and beep for a minute and I felt awful for the man. Then I felt even worse because I was secretly relieved that it was not me or Oliver, or even Gladys that had been attacked by the werewolves. I didn’t know anything about this man who lay dying in front of me. For all I knew, there were people missing him.

“Let’s get the two of you home so you can watch some telly or something, anything that will help prevent trouble from finding you both once again.” He guided us away from McBaldy’s room and out of the hospital into the blaring sun of the late afternoon.

Once we were in the car and on our way back to the apartment, Felix told me that it turned out I had a venom anti-body, so there would be no blood-bonding for me, with anybody. I could get bitten by every vamp in the world and not a single one of them could bond me to them through their blood.

“You are immune,” he told me.

“Great,” I said in a voice that couldn’t sound less enthused.

I stared out the back passenger window and wondered if any type of bonding lay in my future.

“Delaney,” Felix said to me, and as I turned my attention to him, my first thought was, “Oh, crap!” because I figured I’d accidentally projected my last thought to him. But he didn’t seem to be
aware.

“I made a call on your behalf,” he said, glancing back at me from the driver’s seat for a moment.

“For what?” I asked.

“About your living arrangements.”

Again, this was one of those “things” that just didn’t fit. Why the hell would Felix and my MIA father discuss my living arrangements? Me talking to my father about this topic made sense. Me talking to Felix about where I was going to live even made sense. But where did my father and Felix discussing my living arrangements make any sense? Only in a world where they knew each other. I stared at the back of his head and tried to keep my thoughts in my head and out of his. I wasn't quite ready to ask these questions, and I was fairly certain he wouldn’t answer me if I did.

“I will find you a new roommate and that will be that,” he finished.

I straightened in my seat. “I don’t want a new roommate,” I protested.

“Yeah, man,” Carter interjected. “You can’t trust anyone out there. What if her new roommate is some crazy-ass, serial killer or something?”

Carter and I continued to argue with Felix about the issue. That was, until Felix actually got flustered and his voice boomed throughout the car.

“Enough! Please, you two!” We were at a stop light, and he pushed his glasses up far enough so he could pinch the bridge of his nose, yet again. The light turned green. He dropped his glasses back into place and continued to drive. A few minutes later he broke the silence.

“Delaney, you will move in with Carter. It is safer there anyway. Oliver will not be returning to the university so I was going to have to find Carter a new roommate too.”

“What do you mean, he’s not coming back?” I asked, sitting forward in my seat.

He glanced back at me. “He will not be returning to the college. He is no longer enrolled. His duties will be focused elsewhere.” As I started to complain about how he was supposed to inform me of any Oliver news as it became available he cut me off. “No more! I have no more patience where this is concerned.”

I pushed a little more and he shouted, “No more!”

I crossed my arms and pouted in my seat.

Felix took and deep breath then released it loudly. “I would like to thank the two of you for reminding me that I do not want children of my own,” Felix muttered.

I heard Carter stifle a chuckle.

Chapter
23 - Wolf Class

Carter gently woke me later that evening. “Laney, we’ve got to get going.” I’d fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV after Felix had grumpily dropped us off.

Carter and I rushed out the door and had to run to Carter’s place, a place I would soon officially call home, to get my backpack. Somehow, when Carter had gathered my most important items, he’d missed my backpack which contained my purse.

I found my backpack sitting on the floor of Oliver’s room, near his closet. It was open and looked like it had been rummaged through. After a quick examination, everything appeared to be in it: my books, notebooks, and even my purse. I zipped the bag closed and was about to leave when I noticed the closet door was open a crack and for some reason that piqued my curiosity.