Bear's Claim (Bear Heat Book 3) (6 page)

No, that wasn't right.

Luke wasn't dead at all.

He was sitting bolt upright
and turning his head to stare at Dr. Faizel. The young man looked
dazed and confused, but very much alive.

The door to the morgue was
slightly ajar and Aubrey could hear every word that was being said.
She could even hear Luke's soft groan.

“W-what happened?”
Luke asked, his voice raw and scratchy. “Where am I?”

“You've been in a deep
sleep,” Dr. Faizel said with a chuckle. “You were dead
to the world, literally.”

Luke pressed his hands to his
head and groaned. “My head...feels funny. I don't feel so...”

“Don't worry. You'll
feel better soon. Much better.”

Luke stared wildly around.
“Where am I? This...this looks like the morgue. I'm not dead.
Why am I in the morgue?” He turned slowly back to the doctor,
his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Who are you?”

When the doctor didn't reply,
Luke struggled to get to his feet. “I'm getting out of here,”
Luke said angrily as he gave his head a hard shake as if to clear it.
His eyes were clear and alert, but his body seemed weak and wobbly.
The man's brain was working fine, but his muscles weren't obeying the
commands from his brain. Luke gripped the edge of a steel table to
steady himself.

“You...you've done
something to me,” Luke said, turning around awkwardly to face
Dr. Faizel. “Don't come near me. Don't touch me. Stay away
from me! I...I don't trust you. You—you're not a doctor...”

“Oh, I am a doctor,”
Dr. Faizel answered, his black eyes glittering dangerously. “And
you're not leaving. At least not until you've been Changed.”

“Changed? What are you
talking about? You're crazy!” Luke tried to fumble his way
towards the door but his steps were shaky and painfully slow.

As Dr. Faizel advanced
towards Luke, Aubrey glanced down the corridor towards the morgue
attendant's office. The lights in the office were off, and the
office looked empty. Maybe the attendant was out for a meeting or
was assisting in an autopsy. No body had been scheduled for delivery
today. There was no one here in the basement.

No one to help Luke.

It was up to her.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Aubrey balled her fists. She
had seen and heard enough.

Luke was right. Dr. Faizel
was crazy. There was a demented, deranged look on his face and his
eyes were glinting ominously. Why would he have brought a perfectly
healthy patient down to the morgue, one who was obviously well and
alive? The doctor had lied. There was no virus in Luke. Luke had
only appeared dead because of that serum Dr. Faizel had injected into
him. She had been right all along. And now he had given Luke
another jab to reverse the effects of the first injection.

Luke Keller wasn't dead. He
wasn't even sick. He just had a broken leg, which was healing very
well. He would be going home tomorrow. She would make damn sure of
it.

Aubrey flung the door wide
open and charged into the morgue. “Stop! Leave him alone, Dr.
Faizel! You're not sticking another dirty needle into him.”

Luke swiveled towards her,
his blue eyes rounding. He flashed her a grin. “Nurse
Aubrey!”

Aubrey held out her hand to
him. “Luke, come here. I'm taking you back to the ward.”

Luke tried to shuffle towards
her, but he tripped and began to tumble. Aubrey ran forward and
caught him before he hit the floor. Luke was a tall, broad guy and
Aubrey staggered under his weight as she tried to help him quickly to
his feet.

“Come on, Luke. Let's
go,” she panted.

Aubrey supported Luke around
the waist and steered him towards the door. She glared at Dr. Faizel
over her shoulder. “I don't know what you're up to, doctor.
But I'm calling security right now.”

He merely smiled at her.

That cold, self-assured smile
set off alarm bells in her head.

Aubrey gulped and tried to
hurry Luke towards the door, but the young man was leaning heavily
against her as he took awkward, stumbling steps. He seemed to be in
pain, and his entire body was shaking.

“Come on, Luke, you can
do it,” Aubrey hissed under her breath. “Keep moving. I
can't carry you. You're too big and heavy for me. We have
to...escape...”

Aubrey winced at her own
words. Escape?

The word made her feel like a
prisoner, a captive.

A bead of cold sweat rolled
down between her breasts. She had a horrible feeling that she had
just walked into something twisted and dangerous.

Every instinct was screaming
for her to run.

But she couldn't leave Luke
here. No way.

He was her patient.

He was breathing heavily, but
there was no doubt he was breathing, living, vital and alive. He
should never have been wheeled down here to the morgue.

Aubrey continued to urge Luke
on. “Try to move faster, Luke. Yes, that's good. Keep
moving...” Luke grimaced and doubled over. Aubrey looked
around desperately. “Help!” She raised her head and
hollered. “I need help here! In the morgue! Somebody,
please. Help me! I have a patient...”

Dr. Faizel stood in front of
the morgue doors to block her. He clucked his tongue. “It's
no use. Nobody will hear you. There's no one here. Everyone's away
at a meeting.”

Aubrey recoiled at his
triumphant laugh.

“You...planned this.
The meeting, everything...”

Dr. Faizel smiled.

Balling her clammy fists,
Aubrey said through gritted teeth, “Why are you doing this?
What do you want with him? Just what did you do to him?” she
demanded. “You injected him with something. I saw you!”

“You didn't see
anything.”

Dr. Faizel reached into his
breast pocket and clicked what looked like a pen.

“And that's not a pen,”
Aubrey mumbled numbly to no one in particular.

The side wall slid open and
Aubrey stumbled back with a gasp.

The wall hid a secret tunnel,
a long, deep, dark passageway which seemed to go on forever.

Two burly black-clad men
emerged from the tunnel silently, and moved with military speed and
precision towards them. One of the men wrestled her away from Luke
and shoved her towards the hidden chamber.

“Let me go! Help!
Help! Hey, leave him alone! Who the hell are you?” she
shrieked as the other man dragged a struggling Luke into the chamber.
“Let go of me! I'm warning you...”

Aubrey thrashed and kicked
desperately, fighting to free herself so she could go to Luke. She
had to save him. He looked like he was going to lose consciousness.

She flailed and yelled and
cursed but it was no use.

A large gloved hand clamped
over her mouth, cutting off her scream.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Aubrey watched in horror as
the wall slid silently shut behind her. Dr. Faizel walked
confidently in front of them, muttering into a mouthpiece at his
collar.

They were being dragged down
a dark, long passageway. Aubrey's eyes darted around. How could she
not know that there was a tunnel behind the morgue?

Dr. Faizel stopped abruptly
and unlocked a door in the wall. She was shoved into a starkly-lit,
mind-bogglingly large chamber with sophisticated machines she had
never seen before.

The place looked like a huge
underground bomb shelter. The hospital was an old building, and it
had been rebuilt and renovated many times. Many of the older
buildings in the city had spacious underground bomb shelters. Some
had been converted for commercial uses and made into storage spaces.

But this…

What the hell was this?

Aubrey stopped struggling and
stared around. There were gurgling, humming machines with wires and
tubes connected to sharp pointy needles and scalpels. Two large
computer screens covered the far wall. She saw steel tables lining
the walls, and there were metal clamps at the side of the tables.

Aubrey backed away. She knew
what those clamps were for.

“Clamp them down,”
Dr. Faizel ordered.

Aubrey knew that struggling
and screaming was futile. She had to try something else.
Suppressing a whimper, she stretched out a trembling hand and touched
the arm of her captor. Never underestimate the power of the human
touch. A touch could heal and comfort. A kind word was more
powerful than a lethal weapon. She knew that. She was a very good,
experienced nurse. She could always read her patients' moods and
anticipate their needs.

Perhaps she could get this
tough-looking soldier to help her somehow.

Dr. Faizel was watching her
with a knowing, amused look. “Don't bother trying to
communicate with these mercenaries, Nurse Williams. They are hired
muscle. They won't waver, and they won't hesitate to snap your neck
at my order.”

Aubrey swallowed her fear and
forced out a laugh. “Mercenaries? What are mercenaries doing
in a hospital? You take me for a fool, Dr. Faizel. I don't think
the hospital Director has the budget to hire mercenaries.”

“They don't work for
the hospital,” Dr. Faizel answered as Aubrey was pushed onto a
steel table. “They work for me.”

Aubrey raised her head and
spat, “Bullshit!”

Dr. Faizel had his back to
her, typing something into the computer. “They will obey me,
even though I don't pay them,” he said absently.

“So who pays them?”
Aubrey asked. She wanted to keep him talking, get as much
information out of him as possible.

She had to figure out what
she was up against.

“Alberto Birns,”
the doctor muttered, still typing.

“Who the fuck...”
she began then jerked as Luke was slammed onto the steel table beside
her.

“You're hurting him!”
she screeched at the callous soldier. “You might be a
mercenary, but you don't have to be an asshole!” The soldier
ignored her and proceeded to fasten the clamps around Luke's wrists,
ankles and neck.

She heard Luke make a small
sound beside her. His eyelids were twitching violently and his face
was contorted in pain. Bright red blotches had appeared on his skin
and she saw a trickle of blood ooze from the corner of his mouth.

“Luke! Luke, can you
hear me?” Aubrey strained against the clamps and tried to free
her legs. She screamed and scratched at the soldier as he held her
down and snapped the clamps around her wrists and neck. “Let
me go! Let him go! He's bleeding! Can't you see? You're killing
him!”

“Shh.” Dr.
Faizel raised a finger. “I can't concentrate with all this
noise you're making, Nurse Williams. Never interrupt a doctor in the
middle of a procedure.”

“What procedure?”
she snarled. “What the hell are you doing? Hey, I asked you a
question!”

“And I'll answer your
question. If you'll just calm down and listen,” Dr. Faizel
said reproachfully.

He walked towards her,
breaking into a broad, proud smile.

“What I'm doing is
creating the perfect weapon.”

Aubrey stared at him,
speechless for just a moment. She recovered quickly enough. “You're
nuts.”

“Am I?” Dr.
Faizel dismissed the two mercenaries with a flick of his hand. The
two soldiers moved to stand guard outside the door.

Dr. Faizel went over to Luke
and shone a light in his eye. Luke wheezed and coughed up a spray of
fresh blood.

“Oh God! Dr. Faizel,
you have to let him go. Look at him, he's bleeding. This is
serious, doctor! You...you're a doctor. Your duty is to save lives.
Please,” she implored.

“Oh, I am doing my
duty.” The doctor patted Luke's pale cheek. “I am
making him better, much better.” He pressed a hand-held device
against Luke's heaving chest and squinted at the screen. “Not
yet. Just a bit more,” he muttered.

“Not yet?” Aubrey
gasped. “What are you waiting for? Please, he's bleeding
internally. He needs proper...”

“The bleeding is
normal. He needs to bleed a bit more before I can start the
procedure for the Change.”

Aubrey thudded her head
against the steel table. “I think either you've lost your
mind. Or I've lost mine. This is not happening.”

“Oh it's happening all
right.” Dr. Faizel sounded pleased. “Since everything
is going so well, I'll show you the prototype.”

The doctor went to a glass
door and pressed his palm against the control panel. “Michael,”
he called. “Come on out. I'll like you to meet
your...successor.”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Thor folded his arms and
waited for his Alpha's orders. They had just reported their findings
to Ethan, and they were discussing how best to proceed. He saw
Baxter start to tilt his chair back on two legs before thinking
better of it. They were sitting in Ethan's office, and even Baxter
wasn't going to goof around in front of their Alpha.