Page 3 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Medical coma?Tressa tossed a glance up at the sleeping man. Well, that explained all the wires, though she couldn’t see any specific damage or injury from whatever had attacked him. Turning back to the file, she checked the date on the first note—three months ago.
Damn. That made the lack of cards and balloons even moredepressing. Three months without a single visitor.
How was that even possible?
Making a mental note to call Baylin about a potentially missed vampire victim, she dropped the chart back on the hook and moved along the side of the bed to lean over him. His eyes twitched rapidly, which seemed strange for a coma patient, and the furrow etched into his brow only deepened as she brought her face closer to his.
She didn’t know why, but for some reason, Tressa couldn’t help but press her thumb to his forehead in an attempt to smooth out the tension lines.
The second her finger grazed his face, lightning shot down her skin, and steel gray eyes flew open, locking onto hers.
Then he started screaming.
Chapter two
Ethan
A glistening drop of ruby red blood slid down the side of the woman’s face, landed on her shoulder, and seeped into her white shirt.
Ethan suppressed the urge to vomit.
It wasn’t easy given how much of his best friend’s insides were now splattered across his lab, but dumping the remains of his ratatouille dinner on the floor wasn’t going to save him from meeting a similar end.
He had to run. Had to get away. Had to tell… someone.
But who would listen to him? If he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t believe the truth either.
He’d known Jake for almost a decade and considered him a brother from another mother. Ethan was even the one who’d gotten him the job at VieTek Pharmaceuticals. A decision he deeply regretted when the dark-haired vampire dropped Jake’s corpse to the floor and brushed the back of her hand across her mouth, smearing the blood on her lips into a hideous, crooked smile.
Vampire.
He still couldn’t believe it, but there was no other explanation. Vampires were real, and one just viciously murdered his best friend.The only thing that had saved Ethan was the fact he had been under a table cleaning up a spill when the door crashed open and the monster ripped Jake from his computer chair.
With a hand clamped over his mouth, Ethan watched the vampire’s nostrils flare as she sniffed the air and started prowling around the lab.
Searching…
Hunting…
For him? Did he even stand a chance against that… thatthing?
The slight ache in his thighs from crouching under the lab table turned into a burn, and Ethan could feel the imminent cramp digging its teeth in. He shifted slightly, and that tiny motion—that little squeak of his converse sneakers on the linoleum—was apparently enough to seal his fate.
Terror spread through his body when the vampire paused midstep, her head cocking slightly.
“I do believe,” she said, spinning on her toes and stalking toward Ethan’s hiding place, “that I’ve found my missing scientist.”
Ethan huddled farther back under the table, tossing up a prayer to any deity that might be listening.
They weren’t. They never were when it came to him. Although, the fact he didn’t believe a higher power even existed likely wasn’t helping.
A hauntingly beautiful face slid into his view as the vampire knelt down in front of him.
“Hello there.”
Faster than Ethan could track, her hand flashed out and grabbed the collar of his lab coat, yanking him from under the table with inhuman strength.
She dragged Ethan up her body as she rose, holding his face inches from hers. He could smell the blood on her breath—Jake’s blood—and the ratatouille roiled in his stomach.
