Page 8 of Don't Bite the Botanist
No. She wouldn’t entertain the possibility that he had no interest in her at all. He was just dealing with the aftereffects of a traumatic experience. Something she could more than relate to.
But how to move forward and get him to let her in?
Should she admit she was a vampire and hope he didn’t freak out?
Should she continue the counselor persona and save the v-bomb for after she endeared herself to him?
Or should she just abandon this whole mate idea and join a vampire nunnery?
Based on the freezing temperature of the cold shoulder she was getting from Ethan, her mind was leaning toward the last one. Thankfully, she was saved from planning her life of uncomfortable frocks and celibacy when the door popped open and an older woman strode into the room.
Tressa fought to keep the smile on her face when she recognized the nurse as the person who had fought her compulsion the most earlier. The battleaxe had the least malleable brain Tressa had ever encountered and an attitude to match. She’d briefly entertained compelling a new personality into the woman after she handled Ethan far too roughly for Tressa’s liking, but that was crossing a bit too far over the whole free will line.
“Oh, it’s you,” the nurse sneered at Tressa. “You need to clear out. Dr. Kim is going to want to do a full workup on Mr. Ambrose now that he’s awake.”
Tressa’s cheeks were starting to hurt from maintaining the pleasant expression when all she really wanted to do was smackthis rude woman upside the head. But she wasn’t about to lend credence to the misguided theory that vampires were evil, violent creatures. Especially not when her mate who couldn’t be compelled was sitting right there, and she had yet to fully suss out his feelings on the whole vamp thing.
Turning away from the nurse, Tressa’s smile fell into something more natural when her attention landed on Ethan. “I’ll see you later,” she told him.
“I said I don’t need counseling,” he argued.
She gave him a quick wink. “Oh, you never know,” she said. “You might change your mind.”
With that last comment, she flitted out the door, trying her best to disregard Ethan’s mumbled “highly fucking unlikely” comment.
Chapter six
Ethan
An hour later, Ethan was seriously regretting his decision to send Tressa away. At least with her, he was getting a stunning face with his lack of answers. Even if she was unnervingly chipper.
Ethan rubbed at the scar on his neck. He needed to stop thinking of the charming counselor. She reminded him far too much of Jake. He also kept a permanent smile on his face regardless of how bad things got.
Except when he died. The last time Ethan would ever see his friend was the one time Jake didn’t have his normal carefree expression in place. Those glassy vacant eyes, frozen in terror and pain, would haunt Ethan for the rest of his life.
And holding onto that was the least he deserved for surviving when Jake hadn’t.
Yeah, probably for the best he told Tressa he didn’t need counseling. He wasn’t looking to get his body laid or his mind healed, so there was no reason to keep her around.
Now if his brain would stop throwing up images of that stunning smile, he could actually concentrate on the complete bullshit answersthe doctor was giving him.
“Okay, Dr. Kim, let me see if I’m understanding you correctly,” Ethan said, running a hand over the itchy beard growing wild from his normally clean-shaven chin. “I’ve been out for three damn months, and after all that time and investigating, no one has any idea what happened to me in the lab?”
The older Asian woman with short black hair grimaced, and it only accentuated the roughly thirty years’ worth of hospital work that were etched into her face. “No, Ethan. As far as I’m aware, the police have no inkling of what occurred that night.”
“Right.” He pushed his sliding glasses back up on his nose. “And of course the building burnt down so there was no evidence.”
The doctor grimaced again.
“And no witnesses that saw how I survived or managed to escape?”
The tired woman rubbed at her temples, then folded her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry I don’t have more to tell you. The detective assigned to your case has been notified that you are lucid, and he will be here in the morning. Perhaps they have uncovered more information, but as far as my knowledge goes, you were brought in with severe trauma to the neck which was attributed to an animal attack, extreme blood loss resulting in hemorrhagic shock, and multiple contusions throughout your body. It was only by the grace of God that you survived long enough for us to induce a medical coma. In all honesty, you shouldn’t even be alive right now.”
Ethan tried not to bristle at her usage of ‘God.’ He’d stopped believing in an altruistic higher power the day his mom died. If he survived against all odds, it certainly wasn’t because of some sky daddy watching over him. Which left the question of who, exactly,waswatching over him? And why didn’t that vampire finish him off?
“Yeah, well, thanks for nothing, I guess,” Ethan told the doctor.Then he tossed his glasses on the nightstand and rolled over onto his side, hoping she would take that as an obvious sign he was done listening.
He’d already endured an agonizing breakdown about his current health, and after the fourth time she mentioned additional lab tests and long-term monitoring, he had gotten the gist. His body was weak, and a lot of his muscles were atrophied, so life was going to be rough. Thankfully, he’d always kept himself in solid shape. Any time not spent in the lab was usually spent in the gym to combat the effects of his otherwise sedentary lifestyle. Even if he lost the definition of a six-pack, it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to get it back. Building up his strength to go after that creature was at the top of his priority list.
