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A tall, heavily muscled man in scrubs wheeled a cart out of a room, backing out with it, and then turned. I realized he was the man I’d been looking for. Ooph, how was his aura even worse than the doctor’s? I didn’t think that possible. But he looked like a walking black hole. I wasn’t sure if he was even capable of basic human emotions. He’d definitely been eating people longer than the other two, at least ten years from what I could see, and he’s already on the verge of the ambulant stage in Kuru. His headaches were from it, not that he likely had put the pieces together yet.

The second my eyes met his, he seemed to realize the gig was up. He swore, turned on a heel, and started racing down the hallway.

And my husband, known for his patience and calmness under fire, let out this little happy squeak and sprinted after him. Uh-oh, Donovan’s prey drive had engaged, that poor man would be sporting bruises now. Nothing made Donovan happier than squashing the bad guys.

Borrowman groaned next to me. “I’m going to let Donovan catch him.”

“Oh, do, he’s having fun.” I watched indulgently.

And to think he wanted me to shift to medicine at some point. Who was he going to chase down and beat up then, the stupid patients? Naw, I’d stick to my current career, thanks.

7

I heard some kind of ruckus from the hallway, but didn’t lift my head, as I was almost done with this patient. My hands and energy were very occupied with undoing the last of the portal, returning the blood to their body, and axing their connection to that damn pool. I didn’t want to bungle it when I was at the finishing line.

I heard Lachlan lean out and call to someone, “You got ’im, mate?”

A thud and wail of pain echoed from the hallway.

“Oh, sure did.” Lachlan cackled. He relayed to me, “Donovan’s got one of ’em. Man stupidly tried to run.”

That was pretty stupid, alright. Even if he’d somehow gotten past Donovan—I didn’t understand how anyone could think they’d be able to evade that tank of a man—this place was now crawling with cops. No escape was possible.

Finally finished, I straightened and puffed out a breath. I looked at the patient’s vitals, which were already improving a little. Their vitality was returning now that the drain was gone.

Jon poked his head inside but wisely didn’t try to enter. In his current state, he’d be death to the machines in this room. “We got both of them, they’re in custody and being dragged out.”

“Relieved to hear it.” Which was an understatement even to my own ears. “This patient is ready to move.”

“Oh? I’ll relay that to the paramedics.”

“We do have authority to do that?”

“We do, it was part of the judge’s order. Borrowman made sure the judge understood the victims lives were at risk if left here, so he made sure to get their relocation covered, too.”

That made me wonder something. “Do the judges in this area trust you that much?”

“Well…” He scratched at the back of his head. “Pretty much? The ones who have experience with me, at least. Some of them are still learning they can trust my eyes.”

I supposed it made sense. If he consistently proved his eyes could see all, why not trust his judgement? I certainly would, but I was admittedly a bit biased.

“Can you take a look around and tell us how many are here first?” Jon requested. “If there’s not enough patients, then I need to look for the rest.”

“Truly. I have a hunch they’re all here, though.” I gathered up what tools I’d used, shoved them back in the bag, and made my way out of the room. “This portal would have taken a good hour to set up. I can’t imagine a hospital letting some strange man into a patient’s room even if he was a doctor, not unless he was the attending doctor.”

“Ahhh, good point. Still, let’s confirm that.”

I didn’t see the harm and wanted more of a headcount anyway, so started poking my head into each room. Most rooms had two patients, so I had to look at both.

It wasn’t a surprise to find most of the patients were victims. The ones who weren’t, I’d bet had been recently admitted. He hadn’t had time to enslave them as well. I had no doubt he would have—two of these patients were very close to death because of the draining. I’d double back and hit them first, hopefully I could undo what had been done, but their recovery time was going to be longer. This wasn’t something they could spring back from.

I got a headcount and then circled back to the nurse’s station where Jon, Donovan, and Detective Borrowman waited on me. Us, really, as Lachlan had followed me and made sure my count was accurate. I practically vibrated with the need to go back to those two problematic patients so kept the report short and sweet.

“There’s one hundred and forty-eight altogether. I think they’re all here. There’s two who are very close to death, I’m dealing with them immediately, please hold any questions until after I’m done with them. Every minute counts in their case.”

“I’ll have paramedics ready to transfer them when you give the okay.”

“It might have to wait until tomorrow,” I admitted. “They’re really fragile right now.”