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What. A. Psycho.
“Guards!” the doctor called out, backing away from me like I was a rabies-infested animal.
Guards weren’t good. An old doctor and a startled nurse holding a syringe, I could handle. But big dudes with guns and tasers were another story. The dining room was huge, with a wall of radius windows with peaked arches lining one side, and it stretched out so long, it was maybe half the length of a football field at least. I stumbled away from the operating room setup, tripping on an Aubusson carpet and searching the wood-paneled walls for an escape. There were several doors to my right, and one glass-paneled set of French doors that seemed to lead outside to the darkening sunset evening.
Plastic crinkled, and the same pair of guards who had taken me from New York hurried into the room. I recognized the long, hawk-like nose of the taller guard and the whippet-like build of the shorter one. They both wore all black, but neither was particularly bulky—a build like Kael’s was rare, really. But even if they weren’t as strong as Kael, I still couldn’t out-wrestle them both.
I turned and sprinted, not paying any heed to the fact that my medical gown hadn’t been fastened properly or that I was barefoot. I didn’t know what my plan was—where could I possibly go with a veritable army of men at Jonathon’s disposal to catch me? But I couldn’t sit there and let them put me under, either.
Fast metabolism. They hadn’t expected me to wake up, so I had to make use of this chance. I sprinted hard, aiming for the French doors that led to a gold-washed, autumn vineyard beyond. The burgundy and brown leaves sloped in gentle hills just beyond the glass doors, beckoning me to escape in their rows of fragrant flora. My hands connected with the handle, and my body slammed against the door. I fumbled with the latch.
Locked.
“No,” I gasped. Two pairs of hands yanked me away from the door, and the smell of cigarettes and stale BO assaulted my nose. I thrashed as they hauled me away. Despair gripped me so tightly, I thought my blood stopped churning altogether.
“What’s going on in here?” Jonathon’s voice asked. “Doctor?”
“Apologies, sir,” the doctor said from the other side of the room as the guards dragged me back across the antique hardwood floors. “She has a fast metabolism.” The doctor had an accent—Romanian? I couldn’t be sure. “She woke much faster than expected.”
“Where’s the anesthesiologist?” Jonathon asked. I looked over to find him advancing on me with calm, unhurried steps and annoyance written all over his pale features. “Matilda, darling, stop that. There’s no point. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”
I leaned over and bit the guard closest to me, snagging a good bit of his fleshy arm below his short sleeve between my teeth. I bit hard, harder than I thought possible, and just as he screamed in surprised pain, I tasted blood on my tongue. A jarring strike to my cheek forced me to release him.
I fell to my knees, my head ringing. The other guard had cuffed the side of my face, and a dull ache spread from my cheekbone to my buzzing skull. I gasped, hands splaying out on the cold hardwood and senses reeling. Blood drizzled from my open mouth onto the polished floor.
“For God’s sake,” Jonathon drawled. His dark floral and leather shoes came into view, stopping just a foot from me. Those were stupid-ass shoes. They looked like an eighties couch.
I spit out a mouthful of blood before raising myself to my knees to look up at him. “Ghost is going to kill you for this.”
Jonathon looked faintly amused by that. “One very capable bodyguard—no matter how impressive his rap sheet—is not going to get past an entire security detail, Matilda.”
I snuffed out a laugh, wiping blood and saliva off my mouth. “I’m not saying he’ll do it before you get what you want. I’m just saying he will do it. He’s petty like that.” I would have stood if I thought I could, but between the drugs still fogging my system and the swirling in my vision from the hit to the head, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
Jonathon remained nonplussed. “Well, I appreciate the heads up. I’ll be sure to beef up my security. In the meantime,” he snapped his fingers. The guards lifted me up by my arms again, and this time, I hung uselessly between them. “You’re ruining my vision, Matilda. I wanted this to be a peaceful process. It’s a beautiful thing. Let it be.”
I sprayed blood and spit in his face. It painted his skin like bloody stars, and he stumbled back, grimacing. “What the fuck?”
I grinned. “Oh, sorry, was that not very orphic of me? My bad.”
“Get her on the table,” Jonathon growled.
Pop, pop.
Two taps of percussive sound fired off in the distance. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought they were fireworks. But I did know better. Hope leaped in my chest, and I lifted a devilish grin to Jonathon’s surprised features. “Oops. You summoned a Ghost.”
Pop, pop, crack.
Jonathon rotated a glare to his guards. “What’s going on?”
Static crackled over a walkie-talkie on the guard’s hip, and he released me, stepping away to speak in hurried French to someone on the other line. The second guard wrapped an arm around me securely from behind.
Gunfire sounded in the distance, closer now and so loud, it cracked through the air like whip strikes. My smile broadened. I didn’t know how he’d done it, how he’d discovered which house I was at, or how he’d gotten here so fast, but I knew with absolute certainty who had come for me.
“Get her to the table,” Jonathon repeated, his mouth screwed up in a tight line and his eyes volleying over the expansive dining room like a spirit might actually appear out of thin air.
Knowing Ghost the way I did, it was a possibility.
The man behind me jerked me backward, but there was no way. There was no way I’d let him sweep me to my doom with Kael this close. I fought him, elbowing his stomach and bringing up my heel toward his crotch. He dodged me, wrapping me in a full-body bear hug. I went limp until I slid between his arms, and he stumbled forward.
