“What do you mean?”
“He has to bite you,” said the doctor. “I suggest that you persuade him to do it. The enhanced healing abilities will raise your odds of surviving the ultimate predator process. Without them, the odds will be worse than fifty percent. Perhaps much worse.”
They took another turn. Catalina had lost track of how many they’d taken, distracted by thoughts of super-powers and shapeshifting and black ops and her own possible imminent death. And of Shane, the hot bodyguard. The hot bodyguard who could turn into a panther.
She wouldn’t have thought anything could distract her from holy shit I’ve been kidnapped, not to mention holy shit panther, but Shane himself had done the trick. It wasn’t just how gorgeous he was, especially in the nude, with his long legs and lean muscle and fine bone structure. It was the heat that had risen up from his body. It was his scent of clean masculine sweat, so unexpectedly human in that sterile room. It was the grace of his body in motion, the irresistible strength of his hands, the velvety softness of his hair, and the unexpected beauty of those blue eyes in that hard face.
But more than that, she was drawn to him. They hadn’t had much time together, but Catalina was used to living her life in brief, intense encounters. She often had only a few minutes to save a life, and then a few more in the ambulance before she turned her patients over to the ER, never to see them again. But she’d had patients she’d known for fifteen minutes and would remember for the rest of her life, and she was sure that many of them would never forgot those crucial minutes they’d spent with her.
In the little time she’d had with Shane, he’d tried to protect her any way that he could, whether it was trying to scare her away or calmly explaining what was going on or shielding her with his own body. He’d respected her abilities, which was more than she could say for a lot of the men she’d worked with. His cool reserve was smoking hot, and the glimpses of vulnerability she’d seen tugged at her heart.
But, of course, he wasn’t into her. She hadn’t missed how quickly he’d gotten dressed after he’d caught her admiring his body, how he’d jerked away from her impulsive touch on his shoulder, and how he’d dropped even the joke of flirting with her once he’d spotted that for her, it wasn’t only joking.
Hot bodyguard who’d risk his life for me, but wouldn’t ever kiss me, she thought. Maybe it’s for the best. Right now I need protecting more than I need kissing.
The same reckless part of her that wanted to be an ultimate predator said, I’d rather have the kissing.
I’d rather have both, Catalina admitted. Then she firmly told herself, Be happy you have one.
It was going to be awkward being stuck with Shane in that little room, though. At least they had the bathroom to change in. She’d just do her best to keep her thoughts off her face and not embarrass him. And also, not stare at him. Not flirt with him, even playfully. And definitely not touch him again. He obviously hadn’t liked that at all.
Except when he was a panther, she recalled, suppressing a grin. I always did have a way with cats.
“Here we are.” Dr. Elihu escorted her into a room full of medical testing equipment, some of which she recognized and some of which she didn’t. “Have a seat.”
Catalina warily sat on the examination table. The guards stayed while Dr. Elihu summoned a nurse to take her blood pressure and temperature, and then to draw her blood.
“People will notice I’m gone,” she said. “They’re going to look for me.”
Dr. Elihu replied, “Women go missing all the time. Especially when they do reckless things like walk alone at night. No one will be surprised that your disregard of basic safety finally caught up to you.”
Catalina couldn’t decide which made her more furious, that he was lecturing her on safety after he’d kidnapped her, or that he was probably right that her family would believe that she’d been murdered. No amount of super-powers would be worth that.
Shane will break me out, she reassured herself. That’s what PJs do— they rescue people.
That thought got her through an entire day of medical exams. She got a CT scan, an MRI, a bone scan, full-body X-Rays, and an EKG. They tested her vision, her hearing, her pulmonary function, her reflexes, and even her ability to smell, taste, and touch.
At first she was intrigued by the tests and machines she’d read about but never personally encountered before, like the PET scan, and the ones she’d never even heard of, like tensiomyography. Then she got bored. Then she started wondering again about Shane. How was he holding up, alone in that little room with nothing to do? Or were they running tests on him in some different part of the building?
Finally, she couldn’t take it any more. She stepped off the treadmill they’d used for a stress test of her heart and demanded, “What are you doing with Shane?”
Dr. Elihu gave her a long look before he replied, as if he’d learned something about her because she’d asked that question. “Nothing bad. And that will continue... So long as you cooperate.”
There went that goddamn stomach flutter again. Catalina had come back from months in a disaster zone, and one day later, she’d been scared more often than she’d been in the last year.
“Let me get this straight,” she said. “Are you saying that you won’t hurt him so long as I toe the line?”
“That is exactly what I said,” the doctor replied condescendingly. Then, as if he was making a private joke, he added, “We can skip the test of auditory comprehension; that’s obviously perfect.”
If there was one thing Catalina hated, it was men patronizing her. If it wasn’t for them threatening Shane, she’d have been tempted to haul off and punch him. And the thought of them deliberately hurting Shane made her even angrier. He’d made a career out of risking his life to save others, and his reward had been to be kidnapped and used. And now he was being held hostage to ensure her cooperation.
Hot blood rushed into her face, making her skin feel tight and swollen. She clenched her fists, holding herself back by sheer force of will.
“Now!” Dr. Elihu exclaimed. “Nurse! Quickly!”
The next thing Catalina knew, she was being hustled into some scanner she didn’t even recognize. She lay in its narrow tube, silently furious. Her rage only increased when she realized that the doctor had deliberately baited her so he could scan her brain while she was angry.
Go ahead and make me a predator, she thought. Let’s see you condescend to a panther that can bite your head off.