Luna hated this. Beau could be dead. They didn’t have time to do this. And then she thought about the woman crouched over the body of her loved one in the waiting room.
“I’m all in. Let’s do this.”
Dr. Kingston strode across the room and held out her hand for the bottle. Luna handed it off gently and they left the storeroom.
“Guys, come with. We need these needles loaded,” Dr. Kingston called to Mathias and Chief Thomas.
“What’s happening?” Chief Thomas demanded.
“She needs to cut the antidote with saline and load syringes. Then they can administer it.” Luna said, hurrying after Dr. Kingston. The doctor turned into a room labeled “Laboratory” and strode over to a stainless steel worktop. She grabbed fresh gloves from a box before unlocking a drawer.
“Gloves, everyone,” Dr. Kingston ordered over her shoulder.
“Where’s your nurse?” Luna asked Mathias as they put their gloves on. His blue eyes measured her for a moment before he answered.
“Resting in a room. She’s actually doing fairly well. The cuts have healed and there’s no bruising to speak of,” Mathias said carefully.
“Good,” Luna said simply.
“We’re going to talk after this,” Mathias said.
“We’ll see,” Luna murmured. One thing she’d learned in her years of being a witch – she didn’t have to answer anyone’s questions.
They all stood back and watched as Dr. Kingston poured the liquid from the bottle into five large plastic bags of saline, measuring out an equal amount for each. Eying the bags, she nodded and turned.
“This will easily treat 500 people. Just insert the needle into the plastic circle at the end of the bag and draw 1 ml full, then cap the needle. That’s all I need.”
“What is this stuff?” Chief Thomas demanded. “I still don’t know what’s going on.”
“Why, Chief Thomas, it’s an antidote for the poison.” Dr. Kingston didn’t elaborate on what the poison was, and Luna kept her mouth shut as she focused on filling syringes as quickly as her shaking hands could manage.
Moments later, a voice at the door almost had her dropping a syringe.
“I’ve got this. I know what I’m doing. Please… please let me help.”
Mathias’s nurse stood in the doorway. If it hadn’t been for the blood staining her scrubs, nobody would have known that she’d been beaten to a pulp less than two hours ago.
“You a nurse?” Dr. Kingston asked over her shoulder.
“I am.”
“Take this tray. Start on anyone that’s been poisoned.”
“Start at the morgue,” Luna found herself saying. Chief Thomas’ head whipped around and he stared at her.
“Now, why would she go to the morgue when the people who aren’t dead yet could be saved?” he demanded.
“Because the people in the morgue aren’t dead either,” Luna said softly, and the Chief’s eyes widened.
“Mother of God.” He picked up his pace filling the syringes.
“Take these syringes and solution with you. You don’t know how many others there are,” Dr. Kingston interrupted, filling a plastic bag with supplies before shoving them into Luna’s hand. “Now go!”
“Wait,” Chief Thomas said, hesitating for a moment before reaching for the Taser clipped to his waist. “I… I can’t just give you my gun. But this could help.”
Mathias reached out and took the device, nodding his thanks to the Chief before he and Luna tore from the lab.
“I’ve got to help that guy in the waiting room. I promised,” Luna gasped just before they hit the double doors leading out to the waiting room. Luna had palmed one of the syringes as she’d left the lab. There was no way she’d be able to run past the woman she’d made that promise to and not administer a dose.
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“In the abdomen, Dr. Kingston said. I don’t need to hit a vein or anything,” Luna said as they pushed the doors open. Voices started calling to them immediately, but Luna ignored the chaos as she knelt by the man lying on the ground.
“Everyone! Quiet! We’ve delivered the medicine and the doctors are getting it ready. Everyone will be treated shortly,” Mathias shouted, and cheers went up in the crowd.
“Hey, pull his shirt up,” Luna instructed the woman, who now lay over the man’s body.
“It’s too late,” the woman sobbed, pushing matted blonde bangs from her eyes. “He’s gone,” she hiccupped. A shudder wracked her thin body. Luna reached out and ran a soothing hand down her arm.
“Look at me. It’s going to be okay. Lift his shirt,” Luna ordered in a brisk voice. The woman jumped a bit, then she pulled the tail of his flannel shirt from his pants. Luna didn’t hesitate before taking the cover off the syringe and plunging it into the man’s stomach. Pushing the plunger in, she prayed that Miss Elva had gotten it right.
Time seemed to suspend for a moment, as both women crouched and watched the man.
A cough rattled from his chest, and the woman gasped. “David! Can you hear me?”
The man moaned and turned his head once before nodding.
Luna blew out a breath. It was going to be okay.
Turning to look for Mathias, she saw him holding the crowd back, and nodded at him as she grabbed the plastic bag from the floor.
“Let’s move.”
Chapter Ten
“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Mathias said as he sprinted next to Luna, the metal gates at the hospital doors clanging shut behind them. Luna didn’t spare a glance for him, but instead kept her mind focused on holding a protective shield around them as they raced across the empty parking lot to Mathias’s SUV.
“What – were you delivering a baby in there?” Miss Elva complained from the back seat as Luna sprung open the passenger-side door.
“It’s a madhouse in there. We helped Dr. Kingston prep the syringes so she wouldn’t have to do it herself,” Luna said, turning to pass Miss Elva the plastic bag.
Miss Elva rustled through the bag, taking inventory while Mathias started the car. He drove a few feet, then hit the brakes.
“Wait. Where are we going?”
That was an excellent question. Luna rolled her eyes at herself. She’d been so caught up in the moment there in the hospital that she hadn’t realized they had no clue where they were going. She turned to look in the back seat.
“Miss Elva?” Luna asked, feeling helpless.
“I called Rafe. Give it a moment.”
Oh, great. Rafe. Luna wondered what Mathias was going to think about this one, but she had no time to prep him before Rafe whooshed into the car.
“My beautiful lovemountain! How I’ve missed you. It seems like eons since I’ve been by your side,” Rafe gushed as he floated around Miss Elva.
“Rafe, I’ve missed you as well.” Miss Elva said, grinning at the schmoopy pirate ghost.
“What the –? Who’s Rafe?” Mathias asked in confusion, eyeing Miss Elva like she was crazy. Which, if Luna was being honest with herself, he probably wasn’t half wrong.
“He’s my pirate ghost,” Miss Elva said, as though the answer was obvious.
Mathias shifted his eyes warily to Luna.
“It’s true. He really is a pirate ghost. Like an honest to god pirate from Spain who sailed the seven seas or plundered the seas… I don’t know, can we focus?” Luna said, shoving her hair from her face as she looked back at Rafe.
“Of course he is,” Mathias muttered, shaking his head. “A pirate ghost.”
“Does he question my manhood?” Rafe seethed, puffing out his chest.
“No, Rafe. He’s not questioning your manhood. Could you please focus?” Luna asked, then smacked Mathias lightly on the arm. “And knock it off with the comments. Nothing is all that it seems.”
The blue of Mathias’s eyes seemed to burn into hers, and he measured Luna with a look before nodding once. Luna couldn’t help but feel a low tug of lust
in her stomach as she sized up the yummy doctor.
What? She was human, after all.
“Rafe, baby. Tell me where that nasty margarita man is,” Miss Elva cooed, and Rafe dimpled at her.
“Well, I have to say,” Rafe sighed, “It took forever to find him.”
“I’m sure it did, honey. If you could just tell us which direction to start driving in, you can tell me all about it on the way,” Miss Elva said soothingly. Luna bit back a smile. Miss Elva was smart – if they didn’t start driving soon, Mathias was going to have a fit.
“He’s in a warehouse out of town. A good ways out of town. You’ll want to head south,” Rafe instructed proudly.
“Tell me what you saw,” Miss Elva instructed Rafe as Luna gave Mathias their direction. He turned the SUV from the parking lot and headed for the overseas highway.
“Well, it took me forever to find him,” Rafe sighed dramatically. “The truck just seemed to disappear, so I couldn’t track it at all. It was like, poof, gone. I just kind of wandered for a while, trying to get an energy signature of the man I’d seen serving the drinks earlier in the day.”
“What is he saying?” Mathias asked as he turned onto the highway, and Luna realized she was being rude.
“I forget that you can’t hear him. He’s just saying that he was searching for the energy signature of the margarita man, because the truck just seemed to disappear into thin air.”
“Is that so?” Mathias shook his head in disbelief.
“I don’t like him,” Rafe glared at Mathias.
“Shh, Rafe, he’s a good guy. He’s a doctor who heals many sick people,” Luna said. Mathias cut her a look.
“Oh? The ghost getting pissy at me?”
“I don’t know what pissy means, but you’d better tell that man to pipe down before I haunt his ass for eternity,” Rafe seethed, fluttering around the backseat in anger.
“Rafe!” Luna hissed.
They all screeched as Mathias whipped the SUV to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes.
Mathias turned to look into the empty air of the backseat.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on. My patients have been stolen – literally stolen from my practice – my nurse was beat up, you two are doing magick or something else, and now there’s a pirate ghost. I’m on my last leg here, people. So, I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop with the freaking commentary and tell me where the hell to go!”
Luna bit her lip and slid a glance over at Miss Elva.
Miss Elva shook her head gently at Rafe.
“We’re sorry, Mathias,” Luna said, getting ready to stroke Mathias’s ego. “We really appreciate all you’ve done to save our friend. And your patients. You’re a good person.”
“Mmhmm, and a good-looking getaway driver to boot. I like a hot man with us when we go into battle,” Miss Elva chimed in from the back seat.
“I… I never! I’m your hot man,” Rafe steamed at Miss Elva.
“Sure, Rafe, you’re my sweetie. But I’ve got eyes in my head, don’t I?” Miss Elva chuckled.
Luna looked at Mathias to see how he was handling all this. His eyes were directed at the ceiling of the car and he appeared to be counting. Finally, he blew out a breath.
“The directions, please?”
“Rafe, where are we going?” Miss Elva prodded.
Luna reached out and put her hand on Mathias’s arm, then had to stop herself from squeezing. Damn, the man had some muscles under there.
“Sorry. I know we’re a lot. But we’re good people, too,” Luna said softly, meeting his eyes when he turned to look at her.
“I just… tonight has been scary and stressful, okay? And I used to work as an ER doctor, so I know about stress. I’m just really worried about my patients,” Mathis shrugged and Luna felt warmth go through her. Look at this man, going to all lengths to save people he didn’t even know. She couldn’t help but like that about him.
And the muscles. Those were good too.
“Rafe says to keep going down the highway, almost to the next Key. There’s a small turnoff for some sort of fish company on the right.”
Mathias nodded his thanks and pulled the SUV back out into traffic. Silence filled the car for a moment as they all thought about what they were getting into.
“Rafe, tell me about the building,” Luna finally said, pulling her thoughts away from the cute doctor next to her and back to the forthcoming rescue mission.
“It’s a big brick building. Um, a square shape. No windows or anything,” Rafe said, trying to think how to explain its use. Luna translated for Mathias.
“A warehouse,” Mathias muttered.
“A warehouse?” Luna asked Rafe.
“I’m not sure what that is,” Rafe shrugged helplessly. “It’s just a big building with huge doors that the trucks can come in and out of. I only found it because the man was leaving with a large truck when I finally found him earlier today. I could see where he’d stashed the margarita truck inside. Past that are a bunch of people lying on beds.”
Luna told Mathias this and he shook his head, letting out a steady stream of swears.
“I can’t imagine what he is doing with the bodies,” Luna said finally.
“I can,” Mathias swore again and slammed his fist onto the steering wheel.
“What?” Luna looked at him, her eyes wide.
“Harvesting organs. Organ trafficking. The black market.”
Chapter Eleven
Luna felt her heart skip a beat, and she gasped for air as panic twisted her stomach into knots.
“He can’t… they won’t…” Luna gasped as she thought of the crazy man cutting into Beau’s skin.
“Keep it together, Sugar, we’ve got people to rescue,” Mathias muttered, and Luna bristled at being called Sugar.
“Excuse me?” she asked indignantly.
“My, my, my, we’ve got a live one on our hands,” Miss Elva observed from the back seat.
“Yeah. Sugar, Blondie, Sweetie, whatever you want me to call you,” Mathias said, waving a hand at Luna dismissively.
“Luna. You call me Luna,” Luna said, finding that her temper was beginning to boil.
“Sure, that too,” Mathias said, winking at her and shooting her a quick smile. That’s when Luna realized he was just baiting her in order to get her mind off of her panic.
“I’m on to you,” Luna muttered, then turned around to look at Miss Elva.
“Well, this is interesting,” Miss Elva murmured.
“Nothing is interesting. What’s interesting is how the hell are we going to walk into a warehouse and rescue these people? It’s obvious this man isn’t working alone,” Mathias said.
“He’s got a good point. There’s going to be more than one person guarding that warehouse,” Luna pointed out.
“I don’t suppose any of you are packing heat?” Mathias asked.
“I’m packing something, all right,” Miss Elva said, pulling her bag out. “I’ve got a few things that we can use as distractions right off the bat.” She began pulling pouch after pouch out of her bag.
Mathias spared a quick glance for the pouches.
“What are those?”
“Flash bangs. Like those little snaps you’d play with as a kid? Throw them on the ground and they’d snap? These are big ones,” Miss Elva said.
“How big?”
“Big enough, young man, big enough,” Miss Elva said. She divided the flash bangs into three piles and began to dig into her bag again.
“So we need to get inside. Then what? Disable any bad guys?” Luna asked.
“And just how do you plan to do that?” Mathias asked, glancing at her slim body.
“Magick,” Luna shrugged delicately. Not that she was typically so forward about her abilities, but she’d long ago passed that point with Mathias.
“What are you? Some kind of witch?” Mathias asked.
“Yes, I’m a white witch. Harm none – well, in this case, harm
the people who are trying to harm others. But most of the time, it’s harm none, practice good intentions only. Healing spells, charmed potions, that kind of thing,” Luna explained, and looked out the window into the dark night. She could just see the lights of a boat bobbing far out on the sea.
“So you’re like a magickal doctor?” Mathias said, squinting at her in the glow from the dashboard.
Luna laughed, delighted with him.
“I am. That’s a lovely way of putting it.”
“Up here,” Rafe spoke up, having been quiet for a while.
“Rafe says to turn up here,” Luna said, her smile gone and her eyes focused on the road ahead.
“Rafe, how long is the road to the warehouse?” Luna asked, turning back to look at the pirate.
“Not far. There’s a few winds and bends, then you come into the clearing where the warehouse is.”
“Is there a place to conceal the car, is what you should be asking,” Mathias said as he approached a small sign with a fish painted on it.
“Rafe?” Luna asked, not feeling the need to repeat Mathias’s question.
Rafe thought about it.
“Yes, second curve up the road. There’s a place to pull off on the side of the road there.” Luna relayed the message.
“Perfect,” Mathias muttered as he turned his headlights off and eased off the highway onto the dirt road.
“Let’s save them.”
Chapter Twelve
Luna felt a shiver go through her at his words, and she grasped the flash bangs in her hands as they crept up the lane, barely able to see the edges of the road.
“Up here,” Rafe whispered.
“Up here,” Luna instructed as the SUV wound around another bend and Mathias directed the car off the road into a gravel pull-off of sorts. Luna assumed it was used for cars passing each other going in or out of the drive.
“Turn it around, facing out,” Luna whispered.
“Why?”
“What if we have to run for it?” she pointed out. This wasn’t her first rodeo, after all.
“Good point,” Mathias agreed, easing the SUV around until it faced out.
Tequila Will Kill Ya: (The Althea Rose Series Book 2.5) Page 4