Fang Hospital (Dr. Gabriella Van Court, Book 1)

by Tanya Goodwin

  Marcus carried on with the tall tale. “I knew my friend needed blood, fast. I was on my way to the lab to see what the hold-up was when I found Gabriella collapsed and dazed in the stairwell. I scooped her up and brought her here.”

  “We’ll need a full report,” a policeman said.

  “We’ll cooperate fully,” Marcus replied.

  Claude nodded in agreement.

  “Dr. Van Court, can you give us a description of your assailant?”

  “Yes. He was tall, over 6 feet, and he had black hair that was tied in a ponytail. He had dark eyes, and was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and black pants. He was barefoot and had a deep voice.”

  “Where did he attack you?”

  “I stepped out into the hallway to wait for the radiology tech. He grabbed me from behind, clapped his hand across my mouth, and dragged me to the stairwell leading to the lab. While on the landing of the stairwell, he slapped me when I refused to go with him. He must have heard Marcus and Uncle Claude coming. He fled through an open window. I think he came in the same way. He’s gone.” Definitely gone.

  The policeman spoke into his radio. “Be on the lookout for a Caucasian man, over 6 feet tall, wearing all black and barefoot, wanted for assault. He’s escaped from Harry S. Fang Memorial Hospital. Consider him unstable and dangerous.”

  They wouldn’t find him. She could finally close her eyes.

  Uncle Claude sent her a message. Impressive. You were always a great storyteller. Now rest. I have to go play patient as well. I love you. We’ll celebrate soon.

  I love you, too.

  “I’ll be in the waiting room for Dr. Cade and for Dr. Van Court,” Marcus said.

  Thank you, Marcus.

  And I thank you.

  “Your blood work has returned,” George said. “You’re anemic and your blood pressure is a bit low, so we’re going to give you some blood. This isn’t my specialty, but I’ll do a quick scan of your belly to make sure you’re not hemorrhaging internally. I’ve also ordered a CT of your head. When your back-up arrives, they’ll take over.”

  She couldn’t stall any longer. Gabriella slipped off her scrub pants. George eyed her barely rounded lower belly. He squeezed a dollop of sonogram gel onto her abdomen. He scanned her from sternum to pubis.

  “Uh, no fluid collections, but uh..”

  He paused to do some quick measurements.

  “I know, George. It’s Max’s.”

  “I thought you and Max were a new item. I know he had a thing for you for the longest time. Apparently, long enough. You’re 12 weeks along. Baby’s heartbeat is strong and it’s swimming all over the place. Congratulations.”

  Gabriella clutched George’s hand. “Is Max really OK?”

  “Last I heard, they’re closing. He lost a lot of blood, but he’s stable. You’re lucky to be alive. That guy was a real monster.”

  “I am, and yes he was.”

  ****

  The two units of blood rejuvenated her, and K.L. had slipped her another one for comfort’s sake. Her head CT was negative, and she was cleared to visit Max in the recovery room. She watched his heart beat steady and strong across the cardiac monitor as he slept off the anesthetics. The last unit of blood was infusing into his now plump veins. Gabriella gently touched the bandages of his face and neck, lamenting she couldn’t heal them on the spot. But he was alive, and she’d work on it.

  Max smacked his lips and flickered his eyes open. “Gabriella,” he rasped.

  “Shh. Don’t talk now. Rest. Volk’s dead,” she whispered in his ear.

  He whispered, “Hallelujah!”

  “Well, look who’s awake.” K.L. strode into the recovery room. “I gave you my best stuff!”

  Marcus stepped out from behind K.L. “Hey, Doc. We’ll have to fly for pleasure next time.”

  Max held up his thumb.

  Marcus adjusted Max’s IV and tucked in his blankets beneath him. “Mortals need warmth. Are you in pain?”

  Max shook his head. “No, but thank you, Marcus.”

  “You’re welcome.” He nudged K.L. “Let’s give them some deserved private time.”

  “Before you go, K.L., where’s my uncle?”

  “Back in ICU, role playing!”

  “I hope his play doesn’t include feeding off the nurses.”

  “I don’t think Barbara would let them,” K.L. said.

  “Yeah, she probably would fry them. Who knew?”

  “I would have loved to be awake to see that. I guess we know what her special talent is.”

  Gabriella laughed for the first time that night. “Our baby’s all grown up.”

  “How time flies,” K.L teased.

  He patted Max’s hand and kissed Gabriella on the cheek. “We’ll still have our party. Better late than never.”

  “You can count on us being there.” Gabriella rubbed her belly. “All three of us.”

  Gabriella waved to K.L and Marcus. She glanced at the cardiac monitor and then laid her head on Max’s chest.

  “Hearing is believing.” She relished every beat thumping in her ear. “I love you, Maxwell Cade.”

  Max ran his fingers through her hair. “And I love you, Gabriella Van Court.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Two weeks after Halloween

  Max stepped out onto Gabriella’s porch, nursing a beer. He held up one hand as headlights appeared in her driveway. “Hey, Barbara! Watch out for my...” She hit the brakes, but still dented his back bumper. “…car.” He went to the front door and yelled above the music, “Gabriella! Barbara and Uncle Claude are here.” Her secluded house on the hill was rocking with vampires. The Halloween that was not was in belated full swing.

  Gabriella joined Max on the porch. She grimaced at his dented Cadillac. “Sorry, Babe.” She kissed him. “Barbara and I will fix it after the party.”

  Max grabbed her by her hips and pulled her into his chest. He’d adjusted to her coolness and had become expert at avoiding her fangs when they kissed in public. But in the privacy of their bedroom, he craved the orgasmic sink of them into the nape of his neck.

  He had moved in with her after his discharge from the hospital. She’d insisted upon it, but he didn’t protest. Both on medical leave from The Fang and on the mend, he loved every minute of being around her. He was used to sleeping during the day, so they were a good fit from the start. At least he always knew where she was. No more disappearing. She slept in the crook of his arm during the day and walked with him while holding his hand during their nightly strolls. Max grinned. Life and undeath couldn’t have been better between them.

  Barbara climbed out of her car and rushed over to inspect the damage. She traced her finger across the dent, scraping the paint with her pointy nails. “Ooh!” She winced. “Sorry about your car. I’m out of the habit of driving, and I totally forgot about the fingernails.”

  Max waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. After everything we’ve been through, dents and scratches don’t matter.”

  Along with the Halloween festivities, they had two more reasons to celebrate: Volk’s demise and a baby on the way.

  Claude rocked out of the passenger side, hugging several pints of blood. “I figured it was B.Y.O.B, bring your own blood. I’ll take these into the house and stash them in the fridge. I’m sure Gabriella has plenty, but with all the thirsty vampires, at least Barbara and I won’t go hungry.” He patted Max on the cheek. “Welcome to the family, of sorts.”

  Max joked. “Well, every vampire clan needs a token mortal.”

  Barbara kissed him on the other cheek. “And a handsome one at that!” She smoothed his face with her palms. “You look good.”

  Max smiled and nodded. He pulled the new cravat Marcus had given him tighter. Gabriella had toiled at healing the scars on his face, but the gash across his neck that Volk had left behind lingered. He let Gabriella see it, that couldn’t be avoided, but no one else, even though they all knew it was there.

  Barbara blinked know
ingly at him. She turned to Gabriella and hugged her. “My beneficent progenitor! How lovely in your roundness you look.”

  “Beneficent? Roundness?” Max and Claude piped up in synchrony.

  She cocked a brow. “I’ve been studying. And I’ll be studying fulltime. I’m going to Culinary School to finally become a chef!

  Gabriella took Barbara’s hand and gazed at the Van Court family ring her Uncle Claude had given her. Thankfully she had left the ring in his ICU room and had gone back to retrieve it, only to reappear in the lab to incinerate Volk. “Bravo for you! I feel a wedding coming up.” She let her hand loose. “I free you. Be with my uncle.”

  “I’ll always be at your beck and call,” Barbara said. “And I’ll make a great babysitter.”

  “Just don’t teach the kid to drive,” Claude said. Barbara nudged his arm. “I’ll teach him, or her, to fish, like I taught Gabriella.”

  “That’ll be great,” Max said. “Gabriella loves clam chowder.”

  Gabriella grinned at Max. “I do.”

  Maxed pointed his thumb towards the inside. “Go right in. Have a great time.”

  Marcus appeared in front of them. Max jerked back. “Sorry to startle you, Doc. I’ll have to work on slowing my speed if I’m going to be working alongside mortals like you and Gabriella.”

  “Alongside mortals?” Max furrowed his brows.

  “Yes. I’ve enrolled in nursing school. Night classes, of course. At first I thought I was avenging the death of the nurse who saved me at the hands of Volk. But I found that I was pulled to the pulse of the ER.”

  Max clapped Marcus on the back. “We’ll be happy, and privileged, to have you.” He walked Marcus to the door. “Enjoy yourself, my friend.”

  They exchanged thumbs up as Marcus joined the festivities.

  Gabriella and Max stood alone on the porch. So much had changed between them in such a short time. He gazed at Gabriella. Her chestnut hair glistened in the moonlight. Max ran his fingers through her hair. She pulled him to her like a magnet.

  “I love it when you do that.”

  “Do what?” she teased.

  “Draw me into you,” he whispered in her ear. Max loosened his cravat and offered his neck. “Do it. Please?”

  ****

  Gabriella knew what he was asking. It was an eventuality. She’d have to put him off again, but she couldn’t keep doing that. She had to make a decision. It wasn’t fair to him. Not that anything that happened to him was fair. It was her fault. Gabriella stroked his scarred neck. If she hadn’t fallen in love with him, he would never have endured this. She had to think clearly and carefully about the repercussions. She refused to cause him more pain.

  Gabriella kissed him hard.

  “Not now,” she said.

  Max looked crestfallen as he straightened his cravat.

  Gabriella took his hand. “Let’s go inside and enjoy the party.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “We’ll talk later, in private.”

  Max’s eyes lit up. With a spring in his step, he pulled her inside. She’d successively averted the sensitive subject, for now.

  K.L., with his prized prince from radiology seated next to him, played the harpsichord with a huge grin on his face. His fangs bopped to the beat of “Monster Mash.”

  “That’s different,” Max said.

  Gabriella smiled. “Well that’s K.L.! I had no idea that harpsichord was tucked away in the attic.”

  Max laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “While every kid whines about piano lessons, ours will complain about harpsichord homework, an instrument that hasn’t been known to man for centuries.”

  Her smile melted. Their child would be different.

  Max pecked her on the neck. “That will be so kickass. I can see all the parents at the PTA meetings, waggling their eyebrows. “Hmm? Harpsichord, did you say? Can’t say we’ve had one at a recital,” he parodied.

  Gabriella hugged him and laughed in his solid chest. I love this mortal man!

  While the other vamps did “the monkey” to K.L.’s rendition of “Monster Mash,” Michael ran around the room plucking down the orange and black helium-filled balloons.

  “Stop that!” Anabella yelled.

  Michael screeched to a halt and handed Gabriella the orange and black balloon bouquet. “These are for you!”

  Gabriella accepted his gift. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you. They’re lovely.”

  “You’re welcome, Dr. Van Court.” He tugged on her black cocktail dress. “How about naming your baby Michael? It’s a good name.”

  She smiled at him. “Yes, it is.”

  Michael skipped away contentedly and joined the others on the dance floor.

  Max hugged her. “You’re going to be a great mother.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder. “And you will be an awesome father.”

  In that moment, Gabriella had made her decision. “Max?”

  He kissed the top of her head. “What?”

  She looked up at him and shook her head. “The answer is no, for now.”

  “I understand,” he said, minus the crestfallen look. He grinned. “But I will keep asking from time to time.”

  Gabriella cradled her belly. “Yes, all in good time.”

  The End

  About The Author

  Tanya Goodwin writes romantic suspense with a twist of medicine, medical romances, and mystery. Her experiences as a physician are reflected in her characters and in her stories. Tanya is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine and completed her specialty training as an obstetrician and gynecology in Tampa, Florida. She now resides in New York. Her present life as a traveling doctor allows her to switch from stethoscope to keyboard. Tanya is a member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. You can visit her at her websites http://www.tanyagoodwin.com and http://www.holidayheartbeat.com.

  Books by Tanya Goodwin

  Medical Romance

  An Evergreen Christmas

  An Evergreen Wedding (coming soon)

  Roxanne

  Paranormal Romance

  Fang Hospital (Dr. Gabriella Van Court, Book 1)

  Mystery

  Do Not Disturb

  Suspense

  If Memory Serves (Dr. Tara Ross series) (Book 1)

  The Embalmer (Dr. Tara Ross Series) (Book 2)

  Thank you, Reader

  Thank you for purchasing Fang Hospital. If you enjoyed Fang Hospital or any of my books, I would be grateful if you would leave a brief review at amazon.com and/or goodreads.com.