"Ely stays," he ordered as he headed for the door. "I'll see about getting dinner together."
Harmony flipped the blankets from her nude body and swung her legs over the side of the bed before struggling into her robe.
"You touched me with your hands?" she asked the doctor coldly.
"I was gloved." Ely crossed her arms on her chest as she stared down at her.
"Find better gloves," Harmony snapped. "My skin is burning where you touched me."
"Burning?"
"A cold, deep burn. Thighs, arm, neck and tongue."
"No one has ever mentioned a burn. Pain, but no burn."
"It happened when Jonas touched my back after the first night with Lance as well. It's highly uncomfortable."
"Which means painful as hell," Ely grunted. "You're one of the most willful Breeds I've ever met. Do you ever feel pain, Harmony?"
"Not if I can help it. I need a shower. Where's my overnight bag?"
"You mean the lotion boutique?" Ely laughed. "Lance couldn't pronounce half the names on those bottles. Quite a collection you have there."
"Where is it?" She wasn't in the mood to talk.
Ely sighed heavily as she moved to the closet and pulled the large overnight bag from the depths of it.
"You can talk to me, Harmony. I'm not your enemy."
"Anyone not a friend is an enemy." Harmony stared directly into her eyes. "And I have no friends."
"Well, that puts me in my place." Ely carried the bag to the bathroom, sitting it on a counter before turning and reentering the bedroom. "There you go. Can you walk to the bathroom?"
"I can walk." Or she would die trying.
She was weak. Terrifyingly weak. Her legs shook as they took her weight, but they held her up. For the moment, that was all that mattered.
"Harmony, I have to leave tonight," Ely announced as Harmony made her way across the floor.
"Good-bye." What the hell did the woman want her to say? The doctor had helped hold her captive for two weeks and had helped take enough blood to refill another human body.
"You can't run from him, Harmony," Ely retorted as Harmony reached the doorway. "The hormonal treatments only work if you're ha**ng s*x regularly with your mate. If you leave, the mistake could be fatal."
Harmony lowered her head, staring down at her feet as she gritted her teeth furiously.
"Jonas knew what he was doing, didn't he?" she whispered. "This was planned."
"I can't verify that." Ely's voice chilled, assuring Harmony that Jonas had indeed known exactly what he was doing.
"This is a dangerous game you're letting him draw you into, Doctor." She turned her head, staring back at the other woman bitterly. "I won't be the only one to die if this turns out the wrong way, I promise you that."
"Who will avenge you, Harmony?" Ely asked her. "The same people who have pulled your ass out of the fire before. I read Jonas's file on you, and it's vastly different from the one in the Breed database."
"As I said, you don't want to get caught up in this." Harmony smiled tightly. "If he hadn't played his little game, if he had left it with merely attempting to reincorporate me into the Breed society, we would have all been safe. But this…" She waved her hand down her body. "This just changed the stakes. If I'm taken out, trust me, Jonas won't escape unscathed. And neither will you."
______
"How is she doing?" Lance asked Ely as he stood over the pot he had poured the chicken soup into, letting it come to a slow simmer as his aunt had instructed. She walked slowly into the room, her hands tucked into the pockets of her lab jacket, her shoulders hunched.