reason, Faye's brain
changed directions, kind of like a toy train that had been picked up off one track and put down
on another. She found herself saying, «He's down the hall, room six. But only one of you can go
in and just for a short time. Oh, and you have to wait until his doctors-«
At that moment Dr. Manello came striding up to the desk. He looked over the men and asked,
«Everything okay here?»
Faye nodded as her mouth said, «Yes, just fine.»
Dr. Manello frowned as he met the men stare for stare. Then he winced and rubbed his temples
like he had a headache. «I'll be in my office if you need me, Faye.»
«Okay, Dr. Manello.» She glanced back at the men. What had she been saying? Oh, right. «You'll
have to wait until his surgeon leaves, though, okay?»
«He's in there now?»
«She's in there now, yes.»
«All right, thank you.»
Those yellow eyes bored into Faye's… and suddenly she couldn't remember if there was a
patient in six after all. Was there? Wait…
«Tell me,» the man said, «what is your user name and password?»
«Excuse… me?»
«For the computer.»
Why would he-Of course, he needed the information. Absolutely. And she needed to give it to
him. «FMONT2 in caps is the login, and the password is 11Eddie11. E in uppercase.»
«Thank you.»
She was about to say, You're welcome, when the thought popped into her head that it was time
for a staff meeting. Except why would that be? They'd already had one at the beginning of the-
No, it was definitely time for a staff meeting. They urgently needed to have a staff meeting. Right
now-
Faye blinked and realized she was staring into space over the nursing station's counter. Weird,
she could have sworn she'd just been talking to someone. Someone male and-
Staff meeting. Now.
Faye massaged her temples, feeling like she had a vise clamped onto her forehead. She didn't
usually get headaches, but it had been a hectic day, and she'd had a lot of caffeine and not much
food.
She looked over her shoulder at the other three nurses, all of whom were looking a little
confused. «Let's head into the conference room, guys. We have to do a patient review.»
One of Faye's colleagues frowned. «Didn't we already do that tonight?»
«We need to do it again.»
Everyone got up and went into the conference room. Faye kept the double doors open and sat at
the head of the table so she could watch over the hall outside as well as the monitor that showed
the status of every patient on the floor-
Faye stiffened in her chair. What the hell? There was a man with multicolored hair behind the
nurses' station, leaning over a keyboard.
Faye started to get up, ready to call security, but then the guy looked over his shoulder. As his
yellow eyes met hers, she suddenly forgot why it would be wrong for him to be at one of their
computers. She also realized that she needed to talk about the patient in five right away.
«Let's review the status of Mr. Hauser,» she said in a voice that got everyone's attention.
After Manello left, Jane stared down at her patient in disbelief. In spite of all the sedatives in his
veins, his eyes were open and he was staring up out of his hard, tattooed face with full cognition.
God… those eyes. They were unlike any she'd seen before, the irises unnaturally white with navy
blue rims.
This was not right, she thought. The way he looked at her wasn't right. That six-chambered heart
beating in his chest wasn't right. Those long teeth in the front of his mouth weren't right.
He was not human.
Except that was ridiculous. First rule of medicine? When you hear hoofbeats, don't think zebras.
What were the chances that there was an undetected humanoid species out there? A yellow Lab
to Homo sapiens' golden retriever?
She thought about the patient's teeth. Yeah, maybe make that Doberman pinscher to the retriever.
The patient stared back at her, somehow managing to loom even though he was on his back,
intubated, and only two hours out of trauma surgery.
How the hell was this guy conscious?
«Can you hear me?» she asked. «Nod your head if you can.»
His hand, the one with the tattoos, clawed at his throat, then grabbed onto the tube going into his
mouth.
«No, that has to stay in.» As she leaned over to take his hand away, he whipped the thing back
from her, moving it as far away as his arm would allow. «That's right. Please don't make me
restrain you.»
His eyes went utterly wide in terror, just peeled right open as his big body started to shake on the
bed. His
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