shifted nervously. Did Maya know what she was doing? “But once you’ve learned it, you never forget it, right?”
“Hardly.” She glanced up at him. “I was a Urologist, not an Emergency physician.”
Before she’d been turned—that’s what Maya meant, but she didn’t need to say it. Even he knew that much about her past. She’d been attacked by one of their own, one of Scanguards, and turned against her will. In the end, everything had worked out for her, and she had bonded with the second-in-command at Scanguards, Gabriel.
Maya pointed to the injury on the girl’s other arm. “That aside, I’m sure I can fix this.”
“Should I lick her wound?” It would make sure the injury healed quickly, probably within minutes.
“Did you wipe her memory?”
Surprised at her question, Oliver shook his head. “No, I didn’t. I wasn’t the one who did this!”
“Stop it, Oliver! I’m not discussing this now.”
“But I am!” He sucked in a breath of air. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t bite her, I didn’t drain her, I didn’t wipe her memory. She practically fell into my arms, running from another vampire. She begged me to help her escape. So I did. And she’ll tell you that when she wakes up.”
“Give it up. Why do you still have to pretend? It’s me, Maya, I’m a doctor, I can help you.”
“No you can’t!”
“Obviously not.” She looked back at the girl, picked up her stethoscope again and listened to her heart. When she tucked it away again, she continued, “Since we don’t know what she remembers, I’m not interested in having to explain to her why her arm healed miraculously, so I’m going to bandage her the regular way. No licking. And certainly not by you. You’ve had enough of her blood already, don’t you think?”
Oliver let out a curse. “Ah, screw it! You’ve obviously decided not to believe me, so why do I even bother? Once she’s awake—”
“Yes, yes, I know. She’ll tell us it was some other big bad vampire,” Maya mocked.
“Before the night is over, you’re going to have to apologize to me,” Oliver prophesized.
“Don’t count on it.” Then she pointed at the bottle. “Time for the next one.”
Again Maya turned the valve, cutting off the blood supply to the needle in the girl’s arm. Oliver helped her exchange the bottles. Within a minute, the second bottle of O-Neg was being transfused into the beautiful Asian girl he couldn’t keep his eyes off.
Had she really offered him sex for his help?
He stretched his hand toward her face, stroking tenderly over her cheek when Maya loudly cleared her throat. Immediately he pulled his hand back.
“Just wanted to see if she feels warmer than earlier,” he lied. “She was shaking with the chills when I called you.” Well, at least that part was the truth, even though his reason for touching her wasn’t. He’d simply wanted to feel her soft skin and be reminded of the kiss they had shared for such a brief moment.
“A side effect of the blood loss,” Maya commented and went about cleaning her patient’s arm wound. It wasn’t deep; rather it appeared to be only a superficial cut. She cleaned it out with rubbing alcohol, then placed Steri-strips over it before covering up the area with gauze and affixing it with tape.
When the second bottle was fully drained a short while later, Maya removed the needle and put pressure on the puncture wound, until the small opening stopped bleeding, then put a band-aid over it.
Oliver felt impatience grow in him. “And now?”
“Let’s see if she responds.”
Maya placed her hand on the girl’s good arm and shook her gently. “Wake up. Come, I know you can hear me. Wake up.”
The strange girl stirred, her head falling to the side, prominently exposing the puncture wounds on her neck once more. Oliver pointed to them, giving Maya a questioning look.
She quickly took a piece of gauze and saturated it with rubbing alcohol, then swabbed the area with it.
“Ouch!”
It was the first word from the girl since she’d collapsed in his arms. Relief washed through him. She would be all right.
Her hand reached for her neck as she opened her eyes at the same time.
7
Ursula felt a stinging pain as something wet brushed over her neck and raised her hand to slap it over the source of the pain: the puncture wounds. Darn, why did they sting? They’d never stung before when a vampire had licked them to close them.