For the Dead Travel Fast
—-xxx—-
She was too weak to protest when he took the exit outside of Chicago. Four hours and she'd been propped up against the passenger side door in the backseat, barely hanging on. The late morning light made her eyes hurt, but she thought that was just exhaustion. She might have slept, but for the way Castle sharply called her name when he panicked.
She had tried not to make him panic.
"We're here," he breathed. She struggled to open her eyes. He had twisted around in the driver's seat and now his fingers reached for her neck. "Kate?"
"I'm alive," she rasped.
"God."
She couldn't even lift her hand to bat his away.
"It says 'text for triage' but—"
"Do what it says," she choked out. She didn't want to do this, but she could admit that 'wait for the bullet to come out' wasn't going to work. She'd bled through five bandages in only four hours and the liver pop was long gone. He'd tried to make her take the rest of his but she had said you'll need it more than me, when you have to carry me out.
And not sink his teeth in her. She was pretty sure that, though unsaid, still registered. He couldn't be gritting his teeth and avoiding the scent of her if he had to save her life. He also couldn't tear into her like an animal, no matter what his phased body demanded.
"They texted back," he croaked.
"What's it say." She realized her eyes were closed. She swallowed roughly, ignored the thirst. It wasn't for water.
"Says come around back."
"Where they can throw our bodies in the dumpster when they're drained," she muttered. He must not have heard, because he didn't comment, only restarted the engine and put the SUV in reverse.
She peeled back her lids and squinted through the morning sun. The squat building was in the middle of nowhere, not even a proper suburb of Chicago, with a green canopy of leafy trees that now blocked the sky. She dug her elbow into the door handle and leveraged herself up enough to see they were in a tunnel of maple trees, cool shade and the dapple of light across the paved road, and the soft murmur she could hear over the engine. The front windows were down, the back AC turned on high, and she had goose bumps now as they circled around to the back.
The trees must have been planted for this very purpose, to lull weary vampires straight to their mistress with the promise of shady rest.
"The trees," he said, catching the same notion. "It's like they've been planted to shepherd us to safety."
Oh God, he was so helplessly innocent.
"Lure us to—"
"Kate," he growled.
She subsisted, resting her forehead against the glass. She could do nothing to stop him, let alone stop whatever was waiting for them at the end of this drive. "You have my gun," she asked, not asking.
"Right here," he answered. His elbow moved into her line of sight; she assumed he meant the weapon was at his thigh. They'd talked about this on the drive, a compromise.
"Unholstered," she reminded him.
"With the safety on, yes," he added. "But I have a good feeling about this place."
"Some building in the middle of nowhere?" she rasped. Her head was pounding.
"It's a clinic, Kate. An urgent care clinic. This is the ambulance bay back here. I saw the signs for it."
Oh.
The building was made of grey limestone, like many in Chicago proper, and styled in that unfortunate in-between architectural period of the seventies. A minimally sloped roof created a serious overhang, the color-blocked windows were in black chrome with white lower panels, and it had the look of a small gloomy beast. The trees continued to line the drive, but it opened out into a parking lot with seven or eight spaces mostly filled, and a docking bay with the metal garage door already raised.
A woman in scrubs and shadow stood on the concrete apron, hands in her pockets, her braids piled on top of her head with beads that glinted gold and silver in the morning light.
Castle parked parallel to the dock, already leaning out the window to greet the woman; Kate braced herself and pushed upright, struggling. She hissed his name in warning.
"Dave sent us," Castle called out. "My wife has been shot. And he said something about you teaching us how to achieve the balance?"
The woman sniffed cautiously. Her hands were in fists in her pants pockets, her eyes and face in the shadow of the dock. "Who you think I am?"
"The... Doc?" Castle said, twisting around to look at Kate as if she might know better.
The woman shifted to her toes on the concrete and Kate tensed, though she could do nothing.
Castle whipped his head around just as the woman said, "Most think I'm the janitor, but not you, eh?"
"Janitor?" he said, bewildered. Kate could hear the innocence in his voice; she wondered if this woman could too. "But you're wearing scrubs."
The woman cackled and suddenly was moving, that sure-swiftness Kate had seen Eva employ only once in their relationship, the kind of grace only prima ballerinas could incorporate into jumping down from a loading dock and approaching an SUV.
Just that fast, the woman was right at the door, and Castle yelped a little, his hand flexing—
"No need for that. You put that away," the woman said sharply. "Right now."
"Castle," Kate warned.
"And you—" The woman leaned into the window, took a disdainful sniff. "You want to die?"
Kate jerked back.
"She doesn't want to die," Castle said.
"No, of course not," she rasped, but the damn gun was necessary for their—
Castle holstered the weapon.
"No," Kate moaned.
The woman opened the door, something moving in those dark eyes—though maybe it was only the shadow of leaves across her face as she gestured for them to exit. Castle swung his legs around and got out, stepping right into her trap.
Before Kate could call out a warning, the woman's hand had come up, the flash of a trigger finger, and Castle cried out, jerking back, slamming into the car so hard the vehicle rocked and sent Kate spilling into the back of the seat. "Castle!"
"He's fine. It's an inhibitor spray. He's gonna have to pick you up and carry you into the basement, and he can't be phasing so violently while he does—"
Castle bent forward and retched.
"You bitch," Kate gasped, shoving herself upright.
The woman held the spray bottle out like Castle was a naughty cat caught jumping on the counters. "I'm the Doc. Name's Harris. You're in my lair now. Gotta obey my rules."
—-xxx—-