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"Okay," she said. "No ambulances for now. Listen, I'm, uh--I'm actually a doctor. Well, more or less. This is my veterinary clinic. Would it be all right if I come a little closer and have a look at you?"
She took the quirk of his mouth and ragged exhaled sigh as a yes.
Tess inched down beside him on the floor. He had seemed big from across the room, but crouched next to him, she realized that he was immense, easily six and a half feet and two hundred fifty-plus pounds of heavy bone and solid muscle. Was he some kind of bodybuilder? One of those macho meatheads who spent his life in the gym? Something about him didn't quite fit that mold. With the grim cut of his face, he looked like the kind of guy who could tear a gym rat to pieces with his teeth.
She moved her hands lightly over his face, feeling for trauma. His skull was intact, but her touch told her that he'd suffered a mild concussion in some fashion. Probably was still in a state of shock. "I'm just going to check your eyes," she informed him gently, then lifted one of his lids.
Holy shit.
The slitted pupil cutting through the center of a large, bright amber iris took her aback. She recoiled, freaked out by the unexpected presentation.
"What the--"
Then the explanation hit her, and she instantly felt like an idiot for losing her cool.
Costume contacts.
Chill out, she told herself. She was getting jumpy for no good reason. The guy must have been at a Halloween party that got out of hand or something. Not much she could tell from his eyes so long as he was wearing those ridiculous lenses.
Maybe he'd been partying with a rough crowd; he certainly looked big and dangerous enough to be part of some kind of gang. If he'd been rolling with gangbangers tonight, she didn't detect any evidence of drugs on him. She didn't smell alcohol on him either. Just some heavy-duty smoke, and not from cigarettes.
He smelled like he'd walked through fire. Just before he took a pe into the Mystic River.
"Can you move your arms or legs?" she asked him, moving on to inspect his limbs. "Do you think you have any broken bones?"
She skimmed her hands over his thick arms, feeling no obvious fractures. His legs were solid too, no real damage beyond the bullet wound in his left calf. From the look of it, the round appeared to have passed clean through. Same with the one that hit him in the torso. Luckily for him.
"I'd like to move you to one of my exam rooms. Do you think you can walk if I help hold you up?"
"Blood," he gasped, his voice thready. "Need it... now."
"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't help you there. You'll need a hospital for that. Right now, we have to get you off this floor and out of those ruined clothes. God knows what kind of bacteria you picked up in that water out there."
She put her hands under his armpits and started to lift, encouraging him to stand. He growled, something deep and animalistic. As the sound left his mouth, Tess caught a glimpse of his teeth behind his curled upper lip.
Whoa. That's weird.
Were those monstrous canines actually... fangs?
His eyes came open as if he had sensed her awareness. Her unease. Tess was instantly blasted by piercing bright amber light, the glowing irises sending a bolt of panic straight into her chest. Those sure as hell weren't contacts.
Good Lord. Something wasn't right with this guy at all.
He grabbed her upper arms. Tess cried out in alarm. She tried to pull out of his grasp, but he was too strong. Hands as unyielding as iron bands clamped tighter around her and brought her closer. Tess shrieked, wide-eyed, frozen in fear as he drew her right up against him.
"Oh, God. No!"
He turned his bloodied, battered face toward her throat. Sucked in a sharp breath as he neared her, his lips brushing her skin.
"Shhh." Warm air skated across her neck as he spoke in a low, pained rasp. "I won't... not going to... hurt you. I promise... "
Tess heard the words.
She almost believed them.
Until that split second of terror, when he parted his lips and sank his teeth deep into her flesh.
Chapter Four
