Читать книгу The Demon's Forbidden Passion - Zoey Williams - Страница 7

Chapter One

Tina Driscoll could barely keep her eyes open as she shuffled to lot D, the parking lot on the farthest end of the hospital where she worked. Her legs were stiff from standing on them for twelve hours straight and felt heavy, like they had lead weights tied to both feet. When she finally found her car, she leaned on the side of it, digging into the pocket of her sweat-stained scrubs for her keys. But a different sensation met her palm. A buzzing. It was her phone vibrating...and the last name she wanted to see at this very moment was flashing on its screen.

“Noooooooo,” she groaned, drawing out the word until it turned into a whine. “Not tonight,” she said, her eyes cast heavenward. As much as she wanted to shirk her responsibility, pretend she never felt her phone in her pocket and head straight home, she knew she couldn’t ignore the call. It was the kind of thing that was simply part of the job.

“Gus, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Ah, you’re still here! Fantastic,” Gus exclaimed on the other end. The voice was hoarse and gravelly. Despite being Tina’s boss and head nurse, Gus still hadn’t given up smoking. Or baking decadent desserts for the entire staff. A smoking nurse with an atrocious sugar and fat-laden diet: the ultimate irony. He continued on before she had the chance to protest. “I know, I know, I know. Let me explain.”

“Now you told me I was absolutely, one-hundred-percent off the schedule tonight. You promised me that Kendra had it covered.” Tina tried her best to sound annoyed, but it was hard to be annoyed at goofy, lovable Gus. The one guy who took a chance on a wrong-side-of-the-tracks kid with no family and a degree from a less than reputable community college. But it was because she was good. And he noticed her potential right away.

Gus coughed throatily into the receiver. “I’m so sorry, hon. Kendra called in sick not even a minute ago and something big just came up. Real big. I promise that you will be absolutely, one-hundred-percent off the schedule next Saturday night.”

Tina tried her best tough-guy voice. “She better be really sick, Gus.”

“Incredibly sick,” Gus confirmed.

“Like projectile-vomiting-pea-soup-while-pus-drips-out-of-her-eyes kind of sick?”

“Yes, I swear. Now you know I’d never bother you unless it was an absolute emergency and I need your expertise tonight. You’re the—”

Tina smirked. “I know, Gus. You’re the bee’s knees, the cream-of-the-crop, the best nurse on my staff,” she said, repeating all of Gus’s usual lines. This wasn’t the first time he’d called her back in after giving her the night off. But his words did have some merit to them. Tina had never lost a single patient—even the ones with the grisliest injuries. She had managed to help heal them all—everything from stage-three pancreatic cancer to a drowning victim who’d been pronounced dead for seven full minutes. And Gus knew this.

He barked a short laugh. “Damn right you are. Now get your butt over to 52 Crawford Place in Saunville,” he instructed. “The Mezza Estates.”

Demon territory, Tina realized. She bit her lip. “A residence?” she asked, her voice quavering slightly. “But Gus, you never have me go directly to the scene.”

“I know, but tonight we can’t waste any time. This one’s bad, honey. Real bad. I need you to get there as soon as you can.”

“What happened?”

“Another fire,” Gus replied. Tina heard a flick and the crackling incineration of the end of a fresh cigarette.

“But that’s the like—what? Sixth one this week?” Tina asked incredulously.

“It’s summertime in Los Angeles, doll. The trees and grass are dry and all it takes is one little incident—a flash of lightning, even—and poof. And these estates also happen to border on a national park that caught fire ten times within the last year alone.”

Tina considered for a moment. “Throw in a box of your famous éclairs and you don’t have to start a chain of unwelcomed phone calls tonight.”

“Done,” Gus laughed throatily. “I’ll even raise you a butter tart for your trouble.”

Tina removed her opposite hand from her pocket and opened her fist. She looked at the car keys she had been gripping so tightly that they had left little indentations in her palm—she had been so close to having the night off. She placed the keys on the roof of her car and sighed. Pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, she said, “I’m heading over there now.”