"Adam! Adam!" she screamed backing up towards the door.
Moments later the door burst open and Adam barreled in canines descended. He stopped abruptly and covered his face with his hand.
"What in the hell happened?" he demanded grabbing her arm and pulling her into the hallway.
Coughing, she had to rip the mask away, before dropping to her knees to retch on the immaculate new tile floor.
"Shh, honey it's okay. Just get it all up." Adam rubbed her back with one hand and fumbled with his phone with the other. Seconds later, she heard him talking to Aiden.
"I need you and Colton at the clinic now," he said coughing.
"Are you hurt?" she heard Aiden demand. In the background, she heard Colton's voice.
"Is Rheia okay? Dammit, Aiden! Is she hurt?" she was secretly pleased to hear that Colton sounded angry.
"Adam, answer us!" Aiden yelled.
Adam cleared his throat and swallowed hard. "We're fine; I just need you down here. There's been a development with our mystery man."
"On our way," Aiden said and ended the call.
"Your mate sounded concerned," Adam joked as he helped her to stand. Together they walked to the water fountain. They each took a turn rinsing out their mouths. When they were done, they each looked at the other and sat down on the floor leaning against the wall. The smell had literally knocked them on their asses. Rheia's stomach was still trying to climb up the back of her throat when Colton and Aiden rounded the corner at a dead run.
"Gods! Rheia, are you okay?" Colton skidded to a stop and dropped down in front of her.
She nodded. "Just tossed my cookies. I didn't even do that when I was a med student. That is one foul bastard in there." Colton pulled Rheia to her feet and wrapped a steadying arm around her waist.
Aiden helped Adam to stand. "I thought this one wasn't like the others."
Adam shook his head. "He wasn't. At least he wasn't when I left the room. What happened, Rheia?"
Colton stepped in front of her. "She didn't do anything wrong."
Adam looked at Colton. "I know. But something changed from the time I left until she called me back in."
Rheia held up the necklace that was still in her hand. "All I did was remove this from the body."
Adam frowned. "There wasn't anything on the body, it had been completely stripped."
"I didn't see it at first. But then there was a flicker and when I looked straight at him, I could see it. The second the necklace was off the body, it started to decompose right before my eyes. I mean cheesy B-rated Syfy Saturday graphics kinda shit. It was like he was melting and rotting at the same time, and don't get me started on the smell." Rheia brought a hand up to her mouth.
Aiden took the necklace and examined at it. "This is the first one we've taken intact. The feral that attacked Meryn had a necklace as well. Only Meryn could see it then, too."
Adam leaned in to look over Aiden's shoulder. "So only humans can see them?"
Aiden nodded. "Looks that way. They mask the smell of ferals to make them undetectable. I need to report this to the council."
Colton pulled her closer to his body. "I'm taking Rheia home for a break. It's almost lunch time anyway."
Rheia put a hand on her stomach. She hoped once she was out of the clinic her appetite would return. She stepped back and Colton looked down at her.
"We need to take another sample," she said, pointing back to the room.
Adam rubbed the back of his neck looking tired. "That's a good idea. I need to go with Aiden for this report since I've been studying the corpse longer. Don't worry about the mess in the hall; I'll take care of it. Just open the window and air the room out, I should be back after lunch."
"I am definitely opening a window." Rheia turned and headed back to the morgue, Colton right on her heels.
When they got to the doorway, they both hesitated looking at each other. She held her breath and immediately went to the windows. She and Colton opened all three of the room's windows letting in the icy but fresh December air.
Rheia took a deep breath. "It's going to snow," she predicted.
Colton sniffed the air and nodded. "This evening."
She turned to the cabinets and prepped two new slides. Carefully she labeled them and added them to the travel case. She tucked the small leather case into her lab coat pocket and looked at the body.
"I think as long as it wasn't decomposing it was okay out on the gurney, but now..." She had to turn her head as a section of skin slid down off the ribs.
Colton swallowed hard. "I think having the windows open will make it pretty cold in here. Let's just shut the door and let Adam deal with it when he gets back," he suggested.
Rheia felt a momentary pang of guilt before nodding her head. "Let's get out of here."
Colton grabbed her hand and they practically ran from the room. When they got outside to her car, they looked at each other and started laughing.
"Some unit warrior I am, running from a dead body." Colton climbed into the passenger side.
"What about me? I'm a doctor for crying out loud," Rheia pointed out closing the driver's side door behind her.
"But he was..." Colton paused.
"Gooey," Rheia finished.
"I think that's what did me in," Colton admitted.
"Me, too." Rheia felt a thousand percent better now that she was away from the smell and heading down the lone road back to the estate. By the time they pulled into the driveway she was actually starting to get hungry.