by Lynsay Sands
“You don’t have any at all?” Thomas asked.
Mirabeau shook her head, then admitted, “I had two bags left when I got home, but…” She shrugged helplessly. “I got hungry.”
“Damn.” Thomas raked one hand through his hair. “She needs blood.”
“Go get some from the Argeneau blood bank,” Mirabeau suggested.
“No, that’s no good,” Greg said sharply.
“Why not? He has a key.”
“Greg thinks Uncle Lucian was behind this,” Thomas explained.
Mirabeau’s eyes widened incredulously, then she shook her head. “No. I don’t believe it. Did you see who did it?”
“No.” Greg shook his head. “They’d left by the time I got to the living room.”
“Well it couldn’t have been one of our people,” Mirabeau said with certainty. “It just couldn’t. I mean…Why would they? And if so, why not finish the job? If they were one of us, they’d know she could come back from a staking. And why didn’t they touch you?” she asked. “You’re the one who’s considered a threat.”
“I don’t know,” Greg admitted wearily. “But I also don’t know of anyone else who would want to hurt her.”
She shook her head firmly. “Well, there’s just no way Marguerite Argeneau would allow anyone to harm one of her children. She—”
“It doesn’t matter, Mirabeau,” Thomas interrupted wearily. “I promised Greg I wouldn’t go anywhere near them and I won’t. We’ll have to find the blood elsewhere.”
“We’re wasting time here,” Greg said impatiently. “Lissianna needs blood. Do you have any at your place, Thomas?”
“Yes, I do,” he said, obviously surprised that he hadn’t thought of it himself. “Not as much as we’ll need, but a couple of bags at least and that should be enough to bring her back to consciousness, then we’ll find her some donors.”
“Donors?” Greg asked.
“The doorman, maybe a couple of neighbors.” Thomas shrugged.
“What about an IV?” Greg asked. “I understand that once she’s conscious she’ll be able to feed off the donors herself, but you’ll need an IV for the bagged blood. Can you get one?”
“No, but that’s not a problem. Her teeth will suck it up whether she’s awake or not,” Thomas said as he headed for the door. “It’s just easier to feed the donors to her once she’s conscious because then she can control their minds. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Thomas?” Mirabeau followed him out of the room. “Do you have a—”
The closing of the door prevented Greg from hearing the rest of what she was asking, not that he was really interested. He was peering at Lissianna as she moaned. It wasn’t a normal sound. She was completely motionless, looking almost dead, but emitting a growling moan that was barely audible and came from deep in her throat. The depth of pain she must be in to emit the sounds tore at his heart, and they seemed to be coming closer together. He could only think this meant her pain was increasing in intensity by the minute.
Greg opened her shirt and lifted the towel away from her chest to look at the wound. It was almost closed. While part of him was relieved to see the healing, another part was thinking that it just meant her body was using up blood, and she needed to keep as much as she could until Thomas got back. The more she lost, the more pain she’d be in.
Another moan drew his attention to her face, and Greg hesitated, then decided he had to do something. Leaning closer, he took her face in both hands and used his thumbs to pull her mouth open.
“What are you doing?” Mirabeau asked as she reentered the room.
“Opening her mouth.”
“Why?”
“How do I get her teeth to extend?” Greg asked instead of answering.
“Why do you want her teeth extended?” Mirabeau walked over to stand on the opposite side of the bed, concern on her face as she peered from he to Lissianna.
“Because I can donate some blood, then we could bring up the doorman and whoever else we can find and she can finish off with the bagged blood when Thomas gets back, rather than suffer pain all this time and just start when he gets here.”
“You don’t want to do that, Greg,” Mirabeau said solemnly.
“She’s in pain,” he hissed.
“Yes, she is, but she isn’t conscious.”
“But she still feels it. She just can’t thrash about and scream because she’s so weak, but she does feel it. Doesn’t she? That’s why she’s moaning. Right?” he asked grimly.
“Yes.” She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, then hesitated. “It will be painful.”
“It wasn’t the last time she bit me.”
“Yes, but she kissed you last time and got you to relax your guard, then when she bit you, she was able to send the pleasure she was experiencing. Lissi can’t do any of that this time, Greg, and it will hurt. Trust me.”
“Then I guess it will hurt,” he said simply.
Mirabeau peered at him, and he felt a familiar ruffling in his mind. He knew without a doubt that she was trying to dig into his thoughts. Greg did his best to open his mind to her. He needed her help to help Lissianna, and if this was what it took to get it, so be it.
“Very well,” she said finally, and gestured him out of the way.
Greg watched anxiously as she leaned forward to lift the blood-soaked towel away from the chest wound, then held it close to Lissianna’s face. Her mouth had fallen closed once he’d let go of her face, but when Mirabeau held the towel near her nose, Lissianna jerked and took a quivering indrawn breath, her mouth opening on its own as her canine teeth slid out to biting position.
Greg immediately moved his wrist up to her mouth.
“You need to be sure her teeth hit the vein,” Mirabeau instructed, then offered, “Shall I help?”
“Please.”
Leaning forward, she took his hand to reposition his wrist under Lissianna’s teeth, then hesitated and glanced up. “You’re sure about this?”
He nodded without hesitation and the moment he did, Mirabeau snapped his arm upward, slamming his wrist into Lissianna’s teeth. Greg sucked in a sharp, shocked breath as pain shot up his arm. This definitely was nothing like the two times she’d bitten his neck. It was nothing like giving blood either. Her teeth were much bigger than the needles medical staff used.
As the first shock of pain receded, Greg became aware of another, deeper pain as her teeth began to draw blood at a rate faster than his veins were use to supplying. It was a drawing sensation, a deep ache and he gritted his teeth against it, but remained still.
“I did warn you,” Mirabeau said softly. “Do you want to stop?”
Greg shook his head grimly.
Mirabeau shifted in her seat, then said abruptly, “Tell me what happened.”
Greg knew it was an effort to distract him from the pain and was grateful for it. He quickly related the events that had taken place since he’d heard the sound of shattering glass that evening.
“I guess I left a bit of a mess there,” he added at the end. “Lissianna’s friend will be in a state when she walks into her home and finds the blood and broken glass. She’ll probably call the police.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it,” Mirabeau reassured him.
They were both silent after that, for an extremely long time it seemed to Greg, but that might only have been because he was in pain. He was starting to feel woozy when Mirabeau said, “She’s coming around, I think—Greg!”
She pulled his wrist from Lissianna’s teeth and hurried around the bed to his side, catching him when he would have tumbled off the bed.
“Lissianna already bit you once tonight, didn’t she?” Mirabeau asked sharply.
Greg nodded, then wished he hadn’t as the action made his head spin worse.
“Dammit, why didn’t you tell me?” she snapped. “You never should have—Here lie down.” Mirabeau eased him onto the bed beside Lissianna. “Just lie there. I’ll go find you so
me juice or something. Like I’d have any,” she added in a mutter. “I’ll have to go see if my neighbor has any. I may as well bring her back for Lissianna while I’m at it. She’s coming around and will be in horrible pain and desperate for more blood.”
Greg glanced toward Lissianna as Mirabeau left the room, relieved to see that her eyes were open.
“Greg?” His name was a breathless gasp on her lips and he levered himself up on one elbow to peer at her.
“I’m here, Lissianna. How are you?” A stupid question Greg supposed, he could see she was in terrible pain. “Mirabeau is bringing you someone to feed from, love. It won’t be long now.”
“Mirabeau?” she asked with a frown of confusion.
“Yes. We’re at Mirabeau’s. Thomas brought us here.”
“Oh.” She closed her eyes and he saw her teeth grind together. She was in terrible pain. “Who was it?”
Greg was confused until he realized she was asking who had staked her. “Didn’t you see them?”
She shook her head jerkily. “It was dark. It was a man. I thought you had come to talk to me, then I saw the stake.”
“Did it look like your uncle?” Greg asked.
She appeared confused. “My uncle? No. He—” She stopped, a moan slipping from her lips and rolled onto her side, half-curling into a ball.
“Mirabeau should be back soon,” Greg told her encouragingly, then fell silent, feeling helpless as he watched her struggle with the pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her fists and teeth clenched, her breathing short, almost a pant, and this was his fault as far as he could tell. If she hadn’t taken him away, tried to save him from whatever it was she feared they’d do to him…
He could tell Lissianna didn’t think her uncle was behind the attack, and Mirabeau didn’t either, but Lucian Argeneau was on the council, the same council that had staked out and then set one of their kind on fire for turning more than one person. The council had also killed babies before abortions were legal. It wasn’t much of a leap for him to imagine the man might have his niece punished for daring to defy him by taking Greg away, and since the staking itself couldn’t kill her, all the attack could have been was a punishment of sorts.
Greg had no idea why they hadn’t then taken him and Lissianna back to her mother’s house to face her uncle, and he could understand why that would make everyone doubt it was Lucian, but he also couldn’t imagine anyone else having a reason to stake her. From what he’d heard, she didn’t seem to socialize with mortals much. The only thing she did was work at the shelter.
“Greg?”
He leaned closer. “Yes?”
“What did you decide?”
He didn’t bother to ask what she meant. Lissianna was asking if he wanted to be turned or not. Greg reached out a hand and softly caressed her arm.
What had he decided? He’d decided she was beautiful, intelligent, and courageous. She was a woman who had risked everything to get him away and keep him safe. Including her family, he knew, for even if they didn’t yet side with Lucian and the council, he suspected that when it came right down to it, they would have to as a matter of survival. He was equally sure that to protect them, Lissianna would somehow see to it that they did.
So far she had paid for her courageous efforts with blood and pain…and if he refused to turn, he knew she would willingly pay with more.
He had decided that she was a woman worth giving up his family to spend eternity with. All he had to do was convince her she should spend it with him, and he hoped, once he was turned, he might be able to do that.
Greg glanced toward Lissianna as she began to speak again.
“The way things stand, I can’t protect you if they’re determined to hold a council of three. I proved tonight that I can’t even protect myself. I didn’t even wake up until he was plunging the stake into me,” she said with self-disgust.
“Lissianna,” he chided.
“No. It’s true, but there is one way I can protect you.” Lifting her wrist to her mouth, she bit down into her own vein, then closed her eyes and pulled free of her teeth to hold her arm blindly out as blood bubbled to the surface. “The choice is yours.”
Chapter 18
“Well that tears it. I haven’t got enough blood here for one of them let alone them both.”
Greg lifted his head from Lissianna’s wrist at Thomas’s words and glanced toward the door to find that he and Mirabeau had both returned. When his gaze found the three bags of blood Thomas carried, Greg started to warn Lissianna not to open her eyes, but it was too late.
With a muttered “Oh damn,” she sagged into the mattress in a dead faint.
Mirabeau shifted on her feet and clucked with irritation, then said, “Why didn’t you warn me you were going to do this? It would have saved me waking up three neighbors in search of juice.”
Greg’s gaze slid to the pretty young blond woman at Mirabeau’s side. Orange juice wasn’t all she’d brought back. He was guessing the blonde was one of the neighbors she’d promised to bring back for Lissianna to feed on.
Mirabeau followed his gaze and sighed wearily. “Sit, Mary,” she ordered, then set the glass of juice she’d fetched on the dresser and crossed the room as her neighbor settled blank-faced on the chair by the door.
“How much did you have?” she asked.
Greg shook his head and opened his mouth to admit that he wasn’t sure, but moving his head set the room spinning. Closing his mouth, he sank weakly back onto the bed next to Lissianna without responding.
“Enough obviously,” Thomas answered for him. He joined her at the bedside and peered down at the pair of them, then glanced at Mirabeau to ask, “Have you ever overseen a turning?”
“No.” She arched an eyebrow. “You?”
He shook his head.
“This is going to get messy,” Mirabeau commented.
“Hmm.” Thomas nodded. “I’m thinking you don’t have enough neighbors for this situation.”
Mirabeau snorted, and the pair glanced at each other.
“Aunt Marguerite’s?” he asked.
Mirabeau nodded solemnly. “There’s no reason not to now, Lissianna’s seen to that.” She turned to glance back at the girl she’d left seated by the door. “So? Do we use Mary here?”
“Why bother?” Thomas asked. “Both of them need more than she could supply, and it will just slow us down.”
“Right. I’ll take her home then,” Mirabeau announced, and walked back to collect the girl.
“While you do that, I’ll call ahead and warn them. It’ll give Aunt Marguerite a chance to have more blood sent out to the house.”
Greg lay silent as they left the room, his heart thudding heavily in his chest as he tried to ignore the growing pain in his stomach. Lissianna had told him that they called the one who did the turning the sire, because the turning was a painful rebirth. He suspected the mild discomfort he was presently experiencing was nothing compared to what was coming.
“How are you feeling now?”
Greg grimaced at the question. Thomas had asked it at least twenty times in the last twenty minutes as they’d driven out to the house. He wished he’d stop. Every time the man asked the question, it seemed to focus all of Greg’s attention on the pain building and spreading throughout him. It had started in his stomach, an acidy eating-away sort of sensation that had been just bearable, but with every passing moment it grew worse and was slowly dispersing outward, spreading like a virus or cancer and eating away at him with sharp little teeth.
It had gotten so bad in just the half hour since he’d drank Lissianna’s blood that sweat had broken out on his brow, and Greg found himself clenching his teeth and hands as he struggled with the pain. His answers to Marguerite’s questions when she’d met them in the garage just moments ago had been monosyllabic at best. He was finding it terribly difficult to think past the agony consuming him.
“Take Dr. Hewitt to the rose room, Thomas,” Marguerite instructed, opening Lissianna
’s bedroom door for Lucian Argeneau to carry his niece inside. “I shall be along in a moment, I just want to start Lissianna on her IV, then I will come see to Greg.”
“I can hook up the IV for you, Aunt Marguerite,” Jeanne Louise offered.
Marguerite hesitated, her gaze moving over Greg’s pale face as Thomas half carried him past, then she nodded. “Thank you, Jeanne Louise. I had Maria bring the IV and a cooler of bagged blood up right after Thomas called. If you could get her started for me, I will come check on her as soon as I can.”
“Yes, Aunt Marguerite.”
Greg saw Jeanne Louise follow her uncle into Lissianna’s room just before Thomas dragged him into the room next door.
“Put him in the bed, Thomas,” Marguerite instructed as she followed them inside.
Greg caught a glimpse of the ropes attached to the bedposts and glanced back sharply at Marguerite as she closed the door before Mirabeau, Elspeth, and the twins could trail them in. Marguerite saw his expression and grimaced as she moved to join them at the bed.
“Those are only to prevent you hurting yourself while in the midst of the turning, Dr. Hewitt. You are not a prisoner. I promise.”
Relaxing, Greg let Thomas ease him onto the bed. The moment he was flat on his back, Marguerite seated herself on the edge of the mattress and leaned forward to examine his eyes, though he hadn’t a clue what she was looking for.
“How long is it since Lissi offered her blood?” she asked, sitting back.
“About half an hour,” Thomas answered when Greg stared at her blankly, the answer suddenly eluding him when he knew he should know it.
Marguerite nodded and released a little breath that might have been relief. “It has not yet started then. It is still only in the preliminary stages.”
Greg felt his heart drop at these words. It hadn’t started yet? The agony he was experiencing was just the preliminary? Dear God.