by Lynsay Sands
"I've got it," Julianna said quickly, grabbing another plate.
Pausing, Elspeth glanced back to the older woman. "Tea or coffee?"
"Tea, please, dear," Meredith murmured.
Nodding, Elspeth turned on the pot, and then walked to the cupboard by the sink and pulled out three glasses. "I'm pouring Wyatt some milk to go with the doughnut. What do you want Juli?"
"Milk is good, and one for Victoria, please?"
"Of course," Elspeth said, and quickly poured three glasses of milk and added them to the tray Julianna found for everything.
"Don't forget to tell Alex what Merry wants for breakfast, Juli," she said as the girl headed for the door. She'd nearly reached it when Victoria entered, her eyes wide. Alex was on her heels, looking solemn.
"You forgot the clothes Mortimer brought for Merry," Victoria explained, clutching the clothes.
Elspeth raised her eyebrows, and moved to take them with a murmured, "Thank you," but then eyed her sister before glancing to Alex and back and asking, "Is everything okay?"
"I--Yes." Victoria grimaced, and then admitted, "I was coming down when Alex suddenly grabbed me from behind and dragged me into Merry's room."
"Martine came out into the hall, and Merry's door was right there and open. I thought it best to avoid her," Alex explained and then offered Meredith a solemn, "Sorry we used your room, but we only stayed in there a minute and didn't touch anything."
"Oh, goodness, that's fine," Meredith said with a laugh. "Nothing in there is mine anyway, and I know your mother can be difficult."
Elspeth barely heard the exchange. She was suddenly worrying that her mother might come in at any moment and cause some sort of upset.
"She left," Victoria said in a hushed voice.
"What?" Elspeth asked with surprise. "What do you mean, left?"
"We heard her pass the room and when we heard her on the stairs, we crept out to follow," Alex explained.
"She went straight out the front door," Victoria told them. "We hurried downstairs and . . ." Her sister shook her head with something like bewilderment.
"When we looked out the window, she was getting into a taxi." Alex said what Victoria seemed incapable of putting into words.
"Yes," the girl said now, a slightly stunned look on her face. "She just left."
"Oh." Elspeth hesitated and then shrugged. "Well, perhaps she went shopping. She doesn't have any clothes here now either, thanks to the fire."
"We heard her give the address to the Enforcer House as she got in," Alex told them solemnly.
"Do you think she's going to the plane?" Victoria asked with a frown. "To go home?"
Elspeth considered that for a moment, and decided that must be exactly what was happening. Their mother had no other reason to go to the Enforcer House except to leave.
"Dear God, she's leaving us," Julianna said, obviously picking up on her thoughts.
Elspeth noted the lost look on Julianna's face, and--as much as she hated to admit it--totally understood what she was feeling in that moment. Their mother was leaving them. They'd been struggling for freedom and independence for what seemed like forever, but she had just left, without a word or comment . . . not even a note that they knew of. They had no idea where they stood with her, or if they even had a mother anymore. It felt like she was abandoning them.
Which is ridiculous, Elspeth told herself firmly. They were free. Martine was still their mother and, after a little time had passed, no doubt they would all get past this and have a relationship again. Maybe in a year . . . or a century. Grimacing, she straightened her shoulders, and slid an arm around each sister, hugging them briefly.
"We're okay," she told them firmly. "It's all going to be just fine. Now go on and take the doughnuts and milk upstairs. We're just going to make some phone calls, and then we'll come up too."
Relaxing, both twins nodded and even managed smiles as they moved toward the door again, but at the threshold, Julianna turned back and said, "Oh, Alex, Meredith would like a cheese omelet and sausage too, and I did catch Sam before she left and she said the diner does have French toast, so I'll have that."
"Got it," Alex said, whipping out her phone.
Nodding, Julianna turned and continued out with Victoria on her heels. Elspeth watched them go, and then turned back to the room.
"They're going to need you," Meredith said solemnly as Elspeth noted the kettle was boiling, and crossed to the cupboard to get down cups for the tea.
"They looked like lost orphans at the thought of your mother leaving," Alex commented. "So did you."
Elspeth grimaced and set down the cups, then moved to get the tea bags as she admitted, "I felt like one for a minute."
"I'm not surprised," Merry said solemnly. "You were right, though. It will be fine. Your mother will come around."
Elspeth glanced at her with curiosity. "Did Julianna tell you what happened with Mother?"
Meredith nodded. "She was very proud of you. She said you 'were the bomb' and confronted her," Merry announced with a grin. "She also said that your aunt Marguerite tried to help, but that it was someone named Mortimer with a message from 'the big dog, Uncle Lucian,' who really 'came down on her hard,' and now she can't force you all back to England."
A surprised laugh slipped from Elspeth's mouth. "'The big dog, Uncle Lucian'?"
"Her words," Meredith said with a grin.
Grinning back, Elspeth nodded and then stopped suddenly and glanced to Alex. "Did you want tea, Alex?"
"No, I'm good, thanks," Alex said, moving to join Merry at the table.
Nodding, Elspeth fetched spoons and cream and sugar, and then dropped tea bags in each cup and poured the boiling water in. Carrying the cups to the table, she said apologetically to Merry, "I'm not sure Aunt Marguerite has a teapot so this will have to do."
"It's fine," Meredith assured her as Elspeth returned for the spoons, cream, and sugar. She then grabbed the doughnut as well as another plate for the tea bags to be put on once taken from the cup and carried it all to the table.
"Aren't you going to have a doughnut?" Merry asked as Elspeth set the pastry in front of her.
Elspeth shook her head. "I don't want to ruin my appetite. I'm looking forward to the omelet." Glancing to Alex, she raised an eyebrow. "Can I get you a doughnut?"
"No, thanks. I--"
"Doughnuts!"
Elspeth blinked and glanced toward the door at that excited gasp. She grinned when she saw a sleepy-eyed Rachel entering, her eyes zeroing in on Merry's doughnut. Raising her eyebrows, Elspeth said, "You're supposed to be sleeping."
"I was, but then I heard giggling and half woke up as Julianna and Victoria walked past our room. One of them was saying the doughnuts looked good and they loved Boston cream doughnuts, and . . ." She shrugged helplessly. "I love Boston cream doughnuts too."
Elspeth chuckled at the claim, and started to stand. "I'll get you one."
"Sit," Rachel said firmly, urging her back into her seat with a hand on her shoulder as she passed. "I can get my own. Enjoy your tea."
Shrugging, Elspeth sank back in her seat and picked up a spoon to remove the tea bag from her cup. She squeezed it against the side of the cup with the spoon, then pulled it out and set it on the plate even as Merry did.
Elspeth then mixed cream and sugar into her cup as Merry picked up her doughnut. She started to take a sip of tea, but paused and started to glance around when she heard Rachel make an odd sound. She then gasped in surprise when Rachel was suddenly standing next to her, slapping the doughnut out of Merry's hand as the woman raised it to her lips.
Eyes widening incredulously, Elspeth gasped, "Rachel, what--"
"Poison," Rachel growled.
"Poison?" Alex gasped, standing abruptly.
Elspeth turned a blank gaze to the inoffensive-looking doughnut lying on the table, and then took in Merry's wide eyes and pale face. Turning back to Rachel, she asked, "Are you sure?"
"I smelled bitter almonds as I was about to tak
e a bite," Rachel said grimly.
"Bitter almonds?" Elspeth asked uncertainly as Rachel grabbed a paper towel and used it to pick up the doughnut.
"Cyanide," Rachel explained as she carried the doughnut back to the box and dropped it in with the others. Frowning, at the contents, she said, "Three are missing. Did the twins take all three?"
"Yes, one each, and one for--" Elspeth paused abruptly, and could actually feel the blood draining out of her face.
"Wyatt," Merry finished for her with alarm.
Her heart leaping in her chest, Elspeth lunged to her feet and rushed for the door.
"I can walk," Wyatt growled.
"No, you can't," Julianna said with amusement. "Your feet are burned. You aren't supposed to walk, and you know it."
"That's why you were dragging yourself across the floor on your belly," Victoria pointed out sympathetically as she set him back in the bed.
Unable to argue the point, Wyatt merely snatched up the sheet and duvet and dragged them over to cover himself. He'd known there was a chance he'd get caught before he could finish with his business in the bathroom and get back to bed, and he'd meant to grab a towel to cover himself for just such a possibility, but had forgotten until he was out of the bathroom. He was debating dragging himself back to grab one or continue on to the bed when the door had opened and the twins had rushed in, chattering away about doughnuts, of all things.
Both girls had stopped abruptly on spotting him on the floor, and then the pair had exchanged a glance. Without a word, Julianna had continued forward with the tray she was carrying, while Victoria had crossed to him. She hadn't said a word. She'd merely turned him over, scooped him up, and carried him to the bed like he was little more than a child.
Wyatt tucked the duvet around his waist with a little sigh, and then jerked his head back with surprise when something appeared quite suddenly in front of his eyes.
"Doughnut?" Julianna asked just as his eyes focused on the pastry. A Boston cream doughnut, he saw.
"Thank you," he said, relaxing and taking the offered plate with the doughnut on it.
"We brought you a milk too," Victoria announced, setting a tall glass of the white liquid on the bedside table.
"Thank you," Wyatt said again, his body unclenching a little. So, the twins had seen his bare butt and naked family jewels. Oh well. Such was life. Still, it was humiliating that he had to be carried around by a woman.
"Is the big bad soldier embarrassed at being carried by a woman?" Julianna teased with amusement as she and Victoria gathered their own doughnuts and milk and settled near the foot of the bed.
Wyatt merely grimaced and set the plate in his lap as he took a bite of his doughnut.
"Mother left," Julianna announced abruptly.
Wyatt stilled midchew and eyed the pair briefly, and then swallowed and asked, "Permanently?"
"We don't know," Victoria admitted, watching him eat his doughnut. "She gave the address for the Enforcer House as she got into a taxi out front, so we're kind of thinking she might be flying home." She paused and watched him eat for another moment, and then asked, "Do you think she's giving up and leaving?"
Wyatt's head was starting to hurt . . . rather badly. And he found the question a little more complicated than one would expect, so he took another bite of doughnut to give himself the opportunity to consider the question as he chewed. Finally, he swallowed and said, "Probably. She's kind of stitched up here. She can't control you, and can't force you to leave for home where she could control you," he said, and frowned at the breathy sound to his voice. He felt winded, as if he couldn't catch his breath, he realized with concern. Then he glanced to the door as it suddenly crashed open and Elspeth burst into the room with Alex and Rachel on her heels.
"Oh God!" she cried, her eyes widening in horror as they landed on his last bite of doughnut.
"El? What--" Wyatt gasped the question with concern as she rushed forward. She was yelling something he couldn't quite understand. He thought he heard the word poison, and he saw Julianna and Victoria's eyes go wide. Then both girls dropped their doughnuts on their plates as if they were . . . poisoned, he thought with a frown, and then Elspeth reached him and snatched the remainder of his doughnut out of his hand.
She was still yelling, but Wyatt couldn't grasp what she was saying. He was gasping in great gusts of air, but felt like he was suffocating, and his heart was pounding so fast.
"Ellie, put him down!"
Elspeth shook her head frantically, and headed for the bathroom with Wyatt in her arms. "We have to make him throw up."
"It's too late for that! Look at him. He's hyperventilating. Next comes seizure, and then coma or cardiac arrest or both," Rachel predicted.
"But he just ate it," she cried with dismay.
"Cyanide is fast-acting. If the dosage is high enough, it's almost instantaneous and--" Rachel cut herself off and stepped in front of her. "He's going to die."
An anguished cry drew Elspeth's gaze to the doorway where Meredith stood, her face pale and horrified, one hand over her mouth, and the other over her heart. Turning back to Rachel, Elspeth growled, "Get her out of here."
Rachel met her gaze briefly, and then nodded and turned to walk to the woman.
Elspeth carried Wyatt back to the bed, laid him down and peered at his face. He was unconscious. Her mouth tightened briefly.
"We need chains, blood, an IV, and whatever drugs they use to make the turn easier," she snapped, and tugged up one sleeve of the borrowed nightgown she wore. "And someone has to hold his mouth open."
"I've got his mouth," Julianna said at once, moving up the other side of the bed and crawling forward to kneel next to his head.
"I'll get everything else. You girls help hold him down until I get back with chains," Alex said, pulling her phone out and heading for the door.
Elspeth waited until Julianna got Wyatt's mouth open, and then forced her fangs out and tore into her wrist. Man! No one had warned her about how much that hurt. She'd thought the knife was bad, but this was brutal!
Wyatt started to convulse on the bed then, and Elspeth quickly placed her wrist over his open mouth. Julianna was having a bit of a struggle to hold it open. The man was having a violent seizure.
Movement out of the corner of her eye drew Elspeth's attention to the fact that Victoria was climbing onto the bed. When the twin was situated on Wyatt's legs, Elspeth quickly climbed onto the bed as well, and settled herself on the arm on her side, careful to keep her wrist over his mouth as she did. When Julianna noted what they'd both done, she raised her eyebrows and nodded toward Wyatt's arm on her side of the bed. Knowing she was asking if she should do the same with that arm, Elspeth said tensely, "Yes. You can let go of his mouth and sit on that arm. My wrist will keep his mouth open."
Julianna immediately released her hold on Wyatt's face and quickly shifted to kneel on his arm. Once he was secured, Elspeth turned her attention back to his still face, worrying over whether she'd done sufficient damage to her wrist to ensure Wyatt got enough nanos to start the turn. She had no idea how you could tell, but knew if she hadn't, Wyatt would die.
With that thought uppermost in her mind, when the blood from her wound slowed to a mere trickle, Elspeth didn't hesitate. She immediately tore into her other wrist, and placed it in his still-open mouth. Wyatt's eyes immediately popped open. Elspeth had barely taken note of the silver filling his eyes when he suddenly released a roar of pain and then chomped down on her wrist and began to thrash.
Gasping in pain, Elspeth tried to pull free of Wyatt, but he had her good.
"Elspeth!" Julianna cried and tried to pull Wyatt's jaws open, but the man had a firm hold and wasn't letting go. Not that Elspeth thought he knew what he was doing. His grunts and growling suggested he wasn't even aware he was human at this point.
A scream from Victoria drew her head around and she watched wide-eyed as the twin flew off Wyatt's legs, landing on the floor with a sickening crack that suggested some
thing had been broken, and then Julianna crashed into Elspeth, their foreheads slamming together so that stars exploded behind Elspeth's eyes.
"What the hell is happening here!"
Elspeth didn't bother to look around. She was pretty sure that bellow came from Marguerite's husband, Julius, but she was too busy trying to free her wrist while avoiding being slammed into her sister again as Wyatt thrashed under them.
"He was poisoned! Elspeth had to turn him."
Elspeth almost sagged with relief at the sound of Alex's voice. Risking a quick glance over her shoulder, she asked, "Did you find a chain?"
"Yes." Alex was beside her at once, chain in one hand and phone in the other, but she froze, her eyes widening with horror as she saw what was happening. "Oh my God, Elspeth!"
Elspeth grimaced. Wyatt was so strong in his pain that his teeth were cutting through skin, bone, and tendon. Her wrist was now broken, his teeth sunk so deep in her flesh that they would soon meet, taking part of her ulna with it. Or maybe it was her radius. She had no idea which bone he was chewing through, but it sure hurt.
Julius appeared at her other side. She heard the air leave him on a shocked breath, and then he cursed in Italian and turned to rush back to the door, bellowing, "Greg! Etienne! Oh thank God! Come, come."
Elspeth glanced over her shoulder again to see Lissianna's husband, Greg, and Rachel's husband, Etienne, rushing into the room, obviously fresh from their beds, but concerned and ready to help.
"He is eating her arm. We have to get his jaws open," Julius growled, leading them back to the bed.
Etienne turned a little green when he saw what Wyatt was doing to her, but Greg, she noted, was surprisingly calm.
"Maybe if you grab his chin and I grab his head, we can . . ." Etienne's words died and they all stared with amazement when Greg leaned around Elspeth and simply pinched Wyatt's nose closed. It wasn't even a two-count after that before Wyatt's mouth popped open on a wet gasp for air.
Elspeth struggled backward off the bed at once, automatically reaching to cover the damaged wrist as she gained her feet and stumbled back a couple of steps. The men immediately closed in, taking over the spot where she'd been and blocking her view, but Elspeth was distracted by Rachel suddenly appearing beside her.
"You need blood," she said gently, slipping an arm around her waist to usher her away.