A Quick Bite (40 page)
“Lissianna!” Juli spotted her first and came running up to the porch. Vicki, Elspeth, and Marguerite were hard on her heels. Only Martine remained behind and Lissianna knew the woman must be inside Dwayne’s thoughts, controlling him and wiping them clean. While he had seen her with Thomas, Jeanne Louise, and Mirabeau at the bar, Dwayne hadn’t met the rest of her family so wouldn’t have been at all wary at their approach, leaving him vulnerable to their control. Though Lissianna had to wonder what he must have thought when the van had pulled up and a whole passel of women had tumbled out.
“Can we come out yet?” she heard Thomas shout from the van.
“Yes,” Marguerite called. “Martine has him under control.”
Mirabeau, Jeanne Louise, and Thomas started to scramble out of the van.
“Bring blood if you have any! Greg is in a bad way,” Lissianna shouted, then staggered as the twins reached her and both tried to hug her at once.
“Are you all right?” Marguerite asked as she mounted the porch.
Lissianna nodded and smiled at her as her cousins released her. “How did you find us?”
“When you did not come home, we got worried. There was still the little matter of the staking to solve and while I knew you did not think it was your friend Debbie, I was still suspicious. So, when you failed to show up, I called the shelter. A girl named Kelly answered your phone. She said you and some ‘really cute guy’ had left with Father Joseph.”
Lissianna nodded slowly. The office she and Kelly shared overlooked the parking lot. The girl must have reached the office and been looking out the window when she and Greg had gotten out of his car to get into the van.
“I didn’t know what to do then, so we all piled into the van and headed down to the shelter,” her mother continued. “Your friend Debbie was just leaving.”
Lissianna grimaced. Debbie was worse than she for working late. Since her husband’s death, she seemed to avoid being home alone.
“Since she was there and we had not sorted out the staking business, I read her mind and found out that she had only told her mother and someone named Claudia that you were at her house that night, but that Father Joseph had been there when she had told the girl.”
“So we suspected Father Joseph was our man,” Thomas announced, mounting the porch with a cooler in hand. Blood for Greg, Lissianna knew.
“Aunt Marguerite had us bring it from the house when we left…Just in case,” Thomas explained, when he saw her peering at the cooler. “Where’s Greg?”
“End of the hall, last door on the left,” Lissianna answered, wishing she could go with him, but it would be a waste of time. The moment she saw his bloody chest
she’d faint. That thought made her ask, “I don’t suppose you have an extra shirt with you that Greg could borrow?”
“I’ll figure out something,” Thomas told her, and moved off into the house.
Lissianna turned to her mother. “Were you guys the emergency at the shelter?”
Jeanne Louise grinned. “Yes. We knew we had to find Father Joseph. We had that girl Kelly call him, but he wouldn’t say where he was, so we had to invent an emergency to get him back to the shelter so we could read his mind and find out where you were.”
“And all the time we were afraid it would be too late,” Elspeth murmured quietly.
“But it wasn’t.” Lissianna reached out and squeezed her cousin’s shoulder. “What did you do with Father Joseph?”
“Lucian is dealing with him,” Marguerite informed her. “He will wipe his mind, then meet us back at the house.”
“And Martine is taking care of Dwayne,” Lissianna said, glancing toward the front yard, but the couple was no longer there.
“Martine took him around back,” Marguerite said quietly. “She needs quiet to do her work. It’s more difficult when they know what we are.”
Lissianna nodded.
“Come.” Marguerite urged her toward the porch steps. “You look pale. You need blood. We have another cooler in the van.”
“We don’t have an IV though,” Jeanne Louise warned her. “But Thomas said if we have you close your eyes, we can pop the bags on your teeth and it works.”
“Yes,” Marguerite said, then shook her head. “I wish I had thought of it years ago. It is much faster than an IV.”
“What about Greg?” Lissianna asked, glancing back into the dark hallway behind her.
“Thomas will take care of him,” Marguerite assured her. “They’ll be along shortly.
Lissianna nodded and allowed herself to be led from the porch.
“So?” her mother asked as they approached the van. “Have you and Greg sorted everything out?”
“Yes,” Lissianna murmured and a small smile played around her lips. “We have finally talked and have agreed to be life mates.”
Marguerite snorted. “There was never any doubt that you were life mates, dear. You just had to realize it…and it took you long enough to get around to that.”
“Here they come.”
Lissianna glanced out the van window at the warning from Juli. Thomas and Greg were descending the porch steps. Her cousin had obviously borrowed one of Dwayne’s shirts, Greg’s bloodstained one was missing, a Metallica T-shirt in its place.
“He looks so pale,” Vicki said with concern.
Lissianna didn’t say anything. They all knew Greg had been shot. Her mother had made her close her eyes, then fed her several bags of blood once they’d all settled in the van. Then Lissianna had told them what had happened since leaving the shelter as they waited for Martine and the men to join them.
“Here comes Mom, too,” Elspeth said, as Martine came around the side of the house.
“Good, we can get going,” Marguerite commented, then glanced toward the back of the van. “Mirabeau, is there any more blood in the cooler back there? It looks like Greg could use some more.”
“A couple of bags,” the woman answered. “Should I pass them up?”
“Yes, please,” Marguerite said. “Lissianna, close your eyes.”
Sighing, she closed her eyes and listened as there was shuffling around, then the side door of the van opened.
“We’re going to be a little crowded in here, Greg,” Lissianna heard her mother say. “But it isn’t far to the house.”
“Lissianna can sit on my lap.” Greg sounded better than he had, but his voice was still tired and weak, she noted with concern.
“Lissianna, you can open your eyes,” her mother said. “I’ve hidden the blood.”
She opened her eyes with relief and the first thing she saw was Greg’s face as he peered back from the front passenger seat. He smiled at her warmly, then held out his hand.
Lissianna grasped his fingers and moved forward in a crouch to position herself on his lap, leaving her seat between her mother and Jeanne Louise for her aunt Martine. Mirabeau, Elspeth, and the twins were all crowded on the back bench seat.
“We have more blood here for you, Greg,” her mother announced, then ordered, “Close your eyes, Lissianna.”
Sighing, she closed her eyes. Lissianna leaned back against the door to try to stay out of his way as he fed. She heard the back door of the van close as Thomas finished putting the empty cooler away, then, a moment later she heard the front door across from her open and the van rocked just a bit as Thomas got into the driver’s seat.
Greg accepted the bag of blood Marguerite held forward and slapped it against his teeth like an old pro. He’d had six bags in the house and was feeling much better, but he knew he could probably take several more.
His gaze slid to Thomas as the other man closed his
door and did up his seat belt. Lissianna’s cousin grinned as he peered at the pair of them cuddled up on the front passenger seat. He shook his head.
“You two are a mess. Can’t leave you alone for a minute, and you’re in trouble,” Thomas teased, then said more seriously, “You do realize, Lissianna, that you’re going to have to quit your job?”
“Yes, I know.” Lissianna said quietly, but thought it might be a good thing. Father Joseph’s comments about her taking advantage of the already disadvantaged had stung. She could never again have considered biting another client at the shelter without those words haunting her. Straightening her shoulders, she said, “I guess I’ll have to look for another job, something that doesn’t conflict with Greg’s hours maybe.”
Greg gave her shoulder a squeeze with the hand that wasn’t holding the blood bag.
“So, when’s the wedding?” Marguerite asked.
The question caught Greg by surprise, but Lissianna was so startled her eyes popped open. Of course, they landed right on the bag of blood he had pressed to his teeth. He saw her eyes dilate, then she moaned, “Oh darn,” and slumped against him.
Greg sighed and readjusted his hold on her to be sure she wouldn’t slip from his lap.
“Son,” Marguerite began from the backseat, then paused to ask, “May I call you son?”
“Uh, yes, ma’am,” he murmured.
“Thank you…son.”
Greg glanced around to see her smile, then she said, “You really have to concentrate on curing Lissianna of this phobia.”
“Yes,” he agreed solemnly. “It’s on the top of my priority list. First thing tomorrow morning…er…night.
After we sleep,” Greg finished finally, then added, “And as for the wedding, that’ll take place as soon as I can arrange it.”
“Good boy.” Marguerite leaned forward and patted his cheek, then whispered in a voice only he and Thomas could have heard, “I told you my daughter would love you. You really
are
my best birthday gift ever.”
Greg’s mouth dropped open as he recalled the first time he’d been kidnapped. After tying him to the bed, Marguerite had patted his cheek and said, “
My daughter is going to love you. You are my best birthday gift ever
.” Surely she wasn’t now saying that she’d planned all of this? That she—
His gaze dropped to Lissianna nestled in his arms, then up to the grinning faces of everyone in the van. His family now, he realized. Feeling rather stunned, Greg turned toward Thomas as he spoke.
“Welcome to the family, Greg,” the vampire said with amusement.
This book was a bit difficult to write. The fact that it was written out of order caused all sorts of difficulties I hadn’t expected, and a lot of people need thanking for helping to get me through it.
First, Dave, for borrowed courage, good sense, and being “the details man.” (He’s not just good for coffee and kisses
I also need to give a BIG thanks to my agent, Jenny. You were one of many changes that took place in my life during a year-long period of upheaval, and you are definitely one of the best. (I’d put you in second place, right behind Dave
And another BIG thanks to my editors, Erika Tsang and Lucia Macro, who offered a great deal of encouragement as well as worked very, very hard to perfect every detail. Thank you for going “above and beyond…”
LYNSAY SANDS is the national bestselling author of the Argeneau vampire series as well as more than fifteen historical novels and anthologies known for their humorous edge. She lives in England.
Visit her official website at www.lynsaysands.net.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A QUICK BITE
. Copyright © 2005 by Lynsay Sands. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition April 2006 ISBN 9780061750625
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