“Don’t you want Jeanne Louise?” Lucian asked simply.
Paul paused. Seriously tempted. He could have Livy and Jeanne Louise. He could have it all, everything he could have wanted, a beautiful vibrant wife and a healthy happy daughter. A future that seemed as rosy as could be. In fact, he would have had it all. Instead he’d lost it all.
“You still have Livy.”
Paul glanced up with a frown. “Yes of course,” he muttered. Frowning at his own thoughts. Of course, he hadn’t lost it all. He still had Livy. A month ago that would have been enough. Why didn’t it seem like enough now? Why did his life seem so meaningless without Jeanne Louise in it?
“You could always forfeit your one turn to your daughter,” Lucian said calmly.
Paul peered sharply at him. “What?”
“Livy is forfeiting her turn to turn you. Once turned, you have one turn of your own. You can forfeit it here in front of witnesses, giving it to your daughter. It means should Jeanne Louise die and you find a life mate who is mortal . . .” He shrugged. “You’re out of luck. But Livy will still have her one turn for her own life mate. Understood?”
“Yes,” Paul breathed, his hope rising again. Dear God, he might have Jeanne Louise after all.
“So do you want to be turned?” Lucian asked firmly.
“Of course. I—” Paul’s words were cut off when Lucian’s wrist suddenly slapped across his open mouth. The immortal’s other hand clasped the back of Paul’s head to keep him from trying to back away from it. The actions were so fast it took Paul a moment to realize what was happening and then he became aware that blood was gushing into his mouth.
“Swallow,” Lucian said dryly. “I am not biting myself again for you.”
Paul stared at the man blankly. He hadn’t even seen Lucian bite himself this first time. Damn these bastards moved fast, he thought with amazement even as he automatically did as ordered and swallowed. He breathed quickly through his nose to keep from gagging as he swallowed the thick, tinny liquid, and then swallowed again, and again. It seemed to go on forever before Lucian suddenly took his arm away and released his head.
“The turn has started. You will be immortal. Now . . .” Lucian raised his eyebrows. “Will you give up your one turn to Livy to use as she wishes?”
Paul nodded without hesitation.
“Say it.”
“I give up my turn to my daughter to use as she wishes,” Paul said dutifully his voice husky.
“Good.” Lucian glanced to the other two men. “Nicholas, help Bricker strap your new brother-in-law down. Your father is bringing Marguerite, Eshe, Julius, and Jo out with IVs and drugs and whatnot. They should be here soon. Leigh and I are taking Livy to Wonderland so she doesn’t have to hear her father scream.”
Lucian turned and left the room then and Bricker glanced to Nicholas, one eyebrow arched. “Wonderland?”
“Lucian’s always loved amusement parks,” Nicholas said wryly, moving to collect a small pile of chain Paul hadn’t noticed curled in the corner. “Unfortunately, Leigh likes them too.”
“Why is that unfortunate?” Bricker asked with surprise.
“She’s due next month. You don’t think he’s going to let her anywhere near the rides do you?” Nicholas asked with a bark of laughter, beginning to unravel the chain with Bricker’s help.
“Oh right,” Bricker said with a grimace. “Hell, she’ll be lucky if he lets her walk through the park and doesn’t insist on a wheelchair or carrying her.” He glanced to Paul and then patted the dining room table. “Hop on, Paul. Let’s get you buckled in for the ride.”
“On the table?” he asked blankly.
“Lucian suggested it when we first entered the house,” he said with a shrug, and then patted the table, pointing out, “Sturdy wrought iron base, thick hardwood surface. Less likely to break than your bed, and easy to clean up the mess afterward.”
“We’ll move you to your bed after the worst of it’s over and you’re done thrashing and molting,” Nicholas assured him soothingly.
“Molting?” Paul asked, his voice rising.
“Well, just one of the terms we use for it,” he said apologetically. “During the turn your body pushes out impurities and stuff the nanos decide you don’t need. It can get pretty messy. Much easier to clean surfaces like this though. So . . .” He nodded to the table. “Up you get.”
Paul hesitated, but then gave in and climbed onto a chair and then sat on the table and swung his legs up. As he lay down, he glanced to Nicholas and murmured, “I know you’re Jeanne Louise’s brother. But we aren’t married yet. Why did he call me your brother-in-law?”
Nicholas smiled faintly as he bent to offer one end of chain to Bricker under the table. As the two men straightened and began to shackle each end to his wrists, he said, “You’re as good as married according to our customs. I’m sure Jeanne Louise will insist on a ceremony soon enough, but basically you’re her life mate and you’ve been turned. It’s a done deal as far as we’re concerned.” He glanced to him and smiled. “Welcome to the family, brother.”
“Thanks . . . I think,” Paul murmured weakly.
“It’s not exactly a done deal,” Bricker pointed out as the two men moved down to the foot of the table. “There’s still the agony and shrieking to go through.” He paused to bend and accept the chain Nicholas passed to him under the table, and then straightened and continued, “But it’s never killed anyone . . . well, not anyone I’ve seen turned anyway.” Pursing his lips he eyed him solemnly, and then asked, “You don’t have a heart condition or something we should know about, do you?”
Paul’s eyes widened, but he shook his head.
“Good, good.” Bricker patted his leg again, and then began to attach a shackle to it, adding, “I’m sure it will be fine then.”
“Good thing too. Jeanie would never forgive us if we killed off her life mate.”
That dry comment came from the door and drew Paul’s attention from the two men presently shackling his feet. He eyed the fellow leaning nonchalantly in the door.
“Thomas.” Nicholas snapped the shackle around Paul’s ankle, gave it a testing tug, then stood and crossed the room to hug the other man. Pulling back, he asked, “What are you doing here?”
“For some bizarre reason Uncle Lucian thought I should be here for the big turn. He had an Argeneau plane collect me and Inez this morning and fly us over,” Thomas explained grinning.
“Inez is here then?” Nicholas asked.
“Are you kidding?” Thomas grinned. “She wouldn’t let me fly off without her. Besides, Bastien thinks he might have a position for her here in Canada and wants to talk to her about it.”
“So she’s at the office?” Nicholas asked, turning to lead him to the side of the table and Paul chained to it.
“No. Bastien wants to see her tomorrow so she came with me today. She’s out front. A car was pulling in as we were entering the house so she stayed to see who it was and either send them away if they’re mortals, or greet them if they’re one of ours.” He peered down at Paul. “Is this him, then?”
“Hmmm.” Nicholas smiled at Paul and nodded. “He seems a nice enough chap.”
“Is he good enough for Jeanie?” Thomas asked.
“Is anyone good enough for Jeanie?” Nicholas asked with amusement.
“Hmmm,” Thomas muttered.
“He’s a geek like her though,” Nicholas commented thoughtfully. “Works in R and D at Argeneau like her too.”
“Well at least they can ride into work together,” Thomas said wryly. “Although working in the same place they aren’t likely to get much actual work done. I suspect they’ll be found in broom closets and getting it on in their car in the parking garage for the next year.”
Nicholas nodded. “Really, Bastien should just give them the year off.”
Paul scowled at the pair of them. “Hello. I’m awake. I can hear you,” he pointed out with irritation. “You may not think I’m good enough for your sister, but I’ll do my damnedest to make her happy. And we won’t be ‘getting it on’ in the car in the parking garage. I have a little more class than that,” he assured them grimly.
“Besides, the parking garage has security cameras everywhere,” Bricker pointed out, finishing shackling Paul’s second leg and straightening to join the other two. “It’s how we knew Jeanne Louise had been taken. Security saw him slip into the back of her car just before she got in.”
Paul scowled again, but since that’s why he’d been able to assure them that they wouldn’t be caught doing the nasty in the car in the Argeneau parking garage, he didn’t comment. Judging by the amusement on the faces of the men, though, he didn’t have to. They’d probably plucked the thought from his mind.
“Hmm. That’s a new one,” Nicholas commented suddenly, staring at Paul’s eyes.
“Yeah, they usually go to the organs first,” Thomas commented, stepping a little closer to the table and bending to peer at Paul’s eyes more closely.
“What usually go to the organs first?” Paul asked warily.
“The nanos. Your eyes are flashing silver already,” Nicholas explained, and then asked, “Do you have some kind of eye problem?”
“I have late onset keratoconus,” Paul admitted with a frown, alarm beginning to ripple down his spine. There was a strange heat building behind his eyes.
“What is keratoconus?” Bricker asked curiously, moving to the head of the table to get a better look himself.
“The cornea, the clear front of my eye, is thinning and bulging outward into a cone shape,” he muttered, beginning to blink his eyes as they began to sting. “I wear rigid gas-permeable contact lenses because of it.”
“Huh,” Thomas murmured. He glanced to Nicholas and then back with a sigh. “Well the good news is, you won’t need contacts anymore.”
“And the bad news?” Paul asked grimly, squeezing his eyes closed against the mounting pressure there.
“I think you’re going to be one of those ones where the turn comes on hard and fast. You—”
Paul didn’t hear the rest. His attention was abruptly and completely claimed by pain suddenly shooting through both eyes. It felt like someone had taken two ice picks and stabbed him in the eyes with them. It brought an immediate roar of pain from him and had him thrashing on the table, yanking at his wrists to try to reach his eyes. It was probably better that he was chained though. Paul suspected he’d have done anything, including ripping out his own eyes to bring an end to the agony exploding through him just then. The worst part was, he knew it was just the beginning.
“I
’m back.”
Jeanne Louise lifted her head at that cheerful announcement and forced a smile for her assistant, Kim, as the petite blonde entered the lab with a grin on her face and a spring in her step.
“Lunch with Arthur?” Jeanne Louise teased, or at least tried to tease. The words came out a little flat, but then everything about her was flat lately.
“Lunch and other things.” Kim sighed happily at the thought of the mortal male who had replaced Fred in security. The two had become rather close rather quickly over the last few weeks. Well as close as an immortal and mortal who weren’t life mates could get. “He’s the cutest little mortal on the planet. And a good kisser. Good at other things too,” she added with a laugh. “I hardly have to slip into his thoughts and show him what to do at all. He likes doing them.”
“Hmm.” Jeanne Louise lowered her head. The mortal she’d been dating when Paul had kidnapped her had been the same way. He probably still was. She wouldn’t know. She hadn’t seen him since leaving Paul and returning to her old life. She hadn’t really seen anyone since then. Jeanne Louise had been avoiding friends and loved ones like the plague since meeting and losing Paul. And she had absolutely no interest in seeing her old mortal lover.
“Leave that,” Kim said moving up beside her. “I’ll keep an eye on it while you have lunch.”
“I’m not hungry,” Jeanne Louise muttered, turning the knob on the microscope until the image reflected in it was a complete blur of color.
“You skipped lunch yesterday too. What’s going on? Immortalpause?” Kim teased.
Jeanne Louise managed a weak smile at the joke. It was a play on menopause, their word for immortals who moved past the desire for food and sex. Kim always teased her about that when she got too busy to bother about lunch and in the past she would have laughed. She didn’t feel much like laughing lately, but Kim didn’t know that. No one knew about Paul, his being her life mate, or her losing him.
“Jeanne Louise?”
She glanced to the girl, and noting the concern suddenly plucking at her lips, pushed her stool back and stood up. “You’re right. I should go for lunch.”
Kim hesitated, but then smiled and nodded. Her smile, though, didn’t hide her concern. Jeanne Louise ignored it and moved to her desk to get her purse. She then headed for the door.
“Jeanne.”
Pausing, Jeanne Louise glanced back in question.
“If there’s anything I can do to help . . . you know I will, right?” Kim said quietly.
“Help with what?” Jeanne Louise asked with a frown.
She hesitated and then said apologetically, “They say new life mates are easily read, but it’s more like they broadcast their thoughts. At least that’s how it is with you.”
She met her gaze for a moment, and then looked away. “Thanks,” she murmured and slid out of the lab.
It seemed it didn’t matter that she’d not told anyone. It sounded like she was telling everyone anyway. That explained why people were avoiding her eyes and being especially nice to her lately, she supposed, and breathed out a sigh. She was the tragic figure, a living symbol of what every immortal feared, one who’d found and lost her life mate.
Sighing, she forced her shoulders straight and head up and picked up her step. There was nothing she could do about other immortals being able to read her thoughts, but she didn’t have to be the pathetic creature they all thought she was. She had found a life mate and couldn’t claim him. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t find another, hopefully one who was already immortal and not in need of turning.
Just thinking that depressed Jeanne Louise. She didn’t want another. She wanted Paul. But not just for a few decades. She already wanted him like no one and nothing she had ever wanted in her life, even her father’s love. And that was after just a couple weeks. She couldn’t imagine how much it would hurt to have him for a mortal life and then lose him. Jeanne Louise couldn’t even fathom the pain then. Better this horrible soul wrenching pain now than complete obliterating agony later. Or maybe any agony later was worth whatever amount of time she could spend with him now, she thought as she reached the cafeteria.