Jeanne Louise lay back on the picnic blanket Paul had spread over the wooden floor of the gazebo. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead unhappily as the memory of the pain began to fade. She then turned her attention to what had to be done. She couldn’t read Paul and food tasted amazing since she’d woken up chained to the bed. She was 90 percent sure that Paul was her life mate. She just needed that last bit of proof. The food she’d eaten since being here was ten, perhaps even a hundred times tastier than it had been a day ago. If it was the same way with sex with Paul . . .
Well, life mates were said to faint from the sheer passion that overwhelmed them during sex, and she could understand how that might be if sex was a hundred times more powerful too. She would have to find out, and quickly. Jeanne Louise’s conscience simply wouldn’t allow her to leave Livy to suffer as she was. And she couldn’t turn her either. She had to step up her courting. She had to seduce the man and get that final proof that he was her life mate. And then she had to somehow make him love her and agree to spend eternity with her before explaining that she could turn only one, that it would be either Livy or he. But that if she turned him, he could then use his one turn to save his daughter.
If she succeeded at it, everything would be fine. They would be a family. She would have her life mate, and a daughter too. The thought made her smile faintly. It was like a dream come true. Jeanne Louise had not only always wanted a family of her own, she loved children. She’d been feeling a pining for one the last decade or so. But it had worsened with first the birth of Lissianna and Greg’s little Lucy, and then with Uncle Lucian and Leigh’s announcement that Leigh was pregnant again. While Leigh had lost their first child in the second month, she was now seven months along and mother and child were apparently well. Everyone was waiting eagerly for the child’s birth.
Jeanne Louise didn’t care that she hadn’t given birth to Livy. She would accept her as her own and mother her as best she knew how. Which wasn’t really well at all, she supposed. She hadn’t a clue how to be a mother, other than what she’d seen with Lissianna and Greg.
Actually, Jeanne Louise realized suddenly, Livy was about the same age as Lucy. They were both beautiful little blondes too, she thought with a smile. They could go through training to feed together, would no doubt be in the same grade, might even end up the best of friends. The fantasy of a happy home life with Paul and Livy was building in her head when the scuff of a foot made her open her eyes. She blinked at the sight of Paul standing over her, his expression grim.
“You have some explaining to do,” he said coldly and Jeanne Louise’s fantasies of a happy future burst like a bubble.
J
eanne Louise sat up slowly, her expression unperturbed, but her nerves suddenly jangling. He was worried, and his worry was coming out as anger. And he was worried because he didn’t understand what she’d done.
“The nanos give us the ability to block a person’s pain receptors or make them sleep. I presume it was considered necessary to aid in the hunt for blood,” she said calmly before he could ask anything. “While biting them, they won’t feel pain, and if we make them sleep, they don’t feel the bite either. I did that for Livy to ease her pain.”
“You blocked the pain, and then put her to sleep?” Paul asked slowly as if wanting to be sure he had it right.
Jeanne Louise nodded.
“How?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated. While Jeanne Louise knew she had to go into the person’s mind to do it, she didn’t know much more than that, really. It was sort of instinctual. It didn’t matter though, she didn’t think it would probably be good to admit that she could go into minds as she did. Finally she gave him a half truth. “I don’t know exactly how it’s done. It’s sort of instinctual. But I have to be able to at least see her to do it. With some you have to actually be in physical contact to manage it.”
Paul was silent for a minute, processing that, and then asked, “And her eating the whole sandwich?”
Jeanne Louise hesitated. She knew he was asking her if she’d had anything to do with that, but admitting she had would mean admitting to being able to control minds and she wasn’t willing to do that. So, she simply said, “She’s obviously ill. Perhaps her illness is affecting her taste buds somehow, like when you get a cold or flu. Nothing tastes the same as it normally does when you’re sick. I’d try different foods with her.”
Paul relaxed slowly, and nodded, apparently finding that a sensible explanation. Smiling wryly, he said, “I’ll feed her ham and cheese sandwiches for every meal if it means she’ll eat. She’s lost so much weight so fast.”
Jeanne Louise remained silent, but wished she could ease some of his concerns. The man had worry lines making grooves in his face and she suspected they probably hadn’t been there before Livy got sick. She could ease that worry by suggesting she turn him, and he turn Livy, but then she’d risk spending the rest of her long life alone if he wasn’t willing to be her life mate. It might seem selfish to a mortal for her to put her need for a life mate ahead of a child’s life, but they were taught from birth to keep a certain emotional distance between themselves and mortals. Each of them would encounter hundreds of mortals they may like, care about, or even love to a degree, but they simply couldn’t save them all. They could turn only one and the idea of having to spend centuries or even millennia alone . . . well, it was untenable.
D
espite that, Jeanne Louise was tempted to make the offer anyway, but she forced it down and instead asked, “Is there nothing they can give her for the pain?”
Paul shook his head and ran one hand wearily around his neck. “They’ve given her the strongest dose they dare for her age and size, but it doesn’t seem to do anything anymore. The next step is to keep her sedated in the hospital, but . . .”
But he didn’t want her warehoused while she died. He wanted to save her, Jeanne Louise finished in her head when he fell silent.
“I guess I should take you back in. I don’t want to leave her alone in case she wakes up,” Paul said abruptly.
Jeanne Louise nodded and began to pack away the remains of their picnic, her gaze skittering to him when he knelt to help. Once everything was back in the basket and the blanket they’d sat on, as well as the one that had covered her legs, was folded, she stood and waited silently as he quickly unlocked her shackles from the gazebo post. She carried the blankets and he the basket and the end of her chains as they started to walk, and Jeanne Louise couldn’t help feeling like a trained dog as they headed for the house. It stirred a slow anger in her, but she forced herself to take several deep breaths, and pushed the anger back down.
This situation was a difficult one, but getting angry wouldn’t help at this point. It was another kind of passion she needed now.
“Don’t you think you should keep me a little closer to Livy?” Jeanne Louise asked when they entered the house and he turned toward the door to the basement. When he paused to glance at her with a frown, she added, “If she wakes up in pain, I can help her.”
Paul hesitated, uncertainty plucking at his brow and Jeanne Louise sighed with irritation. He was worrying about her escaping, of course. And until he learned to trust that she wouldn’t, he would continue to think of her as a captive. She needed him to think of her as an ally if she was to woo him.
“I don’t think—” he began regretfully.
“What if I promise not to try to leave the house?” she interrupted.
Paul looked torn. He obviously wanted to believe her, but in the end, just couldn’t, and started to shake his head, his mouth opening to speak. However, he never spoke the refusal she expected. Jeanne Louise didn’t let him. The moment his mouth opened, she dropped the blankets, caught the chain and tugged it from his hold with one hand. In the same moment, she snatched the tranquilizer gun from his back pocket with the other. She didn’t even think about what she was doing then, but dropped the chain she’d pulled from him and used both hands to snap the barrel off the end of the tranquilizer gun with a satisfying snap.
Jeanne Louise let the two pieces drop to the floor and then stepped back from Paul, giving him space. She had no desire to scare him or make him feel threatened.
“Jesus, I knew you guys were faster, but . . . damn, you moved so fast you were a blur,” Paul said with amazement.
Her voice calm, Jeanne Louise said, “I could have done that at any point over the last couple of hours. The only reason I’m still here now is because I choose to be.”
“Jesus,” Paul repeated, and then eyed her warily as he took a deep breath. Letting it out, he asked, “Then why are you still here?”
Jeanne Louise hesitated unsure how to answer that. The truth wouldn’t do at all. He wasn’t ready to hear that he might be her life mate, and she wasn’t ready to tell him. First, she needed to be sure he was. And then she needed to see if he was willing to be that life mate, if he could see her as more than a possible way to save his daughter. Jeanne Louise, like every other immortal, had only one turn to use, and while her heart ached for Livy and she sympathized with Paul, she couldn’t save every mortal who was terminally ill. She wouldn’t give up her turn to just anyone, but had to use it wisely.
Aware that he was waiting for an answer, she finally shrugged and offered an evasive, “Consider it a test.”
“A test,” he muttered with a frown.
Jeanne Louise nodded.
“What kind of test?” he asked warily.
She bit her lip, but simply said, “You have your secrets and I have mine. Neither of us is ready to reveal them yet. In the meantime, I’m willing to help alleviate Livy’s pain so that she can eat and rest and rebuild her strength. I presume you’d like that?”
Paul’s eyes widened, but he nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Good. Then can you please remove the shackles from my ankle? They’re beginning to chafe.”
“Oh.” Paul glanced around and then shook his head and reached in his pocket for the key as he knelt by her leg. He shifted her pant legs up and Jeanne Louise bent to hold them out of the way for him as he quickly undid both shackles and removed them.
“Thank you,” she murmured, releasing her pant legs and letting them fall back into place as she straightened.
“My pleasure,” he said wryly, gathering the chain and shackles and moving to set them on the kitchen table. He hesitated and then glanced toward the refrigerator. “Would you like some blood now?”
“Yes, please,” Jeanne Louise responded, her lips twitching at how polite and stiff they both sounded. Good Lord. Nothing was ever easy, was it?
Nodding, Paul moved to the refrigerator and retrieved a jar of the dark crimson liquid.
Jeanne Louise’s eyebrows rose when he undid the lid and handed it to her. “What—?”
“It’s my blood,” he explained quietly. “I used sterilized jars. I didn’t have access to a blood bank or anything. I’ve been bleeding myself for nearly two months to get enough together for you.” He glanced back to the refrigerator with a frown and then added, “I hope I have enough. I wasn’t sure how much you’d need. They don’t give us info like that. Only what we need to know.”
“I’m sure you have enough,” Jeanne Louise murmured and accepted the jar, then hesitated. She wasn’t used to drinking out of a jar. Or a glass for that matter. She tended to just pop a bag to her fangs to avoid tasting it. Not that it was unpleasant to her, but she felt a bit self-conscious about drinking it in front of him.
Turning her back to him, she walked to the window as an excuse to keep her back to him as she quickly downed the beverage. She drank it as quickly as she could, very aware that he stood behind her, probably watching her drink his own blood. Dear Lord.
“More?” Paul asked when she finished and turned back.
Jeanne Louise shook her head and walked to the sink to quickly rinse the jar as if removing the last of the thick liquid would remove the memory of her drinking it from his mind. Watching her drink his blood would hardly paint her as an attractive female, she figured, and grimaced as she then set the jar in the sink. She then turned to peer at him.
“Right.” Paul swung toward the door to the hall. “Upstairs.”
She followed silently, not terribly surprised when he glanced over his shoulder to be sure she was following behind him.
“We can watch a movie or something if you like while she sleeps,” he offered. “What kind of movies do you like?”
“Action adventure, comedies, and horror,” Jeanne Louise answered easily and caught the smile on his face as he again turned forward.
“Me too,” Paul admitted as he started up the stairs. “I have quite a collection of movies. We should be able to find something we both like in there.”
“Sounds good,” she murmured as they stepped onto the landing and headed up the hall. He led her past two doors, slowing at the second to glance in on a sleeping Livy, then continued on to an open door at the end of the hall. Jeanne Louise followed him inside and nearly stepped on his heels when he suddenly paused.
“Oh,” he muttered, looking suddenly uncomfortable.
Jeanne Louise glanced around the room he’d led her to. It was twice the size of a normal bedroom, with a leather love seat, a wide stool, two end tables, and a 47-inch TV taking up one half of the room, while a king-sized sleigh bed and two end tables filled the other. It was the bed Paul was now staring at with something like dismay.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered turning back to her. “I wasn’t thinking. I suppose we’ll have to watch a movie downstairs and—”
“This is closer to Livy,” she said with a shrug and moved nonchalantly to the love seat as if she’d hardly noticed the bed. But it was impossible not to notice the bed. Dear God, it was huge, she thought, and glanced to him expectantly.
“Right,” Paul muttered, his gaze sliding to the bed and then skittering away. Straightening his shoulders, he hurried to the cupboard holding the TV and knelt to open the double doors below it, revealing row after row of DVDs. Curious, Jeanne Louise got up again and moved to stand behind him and peer over the titles on display.