Greg had barely managed to do so before she went to work and set the bike careening up the driveway.
"When was the last time you rode a bike?" he asked suspiciously as they wobbled forward, weaving one way, then the other. Lissianna didn't deign to answer.
Greg glanced anxiously toward the big house they'd fled. All he could see were the lit squares of a couple of windows, and an ocean of darkness between them and the house, but he didn't have to see to know the dog was drawing nearer. The barking was getting louder by the minute.
He turned back to face front, relieved to note that while he'd been distracted, Lissianna had picked up speed. The bike was no longer wobbling and they were racing up the driveway. They just might escape Julius yet, he thought... but they had more than the dog to worry about.
"Won't they come after us in a car?"
"Yes."
"Yes," Greg muttered. Yes. Like it wasn't a big deal. They were puttering along on a bloody bike, and she wasn't concerned about being chased by a bunch of more powerful vampires in a car. Okay, so they weren't exactly puttering, he admitted to himself. Lissianna's legs were obviously as strong as her hands, she was really making the bike move... and he no longer worried too much about Julius catching them, in fact the dog's barking was growing distant again. But geez, she didn't really think she could outdistance a car, did she?
"We just have to make it to the road," Lisianna said and Greg had a vague recollection of her saying that earlier.
"What happens at the road?" Greg asked, but she didn't answer, and he left her to concentrate on pedaling. His anxious gaze returned to the house just in time to see the garage doors opening.
"They're coming!" he yelled in warning.
Lissianna didn't even glance back. She was pedaling for all she was worth and he saw that they were nearly to the road. Greg started rubbernecking; his head swiveling between Marguerite's little red sports car easing out of the garage, and the nearing road again and again. The car was halfway up the drive behind them and picking up speed when Lissianna finally steered the bike through the gates. Before Greg could ask "What next?" she'd sent them speeding on to the road, directly into the path of an oncoming car.
He shouted a warning, Lissianna apparently applied the brakes, Greg heard the squeal of the brakes of the oncoming car as it swerved to avoid them, and amazingly, they ail managed to stop without anyone being thrown, crushed, or run down.
"Come on!" Lissianna was off the bike and rushing toward the car.
Greg didn't hesitate. With the sound of Marguerite's car gunning after them, he leapt off the bicycle, sent it flying back into the driveway with a shove, and ran after Lissianna, following her into the backseat of the car that had nearly run them down.
"Hey! You can't--!" The pimply-faced, teenager driving the vehicle stopped yelling abruptly and turned in his seat, calmly shifting the car into gear.
"What are you doing, man?" his buddy asked in amazement from the passenger seat. Then he shouted in shock as his friend slammed his foot down on the gas and sent the car shooting up the road.
"He's helping us escape some bad guys," Greg told the second kid soothingly, his gaze moving to Lissianna. She was staring at the road ahead, concentrating as hard as if she were doing the driving herself, and he suspected she was. Greg had no doubt she was controlling the teenaged driver, just as her mother had controlled his own actions.
Greg turned to glance up the driveway as the car flew past it. Tossing the bike up the drive had been a smart move. The red sports car was stopped at the foot of the driveway, the bicycle racked up under its front end. Marguerite and Lucian were just getting out to stare after them, two dark shapes in the gray predawn.
Lissianna walked out of the ladies' bathroom and peered around the food court, but Greg was nowhere in sight.
They'd fled the house without either her purse or his wallet, though Lissianna hadn't thought of that until after she'd had the boys drop them off at the Eaton Center. Her main concern had been that they hadn't thought to grab coats and it was cold out, Eaton Center was right downtown. Large and always busy, it was also on the route of the Path, an underground walkway that linked almost thirty kilometers of stores and services in metropolitan Toronto. Coats weren't necessary and sunlight could be easily avoided if you stayed to the lower levels. It was the perfect place for a coatless man and a vampire to hang out during the day while they figured out what to do next.
Actually, the Eaton Center and the underground Path were the perfect places for a vampire to hang out, period. That was a small problem. Lissianna knew quite a few of her kind who worked down here, able to move about dur-ing daylight with little need to risk too much exposure to sunlight.
Still, it had seemed the best bet, a safe haven until she figured out what to do. After discussing their next move, Lissianna and Greg had spent all morning wandering the walkways, stopping in various stores to look around, then moving on until Greg had commented with concern that she looked exhausted. Five minutes later he'd steered her to the food court and urged her to sit, but Lissianna had mentioned a wish to visit the ladies' room and had slipped away to splash water on her face in the hopes of reviving herself.
The water treatment hadn't made her feel any better or more alert. Lissianna was exhausted, and that was all there was to it. It was afternoon, and she hadn't slept at all today. After several days of only four or five hours of sleep a day, not getting any at all, but instead spending those five hours wandering around the Eaton Center trying to kill time, was wearing. And she hadn't eaten since the morning before. While Thomas had fed her three bags then, it was well used up, and she was starting to suffer from the lack. She needed blood and sleep and wasn't likely to get either for quite a while.
Lissianna wasn't the only one doing without, of course. Greg hadn't eaten yet today either, but hadn't complained. A sharp whistle drew her eyes to the center of the food court, and she felt relief flow through her as she spotted Greg waving at her from a table.
"I was afraid I'd lost you," Lissianna admitted as she dropped into the seat across from him, then paused and stared at the tray of food between them. "Where did you get this? I thought you didn't have your wallet."
"I didn't, but my office isn't far from here and I'm a regular at that little deli over there." He gestured toward a small restaurant, then continued, "The owners are a little, old married couple. Real nice. And because they know me, they let me get it on credit. They're mailing the bill to my office. I told them to add a delivery charge for their trouble. They're a decent couple."
"Oh." Lissianna watched him unload soup and a sandwich as well as a drink before her.
"Eat," Greg ordered as he pulled the tray with his own soup, sandwich, and drink toward himself.
"I don't eat," she said blankly.
"Lissianna, I can't get you blood, but food will help you build blood. It might help."