"Why bother?" Thomas asked. "Both of them need more than she could supply, and it will just slow us down."
"Right. I'll take her home then," Mirabeau announced, and walked back to collect the girl.
"While you do that, I'll call ahead and warn them. It'll give Aunt Marguerite a chance to have more blood sent out to the house."
Greg lay silent as they left the room, his heart thudding heavily in his chest as he tried to ignore the growing pain in his stomach. Lissianna had told him that they called the one who did the turning the sire, because the turning was a painful rebirth. He suspected the mild discomfort he was presently experiencing was nothing compared to what was coming.
* * *
"How are you feeling now?"
Greg grimaced at the question. Thomas had asked it at least twenty times in the last twenty minutes as they'd driven out to the house. He wished he'd stop. Every time the man asked the question, it seemed to focus all of Greg's attention on the pain building and spreading throughout him. It had started in his stomach, an acidy eating-away sort of sensation that had been just bearable, but with every passing moment it grew worse and was slowly dispersing outward, spreading like a virus or cancer and eating away at him with sharp little teeth.
It had gotten so bad in just the half hour since he'd drank Lissianna's blood that sweat had broken out on his brow, and Greg found himself clenching his teeth and hands as he struggled with the pain. His answers to Marguerite's questions when she'd met them in the garage just moments ago had been monosyllabic at best. He was finding it terribly difficult to think past the agony consuming him.
"Take Dr. Hewitt to the rose room, Thomas," Marguerite instructed, opening Lissianna's bedroom door for Lucian Argeneau to carry his niece inside. "I shall be along in a moment, I just want to start Lissianna on her IV, then I will come see to Greg."
"I can hook up the IV for you, Aunt Marguerite," Jeanne Louise offered.
Marguerite hesitated, her gaze moving over Greg's pale face as Thomas half carried him past, then she nodded. "Thank you, Jeanne Louise. I had Maria bring the IV and a cooler of bagged blood up right after Thomas called. If you could get her started for me, I will come check on her as soon as I can."
"Yes, Aunt Marguerite."
Greg saw Jeanne Louise follow her uncle into Lis-sianna's room just before Thomas dragged him into the room next door.
"Put him in the bed, Thomas," Marguerite instructed as she followed them inside.
Greg caught a glimpse of the ropes attached to the bedposts and glanced back sharply at Marguerite as she closed the door before Mirabeau, Elspeth, and the twins could trail them in. Marguerite saw his expression and grimaced as she moved to join them at the bed.
"Those are only to prevent you hurting yourself while in the midst of the turning, Dr. Hewitt. You are not a prisoner. I promise."
Relaxing, Greg let Thomas ease him onto the bed. The moment he was flat on his back, Marguerite seated herself on the edge of the mattress and leaned forward to examine his eyes, though he hadn't a clue what she was looking for.
"How long is it since Lissi offered her blood?" she asked, sitting back.
"About half an hour," Thomas answered when Greg stared at her blankly, the answer suddenly eluding him when he knew he should know it.
Marguerite nodded and released a little breath that might have been relief. "It has not yet started then. It is still only in the preliminary stages."
Greg felt his heart drop at these words. It hadn't started yet? The agony he was experiencing was just the preliminary? Dear God.
"Thomas, I had Bastien call the labs and order some drugs to be sent over that might help Greg through this," she said, as the door opened and Lucian and Martine entered. "Could you go downstairs and wait for them, please?"
"Drugs," Lucian said with a snort of derision as Thomas left the room. "In my day we did not use drugs to ease it. It was a rite of passage, and we took it like men... But I suppose men today are softer, they would not be able to stand the pain."
"I don't need drugs," Greg said, pride making him rise to the bait the other man had offered. Lucian Argeneau had seemed to take an instant dislike to him during their interview the morning he'd first arrived, though Greg had no idea why. The only thing he could think was that the man had done a sweep of his brain and picked up on some of his less-sterling intentions toward Lissianna. Greg supposed he shouldn't be surprised if the man took exception to his lusting after his niece.
"Lucian, stop it," Marguerite snapped, then told Greg, "Yes, you do need the drugs."
"No, I don't," he insisted, goaded to it by the superior expression on Lucian Argeneau's face.
"Yes, you do," Lissianna's mother informed him firmly. "You are going to take them and like it."
"I thought you said I wasn't a prisoner?" Greg said testily.
"You aren't," Lucian Argeneau announced. "Marguerite, he is a grown man. If he does not want the drugs, you should not force them on him."
She glanced at Lissianna's uncle with exasperation, then sighed and turned to Greg.