"Come in, dear. You look terribly dehydrated. Etienne, fetch the poor girl some blood from the back," the Argeneau matriarch ordered. "She's in terrible pain."
Etienne helped Rachel into the van, then followed and slammed the door closed before crawling into the back to retrieve several bags of blood from the medical cooler there.
"How are you?" Bastien asked solicitously as Etienne settled on the bench next to her, sandwiching her between himself and his mother.
"I'm fine," Rachel murmured as she accepted the first bag of blood. She was hungry enough that she didn't bother with the straw business, but merely opened her mouth and punched the bag into her teeth to let them do the work.
"You'll have to tell us what happened. Don't leave out any details," Lucern said from his seat.
Rachel stared at the man, the bag still affixed to her teeth, as he drew a small pad and pen from his pocket. He obviously intended to take notes, and she was aware that he had done this the other times he had come around Etienne's home. When she had asked Etienne what his brother was doing, he had muttered something about Lucern being a scribbler, whatever that meant.
"Later, Lucern," Marguerite said quietly. "Let the poor girl recover a bit before you bombard her with questions."
"I take it we're to go to the hospital?" Bastien asked, turning in his seat to start the engine.
"Drive slowly, Bastien. Rachel needs a lot of blood and the time to consume it," Marguerite said by way of an answer. "You'll have to go in with Etienne to help at the hospital. We all will. Between her working there and the fact that she's big news, shell draw a lot of attention. Etienne will need all the help he can get."
"Help with what?" Rachel asked as she pulled the now empty bag off her teeth and accepted the next one Etienne held out.
"They'll want to examine you," Etienne explained.
"And we simply can't allow that, dear," Marguerite pointed out. "Bastien, Lucern, and I will go in with you to make sure the doctors and nurses think they've examined you and found you dehydrated and undernourished, as you should be after being kidnapped and starved. We'll attend you to be sure all goes smoothly."
Rachel nodded her understanding, silently allowing her teeth to soak in the blood her body needed so badly. She was exhausted enough to let them handle it whatever way they saw fit. Rachel was even starting to think she should have listened to them regarding the issue of Pudge and agreed to lie about him, bad at it or not. They had all lived an awfully long time. No doubt the collected wisdom they had gained over the centuries was monstrous. The very thought of what might have happened to Pudge's neighbor, not to mention Etienne and herself, because of her stubborn insistence on telling the truth was frightening. Perhaps there were times when honesty wasn't the best policy and a small lie might save a bad situation.
"You'll learn," Marguerite said quietly, obviously having read her thoughts. "Time is not the great teacher. Experience is. A man may live a whole life, but if he never leaves his home to experience that life, he dies knowing nothing. A mere child who has suffered and lived can be the wiser of the two."
Chapter Seventeen
"They're vampires, I tell you!"
Pudge was beginning to sound more whiney than adamant, Rachel decided, as she watched him run his fingers through his greasy hair and tug on the ends with frustration. She couldn't really blame him. They had been questioning him for hours now. They'd apparently brought him straight here to the police station, booked him, and settled him in the small square room where they were now grilling him. And they had kept him there ever since.
Rachel and the Argeneaus had missed the first two hours of the interrogation. It had taken that long to get her through emergency and out of the hospital. Despite her being an employee at the hospital--not to mention her being something of a celebrity, thanks to the fact that she had been "kidnapped" from work--they'd had to wait quite a while to be seen by a doctor. When Rachel had asked why they simply didn't put the whammy on the nurses and move them to the front of the line, Marguerite had seemed surprised at the very idea. Her case wasn't urgent, she had pointed out, and they could manage the wait.
Rachel had felt a moment's shame that she hadn't thought that herself, but Marguerite had immediately reached into her mind to soothe her with the words that she "would learn." Frankly, Rachel couldn't wait to learn. She had marveled at the family as they escorted her everywhere uncontested. There were definitely benefits to being able to control the thoughts and minds of those around them. She hadn't been examined, but as far as the hospital staff could recall she had been. And as Marguerite had promised, the reports all read what would be expected: She was suffering dehydration and malnutrition. The Argeneaus had been astounding to watch in action, and Rachel was quickly beginning to realize the power Etienne had gifted her with.
"They're vampires, are they?" Officer Carstairs, the blond officer asked. He stood to the side of the table where his partner and Pudge sat facing each other. "You're the one with the coffin and the vampire teeth, Norman. Yet you claim Ms. Garrett and Mr. Argeneau are the vampires?"
"They're fake teeth, I tell you," Pudge muttered, sounding harassed. "If you'd uncuff me, I'd take the damn things out. Mine are fake, but theirs are real."
"Sure they are, Norman," the darked-haired officer, Treebech, agreed soothingly.
"Stop calling me that!" Pudge snapped. "Norman. God, I hate that name. It makes me sound like a geek." He glared at them briefly, then said, "I tell you, Etienne Argeneau is a vampire. So is the woman. Hell, she bit me!"
Rachel grimaced. She hadn't really bit him, but she'd gotten closer than she'd realized, and the man had a scratch where one tooth had caught him. It was a nick really, and not even recognizable as a bite. Still, it was closer than she ever hoped to get to biting someone again. Well, except perhaps for Etienne. She rather enjoyed giving him love bites when they--Love bites? Rachel gave her head a shake. Sex bites, she meant. Not love bites. She didn't love Etienne. Did she? The question ran around and around through her mind, followed by a welling of confusing thoughts and feelings. Warm, gushy feelings that rather alarmed her. Dear God, she couldn't love him.
Rachel was suddenly aware that Lucern was staring at her with interest. Then it occurred to her that any one of the people standing protectively around her could be reading her thoughts. She forced her runaway thoughts and feelings into a dark corner of her mind and turned her attention back to what was taking place beyond the one-way mirror. Pudge was glaring at the officers, closemouthed.
"Okay, so say she did bite you," Carstairs commented. "Do you think you'll be a vampire now too, Norman?"
"Don't call me Norm--" Pudge paused abruptly, his eyes widening. He suddenly looked less harassed. Excitement and wonderment filled his expression. "She did bite me. Do you really think I'll become a vampire?"
"I don't know, Norman. You're the expert. Why don't you tell us?"
Pudge pondered for a minute, then reasoned, "I guess it's possible. But Renfield didn't turn into a vampire after one bite. He..." His expression became horrified. "Oh, man! Renfield became Dracula's servant for life after one bite. He was his slave."
"So, does that make you Ms. Garrett's slave?" Treebech asked.