Jeanne Louise waved that away. There was no blood available at the moment. It would have to wait. Breathing out through her nose, she thought briefly, and then said, “I suggest heading out of town. They’ll have hunters looking for your vehicle when we don’t return to the house.”
“Hunters?” he asked with a frown.
“Enforcers,” she corrected herself, not wanting to explain about Rogue Hunters. That might lead to just how much trouble he was in. She didn’t want to get into all that right now.
Paul was silent for a minute and then said solemnly, “We get volunteers to test the tranquilizers on. A couple of them have mentioned being hunters. Rogue Hunters, I think they said.” She sensed him glancing her way. “Those are the Enforcers? The immortal version of cops you mentioned?”
Jeanne Louise nodded reluctantly.
“And they’ll be looking for us because I kidnapped you?”
She sighed and explained, “Their main job is to take care of any immortals that go rogue and hurt mortals or do anything that might draw attention to our existence. But they also deal with mortals who find out about us and use that knowledge . . . inappropriately,” she finished uncomfortably.
“Like by kidnapping one of you,” Paul said quietly and then took a deep breath and asked, “I don’t suppose the fact that you are actually staying willingly now would help my case much?”
“I’m afraid not. It won’t negate the fact that I was originally taken against my will in the council’s opinion. At least I don’t think it would and we shouldn’t take that chance. The repercussions for such a thing would probably be pretty steep,” Jeanne Louise said quietly.
“How steep?” Paul asked, worry knitting his brow now.
Jeanne Louise hesitated. She wasn’t sure just how the council would punish a mortal in this instance. It wouldn’t be lightly though. It would have to be something that would make a statement and discourage all the other mortals who knew about them from getting such ideas. That being the case, death was a possibility, but it was more likely that they would do a three on one and wipe his mind, then dump him in a psychiatric facility somewhere to live out his days in a drugged, mindless haze. When she admitted as much to Paul, his jaw dropped with horror, but his first question was, “What about Livy? What would they do to her?”
“She wouldn’t be punished for your actions,” she assured him quickly.
“But what would they do with her?” he asked insistently.
Jeanne Louise shrugged helplessly. “They would probably place her with the family of a mortal who works for Argeneau Enterprises.”
“Not for long,” Paul said grimly.
Knowing he was thinking of her cancer and that he was probably right, Jeanne Louise didn’t comment at first. However, when she realized he’d taken the on-ramp to the highway, she asked, “Have you thought of somewhere to go?”
“I have a cottage up north. It’s a four or five hour drive, but—”
“That’s no good. By now they probably know every piece of property you own and have people watching them,” she interrupted and was aware of the sharp startled glance he sent her way.
“Seriously? They can get that kind of information this quickly?” he asked with disbelief.
“Paul, they can find out anything a mortal enforcement agency can find out, and probably quicker,” Jeanne Louise said solemnly.
“How? Surely they don’t have access to police databases and such,” he protested.
“They can get access to anything they want,” she said quietly.
“How?” Paul repeated.
Jeanne Louise just shook her head. “I’ll explain later. Right now we need to think of somewhere to go that you don’t own. We can’t just keep driving around.”
“Right,” he muttered, his gaze on the highway ahead. After a moment, he suggested, “Well, we could take a hotel room somewhere and—”
“They can track your credit cards.”
“Jesus,” Paul muttered. “I only have twenty or thirty bucks on me.”
“Did you leave my purse in my car?” she asked. She hadn’t seen it since awaking in his basement.
“Yes,” he admitted with a frown.
Jeanne Louise considered that briefly, and then asked, “How much gas do we have?”