They both watched silently as he started his engine, but the moment he drove away, Paul turned on her again, eyebrows raised. “Well?”
Jeanne Louise glanced around at the busy parking lot and suggested, “Maybe we should discuss this in the car.”
“Oh, right. Now you’re worried about the busy parking lot?” he asked dryly. “A minute ago you were playing Vampirella out here without a single worry about who saw, but now you want to talk in the car?”
“I wasn’t playing Vampirella,” she said with a sigh. “I didn’t even get to bite him. You interrupted before I could.”
“Well, good,” Paul snapped. “Because you aren’t going to be biting anyone while you’re with me.”
“I have to feed, Paul,” Jeanne Louise said, trying to remain patient. “I need blood to survive.”
“I thought you guys weren’t allowed to feed off the hoof anymore?” he growled. “I thought you were restricted to bagged blood.”
“We are,” she said at once. “Except in cases of emergency and this is one. I can hardly stop by the Argeneau blood bank, or call in a delivery order, can I? You’d be taken into custody, and I can’t—” She snapped her mouth closed and glanced over her shoulder at the sound of a door opening.
A small sigh slid from Jeanne Louise’s lips when she saw the older gentleman getting into the van parked behind Paul’s car. The way he was eyeing them told her he’d heard what they were talking about. While he looked a little confused, even having heard what he had without understanding it was bad enough so she slipped into the man’s thoughts and rearranged them a bit, then turned to Paul. “We need to leave.”
This time he didn’t protest, but opened the car door with a jerk. He waited until she had folded herself inside with Boomer, and then dropped the huge bag of purchases he’d been holding by her feet and slammed the door. The sound, of course, stirred Livy from sleep and this time the headache wasn’t gone. The child woke with a cry of pain and immediately started weeping miserably. It made Jeanne Louise glare at Paul when he opened the driver’s door and slid in. Shoving the dog at him, she opened her door again and got out.
“Where are you going?” Paul growled.
Jeanne Louise ignored him and slammed the door closed, then opened the back door, and undid Livy’s seat belt.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” she cooed, lifting her out into her arms. She hugged her close, kissed her forehead, and then forced herself to slip into the girl’s mind to help her with the pain. Excruciating agony immediately exploded inside her head and Jeanne Louise leaned heavily against the side of the car, clutching instinctively at the child to keep from dropping her as she tried to cope with it. It was so overwhelming this time that she didn’t even notice Paul getting out of the car and coming around to join them.
“Put her to sleep,” he ordered, taking the girl from her, but it took a moment for his words to make it through to her beleaguered brain. “Jeanie?”
She forced her eyes open, squinted at Livy and put her to sleep. It was an effort this time. The pain was really bad. She’d thought the first two headaches had been horrible, but this was unbearable. Jeanne Louise couldn’t even think with her head hammering as it was and it took a moment for her to remember how to make the child sleep. She also had to wait longer this time before she was sure Livy’s mind was flooding with endorphins to stop the pain receptors from receiving the pain, then she finally slipped free of the child’s mind with relief.
Groaning, Jeanne Louise then pressed her hands to her forehead and turned to lean her cheek wearily on the roof of the car. She heard the front door open, and raised her head to peer around, then quickly slipped into the girl’s thoughts to keep her from waking as Paul settled her in the front seat and buckled her in. It was a good thing she had because Boomer immediately decided that he should sit on Livy. His climbing on the girl would have woken her if Jeanne Louise hadn’t slipped back into her thoughts.
Paul scooped up the dog, and then grabbed the bag of clothes as well. The moment he straightened and closed the door, she freed herself from Livy’s mind and leaned on the roof of the car again.
“Come,” Paul said quietly. He urged her out of the way, opened the back door and ushered her in. Jeanne Louise slipped into the backseat. She took the dog when he handed him to her, then the bag of clothes as well, and simply leaned her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. It was Paul who did up her seat belt for her. She didn’t even have the energy to thank him.
Jeanne Louise was vaguely aware of his closing the door, quietly, she noted. Apparently he’d learned his lesson from the first door slamming. Then she heard the front driver’s door open and the engine start. She merely clutched the dog and bag to her stomach and stayed where she was as he shifted into gear and steered them out of their parking spot.
Jeanne Louise didn’t think she’d ever felt so exhausted and spent in her life. Her head was still throbbing, the earlier dull ache a fond memory, and without blood, she knew it wouldn’t improve. She simply leaned back in the seat, trying to keep from vomiting from the pain as he drove.
Consumed by that effort as she was, Jeanne Louise couldn’t have said how long he drove before the car stopped again. She didn’t care either, and stayed where she was as Paul got out of the car. When the door beside her opened again, she didn’t react until she felt Paul digging through the bag on her lap. Forcing her eyes open, she lifted her head a bit, just in time to see him retrieve a leash from the bag. He then shifted the bag off her lap to the car seat, before snapping the leash to Boomer’s collar.
“Can you walk?” he asked in a hushed whisper.
Jeanne Louise grimaced, but nodded.
Paul lifted Boomer off her lap. Holding him under one arm, he unsnapped her seat belt, and then offered Jeanne Louise his hand to get out.
She scowled at him, still angry that he’d woken Livy and put both his daughter and herself through that agony. But then she accepted his offered hand and slid her feet out of the car.
Paul eased the door closed as soundlessly as possible once she stood beside him, then turned to usher her away from the vehicle.
Jeanne Louise reluctantly peered around, surprised to see he’d brought them to a park. He led her to a picnic table, saw her seated, then tied the end of the long leash to the picnic table leg and moved back to sit beside her.
“Bite me,” he said grimly.
“Same to you,” she muttered irritably.
Paul blinked, and then a surprised laugh slipped from his lips. “No. I wasn’t—I mean, really go ahead and bite me, Jeanie. You need to feed. Feed on me.”