Before Paul could respond, the sound of something skittering across the floor upstairs made them both stiffen and glance toward the door. It sounded like a toy or something else small had been sent sliding across the hardwood, as if it had been batted about or accidentally kicked.
“It’s probably Boomer,” Paul murmured. Turning back to her he pressed a kiss to her forehead, and said, “I’ll check and call if it’s Livy and you’re needed.”
Jeanne Louise nodded and sat up as he rolled off the bed. “I’ll dress just in case.”
“There’s no need,” Paul said, but paused as he glanced back to see that the blankets had slid to her waist leaving her bare from the waist up. Moving back to the bed, he kissed her again, this time on the lips. They were both breathless when he ended the kiss.
“On second thought, you go ahead and dress,” Paul whispered, covering one breast with his hand and squeezing gently. “Then I can undress you again when I come back down.”
Jeanne Louise chuckled at the words, and removed her arms from around his neck to allow him to straighten. She watched him put on his jeans, her eyes eating up every inch of him before he pulled them up. Despite all the difficulties and problems, they’d managed to work it out. She could hardly believe it. She hadn’t thought it possible. But it gave her hope that they could overcome the problems with the council too. They had to.
“Back in a minute,” Paul promised, heading out of the room.
Paul left the bedroom door open and used the light spilling from the room behind him to navigate his way to the stairs and start up them. Moonlight was shimmering through the windows as he reached the main floor, making it easier to see. He stepped off the stairs and turned to move toward the hall to the bedrooms, but froze as a dark shape appeared before him. It took a moment for his mind to process that it was a man in front of him with glowing eyes. And then the immortal bared his teeth, flashing some pretty nasty, pointy looking fangs as he growled, “Where is she?”
Paul took a wary step back, and then gave a choked gasp as the man suddenly caught him by one hand at the throat and lifted him off the floor to bear him backward into the kitchen. In the next moment, his back hit what he thought was the refrigerator. At least he was sure it was the door handle of the refrigerator that slammed painfully into his arm as he hit.
“It wasn’t very smart to let your daughter play out front, mortal. I was driving by and saw her, then I saw you.” He tightened his hand around his throat, snarling, “We know you have Jeanne Louise, and if you’ve hurt her, you’ll regret it the rest of your very short and miserable days. Now where is she?”
Unable to speak, Paul tried to shake his head that he hadn’t hurt Jeanne Louise, but even that was impossible with the man’s grip on his throat. In the next moment he felt a strange ruffling in his head and realized the fellow didn’t need him to speak, he was looking for the answers in his head himself.
Paul couldn’t breathe and darkness was starting to blur the corners of his sight. To stave off the panic trying to claim him, he told himself that he’d be released as soon as the immortal realized Jeanne Louise was here willingly, and that then he would be able to breathe again. But movement over the man’s shoulder caught his attention and he desperately blinked away the darkness trying to crowd in on him and stared with horror as he recognized Livy’s small figure standing by the stairs. As dark as it was he could tell that her eyes were wide, her mouth gaping with terror.
His attacker must have caught some sound, or perhaps her scent, because the immortal suddenly swiveled his head, spearing the child with a look, his fangs still protruding and flashing white in the darkness. Livy’s eyes widened further, her face paling and then she shrieked in terror, and whirled to make a run for it. But Boomer was there. The small dog gave a squeal of pain as her foot came down on him, and then lunged away and scampered out of sight as Livy was pitched off balance and to the side. The sound of her small body tumbling down that curved stairway, and the way her cry was cut off so abruptly would haunt Paul for a long time.
Jeanne Louise had got as far as pulling her panties and T-shirt back on when she heard Livy scream. Dropping the jeans she’d just picked up, she charged out of the bedroom just in time to see the child’s small body tumbling down the stairs in a blur of arms and legs.
Crying out, she rushed forward, reaching the bottom of the stairs as Livy came to a halt there. The child landed on her back; arms and legs splayed and head to one side, her nightgown twisted around her little knees. Jeanne Louise dropped to kneel beside her to search for a pulse, her head lifting, eyes going hard as she spotted Justin Bricker coming down the stairs at speed.
“Did you do this?” she growled accusingly just before Paul appeared at the top of the stairs and started down as well.
“It was an accident,” the Enforcer said, sounding horrified. “She saw me and screamed and turned to run and—”
“And you didn’t take control of her and stop her,” Jeanne Louise snapped.
“I tried. I couldn’t,” Bricker said, guilt and confusion in his voice.
Jeanne Louise scowled, then glanced to Paul as he reached the bottom of the stairs and found his way blocked by Justin. The immortal didn’t move, but kept him from reaching either of the females, ignoring his frantic efforts to push him aside.
“Is she—?” Paul cut off the question, unable even to say the word dead.
“She’s alive,” Jeanne Louise said as she found a pulse. She didn’t add “barely,” but feared that was the case. Livy’s pulse was weak and thready. Furious and afraid for the child, she started to slip her hands under the girl to pick her up, but froze as she felt the open gash on the back of her head.
“Christ,” Justin muttered, and Jeanne Louise silently echoed the word. Lifting her even that much had revealed that the carpet where the girl had landed was soaked with blood.
“Oh God,” Paul moaned and Jeanne Louise peered at him. He was no longer trying to get past Justin. In fact, he was swaying where he stood, his expression tortured. She felt her eyes fill with tears as she took in his pain. It was a pain she was suffering herself. Jeanne Louise had come to love the child dying before her, and she could no more stand by and watch it happen without doing anything to stop it than she could have if it were Paul lying there on the floor.
She sent the man she loved a look of apology, then turned her gaze to Justin and glared at him with all the rage she was feeling as she gave up her future and did the only thing she could. Jeanne Louise bit violently into her wrist, ripping away a flap of skin. She then pressed the gushing wound to Livy’s open mouth.
Thirteen
“Jesus, Jeanne Louise, what are you doing?” Justin Bricker breathed with horror as she gave up her one turn to the child.
Ignoring the question, she barked, “Call for help. We need blood and lots of it, an IV, and chain, as well as drugs to facilitate the turn.”
Justin hesitated, but then pulled out his phone and began punching numbers. He also turned sideways to get past Paul and moved back upstairs as he pressed the phone to his ear.
Free to approach now, Paul moved to kneel on Livy’s other side, uncertainty and fear battling on his face. He didn’t speak until Jeanne Louise removed her wrist from Livy’s mouth and scooped her up. He stood then to follow when she carried the girl into the bedroom they’d used, asking in a whisper, “Will she survive?”