Jeanne Louise’s tense question drew Paul from his self-flagellation as she moved up beside her father to peer down at Livy.
Paul moved to the foot of the bed to get a look at his daughter as well, concern claiming him as he did. She still lay on her stomach in the bed, the gash on the back of her head visible, but looking a little smaller to his eyes. But Paul really hardly noticed that. It was the way that the child seemed to be vibrating on the bed that caught his attention and held onto it.
“Jeanie?” he said in question, a frown claiming his mouth as the vibrating seemed to pick up in strength.
Rather than answer, she bent to turn Livy over and then lifted first one eyelid and then the other. Whatever she saw made her straighten abruptly with dismay, saying, “We’re going to need more than a couple of bags of blood and quickly.”
“What’s happening?” Paul asked.
“She’s having seizures,” Jeanne Louise answered grimly.
“Why? What does it mean?” Paul asked at once.
“It means the nanos are already working on her brain,” Eshe answered, moving around the bed to the side opposite Jeanne Louise and bending to place her hands on Livy’s arm and leg even as Jeanne Louise bent to do the same on her side. Armand moved to the end of the bed, shoving Paul out the way so that he could lean over and brace Livy’s legs, placing his hands on her ankles and pressing them down on the bed. It freed the women to move their own hands to her shoulders and arms.
“What are you doing? Why are you holding her down like that? She—” Paul paused as Livy’s seizures turned into thrashing. He immediately moved back to the bed to try to help hold her down, but froze, horror zipping through him when blood began to squirt from her mouth.
“Dear God,” he breathed. It was as if he’d stepped into the movie The Exorcist, only it wasn’t green vomit spewing from his beloved daughter’s mouth.
“She’s bitten the end of her tongue almost off,” Eshe said sharply. “Armand—”
She didn’t bother to finish whatever she was going to say, Jeanne Louise’s father had already released Livy’s legs and hurried to grab the wooden tray off the bedside table. He didn’t bother clearing it first, simply sent the empty sandwich plates and Paul’s half full glass of iced tea flying as he grabbed it. Armand then moved around to Eshe’s side, snapping off the end of the tray as he went. He handed the smaller piece of wood to Eshe who slid it between Livy’s teeth.
Paul watched this silently, but when Livy’s teeth clamped down on the wood, he asked shakily, “She bit her tongue off?”
“Not all the way. The nanos will heal it,” Jeanne Louise reassured him quickly, and he nodded, but knew they would only do that if she survived the turn. And Paul was very much afraid she wouldn’t.
Jeanne Louise had warned him that the turn was violent and an ordeal, but he’d barely listened to the caution, his mind wholly on Livy’s being healthy and strong. Paul hadn’t imagined anything like this nightmare.
“Here.”
Paul glanced around at that word to see the immortal who had caused this rushing into the room with the couple of bags of blood Eshe had mentioned.
“We don’t have an IV,” Jeanne Louise pointed out, frowning at the bags.
“Slit the end with your nail and pour it into her mouth,” Eshe instructed.
Leaving her father and Eshe to try to hold Livy down, Jeanne Louise straightened and took both bags from Justin. The moment she removed them from his hands, Justin stepped up to take her place and help hold Livy down. Ignoring him, she handed one bag to Paul to hold on to and slit her nail across the top of the other. Jeanne Louise removed the wood from between Livy’s teeth and tipped the bag over her now unobstructed mouth.
“How long until the drugs, blood, and IV get here?” Paul heard Armand ask Justin quietly.
“Nicholas and Jo should be here any minute. He said they had a couple bags. Anders has six and shouldn’t be long either. Garrett—”
“And the drugs and IV?” Eshe interrupted.
“Half an hour to forty-five minutes,” he admitted unhappily. “They have to fly them down.”
“That could be a problem,” Eshe said grimly as Jeanne Louise tossed the first, now empty, bag aside and took the second one from Paul to slit it open. “It will draw the neighbors.”
“What will?” Paul asked, moving back to try to help hold Livy down.
Eshe didn’t bother to answer. She didn’t have to. Livy answered his question herself by beginning to shriek at the top of her lungs.
Paul woke up with a start and then glanced around with confusion. He was lying on top of the covers on the bed in the second bedroom in the basement, but he hadn’t a clue how he’d got there. The last thing he remembered was panic gripping him as Livy began to shriek wildly and thrash like a wild thing.
“My father put you to sleep and laid you in here to keep you out of the way.”
Paul raised his head and peered at the man who had spoken. He sat in a chair by the bed; tall with longish fair hair, a solemn face and glowing silver-blue eyes.