“Until I decide what to do with Livy,” he said bluntly.
“Do with her?” Jeanne Louise asked worriedly.
“Well she can’t go back to her normal life, can she?” he asked dryly. “She can’t go back to her school, can’t play all day outside in the sun with friends in her neighborhood, can’t live the same life she had before. But she needs an education.”
“Yes,” Jeanne Louise agreed with a frown. She hadn’t really considered that problem.
“And what I decide for Livy depends on whether you and Paul stay together or not,” Lucian added, bringing her eyes sharply back to his. Meeting her gaze he said, “I’m not entirely sure you will.”
“But he’s my life mate,” she said weakly.
“And he’s mortal,” Lucian said quietly. “We’re similar in many ways to mortals, but there are differences, Jeanne Louise, and every minute you spend with him will make those differences clearer to you. He’s weaker than you physically, more fragile. He’ll get ill, or he’ll hurt himself, and even if by some good luck he doesn’t, he’ll age and wither . . . I’m not entirely sure you can stand by and watch that. It will most likely tear you apart inside. And if he is injured and dying, I’m not positive that in that moment you will be able to resist saving him with a turn as you did Livy.” He paused and then added grimly, “And if you did that, you’d be forfeiting your own life. Until I’m sure you won’t do that, I want someone around to protect you from yourself.”
“I . . .” Jeanne Louise paused and frowned, unsure herself if she could stand by and watch Paul die.
“Of course, the two of you parting leads to other problems,” Lucian continued. “It’s difficult for a mortal to raise an immortal. Children pick up skills like reading and controlling mortals faster than adult turns, and faster than their conscience and sensibilities form. Paul trying to raise her on his own would be like a monkey trying to raise a child. Before this year is out, she’ll be running circles around him, controlling him and doing what she wants if an immortal isn’t there to stop her. I won’t allow that either. I have no desire to hunt down a child rogue my niece turned.”
Jeanne Louise bit her lip. She hadn’t considered any of this in that moment when she’d turned Livy. She hadn’t considered anything but saving the girl, for Paul, but also for herself, because she’d come to love the sweet little blond child.
“So,” Lucian said quietly, “The three of you will stay with Marguerite until I say otherwise. Or until you part and I make alternate arrangements for Paul and Livy . . . understood?”
Jeanne Louise gave a jerky nod, her mind reeling under the weight of all the problems he’d just made clear to her. She hadn’t thought of a single one of them before this, and wasn’t happy to have to contemplate them now.
“Good. As long as we’re clear,” Lucian said and then glanced to Anders as he arrived at the cottage door behind them. Urging Leigh out of the way for the man to enter, he asked, “Everything all right next door?”
Anders nodded. “Livy didn’t manage to bite the neighbor girl. I wiped her memory anyway and then checked around to be sure no one else had witnessed the attack.”
“Good,” Lucian said, and then announced, “I want you and Bricker to escort Jeanne Louise, Paul, and Livy to Marguerite’s after the girl’s done her turn. Call when it’s time and I’ll send a plane for the five of you.”
Anders nodded, but Lucian had already turned to the others in the room.
“Armand, I’m guessing you’ll stay till they leave?” Lucian asked.
“Yes,” he said quietly, squeezing Jeanne Louise’s shoulder.
Lucian obviously wasn’t surprised. He turned his gaze to the other two couples. “Can you bring back the SUVs Bricker and Anders were in?”
There were murmurs of agreement at once. While Anders and Bricker had been solo, Nicolas and Jo had ridden together as had Etienne and Rachel, but the couples would drive back separately to return the SUVs to Toronto.
Lucian didn’t thank them or even comment, he merely nodded, took Leigh’s arm, and led her from the cottage without even bothering to say good-bye. No one was terribly surprised, but there was a collective sigh of relief amongst the group once the door closed behind the couple. It was rather obvious how tense they’d all been as a group, as if they’d all been holding their breath and were only now breathing again.
Jeanne Louise, though, wasn’t sure she would ever breathe again. She knew she should be happy that Paul wasn’t going to be punished, but all she felt was worry, and anxiety and a terrible weight pressing down on her as she contemplated the future. Sighing, she ran one hand wearily through her hair. “I should go tell Paul—”
“Why don’t you go get some rest and let me do that?” her father suggested quietly. “While the rest of us took shifts and caught naps, you didn’t sleep at all last night.”
She hadn’t wanted to leave Livy. Jeanne Louise hadn’t wanted the five-year-old to wake up hurting and confused to find herself in a room full of strangers. As it had turned out, however, Livy hadn’t woken up until after they’d left, and now Jeanne Louise was exhausted. But that wasn’t why she was tempted to accept her father’s offer. She just didn’t think she could face Paul right now without bursting into tears or something else just as weak and ridiculous. Just hours ago she’d been the happiest she’d ever been in her life, sure her future was set, and now that rosy future was a shambles around her and all she wanted was to sleep.
However, her father was pretty angry at Paul over the whole business and she didn’t trust him not to use the opportunity against him.
“I’ll be nice,” Armand Argeneau said dryly, obviously still reading her thoughts. He then added, “I promise.”
Jeanne Louise hesitated, but was just so bloody tired and depressed. She needed sleep . . . and time alone to sort out her thoughts . . . and a good cry. Not necessarily in that order. Sighing, she nodded and then simply turned and left the room to head to the master bedroom and the bed that waited there.
Paul was seated in a chair on one side of the bed, avoiding looking at Justin Bricker who occupied a chair on the other. The two men hadn’t exchanged a word since coming down here. Bricker seemed lost in his own thoughts, and Paul was just too upset at that point to want to talk. That scene with Livy outside just kept replaying in his head like some horrible nightmare and he was left wondering what he’d done to his daughter.
And it had been him, no matter that Jeanne Louise had turned her. He’d kidnapped her to have her do that. But the blood-covered mad thing that had chased after Kirsten and then lunged for his own throat like some mindless fiend hadn’t been his sweet child. And the blond man’s words kept playing through his head too.
Not quite what you were expecting is it, mortal? All you were thinking of was Livy healthy and well. A happy ever after. It didn’t occur to you that she’d change. That it might be a nightmare rather than a dream.