Chapter Eleven
"Chains," Harper barked, as Tiny went into convulsions, and the room was suddenly a hive of activity as the group broke off into pairs. Leonora and Alessandro threw themselves at Tiny's right leg, Edward and Dawn took his left one, Mirabeau and Anders went for the right arm, and Harper hurried around the bed to join Drina at Tiny's left arm as Teddy and Stephanie tried to squeeze their way up between the others surrounding the bed to help.
Even with two immortals to a limb, it was a struggle to get Tiny chained down. His body was thrashing wildly, jerking his limbs about. It wasn't until Teddy gave up trying to help hold one of Tiny's legs to implement an alternate plan that they made any headway.
Harper saw the old mortal straighten and move around the people crowded around the bed. Even so, he wasn't at all prepared for the sight of the man suddenly grabbing up Stephanie, and pretty much tossing her on top of Tiny's chest. He then quickly climbed onto the bed, and dropped to sit on Tiny right next to her. The two hung on for dear life as the mountain of a man bucked and thrashed beneath them, managing to stay put and weigh him down, easing his movements long enough for the others to get the chains in place.
The moment Harper managed to get the wrist he and Drina were struggling with locked up, she reached around and grabbed up the bag of drugs she'd let drop. She quickly prepared a shot and jabbed it into Tiny's arm, pushing the plunger home. Still, it took a moment after that before Tiny's struggles eased.
"Well," Teddy sighed, mopping his brow as he climbed off of Tiny. Tucking the hankie in his pocket, he turned back and helped Stephanie off as well, muttering, "That was exciting. Like riding a wild bronco."
Harper smiled faintly at the man. "It was fast thinking on your part to sit on him."
"I couldn't see what else to do." Teddy shook his head and glanced from face to face before saying, "I suppose it's a little late for this, but it seems to me it would have been smarter to chain him up before feeding him the blood."
Drina grimaced. "It seems cruel to chain them up before necessary, and usually you get a little more warning than this. They don't go into it this quickly as a rule."
"Right . . . well . . ." He shook his head again and strode to the door, muttering, "I need a drink."
"She's a good kid."
Drina turned from peering at Stephanie, who had fallen asleep in a chair in the corner, and nodded at Mirabeau's words. They had decided to divide into four-hour shifts. Harper and Drina were taking the first shift with Mirabeau to watch over Tiny. Stephanie was there as well, mostly because the teenager had refused to leave. She seemed to like Tiny and had watched over him anxiously until exhaustion had overcome her, and she'd dozed off in her chair. She'd done so about five minutes before Harper had fallen asleep in his own chair beside Drina.
Dawn, Edward, and Anders were going to take the second four-hour shift, with Anders administering the drugs Drina had been giving Tiny every twenty minutes to half an hour since the ordeal had started.
Leonora, Alessandro, and Teddy were supposed to take the third shift. For that one, Leonora, who it turned out had been a nurse before retiring some twenty years ago, would take over administering the drugs.
Mirabeau was supposed to rest during the second and third shifts, but Drina suspected the woman would insist on staying by Tiny. It was what she would have done if it were her life mate lying there.
"She seems to be fond of you and Tiny," Drina murmured finally in response to Mirabeau's comment. Stephanie had brought up the other couple a lot during the last few days. It was always Beau this, and Tiny that.
"The same is true of you two," Mirabeau said quietly. "But then I think she's desperate to connect to someone. She's pretty alone right now."
Drina nodded and glanced back to the girl again.
"She has a lot of questions," Mirabeau murmured, drawing her attention again. Meeting her gaze, Mirabeau grimaced, and explained, "She doesn't really know a lot about what she is now. She only had her sister to ask, and Dani would go to Decker to get the answers and, with them being new life mates, they would invariably get distracted and never get around to answering her, so she kind of gave up asking. The only other immortal female she's had much contact with until now was Sam, and Sam and Mortimer are new life mates too, so-"
"Sam isn't turned."
Both women paused and glanced toward Stephanie as she made that announcement, alerting them to the fact that she was now awake.
Mirabeau peered at the girl blankly for a moment, then said, "Sure she is. Sam and Mortimer have been together since last summer. Mortimer would have turned her right away."
Stephanie shook her head and stretched. "Sam refused because she didn't want to leave her sisters behind in ten years."
When Mirabeau frowned at this news, Drina asked with amusement, "Mortimer's the head of the North American Enforcers, right?"
"Yeah, under Lucian," Mirabeau murmured.
"And you're an enforcer?" Drina asked.
Mirabeau nodded.
"So, haven't you met this Sam? I mean, if she lives at the enforcer house, and you're an enforcer, you'd have to go there quite a bit. Surely you would have met her and realized she was mortal?"
Mirabeau frowned, and it was Stephanie who answered, saying with amusement, "Beau's been avoiding the house ever since I got there. She goes straight to the garage when she has to meet with Mortimer. And Sam pretty much arrived on the scene just days in front of Dani and me, so I doubt she even met her more than once thanks to trying to avoid me."
Mirabeau looked alarmed, and quickly said, "It wasn't you, Stephanie."