The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,71

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 pre y 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 li le 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 li le 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 pide into four-hour shi s. Harper and Drina were taking the first shi 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 un l exhaus on 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 shi , 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 shi . For that one, Leonora, who it turned out had been a nurse before re ring some twenty years ago, would take over administering the drugs.

Mirabeau was supposed to rest during the second and third shi s, 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 ques ons," Mirabeau murmured, drawing her a en on again. Mee ng 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 un l 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, aler ng 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 Mor mer have been together since last summer. Mortimer would have turned her right away."

Stephanie