The Lady Is a Vamp (11 page)

“Ah,” Paul murmured, and she glanced at him sharply, noting that his lips were twitching.

“Ah?” Jeanne Louise asked suspiciously. The man was trying not to laugh. “Ah what?”

He glanced to her, then away and cleared his throat, “That explains why you and Boomer look like you’ve been mud-wrestling.”

Jeanne Louise glanced down at herself and the dog and sighed. Boomer’s fur was matted with mud from wiggling under the wall. She was also mud-covered. Her hands and arms were the worst; they were coated with quickly drying mud, and the rest of her wasn’t much better. Her white silk blouse was wet and muddy, probably ruined, and her dress pants were caked as well. She’d been first kneeling and then lying in the muddy garden after all.

“You can’t be comfortable like that,” Paul said quietly. “We’ll have to stop and get you a change of clothes. Maybe we could rent a hotel room long enough for you to shower.”

“A change of clothes will do,” Jeanne Louise said quietly. “We shouldn’t risk a motel until we’re farther away from Toronto. In fact, I don’t think you should stop for clothes here either. I can stand it for an hour or so.”

“An hour away north or south?” he asked with a frown.

“Do you have any property in the south?” she asked. When he shook his head, she shrugged. “Then south.”

“An hour southwest on the Highway 427 will take us to the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge area,” Paul announced.

“That’s good enough,” Jeanne Louise decided. There were a few immortals who she knew lived in the area, but then there were few places where there weren’t at least one or two immortals anymore. They would just have to be careful.

Paul nodded and for the next few minutes they were silent as he concentrated on getting them to and onto Highway 427 headed southwest, and then they both relaxed a little. After a moment, he said, “Thank you for helping Livy.”

Jeanne Louise noted the solemn gratitude on his face, and glanced away with a shrug. “She has to eat.”

“Yes, and I appreciate your seeing to it that she does,” he murmured. “I know it causes you pain to help her.”

Jeanne Louise didn’t comment, her gaze on Boomer as he finally gave up trying to lick her and curled into a ball on her lap to sleep.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to realize what was happening. I noticed that your face was pale and pinched while we were at Chuck E. Cheese’s. But I wasn’t sure what was happening. I thought maybe you just needed more blood,” he said quietly. “And then I recalled that it got the same way when she was having her headache in the yard and it stopped.” Paul paused for a minute, and then asked delicately, “To make her not feel it, you have to?”

Jeanne Louise sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I have to be in her head and that’s where the pain is. To mask it I have to stay there.”

“You said it’s instinctual, that you do the same thing when biting people . . . so when you bite people you feel their pain too?”

“That pain isn’t in their head. Usually it’s in the neck,” she murmured, and then frowned and said, “Although pain receptors are in the head.” Jeanne Louise puzzled over that briefly and then admitted, “I don’t know how it works, Paul. Like I said, it’s instinct more than anything else.”

“
Usually
it’s in the neck?” Paul asked, sounding perplexed. “Are there other places you can bite?”

“Sure, anywhere the veins are strong and close to the surface. The crook of the elbow, the wrist, the genitals, the ankle . . .” She shrugged. “There are loads of places you can bite a person.”

“The genitals?” Paul asked with disbelief.

Jeanne Louise grimaced, aware that she was suddenly blushing, but said, “Some used to swear it was the best place to bite. No one is likely to see the marks.”

“Right,” he muttered, and then fell silent for a while. She suspected he was thinking about her biting someone in the genitals. Men tended to have one-track minds, at least the men she’d read did.

“Do you want an aspirin or something?” Paul asked suddenly. “I think I have a bottle in the glove compartment. Or if you need something stronger, the bag in the backseat has Livy’s meds, including some pretty powerful ones for pain.” He frowned and added in a mutter, “Though they don’t help her much.”

“No, I’m okay,” Jeanne Louise assured him. It wasn’t completely true. Her head still hurt, but mortal medicines weren’t likely to help. The nanos would just see them as foreign substances to be removed from the body, which would use up more blood and no doubt increase her discomfort. She’d have to feed soon though if she wanted to be pain free, and she’d have to do it off the hoof. She would actually have to bite a mortal to feed, a practice that was forbidden except in emergencies where blood banks weren’t accessible.

This counted as an emergency, Jeanne Louise decided and hoped the council would see it that way too. However, they might argue that all she had to do was make Paul take her to the Enforcer house or anywhere else where she could get blood.

“You know,” Paul mused, “When I was a kid, my parents used to rent a cottage on Lake Huron, a little place this side of the Kettle Point Indian reserve. Ipperwash. I’ve often thought I should take Livy there.”

“That’s what? Two or three hours southwest of here?” Jeanne Louise asked.

“About that,” he agreed.

Jeanne Louise considered it. The beach would be busy this time of year, crawling with mortals. It would make it difficult for the Enforcers to grab them without drawing attention if they tracked them down. It would also make it easier for her to feed with so many snack options available, and it was looking like she might be feeding off the hoof for a while. At least until she sorted out things with Paul, had got him to agree to be her life mate, had turned him, had him turn Livy, and had returned to town to see what they could do to mitigate the trouble Paul was in.

She was hoping that if Paul was turned before he was caught that it might make a difference. The fact that he was her life mate and one of them should help. She hoped. It was the only reason she would even consider turning him on her own without drugs and IVs to aid in the endeavor. But she might not have to do without those items. A visit to the nearest hospital and a little mind control would get her anything she needed. Except for the specialized drugs developed in R and D, she acknowledged unhappily, but then decided she would worry about that when the time came.

“Sounds good,” she said finally.

Six

“J
eanie?”

Jeanne Louise stirred slowly and opened her eyes to find Paul leaning over her. Blinking sleepily, she peered around, her hand automatically tightening on the bundle of fur in her lap as Boomer too began to stir. The car was stopped. They were parked in a big, busy Walmart parking lot. Obviously she’d dozed off and they’d reached the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Or maybe Cambridge. She wasn’t sure which.

“I was going to let you sleep while I ran in to get you some clothes, but I don’t know what size you wear,” Paul explained, sitting back in his seat so that she could sit up.

“Oh.” She smiled around a yawn and then shook her head. “I’ll get them.”

“Uh, well, it’s maybe better if you don’t. You might draw some attention like that,” he pointed out gently.

Jeanne Louise glanced down at herself and frowned as she noted the mud-streaked front of her clothes. She was dry now, at least, but the mud hadn’t evaporated with the damp. She would definitely draw attention. Sighing with resignation, she nodded. “Size six most of the time, but sometimes an eight.” When confusion entered his face, she chuckled. “Different manufacturers fit differently. Just go with six.”

Nodding, Paul glanced in the backseat.

“I’ll be here,” she reassured him. “And I’m awake now.”

“Thanks,” he murmured, and then reached for the door handle and slid out, saying, “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“Okay,” Jeanne Louise said just before he closed the door. She watched him walk away from the car, and then glanced at the cars around them. He’d parked at the back of the lot, but still among the other cars rather than off alone. The parking lot was surprisingly busy for this hour. By her guess it must be nearly nine o’clock. Most Walmarts stayed open until eleven though.

A sleepy murmur from Livy drew her attention and Jeanne Louise shifted to glance in the back. The girl was still asleep, however. Her color was good, her cheeks actually a little rosy. Two meals and some time to be a child at Chuck E. Cheese’s had done her good. She needed a couple more days of eating and having fun to rebuild her strength though before it would be safe to turn her.

Jeanne Louise settled back in her seat, her hand automatically holding Boomer in place as she did. When he gave her hand a wet swipe with his tongue, she smiled at the animal, and ruffled his ears. He was a good dog and had apparently slept the whole time she had, Jeanne Louise thought and then glanced after Paul, wishing she’d thought to tell him to get some dog food for the poor animal. They hadn’t fed him before going out for supper. She supposed Paul had intended to when they got back, but instead they were driving around looking for somewhere to hide. And the dog still hadn’t eaten.

Her attention was distracted from that thought by the sight of a family walking up the row of cars, bags in hand. Two young children were chattering away to a weary-looking mother and father as they were herded toward a small minivan across the aisle and a couple cars up. Jeanne Louise watched the parents stow the bags and kids in the van and then get in themselves, and grimaced as her fangs tried to slide out.

She was hungry, and not for food. Her belly was still happily full of pizza. It was blood her body wanted and the need was beginning to gnaw at her. She had to feed soon. That thought in mind, Jeanne Louise let her gaze slide over the people moving back and forth in the parking lot, some returning to cars, some leaving them to head into the store. Most seemed to be in groups or at least pairs. In fact, several minutes passed before she spotted a man on his own. Her eyes narrowed on him, considering. He was young, perhaps in his early twenties with short preppy blond hair and an athletic build. Healthy-looking.

Jeanne Louise automatically reached for the door handle and then recalled Boomer in her lap. Pausing, she bit her lip and peered down at the dog. He was awake and lying nicely in her lap, but she couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t hop into the backseat and disturb Livy if she left him in the car.

Her gaze slid back to the young man. He was slowing as he approached the car across from Paul’s, a small, sporty red coupe. Feeling her fangs slide down and out again, she forced them back once more, but then reached for the door and this time opened it.

Jeanne Louise took Boomer with her as she slid out of the front seat. Holding the dog to her chest with one hand, she eased the door carefully closed to keep from waking Livy and then turned to peer at the young man again.

He had opened the driver’s door of his car and was about to slide behind the wheel. Jeanne Louise didn’t speak, simply slipped into his thoughts and took control of him. It was as easy as poking a finger in soft butter. Unlike Paul, the man was as malleable as mud.

Smiling to herself, Jeanne Louise made him close his door and cross the aisle to her. His expression was blank when she brought him to a halt in front of her. She took a moment to search his thoughts and be sure he hadn’t been drinking or taken any drugs, and when she found he was clean, and in fact a health nut, she relaxed and made him bend toward her as if about to kiss her. But at the last minute she made him turn his head.

To anyone watching it would look like they were merely embracing and she was nuzzling his neck, Jeanne Louise thought, as she braced her hand on his chest. She raised up on her toes, let her teeth slip out and—

“Jeanne Louise?”

She turned instinctively at that questioning voice, not thinking to retract her fangs until she saw the way Paul’s entire expression froze. Cursing herself for not thinking to check the parking lot before making her move, Jeanne Louise quickly let her teeth slide back into place and removed her hand from the man she’d been about to bite. She stayed inside his head, though, sensible enough not to release him yet.

“Paul, I—”

“You were going to bite him,” he hissed accusingly as he moved up to join them between his car and the sedan next to it.

Jeanne Louise didn’t bother trying to deny it. She raised her head, straightened her shoulders, and said with simple dignity, “I need to feed, Paul.”

His mouth thinned, and then he glanced sharply to her intended dinner. His eyebrows immediately drew together as he took in the blank expression on his face. “What have you done to him?”

Jeanne Louise grimaced. Now she’d have to explain things she hadn’t wanted to explain. Buying herself some time, she said, “Hang on,” then turned her full attention to the man again and sent him walking back to his car. She had him get in, and then took a moment to make sure he didn’t recall his brief detour to her side, before releasing him.

They both watched silently as he started his engine, but the moment he drove away, Paul turned on her again, eyebrows raised. “Well?”

Jeanne Louise glanced around at the busy parking lot and suggested, “Maybe we should discuss this in the car.”

“Oh, right.
Now
you’re worried about the busy parking lot?” he asked dryly. “A minute ago you were playing Vampirella out here without a single worry about who saw, but
now
you want to talk in the car?”

“I wasn’t playing Vampirella,” she said with a sigh. “I didn’t even get to bite him. You interrupted before I could.”

“Well, good,” Paul snapped. “Because you aren’t going to be biting anyone while you’re with me.”

“I have to feed, Paul,” Jeanne Louise said, trying to remain patient. “I need blood to survive.”

“I thought you guys weren’t allowed to feed off the hoof anymore?” he growled. “I thought you were restricted to bagged blood.”

“We are,” she said at once. “Except in cases of emergency and this is one. I can hardly stop by the Argeneau blood bank, or call in a delivery order, can I? You’d be taken into custody, and I can’t—” She snapped her mouth closed and glanced over her shoulder at the sound of a door opening.