A Bite to Remember (25 page)

Her panic immediately increased.

Jackie had been trained in martial arts since she was a small child, her father had insisted on it, and still she wouldn’t take on an immortal unarmed. One, two, or maybe even three mortals? No problem, but immortals? Nah-uh. Not on her own and without a weapon of some sort to back her up. It wasn’t just that they were stronger and faster. They didn’t seem to feel pain like mortals either, as if the nanos blocked some of it when necessary to allow them to continue to do battle. And they were damned hard to knock out. As for killing them, forget about it. Unless you had something to take their heads off with, say a sword or grenade, you weren’t going to win.

However, having fallen on the intruder, she didn’t have
much choice. Jackie was in the battle now and reacted automatically, her body scrabbling to do whatever was necessary to survive. It was a very short, desperate struggle. Realizing that she wasn’t going to survive if she persisted, Jackie managed to take the intruder by surprise and roll away and to her feet in one move.

She had barely become conscious of the cold, gritty sand squishing between her toes when she was jerked around by the hair and into a dark embrace. Jackie grunted as her chest slammed against the intruder’s chest, then gasped as her head was suddenly jerked back and to the side, then he struck like a snake, his head swooping forward toward the throat he’d exposed.

Suddenly as paralyzed as a cat caught by the scruff of the neck, she moaned at the rending pain as her throat was ripped open by unseen fangs. She then stared blindly at the stars overhead as the scent of blood drifted up around her, and slurping sounds filled her ears, and knew her life was being sucked away.

Jackie didn’t know if it was blood loss, or horror, but after several endless moments, the pain and sounds began to fade to nothingness and even the stars overhead began to twinkle out of view.

“Jackie!”

She heard the shout with some faint part of her mind, but didn’t understand what it meant until her attacker suddenly stilled, head jerking up away from her throat. Jackie’s mind struggled back from the hopelessness and shock that had laid claim to it, the smallest flicker of hope sparking to life within her soul.

“Jackie!” This time she recognized Vincent’s voice. She also saw blurry movement beyond her attacker, and immediately understood that it was salvation coming. Then she saw the glint of metal as her attacker suddenly released her. Some part of her mind was terribly alert, blindingly so, and instinct made her grab for the arm swinging the weapon in Vincent’s direction, clawing at it with both hands, but she was weak with blood loss and couldn’t hold on.

It was desperation and instinct that made Jackie sink her teeth into that arm. If she couldn’t keep her attacker from wielding the weapon at Vincent, she would force him to drop the damned weapon. That was her only thought. She had to save Vincent.

Blood gushed into her mouth as Jackie chomped down on the wrist, but she merely swallowed the salty liquid to keep from choking and held on like a bulldog, terror and rage giving her the strength to do so.

A curse reached her ears, then her attacker pressed one hand to her forehead and pushed her off. Jackie felt more blood gush into her mouth as her teeth tore through flesh, then her hold slipped and she was tumbling backward to the sand. She moaned as her back slammed to the ground, then rolled weakly onto her side and lay limp, watching helplessly as her attacker turned on Vincent.

Much to her relief, her efforts had helped after all. Vincent had seen the weapon in the hand she’d been struggling to hold onto and now kicked out at it. She saw the knife go flying off into the darkness as the two began to struggle.

Heart pounding and hands clenching around her bleeding throat, Jackie curled into a ball in the cool sand and watched
the shifting shapes in the darkness. It was hard to see anything, however, and she was so weak and weary.

“Argeneau!”

Eyes that Jackie hadn’t realized had closed, snapped open at that yell. She didn’t recognize the man’s voice. However, she did recognize Marguerite and Tiny as they called out to the two of them and relief flowed through her as their shouts drew nearer. She wasn’t the only one to hear their calls, Jackie noted as the intruder suddenly gave up his fight with Vincent and made a run for it.

Vincent didn’t even hesitate; ignoring the quickly disappearing shape, he hurried to her side.

“Jackie?” His voice was deep with worry as he turned her onto her back to check her over.

“Argeneau?”

Jackie saw two shapes burst through the gate behind Vincent. She blinked and tried to focus on the two men. Both were big enough to be Tiny, but she didn’t think either man was. Vincent didn’t even glance toward them, his attention was wholly on Jackie as he scooped her into his arms.

“He went that way.” Vincent jerked his head in the direction her attacker had run. Leaving the two men to pursue the saboteur, he then strode toward the gate through the wall.

“Vincent?” Marguerite rushed forward with Tiny on her heels as Vincent started across the lawn. “Is she going to be all right? Did you find her in time?”

“I don’t know.” His voice was terse, Jackie noted as she floated on the edge of consciousness.

“Her throat.” Tiny’s voice was a weak sound of despair.

“Open the door, Tiny,” Vincent growled, sounding terribly upset and her mind, growing delirious, thought that was just the sweetest thing. He really liked her, she thought, then released a little sigh and allowed unconsciousness to claim her.

Thirteen

“Lay her on the table.”

Vincent scowled at that order from Christian Notte as the man hurried past him into the kitchen and cleared away the empty cups from earlier in the day. Scooping them off the dining table with quick hands, he shoved them at Tiny to put somewhere, then turned back.

“Why aren’t you chasing after her attacker?” Vincent asked with sudden fury.

“Marcus went after him. I stayed to see if I can help,” the man answered tersely. “Set her on the table.”

Vincent hesitated, then moved to the table and lay Jackie gently on it. He’d rather carry her upstairs and put her in bed, but he supposed they had to clean her up first. There seemed to be an awful lot of blood. He frowned over that as he straightened from setting her down. A lot of blood, he noted numbly, his heart sinking.

“Dear God,” Tiny whispered, a catch in his voice and his face paling sickly as Christian gently clasped Jackie’s chin and turned her head to examine the wound. It wasn’t a bite, it was a tear. Her throat had been ripped open with a vicious intent to kill. Vincent couldn’t even guess at the amount of blood she’d lost.

He turned away and moved to the sink to grab one of the new tea towels they’d bought for his kitchen. After dampening it, Vincent hurried back to her side and began to wipe ineffectually at the blood. It was on her neck, down her chest, soaking into the white cotton of the t-shirt she wore under her jogging suit.

The sound of Tiny’s deep voice made him glance around. The mortal was speaking into the phone.

“I need an ambulance,” he said urgently.

Vincent glanced down at Jackie’s injury. An ambulance would never get there in time to save her. “Hang up, Tiny.”

The giant glanced his way with surprise. “But she—”

“Look at her. They can’t save her,” he said grimly.

“What are you doing?” Christian asked sharply as Vincent began to undo the buttons of his sleeve.

“I’m going to turn her,” Vincent said calmly and knew from the man’s expression that it wasn’t the answer he’d expected.

“Vincent?” Tiny said uncertainly, but didn’t move to stop him and did hang up the phone. Vincent supposed that was tacit agreement and was glad. He didn’t want to argue with the man, nor did he want to take over his mind to keep Tiny out of the way while he did what he had to do to save Jackie.

“Neil said you saved Stephano’s life by turning him,” Christian said slowly.

Vincent shrugged indifferently. He didn’t care about rules or laws. He cared about Jackie.

“The bleeding has slowed to a trickle,” Marguerite said, and Vincent turned to find her bent over Jackie, watching her throat as she moaned and shifted on the table.

“Move, Aunt Marguerite. I have to turn her.” Vincent began to roll up his sleeve.

Marguerite ignored him, her gaze remained on Jackie’s wound for a moment, then shifted to her face and she asked with bewilderment, “Why is her face covered with blood?”

Vincent peered down at Jackie’s face, noting the blood around her mouth, but just repeated, “Move, Aunt Marguerite.”

“You are not turning her, Vincent,” she said harshly. “If anyone does, it will be me. Now…why is her mouth full of blood?”

Vincent shifted impatiently. “She tried to help me. She bit him.”

Marguerite’s gaze became sharp. “She
bit
him?”

Vincent frowned at being bothered with these questions at a time like this. “He had a knife. She bit into his wrist to keep him from using it on me when I first reached them.”

They all turned to Jackie as she moaned again, more loudly this time, then she suddenly began to convulse on the table.

“What’s happening?” Vincent asked in a panic. He stepped up to the table again, grabbing for Jackie’s shoulders to keep her from convulsing right off the table top.

“Could she have got enough blood while biting the killer to be turning?” Christian asked.

“It’s possible,” Marguerite said slowly. “But I’ve never seen someone convulse like this during a turning. Not this early on.” She frowned. “She’s lost a lot of blood, though. That could be why.”

“What do we do?” Tiny asked anxiously.

Marguerite hesitated, then ordered, “Grab a bag of blood, Tiny.”

The giant rushed to the refrigerator at once, returning with the bag. Marguerite slit it open with a fingernail, then held it over Jackie’s mouth. Vincent immediately moved to lift her head so that the liquid would slide down her throat and get to where it needed to be.

“Do you have enough bagged blood here to see her through the turning?”

Vincent frowned and glanced over his shoulder at the question from Christian. It was something he hadn’t thought of and he already knew the answer before his aunt said, “No.”

Much to his relief, Christian merely nodded and said, “We brought some with us. We had it sent on ahead to the hotel. I’ll send Marcus for it when he gets back.”

“I’ll call Bastien and have him ship more blood out tomorrow to replace it,” Marguerite murmured. She added, “We’ll need an IV too, if we can find one.”

“Why?” Christian asked with surprise.

“We’ve used it while turning others. It comes in quite handy,” Aunt Marguerite explained.

“How many times have you overseen a turning?” Christian asked curiously.

“Four times over the last three years,” she said with a shrug.

“Four?” he asked with surprise.

“My children’s mates,” she explained. “Then there were a couple others in the seven hundred years I’ve lived,” Marguerite added with a shrug. “We can do this, but we need blood and an IV.”

“We’ll find an IV too,” Christian assured her, then fell silent as Marguerite removed the now-empty bag and Vincent eased Jackie back onto the table. They all crowded closer around the table, watching her pale, still face.

“The convulsions have stopped,” Tiny said with hope.

Vincent nodded slowly, then glanced from Jackie to his aunt as she moved to the head of the table and used her thumbs to pull Jackie’s eyelids up to peer at her pupils. Vincent didn’t see anything, but she must have, for she nodded with satisfaction and straightened. “It’s beginning. You’d better move her upstairs, Vincent. Do you have any rope?”

“Rope?” he asked with confusion.

“She’ll need to be tied down for a bit so she doesn’t hurt herself,” Marguerite explained.

“We’ll get that too. I—” Christian paused as the door leading out to the pool opened and the blond Marcus entered the kitchen, a grim expression on his face. When Christian raised an eyebrow in question, Marcus shook his head.

Vincent knew what that meant. The saboteur had got away. He felt a moment’s bitter rage that the attacker had escaped, but then let it go, more concerned with Jackie.

“Take her upstairs, Argeneau,” Christian said grimly. He
gestured Marcus closer as he said, “I need you to go get a couple things, Marcus.”

Vincent didn’t listen to the rest. Instead, he scooped Jackie up into his arms and carried her out of the kitchen. Just before he left the room he saw Tiny try to follow and Marguerite stop him. He heard her begin to murmur low and soothing words to the giant, then Vincent was out of the kitchen and on his way upstairs.

Jackie was completely still in his arms as he carried her and he fretted over whether she really was turning or not. Aunt Marguerite could have made a mistake. She might not have got enough blood from the saboteur to facilitate the turn.

But then Vincent had barely laid Jackie in her bed before she began to moan. Soon after that she began to shift restlessly on the bed. Oddly enough, this reassured him. This is how Marguerite had described the turn to him. It was why Stephano’s stillness had so disturbed her. The turning was a painful process, not something they slept through peacefully unless well drugged.

By the time his aunt joined him in the bedroom, Jackie was moaning continuously and loudly and writhing on the bed.

Marguerite frowned as she approached. “This is quick. I wonder if she got more blood from biting the attacker than we thought.”

“What does that mean?” Vincent asked anxiously.

“Nothing,” Marguerite reassured him, then glanced toward the door with a frown. “I hope Christian is quick.”

“Did Christian go with Marcus?” Vincent asked.

“No. He felt it inadvisable to leave us here alone with the
saboteur still out there and Jackie as she is. He’s checking the garage for rope.”

Vincent frowned, not at all comfortable with the idea of tying Jackie down. He changed his mind several moments later when she began to thrash, her body bending and twisting, arms and legs whipping viciously this way and that as she began to scream in pain. Vincent and Marguerite were struggling to try to hold her still and keep her from hurting herself when Tiny came rushing into the room.