Bite of Envy (Just One Bite #4) (11 page)

“What put that look on your face?” Diandra asked- curiosity
and worry tinged her voice as she watched Lizzie’s expression. She was seated
on the floor, back against the loveseat as she sipped from a glass of wine and
nibbled popcorn. Some ridiculous horror movie from the sixties was on, and she
was always amused by the difference in special effects back then as compared to
those from modern movies. And yet, at the time, these movies were cutting-edge.
She often pondered what RaeLynn’s generation’s opinion would be of the movies
Dia grew up with when the time came. Would all their technology be as obsolete
as those from the movie she now watched? More than likely, she thought
ruefully, chuckling over the big bad monster’s ridiculously bad loping gait as
he chased some idiotic blonde down the streets of suburbia.

Lizbeth shook her head before folding herself into the pale
pink armchair and throwing her legs across one overstuffed arm. “Jonah,” she
said, and Diandra looked over at Rae, nodding in understanding. “Dia,” Lizzie
started, but she was cut off.

“No,” Diandra said gently. “Don’t apologize. I know you did
what you felt was best. You did the only right thing in a situation full of
wrongs. I didn’t understand at the time, but now I think I do. I’m sorry you
were forced into a situation like that.”

Lizbeth looked down, folding her arms around herself as if
cold. “It was just like what I went through. I know the pain he caused her- he
did it to me, remember? I couldn’t let him win any more than you did with me.
He couldn’t kill her- she didn’t deserve to die on my behalf. I had to save
her, don’t you see?” Lizbeth pleaded. “I had to turn her, because she couldn’t
die, and he couldn’t win.” Tears rolled down her pale cheeks as she turned
those eerie blue eyes on her lover.

Diandra got up then and went to her. “I do, baby. I do
understand, and I’m not angry. You did the right thing. She asked you to save
her, and so you did. You did the right thing,” she repeated again, stroking her
hand over Lizbeth’s dark hair, holding her close and trying to soothe her.

Adrian got up silently, scooping RaeLynn up into his arms
and carrying her upstairs. It was time for the baby’s bath, and then it would
be bedtime. He would handle it tonight, and let the women work through their
battered feelings. All those emotions rained down on him, choked him, as he
soaked up the feelings and tension in the parlor. Rather than force himself to
handle it, he fled. On his way up the stairs he ran into Sandra leaving the
guest room. He gasped, drawing back a moment as he noticed that her eyes seemed
to glow, a deep overwhelming green. Recovering, he shook his head. “Sandra, you
may want to give them a few minutes. Right now they’re discussing a few things.
Why don’t you come with me while I bathe RaeLynn? I’d really like to chat a
bit.”

Sandra cocked her head to the side and narrowed those creepy
eyes. “As you wish,” she murmured, following him into the bathroom. He didn’t
see her eyes take on a savage glint as she scented the air and shut the door
behind them, quietly turning the lock.

Lizbeth pulled herself together with a sigh. “I suppose I’d
better go up and check on her. She’s been upstairs for a really long time now.”
She got up, brushed off her pants and helped Diandra to her feet. They locked
eyes and the smiles they wore dimmed.

“Oh my God,” Dia whispered, and they flew, quicker than
thought, up the stairs.
Eamon, oh God,
Eamon, we forgot something so important. Please, come inside quickly
, she
thought as she skidded to a halt beside the closed bathroom door in the master
bedroom. Adrian never locked the door- oh God, what had they done?

Gritting her teeth, Lizbeth planted a bare foot against the
doorjamb, sucked in a deep breath and kicked the door free, sending shrapnel
flying. She prayed silently that they weren’t too late, and that she hadn’t
hurt anyone just now. Then she stood, blocking the doorway as she gaped at the
scene in front of her.

“Let me see,” Dia shouted, pushing Lizbeth to the side and
squeezing into the room. Then she, too, stood where she was a moment, her mind
struggling to make sense of it all. Adrian lay slumped between the toilet and
the bathtub, his throat a dripping red ruin. His eyes were wide and frightened.
He was still alive, but barely, and struggling to draw a full breath.
Help me
, a tiny voice said in Diandra’s
mind. Judging by the way Lizbeth jumped, RaeLynn had projected the thought to
her as well.
Take her. I’ll help Ian,
Mommy
.

Lizbeth spun on a heel, peering around the corner of the
door. Sandra stood there, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth, her
eyes curiously dulled. Even as she watched, the tip of a tongue darted out and
licked halfheartedly at the blood, cleaning her face up. Her eyes never
changed- it was like she was tranquilized. Then Lizbeth looked down, and the
reason became clear. RaeLynn had both tiny hands clamped around Sandy’s ankle,
forcing calming thoughts into her until she was numb to everything. “I’ve got
her,” Lizzie whispered to the grim-faced baby at her feet. So saying, she took
Sandra’s unresisting body in her arms and carried her out of the bathroom. Her
pace didn’t halt until she reached the guest room. She shut the door and locked
it behind her, ignoring Eamon as she passed him in the hall.

Eamon rushed into the master bedroom without pause. When he
reached the doorway he winced, seeing the mess the bathroom was in. RaeLynn was
on her chubby knees in front of Adrian, her little hands reaching ineffectually
for his shredded throat. His hands were straight out in front of him, trying to
reach the baby and pull her close, knowing she could be his salvation if he
could but pull her to him. Diandra, he saw with a sigh of disgust, was simply
staring as through she couldn’t comprehend the scene before her. Without delay,
he scooped the baby up and pressed her into Adrian’s lap. He winced, watching
the man’s blood seep into her little dress. It was probably ruined, but with
any luck the bleeding man wouldn’t be. RaeLynn smiled brilliantly at Eamon as
she pressed her palms against Adrian’s throat, then her tiny brow furrowed in
concentration. He could feel the air shimmer, or at least that’s how it felt to
him, as the energy seeped from her into the wound. He stood, tense and waiting,
for five minutes or so. Adrian’s eyes were locked on his, and he refused to
look away. If, by some horrible strike of fate, he would die, Eamon wouldn’t
dare let him die with no one paying attention. He deserved to have that last
contact with someone who cared about him. Since Diandra was apparently
incapable of it, Eamon gave himself fully to those sad, pain-filled eyes.

RaeLynn pulled back with a tiny little sigh before clapping
her bloody little hands. It was done, and Adrian took a deep, gasping breath.
His throat was healed, with not even a scar to show the horrific wound had once
been there. His breath shuddered in and out as his body struggled to adjust to
the large quantities of air he was finally able to suck into his lungs once
more.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Adrian whispered once his
breathing had slowed. He flicked his gaze to Eamon’s and then down to the
lovely little girl in his arms. He pulled her tight, showering kisses over
those golden curls he so lovingly brushed each night. He kissed her head and
hugged her as though he would never have the chance to do so again. Then he
bowed his head and wept. It was the closest he had ever been to death, and he
didn’t think he’d escape it this time. His body could take a lot of damage, but
what she’d done to him was beyond what he was capable of handling alone.

Eamon nodded to him before grabbing Diandra’s arm and
dragging her out of the bathroom. Adrian needed this time with Rae, he figured,
so he left them to it for a few minutes. He pushed her negligently onto the bed
and sat in a small chair in the corner. “What the fuck happened in there?” he
demanded, furious that things had gone to Hell so quickly. He knew Lizbeth
turning Sandra had been a mistake, but he’d never seen this coming.

“I… I don’t know. We didn’t think. Lizbeth left her in the
tub, and we didn’t think. Adrian took RaeLynn up to bathe her in our bathroom.
We didn’t think,” she repeated again, trying to organize her thoughts.

Eamon sneered. “Well that’s certainly true. You damned well
didn’t think. You left a fledgling alone upstairs with a human,” then he
stopped, thinking of the golden-haired baby. “Possibly two, although I don’t
know exactly what Rae is. You were careless, stupid, the pair of you. And let
me guess- you don’t have any blood baggies, do you?” Mutely, Diandra shook her
head. “I’ll be back,” he said tersely. “Don’t let her anywhere near Adrian or
RaeLynn, do you hear me?” When she nodded he turned and left the bedroom, and
moments later the front door slammed as well.

Still in shock over the carnage that played out, she walked
into the bathroom to check on Adrian. He was kneeling over the still-warm tub.
RaeLynn was splashing happily in the water, as though she’d not see yet another
tragic incident. For someone so young, she’d already seen so much. “Adrian,
please, I’ll bathe her. You should go rest,” she protested.

Stubbornly he shook his head. “No, I want to do this. I need
to do something normal, and this is about as normal as this house ever gets.”
There was some heat to his words, and Diandra blinked in surprise. He sat back
on his heels and sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault,” he said tiredly,
still refusing to look at her.

“On the contrary,” Diandra said. “I’d say this is definitely
my fault. Well, mine and Lizbeth’s, at any rate. We never should have let you
go upstairs while she was there. At least if we’d waited for her to come down
and she went for you, we’d have realized the problem.” Now it was Dia’s turn to
sigh. “We’ve gotten so used to being in control of our baser instincts that we
didn’t consider that she wouldn’t yet have any control of her own. We let you
down, and I’m so terribly sorry for that.” Without waiting for a reply, she
turned on her heel and left the bathroom to check and see how things were going
in the other room.

Lizbeth had her hands full. The calm façade RaeLynn had
gifted Sandra with had ceased, and now the woman was a wreck. She was curled in
a fetal position on the bed, sobbing her heart out. Lizzie was terribly afraid
the woman would be sick, and she feared that would leave her weaker. If she
threw up all the blood she’d gulped down, she’d be ravenous, and she’d simply
go for him again. Or worse, RaeLynn might be in danger. That was completely
unacceptable, so she did her best to soothe the woman. Sadly, it wasn’t going
very well.

“I drank blood. I ripped at him, tore his throat, gored him
like some sort of freaking animal,” Sandra gasped out between ragged sobs. “How
the Hell could I do that? What in the fuck did you do to me?” she howled,
collapsing to the bed once more and burying her face in the pillow, muffling
her noises of distress.

Lizbeth attempted to rub Sandy’s back, but the woman hissed
like a scalded cat and pulled away, scrambling backwards until her body was
curled up against the headboard. “Sandy, I told you. Diandra and I are
vampires, and now you are, too. I saved you, as you asked.”

“I thought it was some sort of sick joke, some last ditch
effort to soothe me as I died. I didn’t think you were serious. Vampires don’t
exist. They’re myths, legends. They aren’t real,” she snarled, pounding her
fist against the headboard. The sobs cut off instantly when her fist went
through the heavy oak, leaving a perfect hole in the center of it. “Oh my God,”
she whispered, as though raising her voice would shoot her over the edge and
into insanity. Maybe it would, Lizbeth thought cynically.

Drawing a deep breath, Lizzie told Sandy everything. As she
knew it would, the story drew the woman up into a sitting position, her back
blocking the hole she’d inadvertently made in the wood. She told her how she’d
found Jonah, what had happened to him, how she’d nearly died but RaeLynn had
saved her life. Then she explained about Giles Carson and their history, ending
with her conversion just a few short months ago. “So you see
,
I know what you’re going through. I was in the exact same position. If Diandra
hadn’t turned me, I’d be dead.”

“But I’d still be human,” Sandra said hatefully, and
Lizbeth’s blood ran cold.

“That may be true, or maybe you’d be dead. Maybe Carson would’ve
come onto your radar for one reason or another, and you’d have been one of his
victims. Besides, you fit the profile as well as I do,” Lizbeth reasoned.

Sandra paled. “Yes, I suppose that’s true,” she said slowly.
“So, now what do we do?”

Lizbeth smiled, albeit grimly. “Now we go downstairs. We’ll
have some coffee, some human food, and then when Eamon gets back he’ll explain
the rules to you. He’s far better at that then I am, and he’ll be in charge of
your training.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sandra questioned as they headed
downstairs.

Lizbeth laughed. “That’s the fun part. Just you wait.”

Lizbeth and Sandra had encountered Diandra on her way to the
guest room so they all made their way downstairs, trying to figure out the next
right step to take. Sandy didn’t contribute much, and the one glance Diandra
had of her face showed that she was deeply disturbed and obviously regretful
for her attack on Adrian. Dia led Sandy into the parlor, while Lizbeth veered
off towards the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. She had a feeling they’d all
need it, but right now, she knew she certainly did.

Eamon returned while it was still brewing, carrying the
familiar basket. Lizbeth knew from experience that it was loaded with blood
baggies of the sort you found in blood banks or hospitals. It would be a
month’s supply to start with. Diandra’s had also contained a note explaining
the feeding schedule, so to speak, as well as a couple more instructions, but
that was before Eamon had insinuated himself into their lives. Now those
instructions were no longer necessary.