Vampires Are Foreve(107)

Returning to the bedroom, he nearly crashed into Etienne as the other man was leaving.

“The rest of us are going to go search York for any sign of Mother or the immortal.”

“Rachel’s the only one who saw him,” Thomas pointed out with a frown.

“Yeah, but Terri did that sketch as per her description and Rachel says it’s dead on. So each couple is going to take a third of the city center and go street by street.”

Thomas nodded wearily. He’d forgotten all about the picture Terri had sketched in the bedroom between Inez’s fits. Rachel had hovered, fussing over this and that, saying, “The nose was a little bigger…the eyes more squinty…the hair shorter….” until she thought Terri had it just right.

“Bastien and Terri are staying with you and Inez,” Etienne continued, slipping around him to the stairs. “But call my cell if you need us.”

Thomas watched him go, and then continued into the room.

Terri was still asleep, but Bastien glanced up as he reentered. The man had bags under his eyes from exhaustion, a very rare thing indeed with their constitution.

“You should sleep. You’re exhausted,” Thomas said as he dropped his bag, and moved back to sit on the side of the bed.

Bastien hesitated and then glanced down at Inez, before saying. “If we give her another bag of blood, I think it would be safe for both of us to catch some sleep.”

Thomas glanced at Inez. He didn’t want to sleep, but knew Bastien wouldn’t if he didn’t at least pretend he intended to, so he nodded.

Much to everyone’s relief, Inez’s teeth had come on around mid-afternoon. Aside from being a sign that she’d survived the worst of it and was nearing the end of her turning, it made feeding her easier and much less messy. Bastien bent to retrieve a bag of blood from the now almost depleted cooler, then took out another and offered it to Thomas. When he shook his head, Bastien hesitated and then popped it to his own teeth as Thomas grabbed one of the dry but blood-soaked towels and waved it back and forth under Inez’s nose. Her teeth protruded at once and he popped the bag to her fangs with little effort.

It didn’t take long for either bag to empty, and then Thomas crawled onto the bed next to her. He lay down on his side, leaving some room between them to keep from disturbing her in the small twin bed.

The moment he did, Bastien lay down and cuddled up to Terri in the next bed. His breathing soon became deep and even, telling Thomas that he’d fallen asleep.

Despite his intention not to sleep, Thomas soon found his own eyes drooping closed as he too drifted into sleep.

Seventeen





Inez woke and shot up into a sitting position, fear making her heart pound in a rapid tattoo. It took her a moment to blink away the remnants of the nightmare that had chased her from sleep and realize she was in one of the twin beds in the bedroom at the townhouse.#p#分页标题#e#

Sucking in a deep breath of relief as the fear began to slip away, Inez peered around the room, her eyes widening at the chaos evident. Bloody clothes and towels lay strewn everywhere, and an incredible amount of empty blood bags lay in a corner, tossed there with little care.

Her gaze slid to the man in bed beside her. Thomas. He was wearing different clothes than she recalled from the night they’d laid their trap and was asleep on his side, perched on the very edge of the twin bed. She saw his face wrinkle with irritation in sleep as her movement allowed a circle of light to splash over his exhausted face and the sight made her smile.

Inez turned her head toward the bedside lamp between the beds with some vague idea of turning it off so it wouldn’t wake him, but her eyes stopped and widened at the sight of Bastien Argeneau and Terri on the second twin bed in the room. She was under the covers, but he was on top. Unlike Thomas, Bastien still wore the same clothes he’d had on the night of the trap. They were now wrinkled and crusted with dried blood. Like Thomas, his face was exhausted and almost gray with it.

Reaching for the lamp, she switched it off, then lay back in bed. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to get back to sleep. She wasn’t tired, but she was hungry, and suffering mild hunger pangs with it, which made her wonder how long she’d been out of it. Long enough that Thomas and the others had gone through a lot of blood, she guessed, recalling the pile of empty blood bags in the corner.

And the bloody towels. She frowned and began to carefully move various body parts one at a time to see where she was hurt, but everything seemed fine. Other than the hunger pangs, she wasn’t suffering pain anywhere, yet she distinctly recalled jamming her leg back between the immortal’s legs as he raced down the street, and then the terrible wrenching pain. She seemed to recall thinking it had been broken, but now thought it must have just been dislocated or something, because it seemed fine and hadn’t hurt when she’d moved it.