“We?” Stephanie asked, eyeing the woman dubiously as she kicked off the overlarge shoes Teddy had loaned her when she’d left with Anders.
“Well, all I did was toast the toast and butter it,” Mirabeau admitted with a grin. “But it’s a start.”
“It’s more than I know how to do,” Drina said dryly as she removed her borrowed boots.
“Lucky you, then, that I’m a chef.” Harper kissed her on the forehead as he reached past her for a hanger.
“Lucky both of us that we landed with life mates who could cook,” Mirabeau said with amusement, and then tilted her head, and said, “Hmm. The nanos couldn’t have known—” She shook her head. “Nah.”
“Where’s Anders?” Drina asked as she took the bomber from Stephanie and hung it in the closet.
“Here.”
She turned to see him standing in the doorway to the dining room, and slipped her arm protectively around Stephanie even as Harper slid his arm around her.
“Relax,” Anders said dryly. “We’re eating and sleeping, then we’ll talk.”
Drina heard Stephanie’s relieved sigh and squeezed her shoulders, but her eyes went to Mirabeau in question.
“He said he was going to take Stephanie to Toronto as soon as you guys got back,” Mirabeau said grimly. “But Teddy piped up and said he suspected Anders would have a mutiny if he tried it. But it didn’t matter anyway, because if Anders tried to drive out of here when he hasn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, Teddy’d have to arrest him for dangerous driving and—as he put it—throw his immortal arse in the clink for twenty-four hours.”
Drina smiled, thinking she really liked the police chief of Port Henry.
“So,” Mirabeau said with a grin, “Anders backed off and agreed to wait until everyone has eaten and slept before heading back to Toronto.”
Drina sensed the tension in Stephanie and clasped her shoulders knowingly as she assured her, “You won’t be going back alone. I’ll beat the crap out of Anders if I have to, but I’m coming with you.”
“Can you beat the crap out of him?” Stephanie asked dubiously.
“Hey, she used to be a gladiator,” Harper told the girl encouragingly. “Besides, I’d help beat the crap out of him. But we won’t need to. I’ll call my office after we’ve eaten and arrange for my helicopter to pick us up tonight after we’ve slept. That way Anders can’t refuse us. In fact, he’ll be lucky if we let him come with us.”
“Thanks,” Stephanie said huskily, but her expression was troubled as she slipped out from under Dani’s arm and made her way into the dining room.
“She’s worried about turning no-fanger and being put down,” Harper murmured, watching Stephanie walk away.
“We’re all worried about that,” Mirabeau said on a sigh, and then shook her head with frustration. “It isn’t fair. She’s a good kid. There has to be something we can do to help her.”
Drina leaned against Harper, her gaze slipping through the door to the dining room and the kitchen beyond, where Stephanie was retrieving a bag of blood from a cooler on the kitchen counter and asking Tiny if she could help him with anything. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
“So have I,” Mirabeau admitted. “We need to find older edentates and see if any of them had to deal with this and how they did.” She paused to frown, and then added, “But that can take a while, and I don’t know how long Stef can handle being bombarded with thoughts and energy.”
Drina nodded. She’d considered the same thing and the same problem. “We have a little time before we leave. We’ll just keep thinking, maybe have a brainstorming session after we eat.”
“Good idea,” Mirabeau said.
“Speaking of eating,” Harper murmured. “Just the sight of that bag of blood Stephanie’s puncturing with straws is making my fangs ache. I need blood.”
“Me too,” Drina admitted on a sigh, allowing him to urge her out of the entry.
Harper hung up Teddy’s phone with a weary sigh and stood up to stretch in front of the desk in the dining room. He’d been making calls for the last hour while Tiny and the women brainstormed in the living room with Stephanie over ways to help her. He knew that Drina had included the girl in an effort to reassure her and give her some sense of hope, but when he entered the room, he found Stephanie curled up on the couch sound asleep and the others gathered in chairs at the other end of the living room talking quietly.
“Any luck?” he asked quietly as he settled on the arm of Drina’s recliner and rubbed her back.