Thomas scowled at the man, but didn't really have a choice. He wasn't at all certain that he could get back to the townhouse without help himself. He definitely couldn't manage the feat while carrying her. He reluctantly let Bastien take her, staggering after him when he turned away with her in his arms and then stumbling to a halt as the ground swayed under his feet.

"Let me help you." Etienne was at his side, drawing his arm over his shoulders. "We'll get you both back to the townhouse and give you blood. You gave up a lot and must be in pain."

Thomas was actually in agony, but didn't comment, his concentration was on staying on his feet as they moved to the stairs.

That walk was the longest of his life. Thomas was fuzzy-headed and suffering pain from the blood loss, but he was also furious at the very people now trying to help him for putting Inez in this predicament and anxious over the agony she was soon going to go through-and, in fact, was beginning to experience. Increasing the amount of blood given might be good for speeding up repairs, but it also sped up the onset of the agony, and Inez was already moaning and beginning to thrash in pain as they turned up the short walk in front of the rented townhouse.

Terri rushed ahead to unlock the front door and light splashed over them as it opened. Thomas heard Terri exclaim in surprise, but didn't understand why until Etienne helped him in through the door and he saw Lucern and Kate in the hall, and Vincent and his lifemate Jackie in the doorway to the living room.

Thomas glanced at them, but couldn't muster up any interest in their presence. The pain had grown increasingly worse as they were making their way back to the house, while the nanos still in his system tried to replicate themselves, using up what little blood was left. They'd moved out of his bloodstream in search of blood and he was suffering, but when he realized Bastien was carrying Inez into the living room, he mustered up the strength to growl, "Upstairs. Our room."

Bastien didn't argue. He turned toward the stairs at once, asking Terri to bring up one of the coolers of blood they'd brought with them as he started up.

Etienne turned Thomas in that direction to follow, but before they could reach the stairs, Thomas was. .h.i.t by a wave of pain that made him double over and his legs buckle. Whether Etienne managed to keep him from falling or not, he never knew. He lost consciousness.

When he woke up, Thomas found himself lying in one of the twin beds in the room he and Inez had chosen. An already half-empty bag of blood was stuck to his fangs and Etienne and Terri were leaning over him, worried expressions on their faces.

Terri looked relieved when his eyes opened, but Etienne just looked more worried and turned to announce, "He's waking up."

Thomas saw his lips move and wondered why it was so hard to hear his words and then realized a high, keening scream was rending the air. Turning his head sharply, he saw Inez thrashing on the opposite bed while Rachel and Bastien tried to hold her down.

Ignoring the pain still eating away at him, Thomas ripped the bag from his mouth. Blood immediately shot from the punctures where his fangs had been, splashing up and out like a geyser, but Thomas ignored that too and dropped it to the bed as he tried to get up and go to Inez.

"Dammit!" Etienne caught him by the shoulders, forcing him back on the bed with little effort as Terri scrambled to grab the spraying bag.

"Stay put," Etienne said grimly as Terri wrapped the bag in a towel and rushed from the room. "You need more blood. You'll be no good to her until you've got your strength back. Bastien and Rachel are helping Inez."

"Why haven't they given her drugs yet?" Thomas growled, giving up struggling against Etienne. It wasn't working anyway, the man was using only one hand to hold him down and didn't have to put much strength behind it to do it.

"They're in the other cooler. Lucern is getting them now," he explained and then added, "We just got you both up here. That bag was the first we put to your teeth."

"Here." Marguerite's oldest son, Lucern, rushed into the room with Kate on his heels. He was digging through the cooler he held as he moved. Stopping beside Bastien, he handed over an ampoule and syringe, and Bastien removed one hand from Inez to reach for it, but her good arm immediately jerked out of the hold his other hand had on her and plowed him in the face.

Thomas smiled as Bastien flew backward off the bed. That was what he'd wanted to do to him down by the river. It did his heart good to see Inez get the lick in for him.

"Bastien." Kate rushed around Lucern to kneel at his side and Vincent and Jackie appeared from somewhere, though Thomas wasn't sure from where. He hadn't noticed them in the room before this, but suddenly they were at the bedside trying to help Rachel hold Inez down. The combination of nanos and pain was making her strong and even with the three of them, they had trouble holding her in place.

"Give her the d.a.m.ned drugs!" Thomas bellowed, or tried too, his voice didn't have its normal strength. He really needed more blood.

Bastien's head suddenly appeared on the other side of the bed and he crawled forward. Ignoring his broken, bleeding nose, he stuck the syringe into the ampoule to draw out the drug. He pulled the needle free once it was full, squeezed it until clear liquid shot out the top, and then injected it straight into Inez's vein as Vincent held her arm out for him.

They all waited tensely, watching Inez. Her struggles and screams began to ease almost at once, the thrashing becoming restless writhing and the screams dropping to loud moans and then she stopped moving and fell silent.

A communal sigh of relief ran around the room like a wave and then every eye turned to him.

Etienne was the first to speak. "Open your mouth," he ordered, and slapped a bag on his still-protruding fangs before anyone else could speak.

Thomas suspected it was an effort on Etienne's part to keep him from saying any of the furious thoughts running around inside his head.

"Now," Vincent said dryly. "Does someone want to tell us who this young woman is and what the h.e.l.l happened?"

Bastien's shoulders slumped as he replayed the night's events.

"You used Thomas's lifemate as bait?" Lucern asked with shock when Bastien was done. "His lifemate? While she was still mortal?"

Thomas closed his eyes with grat.i.tude at Lucern's reaction, feeling vindicated in his anger. A lifemate was as precious to an immortal as life itself. Mortals could divorce and remarry and go through mate after mate if they wished, but for an immortal, a lifemate was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, or twice if they were lucky. And with an immortal that was a very long lifetime.

"Jesus, Bastien. What were you thinking?" Lucern scrubbed one hand through his hair with disgust and said, "I'd have killed you for even considering something like that if it had been Kate. And I know d.a.m.ned right well that you never would have risked Terri like that."

"I wasn't thinking," Bastien admitted unhappily. "I was just so worried about, Mother...and I thought I could keep Inez safe. I thought I'd considered every contingency."

"We thought we'd considered every contingency," Etienne insisted grimly, determined not to let Bastien take the flack on his own.

Lucern's eyes skated to Etienne, and then away dismissively and Thomas saw the way Etienne's hands balled into fists. It suddenly occurred to him that he wasn't the only one the two older Argeneau brothers tended to dismiss as an immature young pup. Some of his anger with Etienne suddenly eased, replaced by sympathy. They were both in the same boat, he thought, and then glanced toward his older cousin as Lucern moved up the small aisle between the beds.

The man's gaze moved silently over the now quiet Inez, taking in her injuries with grim eyes before turning to Thomas.

"How angry are you?" he asked.

Thomas clenched his teeth as the question brought his rage stirring back to life and suddenly the bag in his mouth exploded, splashing the red liquid everywhere.

"I guess that answers that question," Lucern said dryly, wiping blood off of his face.

Terri hurried out of the room for more towels.

Ripping the burst bag from his teeth, Thomas tried to sit up again, this time eager to get his hands around Bastien's throat as fury poured through him.

"Stay put, tiger," Lucern said, pushing him back on the bed. "You aren't strong enough to take on Bastien yet, you need more blood. Besides, Mother would never forgive you if you killed him."

Etienne immediately slapped a fresh bag of blood to his teeth as Thomas fell back on the bed. Terri returned then with a stack of towels and Etienne and Lucern both took one each to wipe themselves down.

"I'd better change," Etienne muttered, getting to his feet and moving away.

The moment he did, Lucern sat on the side of the bed next to Thomas. "You have to cut him some slack, Thomas. Bastien is a planner. It's an old habit from running the company so long. He thinks of things in bottom line terms. I have no doubt he considered the options, weighed the risks, and thought he had everything covered. I don't think he'd have gone ahead with this plan if he'd thought there was any real risk to your lifemate." He allowed a moment of silence pa.s.s to let him think about that and then added, "And there wouldn't have been if everyone hadn't let down their guard.

"That's always the most dangerous point," he continued with a grimace. "I can't tell you how many excellent warriors I've seen die after a battle is over. They let down their guard and relaxed and then pow, one of the enemy they thought was more seriously injured than they were suddenly reared up and killed them."

Thomas just stared at him, eyes wide above the bag of blood in his mouth. Lucern wasn't much of a talker. In fact, this was the first time he'd heard him string more than a couple of words together. The immortal was over six hundred years old. He'd been a warrior, wielding a broadsword when he was younger, and still had the physical build needed to do it. He was also a writer, tapping out reams of words on paper, but when it came to talking it sometimes seemed as if he'd used up all his words in his books and had nothing else to say.

Lucern glanced to Bastien, considered him briefly, and then shook his head and glanced back to Thomas. "Bastien is suffering the guilt for it now. When he apologizes, let it go. We're all family and even immortals make mistakes."

Thomas hesitated, his gaze sliding to the next bed. Rachel and Bastien were hovering over Inez, Rachel cutting away her clothes and binding the wounds that were slowly closing, while Bastien held Inez slightly elevated with one hand under her neck and shoulders as he tried to feed her. Inez had no teeth yet and they had no IV to take care of the matter, so he was reduced to pouring blood down her throat straight from the bag.

Lucern patted his shoulder and Thomas glanced back to see that Etienne had returned and Lucern was getting to his feet.

"Kate and I are going to get out of the way. We'll be below if you need us. Just give a shout."

Thomas watched him go, noting that Kate, Jackie, and Vincent followed, leaving the other two couples to handle matters.

"I'm sorry, Thomas," Etienne said solemnly, drawing his attention again. "We really didn't think Inez was in any real danger. We thought we could keep her safe, otherwise we never would have suggested it."

Thomas hesitated, waiting for the familiar anger to rear up inside him, but this time it didn't. He just felt tired. Nodding wearily, he closed his eyes and waited for the bag of blood in his mouth to empty.

Thomas consumed five bags of blood before Etienne and Terri reluctantly let him get up. He immediately moved to hover behind Rachel, his eyes anxious as he peered over Inez.

"That's all I can do for now," Rachel said, drawing the blankets up to Inez's neck as she sat up straight on the side of the bed. "I've set her leg, bound her wounds...All we can do now is keep feeding her blood. It's up to the nanos to repair her."

They were all silent, peering down at Inez's pale face. She was resting quietly for now, but no one was foolish enough to think she would stay that way. There would come a stage when the drugs wouldn't be able to touch the pain and her mind would be filled with horrible images of fire, death, and blood. She would imagine she was burning up, or being rent apart. It was impossible to prevent that part of the turn.

"You look pale."

Thomas glanced at Etienne as he spoke, noting that he was peering at his wife with concern.

Rachel smiled faintly and leaned into his shoulder. "You don't look so good yourself."

"There's blood in the refrigerator downstairs, and lots of food too," Bastien said. "Why don't the two of you go grab a couple bags and make yourselves something to eat."

Etienne and Rachel exchanged a glance and then moved away from the bed. "Call us if you need us."

Bastien then turned to Terri. "You should go too, Terri. You're pale as well."

Terri glanced toward the departing couple with yearning, but then glanced back, her gaze skittering anxiously between Thomas and Bastien before she shook her head and said, "I'll stay with you."

Knowing she was afraid to leave the two of them alone for fear that he would attack Bastien the moment they were gone, Thomas opened his mouth to tell her it was all right, she should go, but Etienne spoke, cutting him off.

"We'll bring up something for all three of you," his cousin said as he ushered Rachel out the door.

Shrugging, Thomas moved to sit on the side of the bed and take Inez's hand in his.

"You should go take a shower and then catch some sleep."

Thomas glanced up at Bastien's quiet words. Terri was asleep on the twin bed he'd been lying on earlier, and had been for hours. Other than that, the two men were alone; one on either side of the bed Inez was in.

Shrugging, Thomas turned his gaze back to Inez. "You go ahead. I want to stay with Inez in case she wakes up."

It was well past sunset of the second night since Inez had been injured and then turned. It hadn't been an easy process for any of them. While the drugs definitely helped, there were times when they didn't seem to even touch the pain she was suffering and it had taken several of them to keep her in the bed. Rachel and Etienne had returned several times through that night and day as Inez turned, helping Thomas, Bastien, and Terri try to keep Inez still so she wouldn't reopen her healing injuries as she'd battled the pain as well as the demons filling her hallucinations, a side-effect of the turn.