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 hit 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 damned 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 hell 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 gratitude 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 damned 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.