Twice Bitten: An Argeneau Novel

by Lynsay Sands

  “She’s not that bad,” Elspeth countered, which was an absolute lie. Martine Argeneau Pimms wasn’t almost obsessive-compulsive about keeping her daughters near her. She was full-on, certifiably obsessive-compulsive about it.

  “Really?” Wyatt asked G.G., apparently believing him over her, which was kind of ironic when you thought about it. He trusted the big tattooed bartender with a Mohawk over a clean-cut woman he believed worked for the police. Go figure.

  Maybe he had trust issues with women, Elspeth thought.

  “Oh, yeah,” G.G. told him. “Martine wouldn’t let them out of her sight for a minute as kids. All three girls were homeschooled until university. Never let out of the house. Never allowed friends.”

  “We had our cousins,” Elspeth argued stiffly.

  “Whom you saw once every couple of years or so,” G.G. said dryly.

  “How do you know that?” Elspeth asked with surprise.

  “Julianna,” G.G. said at once and then grinned and added, “Did you think you were the only member of your family to skip uni classes at least once a week and slip away to The Night Club to hang out with other im—club members?” he finished, catching his own slip with a grimace.

  “Damn,” Elspeth breathed. It had never even occurred to her that her sisters might skip classes. It should have, she supposed. Elspeth had made a practice of signing up for an extra class every term. She’d show her mother her schedule once she got it, and then cancel the extra class. Her mother would think she was in university during that time, while she was actually at The Night Club chatting with G.G., or at a movie, or just shopping, taking time for herself. However, when G.G. had asked how she’d managed to slip away from her mother the first time they’d chatted, she’d simply said she was supposed to be in class.

  She didn’t explain it now, either, but set her empty glass on the bar top and glanced to Wyatt as she slid off her stool. “We should go. You have to pick up flowers for Meredith.”

  “He can go, but you’re not going anywhere, Elspeth,” G.G. said firmly, and then, picking up her empty glass, he added, “You’re looking better, but you need at least two more of these before you go anywhere.”

  “Fine,” she snapped, a bit irritated at all this bossing about. It was like being with her mother. That thought made her scowl at Wyatt as she said, “I’ll have two more. But you should go before Meredith worries.”

  “I called and explained things before I came in here.” He smiled like the cat that caught the canary and said, “I can keep you company while you have your power drinks.”

  That brought a soft chuckle from G.G. as he moved to the other end of the bar to fetch her another “drink.”

  Elspeth hesitated, wanting to just walk out and leave, but in the end, she sank back onto her stool. G.G. was right. She was feeling better, but still cramping and achy. Two more of the twenty-ounce glasses should see her right.

  “Those power drinks really seem to be working,” Wyatt commented now, peering at her face. “You are looking a little better. You have more color in your cheeks. Maybe I should try one of those drinks myself.”

  Elspeth’s eyes widened with alarm, and then she asked abruptly, “What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”

  “Yes,” he admitted without hesitation. When she gaped at him, Wyatt shrugged and said, “Look, Gran’s already been burned once by a tenant who was supposed to be a friend, and she nearly fell for that iTunes scam too. Now there’s you, who already have a key to her apartment.” Scowling, he added, “And then . . .” He paused briefly, several expressions flashing across his face, and simply said, “Once I saw the blood on your car seat I was suspicious, and followed you to make sure you weren’t up to no good.”

  Elspeth stared at him. Between the expressions that had crossed his face and the way he’d hesitated, she suspected he was leaving out something. Had he overheard the argument she’d had with her mother in front of the house?

  “Elspeth up to no good?” G.G. asked with amusement as he returned to place two tall blue glasses in front of her this time.

  “He thinks I’m after his grandmother’s money,” Elspeth explained quietly as she picked up one of the drinks.

  G.G. snorted at the suggestion. “Elspeth’s family has money. Loads of it. Besides, like I said, she’s led a pretty sheltered life. I think your grandmother’s money is safe.”

  Wyatt considered G.G. briefly and said, “So, a beautiful young creature like Elspeth is really just friends with my very sweet but very old grandmother because . . . ?”

  Elspeth blinked and blushed. Did he really think she was beautiful? Aware that G.G. was grinning at her reaction with amusement, she raised her glass and hid her red face by chugging down the blood he’d just brought her. Chugging was better. Elspeth wasn’t especially keen on the taste of blood. She preferred consuming it from the bag where you just popped it on your fangs and let them do the work of sucking in the red liquid. That way you didn’t have to taste it at all.

  “I’d imagine she’s more comfortable around older people,” G.G. said as she drank. “She’s spent very little time around young people. Instead, most of her life has been spent around the very old.”

  Elspeth almost snorted at G.G.’s words. He wasn’t kidding. Most everyone in her life was well over two or three hundred years old. Heck, she herself was twice as old as Wyatt’s grandmother. In comparison, Merry was a youngster. Setting down the now empty glass, Elspeth slid it toward G.G. and wrapped her hand around the other glass he’d brought her.

  “Hmm,” Wyatt murmured, and then, before she could lift the second glass, asked, “Is that why you rented from her? Because she was older and you were comfortable around her? No other reason?”

  Elspeth rolled her eyes at the question. “I didn’t know your grandmother was the landlady when I rented the apartment. I didn’t know who owned it at all. I found and applied for it online while still in England. I’ve always loved old Victorian houses, and there were pictures of the front of your grandmother’s house with the listing on a rental website. It . . .” Elspeth grimaced. It had looked familiar to her, like home. But she couldn’t even explain that to herself, so merely said, “It looked charming and homey.”

  “She advertised on the internet?” Wyatt asked with surprise. “Gran doesn’t have a computer.”

  “Meredith uses a management company to rent the apartments,” she explained. “They posted the pictures and a description on a rental website. They’re who I dealt with.”

  “So you didn’t pick my grandmother?” he asked slowly. “That was just a coincidence?”

  Elspeth had no idea what he meant by coincidence, but assured him, “I didn’t know about Merry owning or living there until the day I arrived, when she introduced herself and offered me a plate of cookies as a welcome gift.” Glancing to G.G., she added, “Merry makes some killer cookies.”

  “Yeah, she does,” Wyatt said with a faint grin.

  “You’re making me jealous,” G.G. said with a sigh. “Mom used to make great cookies too, but she and Alfred travel so much now . . .” He shrugged, and then commented, “I was wondering why you hadn’t bought instead of rented, but if you had to arrange it all from England . . .”

  Elspeth nodded. “I would never buy a house or condo without seeing it first. I planned to rent for a year or so while I checked out the city and where I might want to live, and then buy later,” she said, which was true. But she also hadn’t bought because she hadn’t been at all sure her escape plan would work. There had always been the chance that her mother might have caught a stray thought of hers, realized what she was doing, and put an end to it.

  Fortunately, she hadn’t. But now Martine was here, in her apartment, and planning to move to Toronto as well. There was a good possibility that Victoria was right and her mother would try to make her move into whatever house she and Father bought here.

  Elspeth lowered her glass and bit her lip at the thought, but then recalled how she’d been
able to resist her mother’s mind control efforts today. Martine had managed to make her stop, briefly, in her apartment, but hadn’t been able to make her stay until she’d got close enough to touch her on the stairs, and then she hadn’t been able to stop her at all during her second attempt to leave. The pain she’d been suffering had helped her to push past her mother’s efforts to take control. At least, Elspeth thought that must be how she’d managed to escape. If it was, she might have to stab herself once a day to make sure she could have a life not controlled by her mother.

  Elspeth considered that as she downed the last of the blood. She’d have to keep a knife on her at all times, and maybe stab herself each morning before she left her room. That way, her mother couldn’t sink her hooks into her mind and control her life. It didn’t sound pleasant, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to do it long before her mother gave up and stopped trying to control her.

  “Right. I’ll just hit the bathroom and then I’ll walk you to your car,” Wyatt said when she finished and set down her glass. Glancing to G.G., he asked, “Where are the washrooms?”

  G.G. pointed toward the back, and Wyatt nodded and murmured “Thank you” before following the silent instructions.

  “Well?” G.G. said the minute Wyatt was out of hearing. “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I understand why Mother acts the way she does, and I’ve tried to be patient, but . . .” Elspeth closed her eyes with frustration. “She doesn’t realize what she’s doing to us. And tonight I think she was actually trying to get me to break Council law so that I’d be banished and sent back to England.”

  “That sounds whacked,” G.G. said, his eyebrows climbing his forehead, and then he grimaced and added, “But I meant, what are you going to do about your friend?”

  “Wyatt?” she asked with surprise.

  “Is that his name?” G.G. asked innocently, and then pointed out, “You never introduced us.”

  “Oh! I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said with amazement. She’d been so befuddled by her inability to read and control him that she’d—

  “You couldn’t control him,” G.G. said as if reading her mind.

  “How do you know that?” Elspeth asked with surprise.

  “Because you didn’t control him and make him leave,” G.G. said dryly. “Besides, I saw you look at him like you were trying to fry him with your eyes. I assume you were trying then to read or control him?”

  “Yes,” she admitted solemnly.

  “And couldn’t,” he said with certainty and, when she nodded, added, “So . . . life mates?”

  Elspeth grimaced, but shook her head. “If we were life mates, we would have had shared dreams today while I slept. He’s staying with his grandmother on the floor below my apartment,” she pointed out. “We should have had shared dreams and didn’t. Ergo, we are not life mates.”

  “Or maybe he wasn’t sleeping. He is mortal, after all, and was probably awake all day while you slept,” G.G. pointed out. When Elspeth sighed, her shoulders sagging in defeat, he smiled and said, “So, Wyatt is your life mate.”

  Elspeth glanced away unhappily. This was not something she wanted to have to deal with just now. She had enough on her plate. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she shrugged and said, “A possible life mate.”

  G.G. tilted his head. “You don’t want him for a life mate?”

  Elspeth avoided his gaze, her mind returning to that incredible kiss on Meredith’s back porch. Finally, she said, “It’s not that I don’t want him. I just . . .” Closing her eyes briefly, she sighed and then admitted, “I want to have a life, G.G. You were right when you said I’ve led a sheltered life. I haven’t been able to do anything. I’ve never dated, never been kissed properly until today, never had a girls’ night—unless you count the pajama party we had for Lissianna’s birthday when she met Greg. And even then our parents were all there,” she added with a grimace. “I want to experience at least some stuff before I settle down to a life mate. I want to go on dates, go dancing, eat popcorn in movie theaters, have fun girls’ nights, and . . .” She shook her head unhappily and then noticed the crooked smile on G.G.’s face and raised her eyebrows. “What?”

  “I was just thinking God must have an ironic sense of humor,” he admitted with mild amusement.

  “How’s that?” she asked with curiosity.

  “Well, most immortals are pining for their life mate, and probably on their knees praying every night to find them, but they don’t,” he said solemnly. “While you, who isn’t at all interested in finding her life mate, and who just wants some freedom to experience life for a change, have your life mate thrown at you right out of the gates.” He shook his head. “I sometimes think God, or the Fates, or whoever it is he puts in charge of this stuff, really needs a good slap up the side of the head.”

  Elspeth smiled wryly, thinking he might be right. After all, she wasn’t the only example of God’s sense of humor. There was G.G. himself, a mortal whose mother had been widowed while he was still a boy, and then found herself a life mate to an immortal. She’d allowed the immortal to turn her, and then, when G.G. was eighteen, had offered to use her one turn to turn her son. But whereas most mortals would give a lot for such an opportunity, G.G. wasn’t interested. Of course, that had crushed his mother. She didn’t want to have to watch her son grow old and die. So his stepfather had bought The Night Club and given it to G.G. on his eighteenth birthday with the hope that one day, an immortal would walk in that G.G. might be a life mate for, and he might yet agree to be turned.

  “Wow, this place is something special.”

  Elspeth turned at that comment as Wyatt returned from the washroom.

  “The bathrooms are first class, and I spotted a room through a glass door on my way there that looks like a high-class New York dance club.”

  “If this place is anything like The Night Club in London, there will be other rooms too, all with different themes,” Elspeth said with a faint smile and then glanced to G.G. “Are there?”

  He nodded. “Lucern had it set up pretty good, but I did redecorate a couple of rooms to my own taste when I bought it.”

  “You own this place?” Wyatt asked with amazement.

  G.G. nodded.

  “Wow,” he breathed, and then said solemnly, “Well, you have a real classy place here. Nice job.”

  “Thank you,” G.G. said with dignity.

  “We should get going,” Elspeth said, standing up. “My mother and sisters are probably still with Merry, and I wouldn’t want to inflict them on your grandmother for any longer than necessary. Besides, I do have to get to work eventually.”

  “Yeah.” Wyatt got up and pulled out his wallet. “I’ve got our drinks.”

  Elspeth exchanged a glance with G.G. and then quickly rolled up the money she’d taken out earlier and passed it to G.G. in a handshake as she murmured, “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” G.G. said solemnly, but held on to her hand. “You’re going to have to confront her, Elspeth. I know there’s a reason for her behavior, but this isn’t healthy for any of you. Not only is she making you and your sisters’ lives miserable, she’s hampering your development. The twins are like a couple of sixteen-year-olds, and you . . .” He shook his head. “This has to end. You have to find a way to end it.”

  “Yes,” she said on a sigh, and withdrew her hand when he released it. Noting the curiosity on Wyatt’s face, she forced a smile. “Shall we go?”

  Nodding, Wyatt held a fifty out toward G.G. for what he thought were a Coke and four power drinks. “Will this cover it?”

  “It’s all good,” G.G said, waving the money away and walking around the bar. “I’ll see you guys out and lock the door.”

  Wyatt tried to protest, but fell silent, his eyes widening incredulously when the man reached them. Wyatt was probably an inch over six feet tall and well built, but G.G. was a giant in comparison, and twice as wide.

  Grinning, Elspeth took Wyatt’s arm and
urged him toward the door. “Come on. Let’s get moving and let G.G. finish prepping for the rush.”

  Five

  “Jesus, that guy’s huge,” Wyatt breathed as they stepped out onto the sidewalk and heard the door lock behind them.

  “That’s why he’s called G.G.,” Elspeth said with amusement, and then explained, “It’s short for Green Giant.”

  “Green Giant?” Wyatt asked with surprise. “You were calling him G.G.? The whole time we were in there I thought you were saying Gigi, like the girl’s name, and couldn’t figure out who would be stupid enough to name him that.”

  Elspeth chuckled as they wound their way toward the curb, maneuvering around the pedestrians walking past. “His real name is Joshua. But someone nicknamed him Green Giant because of the green Mohawk and his size, and then it was shortened to G.G. and it stuck.”

  “Hmm,” Wyatt murmured and then grinned and asked, “Did he kill the guy who called him Green Giant?”

  “Not that I know of,” she said with a laugh as they reached the curb.

  Wyatt smiled. He liked her laugh. He’d forgotten how musical and sweet it was. He was glad he’d followed her this evening. He still hadn’t got the answers to a lot of his questions, but at least he knew she hadn’t rushed off to drink or pick up men at The Night Club tonight. Also, he believed what she’d said. Her renting from his grandmother was nothing more than coincidence, and—

  A startled yelp and Elspeth suddenly falling out into the road in front of him brought Wyatt’s thoughts to an abrupt halt, and then horror crashed through him as she disappeared under the wheels of a car. It all happened so fast he was left gaping briefly, his heart and lungs coming to a full stop, and then slamming back to work as the car skidded to a halt and alarmed shouts and concerned cries rose up around him.

  Wyatt hurried to the back end of the car, but Elspeth wasn’t there. Dropping to his knees, he peered under the vehicle, his heart stuttering in his chest when he saw her pinned under the back tires.