Twice Bitten

by Lynsay Sands

  "She needs to stay with me where I can keep her safe," Martine said stubbornly. "I won't lose her or the twins like I did Darius and the boys."

  "Oh, Martine," Marguerite sighed the words, sadness wreathing her face. "Honey, I know how hard that must have been. But--"

  "You don't know," Martine snapped. "You have no idea what it was like."

  "No, I don't," she admitted. "But I have children. I can imagine, and it's still no excuse for abusing your daughters."

  "I would never abuse my daughters," Martine said with outrage.

  "Taking control of them and every part of their lives as you've been doing is as good as locking them in a cage and keeping them prisoner. The only difference is that the bars are invisible," Marguerite said firmly, and then straightened her shoulders and said, "And while I love you like a true sister, I won't let you do that anymore, Martine. Not now that I know it's happening. Either you back off and let your daughters live their lives, or I will call both Lucian and the UK and North American Councils, tell them what you have been doing, and demand they do something about it."

  Martine stiffened. "You've got no right to interfere like that!"

  "And you've got no right to control them the way you have been doing. Elspeth and the twins have a right to lead their lives," Marguerite countered, and then sighed and said pleadingly, "Surely you can see this isn't right, Martine? You are making your daughters miserable with your paranoid fears for their well-being and your helicopter parenting."

  "Paranoid?" Martine straightened abruptly, any uncertainty leaving her at once. "Elspeth moved here and now has someone trying to kill her. That's the truth, not paranoia."

  "Actually," Elspeth said dryly, "no one started trying to kill me until you and the twins got here. In fact, Mortimer's looking into the possibility that it might be someone trying to get at you by harming me."

  "What?" Her mother turned on her with amazement.

  Elspeth shrugged. "Well, no one would want to kill me for something I've done. I'm likeable."

  "Are you suggesting I'm not?" her mother asked, narrowing her eyes.

  "Well, as he put it, you're old and difficult enough to have made enemies," she said, and then felt guilty when her mother flinched at the words.

  "I think perhaps you need some counseling," Marguerite said quietly. "Martine, you need someone like Greg to help you deal with your fears and worries about your daughters' well-being. And," she added, glancing from Martine to Elspeth, "I think perhaps some family counseling to help deal with the anger the girls have with you would be good too."

  Martine snorted at the suggestion, and opened her mouth, no doubt to tell Marguerite where she could stick that idea, but Elspeth's aunt spoke first.

  "But whether you get counseling or not, Martine, I'm not going to just stand back and allow you to take control of Elspeth and the twins and force them back to England against their will."

  Martine narrowed her eyes, and asked coldly, "And how do you think you can stop me, Marguerite?"

  "She won't have to."

  All three of them turned to peer at the man in the doorway at those words. Dressed in pajama bottoms and nothing else, Julius Notte had a serious case of bedhead that looked just adorable on him, and a scowl on his face that was incredibly intimidating, at least to Elspeth.

  "Husband," Marguerite said with relief, and moved to his side, leaning into him when he slid his arm around her.

  "So, you would interfere too, would you?" Martine asked unpleasantly.

  "Me?" Julius asked with amusement, and then shook his head and gestured over his shoulder as he ushered Marguerite out of the way for Mortimer to enter the room. "I was coming to see where Marguerite had got to and there was a knock on the door as I came down the stairs. Mortimer wanted to talk to you."

  Martine tsked with disgust, obviously not thinking Mortimer much of a threat, at least not until Mortimer said, "I spoke to Lucian after talking to first you and then my wife this morning."

  Elspeth noted the way her mother stiffened, and waited to see what was coming.

  "He asked me to convey to you that now that Elspeth and the twins are in Canada, they are under the purview of the North American Council, and the protection of the North American Enforcers, and cannot be forced to leave for any reason, by anyone," he announced, his voice firm. "Should anyone try to force them out of the country, or even try to make them do anything they do not wish, that individual will be considered rogue and treated accordingly."

  Mortimer allowed a moment for that to sink in and then added, "Lucian also asked me to remind you that it is considered rogue behavior to interfere with a rogue hunter in any way, and Wyatt is a deputized rogue hunter, so controlling him at all is not allowed. He also ordered me to ensure Wyatt, Elspeth, and the twins are not on the plane when and if you decide to leave. If they are not directly in front of my eyes, then I am to search the plane to ensure they are not on it before your plane is allowed to take off."

  Elspeth had at first wondered why he'd mentioned Wyatt, but suddenly realized that her uncle Lucian had thought of something she hadn't. Unable to take control of her and make her leave, her mother might have taken control of Wyatt and forced him to leave with her so that Elspeth would follow. And she would have, too, if for no other reason than that he would be a prisoner because of her. Martine couldn't use him that way now, though.

  "Lucian also asked me to have you call him," Mortimer added solemnly. "He wishes to speak to you."

  "He does, does he?" Martine asked coldly as she headed out of the room. It was all that she said, but Elspeth was quite sure her mother would not be calling Uncle Lucian.

  Silence briefly fell over the room once her mother was gone, and they all stood around for at least the count of ten. But when that ten-count passed and Martine didn't return, they all seemed to release a breath as one and begin to move.

  "Ellie, dear, come sit down and I'll get you blood," Marguerite murmured, moving to her side to take her arm and usher her to a chair at the kitchen table.

  "I'll get the blood," Julius said gruffly, moving to the refrigerator.

  "You should have told me the extent of your mother's actions the first time you came out to the Enforcer House on arriving in Canada," Mortimer growled, taking her other arm to help get her to the table. "I could have run interference when she arrived in the country."

  "I didn't know the extent then," Elspeth said wearily as she sank gratefully into a chair. "I mean, I knew she was controlling, but I had no idea she was wiping my memories and managing my life as she has. I certainly had no clue she'd got between Wyatt and me. I didn't even recall that we'd met before."

  "Yes, Sam told me," he said on a sigh and shook his head. "This is the last thing I needed."

  "I know. You have enough on your plate right now. I'm sorry," Elspeth murmured.

  "It's not your fault," Mortimer sighed as Julius joined them at the table with several bags of blood.

  "Did Lucian have any suggestions on how to deal with her?" Julius asked as he handed out bags of blood to each of them.

  "He's going to call Aloysius, brief him on what's going on, and tell him to get Martine some help pronto," Mortimer said quietly and then shifted his gaze to Elspeth and added, "In the meantime, your bodyguards are now doing double duty. In future, they'll be guarding you from your attacker, as well as protecting you and the twins from your mother." Shaking his head with disbelief, he muttered, "It never rains but it pours."

  "So she can't make us leave?"

  Wyatt smiled faintly at that question from Julianna. It was the third time she'd asked it since Elspeth had returned to the room with Mortimer and told them what had happened in the kitchen. Wyatt had been glad to hear that Elspeth was safe, but had been quite upset to know how close she'd come to being controlled and, no doubt, dragged off by her mother.

  "No, Julianna, she can't make you leave," Elspeth said again patiently, a faint smile curving her lips. "We're free."

  "Well
, you are so long as you are here in North America," Mortimer pointed out solemnly. "If she catches you in another Council's area, though . . ."

  He didn't have to say the sisters might not be safe elsewhere. There were probably some Councils who wouldn't care what Martine did to, or with, her own daughters. So while they were free, they weren't totally free. They were only free here.

  "Well, I have to get back to the house," Mortimer said now, and smiled at Wyatt. "I just wanted to see how you were doing before I go."

  "I'm good," Wyatt assured him. "Dr. Rachel does great work, and the pain meds she gave me are top-notch."

  "Glad to hear it," Mortimer said with a smile. "I brought some clothes for you, your grandmother, and Elspeth from the stock room at the house. I was guessing at sizes, but hopefully they'll do for now."

  "I'm sure they'll be fine," Wyatt said solemnly.

  Mortimer grunted, and then continued, "Unfortunately, I didn't think of clothes for Julianna and Victoria." He cast an apologetic glance at the twins, and then turned back to Wyatt again. "And Sam didn't mention that you lost your weapons in the fire until I got here. She's going to follow me back to the house to change her clothes, pick up some clothing from the stock room for the twins, and collect some replacement weapons for you. Once she gets back, Alex can go home and change too."

  "I thought Lissianna and Rachel were going to take over watching Elspeth at dawn?" Julianna commented with curiosity.

  "Rachel was working on Wyatt's feet all night, and Lissianna was controlling him to keep him from feeling pain while she did. They're both wiped out and resting," Elspeth explained.

  "Oh," Julianna murmured, and then said, "I can't believe Mother can't force us back to England with her."

  "Me either," Victoria said quietly. "She's controlled us for so long . . . I really didn't think she'd ever stop."

  "Well, she has to now," Sam said firmly.

  "We should celebrate with shakes from that diner you took us to yesterday," Alex suggested.

  "The diner?" Mortimer asked. Eyes narrowing, he turned on his wife. "You feed us grass soup at home and then go to the diner for burgers and shakes?"

  "It isn't grass soup," Sam said, sounding outraged.

  "Well, it's green and tastes like boiled grass," Mortimer said with disgruntlement.

  "I thought you liked it? You said you liked it," she said accusingly.

  "Of course I said I like it. I love you. But now that I know you've been eating real food and sticking me with nasty grass soup . . ." Scowling, he pointed out, "You were the one who insisted we had to go on that cleanse."

  "Cleanse?" Wyatt asked, his eyebrows rising.

  "Yeah," Mortimer said with disgust. "All veggie, no meat, and no taste."

  Wyatt winced in sympathy.

  "It's supposed to be good for us," Sam said with a scowl.

  "The nanos keep us in our peak condition, Sam," Mortimer said dryly. "We don't need to eat nasty, tasteless stuff that's good for us."

  "I know, but I thought maybe if we ate healthier, we could reduce the amount of blood we have to consume," she said unhappily.

  Mortimer sighed, the irritation leaving his expression. Slipping his arm around her, he drew her to his side and said, "I understand, and we can eat more healthily, but I want meat . . . and potatoes . . . and pie. At least on occasion. Okay?"

  "Okay," she agreed quietly.

  "So, no more grass soup?" Mortimer asked.

  "No more," she agreed solemnly.

  "Good." Bending, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and then turned toward the door. "I have to get back."

  "I'll be right behind you," Sam promised, and walked him to the door. He paused to give her a more proper kiss goodbye, and then left. Sam watched him walk up the hall, then closed the door and sighed. "Okay, so if you guys will call in an order, I'll head back to the house, get the clothes and guns, and then pick up the food on the way back."

  "I'll call," Alex assured her. "What do you want?"

  Sam rattled off what she wanted and then left the room, her expression distracted as if she were making a mental list of everything she had to get. Alex took Wyatt and Elspeth's orders next. When she moved on to the twins, Wyatt turned to Elspeth. She'd settled on the bed next to him when she'd returned with Mortimer earlier, and he now took her hand and squeezed gently, drawing her gaze to him. Smiling, he said, "You confronted your mother. Well done."

  Elspeth snorted at the praise. "Aunt Marguerite and Mortimer did most of the confronting, or at least the successful confronting. I don't think anything I said held any sway."

  Wyatt shrugged. "That doesn't matter. You still confronted her, and I know how hard that must have been for you. She's been like a jailer to you for more than a century, yet you stood up to her. You should be proud," he said solemnly, and then grimaced and added, "And please don't ever do anything like that again. I think I aged twenty years or so sitting here worrying about her taking control of you and stealing you away again."

  "Yeah?" she asked, her expression softening and her body swaying toward his.

  "Yeah," he assured her softly, his own body swaying her way until he heard Julianna say, "I'll ask Sam before she goes," in a slightly raised voice as she rushed from the room.

  Reminded that they weren't alone, he eased back and said lightly, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you told me my hair was now as white as Gran's. Speaking of which," he added with a frown, "I wonder if Grandmother is up. Maybe we should order something for her too."

  "Oh! Merry!" Elspeth sat up straight beside him, and then was rolling off the bed and hurrying for the door. "I'll go see."

  Wyatt opened his mouth to suggest she take Alex with her, but was too slow. She was already out of the room. Apparently, his concern showed though.

  "She'll be fine," Alex assured him. "Martine can't take her away again. Mortimer saw to that. Well, Lucian did, I guess," she admitted with a frown. "But Mortimer called him."

  Wyatt nodded, but said, "Now we just have to worry about whoever pushed her in front of the car and threw the firebombs into the house."

  "Oh damn!" Alex muttered and rushed from the room.

  "The prospect of food made her forget she was supposed to be guarding Elspeth," Victoria said with amusement.

  "And it made them both forget to take the clothes Mortimer brought for my grandmother," Wyatt pointed out.

  Victoria's eyebrows flew up her forehead. "Oh wow! You're right. I'll take them down."

  "Thanks," he murmured.

  "No problem," she assured him as she gathered the clothes and headed for the door. "I like your grandmother. Merry's a sweetheart."

  "That she is," he agreed with a smile and watched her slip out of the room. The moment the door closed, Wyatt's smile slipped and he was moving. If he was very lucky, he might be able to drag himself to the bathroom and back before any of the women returned. His bladder had been screaming at him since Elspeth had left the first time, but he hadn't wanted to have to be carried to the bathroom by one of the women. He'd rather crawl on his belly than allow that.

  Fifteen

  Elspeth could hear voices in the kitchen as she approached. She'd checked the room Aunt Marguerite had put Meredith in, and on finding it empty had started going through the house in search of her, all the while hoping she wouldn't run into her mother along the way. That would just be awkward, she thought as she paused at the kitchen door to listen to the voices coming from inside. When the only voices she heard were Merry's and Julianna's, she pushed through the door, smiling at the two women when she saw they were alone.

  "Good morning, Merry," Elspeth said with a smile as she let the door swing shut behind her.

  "Oh, good morning, Ellie dear." Meredith smiled at her a little wearily.

  "How did you sleep?" Elspeth asked with concern, noting her pallor and the bags under her eyes.

  "Oh, well enough, I suppose," she said quietly, and when Elspeth gave her a dubious look, Meredith admitted, "I was fretti
ng a little . . . about Wyatt and the house . . . and insurance."

  "Wyatt is going to be all right," Elspeth assured her solemnly. "He'll be off his feet for a while, but he will recover just fine."

  "Yes, Julianna said that too, and I'm sure he will," Merry said, managing a smile.

  "As for the house, we'll have some coffee and something to eat and then call the insurance people. Or we can call them while we're waiting for the food," she decided, and then said, "Speaking of which, Alex is calling in an order to a diner and Sam's picking up the food on the way back. What would you like for breakfast?"

  "Oh," Meredith hesitated, and shook her head. "I'm not really hungry, dear. Maybe I'll just have one of the doughnuts today, if that's okay."

  "Doughnuts?" Elspeth asked, glancing around. The word had barely left her lips when she spotted the box on the counter next to the back door. It had a popular doughnut shop logo on it. "Oh."

  "Doughnuts!" Julianna groaned, lunging out of her seat and rushing to the box.

  Elspeth shook her head with amusement, but then arched an eyebrow at Meredith. "Merry, you need more than a doughnut if you're going to deal with the insurance people. Those guys can be such a pain." She considered her briefly, and then said, "I ordered a cheese omelet for myself, and know you like them as well. I'll ask Alex to order you one with sausage too. If you don't eat it all, I'm sure Wyatt will help."

  "Why is it you so often sound like the adult of the two of us?" Merry asked with affectionate amusement, and when Elspeth blinked in surprise, Meredith shrugged. "Very well, order the omelet. I'm sure I'll have room by the time it arrives."

  Elspeth patted her hand, and turned back toward the door. "I'll just run up and tell Alex, and then I'll come back and we can start with those calls."

  "I can tell Alex for you," Julianna offered as she grabbed plates out of the cupboard. She pulled out two, presumably one for her and one for Victoria, and then asked, "Do you think Wyatt would like a doughnut too while he waits?"

  "Oh, I'm sure he would, dear," Merry said, shifting as if to stand up.

  "Don't get up, Merry. I'm already up. I'll get you a doughnut," Elspeth said, moving toward the counter.