I blinked, not realizing how much time had passed. It had seemed to fly by once we'd gotten here, but we'd traveled a bit after the sun had set, and walking through this place took forever, and I suppose we had been in the lab for awhile. It hadn't seemed that long at the time. As Gabriel pointed out how late it was, I suddenly felt it in my body. I slumped against Teren, a yawn escaping me. Teren looked at me questioningly, but I shook my head. I didn't want to spend the night here. I wanted to be home with my comforts, my safeties, and my husband.
Teren looked back at Gabriel. "No, thank you for the generous offer, but once my great-grandmother arrives and is brought up to speed, we'd like to head home."
Gabriel nodded, extending his hand to the glass doors exiting the room. "Of course. We have several spare rooms at your disposal."
With a hand protectively on my back, we followed Gabriel as he led us to a rather bland looking staircase. It led up into one of the house's strange levels. Strange because we went up two flights of stairs, through a tunnel, down a set of stairs, and then back up a set. I was even more tired when we finally got to the room. Cursing the must-have-been-stoned architect that had designed this place, I had no complaints in me when Teren finally scooped me into his arms, carrying me down the seemingly endless hallway to where our guest room was.
I was semi-asleep before we even got there. I heard Teren and Gabriel exchange some sort of parting, and then heard the door open and felt the chill of the little used room hit me. Since I was snuggling against Teren's cool chest, the chill felt normal to me and I didn't even shiver. Teren clutched me close to him as I swam in and out of alertness. I felt him lie me on something soft, a bed, and then heard and felt his body lie behind me. His arms curled around me as he buried his head in my hair.
He exhaled softly, the sweetness of his scent making me smile, even in my sleep-haze. "We made it, Emma," he whispered. Not able to respond past a grunt, I loosely squeezed his hand. Relief and exhaustion overtook me, and the last thing I heard before I succumbed, was him telling me that he loved me.
I dreamt of our children while we waited. I dreamt of holding them, playing with them, watching them sleep. I dreamt of watching Teren play with them, watching him make playful fanged faces for them. Listened to their imagined laughter as they tried to copy him, watched their little fingers touch his beautiful face.
I couldn't believe that after all of this, I might actually get to have that. I just had to survive the shot.
I woke up with a start, uneasy. Teren's cool arms were still around my body and he stirred when I stirred. "It's okay, Emma," he slurred sleepily.
Confused, I blinked at a stream of sunlight hitting my eyes. For a moment, I had no idea where I was. I twisted uncomfortably, my children telling me that I'd better find a bathroom soon. Scooting over to the edge of the bed, I looked around the completely foreign room. Alarmed, I turned back to Teren, still dozing on the bed. "We're still here?" I said, kind of at the top of my voice.
He cringed and peeked his eyes up at me. "Em, not so loud."
Not enjoying his casualness, I repeated, "We're still here, Teren. Why? I thought we were going home."
He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Well..."
I frowned, standing and rubbing a sore spot in back. "Well what? You could have woken me up."
He sighed as he stood and walked over to me. "I'm...under orders, to stay until nightfall." He said that glumly, and stared at the floor.
That's when I felt it. I stared at the floor too, at the exact point in the house where I could feel Halina sleeping, several feet below us. I peeked up at him. "Halina...forbade you to leave?"
He sighed again, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. She was...not pleased that we'd headed out without her." He frowned. "She sort of ripped into me, right in front of Gabriel and Starla." He rolled his eyes again, looking sheepish.
I couldn't help but smile a little at the thought of that conversation. Starla had probably laughed her ass off. I frowned, thinking of what Gabriel had said about the length of time mixed-turnings took to convert. "He said it happens in the first couple months, Teren. It's been a couple months. Maybe we shouldn't wait to go home..." I couldn't meet him in the eye as I said that.
His fingers came to my chin, twisting me to look at him. "We could dose you here, Emma."
I shook my head immediately. "I won't eat a person, hunter or not, and who knows if they have another 'bird' to kill. I won't be their pawn."
My eyes were wide when I said that. Teren looked at me a moment before sighing and nodding. I was glad he understood. If the dose wasn't going to work for me, it would start the conversion in me. I had no idea whether or not Gabriel had any other prisoners in this massive complex. Maybe someone was passed out, or asleep, or possibly near death. I couldn't take the chance that he'd offer me up a blood-pumping human, right when I was at my weakest. I wasn't sure if I had Teren's restraint, and I didn't want to find out if I did or not. And I didn't want that guilt on my conscience if I didn't, not when the Adams had plenty of blood sources readily available. Teren understood not wanting that guilt.
"We'll leave as soon as we get you some food." His finger gently stroked the soft spot under my eye. At his words, my stomach grumbled loudly and my fangs nearly dropped at the thought. I noticed the sunken look of Teren's face and realized he hadn't eaten anything since the tiny blood packet in Starla's car. As a fairly new vamp, he still needed to eat pretty often.
"You're starving, Teren." I frowned.
He grinned, having heard my stomach. "I'm not the only one." He kissed my nose. "And I'm not starving, just mildly uncomfortable."
I nodded and slumped against him. He picked me up, prepared to walk me through the maze of hallways, when I whispered into his wrinkled dress shirt, "I need a restroom."
He laughed, the lightness of it gone for so long that I found myself laughing in response. "Right, forgot about that."
I grinned, looking up at him. "Well, you haven't had to worry about that for awhile, Mr. I-no-longer-have-a-functioning-digestive-system." He smiled brilliantly at that, and I reveled in the joy in his face. I hadn't seen that in a long time either.
As he walked me out of the room, in search of facilities, my hand went to his cheek. "Do you think this will work, Teren. Do you think I'll live, and they'll make it through this?"
He looked down on me, after finding the room in question. "I think you're a miracle, Emma. And if anyone could survive this, it would be you." He grinned splendidly again and we kissed for a moment, until my bladder said enough is enough, and I speedily used that restroom.
As Teren set me down in the entryway we'd used to come into the home yesterday, tall and dark Jordan approached us. With a cool professionalism, he led us into the dining room. Apparently, we'd woken up in time for breakfast. My stomach growled again as the smell of pancakes hit me. Starla and a few other alive-mixed were already in the room, helping themselves to the buffet style table of food.
Teren looked around, but there weren't any steaming carafes. I didn't smell any blood mixed with the pancakes and syrup either. He frowned as Starla turned to us. Having heard my stomach, she loudly grumbled, "Great. Preggers is gonna eat all the chow." She smirked at me after she said that, and I scowled at her.
Jordan had disappeared upon leading us to the room, zooming back to wherever he'd come from, so Teren only continued to frown, smelling and searching the area for his food. Jacen suddenly approached as I was getting my plate of carbs. Smacking Teren on the back, he pointed to a door leading outside. "Our grubs that way." He raised his eyebrows at him. "We prefer our food fresh here."
Jacen turned to leave as Starla muttered, "Neanderthal." Jacen shot her a glare as he headed outside.
Teren sighed and then looked back at me. "Guess I'm hunting after all." Grabbing a Styrofoam cup off a table, he muttered, "I'll bring you back some." I frowned at him sympathetically and then smiled at his thoughtfulness. Teren didn't really enjoy hunting, and I had a feeling that I wasn't really going to be a hunter either.
I sat down by Starla to eat my meal, since she was the only person I knew in the room. She chatted my ear off about the amazing shopping trip she could take me on. She eyed my tacky painting sweats and baggy t-shirt with open disdain. I took in her fitted DKNY dress and contained a sigh. I sort of missed my body. I'd have filled out her tight dress nicely, a few months ago. But as my twins kicked me, I let it go. I had something vastly more important than an hourglass figure. I was happy to give it up, to bring Teren's children into the world. For awhile at least.
Teren was coming back into the room just as I was filling up my second plate. I felt him approaching and my hands started shaking. He hadn't been too far away from me, so the pull of him returning wasn't that bad, but I still closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths. Starla laughed at me as she left the room to go outside.
Teren walked over to me with forced slowness. A smile crept on my face at his control. What he really wanted to do was throw himself on me. I knew that, because that's what I really wanted to do. Our nature demanded it. But we fought it and calmly met in the middle of the room, him bending over to give me an appropriately small kiss. "Missed you," he whispered, his voice a little husky.
"Missed you too," I whispered back, forcing myself to sit down, instead of leaning back in for another kiss.
He sat beside me and the bond eventually evened out. Grabbing my free hand while I started in on my second helping, he placed a cup of deep red blood in front of me and I stared at it. With concerned eyes, I looked back at him. He understood.
"It's a puma. Found it up the hillside." I grabbed the cup and immediately started chugging it. Puma wasn't cow, but it was better than human. Conscience-wise anyway. I noted the slight difference in taste as Teren continued. "They've fenced in a large portion of the hill, trapping the wild animals inside. Many here only eat animal, but not all..."
His voice drifted off and I peeked over at him with my eyes, my fangs slightly digging through the Styrofoam cup. He looked over my face and sighed. "They've got a house with people...willing to..." He shook his head. "They give them drugs or money or...sex...and the humans let them bite them." He shrugged as my mouth dropped. "They don't kill them, but they have the purebloods wipe them when they are done with them."
"How do they find people willing to do that?"
Teren shrugged, looking out over the room that was all listening to us. A voice from behind us answered me. "We place ads, in the personals." I twisted to look at Gabriel standing behind us. "We don't mention exactly what we are looking for, but you'd be surprised how many are more than happy to do it." He smiled widely as my mouth opened even farther. "For the right price."
"Oh," was all I could squeak out to that. I took in the leader of this group of mixed and pure vampires behind me, authoritative, yet welcoming at the same time. A bright shaft of sunlight was lighting him from the side, lightening his sandy brown hair to near blonde and making his green eyes exceptionally emerald. He had power, money, charm, and the looks to go along with it. This man was the sort of person who could change the world, if he chose. But his life mission had been to save Teren's kind. Well, my kind in a way now too. I was thankful that he was on our side.