The Reluctant Vampire - Lynsay Sands [114]
Drina nodded. She’d considered the same thing and the same problem. “We have a little time before we leave. We’ll just keep thinking, maybe have a brainstorming session after we eat.”
“Good idea,” Mirabeau said.
“Speaking of eating,” Harper murmured. “Just the sight of that bag of blood Stephanie’s puncturing with straws is making my fangs ache. I need blood.”
“Me too,” Drina admitted on a sigh, allowing him to urge her out of the entry.
Harper hung up Teddy’s phone with a weary sigh and stood up to stretch in front of the desk in the dining room. He’d been making calls for the last hour while Tiny and the women brainstormed in the living room with Stephanie over ways to help her. He knew that Drina had included the girl in an effort to reassure her and give her some sense of hope, but when he entered the room, he found Stephanie curled up on the couch sound asleep and the others gathered in chairs at the other end of the living room talking quietly.
“Any luck?” he asked quietly as he settled on the arm of Drina’s recliner and rubbed her back.
“We had a couple of good ideas, I think,” Drina said, tipping her head up to smile at him crookedly. “But we’re all so exhausted . . .” She shrugged, and then said, “You were on the phone a long time. Was there a problem arranging for the helicopter?”
Harper shook his head. “It’s coming for us at midnight. That gives us . . .” He automatically glanced down at his wrist, but recalling that his watch had been another victim of the fire, glanced around the room for a clock. He spotted the digital time readout on the DVR beside Teddy’s television. It was 10:58. “Thirteen hours to sleep, take turns at the shower, and get ready. We should also be able to fit in another brainstorming session before it arrives.”
“Good thinking,” Tiny rumbled, catching Mirabeau’s hand and standing up. “We’ll be more clearheaded then.”
“Yeah,” Mirabeau sighed, slipping her arm around Tiny, and then glancing to Drina and Harper with a grimace. “Are you two going to be all right in the recliners? I feel bad that we get the bed.”
“Don’t,” Drina said, a wry smile curving her lips. “I’m so exhausted I could sleep on a bed of nails.”
“We’ll be fine,” Harper assured them. Teddy had decided the sleeping arrangements; Tiny and Mirabeau got the spare bedroom, Stephanie, Drina, and he got the living room, and Anders was presently sharing Teddy’s bed. Or possibly sacked out on Teddy’s bedroom floor, Harper thought with amusement as he recalled Anders’s expression when Teddy had made the announcement. He hadn’t looked terribly pleased, but it was Teddy’s house, so his rules.
No one was fooled. The police chief had made Anders share his room so he could keep an eye on him and ensure he didn’t try to slip away with Stephanie while the rest of the house slept. Drina’s and Harper’s sleeping in the living room with Stephanie was the second safeguard against that as well as the possibility of another attack by Leonius.
Harper sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be another attack. He was exhausted. They all were. If they could just make it through the next thirteen hours without Leonius trying something, they would get Stephanie away from here and at least that risk. Then they’d only have to worry about helping her handle her new gifts and convincing Lucian to give her the time to do so.
“Well, good night then,” Mirabeau murmured, as Tiny turned her toward the door and urged her from the room.
“Good night,” Drina and Harper whispered together.
He watched them out of the room, and then bent to press his lips to Drina’s forehead. At least that was the intention, but she lifted her head to say something just as he did, and his lips landed on her mouth. Exhausted as he was, his body immediately responded to the contact, and Harper found himself thrusting his tongue eagerly into her mouth to taste the passion bursting to life between them.