Home > Twice Bitten (Argeneau #27)(7)

Twice Bitten (Argeneau #27)(7)
Author: Lynsay Sands

Wyatt’s mouth tightened at this news. It just didn’t seem right. What the hell was a young woman like Ellie doing hanging around with an old woman all the time? What was she after?

“The poor girl has been lonely since moving here. She will make friends eventually, but right now she’s missing her family and her home in England. Well, she was. Now they’re here and I don’t suppose she misses them as much.” A soft chuckle slipping from her lips, she added, “In fact, I suspect she’s probably wishing they’d never come.”

“Why?” he asked with curiosity.

“Because her mother is apparently a bit overbearing and tends to interfere in her daughters’ lives. That’s why Ellie moved here from England in the first place, to get away from her. But despite that she, of course, missed her.”

“Isn’t that kind of contradictory?” he asked, wondering about El’s mother. Elspeth hadn’t said anything to him about that the first time they’d met, but then, she hadn’t talked about her family at all.

“No,” Meredith said, surprising him. “It’s like any bad relationship. A girl can leave, and know she made the right decision, but still miss parts of that relationship. Nothing is bad twenty-four hours a day. But when the bad outweighs the good, it’s time to go. That doesn’t mean you won’t miss that little bit of good afterward.” Shrugging, she backed out of his hold, and said, “Of course, Elspeth missed the good parts of having a mother, and distance makes the bad stuff fade somewhat, but about now she’s remembering exactly why she moved to another continent.”

“Hmm,” Wyatt murmured. El’s mother had seemed nice enough to him. Well, except maybe for the fact that she’d come wandering in wearing nothing but a nightgown and robe. That had seemed a little . . . odd.

“Oh!”

“What?” Wyatt glanced to his grandmother anxiously at that cry. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m missing my game shows,” she exclaimed and hurried out of the kitchen.

Wyatt watched her go and then shook his head and sat down at the kitchen table. He was in a hell of a spot here. His grandmother was right. Uncle Oscar did have his father convinced that she needed to be in a home, and he had asked Wyatt to come out, expecting him to arrange that.

The problem was, Wyatt wasn’t so sure she needed to be in one. Meredith had seemed fine when he’d arrived here yesterday afternoon. They’d had tea and talked, and then he’d taken her out to dinner, and they’d talked some more. Actually, they’d talked most of the evening, and she’d seemed as sharp as ever. Until he’d learned she’d given El a key to her apartment and such. Her trusting a virtual stranger so much so quickly seemed a little iffy.

And then there was that business of the iTunes scammer. Apparently, several older people had been convinced to buy thousands of dollars in iTunes cards, then read out the code numbers over the phone to people claiming to be tax collectors. They called suggesting that they owed thousands in unpaid taxes, and threatening to repossess their homes and such if they didn’t comply. He’d thought it a ridiculous scheme when he’d heard about it, and that anyone taken in by it must be incompetent, but his grandmother’s words had made him think again. She didn’t even own a computer, probably had no idea what iTunes was, and if the man had been yelling and frightening her, she would have been flustered and upset and more likely to at least find out what the bank thought.

Her claim that Uncle Oscar was just out to get her back for suggesting Aunt Violet leave him troubled Wyatt. He didn’t know the couple well. He hadn’t seen them since his parents had moved him to British Columbia. Actually, he hadn’t seen them much before that. Aunt Violet was his Gran’s sister and they were actually a great-aunt and-uncle, so he’d never been close with them. But from what he recalled, he’d never thought much of Uncle Oscar the few times he had encountered him.

Standing up, he placed one hand on the back of the chair next to where he’d been sitting. The seat El had occupied when she and her mother were here. He ran his hand along the seat back, his memory drawing up her image again. It had been four years since he’d last seen her, and she’d looked exactly the same today as she had that day in the café. And his feelings on seeing her?

Wyatt blew out a breath. It hadn’t just been his mind that had recognized her. His body had too, and had responded just as it had all those years ago. If he hadn’t been so shocked to see her standing there, he would have pulled her into his arms and held her hard and tight and never let her go. But shock had stopped him just long enough for her to ask who he was, and then he hadn’t known what to do or how to act with her. He still didn’t. How could she not remember him? Or perhaps the question was, why was she pretending not to remember him? He needed to bide his time and find that out. So, he now had two projects here—settle the business with his grandmother, and find out whether El remembered him or not and why she would claim not to if it was all an act.

Three

“Mother’s right, Juli. Ellie’s going to be more than just upset when she finds out what we’ve done. She’s going to wake up in pain and needing blood and will be royally pissed when she learns we drank it all.”

Elspeth’s footsteps slowed midway across the living room as she heard Victoria’s comment coming from the kitchen. Her sister was right. She had woken up in pain and needing blood. The healing had begun in earnest the moment she’d finished the last bag of blood that morning, and had quickly become agonizing. It had been noon before the worst of it was over and she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep. Elspeth had only managed four hours of sleep before the terribly painful cramping of her body’s need for blood had forced her back to consciousness.

She’d woken up half an hour ago, dragged herself from bed and headed for the bathroom for a quick shower to rinse the dried blood away before examining her wounds in the mirror. They were healed, at least on the surface. But the cramps of hunger weren’t the only pain Elspeth was suffering. The deep throbbing ache in her lower back told her there was still healing going on inside, muscle being reknit together and deep tissue being repaired.

Taking long, slow breaths to fight the pain, Elspeth had quickly dried herself off, scraped her wet hair back into a ponytail, and dressed in a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt. She’d then left her room, eager to get to the kitchen and down five or six more bags of blood to ease her pain . . . at least the cramping. The pain of healing itself wouldn’t stop until the nanos were done their work, but she could stand that, so long as the sensation of acid pouring through her veins and attacking her organs was abated. Only consuming more blood would do that.

Except, if what she’d just heard was true? It sounded like there was no blood, and no relief from this pain. Elspeth’s hands curled into fists at her sides. Victoria was right. She was royally pissed that they’d drank all her blood.

“Serves her right for making us sleep on the air mattress,” Julianna said without sympathy. “She could have let us have the bed and slept on the couch. It’s comfortable enough. Or she could have shared the bed in the guest room with Mother. But no, she had to have her bed all to herself and stick us on that godawful air mattress. I didn’t sleep at all. I don’t know how you did.”

“I didn’t,” Victoria admittеd. “I just pretended to sleеp so I wouldn’t have to listen to you rant and ravе.”

“Nice,” Julianna said with disgust.

“Sorry,” Victoria said, actually sounding remorseful, and then addеd defensivеly, “But Juli, you’vе been going on about Elspеth’s moving to Canada for six wееks now.”

“Well, shе did. Shе just packed up and snuck off while wе werе in Italy. No warning, not еvеn a hint until that phone call.”

“Shе’s onе hundrеd forty-two yеars old, Juli. It was past time she movеd out on hеr own,” Victoria said solemnly.

“Yeah, but she could havе at lеast taken us with hеr.”

“And how could she havе donе that?” Victoria askеd with еxaspеration. “The only rеason she managed to move out this time was becausе Mother was out of thе country. If we’d been in England, Mother would have bеen too, and shе would have taken control of Elspeth and stopped hеr again as she has evеry other time Ellie’s evеn brought up the idea of moving out.”

   
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