A Quick Bite

Greg was relieved to see Lissianna...until he noted the way she blanched at the sight of his again being tied down. He'd feared it wasn't good, but her reaction seemed to verify it. His gaze slid over the others, who were now eyeing his situation with much the same reaction. He gave his ties a tug, and said wearily, "This is a bad thing, huh?"



No one answered, but after a hesitation, Lissianna moved to the bed and set to work untying his wrists, saying, "I need you to not think."



"'Not think?" he asked with disbelief. "How am I supposed to not think?"



"Recite something."



Greg's mind immediately went blank. "What do 1 recite?"



"I don't care," she sounded impatient, but paused and said more calmly. "A poem, or nursery rhyme or... anything. It doesn't matter, just recite something and concentrate wholly on what you're reciting. It's the only way to keep you from broadcasting what you're thinking to my mother and Lucian and inadvertently let them know what's going on. So, if you want to get out of here, I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I tell you, but without thinking; I need you to concentrate wholly on whatever you recite. Do you understand?"



"Yes." Greg nodded, then admitted, "But, I don't know if I can."



"You have to if you want out of here alive," she said grimly.



"Recite one hundred bottles of beer on the wall," Thomas suggested, moving forward now to help untie him.



"Thomas." Lissianna straightened to face him. "You can't help with this. You--" She paused and glanced over the six people in the room besides herself and Greg. "You all have to go downstairs right now and stay out of this."



Mirabeau snorted and moved forward to untie one of Greg's ankles. "Not likely."



"Mirabeau, this is serious," she tried reasoning. "Really, really serious. This isn't just about defying my mother now. Uncle Lucian--"



"Oh, shut up, Lissi," Elspeth snapped, moving forward to work on Greg's other ankle. "Why should you have all the fun?"



"Besides"--Juli shifted her aside and set to work at finishing untying the wrist Lissianna had started on-- "one for all and all for one, remember?"



"We like Greg," Vicki told her, patting her shoulder as if to soothe her. "None of us want to see him suffer a 'council of three' either."



The tension was suddenly thick in the air, and the grim expressions on those around him were frightening, but it was Lissianna's expression that distressed him the most. She was scared, and he suspected there wasn't a lot that scared her. He also very much feared she was scared for him, not herself.



'"What's a council of three?" he asked, suspecting he wouldn't like the answer.



"Three council members merging with one mortal's mind at the same time," Vicki answered. "Some mortals can resist or block one of our kind, but no one can block or resist three working together."



"What does it do?"



"It destroys the psyche; the person becomes a Renfield."



Greg supposed "a Renfield" was their way to refer to someone driven mad by their messing with the mind. He couldn't be positive however, because when he opened his mouth to ask, Mirabeau snapped, "Recite."



"One hundred bottles of beer on the wall," Greg began, and continued to recite as they worked at getting him free, but found it difficult. He wasn't used to not thinking, and there were all kinds of thoughts and questions swarming in his head. Most of them had to do with the fact that he had no desire to be "a Renfield."



Greg was at ninety-two bottles of beer when the last tie was removed.



Someone has to go down and find out what's going on and be sure they aren't aware Lissianna's back," Thomas said, as Greg sat up on the bed.



"I'll do it," Mirabeau offered. "I'm the oldest and might be able to read more than the rest of you."



"Okay," Thomas agreed. "But be as quick as you can."



Nodding, the woman ran her hands through her spiky fuchsia-tipped hair and moved to the door.



"Recite," Thomas ordered Greg, as Mirabeau left the room.



Realizing he'd stopped, Greg went back to reciting, his voice filling the silence as they awaited Mirabeau's return. She didn't take long, and her expression was grim when she returned.



"They know she's home and that we're all up here. Lucian sent Martine out to the garage to watch the cars and Marguerite has sent for Vittorio, Maria, and Julius."



Greg couldn't help pausing in his reciting to ask, ''Who are they?"



"'Maria is mother's housekeeper and Vittorio is her husband, he tends the yard. They have weekends off, which is why you haven't met them," Lissianna answered, sounding distracted. 'They live in a cottage at the back of the property."



"Julius is Aunt Marguerite's dog," Juli added in a small voice.



"Juli's afraid of dogs," Vicki explained, patting her sister's shoulder. "So Aunt Marguerite has Maria keep him while we're visiting."



"I'm guessing he's not a lapdog, huh?" Greg asked grimly.



"Recite," Mirabeau said firmly. Greg recited.



"Okay." Lissianna rubbed her forehead and paced a couple of steps away from the bed, then returned and faced the others. "You can't help this time."



Thomas opened his mouth to argue, but Lissianna held up her hand. "You can help me more by staying here and finding out what's going on. I'll call tonight to see what you've learned."



"Maybe you should talk to them and find out what's going on first, Lissianna," Jeanne Louise suggested. "Maybe you don't have to get him out of here."



"If I take him now, I'm just disobeying Mom. If I talk to them first and learn they do plan a merger of three or something and then I take him, then I'll knowingly be going against the council." Lissianna shook her head.



"How are you going to get him out?" Thomas asked. "They're watching the cars."



Lissianna drummed her fingers on her thigh briefly, then stilled. "The bike."



Greg blinked in surprise. He hadn't noticed a motorcycle in the garage, but then it couldn't be in the garage, which was being watched.



"What about us?" Elspeth asked.



"You'll have to stay here this time. Find out what's going on for me, and I'll call later. Thomas, do you have your cell phone?"



"Yes."



"Good, I'll call." Lissianna took Greg's hand. The moment she did, his recitation faltered, garnering a sharp look from her. He immediately redoubled his efforts to concentrate solely on what he was saying as she led him across the room. Greg glanced back as they reached the door, and wished he hadn't, the concern and outright fear on the faces of those they were leaving behind shook him horribly.



"Recite in your head," Lissianna instructed as she opened the door. "We can't make any sound."



Greg promptly snapped his mouth shut and switched to silent recitation, but found it harder not to think that way as she led him out into the hall and to a set of stairs at the opposite end from the main stairwell. He started to mouth the words, hoping that would help, but the edges of his mind were seething with thoughts. He worried about what they all feared so much, he worried about where they were going, and he worried about getting there undetected. Most of all, he worried about what would happen if they didn't get wherever she was leading him without being detected.



The stairs ended in a dark hallway. Greg had trouble seeing anything, but trusted in Lissianna and tiptoed along behind her until she paused outside a door. When she eased it open a crack, he realized they were at the kitchens. At first, he thought the room was empty and wondered why Lissianna wasn't moving forward, but then a short, stocky older man walked into view, headed for the door to the garage.



"Where are you going?" A woman's voice laced with a slight Italian accent floated from the other end of the room.



"Lucian wants me to watch the cars with Martine," the man answered, pausing to put on a pair of boots and draw on a coat that hung on a rack by the door. Greg presumed the man was Vittorio, the housekeeper's husband.



"Why?"



"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "He just said, ''Help Martine watch the cars, Vittorio. No one leaves till I say.' So I watch the cars."



"Hmm," Maria sounded worried. "I wonder what the trouble is. They wouldn't call us in early if there wasn't trouble. I hope Miss Lissi hasn't--"



Greg didn't hear what she hoped Miss Lissi hadn't done, because Lissianna chose that moment to let the kitchen door ease closed. She then led him father along the hall to another door. This time she didn't pause, but slid straight into the room, pulling him behind her. Greg had no idea what room it was they now stood in. He was surrounded by darkness. It made him hesitate and pull on Lissianna's hand when she suddenly started forward, but she merely held on firmly and tugged him along.



It wasn't until she hissed the question "Are you reciting?" that he realized he'd stopped. Gritting his teeth, Greg immediately continued reciting one hundred bottles of beer on the wall, starting at one hundred since he wasn't sure where he'd left off.



It seemed like they walked forever before she finally paused. In the next moment there was a hiss as she tugged a set of curtains open. It was still gray dawn outside, but there was enough light for him to make out the French doors she'd revealed.



Greg saw Lissianna reach for the door handle, then they both stiffened at the sudden growl that came muffled from the other side. It took a moment for him to make out the huge black dog on the lawn outside. Julius, he guessed. The animal was huge, definitely not a lapdog.



Greg heard Lissianna curse, then she went quiet. Her silent stillness lasted so long he gave a start when she suddenly turned to him.



"I want you to wait here. I'm going to the other end of the room and open a door there. When Julius comes through that door, I want you to slip out this one, okay?"



Greg nodded.



"Keep reciting." Lissianna slipped away, disappearing briefly into the shadows before she was revealed when the curtains at the other end of the room opened. Greg supposed the French doors ran the length of the room, which meant they were in the library. He'd been here yesterday. It was three walls of floor-to-ceiling books, with the outer wall being fronted with glass French doors. As he recalled, it had seemed a warm and welcoming room in the afternoon. Funny how a little darkness changed things.



"Get ready."



Greg heard the whisper and reached for the door, his gaze finding and locking on Julius's dark form outside. He heard the click and swish of the other door as it opened, saw the dog's black head jerk in that direction, then the beast was off. Greg almost opened his door and rushed from the room then, but managed to stop himself as he realized that if he opened this door before the dog was actually coming through the other one, the animal might hear and change direction.



"Now." The whispered word shot from Lissianna's mouth, and a heartbeat later, Greg had his door open and was sliding through. He glanced toward the other door as he did and saw the dog rush inside and right past Lissianna, hurrying in his direction. Even as he started pulling his door closed, he saw Lissianna slipping out the other one, and closing it as well, trapping the dog inside.



Lissianna was at his side in a heartbeat. Greg didn't get a chance to wonder how she'd moved so quickly, in the next second, she'd taken his hand and begun dragging him along the back of the house. Greg stumbled along behind her, only remembering to recite after they'd covered half the distance. When they reached the corner of the house, she broke to the left, still pulling him along. He had no idea where they were going until a small house began to take shape in the darkness ahead. Greg guessed it was the cottage Vittorio and Maria lived in and--at first--thought she was taking him there, but then she angled to the right and ran him up to a small shed instead.



The shed was padlocked. Lissianna reached out, grabbed the metal lock and pulled. There was a screech Greg recognized as the sound of nails being wrenched from wood and while the lock stayed firm in its hasp, the hasp itself ripped right off the door.



"No key, huh?" he asked dryly, both impressed and a little envious of her strength.



"Recite," Lissianna ordered as she tossed the metal aside and pulled the shed door open to reveal a lawn mower, a bike, and various other items.



"One hundred bottles of beer on the wall," Greg recited doggedly, but he was thinking, What the hell are we doing here?



Lissianna gave him the answer when she grabbed the bike by the handlebars and dragged it out of the shed.



"What are you doing with that?" Greg asked with bewilderment, following her around the shed.



"Escaping."



"On a bicycle?" he asked with horror.



"It's just to get us to the road."



"But... a bicycle?'



"Martine and Vittorio are guarding the cars," she reminded him. "I could control Vittorio, but not Martine."



"Yes, but..." When she'd said bike, he'd thought motorcycle. But this was pink, with a pink-and-yellow basket and pink-and-yellow plastic streamers coming out of the handles... it even had a bell. Unable to accept that they were making their great escape by bicycle of all things, he said lamely, "But it's a girl's bike."



"Yes, it's a girl's bike," Lissianna agreed tersely. "It belongs to Maria's granddaughter. I'm sorry if it doesn't suit you, and I'll happily leave it behind if you'd like to see if you can outrun Julius?"



Greg's eyes widened and he glanced anxiously back the way they'd come. "Julius is locked in the house."



"Julius will be barking his head off. Someone will hear him, realize we've escaped, and let him out. We might get lucky, and they might not hear him from the front of the house until we've reached the road, but if Maria is still in the kitchen--" She paused as a dog's barking suddenly broke the silence of the night. It was coming from the direction of the library, but it was definitely outside.



"You can stop reciting," Lissianna said grimly. "Get on the bike."



Escaping on a bicycle suddenly didn't seem such a bad idea. It was certainly better than getting your butt bitten by a dog you were trying to outrun, he decided as he tried to mount it. Greg threw his leg over the bike with more enthusiasm than caution and was reminded quite force-fully that it was a girl's bike. He was busy cursing about whoever had designed girl's bikes and why they felt they needed that bar across the top as Lissianna mounted the bike before him.



"I'll pedal," she announced. "Wrap your arms around my waist."



Greg had barely managed to do so before she went to work and set the bike careening up the driveway.



"When was the last time you rode a bike?" he asked suspiciously as they wobbled forward, weaving one way, then the other. Lissianna didn't deign to answer.



Greg glanced anxiously toward the big house they'd fled. All he could see were the lit squares of a couple of windows, and an ocean of darkness between them and the house, but he didn't have to see to know the dog was drawing nearer. The barking was getting louder by the minute.



He turned back to face front, relieved to note that while he'd been distracted, Lissianna had picked up speed. The bike was no longer wobbling and they were racing up the driveway. They just might escape Julius yet, he thought... but they had more than the dog to worry about.



"Won't they come after us in a car?"



"Yes."



"Yes," Greg muttered. Yes. Like it wasn't a big deal. They were puttering along on a bloody bike, and she wasn't concerned about being chased by a bunch of more powerful vampires in a car. Okay, so they weren't exactly puttering, he admitted to himself. Lissianna's legs were obviously as strong as her hands, she was really making the bike move... and he no longer worried too much about Julius catching them, in fact the dog's barking was growing distant again. But geez, she didn't really think she could outdistance a car, did she?



a-- '



"We just have to make it to the road," Lisianna said and Greg had a vague recollection of her saying that earlier.



"What happens at the road?" Greg asked, but she didn't answer, and he left her to concentrate on pedaling. His anxious gaze returned to the house just in time to see the garage doors opening.



"They're coming!" he yelled in warning.



Lissianna didn't even glance back. She was pedaling for all she was worth and he saw that they were nearly to the road. Greg started rubbernecking; his head swiveling between Marguerite's little red sports car easing out of the garage, and the nearing road again and again. The car was halfway up the drive behind them and picking up speed when Lissianna finally steered the bike through the gates. Before Greg could ask "What next?" she'd sent them speeding on to the road, directly into the path of an oncoming car.



He shouted a warning, Lissianna apparently applied the brakes, Greg heard the squeal of the brakes of the oncoming car as it swerved to avoid them, and amazingly, they ail managed to stop without anyone being thrown, crushed, or run down.



"Come on!" Lissianna was off the bike and rushing toward the car.



Greg didn't hesitate. With the sound of Marguerite's car gunning after them, he leapt off the bicycle, sent it flying back into the driveway with a shove, and ran after Lissianna, following her into the backseat of the car that had nearly run them down.



"Hey! You can't--!" The pimply-faced, teenager driving the vehicle stopped yelling abruptly and turned in his seat, calmly shifting the car into gear.



"What are you doing, man?" his buddy asked in amazement from the passenger seat. Then he shouted in shock as his friend slammed his foot down on the gas and sent the car shooting up the road.



"He's helping us escape some bad guys," Greg told the second kid soothingly, his gaze moving to Lissianna. She was staring at the road ahead, concentrating as hard as if she were doing the driving herself, and he suspected she was. Greg had no doubt she was controlling the teenaged driver, just as her mother had controlled his own actions.



Greg turned to glance up the driveway as the car flew past it. Tossing the bike up the drive had been a smart move. The red sports car was stopped at the foot of the driveway, the bicycle racked up under its front end. Marguerite and Lucian were just getting out to stare after them, two dark shapes in the gray predawn.







Lissianna walked out of the ladies' bathroom and peered around the food court, but Greg was nowhere in sight.



They'd fled the house without either her purse or his wallet, though Lissianna hadn't thought of that until after she'd had the boys drop them off at the Eaton Center. Her main concern had been that they hadn't thought to grab coats and it was cold out, Eaton Center was right downtown. Large and always busy, it was also on the route of the Path, an underground walkway that linked almost thirty kilometers of stores and services in metropolitan Toronto. Coats weren't necessary and sunlight could be easily avoided if you stayed to the lower levels. It was the perfect place for a coatless man and a vampire to hang out during the day while they figured out what to do next.



Actually, the Eaton Center and the underground Path were the perfect places for a vampire to hang out, period. That was a small problem. Lissianna knew quite a few of her kind who worked down here, able to move about dur-ing daylight with little need to risk too much exposure to sunlight.



Still, it had seemed the best bet, a safe haven until she figured out what to do. After discussing their next move, Lissianna and Greg had spent all morning wandering the walkways, stopping in various stores to look around, then moving on until Greg had commented with concern that she looked exhausted. Five minutes later he'd steered her to the food court and urged her to sit, but Lissianna had mentioned a wish to visit the ladies' room and had slipped away to splash water on her face in the hopes of reviving herself.



The water treatment hadn't made her feel any better or more alert. Lissianna was exhausted, and that was all there was to it. It was afternoon, and she hadn't slept at all today. After several days of only four or five hours of sleep a day, not getting any at all, but instead spending those five hours wandering around the Eaton Center trying to kill time, was wearing. And she hadn't eaten since the morning before. While Thomas had fed her three bags then, it was well used up, and she was starting to suffer from the lack. She needed blood and sleep and wasn't likely to get either for quite a while.



Lissianna wasn't the only one doing without, of course. Greg hadn't eaten yet today either, but hadn't complained. A sharp whistle drew her eyes to the center of the food court, and she felt relief flow through her as she spotted Greg waving at her from a table.



"I was afraid I'd lost you," Lissianna admitted as she dropped into the seat across from him, then paused and stared at the tray of food between them. "Where did you get this? I thought you didn't have your wallet."



"I didn't, but my office isn't far from here and I'm a regular at that little deli over there." He gestured toward a small restaurant, then continued, "The owners are a little, old married couple. Real nice. And because they know me, they let me get it on credit. They're mailing the bill to my office. I told them to add a delivery charge for their trouble. They're a decent couple."



"Oh." Lissianna watched him unload soup and a sandwich as well as a drink before her.



"Eat," Greg ordered as he pulled the tray with his own soup, sandwich, and drink toward himself.



"I don't eat," she said blankly.



"Lissianna, I can't get you blood, but food will help you build blood. It might help."



Grimacing, she accepted the spoon he offered and dipped it into the liquid to take an experimental mouthful. With the memory of Father Joseph's soup in her mind, she took a rather small spoonful, but was pleasantly surprised. It was good.



"What is it?" she asked.



"Cream of cauliflower and cheese." Greg raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"



"It's good," she admitted. "I don't think I've ever had this before."



He smiled, but merely concentrated on eating.



After a couple of spoonfuls of soup, Lissianna tried the sandwich and found that rather good as well.



"Smoked Montreal beef and mustard on rye " Greg informed her before she could ask what the sandwich was.



"It's good, too," she admitted, and they both fell silent as they ate. Lissianna finished long before he did. After years on a liquid diet, she simply didn't have the capacity for a lot of food in her stomach. She barely managed half her soup and less than half of her sandwich. What she didn't eat, Greg finished for her. Surprisingly enough, the food did make her feel a little better. More awake at least as they emptied the garbage from the tray into one of the bins, then set it on the stack of trays on top. They wandered the Path for a while after that, ending in the furniture section of a department store.



"This is just about the ugliest couch I have ever seen."



Lissianna started to chuckle at Greg's horrified expression which just made his eyebrows rise. "You don't agree?"



"Oh yes. It is ugly," she assured him. "I'm just finding it amusing that our tastes match so well."



He smiled wryly. "I know. At first, I thought you were just agreeing to be agreeable."



Lissianna's eyebrows rose, and she said, "I'm not Meredith."



"I know," Greg said apologetically. "I stopped commenting for a while to try and catch you out, but you still liked and disliked the same things I did. I guess we just have the same taste."



"Classic," Lissianna murmured, and when he arched an eyebrow, she explained. "I like timeless classics. Solid colors and timeless styles rather than patterns and styles that show their age after a while. I also like comfortable, cushiony furniture."



Greg grinned and nodded. "Classic. I wouldn't have known to call it that, but it's what I like, too." His gaze slid past her shoulder and he grimaced, then took her arm to urge her forward. "Rabid salesman closing in."



"Rabid?" she asked with amusement.



"They're all rabid," he said dryly, as they hurried to the safety of the escalator. "This one looks a little more eager than most."



Lissianna glanced back the way they'd come as she stepped onto the escalator, and felt her expression freeze as she spied the man in the dark suit hurrying after them.



"What is it?" Greg asked, glancing back as well.



"That's not a salesman," Lissianna gasped, then caught his hand and began to hurry down the moving stairs, apologizing as she bumped other passengers on the escalator in her hurry.



Greg didn't argue or ask questions. He tightened his hold on her hand and followed, adding his own apologies to hers as they fought their way to the bottom of the escalator.



Once at the bottom, Lissianna didn't pause to glance around, but hurried for the exit.



"He's still following us," Greg said, as they weaved their way through the crowds milling through the Path.



Lissianna began to move a little faster, only now sending out the thought to those before them to move out of the way. The fact that she hadn't from the start was a sign of her exhaustion.



"What are we doing?" Greg asked several moments later when Lissianna suddenly turned into the movie theater, dragging him behind her.



Lissianna didn't waste the energy explaining, her mind was occupied controlling the ticket takers as she led Greg past them. Several matinees were playing and she read the audience emotions as she passed each door, pausing abruptly when waves of building anxiety poured out at her from behind the doors of theater three. Greg followed without comment when she started inside, waiting until they were seated to speak.



"A movie?" he asked with disbelief, as they sank down in their seats.



"A scary movie," Lissianna corrected, glancing back toward the door. "Their anxiety will cover ours. I told you fear broadcasts, and he can just follow our anxiety. But with everyone in here reacting to the movie, I hope he'll just bypass us."



"Oh." Greg glanced back toward the door as well, then asked, "Who is he?"



"Valerian. An immortal."



"Cousin? Brother? What relation is he?" Greg asked.



Lissianna glanced at him with surprise. "None of the above. We aren't all related, Greg."



"Oh." He shrugged. "Well, I just assumed anyone in Toronto who was a vampire would be related."



Lissianna shook her head. "Toronto is popular among our kind."



Greg was silent as he digested that, then said, "I suppose it's the Path? It would make Toronto attractive to vampires. They could move around during daylight and--"



"Who do you think encouraged the Path's being made?" she asked. "They have something similar in Montreal, they call it the underground city. You'll find lots of our kind there, too."



"Oh." Greg sat back in his seat, appearing nonplussed. "Just how many of you are there?"



Lissianna shrugged and gave up watching the door, pretty sure that they'd lost Valerian. "I don't know exactly."



"More than a thousand?" Greg asked.



Lissianna opened her mouth to answer, then started and glanced sharply toward the movie screen as everyone in the audience jumped and several people screamed.



"It's a vampire movie," Greg said with amusement. "The twins would be annoyed at the very idea."



"Yes," Lissianna agreed, then frowned when he settled more comfortably in his seat. "Don't you want to leave?"



"And go where?" Greg asked. "We can't go to that friend of yours--"



"Debbie," Lissianna supplied. Debbie--her coworker from the shelter--had been the only person she'd been able to think of to go to for help, and while she'd been re-luctant to involve her, there had been nowhere else she could think to go. Greg had suggested going to his sister's home, but she'd rejected the possibility at once. Anyone in his family was out of the question; it would be the first place her mother and uncle would look. As were all her family and friends... at least her vampire friends. Debbie had seemed the only answer. She was a coworker, and they were friendly, but they weren't so close they went places together, or turned to each other when they needed a place to stay... so far anyway. However, Debbie worked the night shift as she did, and Lissianna knew she slept through the day. Lissianna was hoping that she'd be up by 4 p.m.



"We can't go to Debbie's for another couple of hours." He shrugged. "We may as well stay here and relax. It will kill an hour or so at least. And you can catch a nap."



It would also keep them out of the way of any other vamps they might otherwise run into, Lissianna realized, and relaxed back in her seat. She didn't really think she'd sleep, but just being able to relax for a bit would do her some good.