"Keep it up. I shall kill you slowly and painfully and enjoy the doing."

Inez stiffened unsure if he'd actually spoken the words aloud as he ran, or if he'd somehow communicated them to her with his mind. Thomas had never said they could talk in your head, but they could alter memories in a mortal's mind, why not a thought?

I'm sure you will. And no doubt you'll control me the entire time so I'm completely defenseless. The big superior immortal, torturing a defenseless mortal female to death. Woo-woo! You should be proud. But then I bet that's how you get off. It's probably the only way you get off. Are you impotent? Inez asked in her head with interest.

I bet you are, she added. I bet you have a really small penis too. I mean, I know nanos put you at your peak physical condition and all that, but some of you peak a little smaller than others, huh? And, I suppose, nanos can only do so much.

Inez felt his control falter. Excited, she persisted, Seriously, I want to know. Are you hung like a horse and just mean or did fate stick you with a mini tootsie roll between your legs that women stare at in horror and then say the dreaded, "size doesn't matter?"

She'd definitely hit a sore point there, because a wave of rage poured through her mind and then died abruptly as the immortal's control over her suddenly collapsed. Knowing it wouldn't last long, Inez immediately kicked back one leg with all her force. She'd hoped to break his knee or something. Instead, she jammed her leg back as he was midstep, sticking it between one leg and the other like a wrench between the spokes of a fast-moving bicycle tire. Unfortunately, her leg wasn't as hard and solid as a metal wrench.

Still free of his control, Inez screamed in agony as her leg was mulched between both of his, one pushing forward against her calf bone, while his other leg swung back, snapping the bone with a thick cracking sound. She was still screaming as he pitched to the side and the ground rushed up toward her. While her leg had broken, it had also tripped him up. He was falling, some part of her mind realized and Inez had just enough time to hope she hadn't just killed herself before her head slammed into concrete. Stars exploded behind her eyes, along with the pain in her head and then they were rolling, the immortal still clutching her in the crook of his arm as they tumbled down what she thought were stairs.

"Inez!"

She barely heard Rachel's shriek as the lights behind her eyes began to fade and blessed unconscious took her away from the pain.

"What do you think warned him off?" Etienne asked with a frown as he, Bastien, and Thomas descended the stairs down from the roof of the building they'd chosen to watch the coffee shop.

"I'm not sure," Bastien said, sounding weary. "Inez may not have been able to keep all thoughts of what we were up to out of her mind."

"Don't blame Inez for this," Thomas said through gritted teeth as they stepped off the stairs and headed out the door into the alley between the rows of buildings. "I'm sure she did everything she could. She agreed to help, didn't she? Putting herself at risk for your stupid plan."

"It wasn't a criticism," Bastien assured him, soothingly. "And we do appreciate it. We also know how hard this has been on you, Thomas, and I'm sorry about that. We were just hoping to catch the bastard and find Mother."

"Well, I want to find her too, but..." Thomas paused in the alley, frustrated that he couldn't find the words to say what he felt. He was terrified of losing either woman, but Marguerite might already be lost to them, and he didn't want to lose Inez to find that out. Hell, he didn't want to lose her at all. Given a choice between saving one woman or the other, Thomas would rather die himself.

"But Marguerite is your aunt and Inez is your lifemate and you'd rather not lose either of them," Etienne said quietly, saying what he thought Thomas was trying and failing to verbalize.

"Marguerite is my mother too," Thomas snapped bitterly. "She's the only mother I know."

"You called her Mother as a child," Bastien said quietly.

"Yeah, well, Jean Claude soon put a stop to that," he muttered wearily, and then shook his head and turned away to continue up the alley. "Let's go. The women are waiting."

Bastien and Etienne hesitated and then fell into step on either side of him to walk out of the alley. They walked the rest of the way in silence, coming around the corner half a short block up from the coffee shop in time to see Terri come rushing out of the cafe, panic on her face.

"Something's wrong," Bastien growled and burst into a run.

His heart lurching with alarm because Inez was nowhere to be seen, Thomas raced past his cousin.

"Where is she?" he demanded, grabbing Terri roughly by the arms.

"I don't know," Terri cried with distress. "We all went down to get coffees for everyone and I went into the bathroom. But when I came out, Rachel and Inez were gone."

"Rachel's gone too?" Etienne asked with alarm as he reached them.

"Where did they go?" Thomas asked, ignoring him.

"Someone must have seen. Did you read the guy behind the counter? He had an eye for Inez and would have noticed her leaving."

"I tried, but..." She shook her head helplessly, guilt filling her eyes.

"It's all right," Bastien said as he caught up. Slipping his arm around her, he gave her a quick hug as he explained to Thomas. "She hasn't finished her training Thomas. Terri can't read mortals well yet. I'll do it now," he added, giving his fiancee a quick squeeze and then releasing her to hurry into the cafe.

Thomas whirled away from the woman, not angry at her but just plain angry as he peered up the road one way and then the other. There was no sign of either woman.

"Maybe we should split up, you go one way and I go the other," Etienne suggested anxiously.

Thomas turned cold eyes on his cousin. "The plan doesn't look so good when your own lifemate gets caught in it, does it?"

Etienne winced and briefly closed his eyes, then blinked them open and said, "I'm sorry, Thomas. I deserve that. We thought we had all the bases covered."

"The fact is, Etienne, that you can cover all the bases you want, but if you put a ball into the game, it's going to get hit by the bat at some point," he snarled.

"That way!" Bastien yelled, rushing out of the cafe.

Thomas glanced toward the man, and then burst into a run in the direction his cousin was pointing. The others were immediately on his heels.

Chapter Sixteen

Inez woke to the sound of, well it sort of sounded like sex-with grunts and moans and sighs and-Realizing she was making the sounds and definitely wasn't making them out of enjoyment, Inez forced her mouth closed and opened her eyes.

The good news was that she had control of herself again, or still, Inez supposed since she'd got it back just before the tumble they'd taken. The bad news was she was lying on a path at the bottom of a set of stone steps, bloody and broken...and she definitely felt broken. Pain was attacking her everywhere. Her leg, her back, her stomach, her head, one arm...

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Inez lifted her head and tried to peer at herself. She didn't see much before her head began to swim and she fell back, and yet it was more than enough. She was on her back, her lower leg bent to the side mid-calf in a most unnatural way, her left shoulder looked funny and she thought it was either broken or dislocated, there was some kind of wound on her lower stomach that seemed to be bleeding copiously, and the minute she'd tipped her head up, blood had poured down over her face from a head wound. Oh yeah, she was broken all right.

A furious growl caught her attention, and Inez shifted her gaze to the side, eyes widening slightly as she saw Rachel fighting with the blond immortal some feet away.

Inez watched, and soon realized she hadn't been the only one injured in the fall. The bearded blond was fighting with one broken arm hanging loose at his side. Rachel was taking every opportunity to boot or punch him in that injured arm, and when he cried out and grabbed it, she went for his groin or head.

Inez was truly impressed and wondered if the woman had taken self-defense classes before becoming an immortal. Although, there was nothing saying she couldn't. Rachel could have taken them after becoming an immortal.

A furious roar rang in the air and Inez frowned because she hadn't seen the blond immortal's mouth move. And she was quite sure the sound hadn't come from Rachel. That had definitely been a male sound...or perhaps the sound of a truck driving by, Inez thought vaguely and slowly turned her eyes to look up to the road.

A mild sense of surprised flowed through her when she saw Thomas frozen at the top of the stone steps. Inez could see his eyes glowing silver in the darkness and seriously hoped the man didn't think he was getting any sex in her condition. She loved him dearly, but really this wasn't the time for that sexy silver glow he always got when he was in the mood, she thought a little fuzzily.

It was getting harder to think and she hadn't really been all that clearheaded since the fall, but suspected the deteriorating state of her mind might have something to do with the blood gushing out of her from several spots.

The roar of fury and anguish that suddenly ripped from his throat caught Thomas completely by surprise. It pushed its way up from his chest and exploded from his lips when he saw Inez lying bloody and broken at the base of the stairs like a doll tossed from above. Launching himself forward, he scrambled down the stairs as if caught in a landslide, his body moving more quickly with each step until he leapt the last two to land on the ground beside Inez.

He was aware of Bastien and Etienne rushing past to chase after the blond immortal, but knew they wouldn't catch him. His roar had made both Rachel and the bearded man glance his way. The minute Thomas had started down the stairs, the man had burst into action, giving a still-distracted Rachel a shove that sent her flying onto her back before whirling away to flee. It had given him all the head start he needed.

Eyes roving over Inez's injuries, Thomas dropped to his knees and instinctively reached for her. Slipping his arms beneath her, he scooped her up against his chest, and then stilled when she moaned in pain. His heart began to beat again then. Thomas had been sure she was dead and had already begun to grieve, but as much as her pain-filled moan hurt his heart, it was also music to his ears.

"Inez," he whispered into her hair, his eyes squeezing closed against the tears of relief that tried to fill them. "It's all right, love. You're all right."

"No," she mumbled weakly into his neck. "No sex, Thomas. I hurt."

"She's delirious."

Thomas raised his eyes to see Terri at his side, concern clear on her face. He then glanced past her as the others now moved to join them. His eyes narrowed on his cousins and he opened his mouth to rip into them and then froze and glanced down at Inez with alarm.

"Her heartbeat's slowing," he said with dull horror.

"Lay her down, Thomas," Bastien ordered grimly, dropping to his knees beside him.

Thomas whipped his head toward him, wanting to smash him for causing all this with his stupid plan, but wouldn't release Inez to do it. Before he could at least tell him to go to hell, Bastien said firmly, "I know you probably hate me right now, Thomas, but believe me, it can't be more than I hate myself. Now put her down so Rachel can look at her. You might have to start the turn right away if we're to save her."

Thomas hesitated one moment and then eased Inez onto her back on the ground.

Rachel immediately knelt on her opposite side. While she worked in a morgue, she was a doctor, and that showed through as she moved her hands quickly over Inez, muttering as she went. "Broken leg, broken collarbone, broken ribs, fractured skull...She's lost a lot of blood...too much." She glanced up at Thomas and said, "You have to turn her. Now."

"It won't wait until we get back to the townhouse?" Terri asked with concern.

"She'll be dead by the time we get back to the townhouse," Rachel announced baldly.

Thomas immediately raised his wrist toward his mouth, intending to tear into it with his teeth, but an open pocket knife appeared before his face.

Glancing at Etienne who was holding it out, Thomas muttered, "Thanks," and then took it and sliced a four inch gash up his wrist. Ignoring the pain radiating all the way up into his shoulder, he immediately leaned forward, only to stop when he realized Inez's mouth was closed.

Rachel quickly used one hand on her forehead and the other on her chin to pull her lips apart. Thomas then pressed his wrist to Inez's mouth.

"Hey! Is everything all right down there?"

Thomas didn't even bother to glance around, leaving it to the others to deal with. He was vaguely aware of Etienne moving away to do so, and then raised his wrist to peer at it, frowning when he saw that the nanos were doing their work and the bleeding had stopped.

"Did she get enough?" Rachel asked Bastien.

Thomas glanced over to see the frown on his face. Knowing he was hesitating to say something, he snapped, "What is it?"

"She's probably had enough to initiate the turn," he said slowly.

"But?" Thomas asked, knowing there was more.

"But if her condition is as bad as Rachel said, she might not survive long enough for her body to repair itself and complete the change," he admitted and then added quickly, "But I've heard the more blood an immortal gives, the faster repairs can be made and the better the chance of a badly injured mortal surviving the turn."

He'd barely finished the words before Thomas was slicing himself open again. It made complete sense to him. The more nanos he poured into her, the faster they could work and they were definitely working against time here. Inez's heartbeat was still slowing with every passing moment.

Thomas sliced his arm open six times before allowing the others to convince him that he'd given her enough. He then scooped her into his arms and tried to stand, his heart lurching in alarm when he found himself swaying weakly and nearly dropping Inez.

"Give her to me, Thomas," Bastien said quietly.