“And when Lucian heard that Dante and Tomasso were considering coming out to house-sit with me . . .” Gia shrugged. “Lucian knew they had helped Vincent train Jackie after her turning, and had done a fine job of it, so he said okay and brought you all here.”
“ ‘All’ being myself, Justin, Andrews, and Beckham,” Holly said slowly, trying to recall the names.
“Anders and Decker,” Gia corrected gently. “They are Rogue Hunters, like Justin, and offered to stay and help out until Dante and Tomasso get here.”
“Anders and Decker. Rogue Hunters,” Holly nodded, pretending she knew what that was. She hadn’t a clue, but didn’t care either.
“Mind you,” Gia said, amusement back in her expression. “From what I can gather, Anders and Decker only offered to stay and help so they could give Justin a hard time.”
“Right,” Holly murmured. She didn’t understand why or how the men planned to give Justin a hard time, but really had no desire or intention to get to know anyone or what was between them anyway. She hadn’t agreed to this training business. And she hadn’t thought talking to him would land her in another strange bed. How much time had passed since she’d got in the car with Justin? She wondered. The last time she’d woken up in a strange bed, two days had passed. How long had it been this time? And how had she got from her car to here? The last thing she remembered was riding in her car. No. She recalled him parking it and turning to her . . . Jeez, she’d attacked him like some wild animal, going mindlessly for his throat and the blood she could smell pumping through it, Holly recalled with dismay.
“You didn’t hurt him,” Gia said. “Lucian came upon you assaulting Justin and knocked you out.”
“Oh,” Holly said weakly, unsure how she should take that news. She was glad this Lucian had stopped her from hurting Justin, but knocking her out seemed a bit drastic. Couldn’t he have just slapped her face or something to bring her back to her senses?
“Slapping you would not have brought you out of blood hunger,” Gia said quietly. “You had been too long without feeding. New turns need more blood and more often than mature immortals. You needed to be fed. Knocking you out was the best thing he could do for you at that point.”
“Oh,” Holly repeated.
“Once he knocked you out, they took you up to the hotel room and Lucian administered sleeping sedatives to keep you quiet for the flight here.”
That made her stiffen. They’d drugged her? And— “What do you mean flight? I thought I was still in California.”
“You are,” Gia assured her. “We’re on the outskirts of LA here.”
Holly groaned at this news. She was hours from home. “How long have I been out?”
Gia raised her eyebrows at the question, thought briefly and then shrugged. “I’m not sure. What day was it when you last remember being conscious?”
“What day?” Holly asked with disbelief.
“Yes.”
Holly felt her jaw tighten with anger. She so knew she wasn’t going to like the answer to her question when she got it, and her voice reflected that when she said, “It was early Thursday morning.”
“Ah.” Gia nodded. “Then you have been out about a day and a half. It’s just after noon on Friday now.”
“Friday?” Holly echoed, putting a hand out to lean against the wall as her legs went suddenly weak. Cripes, she’d missed another whole day. “Why have I been out so long? Surely it didn’t take a day and a half to get here, especially if we flew?”
“No. But I gather one of the company planes is in the shop and the others are doing double time trying to keep up, so they had to wait a day at the hotel with you, which was unanticipated and apparently annoyed Lucian mightily when he got the news.” She shrugged. “You only arrived this morning.”
“And I’m only waking up now?” Holly asked, eyes narrowing. “That sedative must have been a strong one.”
“Oh, well . . .” Gia nodded with a grimace. “Lucian put you on an IV drip with the sedative in it to keep you under until they got you here, got you settled in and could explain everything to me. And then, what with the problem they’re having with flights, Lucian didn’t want to make the plane wait here for a couple hours while he did that, so he let it go on another short run and waited for it to return to take him back to Toronto.”
“And I had to remain unconscious for all of that?” Holly asked grimly.
“He said you would no doubt be difficult when you woke up. He thought you’d probably be angry, frightened and hysterical and he’d rather not be present,” she said with amusement and then shrugged. “We were to wait until he left to take the IV out . . . which happened half an hour ago.”
Holly followed her gesture to peer back toward the bed and the IV stand beside it. There was a half-empty bag of clear liquid and an empty bag with traces of . . . blood?
“We gave you blood too so you wouldn’t need to feed when you woke up,” Gia explained.
Holly turned her gaze away from the IV. When she’d been in the car with Justin, her senses had been extremely keen. She’d been able to smell the blood as if he’d had an open gushing wound. It had been heady, intoxicating and had made her almost faint with hunger and need. Now, however, she felt no such hunger or need and it was simply blood. A bit off-putting really. To the point where she found it hard to believe she’d acted as she had in that car. But she had and wondered if Justin was upset with her.
“Justin understands,” Gia said.
Holly heaved a deep sigh. He might understand, but she still owed him an apology. She’d tried to rip the man’s throat out.
“At least it wasn’t your husband or some other mortal,” Gia said solemnly and opened the door to head out into a long cream-colored hall. “They wouldn’t have been able to fight you off and chances are you would have killed them before Lucian could have got to you.”
Holly stared after her with dismay and then hurried after her. “Would he have turned into a vampire too if I had?”
“Your husband?” Gia asked.
Holly nodded.
“No,” she said. “That is not how you make an immortal.”
“How—”
“You’ll learn that . . . eventually. But first you’ll learn to take care of your needs so that you don’t attack anyone else,” Gia said firmly, and then added, “I know you don’t want to be here. I know you only agreed to talk to Justin and not to training, but you need it. Without training, you’re a rabid dog.” She stopped walking and turned to face her, expression empty of emotion as she added, “And rather than leave you to kill and maim mortals, we would have to treat you like a rabid dog and put you down if you refuse training.”
Holly stared at her wide-eyed, her body going hot and then cold and then hot again. She didn’t doubt for a minute that Gia was serious. The woman’s expression and cold words convinced her of that. Swallowing, she said, “But my husband—”
“Has been handled,” Gia assured her, turning to continue up the hall. “As have your employers and friends.”
“How exactly have they been handled?” Holly asked worriedly as she followed again.
“They all think you had to go away on a special project for one of your courses. They believe you are at the top of your class, which you are, and were offered a once-in-a-lifetime temporary internship with one of the top four accounting firms in the world. As far as they know, you’re presently at the head office in New York City. You’ll be back in two weeks unless they keep you longer.”
“One of the top four? With a head office in New York? Do you mean Deloitte?” she asked breathlessly.