The Immortal Hunter(78)

"But you two can't hold her alone," Sam pointed out, her eyes frantic.

Decker didn't respond, but knew she was right. While he and Leigh were strong thanks to the nanos, the combination of nanos and the pain Dani was suffering was making her unmanageable. He was about to suggest Sam call Justin upstairs when the bedroom door opened and he saw his cousin Etienne, and Etienne's redheaded wife, Rachel, rush into the room carrying two large duffel bags.

The moment the pair saw the state of things, they dropped the bags and rushed to the bed.

"What happened?" Rachel asked, moving up on the other side of the bed to catch at that arm even as Etienne moved to help Leigh hold Dani's legs.

"She's turning," Decker muttered. Even with the four of them holding her down, they couldn't keep her still.

"Yes, we know that," Rachel said. "We were at the office when Lucian called asking Bastien to send out an IV and some drugs for a turning. We offered to bring them over and help out," she explained, and then added, "But I meant why is she like this already? Lucian said she'd been given the nanos only an hour ago, and Kate took three or four hours to get to this stage."

Decker frowned. "You were at Kate's turning?"

"I may work in a morgue, but I'm still a doctor," she pointed out dryly. "Knowing that, Kate asked me to be on hand in case anything went wrong."

"And it didn't go like this?" Decker asked with worry.

She shook her head, grimacing as Dani nearly got loose, and she had to pretty much sit on her arm to keep it even close to still.

"This started after the fifth bag of blood," Sam said, moving a little closer to the bed.

"You've already given her blood?" Etienne asked. "How?"

"Her mouth," Decker answered. "I opened the bags one after another and poured them in."

"Oh."

That soft sound of understanding drew his eyes to Rachel to see her biting her lip. "What is it?"

"I-Well, I think that's probably sped things along a bit," she admitted. "According to Marguerite, they've found that using the IV slows the process a little because it takes longer for the blood to get into the body. But it also reduces the risk of the turnee injuring themselves or someone else. However, if you poured five bags down her throat one after the other, then the nanos have probably gone into overdrive and are doing everything at once."

Decker cursed.

"It's all right," Rachel assured him. "It just means she'll get through it more quickly." She then glanced to Sam and, her voice vibrating as Dani's thrashing bounced her around, said, "Hi, I'm Rachel Argeneau."

"Sam Willan," Sam said, tearing her gaze from Dani and offering a distracted smile. "Mortimer's life mate."

"Bastien told us," the redhead assured her. "Sam, do you think you could go look in the smaller bag and bring one of the little black cases inside it to me?"

Sam nodded and rushed to the bags, seeming happy to have something to do to help the situation. When she returned with the little black case, Rachel shifted to a more stable seat on Dani's arm and then took the case and opened it to reveal two needles and two ampoules inside.

"What's that?" Decker asked with concern.

"A combination paralytic and numbing agent," Rachel answered as she retrieved one needle and one ampoule and prepared a shot. "It won't completely remove the pain, but it will ease it considerably and paralyze her so that she can't hurt herself or anyone else."

"How long will it take to work?" Decker asked as Rachel gave Dani the shot.

"Pretty quickly," she announced. "Fortunately, Bastien's boys have come up with some pretty powerful stuff. This shot would kill a mortal, but the nanos will prevent that on her. Unfortunately, they'll also make it so that the drug is only effective in the short term and will have to be administered at regular half-hour intervals."

Decker nodded. The nanos tended to try to fight off the effects of, and remove, any chemicals in the system that weren't there naturally. It made it very difficult for one of their kind to be an alcoholic or drug addict. The immortal that went down that route had to continually be taking in large amounts of alcohol or drug-soaked blood from a mortal to stay high or drunk. Even the tranquilizer on the bullets they used was effective for only half an hour to forty-five minutes, which was more than long enough to get the rogue chained up and subdued. At least, that was normally the case, Decker thought, recalling that Leo had been affected for only a matter of minutes.

"It's starting to work," Etienne commented, drawing his attention to Dani. Her thrashing had calmed down considerably, and her face was no longer contorted with pain and horror.

"Dear God," Rachel breathed suddenly, her gaze locked on Dani's face. "Bastien didn't tell us who it was. This is Dr. McGill."

"You know her?" Etienne asked with surprise.

Rachel nodded. "She trained in Toronto and interned at our hospital for six months before opening her own practice... in Windsor, I think." She frowned and turned to Decker almost accusingly. "What the hell is happening?"

"She's my life mate," Decker said quietly.

"Oh." She relaxed. "So you turned her?"