Immortal Born (An Argeneau Novel) Read online

  His eyes widened, but he let the matter go, and instead asked, “Who were those men in your apartment?”

  The question brought surprise flashing over her face. “You tell me. They’re vampires like you.”

  For some reason her words made him stiffen up like a soldier at attention. His words were just as stiff when he said, “I am an immortal. Not a vampire. And those men we stopped were nothing like me and Tybo. They are obviously rogues.”

  Allie frowned at this explanation and was going to ask what he meant when Tybo returned with Liam.

  “Time to go,” Tybo announced. “We’re catching a ride with one of the delivery boys. He’s pulling up out front. This way.”

  “Just a minute,” Allie said with dismay, hurrying forward to grab the man’s arm and drag Liam from him. Holding the boy tightly, she peered from one man to the other and then shook her head. “Thank you for your help, but we aren’t going with you. Liam and I—”

  “Will not survive more than ten minutes on your own,” Magnus interrupted firmly. “We are your best bet, Allie. Tybo and I can get you to a safe house where you will be protected until we can find out what is happening and take care of this situation.”

  Allie scowled. “And I’m supposed to just take that on faith? I don’t know you any better than the first two men who broke into my apartment.”

  “Magnus,” Tybo said quietly. “We don’t have time for this. I’m hoping those men will search the apartment building first. But there are enough of them that they can do that and still send a couple over to check the plaza. We need to move.”

  Allie eyed Tybo suspiciously. It sounded to her like he was asking for permission to do something. She was sure she was right about that when Magnus gave a short, reluctant nod. When Tybo immediately turned a concentrated gaze on to her, Allie found herself turning and carrying Liam toward the front of the restaurant. It wasn’t a choice. At least, not her choice, and she should have been panicked and horrified that she was doing something she didn’t intend or want to do, but she was oddly calm and unaffected by it.

  As if she’d been drugged was the unconcerned thought that floated through her head, but that didn’t seem quite right. It was more as if her anxiety and worries were being veiled somehow so that she couldn’t connect to them, and a sense of calm and serenity was being pumped through her in their place. Whatever the case, Allie carried Liam straight through the kitchen, and then the bright dining area with its white floors and plastic orange seats to the door and out to the car waiting there.

  She got into the back seat, sliding along its length until she was crowded up against a stack of pizza warmers. Allie then settled Liam more comfortably in her lap while Magnus squeezed in next to her and Tybo got into the front passenger seat.

  Allie was aware of Tybo pulling out a phone and talking to someone named Mortimer, but her own attention was on the parking lot around them, her eyes searching it for the men who had pulled up in front of her building. Much to her relief, she didn’t see anyone before they were wheeling out of the plaza parking lot and onto the road.

  “Mortimer’s expecting us and is having Sam ready a room for Allie and Liam, as well as one for yourself, Magnus,” Tybo announced.

  Magnus tore his gaze away from Allie to peer at the younger immortal as he tucked his phone into a pocket of his jacket. Tybo had turned sideways in the front seat to talk to him, and now added, “He’s also sending men to round up the rogues at the apartment if they’re still there when they arrive. If not, they’ll simply take care of the apartment and any video footage from the entry camera, if there is one, then collect our SUV.”

  Magnus grunted, his attention slipping back to Allie and Liam. The boy had curled up on her lap and fallen asleep with his head on her chest and she had dozed off with her head against the warming bags stacked next to her. While the boy had probably dozed off on his own, Magnus was quite sure Tybo was responsible for Allie’s sleep. This situation certainly wouldn’t normally put a woman to sleep, he was sure.

  “She’s extremely pale,” Tybo commented from the front seat.

  Magnus nodded, his eyes sliding over her classic features and pale skin. Her eyes were closed now, but he’d noticed they were hazel. Her hair was long and light brown, and while most would have said she was just pretty enough, she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him. His life mate, he thought, and then pointed out, “According to the officers who answered the 911 call, she had fallen and hit her head.”

  “She didn’t fall,” Tybo announced grimly. “She fainted . . . from lack of blood.”

  Magnus glanced at him sharply. “What?”

  “She’s been feeding the boy with her own blood for a good four years,” Tybo announced, his concentrated gaze on her face as he found the information he was passing along. “She was trying to rob the blood bank out of desperation. Feeding the boy is killing her, literally. And she knows it. She was hoping to get him blood from the blood bank to give her system a chance to recover, and got a job there to make the theft easier.”

  Magnus turned his attention back to Allie, wishing he could read her thoughts so that Tybo didn’t have to. He didn’t like the other man poking through her head like this.

  “Unfortunately,” Tybo continued, “she passed out during the attempt . . . hitting her head and losing even more precious blood.” Tybo shook his head. “At this point, she probably needs a blood transfusion herself. She’s very weak, Magnus. Even asleep her heart rate is elevated and her breathing rapid and shallow.”

  Magnus frowned at this news and reached out to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen across her face. “Feeding a child as young as Liam should not be this detrimental to her health.”

  “No,” Tybo murmured, and was silent for a moment, his gaze still on her, and then he said, “I think she’s been letting him overfeed.”

  Magnus’s eyebrows rose. Overfeeding the boy would mean that his system would use up a lot of blood trying to remove the extra blood from his system, which would just mean a need for more blood. It would be a vicious circle—the boy always hungry, always needing more blood. Unfortunately, more blood than one mortal could safely supply. If she’d continued like this much longer, it would have killed her. As it was, Allie was lucky she hadn’t already suffered a heart attack or simply died from the blood loss. In effect, the boy was bleeding her to death.

  “Who is the boy?” Magnus asked now. “How did she end up the mother to an immortal?”

  Tybo was silent for so long that Magnus turned to look at him. The other man’s expression was even more concentrated now as he sought an answer to that question, but it was another moment before he murmured, “Stella.”

  “Stella?” Magnus asked. “Is that the boy’s mother?”

  “I . . .” Tybo lost the concentrated look and rubbed his forehead with his thumb and fingers as if trying to ward off a headache as he murmured apologetically, “Her thoughts are very confused and almost veiled. It’s as if she’s so used to trying not to think about this stuff that even in sleep she’s protecting her thoughts. All I could get was the name Stella.”

  “Blood loss can cause confusion,” Magnus murmured, turning his gaze back to Allie. He stared at her silently, wishing she was awake to answer the questions he had, but knowing it was better to leave her sleeping until they got to the house. He suspected she would fight them about going to the house if they gave her the choice. It was better to get her there, reassure her that she was safe, and then ask the questions buzzing through his head.

  Three

  Allie was exhausted when she woke up. But that was normal for her lately. No matter how much she slept, it was never enough. She was always feeling tired and rung out. It was the blood loss, she knew. Liam needed too much of it and her body couldn’t keep up. That was why she’d risked robbing the blood bank, a despicable action to her mind. Blood banks were always desperately in short supply and needing more. Even considering stealing some of the precious blood
they needed so badly had made her feel lower than low. But Liam needed the blood and she couldn’t supply what he needed. She was willing to die for the boy if necessary, but that would just leave him alone in a world that wouldn’t be friendly to a child vampire. She had no doubt they’d kill him, or at the very least lock him up and perform examinations and tests on him that would make what little life he had a misery.

  These thoughts had Allie pushing herself up to sit in the bed and swing her legs off of it. She needed to see what he was up to and—

  Allie’s thoughts fled, replaced with alarm as she realized she wasn’t in her own bed in the apartment she’d sublet four months ago. Her gaze slid around the cool blue room revealed by the sunlight splashing through the windows, memories suddenly rushing into her mind. She remembered everything that had happened right up until they’d squealed out of the plaza parking lot in the pizza delivery car at what must have been nearly one o’clock in the morning. Everything was blank after that.

  She’d probably fainted again, Allie decided grimly. That was the most likely scenario. She’d fainted from lack of blood. She certainly didn’t think she could have just fallen asleep, not in the situation she’d been in. Fleeing one group of vampires in the company of another pair of them was hardly a sleep-inducing event. Being around vampires at all wasn’t. As far as Allie knew, all vampires were bad. Although, frankly, she’d never imagined there was more than one group. Learning otherwise was more than a little alarming. Especially when Liam was no longer with her.

  Mouth tightening, Allie started to rise, but settled back to sit on the side of the bed again when the room began to spin. Damn, this weakness was a nuisance. Especially right now, when she needed to find Liam and figure out where they were and what to do next. Then she spotted the Go bags next to the bed.

  Hooking her foot through the straps of the larger one, she dragged it closer and then bent carefully to pick it up. The damned thing felt ridiculously heavy, but Allie knew that was more to do with the shape she was in than with its actual weight. The thought made her mouth flatten with displeasure. Mostly because she used to be strong. Allie used to have a gym membership and a personal trainer who had put her through a strenuous routine of exercises that included lifting weights. She’d been lean and strong then. Now she was just scrawny and weak and she didn’t like it. She needed to rebuild her strength. The problem was, she couldn’t do that until she found a way to feed Liam that didn’t include bleeding herself dry.

  Pushing those thoughts aside for now, Allie unzipped the side flap of the Go bag and retrieved the hairspray and lighter she kept tucked there. The lighter went into the front pocket of her black jeans, the can of hairspray was tucked up the baggy sleeve of her black blouse, and then she set the bag aside, took a deep breath, and got slowly to her feet.

  Much to her relief, this time the room didn’t spin around her. Still, Allie waited a moment and took a couple more deep breaths before starting to walk toward the door, opposite the window, the one she suspected led out of the room.

  She was right and it opened to a long hall painted a warm beige. A really long hall, Allie thought grimly as she stepped out and pulled the door closed. At least, at that moment, weak as she was and knowing she had to traverse it and then the stairs that she suspected the rail ahead protected . . . yeah, it looked miles long in that moment.

  She headed toward the stairs, bracing one hand on the wall to steady herself just in case. Her legs were shaking by the time she reached the top of the stairs, but it didn’t slow her much. She needed to get to Liam and see that he was all right.

  Leaning heavily on the stair rail, Allie managed to stumble down the steps without falling or passing out, but once safely at the bottom, she had to pause again to catch her breath. She was panting as if she’d just run a marathon, and her heart was racing like crazy. It felt like it was going to burst. Actually, the state she was in was more than a little alarming, and for one moment, Allie was afraid it really would burst, or that she’d at least have a heart attack or something.

  Grasping the cap of the newel post with one hand, she pressed the heel of her other hand to her chest as if that could stop the attack from happening, and just stood like that as she waited for her heart rate to slow. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until her heartbeat began to slow and she let the air escape her lungs in a long, slow sigh.

  Raising her head then, Allie took in her surroundings. She was in an entry. Through the glass window in the door ahead of her she could see several vehicles parked on the driveway that ran along the front of the building, and a snowy yard beyond that. To her right she could see into what looked like an empty living room. To her left a doorway revealed a dining table and chairs and the end of white upper and lower cupboards. The kitchen was her guess. From where she stood, it looked as empty as the living room. Rather than waste the energy to verify both rooms were empty, Allie turned to peer along the hall that ran back past the stairs.

  There were more doors this way. The end one on the right was open, and now that she wasn’t breathing so hard, she could hear the murmur of voices coming from it, so released the newel cap and headed that way. The voices grew clearer with each step she took and Allie found herself stopping just short of the door as she listened to what was being said.

  “By the time the men got to the apartment, it was empty,” Mortimer announced, and Magnus tore his gaze away from the idyllic snowy scene out the window to look over his shoulder at the head of the North American Enforcers. Mortimer was seated at his desk, running his hands wearily through his hair. While Magnus had laid down to sleep after arriving at the house and setting Allie in the guest room, he knew the other man had been up all night, overseeing operations. It showed.

  “I’m not surprised,” Tybo said, sitting up in the seat he’d claimed on entering, one of two that faced Mortimer’s desk. “The rogues were breaking into the front of the building as we carried Allie and Liam out the back. It wouldn’t have taken them more than a minute to get to the apartment, find their comrades, see that Allison and Liam were gone, and move on to searching the surrounding area.” Tybo shook his head as he thought on it. “The plaza with the pizza joint at the back of the apartment building was a stroke of good luck for us. There was no way we could have got to our SUV or even Allie’s car without being spotted.”

  Magnus glanced to Tybo with surprise at that comment. “Her car was in the parking lot?”

  “Yeah,” Tybo answered, and then quirked his eyebrows in question. “Where else would it be?”

  “I just assumed it would still be at the blood bank,” Magnus admitted. “I mean, she went there to break in, was found unconscious, and taken to the hospital by the police or an ambulance.”

  “She didn’t take her car to the blood bank. She took a taxi there, and then another one to get home from the hospital,” Tybo informed him.

  “What?” Magnus asked on a disbelieving laugh. “She took a taxi to a B and E?”

  “Well, she had it drop her off down the street from the blood bank, not at the building itself,” Tybo said, and explained, “There are cameras in the parking lot of the blood bank. The last thing she wanted was a visual record of her visit when they discovered the blood missing.”

  “Oh,” Magnus said, but then shook his head. “Still, taking a taxi to break in to the blood bank? Did she plan to take one back home after? And how would she explain the blood she was carrying?”

  “I presume she had a backpack or box she planned to carry it in,” Tybo said dryly. “And I doubt she’d have it marked ‘stolen blood.’”

  “Right,” Magnus murmured, but was still amazed at the thought of taking a taxi to commit a felony. The woman had balls, that was certain.

  “We probably got away in the pizza delivery car just moments or even seconds ahead of the rogues searching the plaza for us,” Tybo commented now, his expression solemn.

  They were all silent for a moment, pondering how close a call it had be
en. Magnus was an experienced soldier and could handle himself in a battle, but wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could take on a dozen rogues with the help of just Tybo and come out unscathed. Especially when he would have been distracted with the need to keep Allie and Liam safe.

  The silence in the room was pierced by the buzz of Mortimer’s phone. The man glanced at it briefly and then announced, “Dani’s left the hospital and is on her way.”

  Magnus nodded, knowing he was referring to Decker Argeneau Pimms’s wife, Dani, who was a doctor. She’d been at the hospital handling an emergency when they’d called her last night. It seemed the emergency was finally resolved and she could now come examine Allie and be sure that she was all right.

  “I will also have her take a look at the boy to be sure he’s all right,” Mortimer decided.

  “The boy is fine.” Magnus turned back to the window again to watch the trio playing in the snow outside.

  “The boy is Liam. My son. Where is he?”

  Magnus turned sharply at those words, his eyes widening as he found Allie standing in the office doorway. She looked a little better than she had when he’d laid her in the bed upstairs last night, but was still incredibly pale. She was also swaying slightly on her feet, he noted with concern.

  “Where is my son?” Allie repeated grimly, her eyes sliding anxiously from man to man. “What have you done with him?”

  Magnus was the first to recover from his shock, or perhaps Tybo and Mortimer were merely leaving him to deal with Allie since she was his possible life mate, but whatever the case, he was the first to speak.

  “Liam is fine.” Magnus crossed quickly to her side, intent on reaching her before she fainted or passed out again. The woman’s lips already had a slightly blue tinge denoting a lack of oxygen, a sure sign that her blood levels were low. “He is safe and well. You are both safe now. No one can get to you here.”