Single White Vampire (6 page)

Lucern smiled to himself and started the game over. He'd say one thing for her: Kate C. Leever had good taste. She liked his books, and she liked Etienne's game.

She also proved to be one hell of a game player. The dinner she had made sat forgotten on the desk as they worked through the levels he'd already run through, then continued on to the next levels, working together to defeat the villains and save the damsel in distress. Every time they succeeded at accessing another level, Kate reacted with the excitement of a child and they did a high five or a little victory dance at the desk while they waited for the next level to load.

They played for hours, until the food was a shriveled
and congealed mess, until their necks and hands ached, and until Kate began nodding off in her seat. When Lucern reluctantly suggested it might be best if she went to bed, she agreed with equal reluctance that she should or she wouldn't be able to get up for the shopping trip with his mother.

Oddly enough, Lucern missed her once she was gone. He continued on through another level of the game, but it wasn't the same without her there to share the glee at succeeding. There were no high fives or little victory dances, and he was troubled to find he missed those, too. Even more troubling was the fact that for the first time in years, Lucern felt lonely.

 

Despite her late night, Kate was up and ready at one o'clock. She stood anxiously waiting by the front door watching for Mrs. Argeneau. When a limo pulled into the driveway, she hurried outside and started down the porch stairs, then paused and turned back uncertainly toward the door. She had unbolted it to leave and didn't have a clue what to do about bolting it again. Dare she leave it unlocked? Or should she wake up Lucern and have him bolt it?

“It's all right, Kate. Don't worry about the door,” Marguerite unrolled the back window to call out. “Come along, we've lots to do.”

Shrugging inwardly, Kate turned and walked over to the limo. The driver was out to open the door for her by the time she reached it, and Kate murmured a thank-you as she slipped inside; then she did a double take at the sight of Lucern's mother. The woman was bundled up as if they were in the midst of a winter storm.
She had on a long-sleeved blouse, gloves and slacks, then a scarf over her head and covering the bottom half of her face. Over-large sunglasses covered most of the rest. The only patch of skin showing was her nose, and that was slathered with a white cream Kate guessed to be sunblock.

“Don't tell me. You're allergic to the sun like Lucern?” Kate guessed.

Marguerite's mouth twisted in wry amusement. “Where do you think he got it?”

Kate gave a laugh and relaxed back in the limo, prepared for a day of both frantic shopping and pampering. And that was exactly what she got: a frantic rush to choose the perfect dress and see it tailored to fit her, then a couple of hours of delicious pampering at the spa where Marguerite Argeneau's hair stylist worked. She enjoyed herself immensely.

 

Luc didn't sleep well. He went to bed out of sheer boredom not long after Kate left, but he couldn't find rest. The woman hadn't just invaded his home, she'd made her way into his dreams, too. That fact was enough to make him terribly grumpy on awakening, and it was a surly Lucern who stumbled downstairs Saturday afternoon. He became even more surly when a quick search of the house showed that Kate hadn't yet returned from her shopping sojourn.

Grumbling under his breath, he made his way to the kitchen and—out of habit—opened the refrigerator door looking for blood. It wasn't until he had the door open that he recalled sticking his supply in the tiny fridge in his office, to keep it out of Kate's sight. He
considered going back upstairs to fetch a bag, but didn't really feel like it. He didn't really feel like normal food either despite the fact that he and Kate had sacrificed supper the night before for Blood Lust II. And he knew he would be eating a lot of rich food at the wedding celebration, so it was better to put off eating now.

Deciding he'd grab a bag of blood later before leaving for the wedding, Lucern wandered aimlessly out of the kitchen and moved along the hall to the living room. He immediately grimaced. Kate had finished sorting the letters into categories, and there were several form letters awaiting his signature.

Curious, Lucern sat on the couch and began to read through them. They were all very nice, chatty letters that sounded gracious and charming and not at all like him. Kate was a good writer, too. She'd done a wonderful job, and Lucern supposed he'd have to thank her. He also supposed he should hire an assistant to manage such tasks in the future. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn't. The idea of a stranger in his home, pawing through his things was not a happy one. That was the reason he still hadn't replaced his housekeeper, Mrs. Johnson. The woman had died in her sleep in 1995. Which was eight years ago, he realized with surprise.

Since, Lucern had hired a service to clean his home once a week, and he usually had his meals out or ordered them from a gourmet restaurant down the street. He'd intended to do that only until he found a replacement for the unfortunate Mrs. Johnson, which he'd never gotten around to. He'd think about it and all the trouble it meant, then would decide against it. Why go
to all that time and effort only to have whomever he hired drop dead on him after ten or twenty years as both Mrs. Johnson and Edwin had done?

He muttered under his breath at the thought. Humans were so unreliable that way. They were forever dropping dead on you just when you had them trained.

He was pondering that annoying little habit of mankind when the front door of the house slammed. Kate was back from her shopping excursion. He ran his hands through his hair, brushed down his T-shirt and tried to look presentable. He sat up, peering expectantly toward the living room door…and was just in time to catch a glimpse of Kate flying upstairs. At least he thought it was Kate. All he'd really seen was a godawful bundle of shopping bags with various designer names on them, and feet.

Oh, yes. She'd been shopping. He slumped back on the couch with disgust. She hadn't even noticed him. Women!

A cacophony of sounds followed from upstairs—the slamming of the guest room door, then all sorts of unidentifiable banging and bumping. It sounded as if the woman was jumping around and throwing things willy-nilly.

It went on long enough that Lucern became concerned. Then there was a sudden and utter silence. Standing, he walked into the hallway and peered anxiously up the stairs. A door opened and closed; then he heard the clicking of high-heeled shoes on the hardwood hall floor, and Kate appeared at the top of the steps.

She was a sight. A vision. Her golden hair was piled
on top of her head with little ringlets dropping down to frame her pretty, flushed face. The gown she wore was a deep emerald green. It had a long skirt, a crepe neck, and was made of a soft-looking material that had a slight sheen as it draped gracefully over the contours and curves of her body. She was glorious. An angel. The most beautiful woman Lucern had seen in his life, and that was saying something. He was tongue-tied with amazement. He simply watched in awe as she descended the steps.

She was only halfway down when she spotted him. She immediately paused, blinked, then scowled. “You aren't ready!”

It was Lucern's turn to blink. His angel was bellowing. She was also frantic. The serene vision was gone.

“Lucern!” She glared at him with disbelief. “The wedding is at seven o'clock! It's six-fifteen now. We have to leave. You haven't even showered or anything! What have you been doing all this time?” She covered her lower face with horror. “We'll be late! I hate being late to weddings. Everyone will be seated in the pews, and they'll all stare and—”

“Okay!” Lucern held up his hands, trying to soothe her as he started up the stairs. “It's okay. I'm fast. I'll be ready. Just give me ten minutes. We won't be late,” he assured her as he moved warily past her. “Really. I promise.”

Kate watched with exasperation as Lucern disappeared up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, her shoulders drooped unhappily. After all her efforts, he hadn't even commented on how she looked.

Disappointed, she continued downstairs and went
into the living room to wait. She was all prepared to tap a hole in the floor with impatience. She didn't get the chance. Ten minutes after leaving her on the steps, Lucern came back downstairs all set to go. His hair was still damp from the shower and slicked back, and a tailored designer suit hung elegantly off his broad shoulders.

Ten minutes, Kate thought with disgust. Ten minutes, and he looked fabulous. It had taken her all day to put herself together, and it had taken him ten minutes! She glared at him as she joined him in the hall.

“See? I told you I'd be fast,” Lucern said soothingly as he opened the front door. “We won't be late. We'll be right on time.”

Still irritated that he'd been so quick, Kate merely made a face and led the way outside.

Lucern opened the passenger door of his BMW in a rather courtly manner she appreciated, then commented, “You look lovely.” He closed the door before she could respond, but Kate smiled widely as she watched him walk around the car to the driver's side. Her mood was beginning to lift again. Kate generally disliked weddings, and she would definitely be uncomfortable at being called “Luc's date,” but maybe tonight wouldn't be so bad.

It was awful. Well, not entirely, Lucern admitted to himself. The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful. And much to his surprise, his stubborn, pesky editor got all teary-eyed as Etienne and Rachel exchanged their vows. She explained herself when he handed her the handkerchief he'd placed in his breast pocket with such care by saying, “They seem so happy. They're obviously deeply in love.”

Lucern merely grunted and hoped the ceremony wouldn't be as long as Lissianna's had been last year. He only had the one hanky.

Fortunately, Rachel's minister wasn't as long-winded as the Hewitt family's minister had been. Still, Lucern practically ran Kate out of the church the moment it was done. Or tried to. Their escape was stalled by the bottleneck that formed at the exit as each and every single guest paused to wish Etienne and Rachel well. The couple had exited the church first, as per the cus
tom, and were now standing atop the church steps, speaking to everyone as they left.

Of course, Kate would insist on congratulating them and wishing them well, too, which Lucern thought was ridiculous. She didn't even know them! But the woman ignored his attempts to urge her down the stairs, and stopped to wish the couple happiness.

Rachel and Etienne weren't surprised Kate was at the wedding, of course. The family grapevine was as healthy as ever. And much to Lucern's irritation, Rachel was one of those social people who liked everyone and liked to talk. Etienne was hampered with the same affliction, so they couldn't just say thank-you and let Kate go. No. They had to actually
speak
to Kate and ask if she was having a good time in Toronto.

Lucern felt himself tensing as he waited for her answer. He was vaguely surprised when she laughed and said, “Oh, yes.”

Etienne seemed equally surprised. He asked, “You mean, my brother is actually entertaining you?” As if Lucern were some sort of heathen, incapable of being a good host.

“Yes.” Kate nodded cheerfully. “He and your mother, too. Marguerite took me shopping and to the spa today. And last night, Lucern and I played Blood Lust Two until all hours of the morning.”

“Oh!” Rachel exclaimed. “Isn't that a wonderful game? Etienne is so talented. Although I thought he'd drive me crazy with it when he was designing the end sequence. It gave him trouble.”

“Etienne?” Kate glanced from Rachel to Etienne uncertainly.

“Yes. It's his game,” Rachel explained. Then she glanced at her brother-in-law with surprise. “Didn't you tell her it was Etienne's game?”

“Yes, I'm sure I mentioned—”

“No, you didn't!” Kate exclaimed with a light slap at his arm. “Oh, my God! Why didn't you tell me?”

Lucern scowled. His editor didn't notice; she'd already turned back to his brother.

“I can't believe it! I love Blood Lust, both One and Two. They are amazing!”

She rambled on, gushing over Etienne in a way Lucern found annoying, then suddenly stopped with a small gasp, before saying, “Oh! I just realized, the primary characters in Luc's last book were named Rachel and Etienne. And Etienne was a game creator, too. Oh, wow.” She gave a laugh and grinned at Rachel. “The next thing you'll tell me is that you're a coroner like the woman in the book.”

Lucern, Etienne and Rachel all exchanged glances and shifted uncomfortably.

Kate's eyes widened at their silence. “You aren't, are you?”

“I like to base stories as much in reality as I can,” Lucern said to break the silence.

“But you write vampire books.” Kate sounded bewildered.

“Well, within reason,” he amended, then took her arm firmly. “Come. We're holding up the line.”

Lucern hurried Kate to his car, saw her inside, got in himself and immediately turned the radio on. He cranked the volume up high to prevent conversation and drove to the reception hall where the wedding din
ner was to be held. In his rush to get there, where he hoped Kate would be distracted and forget the odd coincidence of the characters in his books matching his real-life family, Lucern somewhat exceeded the speed limit. As a result, they were one of the first to arrive.

Much to his relief, Kate didn't mention the matter again. She and Lucern were seated at a table, and his mother and his sister Lissianna with her husband Greg soon joined them. Bastien was seated at the head table with the rest of the wedding party, so it was just the five of them at the six-person table closest to the long head table.

Lucern spent the first several minutes simply fingering the glass of wine that was promptly set before him, his gaze darting nervously to Kate as she talked with Marguerite and Lissianna. The three women were making him terribly nervous. They had their heads together, and there seemed to be an awful lot of giggling and laughing mixed in with their quiet talking. He was dying to know what they were saying, but couldn't have heard had he tried, with all the talk and disruption as people arrived and greeted one another.

“Lissianna!”

Lucern stiffened at his editor's exclamation; then Kate turned on him. “Your sister's name is Lissianna! That's the name of the female vampire in your second book.”

“Er…yes.” He shot a glance at his mother and sister. Were they deliberately trying to complicate his life?

“Etienne and Rachel in the last book, Lissianna and Greg in the second. And Marguerite!” She turned on
Lucern's mother. “Your husband was named Claude, wasn't he?”

“It's pronounced with an ‘o' sound dear, like load, not ‘ah' like clod,” Marguerite corrected gently. Then she nodded. “But, yes, my husband and my children's father was Claude.”

“Oh.” Kate was silent for a moment, but was obviously thinking, looking for other similarities. “And your family name is Argeneau, too. No, wait,” she corrected herself. “In the novels it's Argentus, from the Latin ‘argent' for silver, because the patriarch had silvery blue eyes. Like you!” She turned suddenly to peer into Lucern's eyes.

“Yes.” Lucern shifted, feeling terribly uncomfortable, unsure how to explain. In the end, he didn't need to.

“I think it's terribly sweet of you to name your characters after your family like that,” Kate said.

Lucern gaped at her in surprise. Sweet? He wasn't sweet. What the—

“It's obvious you care for them a great deal.”

“Er…” Lucern was feeling oddly trapped when a tap on his shoulder drew his head around. He found himself staring at Bastien and Etienne. Relief at the distraction made him smile hugely, which surprised them.

“We need a hand from both of you.” Bastien's look encompassed both Lucern and Greg.

“Oh. Oh, of course.” Luc turned to Kate as Greg got to his feet. “They need us. We have to go,” he explained.

Kate nodded solemnly. “It's a guy thing, huh?”

“Er…yes.” Luc stood, tossed a warning glare at his mother and sister, lest they say something else to put
weird ideas in Kate's head, then followed his brothers away from the table.

The foursome crossed the reception hall, left through a door half-hidden behind a decorated beam, walked up a long, narrow hall, then exited through another door that led into the parking lot behind the building. Bastien walked along the row of parked vehicles to his van. Lucern didn't know what was going on until his brother opened the back doors and dragged a medivac cooler closer.

“I don't know about you guys, but with everything that had to be done, I didn't get to feed before the wedding today. I thought I might not be the only one with that problem, so I packed a picnic for us.” Bastien popped the cooler open.

Lucern grinned at the sight of the blood bags packed in ice. Good old Bastien. He was always prepared. He would have been a Boy Scout as a child had they had them in those days.

“Oh, thank God!” Etienne took the first bag Bastien held out. “I was so busy rushing around, I didn't get a chance to feed. Neither did Rachel, I'm sure.”

“I brought enough for everyone,” Bastien assured him. He handed bags to both Lucern and Greg. “I'll bring the ladies out after we go back. I just didn't think it would be good if we all left en masse. The Argeneau side would understand, but the Garretts would be confused.”

“Too true, my friend,” Greg said with a shake of his head. “I'm still not used to all this.” He gestured to the bag in his hand, then lifted it and stabbed his elongating teeth into it.

Lucern smiled as he followed suit. For someone who claimed the opposite, his brother-in-law did a fair imitation of someone who was comfortable with his new situation. Mind you, that might be different if the therapist had to bite people to feed, as in the old days.

The four men all fell silent as they emptied their first bags of blood. Bastien then pulled plastic cups out of the van and split two more bags between those four cups, and the men stood talking as they drank. It wasn't long before the conversation came around to Lucern's unwanted guest. Etienne was the one to bring it up, commenting that she seemed quite nice.

Lucern snorted. “Don't let her fool you. That woman is as stubborn as a mule. She's like one of those damn ticks, burrowing under your skin and staying there. She's burrowed her way into my home and just won't leave!”

The others all laughed. Greg suggested, “Why don't you just do some of that mind-control stuff Lissianna's trying to teach me—just get into her head and plant the suggestion that she leave?”

“Luc can't get into her head,” Etienne announced with a grin.

“You've tried?” Greg asked Lucern with surprise.

“Of course I did. The very first night.” Luc scowled and shook his head. “But she seems resistant to suggestion. I can't even read her thoughts. The woman's mind is like a steel trap.” He sighed. “It's damned frustrating.”

“Yep. And don't tell Mother,” Etienne reminded him.

“Why not?” Greg asked.

Bastien explained. “Mother says couples shouldn't be
able to read each other's thoughts, so when you come across someone strong-minded enough to block you out—which she says is rare—you should pay attention, they would make a good mate.”

Etienne nodded. “So if she catches wind of this…”

“She'll be determined to put us together,” Lucern finished for him. He immediately felt confused. The last thing he needed was his mother playing matchmaker and forcing him and his stubborn editor together. On the other hand, Kate was a hell of a game player. And she was attractive, and somehow she became less annoying the longer he knew her. He was even getting used to having her in his home. If he were going to be forced into marriage—

“So I wouldn't mention it to her if I were you,” Bastien said.

“I'd have to agree with Bastien and Etienne on this,” Gregory decided, looking at Lucern. “As much as I like your mother, she can be a tad persistent once she gets an idea into her head. If you don't want her interfering and trying to push you and Kate together, I wouldn't mention that you can't read Kate's mind.”

“Too late.”

All four men jumped guiltily at that sweetly sung comment. Whirling, they found themselves confronted by Marguerite. Lucern groaned at the predatory look on her face. She'd obviously heard everything. And judging by her expression, she was already plotting.

At least that was what he thought, so he was surprised when she took the bag of blood Bastien offered and turned to smile at her oldest son. “Luc, darling. If you want to get rid of the girl so badly, why not just agree
to do one of the publicity things she's on about? The moment you agree, she'll leave.”

“'Cause I don't want to,” he answered, almost wincing as he heard how childish he sounded.

“And I don't want to listen to you whine, but sometimes we have to do things we don't like in life.” Her words made everyone fall silent; then Marguerite stabbed her teeth into her bag of blood and drained it. When she'd finished, she turned to Lucern and added, “Kate doesn't want to be here bothering you any more than you want her here. However, her job depends on being able to convince you to do one of those publicity events. She likes her new position. She wants to keep it. She won't leave until you agree to at least one.”

Spotting his horrified reaction, Marguerite patted her son's cheek affectionately. “I suggest you tell her you'll do R.T. From what she told me at the spa today, it's probably the best option for both of you.”

“What's R.T.?” Lucern asked suspiciously.

“
Romantic Times
magazine,” his mother explained. “Just tell her you'll do it.” Then Marguerite Argeneau turned and walked away, heading back along the row of cars.

“Hmm. I wonder how she found out Kate's job depends on convincing you to do one of those publicity events,” Bastien murmured as they watched their mother walk away.

Greg shrugged. “She's very good at getting people to tell her things they never mean to say. She would have made a good therapist.”

Lucern was silent, and they all handed their empty glasses back to Bastien. He didn't know how his mother
had found out what she had, but he didn't doubt for a minute that it was true. Which made him about as miserable as he could be, for now he knew for certain that he would never be free of the woman. She was desperate, and desperate people were both as persistent as hell and unpredictable.

“Here you all are!”

The four men whirled away from the van again, this time to find Kate C. Leever facing them. There was a mischievous grin on her face as she took in their guilty expressions and the way they were all trying to hide something behind them.

“Rachel was looking for you. I said I thought I saw you come out here and said I'd check for her,” she explained, still eyeing them with amusement. “She tried to stop me and said she'd go, but it's her wedding—I couldn't let her leave her guests to go chasing after you four reprobates.”