A Bite to Remember (32 page)

“Cassius?” Tiny echoed on a rumble of displeasure. “Here?”

“Where?” Vincent asked sharply.

Jackie blinked in surprise at the harshness to his voice and peered at him with confusion. She hadn’t told him about Cassius, yet his expression was tight and he’d immediately moved closer to her in a protective manner.

Vincent saw the question on her face and hesitated, then sighed and admitted, “I know about him. I read Tiny’s mind.”

Jackie stilled, anger welling up in her at this news. Before she could respond, Tiny squeezed her arm.

“Don’t be angry with him,” he rumbled. “I let him read me. I thought he should know about it.”

Jackie turned her furious glance toward her partner, her anger immediately transferring to him.

“And I read Vincent,” Christian announced, drawing her fire away from Tiny. He added, “Without his permission.”

“So did I,” Marcus announced.

Jackie was scowling at the two men when Dante said, “We didn’t read anyone.”

When she glanced at the twins, Tomasso added, “But we overheard the conversation in the kitchen while we were guarding the door and know he hurt you somehow and made you fear immortals.”

Jackie’s shoulders drooped and she let out a small sigh. It seemed everyone knew, or at least knew Cassius had done something, if not what. Except Neil, she realized as he spoke.

“Is there a problem?” the vice president asked with a frown. “Cassius works for Vincent.”

“He what?” Vincent looked shocked at this news, but Jackie was frowning over the information. Vincent had taken her from office to office in search of information on who had worked on the play in New York. She’d thought she’d met everyone.

“We consult him over contract issues on occasion,” Neil explained. “He actually works in the legal department of V.A. Incorporated, not the production company itself.”

“Not for much longer,” Vincent said grimly.

Jackie squeezed his hand. “You can’t fire him for something he did years ago.”

“The hell I can’t. I can fire whomever I want,” he said arrogantly. “They’re my companies.”

“Yes, but we have labor laws,” she pointed out. “Besides, why bother?”

“He hurt you,” Vincent said simply. “And mortals have labor laws. Immortals don’t. I don’t want someone of his kind working for me.”

“Mr. Notte?”

Jackie glanced around, recognizing the voice of Vincent’s secretary, Sharon. She couldn’t see her, however, the men were in the way.

“I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about Stephano. He—oh, Vincent.” Sharon blinked at her boss as Neil shifted and Vincent’s presence was revealed, then her gaze slid to Jackie and surprise crossed her face. “Jackie.”

The woman was obviously startled to see her there. She wasn’t the only one. Lily stood beside her, looking just as stunned at her presence.

“Is there something wrong, Sharon?” Jackie asked calmly.

When the secretary simply stared at her wide-eyed, Lily forced a smile to her face and said delicately, “She’s just surprised. We didn’t think you knew Stephano Notte.”

Jackie was silent, considering the two of them. She suspected it was more than that. After all, the last time they’d seen her she was a mortal. One look at her eyes now and they should both be able to tell she’d been turned.

“No,” Jackie said finally. “I never had the pleasure of meeting Stephano while he was alive. I’m just here out of respect for Neil and his family.”

“Yes, of course,” Lily murmured, then glanced toward Sharon as the secretary returned to offering her condolences to the vice president of V.A. Productions.

Once the attention was off her, Jackie glanced back toward Elaine and Roberto Notte. Cassius had moved on and Max Kunstler was now there, speaking solemnly to the couple. Jackie started to peer around in search of Cassius, then sucked in a breath as she saw he was moving in their direction, his eyes fixed on Neil. She had no doubt he was coming to offer his condolences and suddenly wished she was anywhere but there.

Jackie felt Vincent step closer, his arm sliding around her waist. At the same moment, Tiny moved nearer on her other side, then the rest of the men crowded closer as well, puffing up like protective roosters. It seemed they’d been paying attention to what Cassius was doing too. The entire group was suddenly stiff and tense.

You aren’t nineteen anymore
. The words floated through her mind and Jackie turned her gaze to Marguerite. The woman stood a little to the side, watching the men with
amusement. As her gaze shifted to Jackie, Marguerite’s expression became solemn and she nodded meaningfully.
And now you’re immortal too
.

Straightening her shoulders, Jackie turned back as Cassius paused at Neil’s side. She peered at him curiously, noting that he wasn’t nearly as attractive as he’d always been in her memory. His hair was blond as she recalled, but when she’d met him at nineteen it had seemed to shine like spun gold and she’d ached to touch it. Now, it just looked dirty blond to her. As for the body of Adonis she’d always recalled him having, he was slender and wiry, and not especially tall. Five foot ten was her guess. Every man around her had at least four to six inches on him.

Jackie turned her attention to his face, inspecting him closely. His lips were a bit thin, his nose straight, his eyes neither large, nor small. He was just average in looks. Only the color of his eyes was not average, at least compared to mortal eyes. His were a shining bronze brown, incredible next to normal, mortal eyes, but not nearly as beautiful as Vincent’s silver-blue eyes, or as interesting as the silver-flecked black eyes of the Nottes.

Jackie shook her head with confusion. There was absolutely nothing noteworthy about Cassius. Either her tastes had been vastly different at nineteen, or the man had controlled her from the moment she’d opened the door to him that day a little more than ten years ago. Jackie suspected the latter was the case. Cassius had come to their home intending to seduce her and shame her father. He’d made himself appear beautiful in her mind to do it.

She hadn’t had a chance, Jackie realized. For years she’d
felt guilty, thinking that if she hadn’t followed her attraction for Cassius and rebelled enough to go on that first date with him, he’d never have been able to get control of her as he had. But she no longer believed that was the case. He’d made her think he was attractive. Perhaps he had even instilled that rebelliousness in her to go against her father’s wishes and sneak out to meet him. Cassius had set out to control her from the start. He’d probably even arrived when he knew her father wasn’t home just so that he could do so.

Finished with his duty, Cassius glanced expectantly around the group, obviously awaiting introductions. Jackie stiffened as his gaze slid from Sharon, to Lily, to Vincent, then her, but his eyes continued on to Tiny without stopping. His expression was polite and enquiring. He hadn’t recognized her.

Neil started his introduction with Christian, Marcus, Dante, and Tomasso. The four Italians stared at Cassius with cold eyes, none of them accepting the hand he offered in greeting. Neil raised a curious eyebrow at their rudeness, then introduced Vincent. “And this is Vincent Argeneau. The V.A. in V.A. Incorporated and V.A. Productions.”

Cassius’s attitude immediately became annoyingly obsequious. The fact that he behaved so with Vincent and not Neil, said he considered himself an equal to the vice president of V.A. Productions. But then, Jackie supposed, he wouldn’t feel threatened by Neil, or as if it was not worth much effort to impress him. Neil was the vice president of V.A. Productions, not V.A. Incorporated, where he worked. Vincent, on the other hand, was the owner of both, and Cassius was suddenly basically brown-nosing, telling him
how pleased he was to meet him and how much he admired him.

Vincent stared at the man with open dislike and—as with Christian and the others—didn’t accept the hand he was holding out in greeting. Instead, he took over the introductions then, introducing first Tiny, who reacted exactly as Christian and the others had, peering down his nose at the shorter man with cold eyes.

“And this is Jackie Morrisey,” Vincent said, but even the name didn’t bring any recognition to Cassius’s face.

Jackie felt her stomach roll over with disgust. She’d spent the last ten years haunted by this man, agonizing over what he’d done to her, what he could have done…and he didn’t even recognize her name. It appeared he’d forgotten her as soon as she was out of his life and yet she’d been tortured by his actions all these years. She’d been torturing herself.

Jackie felt Vincent squeeze her side and offered a stiff smile to let him know she was okay. He squeezed her again, then turned back to Cassius. “Her father was Ted Morrisey. You may have met him. He did lots of work for my cousin Bastien in New York. You lived there, didn’t you?”

Cassius went stiff and turned slowly back to peer at Jackie. The recognition was there on his face now as his gaze raked over her. The look said that he was recalling what she’d looked like under her clothes all those years ago. A small, leering smile immediately tilted his lips up and his eyes flashed.

Jackie was aware of the way Tiny and Vincent both moved in closer still. Each of them was now pressed up against her sides. She thought she heard a small growl from one of the Italian troop too, but didn’t glance around at the angry
sound. Her gaze stayed locked on Cassius until he finally noticed her eyes. A slow smile pulled her lips apart as his own eyes widened with the realization that she was now an immortal too.

“Hello, Cassius,” she said sweetly, then tilted her head and commented, “you’re not nearly as tall as I remembered. You wouldn’t have been using some of that immortal mind control on me all those years ago, would you?”

“I…” Cassius glanced toward Vincent nervously.

“I bet you did,” she commented with feigned amusement. “It makes me wonder what else is smaller.”

Jackie heard the snort of amusement that came from the direction of the Italian troop and was aware that the cough that suddenly claimed Tiny was to disguise a laugh. Her attention, however, was focused on Vincent. He wasn’t amused. There was tension in every line of his body as he glared at Cassius. Still, he took her completely by surprise when he announced, “Jackie is my life mate, Cassius.”

Jackie froze as those words made their way through her brain. She turned abruptly to Vincent and he lowered his gaze to her, the hard anger on his face immediately giving way to a soft smile. He lifted a hand to her cheek, caressing her softly. His eyes radiated reassurance and, she thought, love. She hoped it was love.

Jackie’s lips turned up in a smile and she leaned into him, then turned back to Cassius. However, he hadn’t got over his own shock at Vincent’s announcement quite as quickly as she had, and was still gaping at the man.

As she watched, Cassius seemed to regain himself. He finally turned toward her, his mouth opening, but whatever
he would have said died in his throat as she smiled at him, flashing her fangs. She’d finally managed that skill just half an hour before leaving for the funeral and was glad she had.

Cassius snapped his mouth closed, murmured an excuse and quickly moved away to disappear into the crowd. Jackie felt like a chapter of her life had finally closed as she watched him walk away…and was grateful to have it so. She relaxed into Vincent’s side as he hugged her.

“You didn’t tell us you had mastered bringing on your teeth,” Christian commented as everyone relaxed. “Well done.”

Jackie smiled and nodded to acknowledge his compliment.

“You shall have to tell me what that was all about. I seem to be the only person here who hasn’t got a clue what just happened,” Neil commented.

“Not the
only
one,” Sharon murmured, reminding Jackie of the other women’s presence. Sharon and Lily had remained so still and quiet, she’d forgotten they were there.

“We’ll explain,” Christian said as he glanced toward the front of the room. “But later. Now it appears the service is about to begin.”

Christian was right, and they all moved to find seats. Jackie, Vincent, Tiny, and Marguerite settled near the back of the room where they could see everyone. Sharon and Lily settled nearby and Neil and the others made their way to the front of the room, where the family was situated.

The rest of the funeral was uneventful, but Vincent stayed at her side throughout. He also spent most of his time
glaring at the back of Cassius’s head. He’d said he was going to fire Cassius, but Jackie suspected the man should be grateful if that’s all Vincent did. She considered telling Vincent firing him wasn’t necessary, but didn’t bother. Cassius had brought it on himself, let him reap what he’d sewn so long ago. Perhaps he needed the reminder that every action had a consequence, and that someone weak today may be the strong one later. Even mortals, with their short lives, forgot that lesson.

The service was very similar to human funeral services, but the burial was different. Inside the well-lit funeral home, it had been easy to forget that it was night outside, but at the cemetery this was not possible. Here, night encroached all around them as everyone made their silent way to the graveside. Jackie was slightly surprised that they didn’t bother with some form of lighting to illuminate the path to the graveside, but most of the funeral attendees didn’t seem to need it. Jackie was reminded that immortals were night hunters by nature and that their silvery eyes were more than just pretty; they were to allow them to see in the dark. There were few people at the funeral who had trouble navigating the path; she had a little trouble, though not much. It appeared her night vision had already improved. Tiny, on the other hand, had a lot of difficulty negotiating the path.

Jackie knew she wasn’t seeing as well as the rest of the immortals around her. Marguerite had already explained that her new skills and abilities were still in their infancy, and would increase with the passing of time. Night vision was obviously one of the abilities that would continue to
improve, but it was still a little frustrating. She spent her time at the graveside examining the others in attendance, searching expressions for some telltale sign of satisfaction, and wishing that her eyesight was already one hundred percent to do so.