Bite Me if You Can (15 page)

Leigh nodded her understanding, then glanced to Rachel when the other woman patted her hand.

“It’s all right, ID and credit cards can be replaced,” the redhead said.

“Yes, but in the meantime I’m without,” Leigh said quietly. She hated the idea of being dependent on the kindness of these people, who were really—nice as they seemed—strangers. She’d been independent too long to be comfortable with it.

Rachel sighed, then turned a glare in Lucian’s direction, obviously blaming him for it. But he merely shrugged and revealed just how much he’d overheard by saying, “I’m not the one who left it in the house.”

Leigh made a face at the man as he moved to lean against the kitchen counter. It wasn’t as if she’d forgotten it in her rush; she’d been weak and sick and escaping kidnappers, not worrying about her purse.

“Don’t worry, Bastien will take care of it,” Etienne assured her. “He deals with stuff like this all the time.”

“We’ll call him in New York as soon as we get home,” Rachel added to his reassurance as she got to her feet. “Or actually, later in the day. He’ll be asleep by now,” she added, glancing at the clock on the wall as Etienne stood up beside her.

“Where are you going?” Lucian asked with a frown as Rachel led Etienne to the kitchen door.

“Home,” Etienne said, following his wife out of the room.

Leigh glanced from the closing door to Lucian as he suddenly sped across the floor. He moved fast. Super fast. It was like watching a video on fast forward, and she was left blinking at the closed door with both surprise and curiosity, wondering why he seemed in such a panic over their leaving.

“Wait!” Lucian hurried up the hall. He caught up to Rachel and Etienne as they stopped to don their shoes and coats. “What about the girl?”

“You mean Leigh?” Rachel asked pointedly.

“Yes. Leigh.”

“What about her?” She shrugged into her jacket. “Marguerite asked us to come explain things to her, but you already have.”

Lucian waved that away impatiently. “She needs training. She has to learn to control her teeth and all those other things a new vampire needs to know.”

Rachel arched her eyebrows with amusement. “That’s your problem. What’s the matter, Lucian? Scared of her?”

He stiffened and stared at her coldly. “I’ve been alive too long to be afraid of anything, or anyone, in this world.”

“Hmmm. Yeah, you’ve seen and done a lot in your life, I suppose,” she agreed, then added, “Accept live.”

“Rachel,” Etienne said in warning tones.

“Explain yourself,” Lucian snapped.

“Have you loved anyone in your whole life besides that pitiful excuse for a man who was your brother?”

“I gather someone’s been telling tales about the dead,” he said, sending a glare at Etienne.

“Are we talking about you or your brother when talking about tales of the dead?” Rachel shot back. “Jean Claude was the only person you’ve cared about in several thousand years, and he wasn’t worthy of it. Well, now you have a woman in that kitchen you can’t read, or control, and we all know what that means.”

“It means I’m tired and need to sleep so that I can read and control her,” Lucian said shortly.

She gave a snort. “Yeah, you tell yourself that.”

Rachel turned to the door, then paused, and suddenly turned back. “Try to read me.”

“What?” Lucian blinked in surprise at the challenge.

“Let’s find out if it’s just tiredness.”

“No,” he said at once, but despite himself, his mind instinctively sought out hers at the suggestion. Lucian stiffened at the one thought that drifted to him.

Coward.

Spotting his reaction, Rachel smiled. It was a wide, satisfied smile. “You can read me... despite being tired.”

Lucian neither denied nor acknowledged it, but his mind was in an uproar. He had read Rachel and he’d barely been trying.

“But you can’t read Leigh,” Rachel continued, obviously enjoying herself. “She’s your life mate... and you should be scared silly.”

Lucian’s eyes narrowed. “And why is that?”

Rachel smiled. “Knowing what a cold bastard you are, you’ll probably mess this up and drive her away. Then you’ll miss out on the best thing that might have happened to you.”

Lucian ground his teeth together but didn’t fight back. He was hoping once Rachel had vented her spleen, she might be able to get past her anger with him. It would make things easier on everyone.

Reaching out, she patted his shoulder and smiled. “Let’s hope the loss doesn’t turn you rogue so that we have to hunt you down and terminate your ass. I wouldn’t want to upset Marguerite or Lissianna, who—despite everything—both seem fond of you.”

Rachel then walked out, leaving Etienne frowning after her. Shaking his head, he turned to his uncle to offer lamely, “It’s past our bedtime and she’s tired. I’m sure you’ll do fine with Leigh. Give me a call if you want any advice.”

Lucian stared after the departing man with disbelief. Etienne was the last person he’d go to for advice. Dear God, he had nearly messed up his own relationship with Rachel, and would have lost her if it weren’t for the intervention of his mother. Besides, Lucian told himself as he closed the door behind them, Rachel was wrong. Leigh wasn’t his life mate.

He leaned his forehead on the cool wood and closed his eyes, Rachel’s words playing through his head. The young woman disliked him, and it colored everything that had to do with him, but—despite his denial of it—everything she’d said might be true.

One of the signs of a life mate for their kind was an inability to read their minds or control them. Except for his long-dead wife, Lucian had never encountered that problem before—not with a mortal or a newly turned individual—and this wasn’t the first time he’d been tired in his life. Added to that, he suspected their minds had connected while he’d slept on Lissianna’s bed. He suspected he’d not had his own wet dream, but shared Leigh’s. That was another sign of a life mate.

If it was what happened, he told himself.

Either way, he was suddenly feeling confused and unsure, something else he very rarely felt. He didn’t know what was happening, and didn’t even know what he wanted to happen.

A life mate. A companion to live out eternity with. Someone of his own to love and greet the sunset with. It was what most immortals seemed to long for, but caring and loving meant being vulnerable to pain if that person was injured or died. Lucian had already suffered that once. He’d lost his wife and two young daughters in the fall of Atlantis. That loss wasn’t something he wanted to experience anew.

Straightening, he shook his head and told himself to take it one problem at a time. Right now he couldn’t read or control Leigh. If it was a simple matter of exhaustion weakening his abilities, that was fine. After he rested he’d be able to read her. But if it wasn’t that, if he couldn’t read her even then... Leigh could be a life mate for him, and that meant being faced with the possibility of loving... and the chance of losing that love once more. Was he willing to give her up now, rather than suffer the pain of losing her later? Probably not. A life mate was a rare and wonderful gift. Having experienced it once, Lucian knew that, and he also knew—if she was his intended life mate—he’d do whatever it took to keep her.

Sleep, he told himself. Despite being able to read Rachel, he was sure he just needed to rest and then would be able to read Leigh. All of this worry might be for nothing.

But he couldn’t sleep right away. He had to contact Bastien, or Mortimer and Bricker to see how the hunt for Morgan was going. He also needed to arrange for cleaners to give the house a proper going over.

Lucian supposed he’d also have to arrange for groceries for Leigh. She was newly turned so would still want to eat. And he had to find someone to teach her how to control her teeth and those other things she needed to know to survive as one of them. He simply didn’t have the patience for it. Unfortunately, Etienne and Rachel obviously weren’t willing, and he still didn’t want to trouble Lissianna and Greg with it. Lissianna wasn’t just close to giving birth, she was also in the midst of moving. The couple had sold their apartment and bought a house outside the city where they could raise their son or daughter. But that still left Jeanne Louise, or Thomas.

“Lucian?”

He turned slowly, almost reluctantly. Leigh had come out of the kitchen and now walked down the hall toward him. And she looked tired, he noticed. “Would it be all right if I went and lay down for a while? I seem to be tired again.”

“Of course,” he said quickly, relieved not to have to deal with her at the moment. Between his exhaustion and the business he had to take care of, he didn’t have time to handle her, too.

Nodding, Leigh moved past him to the stairs, then hesitated. “I appreciate you bringing me here and taking care of me. I’ll try not to be too much of a burden.” She paused, then added, “I know you’d rather be out hunting Morgan. It’s important he’s stopped before he turns some other unsuspecting human. I’ll understand if you want to go. I’d muddle through somehow. I mean, you guys had to learn it all on your own after the fall when the nanos changed you. I’m sure I can figure it out as I go along.”

Lucian felt his heart soften. She looked so small and lost as she made that offer, he knew she was hoping he’d reject it. He found himself with the unexpected urge to take her in his arms and make everything better. Instead, he simply said, “Go to sleep, I’ll find someone to help me help you. I’ll make some calls while you rest.”

Lucian sensed her hesitating at the foot of the stairs as he picked up the phone to, yet again, dial Thomas’s number. It wasn’t until the phone began to ring in his ear that he heard her quiet footsteps move upstairs. He let the phone ring several times before hanging up, then moved into the library to settle at the desk and use the phone there to make his calls.

First, he called the cleaning service that took care of his own home. Unfortunately, it would take a while for them to get a crew together on such short notice and the best they could do was promise they’d have someone at the house later in the day. He then called Mortimer’s cell phone. He woke the man from a dead sleep, only to learn that Morgan appeared to have dropped off the face of the earth, as had the Donny that had escaped with him. There had been no more charges on the credit card since his last call. Morgan had apparently holed up somewhere, so Mortimer and Bricker were taking the opportunity to rest.

He called Bastien next, waking him up as well. Lucian didn’t apologize, but simply asked him to get to work on getting replacement credit cards and ID together for Leigh when he could, a task he realized was impossible the moment Bastien asked for her full name. Lucian couldn’t believe it, but he had no idea what her full name was. Frustrated, he promised to get the information when she woke up, and then tried to call Thomas again... and again without success.

Jeanne Louise was his last hope at that point, and Lucian dialed her number with his jaw clenched, then almost sagged with relief when the phone was answered.

“Hi! This is Jeanne Louise.”

“Jeanne Louise?” Lucian said quickly. “This is—”

“If you’re calling, you must be one of the few people in the world who hasn’t realized I’ve gone on vacation with Mirabeau,” her voice continued, and Lucian slumped in the desk chair as he realized it was an answering machine message.

“If it’s urgent, page me, but otherwise I should be back from Europe in two weeks. See you then!”

He set the phone back with a sigh. Lucian considered paging her, but realized if she was in Europe, she wasn’t much use to him. It appeared the universe was against him. A situation he wasn’t used to at all. He liked to get his way, and worked to make sure it happened. He wasn’t doing so well at the moment, however.

Despite the possibility that she might be his life mate, or perhaps because of that, Lucian was more determined than ever not to train her himself. It was as bad an idea as a husband training a wife to drive, in his opinion, but it looked like he had no choice. He’d be training Leigh... unless he went over and hunted down Thomas in person. He was considering doing just that when he became aware of scratching at the French doors behind him. Standing, he moved to the door and shifted the curtain to see Julius on the other side, looking pathetic in the early morning fog drifting around him. It seemed he was ready to come in now.

Lucian opened the door to let the dog back in, then ignored him and moved to the leather couch against one wall to lay down. He would take a nap there until the cleaners arrived, then figure out whether he should hunt down his nephew or not.

Leigh slept for four hours, but was still weary enough when she opened her eyes that she might have rolled over and gone back to sleep if her conscience had let her. However, she was very aware that she’d done little more than sleep during the forty odd hours since escaping the house in Kansas, and felt guilty for such sluggardly behavior.

A hard worker by nature, Leigh normally slept no more than six hours and filled the other eighteen hours of the day with work. Turning or no turning, sleeping this much didn’t feel right. She forced herself to get up and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face, then went downstairs in search of her host.

After a quick walk through the main floor, she found Lucian in the library. He was fast asleep on the sofa with Julius curled on the carpet before him. Leigh’s gaze moved curiously over Lucian as she approached.

He was a handsome man while awake, but his features had a cold, hard cast to them. In sleep, Lucian looked much different. His features were softer, as innocent as a child’s, and she found herself smiling as she paused beside the couch.

Leigh petted the dog absently when Julius lifted his head, then bent over Lucian and brushed a stray lock of pale hair away from his cheek. When he murmured in his sleep and turned his cheek into her touch, she felt her heart give an odd little kick in her chest.

Smile fading, she withdrew her hand and simply stared at Lucian. It had been a long time since she’d had such a reaction to a man. Not since escaping the disastrous marriage she’d fallen into at twenty, a mistake it had taken her three years to flee. Once she had, however, she’d sworn to never again put herself in a position where a man had power over her. She’d taken her independence back and liked it. Even now, seven years later, she wasn’t ready to risk it on another man. She’d been there and done that, thank you very much.