Bite of Envy (Just One Bite #4) (2 page)

Diandra and Eamon drew simultaneous breaths and then the
tension drained from their bodies. Adrian studied their appearances as though
they were science experiments. Eamon's face was slack, all expression gone as
he stared at his hands on Dia's arms. Her eyes were unfocused, and her arms now
hung limp at her sides. RaeLynn giggled and clapped her hands, happy with the
turn of events. She turned and crawled back to Adrian, a look of what could
only be satisfaction on her face.

It wasn't until she was settled in his lap once more that
they shook off their stupor. Eamon spoke first, releasing Dia's arms and
stepping back from her. "What in the name of God was that?" he
whispered.

Diandra shook her head. "I don't know," she said,
nerves making her voice quaver a bit. Clearing her throat, she turned wide,
confused eyes to Adrian. "What happened?"

Adrian let out a roar of laughter. "Princess RaeLynn
happened, that's what," he said, wiping tears from his eyes. He attempted
to stop chuckling, but the looks on their faces made it difficult. "She
didn't like you fighting, so she touched you and you stopped." He shrugged
and picked up a warm bottle, handing it to Rae as she reached for it.
"What did you feel?"

Diandra looked at Eamon, and when he made no attempt to
answer, she filled the silence. "One minute I was angry, and a bit scared,
and the next I just felt… calm, I suppose you'd say. Peaceful, like everything
was going to be just fine." She never took her eyes from Eamon's face, and
she was relieved when he nodded in agreement.

Adrian smiled gently, his laughter gone as his empathic
nature kicked in. "Well, it seems that Little Miss has learned a new
skill, and quite a handy one from the look of things," he commented
mildly. No one spoke as they all watched the baby in question. She sat on the
floor looking smug as she studied her mother's face. Laughing, she dropped her
bottle and clapped her hands as the front door opened.

"I'm home," Lizbeth called out, ending all
conversation about her skills as well as any fighting that might have resumed
once the puzzlement wore off. She walked into the parlor and studied the faces
around her, noting that something had changed in her absence. Kicking off her
shoes and sitting down in the armchair, she scooped RaeLynn off of the floor.
Kissing the soft curls at the top of Rae's head, she settled the baby into her
lap and took in the silence in the room. "What'd I miss?"

Everyone exchanged glances, unsure where to start. Lizbeth
was confused, and a little apprehensive. Obviously something big had happened
and no one knew how to tell her. "Is there a problem?" Lizbeth asked,
her voice transforming from its mellow tone to the one she used for work.

Eamon cleared his throat and finally broke the silence.
"No, no problem, I don't think. RaeLynn was just showing off a nifty new
skill, that's all." He summed up the events of the last half hour as best
he could without letting her know that the argument he and Diandra had been
having was about her.

Lizbeth sat quiet for a moment, struggling to absorb what
she'd been told. "So you're saying that Rae can manipulate emotions now?
That everything we feel is now subject to scrutiny because maybe what we think
we're feeling is actually what she wants us to feel?" She glanced down at
the pleased child in her lap with a look of horror. Her heartbeat accelerated
slightly, and she attempted to force it back down to a more sedate pace.
RaeLynn giggled and touched the arms that were holding her, and a curtain of
peace descended over Lizzie. "No!" she shouted, setting the baby
quickly on the floor and backing away. Rae instantly started crying, but
Lizbeth refused to allow it to move her as Adrian tried to stem the flow of
tears.
 

"No, my emotions are my own. If I want to be pissed,
I'll be pissed. If I want to be scared, I'm entitled to it. I'm not letting
someone who can't even eat solid foods yet dictate how I feel. I won't fucking
have it, do you understand me?" Whirling about on her heel, she was gone
from the parlor in an instant, not even stopping for her shoes. The front door
slammed behind her, and the next sound they heard were the tires of her Nissan
squealing as she pealed out of the driveway.

Diandra stood up with one hand outstretched toward the door
as though she could bring Lizbeth back. Adrian and Eamon locked eyes, and Eamon
tried to push his thoughts gently into the other man's mind, relieved when it
worked.
We need to keep an eye on Lizbeth
at all times when she's here
, he projected. Adrian merely nodded as he
attempted to soothe the sobbing baby. Whatever was going on with her, she
obviously didn't want to talk about it. Until they knew what was bothering her,
no one felt comfortable trusting her near RaeLynn. If she could hurt the baby's
feelings like this and not care, what else was she capable of?
 

Lizbeth didn't come back that night, and this time Diandra
didn't bother tracking her down. She knew Lizzie could be found in her office-
she spent more time there than she did at home these days. It hurt, but
sometimes it was easier to let her lover hide away rather than try to coax her
home when she obviously didn't want to be there. Dealing with all those
churning emotions was Hell, and Diandra had had enough of it. She needed a
break from all of the drama these last eighteen months had brought to her life,
and she was going to do her part to avoid it. Lizbeth was a grown woman, she
theorized, and if she wasn't willing to ask for help, well, Dia wasn't going to
go out of her way to extend any.

As though he could read her mind, Adrian turned to her.
"I suppose she'll be sleeping at her office again." He was drying his
hands on a dish towel. There was a perfectly good dishwasher in the kitchen,
but he said he found the washing and drying of the dishes to be soothing.
Diandra found it an annoyance, but if it worked for him, who was she to
criticize?

"It appears that way," Dia replied nonchalantly.
She tried to play it off as though she no longer cared, but they both knew it
for the lie it was. She cared far more than she wanted to.

Adrian tossed the towel over his shoulder and approached
her. Gently he led her to the loveseat and urged her to sit. After she'd done
so, he handed her the glass of blood he'd made up for her earlier, shaking his
head in warning when she started to protest. "You're barely sleeping these
days, you haven't had any blood in four days, and your starting to get circles
under your eyes deep enough to rival the Grand Canyon. Just drink," he
said gently but firmly.

Sighing, she took the glass and took a tiny sip that rapidly
changed into gulps as her thirst bubbled to the surface. Her cheeks were
flushed from the intake of blood and embarrassment as she lowered the empty
glass to the coffee table. Adrian smiled softly at her, letting her know with
the look in his eye that he didn't want any thanks or apologies from her. She
bowed her head a moment and then looked up and nodded- from prior incidents
like this one, she knew that was the only acknowledgement he'd accept from her.

"Now," Adrian said briskly, "just what is
Lizbeth's problem? I understand some of it, but the rest of it is a mystery to
me." He stood up, grabbing the empty glass and gesturing for Dia to walk
and talk. She stayed silent until they reached the kitchen where he instantly
got to work rinsing the remaining blood droplets out. He'd made the glass
earlier before laying RaeLynn down for the night, so his arm was already healed
without so much as a scar to show he slit his wrists on a regular basis. It
never ceased to amaze Diandra, but however the magic worked that he and Rae
had, she was grateful for it.

Shaking off her musings, she realized he was still waiting
patiently for her to answer. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I don't
really know what is bothering her, and frankly, at this point I'm finding it
difficult to care." She hastened to explain when he frowned. "I love
her, but she's exhausting. Having a conversation with her is like… like
crossing a city street blindfolded and carrying a grenade with the pin
pulled." Adrian choked out a laugh, startled by her description and she
smiled a bit. "Okay, perhaps that's a bit dramatic, but not by much. She
keeps her emotions bottled up so tight that it's a wonder she doesn't go off
like a bottle rocket."

Diandra threw her arms up with frustration and stalked out
of the kitchen. Adrian gave her a couple minutes to calm down, taking the time
to put the dishes that were dry into their proper cabinets before he went
looking for her. She was on the rear deck, exactly where he'd expected to find
her, her hands clutching the railing so tightly that it was splintering beneath
her grip. He wondered if she even noticed, but he didn't dare try to loosen her
hold, knowing she was angry enough right now to take a swing at him without
thinking first.

Saying nothing, he sat down in one of the lounge chairs and
let her gather her thoughts. He didn't want to push her, but he also knew that
if she didn't talk to someone there would be two women holding their emotions
back. He'd have sent Eamon to talk to her, but sometimes the older vampire had
a tendency to stir the pot, whether by accident or design, and right now that
was probably one of the worst things that could happen to their tiny family.

Family, he mused. Yes, he supposed he considered them a
strange little family. Eamon, the patriarch- he created neither Lizbeth nor
Diandra, but he was "raising" them, so to speak, which made him the
head of their patchwork family. Lizzie and Dia were new vampires, much like
children in the scheme of their family. RaeLynn… well, she was the newborn
baby, of course. Everyone cooed and fussed over her, cuddling and coddling her.
Inspiration struck as he considered it- Diandra had been turned first. She was
the oldest of the "siblings" in Eamon's little family tree. RaeLynn
was the youngest, and spoiled by all of them in one way or another. That made
Lizbeth the middle "child"- vampirism was handed down to her by
Diandra like a second-hand wardrobe. No wonder she was so moody.

If they were their own little family, what did that make
him? He chuckled to himself. He was the stray dog that showed up at the door
hoping for a family to take him in, he thought sardonically. Sure, he had his
uses, but he was a minor part of the group, and easily replaced if need be.
After all, he was the hired help.

Yes, well, the only
flaw in your scenario is that it won't be the patriarch that replaces you-
it'll be the two oldest children
, Eamon said into Adrian's mind. The vamp
laughed as Adrian let out a shriek of surprise and tumbled sideways off of the
lounge chair, managing only to pull it with him when he tried to slow his fall.

Diandra had turned at the noise, her eyebrows raised in
question as Adrian stood up and set the chair back into place.
 
He brushed the dirt off of himself, all the
while "yelling" at Eamon silently, hoping the man was still
listening.
Stay out of my head if you're
not in the same room as me. Don't talk in my head unless you're making eye
contact, do you hear me you bloodsucker?

An ivory cat jumped out of the shadows to land on the
railing right in front of Adrian's face, staring at him as laughter still rang
in his head.
Yes, witch
, Eamon said.
I hear you perfectly
… As the cat turned
his back in dismissal and began cleaning his whiskers, the voice continued,
but it doesn't mean I'll listen, either.

"Well?" Diandra questioned, dragging Adrian out of
his internal argument. "Do you want to share with me what that was
about?" She was leaning against the railing, her posture deceptively
casual to the untrained eye as her robe billowed about her legs with the breeze
off the water. Tension pulled the skin around her eyes too tight, and her
shoulders were a bit rigid as well, as though she was wondering if there was
something to defend her home against out there in the shadows of the night.

Still frowning at Eamon's turned back, Adrian answered,
"Wonder Vamp here decided to butt into my head where he wasn't
welcome." He brushed the seat of his khakis off, trying to free himself from
the sand and thankful that it hadn't rained recently.

Grinning, Diandra snuck up behind the oblivious cat and
flicked her fingers against one of his ears, laughing as he jumped straight up,
arched his back and hissed a warning at her. "That'll teach you to dive
into someone's private thoughts. He may not be able to keep you out just yet,
but I'll be teaching him shortly so there are no more intrusions," she
said, the warning clear in her voice.

Eamon hunkered down on the railing, flattened his ears to
his head and growled deep in his throat before jumping down into the sea grass
below the deck. In a moment he flew up and landed beside her on the deck, now
back in his human form and fully dressed. Adrian pondered that, wondering for a
moment how that was even possible before shrugging it off as unimportant.
Goddess knows there's enough to think about
without adding that question to the mix
, he thought sarcastically.

"That was unnecessary, don't you think?" Eamon
said coldly, glaring daggers at Dia as he rubbed at his right ear. He hopped up
to sit on the railing, kicking his heels against it like a child who couldn't
sit still.

Diandra gave him a satisfied grin. "It accomplished two
things- you'll think twice before inserting yourself into someone's personal
thoughts without welcome, and you turned back so the three of us can talk out
loud," she stated.

"If you'd asked nicely, I would have turned back.
Flicking me was a ridiculous way to reach your goal."

"Maybe so, but it did work, and it was fun," Diandra
said, sticking her tongue out before heading back into the house. Plopping down
cross-legged on the loveseat, she waited for the two men to make their way
inside. Eamon sat in the armchair and Adrian took his usual spot on the floor.
She made a mental note to look for another overstuffed chair for her parlor.
"Now, what was so interesting that you had to stick your two cents in, or
were you just bored?" she asked Eamon.