Kate stared at Allison, her mind reeling. The head editor had caught her in the hall just outside Chris's office and stopped to tell her that she had just gotten off the phone with Lucern. He wanted to discuss the possibility of doing a book-signing tour, but he wanted Kate to fly to Toronto to explain the particulars.
Kate couldn't believe it. She didn't believe it. Why was he sending for her? Perhaps the Argeneau blood bank had run out of blood, some bit of her mind whispered snidely, and she winced in pain. It didn't matter why he wanted her to go to Toronto. She couldn't do it. She wouldn't survive another encounter with him. At least her heart wouldn't. She wasn't at all sure it had survived the conference. It was still battered and bloody.
"I'm awfully busy, Allison. Couldn't Chris fly up there in my place? Maybe he could take over Lucern altogether, in fact," she added hopefully. "It would probably be for the best. I don't think I can handle Lucern."
"The hell you can't!"
Kate whirled around as Chuck moved up the hall to join them.
"If there's a possibility we can get the bastard to do that tour, you're going. The expense of your flight there and back is minuscule compared to how much that book chain was willing to put out for this tour. And the opportunity for publicity is incredible. It means articles in newspapers of every city the tour hits, maybe even television interviews. If you want to keep your job, you'll get your tail on the next available flight and convince Amirault to do this tour."
Kate didn't bother correcting Chuck about Lucern's real name. She was too busy considering quitting. Unfortunately, she couldn't afford to quit. She had bills to pay. Taking her silence for acquiescence, Chuck harrumphed and turned to stalk back up the hall to his office.
"It'll be fine," Allison assured her with a pat on the arm. Then she too went back to her office.
"So, Lucern is finally sending for you."
Kate turned to find Chris standing in his office doorway, smiling.
"Just to discuss the book-signing tour," Kate said in dismissal. She headed for her office.
Chris snorted with disbelief and followed. "Yeah, right. Like Lucern Argeneau will do a book tour. Forget about it. He wants you."
Kate sat down at her desk with a sigh. "Close the door please, Chris. I don't want everyone to know about this." She waited until he had closed the door, then said, "He doesn't want me."
"Are you kidding? The guy's crazy about you."
"Yeah," Kate muttered dryly. "I could tell that by the way he's been calling and sending me flowers."
Chris sat on the corner of the desk and shrugged. "Hey, you're the one who sneaked out of our suite like a thief. You've gotta figure the guy might hesitate, maybe think you're the one not interested."
Kate stiffened. That thought hadn't occurred to her. Hope reared its pitiful head. "Do you think so?"
"I'd stake your life on it."
Kate blinked, then gave a half smile. "My life, huh?"
"Yeah." He grinned and shoved himself off her desk, walked to the door. "Well, I'm ninety-nine percent sure, but I'm not suicidal. Better you than me if I'm wrong." Then he left.
Kate watched the door close behind him, then peered at the paperwork on her desk. The conference had put her behind. She'd tried to catch up on returning, but was so distracted she seemed to just be slipping further behind. She wasn't going to get any further ahead now, either. Not till she found out where she stood with Lucern.
Grabbing her purse from under her desk, she stood up. It was time to stop moping and being miserable, and to sort this out. Especially if there was a chance She didn't finish the thought. She already had too much hope building in her.
Chris stood in the hall, glanced back with raised eyebrows when she left her office. "Where are you going?"
"To catch a plane," Kate answered.
"Oh." He watched her walk past, then followed saying, "Urn shouldn't you call or write and let him know you're coming?"
"Like he'd answer the phone or read the letter." Kate snorted. "No. It's better this way. He wants me in Toronto. He's got me. I hope he's ready."
"Uh, lady? Did you want to get out here or not?"
Kate tore her gaze away from the front of Lucern's house and forced an apologetic smile for the taxi driver. The man was twisted in his seat, watching her with concern. He was being terribly patient. She had paid him several minutes ago, but then instead of getting out, she had sat staring fearfully up at the house.
"I'm sorry. I" She shrugged helplessly, unable to admit that while determination had carried her this far, it was starting to flag and terror was taking its place.
"No, hey, that's okay, lady. I can take you somewhere else if you want."
Kate sighed and reached for the door handle. "No, thank you."
She got out and closed the door, then stood to the side of the driveway as the taxi backed out. Since she had caught a ride straight from the office to the airportshe hadn't even stopped to packshe had come with nothing but her purse. She now gripped it with both hands and struggled to keep her breathing regular. She couldn't believe she was actually here.
"Well, you are, so you had best get it over with," she told herself.
Somewhat emboldened by her own firm voice, Kate walked up the sidewalk and crossed the porch. She raised her hand to knock at the door, then paused as she realized that it wasn't yet noon. It was bright daylight outside. Lucern would be sleeping. Kate let her hand drop with uncertainty. She didn't want to wake him up. He might be really cranky if she woke him up. It might get this whole meeting off to a bad start.
She glanced at her watch. 11:45. There were a good six hours or more until dark. She considered sitting on the porch and waiting, but six hours was a long time. Besides, she was rather tired. She hadn't slept a full night since leaving the conference. She wouldn't mind a nap. That way, she would be refreshed and wide awake to meet him.
Kate turned and looked at the street, then sighed. She didn't have a car or any way to call a cab, so she couldn't go to a hotel. And she wasn't napping on his porch like some displaced street person. She turned back to the door again, hesitated, then reached for the doorknob. Turning it slowly, she was surprised to find that the door opened. He hadn't locked it. What kind of an idiot left his door unlocked? Anyone could walk right in and stake him. And she had already seen someone do that to him, so he couldn't claim no one would. She would just have to talk to him about that.
In the meantime, she couldn't just walk away and leave his door unlocked. She would just go inside, lock the door behind herself, and nap on his couch. It was for his own good. Kate smiled at her reasoning. It might not hold water, but it sounded reasonable enough. Almost.
Kate had closed and locked the door and made it almost to the living room when she heard a clank from the kitchen. She turned abruptly, prepared to hurry back outside and knock, then grew still again. What if the noise from the kitchen hadn't been made by Lucern? He should be sleeping and he had left the door unlocked so that just anyone could walk in and rob him. Kate lived in New York; the crime rate was high there. Toronto was supposed to be a big city. Crime was probably rampant here, too. She had to see about the noise. She would just peek into the kitchen door. If it was Lucern, she would slip back outside and knock. If it wasn't Lucern, she would slip outside and run to a neighbor's house to call the police.
Turning back, Kate moved carefully up the hall, walking as quickly and silently as she could. Once at the kitchen door, she paused to take a bolstering breath, then eased the door open a crack and nearly shrieked in alarm. It wasn't Lucern in the kitchen. It was a stranger, a womana cleaning woman, judging by the bandanna on her head and the mop and bucket in her hand. What had alarmed Kate was the fact that the woman was halfway across the kitchen to the door and moving fast. Kate would never get back up the hall and out of the house before the woman appeared.
Unable to think what else to do, Kate let the door slip closed and plastered herself against the wall behind it. She closed her eyes and held her breath for good measure. The door creaked open. Kate waited. She heard footsteps move past, up the hall away from her; then she opened her eyes, hardly able to believe she hadn't been caught. She stood there for another heartbeat; then, suddenly overcome by fear that the woman would turn back and spot her after all, Kate slid into the kitchen.
The door was just slipping closed when Kate saw the cleaning woman stop outside the living room and snap her fingers, then turn around. Almost hyperventilating with panic, Kate glanced frantically about the kitchen, spotted the door on the other side. Rushing to it, she pulled it open to find stairs leading down to a basement. She hesitated, but the footsteps were now audible from the hall. The woman was coming back.
Kate stepped down onto the first step. Pulling the door almost closed, she left it barely cracked so that she could see. A heartbeat later, the kitchen door opened and the cleaning woman came back in. She moved to the sink and out of sight, then came back a moment later and left the kitchen. Kate almost stepped out again, then paused and decided to wait just in case.
She stood in the near total darkness, feeling the yawning black pit at her back, aware of every single creak the house made for approximately thirty seconds before her cowardice urged her to find the light switch. She flicked it on, and the dark was immediately chased away. Kate released a relieved breath. That was better. She was just standing at the top steps to a basement.
Her thoughts stopped as she glanced nervously down the stairs. The end of a shiny mahogany box could be seen from where she stood.
"It's not a coffin," Kate told herself firmly. Moving down another step, she tried to see more of the box. "It's some kind of hope chest. Oh, I hope it's not a coffin."
She had to go almost all the way down the stairs to see all of it, though she knew long before that it was indeed a coffin. A sense of betrayal overwhelmed her. Lucern had said he wasn't dead and didn't sleep in coffins. Or had she just assumed he didn't sleep in coffins? He had said he wasn't dead, though. But if he wasn't dead, what was the coffin for? Maybe he just hadn't wanted to upset her, so he had lied about the dead part.
He'd been right. She was upset.
"Oh, dear God," she breathed. "Sleeping with a man six hundred years older than me I can deal with, but a dead guy?" Her eyes widened with horror. "Does that make me a necrophiliac?"
She pondered briefly, then shook her head. "No. Lucern isn't dead. He had a heartbeat. I heard his heartbeat when I rested my head on his chest. And his skin wasn't cold. Well, cool but not cold," she pointed out. There might not be anyone to hear, but she felt better convincing herself. Until she heard her voice say, "Mind you, his heartbeat also stopped at one point."
Kate groaned at the reminder of the night Luc was staked. Then she muttered, "Surely dead guys can't get the wonderful erections Luc did. There would be no blood flow."
She'd become quite happy with that reasoning when her voice betrayed her again. "Of course, there's always rigor mortis to consider.
"Just open it," Kate muttered to herself in disgust. She had slowly eased her way to the side of the coffin, arguing with herself as a distraction. She continued to talk to distract herself as she reached out to open it. "There's probably a logical explanation for all this. Luc probably stores things in it. Things like a cello, or maybe shoes, or a body." That last possibility came out as a squeak as she finally lifted the coffin lid and saw the man lying inside. Then his eyes blinked open, he grabbed the sides of the coffin and started to sit up. That was when the lights went out. Kate began to shriek.
Lucern sat up, his eyes popping open. He thought he'd heard a woman scream. When the sound came again, he catapulted out of bed and rushed for the door. That shriek had been one of terror. He couldn't imagine what was happening downstairs. It sounded like someone was being attacked. He charged down the hall, then the stairs, and peered into the living room where one of the cleaning crew stood frozen. The woman was pale, her eyes wide with fear.
"What is it? Why did you scream?" he demanded.
Apparently unable to speak, the woman merely shook her head. Turning away, Lucern continued up the hall. Despite the woman's frightened appearance, there hadn't appeared to be anything wrong with her. Besides, the screaming had seemed to come from the back of the house rather than the front. Another shriek pierced the silence as he rushed for the kitchen, proving he had guessed right. But this time he could tell that it hadn't just come from the back, it had come from the basement.
Cursing, Lucern crashed through the kitchen door. He had specifically told the cleaning company that his basement and upstairs were to be left alone. No one should be in the basement.
"Jesus, how many of you people are here?" Lucern snapped when he spotted the woman frozen by the basement door. She was staring at it as if it might explode at any moment.
"Two of us, sir," the woman answered, then immediately cried, "I just turned out the light. That's all I did. The door was cracked open and the light was onI just turned it out. I didn't know anyone was down there."
Lucern ignored her and dragged the door open, then flicked on the switch. The screaming did not stop, though it was growing hoarse. Lucern was halfway down the stairs when he heard Etienne saying, "It's okay. It's just me. Really, it's okay."
When Luc reached the bottom step, he saw his brother standing to the side of the stairs, hands held up placatingly.
"Etienne?" He barked his question and Luc's brother half turned, relief on his face. "Luc, thank God. I didn't mean to scare her this bad. I mean, I heard her muttering about rigor mortis and coffins, and knew she was going to open the lid, so I closed my eyes to give her a little spook, but I didn't think"
Lucern wasn't really hearing his brother. His gaze, his entire attention, was focused on the woman he could now see standing in his basement. Kate. His Kate. Her gaze was locked with his, and while she had at first been pale and trembling, she was regaining her coloralong with a spark in her eye that he hoped was passion and happiness at seeing him.
"Kate," he breathed. Smiling, he held out his arms as she rushed to him, ready to welcome her into his embrace and his life. But Kate didn't exactly rush into his arms. She more or less shoved past him, snarling, "You said you didn't sleep in coffins." She started to stomp up the stairs.
Hmm. The spark was anger, not passion at seeing him. He hurried to trail her up the stairs.
"We don't. I have a bedroom," he assured her. He found himself a tad distracted as he was face level with her upside-down-heart-shaped behind, and he was unable to tear his eyes away. I really should have more stairs in my home and follow her up them at every opportunity, he thought vaguely. This was a delightful view.
"Ha! Then what was he doing in that coffin? Thinking?" she asked sarcastically. She burst out into the kitchen.
"Well, yes. Actually, I was," Etienne announced from behind Lucern as he followed them. "I find that the dark and silence afforded by a coffin allow me to work out some of the difficulties I run into in programming my games."
"Coffin?"
They all turned to stare at the cleaning woman still standing in the kitchen. Lucern was debating whether to blank the woman's mind when Kate made a distressed sound and rushed out into the hall.
Lucern took a step to follow her, then paused and turned on his brother. "What did you do? She's furious."
"I just She" He grimaced. "I heard her coming down the stairs and was at first worried it was one of your cleaning crew, but then I heard her talking and recognized her voice."
"Who was she talking to?"
"Herself," Etienne answered promptly. "She was trying to convince herself to open the coffin and that you wouldn't be in there."
"And what did you doclose your eyes, then pop them open and sit up to scare the life out of her when she did build up the courage to open it?" Luc asked with disgust. It was a trick Etienne had pulled on all of them at one time or another.
His brother winced, but nodded apologetically.
Lucern cursed under his breath and started to turn away, but Etienne caught his arm to stop him. "I didn't mean to scare her that badly. I mean, she half-expected to find someone in there anyway. She shouldn't have been this startled, but then the lights went out. She caught just enough of a look to know it wasn't you in the coffin, but didn't get enough of a look to recognize me before Ms. Energy Conserver over there turned out the lights."
They both paused to glare at the cleaning woman, who shrank backward, bumping into the wall under their combined irritation. The front door slammed. Lucern started to hurry from the room again, but Etienne stopped him. "Wait. I don't think all her anger is about the coffin, Luc."
"What do you mean? What else could it be?"
"Well, she was saying some pretty weird stuff as she tried to talk herself into opening the lid."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Er well, she seemed to find it distressing enough to sleep with a six-hundred-year-old guy, but the idea of sleeping with a dead one"
The cleaning woman gasped. Lucern scowled at her. "Leave," he said.
The cleaning woman was off in a flash. Lucern sighed and turned back to his brother. "I am not dead."
"Well, duh." Etienne rolled his eyes. "I know that. She doesn't. And she's kind of creeped out, wondering if that makes her a necrophiliac or something. She also wondered if your 'wonderful erections' are rigor mortis."
Lucern felt himself perk up. "She called my erections wonderful?"
Etienne just gaped, then raised a fist to knock on his brother's forehead as if it were a door. "Hello! Earth calling Luc! She thinks it's rigor mortis."
Lucern batted the hand away, his irritation returning. "And whose fault is that? Etienne, I don't know why you have to sleep in that damned coffin, anyway. You have a warm, loving wife at home waiting in a nice, comfortable bed. What are you doing in a coffin in my basement?"
"I'm having problems with Blood Lust Three and needed to think. Besides, Rachel isn't home. She had a staff meeting to attend at work."
"Well, next time I suggest you work out these problems somewhere else, because I am getting rid of that coffin first thing."
"Ah, come on, Luc," Etienne began, but Lucern turned and left the room.
He strode down the hall, muttering under his breath. "Rigor mortis? A necrophiliac? Where does she come up with this stuff?"
The two women from the cleaning crew had their heads together in the living room and were whispering fiercely in panicked tones. They fell silent as he passed the doorway, and Luc could feel their fearful eyes upon him. He ignored them and walked straight to the front door. Pausing there, he tugged the blinds on the side panels aside, wincing as bright sunlight hit his eyes. It took a minute to adjust to the noonday sun. The moment he did, he spotted Kate. She was standing on his porch, staring forlornly out at the road like a puppy that had been abandoned.
Of course, she had arrived by taxi, he realized. But the cab had left while she was in the house, and now she was trying to decide what to do. Obviously, coming back into the house to call for another taxi wasn't something she wanted to do.
Sighing, he let the blinds drop back into place and pulled the door open. "Kate?"
She stiffened where she stood on the edge of his porch, but didn't turn.
Lucern sighed. "Kate. Come back inside so we can talk, please."
"I'd really rather not." Her voice was strained, and she still didn't turn to look at him.
"Okay." He pulled the door wider and stepped out onto the porch. "Then I'll join you."
Kate eyed him warily as he joined her. "Are you now going to age before my eyes and burst into flames?"
He gave her an annoyed look. "You know I don't burst into flames in the sunlight."
"I thought you didn't sleep in coffins either."
"I don't. Etienne does. He's well, he's the weird one in the family."
"Thank you very much."
They both turned to stare at Etienne, who stood in the shadow of Luc's front entry with the door open.
"I'm going home. I'm sorry I scared you, Kate," he said solemnly. Then Luc's brother turned to him and added, "Please clear up the rigor mortis and necrophilia issue. It will bother me until you do."
Kate flushed, apparently embarrassed at her words having been overheard. Turning away from both of them, she moved to the side, apparently expecting Etienne to leave by way of the porch. When he closed the door but didn't walk past them, she glanced around, suspicion entering her gaze when she saw that he was gone. "What did he do? Turn into a bat and fly away?"
"No, of course he didn't," Lucern snapped. "He's gone through the house to the garage. He wants to avoid the sun."
"Hmmm." She didn't look as though she believed him, so Lucern just waited. A moment later, they both heard the muffled sound of a car starting; then Luc's garage door opened and Etienne's little sports car with its blackened windows pulled out. The garage door closed automatically behind it, and Etienne roared down the driveway and down the street.
Lucern waited a heartbeat, then took a deep breath and said, "Kate, I told you. It's nothing like that nonsense Bram Stoker made up. We are not related to, nor do we turn into bats. We don't sleep in coffins anymoreexcept for Etienne, who swears it helps him get in the mood to come up with new ideas for his games. I am not dead. You are not a necrophiliac. Rigor mortis does not cause my erections. You do."
She flushed at his last words, though whether with embarrassment or pleasure he didn't know. He suspected a little bit of both. Her posture became a little less stiff, her shoulders easing from their military stance, but she also sighed unhappily as she turned to him.
"You want me to believe you're just like everyone else?"
"I am," he assured her. Then, to be scrupulously honest, he had to add, "Well, other than the blood hunger and living hundreds of years and never aging or getting sick and" He grimaced and stopped his honest admission right there. It wasn't going to win points with her.
"Normal men do not control other people's brains, Lucern," Kate pointed out.
"No. Well" He sighed. "Look, it isn't some mystical power. Our infected blood makes our bodies more efficient. We're stronger and have more endurance than the usual person. I can lift things ten times heavier than the average man my size, run longer, hit harder. I've never really questioned my ability to read and control people's thoughts, but I would assume that's just another enhanced characteristic. They say humans don't use their entire brain. Well, it would appear my kind's blood makes sure that we do. Or, at least, we use more than the average person. It's probably a survival necessity like the teeth."
He allowed her to digest that, then added, "Does any of this really matter, Kate? The fact is that I am different in some ways. But I love you, Kate. With all my heart. Can't we get past this and find a way to be together? I'd like to marry you. Spend the next hundred years or so with you."
There! Now I've done it, Lucern thought. He'd fought his own dragons, put his pride and fear aside and told her how he felt. Now his heart and his future were in her hands. And for one moment he thought everything would be all right. Tears came to Kate's eyes and joy to her face, and she started to move toward him. Then the front door opened and the two cleaning women sidled out. They were eyeing Lucern as if he were a mad serial killer. Or a vampire.
Luc scowled at them for interrupting at such a critical moment, and they both flinched and slowed. Then one of them grabbed the other's wrist and blurted, "We quit! We've already called the company and told them how weird you are. They're canceling your contract. You'll have to find another company to clean this place."
Lucern sighed as they broke into a run, charging off his porch, down his sidewalk and to their car with the company logo, which they'd parked on the street. They left in a squeal of rubber that made him sigh again.
Forcing a crooked smile, Lucern turned back to Kate. "See, you have to marry me. I seem to scare off all the help."
Kate smiled slightly, then ducked her head to peer at her fingers. They were tangling and untangling themselves nervously. He felt the first arrow of fear hit him. "Kate?"
"I How could we be together, Luc? You'll live another couple hundred years or so, never aging, and I"
"I could turn you, like Etienne did Rachel and Lissianna did Greg," he interrupted quietly. He had thought she understood that. Apparently, she hadn't. She also hadn't said she loved him, he realized.
"Turn me?" she repeated, sounding distracted. "I'd be with you, live forever? Never age?"
Lucern was relieved to note that being with him had been the first thought, and not the living forever or not aging. For a lot of women, the last two points were temptation enough to fake love.
"What about my family? How would I explain ?" She paused when he clasped her hands.
"You would have to disappear in ten years or so. The fact that you wouldn't age would be noticed, and you couldn't explain it to them without risking the lives of my entire family," he admitted. It was something he had hoped to keep to himself until after he had turned her and bound her to his side.
"Give up my family?" she whispered, obviously not happy with that point.
"Kate, come inside please?" His hands slid up her arms, caressing her. He wanted to make love to her, convince her with his passion. He knew how heady and addicting it could be. She wasn't the only one who experienced the double pleasure. He did, as well. Even as Luc shared his excitement with her, Kate had opened instinctively and shared her own with him. It was a rare experience, one borne of the trust and love they shared. At least he thought it was. He had never experienced it with any other woman. But she still hadn't said she loved him.
He didn't care, Lucern decided. He wanted her, he needed her, he loved her. His pride be damned, he would take her any way he could get her, and would use every trick he knew to do it. Tipping her chin up, he claimed her lips, kissing her with all the passion he possessed as he fitted their bodies together. It was as if she had been made for him. She was soft where he was hard, giving where he was not. Lucern embraced her tightly and groaned as he ground his body against hers. He had missed her presence, ached for her body, and longed for her smiles and soft laughter. He couldn't lose her now. And for a moment, he thought he would win.
Kate yielded against him with a sigh, her arms sliding up around his neck and holding him just as desperately as he held her. Little moans issued from her throat as his hand found and cupped one breastbut then he pushed too fast.
Breaking the kiss, he caught her wrist and pulled her toward the front door. "Let's go inside."
Kate resisted, the passion disappearing from her face and something akin to fear replacing it. She shook her head. "No, I can't. I need to think."
"You can think inside," he insisted, pulling her toward the door.
"No. You'll make love to me and bite me and my brain will turn to mush." She pulled her hand free and backed up to the edge of the porch. "I need to think, Luc. You're asking me to give up everything I know, everything I love."
"Everything you love?" he asked softly, pain on his face.
"No. I love"
Lucern held his breath. If she said she loved him, too, nothing on earth would stop him from dragging her into the house and claiming and turning her. But she stopped short of admitting it, her expression wary. Shaking her head, she backed up to the edge of the porch. "I have to go home and think about this. I have to decide"
Kate whirled away and started down the stairs, but he hurried to catch her arm. She turned frightened eyes on him, and Lucern knew she feared he would take the choice away. For a moment, he was terribly tempted. But then he recalled those words the psychic had said, and he knew he couldn't fight this dragon for Kate. He had fought his own dragons, bypassed his pride and fears and placed his heart in her hands. Now he had to trust that she was strong enough to keep it safe. He let go of her arm and said, "I'll call a cab for you." Kate relaxed, a grateful smile tipping her lips. "Thank you."