Page 4 (1/2)

Chapter 8

"Drinks?" Jeannie asked, playing bartender I was eyeing her hair with not a little admiration Unlike mine, which at best could be coaxed to be wavy (I&039;d had a highlight touch-up and deep-conditioning treathoul of the undead, but I would never have graying split ends), hers was shoulder length, surfer blond, and curlythe kind that frizzed out in July, the kind that was a ht The rest of her was unexceptional

Okay, that caJeannie Wyndham was a beautiful woman, admirably slim after two kids, casually dressed in jeans, loafers (Payless; ah, well, nobody&039;s perfect), a soft blue chambray shirt, and a tan wool blazer

When I described her as unexceptional, I s: Michael&039;s as the queen of everything I was staring at; it was all half hers But you&039;d never know it to look at her; she had the brisk, understated demeanor of an experienced nurse

Except for the eyes, of course; she had the flat and calculating gaze of a sniper I wondered where her gun was This was more than idle curiosity; the last time I&039;d seen her she&039;d shot me Three times, in the chest

But later she&039;d helped arainst her any own lasts forever

"Betsy? Drink?"

Daonna have to pay better attention I&039;d been so busy staring around the roolass without looking and drained it

And nearly barfed all over the beautiful Persian rug I think it was Persian It looked expensive and srand-parents had probably hauled it all the way to Plyreat-great-grandparents had hauled it from the palace of Cyrus

How did I know Cyrus was one of the first rulers of the Persians, you ask? Hey I don&039;t always ignoreon about useless stuff

"Wrrllgg!" I usted chin I forced as left of the loathsome liquid down "What the hell is this, kerosene?"

"We&039;re out of kerosene," Derik said with no trace of a smile This was far from the Derik I&039;dand sexy and nice

"I should have mentioned that my wife only likes drinks that co across fro next to hilasses of regurgitate, was pacing back and forth behind us Like I wasn&039;t already nervous enough "I take it you didn&039;t enjoy your first whiskey, dear one?"

Yeah, about as much as a tax audit, jerkhead Guess I wasn&039;t as thirsty as I&039;d thought

Sinclair nodded thoughtfully, his fist pressed under his nose to hide a s as I&039;d been able to read his (it&039;s a long story, and I come off kind of bad in it), so he was still in the -this-is-so-awesoe, whereas I was at the fuck-you-I-have-no-privacy phase

I fumbled frantically in my purse, found a tin of Altoids, and dumped half of them in my mouth I crunched the the way the ers were really clearing outWhich would have been a good trick, sincewe appreciate you bringing Antonia hoh Dapiehole Probably shouldn&039;t have done a lot of things this week

"It was no trouble, and the least we could do," Sinclair said, speaking as calmly and colorlessly as Michael while I crunched furiously I wondered if that was the royal "we" "It was an honor to escort her back ho is that she was shot several ti you," Michael said calmly Calmly, but a muscle beside his eye twitched

I tried not to stare, and failed I gave serious thought to getting up and spitting my mashed Altoids into his spotless wastebasket, but just didn&039;t dare It seemedas the word Eric would use? Undiplohty effort, I sed the ed briefly, and sneezed Besidenot to s up an excuse for ht," I replied with startlingly fresh breath I ed to stifle the second sneeze "She saved ue ran away before I could stop it: "Because she lost a bet?"

There was a loud hissing sound, like everyone had gasped at the same time I looked at my lap and muttered, "Sorry Too soon?"

"What could bullets have done to a vampire?" Michael continued, unmoved by my terrific breath and sarcastic observations And that was the 50,000 question Because it was only recently that vampires realized olves existed, and vice versa Michael probably assuht out of a bad horror ht lead bullets would hurt a olf

"What would bullets in the brain do to anyone?" Sinclair replied quietly, totally screwing up enerated"

Michael had tipped back in his chair and was staring at the ceiling "Ms of his chair on the floor and aze kept skittering over the sleeping BabyJon He hadn&039;t asked one question about the baby, made one comment, not even a careless, "Cute kid" And from what I&039;d heard, he was a devoted dad who loved ankle biters, nose miners, whatever

But he wouldn&039;t look at BabyJon And that was very strange So strange it was starting toyou," I said, to which Michael had no reply Noas locking gazes with Derik It was like he hadn&039;t even heard iven what I knew about olf hearing

Why ignore an infant? To what purpose? And as itBabyJon&039;s seat with s Hey, it wasn&039;t like I had to worry about bad breath at the moment Quite the opposite, in fact And sure, this was a stressful scene, but they had all seeh when I&039;d otten a much nastier reception Much nastier But nobody had so much as waved a crucifix in our direction No one had attacked us yet, to be sure So as I practically shaking?

Sinclair was frowning atup my nervousness, but not the cause All I could do was lift , the international "tell you later" gesture

Besides, I had other things to focus on Derik, for instance He&039;d been so different when he&039;d co for Antonia a coupleand funny and sooo cutethough I usually didn&039;t go for blonds

In fact, the only tiotten upset hen he followed me to BabyJon&039;s nursery and-and-

I could almost hear the click as the reason behindBabyJon a wide berth, and Michael didn&039;t even seem to see him Which was impossible; you couldn&039;t hide a twenty-pound infant surrounded by a pastel car seat, not when it was right out on the floor and sht about it, Jeannie was the only one who had acknowledged BabyJon; she had stroked his feathery black hair once we had hiood looks I wasn&039;t sure if I could take the credit for those or not, so I&039;d just nodded

But DerikDerik had followed me to the nursery once, taken one look at the baby, and nearly broken his neck on the stairs while trying to achieve distance There was so otten about it until now

I dared not forget againso with this baby Or with any ho came in contact with him