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"You&039;re late" Lucian&039;s growled greeting rimace as he slid onto the bench seat opposite him in the diner&039;s only occupied booth A "Hello, how are you?" would have been nice, but it also wasn&039;t so he&039;d expect fro wars to do at the far over thearound the quiet diner It was after nine, al time, and they were the only customers He didn&039;t even see a waitress in evidence and supposed she was in the back helping with cleanup

"Yes, of course," Luciandown his fork to pick up a war with butter "We can&039;t expect that wheat of yours to grow all by itself, can we?"

Armand scowled irritably as he watched him bite into the roll with relish "A little respect for a faro a it so rin, and then arched an eyebrow "Jealous?"

Araze out the , but he was jealous Lucian&039;s eating was a result of finding his life mate It had reawakened old appetites both of theo There wasn&039;t an un hilanced back to Lucian to see he&039;d set aside the bun and was now chasing peas around his plate, stabbing at the little green succulents with his fork "What was so important that you had to drive down here to seeout to the diner? The farm is only another five-ave up stabbing the peas and instead scraped them across the plate into the mashed potatoes He then scooped up a forkful of the co, "I had a favor to ask you and didn&039;t want anyone at the house to overhear"

"There&039;s no one at the house," Ar with fascination as Lucian popped the forkful of food into hisby his expression andthe food, which was kind of depressing since the s Armand, and really the food looked like slop to hireen peas Not very appetizing at all Gri to himself, Armand asked as Lucian sed, "So what&039;s this favor?"

Lucian hesitated and then raised his eyebrows "Not going to ask ?"

Arhten at the mention of his son and his neife, but couldn&039;t resist asking, "How are they?"

"Very well They&039;re in Canada at the ," Lucian answered, and then turned his attention back to his food as he asked, "You haven&039;thim stab some salad and eat it

Lucian chewed and sed and then asked with et to meet Nicholas&039;s Annie?"

Armand hesitated, but then simply said, "No Nohat&039;s this favor?"

Lucian peered at hi into his beef and announced, "I need a safe house for one ofI could supply that?" Ared as he chewed and sed and then said, "You&039;re surprised? I don&039;t knohy You live way the hell out here in the backwoods No one but myself and Thomas knohere the farm is, and this is a rinky-dink little tohere no one&039;s likely to see her"

"Her?" Ar off another piece of beef "Castor&039;s daughter"

"Castor d&039;Aureus," Arotten the chance to meet the man, but he certainly knew the name Castor was a hero to their people Way back in the early days when the immortals had joined the rest of the world, one of their nuer named Leonius Livius, had caused trouble for both the mortals and immortals alike So much trouble, in fact, it had forced the other ieny It was Lucian and Castor who had slain the monster that Leonius Livius had becoers and the Council&039;s fanged arht all around theround with his spear, and Castor had severed his head from his body Both of them had been considered heroes for that, but Lucian was his brother, someone he knew on a day-to-day basis, while Castor was unknown and more of a mythic hero in his mind

"He wasn&039;t a hero," Lucian said quietly "He was just a good man and a fine soldier He was also my friend, and before he died he asked me to look out for Eshe and the others of his fa happen to him Well, as you know, he died, and I&039;ve tried to look out for Eshe and it&039;s what I&039; her out of haret thisthat will take about teeks"

"What is the hed and set his fork and knife aside, his appetite apparently affected by thoughts of the riet all the sons e took out Leonius At least one survived He calls himself Leonius Livius the Second"

"Youaround all these centuries?" Arone without notice If he was anything like his father, his atrocities should not have gone unnoticed all this time

"He&039;s been alive and flourished," Lucian assured him dryly "The man has at least twenty sons that we know of Or had," he added with satisfaction "We&039;ve weeded soh That, or he has soht rein He hasn&039;t gone in for wholesale slaughter like his father enjoyed, or started any breeding camps He&039;s kept the numbers he attacks to one or tomen at a time and the occasional unfortunate family He only came into notice earlier this su lot up north My ot one of the females away and killed three or four of his sons, but then had to hunt down the other female and the man who had taken her Eshe was in on the search and was apparently spotted and recognized Now e for his father&039;s death"

Arh too or anyone else in the family for your part in his father&039;s death?"

"I don&039;t think he knows about Leigh In any case that doesn&039;t matter, I can keep her safe But Eshe is another matter She&039;s one of my enforcers and as stubborn and proud as her father ever was She was ready to walk down the et his attention and have her chance at hi for her"

"So she&039;s like a female you, huh?" Armand asked with amusement

"Ha ha," Lucian said dryly

Armand chuckled at his sour expression "If she&039;s as bad as all that, how do you plan to convince her to hide out on uy?"

"Yeahwellthat was a probleain His expression was surly as he adis to have me tell her to do the opposite If she weren&039;t Castor&039;s daughter" Lucian glowered briefly, but then sighed and shook his head "Fortunately, even she wouldn&039;t dare disobey a direct order from the Council"

"I see," Ar suspiciously on his brother "And she&039;s agreed to stay onher thumbs for several weeks?"

"I said teeks," he pointed out, avoiding his gaze "And as I said, even she wouldn&039;t disobey a direct order fro to be happy," Ared "She&039;s too polite to take it out on youprobably," he added with a grin, then suggested, "Just keep her busy Take her on picnics and hayrides, or whatever you hayseeds do"

"Hayseeds?" Arust

Lucian rolled his eyes "Just keep her distracted and I&039;ll call the minute it&039;s safe for her to return to Toronto and work" He started to lift a bite of beef to his lips

The fork was allanced past Armand and froze His eyes widened, a curse slipped fro to kill her"

"Who?" Arlance in the direction that Lucian&039;s gaze now see past hi stretch of dark highway for afor what it was, a hts around the tires and across the body thatup the road aflaht

"Eshe," Lucian snapped, finally answering his question "That&039;s her"

The ravel, and then eased to a halt beside Aret a closer view of the array of lights on the ine fell silent and the rider disembarked The woman was tall, at least six feet, and she appeared to be all lean muscle in the black leather she wore She also race of a panther

"She looks like she was born to ride," Ar her

"More like born to bite," Lucian lanced curiously to his brother "Why so annoyed?"

Lucian&039;s mouth twisted with irritation, but he admitted, "I told her to make herself less conspicuous"

"Ah," Ar It was the rare person, iainst Lucian&039;s orders, and he couldn&039;t help but be amused that Eshe d&039;Aureus was apparently one of the inconspicuous There were probably eyes peering out the s of every house she was passing and fingers excitedly punching in numbers on phones as word spread about the super-cool motorcycle that just rode past their place It would be the main topic of conversation tomorrow in the diner as those who had seen it described it to those who hadn&039;t Notto tan her hide," Lucian growled as she walked past their ard the entrance of the diner

Armand couldn&039;t help but think he wouldn&039;t aze autoht needed tanning The woman had a perfect body, with a nice round rump he suspected it would be a pleasure to touch for any reasonand he was conte just that-none of which included tanning her hide-when she opened the diner door and stepped inside, ending his view of her behind It forced him to shift his attention to her front as she paused inside the door to undo her jacket and peer around It was quite a nice view too, he had to admit She still wore her hel else on display was lovely Black leather pants stretched tight over long, lean legs, but she also wore the black leather jacket now open to reveal some sort of black leather corset that left the upper curves of her breasts and her upper chest and throat on display The woleahts as if she&039;d powdered herself with some sort of shimmery powder

"I told you to lared at the woman as she spotted them and approached

"You said to make myself less conspicuous," she corrected in a calm voice As she removed her helmet, she added, "And I did See?"

Armand didn&039;t knohat Lucian was supposed to see, but he was seeing what he considered the finest-looking wo time, since his life e, beautiful eyes that glowed golden with black flecks, a straight Egyptian nose, and the most seductive lips he&039;d ever seen He found her heart-stoppingly beautifuland nowhere near inconspicuous

"Eshe," Lucian groith little patience "Dying your hair hardly makes you less conspicuous when you&039;re on that carnival bike of yours"

Armand&039;s eyes shifted to her hair at those words She wore it short on the sides and a little longer on top, and was presently running her long fingers through it in an effort to repair the flattening influence of the helmet, but it looked a perfectly natural dark brown, alh there appeared to be a fleck of lighter color at the ends in so, "What does it normally look like?"

"She normally dyes it a combination of red and blond on the end halves of the top strands so that it looks like her head&039;s on fire," Lucian informed him dryly, and then turned to Eshe and added, "You did a piss-poor job of dying it There&039;s still some color at the ends"

Eshe rolled her eyes with exasperation and began to slide into Ar him to shift over to make room for her "God, you&039;re never happy, Lucian Honestly! It&039;s not like I had tiet it done properly I had to do it myself and I am not a hairdresser This is the best I could do in the time you allotted me" She set her helmet on the table in front of her and rested her chin on her hands on top of it as she grinned at Lucian "So it&039;s all your fault if you aren&039;t happy with it"

"Couldn&039;t you at least have come out in your car instead of that damned motorcycle?" Lucian said irritably

"Oh yes, because a red Ferrari would be so much less conspicuous down here in hicksville," Eshe said dryly, and then glanced to Armand and murmured, "No offense"

"None taken," he assured her, and then cleared his throat and forced hi at her like an idiot

"Ferrari?" Lucian asked with surprise "What happened to the convertible?"

"I sold it," she said with a shrug "The Ferrari was prettier and I only have the one parking space at the aparto"

"A Ferrari?" Lucian looked horrified "It was bad enough when you had the Mustang convertible, but a Ferrari with all the power it has under the bonnet? You&039;re a speed demon You&039;ll kill yourself with it You had better be following the speed limits"

Armand stared at his brother with fascination Lucian had never beenat everyone, but Eshe appeared to exasperate hiht he&039;d see the day His thoughts were distracted when Eshe said dryly, "Of courseDaddy"

Armand&039;s eyes widened, but she wasn&039;t done Srih pops some babies for you soon, Lucian Maybe you&039;ll stop daddying the rest of us"