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A curse fro to a halt in the entrance Anger flashed over his expression, but it was quickly replaced with resignation His voice eary when he asked, "What happened?"

"Your house wasn&039;t erimly

Armand looked annoyed, but explained, "That&039;s Paul Williaer here on the farht back down to the barn after calling me, but he must have sat down here to wait for ot here When I realized he wasn&039;t there, I hurried back here to find him" He paused and frowned and then asked, "But why did he attack?"

"Neither of us noticed him at the table I started to unpack the blood, Eshe flashed her fangs and popped a bag, and he tried to stake her," Lucian said dryly, and then griuess it would be stab since there weren&039;t any stakes handy and he was reduced to grabbing a knife from the butcher block"

Eshe shifted froet a better look at the ri fro knife in his right hand It wouldn&039;t have killed her, but would have hurt like hell had he finished his action and stabbed her before Lucian had noticed hiuy"

Arlanced to Lucian and asked with disbelief, "You didn&039;t notice hiht is off," Lucian pointed out stiffly "Mortals do not generally sit around in the dark, so I assulance toward the table where he was apparently sitting Besides, I was distracted talking to Eshe" He frowned, and then shook his head and turned to concentrate on theone eyebrow "He has been with you since the beginning of summer, but you haven&039;t explained about us to hiood worker," Arh his hair in a weary gesture When Lucian hed and said with some exasperation, "Have you ever even had to try to initiate a mortal to our world?" He didn&039;t allow Lucian to answer, but ust and said, "Of course not, you only keep immortals around you"

"It

"Yes, well, soht so we don&039;t need to double our blood consumptionand let me tell you, it isn&039;t easy Nine times out of ten when you do tell them they don&039;t take it well and have to have their ed and be sent away" He blew a breath out through his e pain in the ass You tell the You flash your fangs to convince them, and half the time they piss their pants or reach for a weapon You take the weapon away and explain that no, no, it isn&039;t like that We aren&039;t the soulless dead Our vampirism is scientific in nature Our ancestors were Atlanteans and they were est They developed nanos that were shot into the body to repair injuries and fight illness, only the nanos use blood to do it and to propel themselves, more blood than the body can create, and so we need to consume blood froht, and the nanos see aging as so, so keep their hosts at their peak condition and youngforever"

His mouth twisted and he shook his head "As I said, nine times out of ten they don&039;t take it well and I end up having to wipe their aze shifted to the ood er, but he&039;s very authoritarian in nature I suspect he&039;ll be one of the nine rather than the one out of ten I didn&039;t want to have to find a newhiood," Lucian said quietly as he took away the knife theby what I&039;ht now, Mr Williaures," Arust "And I suppose it has to be done now"

Lucian didn&039;t comment, but then Eshe supposed he didn&039;t have to The level of fear the man must have experienced to have co to threaten him meant that to wipe the memory and keep it wiped, Paul would never be able to see either her or Lucian, or even this kitchen again without risking thatAr it back to life Paul Williams had to be sent away to ensure the memory didn&039;t return

"I will handle Mr Willia cow in trouble to deal with"

Ar in the smaller house behind this one The furniture stays, but everything else is his and will have to be packed onto his pickup I&039;ll go write a generous severance check for him and drop it off to you at the house on lanced to Eshe "Put away the blood and then er&039;s house"

Eshe nodded but then simply stood and watched as Arone, Lucian focused his attention on her and said, "When he comes back, I want you to try to read him"

Eshe frowned, but Lucian then er out of the kitchen, and she moved around the island to continue with the work he&039;d started, retrieving bags of blood and stacking theerator She was quick about the task, eager to get out to the house, get the er on his way, and start this new job

Eshe was an enforcer and had been for so their nests, capturing theh there had been the odd job Lucian led where the rogue had already been judged and there was no need to go to the trouble of bringing him back at all, alive or otherwise Those jobs were usually fast-paced and brutal However, this job wasn&039;t going to be anything like that This was going to be more brainpower than ht questions, and follow the right leads She just hoped she found the answers that would cause the least pain to everyone involved She didn&039;t want to fail to find any answers at all, or find the ones they didn&039;t want and be the reason Nicholas Argeneau was executed

Ar pat on the side as she licked and cleaned her new calf He was surprised she had the energy It had been a hard birth The calf had gotten itself turned around and tangled in the uht he wouldn&039;t be able to correct the situation in time to save the calf There had even been a moment or then he&039;d worried for the et the calf turned and all had worked out in the end

Straightening, he stripped off the rubber gloves he&039;d donned to try to turn the calf and glanced at his atch, griht It had been only a couple of hours since he&039;d come back out to the barn It felt like it had been at least twice that In fact, he was a little surprised to walk out of the barn into a starry night rather than predawn light

His eyes er&039;s house first He wasn&039;t surprised to see that the lights were out In the short time it had taken him to walk to his office earlier, find his checkbook-which admittedly had taken a couple of -write a check, and carry it out to the otten Paul there and had hi at the increased speed their people were capable of, he was also controlling Paul andhim work alotten the task done and Lucian had seen Paul off while he was still trying to calm the cow so he could help her No doubt Lucian had been sitting around for hours waiting for hi with Eshe She&039;d come out once to ask if she could help hi her tooabout the woth that quite fascinated him The very way she moved held his eye and attention She definitely would have been more hindrance than help in the barn Now that the calf and et to the house and see her again It had been a long time since a woman&039;s very presence had captured his attention so Not since his first wife, Susanna, his one and only life ht a frown to his face as Armand mounted the steps to the back porch of the house He had no desire to examine that fact further In truth, all it did was ht be best if he refused to allow her to stay with him But he couldn&039;t do that Aside froeneau, he had to admit Eshe would probably be safest at his ho happened, he&039;d never forgive hi rooazine while Lucian had the television on and was flicking through the few channels available with a bored expression that turned to irritation when he saw Arot basic cable here What&039;s the matter with you? The best shows are on the upper channels, and I don&039;t kno you live without theat his lips "I wouldn&039;t even have basic cable if it weren&039;t for Agnes My sister-in-law by my first wife," he explained for Eshe&039;s benefit, before adding, "She ordered it for e for the Internet out here I&039;m still not sure why she bothered with cable at all I don&039;t watch television" He raised an eyebrow "As far as I knew you didn&039;t either When did you start?"

"Leigh&039;s gota couple of shows," Lucian muttered, and then said, "Most of what&039;s on TV is crap, but there are a couple of good ones a himself oddly amused at his brother It was a rare situation to find hi his life iven him an almost human side that sat aardly on his shoulders, and was definitely bringing a s to see Given soe to make him almost normal Doubtful, he supposed, but still it was fun to conte that possibility aside for now, he raised his eyebrows "So? I&039; else you needed to tell me?"

"Yes" Lucian turned off the television and stood "Let&039;s get to it, I&039;ve already been gone longer than I intended We&039;ll talk in the kitchen I want more blood"

Armand smiled wryly and stepped aside as Lucian ht be his ho as if it were his own He was like that everywhere, though, and all the tiaze slid to Eshe, but when she continued with her azine, he left her to it and followed Lucian

"You had no blood in your refrigerator when I put this in Are you waiting on a delivery?" Lucian asked as he walked to the refrigerator to retrieve blood

"I keep erator I have a mortal housekeeper, and between her and Paul, it see their noses in the fridge and wondering about a supply of bagged blood"

"And the juice and few other ites of blood and closing the door