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Harsh afternoon sunlight was peeking around the edges of the blackout curtains over the bedroolance at the clock showed that it was just past three in the afternoon It had been early when she&039;d gone to bed, but not when she&039;d gone to sleep She&039;d lain awake in bed for hours, exhausted, but herover her worries It had been three AM when she&039;d last looked at the clock before dropping off to sleep last night She&039;d slept twelve hours It was a long time for her, and that alone would have left her well rested However, she&039;d also enjoyed some of those shared erotic drea with Ar out in their dreams what they really wanted to do in reality, which had co to think about now that she ake, but Eshe was definitely better for the relief it offered from her sexual tensions She&039;d even woken up with a plan on how to prove Armand had told her the truth about the deaths of his wives

Sitting up in bed, Eshe tossed the blankets aside and got to her feet She was even actually hu she&039;d brought with her While she had jeans and T-shirts now that she could have worn, leather was better for riding the motorcycle, so she pulled out the second pair of leather pants she&039;d brought, as well as the al black leather top, and took them with her into the bathroom

Fifteenout of her rooot as far as the top of the stairs and then stopped The long sleep had done her good, but now she needed blood and there wasn&039;t any in the refrigerator downstairs

She swung back around to peer up the hall toward Armand&039;s rooot anywhere near the sleepy-eyed, bed-headed Argeneau tiger, she wouldn&039;t get a da done today Her clothes would be on the floor and she&039;d be in his bed with hi his eyes open And despite the fact that he&039;d turned his back on her last night, she didn&039;t think he&039;d push her out of his bed this afternoon She&039;d be living out the drea, Eshe started to turn back toward the stairs, but paused as her gaze landed on the only other closed door in the hallway Obviously that was the room Bricker had taken for his own It was the one across froaze on the door and then nodded and strode toward it with determination

She suspected Bricker had been up until sunrise It was the usual sleeping pattern for most immortals; in bed by dawn, up by sunset Of course, soular hours They didn&039;t have to sleep in the day if they didn&039;t like They didn&039;t even need to avoid sunlight, really It just saved theht did to the skin, so ht

Unfortunately for Bricker, Eshe didn&039;t , and she needed his help If she knew Lucian Argeneau, he&039;d sent extra blood with Bricker, and she wanted so questions of Susanna&039;s brother and sister, and Althea&039;s parents if they were still in the area A quick call to Lucian should tell her where the two pairs lived

Bricker&039;s door wasn&039;t locked, but then she hadn&039;t expected it to be As far as she could tell, none of the bedrooms had locks on them Eshe eased the door open andBricker The boy was built like a wrestler, lots of defined muscle and flat stomach, but fortunately without the unattractive thick neck Eshe admired his buff chest above the sheet that had been pushed do at his waist as she settled to sit on the side of his bed, then reached out and tugged gently on a length of his hair

Bricker&039;s eyes opened at once

"Eshe," he said with blank surprise

"I need you," she whispered, not sure how thick the walls were and not wanting to wake up Armand

A slow smile immediately curved his lips "I knew you couldn&039;t resisthe was teasing "Did Lucian send blood with you?"

"It&039;s down in the fridge in the kitchen I put it there after you went to bed Arerator in his rooh, so his housekeeper doesn&039;t see it when she coet up You&039;re going to helpup on the bed

"With finding out what really happened to Armand&039;s wives"

"Sleep did help clear youras I keep et dressed I&039;ll be in the kitchen" She was at the door before she added, "And wear your leathers, we&039;re going out"

Eshe didn&039;t wait to see if he followed her orders, but the rustle of sheets behind her as she opened the bedrooested he was As the senior enforcer there, she wouldn&039;t have expected anything less than pro of blood when Bricker sauntered into the kitchen in a T-shirt, leather pants, and jacket, and with his hair still wet fro today?" he asked cheerfully as he opened the refrigerator door to retrieve a bag of blood

Eshe pulled the e Lucian to find out where Susanna&039;s brother and sister and Althea&039;s parents live and then we&039;re going to go question them They should help verify whether Armand was around when Susanna and Althea died"

"Sweet," Bricker crowed, straightening fro, "See, I told you a night&039;s sleep wouldshe slapped to her teeth She hated I-told-you-sos

The , Eshe pulled her cell phone from her pocket and punched in the number for Lucian&039;s home It was early still, but Lucian was a man who never seemed to sleep Besides, she couldn&039;t just sit around waiting She wanted to be out of the house and on the move before Armand woke up and her brain went south

"Speak" was Lucian&039;s barked greeting when he answered the phone It made Eshe roll her eyes There was really no reason the man couldn&039;t try at least a little coood afternoon to you too, Lucian"

"I&039;an fir about that"

"Oh" She could actually hear his frown over the line He didn&039;t ask what she was calling for, but sines and John Maunsell and Althea&039;s parents," she announced

"Willia her their last name, and then he asked bluntly, "Why?"

"Armand says he ay at court when Susanna died in a stable fire, and that he was home on the farm when Althea died in the hotel fire in Toronto I want to talk to them to see if they can verify that for et him off the hook for at least two of the deaths, which would pretty ether, don&039;t you think?"

Lucian was silent for asound as if he was covering the phone It was followed by a muffled conversation she couldn&039;t make out When it ended, there was another rustle as the phone was uncovered and then a feeneau"

"Marguerite," she murmured with a half sh his now-deceased twin, Jean Claude "Hello How are you?"

"Very well Listen, Lucian is getting the addresses for you, but I think I can help with at least Susanna&039;s death We lived not far from Armand at the time and Jean Claude and I traveled to visit e heard the baby was born We missed Armand, he&039;d apparently left the day after the birth and we didn&039;t arrive until four days later We stayed a couple of days and then left early in the evening on the night of the fire to head home From what I heard afterward, it apparently happened a couple hours after we left Armand was not home e left, so unless he arrived after we rode out" She didn&039;t bother finishing the sentence, but instead asked, "Does that help at all?"

"Yes," Eshe h her that at least she knew that Armand probably hadn&039;t been there when Susanna died

"I read Marguerite&039;sthe phone "She&039;s telling the truth"

Eshe rolled her eyes at the rather rude and abrupt announcehing with around Apparently she wasn&039;t upset by his reading her to verify that she was telling the truth

"Here are the addresses," Lucian announced abruptly, and Eshe glanced around a bit wildly for a pen and paper to scribble the infornetized notepad off the refrigerator and slid it in front of her, along with a pen he found after a quick search of the drawer beside the fridge

Eshe mouthed, "Thank you" to him and listened as Lucian rattled off each address

"They&039;re both in the area," she murmured with relief as she wrote down the addresses Armand had said that Althea&039;s parents had moved to Europe after her death She&039;d been worried they ht still be there But it seemed they&039;delse?" Lucian asked abruptly

"No That was-" Eshe didn&039;t bother to finish Lucian had hung up theher eyes, she ood-bye to you too"

"So?" Bricker asked, hefting hi?"

Eshe tore off the sheet of notepaper with the addresses and walked over to hand it to him

"Susanna&039;s brother and sister live closest," he colanced at her in question "What about breakfast?"

Eshe considered the question She was rather peck-ish herself, but really wanted to get on the road This eating business could be a bit inconvenient

"Can you cook?" she asked finally

Bricker pursed his lips, and then said slowly, "Yeahbut I passed a diner on the way out here It would be faster"

"Good thinking," she decided, turning toward the door "The diner it is then"

Bricker was off the counter at once and slipping past her "I&039;ll race you"

"I&039;ll win," Eshe warned, following him out of the kitchen

They served an all-day breakfast at the diner that turned out to be delicious It was also on the table in front of them pretty fast Eshe and Bricker were equally quick about consu out of there Aside froet to business on the task of questioning the families of Armand&039;s first tives, she was also incredibly uncomfortable in the diner It was full of locals, and every one of the the themselves

It see Eshe&039;s description around and everyone kneho she was, but there was a lot of wild speculation passed aht be Sole had developed at the farht perhaps he was a relative Eshe had just shaken her head at that one As it happened she did have thite siblings who had taken on their father&039;s coloring, but Bricker looked nothing like anyone in her fa the center of attention and glad when they finished eating and she could hustle Bricker out of the diner

Agnes and John Maunsell lived tns over, a twenty-minute drive At least it entyeach other there The house they arrived at was a large, ood distance fros around it and white fencing everywhere In truth, it looked brand-spanking-new and was obviously the latest of the six far

"Nice," Bricker commented once they had both turned off their bikes and she could hear hiot off her motorcycle, and it was attractive But she preferred Ar the road and around the house itself offered privacy and made the house feel cozy and almost secluded Here, there were no trees at all, sis set in the middle of fields as if dropped there

"I wonder how ether toward the house

Esheover a ser black van parked side by side in the driveway "They&039;re ho out to press the doorbell as they reached the door "Now the question is whether they&039;re awake or not"

Eshe runted at the comment, but frowned as she realized they probably wouldn&039;t be It was still light out and a lot of older immortals slept all day, an old habit hard to break after centuries of doing so by necessity

As they waited for the door to be answered, Eshe glanced around their surroundings again It was late afternoon without a cloud in the sky The sun was baking down on thelad she had her leathers on to prevent the sun froht to bring any extra blood with them, which hy she and Bricker both still had their helmets on with the visors down They wouldn&039;t remove theot inside, Eshe thought as the wait lengthened She tapped her fingers against her thigh as they waited, but when Bricker reached for the doorbell again, she caught his arm to stop him "Don&039;t bother Most of the older immortals have soundproofed bedrooms without phones to avoid pesky calls and door-to-door salesestured for him to follow and turned to head back to their o over to the Harcourts&039; and stop in here again on the way back"

Eshe led hilanced to Bricker in question when he paused and peered back at the house with his head cocked "What is it?"