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"This is great! Just what I needed"

Etienne s her to an open table where they were seated His idea was obviously inspired He didn&039;t usually go to the Night Club--a private club solely for vampires, open from sunset to sunrise--but he had understood Rachel&039;s desires He was in dire need hihts of shared dreams interrupted each time by a repeat of that first phone call, he was ready to burst

Etienne now had no doubt that Pudge was htly calls, but he didn&039;t knohat to do He considered just leaving the phone off the hook but worried about faency Thus, every night he had left the phone on the hook, gone to sleep, and joined

Rachel in some of the most erotic dreams he&039;d ever had--only to be interrupted at that crucial junction If her frustration level was as high as his, only a visit to the Night Club would help relieve it

At least he hoped this visit would work, for both their sakes He had to work off so he didn&039;t want to do until he had a better idea how she felt about him Relationships were difficult when one couldn&039;t read the other&039;s mind Etienne had never been one to control a woman and make her want him, but if he found a woman attractive and read her mind to find that she was equally interested, in the past he had been able to approach the situation withhis way around a minefield

Of course, he knew she was attracted to hiratitude for saving her life He wanted ratitude froether as lifetoward But he had never done that before, so he felt rather like he was stu around in the dark Etienne had never felt at quite such a disadvantage before He&039;d never had so much on the line He didn&039;t like it

"Wow! This is a happening place!"

Etienne smiled as Rachel bounced enthusiastically in her seat, tapped her fingers and feet to the lanced around It was obvious that she wanted--perhaps even needed--to dance He opened his aze shifted over the dance floor and took in the hip-buyrations of the dancers He&039;d been so of a dandy in his day, had kept up with the popular dances of the tieable worown tired of that, he had cut back on the social life bit by bit until it had died altogether He now didn&039;t have a clue what the people on the dance floor were doing It looked like half of the solanced around at that excla his lips as he spotted his cousin Thoer man and slapped his back

"I can&039;t believe you&039;re here, man!" Thomas said "Talk about a shocker! What&039;s it been? A century?"

"Not that long," Etienne answered dryly

"Nearly," Tholanced at Rachel with interest "Youabout you I&039;m her brother Thomas You can call me Tom"

Rachel smiled and accepted his hand "Youto her at Lissianna&039;s shower She&039;s your sister?" Her eyes took in Thoht black T-shirt and leather pants, with aer brother? Twenty-eight or twenty-nine to her ninety-two?"

"Wrong" He grinned "I&039;m older Two hundred and six Mom wants to have another baby, but she has to wait another ten years or so"

"Oh, yes" Rachel ot about the hundred-year rule"

Tholanced over Rachel much the same way she had looked at him--only his attention was on the way her hands and feet, nearly her whole body, werein place "You&039;re gonna be dancing on a table in a htly "You look like a wohed "How very astute of you to notice"

"What can I say? I&039; her hand, he said, "Coht in leather pants and take you to the dance floor"

Etienne grimaced as Rachel went off with his cousin She hadn&039;t even looked his way He shouldn&039;t have hesitated over dancing, he told hiht out there It hat they both needed

"You snooze, you lose, cousin" Those laughing words reminded Etienne that he was in a vampire haven where several of thehis cousin He had obviously becohts wasn&039;t necessary

Irritated with himself, Etienne fir his thoughts Then he settled back in his seat, watching with irritation as Thoan to have their own seizures on the dance floor

"So, how are you getting along with Cousin Etienne?"

Rachel suy"

"Oh, rabbed his chest as if she&039;d stabbed hihed at his dramatics, even more amused when he arched one eyebrow several times and said, "Thatmoves He needs a poke, I think Come on, let&039;s poke him"

Much to Rachel&039;s confusion, Tho Etienne was to pull her into his ar in a slow style to the hiphop beat around the?" Rachel had to yell to be heard over the music

His hands slid down her back to rest on her behind "Yeah Etienne&039;s noticed too," he yelled back, drawing her closer still and laughing "Here he comes! Definitely poked! You can thank ht in shiny leather any day" He gave her a slap on the behind, then unhanded her as Etienne appeared With an innocent expression, he yelled, "Cutting in?"

Etienne&039;s ansas a s look that made Rachel incredulous Had she wondered if he was interested in her? The jealousy and anger on his face see but friendly when they were alone

She didn&039;t get the chance to ponder the nored the fast-paced music just as Thoht it possible, but he actually held her closer than his cousin, and whereas Thohtly on her ru her around the dance floor Rachel was plastered against his front, intimately aware of every bump and curve in theAfter only a couple ofhot, breathless, and in desperate need of a drink

Much to her relief, when she suggested it to Etienne, he concurred at once He escorted her back to their table Thomas had apparently decided to join therinned at theer vaesture she hadn&039;t experienced in her whole life of ht back"

Rachel watched him leave with surprise He disappeared into a door marked with the international symbol for a man The bathroom

"Drinks, people?"

Rachel peered uncertainly at the waitress saze drifted helplessly to Tho a little lost It being a vampire bar, she presumed they served blood here But did they serve other drinks?

"Allow ested Rachel would have been relieved by the offer, except for the way the in Mary"

"What&039;s a Virgin Mary?" Rachel asked suspiciously as the waitress walked away She supposed that the Sweet Ecstasies were for the in Mary for her Thomas&039;s answer corrected her misconception

"Blood, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce with a squeeze of lerin

"Oh," Rachel said faintly The drink sounded disgusting She was almost afraid to ask as in the Sweet Ecstasy

"Sometimes it&039;s better not to know" Thomas leaned forward so that he wouldn&039;t have to yell He had obviously read her thoughts It was rather annoying not to be able to have a thought of your oithout people listening all the time Rachel was much more comfortable with just Etienne, who clai and really could, at least he was polite enough not to comment

"It doesn&039;t matter," she answered Thomas "I should have warned you not to bother if all they serve here is blood I haven&039;t quiteit yet" She shuddered at the very thought

Thomas considered her for a ht be the problem, then he nodded "Don&039;t worry about it My sister-in-law had the same probles the drinks"

Rachel felt a ht have a solution; then her thoughts turned to wondering as in the Sweet Ecstasies he had apparently ordered

"They have all sorts of drinks here," Thoain "Soht blood with so added, and others are specialty bloods Like Sweet Tooth"

"Sweet Tooth?" Rachel asked

"Muerite really likes those," he added before continuing "Then there is high iron or high potassiuh Times That&039;s a drink aped at his that s causes" He chuckled at her expression

Rachel stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then asked, "So, do they have one with a high alcohol content?"

"Oh, yeah It&039;s called Wino Reds Etienne&039;s dad was big on that drink Real big"

The way he said it made Rachel ask, "An alcoholic?"

"Yeah" He nodded soleular population We just have to consuh blood"

"Alcoholic vampires," Rachel muttered, hardly able to believe it

"I&039;ll tell you a secret" Thoain so that their heads al in her father&039;s footsteps for a while"

"No" Rachel sat back in shock "Etienne&039;s sister?"

"Yes" He nodded solemnly "She was a hemophobic from childhood on"

"Yes Etienne et over it, or--"

"No She didn&039;t drink At least not the way you mean Lissianna had to live at home and take her blood intravenously for the first couple hundred years It was so bad she couldn&039;t even hook herself up Marguerite had to control her mind and put her to sleep to do it But then, when old Claude died--"

"Claude?" Rachel interrupted

"Marguerite&039;s husband He drank too arette in his hand, and burned to death"

"So fire can kill us?" Rachel asked

"Yeah Fire Having your head cut off and destroying or stopping the heart too," he informed her After a moment, to be sure she didn&039;t have any more questions, he returned to the story "When Claude died so suddenly, Lissianna was really shook up You know, death happens so rarely to us that it shakes everyone up Anyway, she decided she needed to be more independent She needed to &039;live her life,&039; she said So she took social work at the university, got a job in a local shelter, and moved out on her own"

"How did she feed if she--"