Vampires Are Forever (11 page)

Built in 1867, the hotel was stately and elegant. It had a large white lobby, the center stretching up two floors with a carved wooden staircase leading up to the secondfloor balcony with its arches, columns, and carved railings. It was all quite impressive, Thomas thought as he took Inez’s arm to lead her to reception. He checked them in, politely refused help with his bag, and then led her to the elevator.

“So?” Inez said as soon as the doors closed on them. “Why couldn’t you read me or erase my memories?”

“Who says I couldn’t?” Thomas muttered evasively, dismayed by her persistence. “Maybe I just didn’t want to.”

“I heard you talking to Bastien through the bathroom door. You said you couldn’t erase my memories. Besides, everything would have been a lot simpler for you if you’d just made me forget everything that had happened. So, why couldn’t you read me or erase my memories? Are there many you can’t do that with?”

Thomas grimaced, wishing she’d forgotten her question at least until after he’d got to his room and consumed a couple bags of blood and his brain was in better working order again.

“Thomas?” she asked insistently.

“No, there aren’t many mortals an immortal can’t read, control, or wipe memories from,” he admitted grimly.

“But you couldn’t do any of those things with me?” Inez asked with a frown.

Thomas nodded, his eyes slipping to the elevator lights. They were almost to their floor.

“But you said Wyatt could and Bastien would send him over to do it for you if I didn’t come with you to Amsterdam and allow you to explain,” she pointed out and then asked, “Is Wyatt an older, stronger vampire? Is that why you thought he could do it when you couldn’t?”

Before Thomas was forced to come up with a lie, they arrived at their floor and the elevator doors opened. Nearly gasping with relief, he hurried off the elevator, glanced at the sign pointing out the direction to take to reach their room numbers, and hurried that way.

“You really aren’t comfortable with this conversation are you?” Inez asked dryly as she hurried up the hall behind him.

Thomas knew he was being rude not measuring his pace to hers, but he was almost desperate to get to their suite. He was sure if he could just slap a bag or two of blood to his teeth his mind would clear and he would know exactly what to say about lifemates and that she was his own.

He’d just stopped in front of the door to their suite when his phone began to ring. Tugging it from his pocket, he handed it to Inez.

“Say hello to Bastien,” he growled, turning his attention to unlocking the door as she flipped the phone open.

“Hello, Bastien,” Inez said cheerfully. “Why can’t Thomas read my mind or control me and why is he so rattled by the question?”

The door clicked open, but Thomas hardly noticed, his attention had turned to Inez. The woman’s eyes were sparkling with amusement. She was aware of and enjoying his discomfort over the matter. Women! He would never understand them. They were supposed to be the softer sex yet took great pleasure in tormenting a man.

Leaving her to follow as she liked, he strode into the room, relief pouring through him the moment he spotted the A.B.B. cooler on the table in the sitting room of the suite.

Thomas felt his teeth shift and slide out in his mouth as he strode quickly across the floor to the cooler. Flipping the lid open, he reached in, grabbed a bag, and promptly popped it to his teeth. The bag was nearly empty, the blood soaking into his system and easing the cramps at once when he realized Inez had gone very quiet. Suddenly anxious, he turned with the bag at his mouth and peered toward her. She had followed him into the room and now stood by the sofa, her expression grim as she listened to whatever Bastien was saying. Obviously, she wasn’t pleased at his explanation of lifemates, or perhaps she wasn’t pleased that she was his lifemate.

Shoulders slumping, Thomas turned back to the cooler and pulled out a second bag, holding it in his hand as he waited for the one in his mouth to finish draining. He was about to switch bags when Inez suddenly appeared at his side.

“He wants to talk to you,” she said, holding out the phone.

Thomas pulled the now empty bag from his mouth, dropped it on to the table, and reached for the phone.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

Nodding, Inez turned and moved off, heading straight for the door leading into the rest of the suite. No doubt in search of her room, he realized with worry. Her expression had been terribly solemn when she’d handed him the phone, all the amusement drained from it. In fact, she’d looked rather pale to his mind. Now he really wanted to know what Bastien had told her.

Sighing, he lifted the phone to his ear, his eyes slipping to the full bag of blood he still held. He absently read the label on the blood as he opened his mouth to say hello, and then stiffened, dropped the full bag to the floor, and reached for the empty one on the table, reading that label with growing horror.

“Thomas? Thomas are you there?” Bastien was asking over the phone.

“Oh shit!” was his answer.

Five

It was only nine o’clock at night, but Inez was exhausted by the events of the day when she entered the first bedroom of the suite and peered curiously around.

Thomas had said that Bastien was arranging to have some clothes there for her, but she didn’t see any evidence of that. The room was neat and tidy and absent of anything personal that she could see. Inez was about to back out of the room, when she suddenly thought to check the closet.

Crossing the room, she opened the first door she came to and found herself peering into a huge, beautiful bathroom. She spotted the toiletries at once and moved forward, her eyes sweeping over the items lined up on the marble countertop. There were at least three lipsticks in varying shades and a mirage of other cosmetic items, half of which she didn’t even recognize.

Inez had never bothered much with makeup; a bit of face powder, a little lipstick, maybe some blush, and she was good to go. She rarely bothered with eyeliner, and shadow, and all the other things she saw laying there, at least not for work. Still, they’d been provided, as had a brush, a comb, and various hair supplies. Anything she might want appeared to be there all lined up and ready for use.

Turning away, Inez moved back into the bedroom and found the closet, not terribly surprised to open it and find the hangers full of clothes, including a couple of nightgowns and a robe. A quick check reassured her that they were all in her size. Stepping back, she glanced down to see a variety of shoes; slippers, running shoes, casual shoes, and high heels. Something for every occasion.

Shaking her head, she turned away and moved to the drawer beside the bed, nodding when opening it revealed a selection of panties, bras, socks, and stockings.

Inez didn’t bother to check their sizes, knowing they would all be her size too. Bastien Argeneau was a man with an attention to detail. She wouldn’t be surprised to hear he had the size and color preferences of every member of his staff on file somewhere, just in case. It was either that, or the man had sent someone from the company to get her landlord to let him into her flat to check the sizes on her clothing.

Inez turned to survey the filled closet again and shook her head. There were enough clothes there for a two-week stay, but then the Argeneaus didn’t do anything by halves.

Sighing, Inez sat on the side of the bed and then fell back on it and closed her eyes. She was exhausted, she was also still annoyed. The clothes and other goodies had not lifted her mood. Bastien had refused to explain why Thomas couldn’t read or control her, insisting it was something Thomas would have to explain himself when he was ready. But from his reaction to her questions, she suspected Thomas wouldn’t be ready to answer them for some time.

Inez grimaced. She had never been a very patient person, and hated feeling ignorant. Being left in the dark on this matter simply made her think it was important and something she really should know.

Frowning as she became aware of a pounding coming muffled from the next room, she stood and moved to the door to the sitting room, her eyes finding Thomas still standing by the table with the cooler on it. His back was to her and his shoulders hunched as he listened to whatever Bastien was saying on the phone and made notes on a notepad on the table.

Her gaze slid to the door to the hall as the pounding continued, and then back to Thomas, but if he heard, he didn’t care that there was someone at the door. He was now hissing rather urgently into the phone in tones too low for her to hear. Worried that Bastien may be giving him bad news about Marguerite, she frowned with concern and moved to the door to the suite to bring an end to the pounding. At this rate, whoever was at the door was going to have the people in the neighboring hotel rooms calling hotel security.

Irritated at that possibility, Inez was scowling when she opened the door. She only opened it a little ways, an effort to keep whoever it was from seeing Thomas, the cooler and the empty bag of blood. She didn’t want to upset housekeeping or whoever it was. However, the man on the other side of the door was already upset, his expression a strange mixture of worry, apology, and relief as she opened the door.

“Yes?” Inez asked, relaxing a little as her gaze slid over the black nylon jacket he wore with the A.B.B. logo on it. The same logo that was on the cooler he carried as well as the one on the table in front of Thomas. A.B.B., Argeneau Blood Bank; it was one of the companies under the Argeneau Enterprises umbrella. It was also a company she didn’t know much about. Inez had always been kept away from anything having to do with A.B.B. Now she understood why, of course.

Her gaze jerked back to the man’s face as a spate of Dutch was spat at her in anxious tones. Inez shook her head with a small frown. “I’m sorry, I don’t——”

“Ah! English.” The man nodded. “I have made a mistake. I delivered the blood here earlier.”

“You didn’t leave it with the front desk, did you?” Inez asked curiously, wondering how they would explain why a cooler of blood would be delivered to one of their hotel rooms.

The man blinked, obviously not expecting the question. Still, he answered, “No, of course not. I found out the room number, brought it up, and found a maid to let me in to leave it. But I made a mis—”

“Mind control?” Inez asked.

He peered at her, his expression confused.

“Did you use mind control on the maid to let you in?” she explained.

“Oh, yes,” he was frowning now, and becoming a bit annoyed. “But I left the wrong cooler. The one I left was to go to the Night Club.”

“The Night Club?” she asked curiously.

The man snapped his mouth closed and stared at her, and Inez blinked in surprise as she felt a slight ruffling on the edge of her mind. It was so faint that if the man weren’t concentrating so hard on her and she knew nothing about immortals and what they could do, she didn’t think she’d even have noticed it.

“You’re reading my mind,” Inez accused and then frowned. “But Thomas couldn’t read my mind.”

Whatever he read in her thoughts seemed to make him relax. He even smiled and said lightly, “Lucky him.”

“Why lucky?” she asked warily.

The man grinned and said simply, “Who would not think him lucky? He has found his lifemate.”

“Lifemate?” Inez echoed the word slowly. She’d heard the word before. Now that the man had said it, she distinctly recalled overhearing Thomas talking on the phone through the bathroom door and saying something about biting his lifemate. She tilted her head and asked the man, “Not being able to read me means I’m his lifemate?”

“Yes.” Now he was frowning too. “Has he not explained things to you?”

“No,” she admitted and glanced to where Thomas still stood talking into the phone before turning back and asking, “Do you think you could?”

He hesitated and then said, “It’s probably something he should explain.”

Inez scowled at the suggestion, knowing Thomas wouldn’t explain.

“Besides, I really have to trade coolers. The Night Club is waiting on this delivery. They were very upset that I got the coolers mixed up.”

Inez considered him silently as her business side-kicked in telling her that she had something he wanted and he had something she wanted.

Before she could speak, his eyes grew sharp and he threatened, “I could control you and move you out of the way to get what I want.”

Her eyebrows flew up. He’d obviously read her mind again, though Inez hadn’t noticed the earlier flutter again. She considered her options and then asked, “Can you control Thomas too?”

When he hesitated, she added, “I’m the vice president of the UK division of Argeneau Enterprises and we oversee all the European operations. In effect, I’m your boss.”

A slow admiring smile crossed his face. “You play hardball.”

“I didn’t get to be vice president by pussyfooting around,” she said with a shrug and then stood waiting anxiously as he decided whether he would take control of her, get what he needed, and get out—which she definitely didn’t think she’d like—or if he was going to answer her question.

Much to her relief, he gave a low chuckle and said, “Okay, guarantee I won’t get in trouble for this mix up and I’ll play. This could be interesting.”