Vampire, Interrupted (15 page)

“Marguerite?” Tiny asked quietly when the silence drew out.

Sighing, she gave a slight nod of her head. He nodded back and then stood and the two men shuffled around each other in the narrow space afforded as they switched seats.

Marguerite eyed Julius warily once he was settled in Tiny’s seat.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked with stiff politeness after a moment. When her eyes widened incredulously, he quickly added, “From the blood.”

A cough from Marcus made them glance his way. When he raised his eyebrows at Julius, Marguerite
didn’t know what he was trying to say, but then she realized that Julius had been speaking in a normal voice when he’d mentioned the blood. She glanced at Julius to see that he was just grasping the meaning behind Marcus’s expression as well. His eyes widened as he realized what he’d done, then he looked angry with himself, and then confused as if he couldn’t understand how he could have done something like that and finally he just looked defeated. She almost felt sorry for him.

“Marguerite?” he said quietly after a moment.

“Yes?” she asked reluctantly.

“Did I offend you in some way last night?”

She blinked in surprise at the question. “No, not at all.”

“Good,” he said, nodding solemnly. “It’s just that when you met us in the lobby you wouldn’t even look at me, and I noticed in the taxi and then on the train you chose to sit as far from me as you could.”

Marguerite stared at him silently, her mind awhirl. How was she supposed to answer that? What could she say? “
Oh no, I’m not offended at all, I simply can’t read you, am eating and fear I’m falling in love with you and while twenty-four hours ago that would have horrified me, I now find that I’m quite wishy-washy on the subject and am hoping that you can’t read me either so we could have a true relationship as lifemates. Would you mind trying to read me right now so that I can either jump across this table and kiss you if you can’t read me or get myself as far away from you as I can if you are able to read me?”

Marguerite was rolling her eyes at her own thoughts, when Marcus suddenly leaned across the aisle and
hissed at Julius, “Tell her you can’t read her.”

Eyes widening, Marguerite glanced from one man to the other in question. Marcus was looking grim and insistent, Julius was looking startled. He stared at the other man with shock, then jumped up, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him from the seat and along the aisle out of the carriage.

“Did I hear that right? Did Marcus just say that Julius can’t read you?”

Marguerite turned to look at Tiny as he dropped back into his own seat. She nodded slowly.

He considered her expression. “You don’t look as horrified as I expected.”

Marguerite breathed out a little sigh and confessed, “I’m a bit confused. I don’t think I’m as afraid of relationships as I thought, just non-lifemate relationships.”

“Like the one you had with Jean Claude,” Tiny suggested.

She nodded.

“But if Julius can’t read you and you can’t read him, and you’re eating…is he eating too?” he asked curiously.

Marguerite nodded.

“So…he’s your lifemate, which would be an okay relationship. Right?”

“I think so,” she said uncertainly.

“That’s what I thought,” Tiny said sounding relieved. She understood why when he added, “So, I guess I don’t have to run interference any more, right?”

“I—” She shook her head helplessly, unsure what anything meant at the moment, but he took it as agreement
that he didn’t have to and released a breath of relief.

“Good. Cause I thought Julius was going to kill me when he came out of that bathroom.”

“Really?” Marguerite asked with surprise. She hadn’t noticed anything at the time.

Tiny nodded solemnly. “Trust me, if looks could kill, I’d be vampire fodder right now.”

Marguerite patted his hand gently, “I’m sorry. Thank you.”

Tiny chuckled. “You can still say that now that you know he can’t read you? Seems to me if you’d known that at the time you wouldn’t have been thanking me at all.”

She blinked in surprise at the words, but realized they were true. If she’d known Julius couldn’t read her in that bathroom, as worked up as she’d been, Marguerite might very well have been tearing his clothes off and telling Tiny to get lost, she thought wryly, her gaze shifting to the carriage door.

Marguerite watched through the window with interest as Julius appeared to berate Marcus in the corridor outside the carriage door. She had to wonder why he was so upset at her knowing he couldn’t read her, but then thought perhaps he didn’t know she couldn’t read him either. Or maybe he had some fears of his own.

Tiny followed her glance and teased, “I’d say it’s not too late, that you have ten or fifteen minutes before we get to York to drag him back in the bathroom, but it doesn’t look to me like he’s in the mood at the moment.”

“No it doesn’t,” Marguerite agreed quietly as she watched the men.

“I can’t believe you said that,” Julius growled as the pneumatic doors closed behind him and Marcus, sealing them in the corridor between trains. Turning, he glared at the man who had been his best friend since the cradle. “Especially after you’re the one who assured me it would be a bad idea to get into the whole lifemate deal because she was gun-shy after Jean Claude and wouldn’t react well.”

“That was Christian,” Marcus argued.

“You said something similar in Italy before we flew over here,” Julius insisted grimly.

“Yes, well, I was really more concerned about resolving the problems of the past than that. And she won’t run,” he assured him firmly. “I wouldn’t have said what I did otherwise. She is afraid after her experience with Jean Claude, but her mind is turning. You are lifemates, and she can’t fight it any more than you.”

Julius scowled at the words. Knowing it was true. Despite everything he wanted her, loved her, felt like he needed her. He should be moving cautiously and even angry at her, but instead he wanted to love her and coddle her and give her everything she wanted and needed. Like his hunger for blood, his hunger for her was just as impossible to ignore. It had tormented him for all these centuries they’d been apart, filling his dreams with memories of her laughter, her smell, and her taste, leaving him miserable and lonely on awaking to find her gone, nothing but bitter memories in her place.

“It’s true, Julius,” Marcus said, apparently thinking his silence was denial. “You’re confused and distracted and your mind is an open book to me at the
moment. I know you’ve fallen in love with her all over again.”

“I never stopped loving her,” Julius admitted grimly. “Despite everything, I couldn’t make myself stop loving her.”

“Yes,” Marcus said sadly, and then shrugged and said simply, “you are lifemates.”

Julius turned away and paced to the door of the carriage, his eyes finding Marguerite at once. She was talking to Tiny, her expression uncertain and confused. It made him want to hurry in there, take her in his arms and comfort her, tell her everything would be all right.

“She will not run, but we still don’t know what happened when Christian was born,” Marcus pointed out quietly.

Julius’s mouth flattened unhappily. “Why doesn’t she remember me? Us? Our meeting before and loving each other.” He turned to Marcus and asked, “I take it you haven’t found anything in her memory to help us figure that out?”

“No.” He shook his head with regret. “I’ve searched her mind several times and there is nothing. Just as I found in California, the memories of that time are simply gone. If I didn’t know better I would say she wasn’t the same woman.”

“She’s my Marguerite,” Julius said firmly.

“Yes. Of course, but…Why has she no memory of you? If she were mortal I would say a three-on-one had been done to her to wipe her memory, but that isn’t possible with an immortal.”

Julius’s mouth compressed stubbornly. “It doesn’t matter. As I said when you first told me this on re
turning from California…. Obviously something was done to her. Things are not as we had thought.”

“I agree something was done to her, but what? And when? And, more importantly, is she innocent?”

Julius sighed unhappily at the questions he could not answer. “I hope to God she is Marcus. I love her enough that I could forgive her almost anything…but not for trying to kill our son.”

Eight

“We’re here,” Tiny announced as the train began
to slow.

Marguerite looked out her window, eyes drifting over twinkling lights in the darkness and then they were pulling into the large, well-lit train station. The sound of the pneumatic door drew her attention and she glanced around to see Julius and Marcus returning inside. Julius offered her a reassuring smile as he paused at the luggage rack just inside the door and began lifting down their luggage.

They obviously weren’t going to get the chance to discuss things for a while, Marguerite realized and was almost relieved. She needed time to adjust to everything that was happening.

She stood and joined him at the rack. When he pulled down her suitcase and set it on the floor before
her, she caught it by the handle and then followed him into the corridor to wait for the doors to open so they could disembark.

Marguerite had never been to York and found herself peering around with wide-eyed delight as they left the train station and walked the short block to pass under the arched entrance of the wall surrounding the city. It was like stepping back into her past and she felt a sense of homecoming as they made their way along the sidewalk running parallel to the old roman wall that surrounded the city.

In her mind, she could see the guards who would have been minding the entrance and the wall, and imagined the people moving about in medieval dress. This feeling intensified once they’d crossed the bridge over the river that wove its way into the city. Here the buildings crowded together, an eclectic mix of modern, Victorian, and even medieval buildings. When the cobbled roads and snickleways began to appear, she knew they had arrived in the city center and found herself unaccountably happy, the feeling wiping away the last of the confusion and concern she’d been suffering when leaving the train.

“Here we are,” Julius murmured, glancing from the notepad he held in his hand to the brass number beside the door of a townhouse as he came to a halt.

Marguerite’s eyebrows rose as she glanced around. She’d expected a hotel, but it seemed they were staying in a proper townhouse. An expensive luxury she was sure. It would not be cheap to own a home in the center of the city and the owner would charge an exorbitant fee for renting it.

“This place is supposed to sleep eight to twelve.
I rented it before I realized Dante and Tommaso wouldn’t be with us,” Julius explained as he led them to the door. It was opened just before they reached it and a small, florid-faced man smiled out at them.

“Mr. Notte?” he asked, his smile widening even further when Julius nodded. He immediately stepped back to allow them entry. “Come in! Come in! My, the train must have been on time for a change. A miracle that with the state of our trains nowadays, they’re forever breaking down and causing delays and switches.”

“Fortunately that didn’t happen this time,” Marguerite said when Julius merely nodded as he retrieved a prewritten check from his wallet and handed it over.

The man beamed at her as if she’d said something clever, and then peered at the check. Apparently finding everything in order, he handed Julius an envelope. “There are two keys in there. I’m afraid it’s all we have. Heavy curtains have been placed in all the bedrooms to block out the sunlight as you asked, and the groceries you ordered were delivered earlier so I put them away for you. My home and mobile number are in the envelope in case you have any problems and need to contact me.”

“Thank you.” Julius accepted the envelope.

“Now I’ll get out of your way and let you settle in,” the man said with a nod. “Enjoy your stay.”

Marguerite followed Julius farther up the hall, taking her suitcase with her so that the men behind her could make way for the man to leave, then left her suitcase there and followed Julius on a quick tour of the main floor. Despite Julius’s claim that it was supposed to accommodate eight to twelve people, it was
all very small and compact. A door on the right led into a living room with sofas arranged against two walls. A fireplace took up the third wall, and a big screen television filled the other. It wasn’t very roomy but the décor was tasteful.

Moving up the hall, Marguerite peered into the kitchen, noting that while there was a lot of cupboard space and all the modern gizmos, the refrigerator was a mini-fridge and the dining table only sat four. It seemed the eight to twelve were expected to eat in shifts. Hearing Julius grunt with displeasure behind her, she bit her lip on a smile of amusement and then stepped around him to open the last door in the hall. This led into a small half-bathroom, again, tastefully decorated.

“I’m almost afraid to look upstairs,” Julius admitted, peering over her shoulder into the tiny room.

Chuckling, Marguerite closed the door and retrieved her suitcase to take it upstairs.

“This is England,” she reminded him as she led the way upstairs. “An island smaller than the lower half of Ontario but with twice the population of all of Canada. Everything is small and compact here.”

“Hmm,” Julius muttered, peering over her shoulder as she opened the first of four doors leading off the landing. It led into a small bedroom with a double bed taking up most of the space, the rest of the room was filled with a wardrobe and dresser. There wasn’t room for anything else. The second door led to another bedroom, the same size and set-up. The third door was to a bathroom, this time a full bathroom with a tub, sink, and toilet, though they were crammed in pretty tightly. The last door led to the
largest bedroom. This one held a double bed, wardrobe, and dresser like the other two, but also had a bunk bed.

“This is supposed to fit eight to twelve?” Julius asked with disbelief.