Page 3 (1/2)
Jackie stood to investigate the wo for Vincent, only to pause as a tall, curvaceous, brunette urged Allen Richmond out of the way and stepped into the kitchen Jackie stared The woman was beautiful She also looked extremely familiar However, Jackie didn&039;t understand why until Vincent uerite Argeneau, Bastien&039;sof her in the living room of the apartment in New York where Bastien stayed when in the city Jackie had met him there a time or two over the years and always found the woown and faraway look She was evenas much as she did about immortalsJackie still found it difficult to accept that the woeneau was older than Vincent, she was still very young as far as i of written history, to the existence of Atlantis andaccording to her father&039;s filesthere were at least a handful of immortals who had actually fled the fall of Atlantis
It seemed the ically advanced as soested So much advanced, in fact, they&039;d been able to co to create specialized nanos These nanos, when introduced to a body, used the blood of the host to repair daenerate therate once finished with their work However, the huht, the environ There were always repairs to be done and so the nanos didn&039;t shut down, but continued to regenerate and reproduce themselves to keep their host at peak condition Those nanos were the equivalent of drinking from the fountain of youth
Unfortunately, there were some drawbacks The nanos used more blood than the human body could produce, and so the nanos altered their hosts to allow theet the blood they needed Theytheain the needed blood And because sunlight dehydrated the body and increased the need for iht vision so that they could live and hunt at night to avoid the da thereeted his aunt
Nodding, thethe door to close behind hiht?" Vincent asked as the two broke apart
"Fine, fine We had a two-hour delay, though, which is why I&039; in"
"Oh, yes Bastien said your plane was landing at six," he lanced at her wrist watch It was noell past eight Obviously, they&039;d both forgotten about his aunt The fact that Bastien&039;sout to California had slipped her mind entirely She wished it had slipped the woman&039;s mind Jackie hadn&039;t considered her visit a probleested she not uerite&039;s interference
Jackie wasn&039;t keen on interference from anyone, but would never be rude to Bastien&039;sseemed the smartest move She just hoped Vincent had the sense to keep his mouth shut on the hts and forced a sht, curious eyes toward her and Tiny
"Oh" Vincent&039;s smile was stiff as he introduced them "This is Jackie,hihtly and held out her hand "It&039;s nice to eneau"
"Thank you, dear It&039;s nice to uerite"
Jackie&039;s s sensation in her ht of a brick wall, then started to recite "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in her head for good hts
Marguerite&039;s eyes widened briefly, then narrowed, but Jackie just forced a wider smile If the woman felt rebuffed, it was too bad In her opinion, it was rather rude to intrude on people&039;s thoughts Not that uerite fluttered at the edges of her mind for another moment, then released her hand and turned to Tiny
"And this is my er cook, Tiny," Vincent added with a pained expression
Jackie watched Tiny, relaxing when she saw his lips begin to"Little Bo Beep" At least that hat he&039;d once told her he did when he thought a vahts
Their efforts uerite out of their heads; Jackie couldn&039;t be sure Unfortunately, the very fact that they&039;d tried had the added side effect ofVincent&039;s aunt suspicious Jackie could see the elanced from one to the other After a moment of tense silence, the vae on ahead as promised?"
"Yes, it arrived this afternoon," he assured her Then he realized, "Oh, of course You ht"
Vincent erator and opened it, revealing bagged blood stacked up neatly in auerite stiffened at the sight of the blood in plain sight Her gaze slid to Jackie and Tiny, taking in their inscrutable expressions before she answered
"Two, please I&039;ll have them in my room," she added, apparently unco in front of thes, then ushered her out of the room
"She&039;s pretty," Tiny commented as he sat back down at the table to pick up his spoon and dig into his ice creaain
"She&039;s old," Jackie responded dryly "Super old About seven hundred years too old for you"
"Yeah" He sighed "She probably thinks of reed, then blinked and suddenly wondered if that was how Vincent and other vampires saw her as a punk kid She didn&039;t like the idea, but supposed it would explain the arrogance she sometimes sensed from them Perhaps it was ed with exuberant youth On the other hand, she thought, while they may think of her as a punk kid, they still called her when they had a probleuerite asked as she followed Vincent into one of the reuest rooms
"My PA and cook," he answered quickly, but had to turn away to hide his expression as he set her suitcase on the bed Aunt Marguerite had always been able to tell when he told a lie
"Uh-huh" She didn&039;t sound convinced "And when did you start eating?"
Vincent didn&039;t even try to claim that he&039;d always eaten While Jackie and Tiny didn&039;t know him and couldn&039;t be sure he hadn&039;t always done so, Marguerite did know him He&039;d stayed at her apart the whole tiht reuerite&039;s son, Lucern, at the o and he brightened
"Lucern was tellinghelps hiht I&039;d give it a try" It wasn&039;t a lie Lucern had told him that this hy he ate when the rest of them didn&039;t It helped him keep his body mass as well as build blood Vincent had actually considered eating as well as feeding to see if it reduced the nu and another, he hadn&039;t actually set out to try it Until now
"And how do your cook and PA know about us?" Marguerite asked, pausing by the bed and turning to spear him with her eyes
"How do your housekeeper and her husband know?" He gave a shrug "They were told It saveswhen I&039;uerite&039;sall over the house?"
"They&039;re installing a security system Crime is rife here You can&039;t be too careful" Vincent waited for her next question It was obvious his aunt didn&039;t believe a thing he was saying and Vincent really wished he could just tell her hat, but the last thing he needed was his aunt sticking her nose into this business
"Have you tried to read her yet?"
Vincent&039;s eyebrows rose with surprise The question was not one he&039;d expected
"No," he admitted Vincent didn&039;t often read the humans around him To him, it seemed like an intrusion and he didn&039;t care to intrude on the thoughts of his friends As for non-friends, ambition and drive could color everyone&039;s choices and both of those were high in the world of theatre After the hundredth ti with you so charly was really only interested in what you could do for her career Well, it just see them anymore Not that this was a concern with Jackie Still, he&039;d had no reason to read her, so hadn&039;t bothered
Marguerite merely nodded "I think I&039;ll unpack and take a shower Betaiting in the airport and the recycled air on the plane, I always feel gritty after travel"
"Okay Coive you a proper tour of the house," Vincent said, leaving her alone
Jackie and Tiny were still in the kitchen when he went in Vincent sat down in his seat, picked up his spoon, then frowned at the et you fresh" Tiny took his bowl and stood to carry it to the sink
Vincent couldn&039;t help noticing that Jackie frowned after thehim The title cook/housekeeper was just his cover after all She didn&039;t say anything to the large man, however, but turned to Vincent and asked, "So what did you do to piss off one of your own kind?"
He blinked at the question "What do youThere&039;s a reason they&039;re sabotaging you like this"
"It doesn&039;t have to be an immortal," Vincent said resentfully
Jackie arched one eyebrow "No, of course it doesn&039;t Maybe it was a coincidence that the entire cast of your play suddenly went ane as contagious aneed "Yes That seeed with a sigh Then he adh that it was a ot some help, from an immortal"
"Does it really matter?" she asked quietly "Either way, an immortal is involved and surely they don&039;t norreed "And I have tried to think of who ht be behind it, or even involved, but I really can&039;t think of anyone"
"H at her mouth as Tiny returned to set a bowl of ice cream before Vincent "Well, think about it some more If you come up with anyone, letto do first?"
Jackie&039;s eyes narrowed "We aren&039;t doing anything You&039;re going to go about your business The saboteur is a problem for Tiny and o check on how thewith the security systeaze fixed with interest on her pert little behind
"Jackie&039;s right You&039;re better to leave the detecting to the detectives," Tiny said, drawing his attention "And we&039;ll leave the acting to you"
Vincent grunted and took a spoonful of ice crea why he&039;d stopped eating all those centuries ago Had he really just got bored with it? It didn&039;t see now
"So," Vincent said after a minute "Tell ed "She&039;s smart, sharp, and somewhat cynical She&039;s alsothat he&039;d be loyal and Vincent nodded to let him know he respected that "Bastien said her father started the coreed "He was a real hard-noser He expected a lot out of everyone including his daughter And Jackie never disappointed him"
"Never?"
"Never in the ten years I&039;ve known her," Tiny said solemnly
Vincent considered that briefly, then said, "Her father&039;s dead?"
"Yes Cancer," Tiny said gri the company for two years?"
"Three," he corrected "Ted was pretty sick the last year Jackie pretty urehead"
Vincent nodded "It must have been hard I mean when it comes to detectives, one just always assue I suppose most men would want a male detective"
Tiny smiled faintly "Not so e more often now Actually," he added with aive her a hard time are your kind"
Vincent raised his eyebrows in surprise and Tiny shrugged "A lot of immortals are older; from a time omen weren&039;t in power positions They aren&039;t always coe Like you weren&039;t when you slammed the door in her face Jackie often works twice as hard to earn their respect"
Vincent frowned, ashaiven her a hard tih," Tiny went on "He treats her with the saave Ted And he will intercede if one of your kind gives her too hard a time or he tries, anyway Jackie often won&039;t allow his help"