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"Slon," Jackie laughed as Vincent charged up the stairs She had no idea if she was any faster or stronger than she used to be yet, but he was definitely still much faster She couldn&039;t keep up with hi on the steps in her attempt to do so

Vincent didn&039;t just slon, he paused on the steps and turned back to sweep her into his arrabbed for his shoulders and si the hall to his room Vincent let her feet slip to the floor so that he could open the door, then he herded her forward into his room with the arm still around her waist

The door had barely closed behind the her, backing her through the darkness toward the bed as he did Jackie laughed into hisas one of his hands found her breast

She didn&039;t know if this was the after-effects of the funeral or what, but Jackie was suddenly desperate to have hi between them, she undid the belt of his dress pants, then quickly undid the snap and zipper as well His pants fell open and peeled aith ease to drop to the floor

Vincent kicked the her clothes as he continued to back her toward the bed The black dress she&039;d worn to the funeral came off over her head the moment it was unzipped Her bra quickly followed Jackie found herself in only her panties, stockings, and high-heeled shoes when she stuh

She couldn&039;t see a thing, but it was obvious Vincent didn&039;t have the same problem He bent to catch one foot and lifted it in the air to set to work on the strap of her high-heeled shoe

"God, you&039;re the most incredibly sexy woman I&039;ve ever seen," heit on, he bent and caught her panties With one quick jerking ht her hair in his hand and kissed her again

This kiss was just as frantic as the first had been, and Jackie responded to it at once Little asps slipped from her lips as she arched and shifted beneath him

"I need you," Vincent asped, it was the best she could do at that point Her , drawn-out conversations She needed him inside her, needed to feel alive as only he could make her feel She needed him Unable to verbalize all that, she reached between theuided hi, he took over, thrusting into her with a groan that ended on a sigh

Jackie shifted beneath hi him on with little moans and murmurs of pleasure It was only aout with pleasure Vincent filled her with one last thrust, then stayed there as he poured hi

Jackie heard the sound and recognized what it was before she was quite fully awake Blinking her eyes open, she peered at his profile in the bit of light seeping through the cracked open bathroom door and sood God, it was loud

They&039;d e It was as if the thought and talk of death brought on by the fake funeral and burial had raised an urge in both of them to reaffirm life There had been little in the way of foreplay, both of the in a sweaty heap on the bed

Apparently, however, they&039;d shifted apart in their sleep Jackie was now lying next to him on the bed, with her hand on his chest Vincent was asleep on his back, one arm over his head, the other across his sto snore after another It made her smile, then chuckle silently at herself No doubt in a hundred years or so the sound would annoy the heck out of her, and she&039;d be nudging hi him to turn on his side to silence the sound, but for now itup on one elbow, Jackie peered down at his sleeping face and brushed a ard lock of hair off his forehead, then frowned as she noted how pale he was Vincent&039;s skin was so white, it alan to notice other things, like the hand across his stohtly, as if atte to rub away pain

She peered hter in the room so that she could see his expression Frorihtly

It was then she realized that Vincent hadn&039;t yet fed today They&039;d got up late this afternoon, he&039;d joined her in the tub and made love to her, then they&039;d divided what little ti to the funeral between teaching her to bring on her teeth, and trying to eliminate more people from the list of the employees who had worked on the New York play She&039;d fed twice, grabbing a bag fro it on her teeth once she&039;d finally learned to bring the for the funeral, but Vincent hadn&039;t fed at all And she hadn&039;t even noticed, Jackie realized and iuilty She now understood what it er She&039;d experienced it and had even experiencedwas much worse than that if the pain disturbed his sleep

Vincenthis legs up so that he was almost in a fetal position He had to feed, Jackie decided It would only get worse asfrom the bed, she collected her clothes from where they&039;d landed on the floor and tiptoed to the bathroom Vincent was still asleep when she slid back out several minutes later Jackie paused at the bedside to peer at him for a minute, then made her way out of the bedroom and headed downstairs

She was at the foot of the stairs when she heard the uerite was the only one still up and about, Jackie frowned, then moved to the kitchen door and pushed it open Her eyebrows rose when she saw Marguerite and Tiny seated at the table

"I thought you&039;d gone to bed," Jackie said to Tiny with surprise and he lifted his large shoulders in a shrug

"I couldn&039;t sleep"

"Oh," she hesitated, then said, "Vincent hasn&039;t eaten yet today I&039;ry?"

Tiny considered the question, then nodded "I could eat so"

"Any preferences?"

He shook his head "Whatever you&039;re getting You&039;ll probably be lilanced at the clock to see that it was 3 AM He was right, their options were limited at this hour Jackie let the door ease closed and headed for the office Grabbing the phone book, she settled at the desk to look through the yellow pages in search of a pizzeria that would be open now She found one she knew delivered more than pizza, but wasn&039;t sure what else was on their , Jackie punched in the number and sat back to wait for them to answer Pizza would be fine It was one of Tiny&039;s coht Funerals were a depressing business

Finished placing the order, Jackie hung up and sat back in the desk chair, her gaze sliding to the couch The sight of the large leather sofa reminded her of the first time Vincent hadIt had felt like he was cherishing her with his body, so she&039;d never really experienced before Vincent And tonight, at the funeral home, he&039;d introduced her to Cassius as his life s on the matter had fluctuated over the days since she&039;d awakened to find herself turned Marguerite had said that after watching her children and their ht serve better simply for her to tell her she was Vincent&039;s life mate so that she could keep it in mind and coht The possibility hadn&039;t been far from her mind for more than a moment in all the hours since then A true life mate, fated to be with him, meant to live the equivalent of several lifetimes as his mate and love and partner Who wouldn&039;t like to be that? Life mates didn&039;t divorce and Vincent had claiht Had he meant that? Or had he merely introduced her to Cassius as such to freak hiht have meant it, his eyes had certainly appeared to her to be full of love as he&039;d looked down at her at the tiht once they were alone in his room Vincent hadn&039;t told her he loved her, or even whispered that he&039;dit up and ask hie to do so Then she&039;d got carried aith their passion and let it slip away She wished she&039;d had the courage to ask She wished she&039;d had the courage to tell hiood and smart and funny and the perfect ballanced up with surprise as Tiny slipped into the room

"You didn&039;t come back and I started to worry," he said as he moved to the desk to peer down at her

Jackie s"

"Worrying you mean, about Vincent, and the case, and? He paused at the flicker of her expression, his eyebrows rising in question "What&039;s wrong?"

Jackie stared at hih her, then ad about the case I should have been That&039;s e&039;re here, but instead, I was sitting here thinking that I love Vincent and wondering if he lovedwhich issue to address first, then he settled on the corner of the desk and said, "Yes, he loves you I kneas coht you were attacked it was obvious he loved you Vincent was so upset, and so deterht he introduced you as his life mate Vincent loves you, Jackie"

Jackie felt a smile pull at her lips She&039;d known Tiny for ten years The e of people, both ht Vincent loved her

"As for not thinking about the case," Tiny went on, and Jackie felt herself stiffen as she realized how quickly her concern had shifted fro about work, to relief that Vincent ht love her What was the matter with her?

"I think you should cut yourself some slack there, Jackie," Tiny went on "You were attacked and nearly died no hin love for the first time in your life"

"But Bastien asked me to come here to help catch the saboteur That is my primary job These other distractions are just?

"Your life," Tiny inserted dryly "We will catch the saboteur, but your life is important too"

Jackie opened her lanced toward the door as the buzzer sounded "That will be the pizza"

Tiny started to get up, but Jackie waved him back to his seat as she stood and et it"

Jackie moved to the panel and flipped on the ate When she saw the pizza delivery name on the top of the car, she pressed the button to open the door and said, "Come on up"

She then turned and moved to lean in the office door as she waited for the pizza "We only have two or three immortals left on the list that we haven&039;t eliminated"

Tiny eyed her sole with the topic change, but in the end he nodded

Relaxing a little, Jackie sighed and ran her hand through her hair "I don&039;t think any of the the list was just a red herring"

"You mentioned that as a possibility at the time," Tiny o to all the trouble of stealing it fro Stephano just to send us down the wrong path?"

"Wouldn&039;t he?" she asked with a frown "It&039;s kept us fro Vincent at the same time"

Tiny looked troubled at the possibility, then they both stilled as a knock sounded at the door Straightening, Jackie turned and ht stretched out on the cold tiles beside his pool and ugly little des with sharp, sharp teeth were perched on their haunches on his chest They had ripped open his sto away on his insides It was a most unpleasant dream and terribly painful, and yet in the drea, Jackie was Vincent could hear her terrified screams, but couldn&039;t see her He tried to raise his ar to get up and look for Jackie, but he couldn&039;t er

"Vincent! Vincent!"

Vincent blinked his eyes open and stared at the figure bent over hi, he allad he hadn&039;t when he recognized Tiny&039;s voice

"Wake up! They took Jackie!"

"What?" He sat up abruptly, fully awake now His gaze shot automatically to the bed beside him where Jackie should have been, but Vincent could see in the light co from both the bathroom and bedroom doors that she wasn&039;t there

"Where is she?" he asked with concern

"That&039;s what I&039;rowled unhappily "She ordered a pizza I think she wanted to feed you The pizza guy buzzed and she opened the gate, then there was a knock on the door and she went to get it and" Tiny shook his head "I was sitting on the desk in the office There was no screa Jackie&039;s hinky feeling It was too quiet, I guess

"I went into the hall to see as happening, but it was e to this pizza delivery car There was a young guy at the wheel, staring straight ahead like he was in a trance and Jackie alking to the car with a woot up to start pulling on his clothes "Why? What did they do once they got to the car? What happened?"