Authors: Lynsay Sands

Tags: #General, #Paranormal, #Romance, #Fiction

Vampire, Interrupted (38 page)

BOOK: Vampire, Interrupted

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“His loss didn’t excuse his behavior toward you,” Julius growled.

“No,” she agreed quietly. “But it explains it.”

He shook his head. “I still think I should have done something.”

“And then I wouldn’t have Bastien, Etienne, or Lissianna,” she pointed out quietly.

Marguerite saw the flicker in his eyes as he recognized the truth of her words. Had he taken her from Jean Claude five hundred years ago, her three youngest children wouldn’t have been born. She also wouldn’t have raised Thomas and Jeanne Louise and…There were so many ands.

“I love you, Julius,” she said quietly. “But I love them too and everything in my life—good and bad—has led me to this point where I can have all of you. All those experiences have shaped and formed me like a blacksmith beats a sword into shape in the fire.” Marguerite peered at him solemnly. “I like who I am, and I’m happy with what I have: my five lovely children and you. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes it was
downright painful. But I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Then neither would I, my love,” Julius whispered and kissed her.

A burst of laughter from the group by the fireplace made them pull apart and glance toward them curiously.

“Our children are up to something,” Julius said with amusement.

Marguerite nodded with a smile.
Our children.
It had a beautiful ring to it. Julius was opening his arms to her family too and that was as important to her as the Argeneau side accepting his family.

“She did!” Tiny was insisting.

“She didn’t,” Christian said with a frown.

“Yes, she did, and she will with you too,” Etienne assured his half brother, slapping him almost sympathetically on the shoulder.

“No,” Christian said, but was beginning to look worried.

“Who did, or didn’t, or will do what?” Marguerite asked as she and Julius crossed the room to join the circle of younger people.

“We were just telling Christian how you ‘helped’ us get together with our lifemates,” Vincent announced.

“I didn’t interfere with you and Jackie,” Marguerite insisted at once. “I helped you along a little, maybe, but that was all. I never interfere.”

“Oh please, Mother.” Bastien laughed, his arm around Terri, his hand absently rubbing her arm as he spoke. “You told me outright that you thought Vincent would be much happier with a lifemate and you were going to see what you could do to help him in that area. And you are the one who suggested I
introduce Inez and Thomas. That’s part of the reason I asked her to help him when he went to England to look for you.”

“You flew to New York to convince Kate to come back to me,” Lucern said quietly, reaching for his wife’s hand.

Kate smiled and leaned into him as she pointed out, “And you sent me to England to talk to Terri so she’d give Bastien a chance.”

“You made me play cupid for Etienne and Rachel,” Thomas added.

“And don’t even try to deny that you interfered with Greg and me,” Lissianna laughed as she and Greg joined them with a freshly diapered Lucy.

“She didn’t interfere with us,” Lucian commented with satisfaction, relaxing back in his seat and pulling Leigh, who sat on his lap for lack of chairs, back against his chest.

“Actually,” Thomas murmured and all eyes turned his way, “the day you arrived with Leigh, Aunt Marguerite told me to make myself scarce and leave you to deal with her on your own. She said she had a good feeling about the two of you.”

“What?” Lucian sat up abruptly, nearly sending Leigh sliding off his lap. Catching her, he murmured an apology and then speared Marguerite with a dark look. “You’re the reason I couldn’t reach Thomas?”

Marguerite scowled right back. “Well, it all worked out for the best, didn’t it?”

There was silence and then Victor Argeneau shifted and said, “I hate to even ask this, but did you have anything to do with Elvi and me?”

Marguerite glanced at Lucian and Jean Claude’s younger brother. He was Vincent’s father and she’d been glad to hear the two men had worked out their issues and were building a relationship.

“Marguerite’s the one who suggested I have you answer the ad in the paper when rumors started flying about a vampire in one of the lakeside small towns,” Lucian growled with disgust and then shook his head and added, “but she couldn’t have known anything about Elvi’s situation in Port Henry at the time. The council had only got wind of her a week or so earlier.”

“Did you say Port Henry?” Lissianna asked with a frown.

“Yes,” Lucian said warily. “Why?”

Lissianna peered narrowly at Marguerite then turned to Greg, “Isn’t that where she had us stop to eat when we all drove down to the Mennonite store about the baby crib for Lucy?”

“Mennonite store?” Leigh asked with interest and then glanced at Lucian. “I love Lucy’s crib, we should go check out this store.”

“It’s wonderful,” Lissianna assured her. “The workmanship is beautiful. Mom found it. We drove down a couple weeks before she went to Europe and they made and delivered the crib just a week before Lucy was born.”

“Oh, yes.” Greg nodded with sudden recall. “You were hungry when we left the store and we stopped for dinner at a little Mexican restaurant on the way back. What was the name of that place? Bella something.”

“Bella Black’s?” Victor asked with horror.

“That’s it!” Lissianna exclaimed.

“That’s my restaurant,” Elvi said with amazement.

Lissianna frowned. “Mom spent a lot of time talking to the owner, but it wasn’t you.”

“It must have been Mabel,” Elvi murmured, glancing curiously at Marguerite. “Though you do look kind of familiar.”

“You came over to ask Mabel something while I was read—er…talking to her,” Marguerite corrected herself and then shrugged. “It was only for a minute.”

“Just long enough for you to read Elvi and decide you’d have me send Victor her way?” Lucian suggested.

Marguerite ignored him.

“You mean to say there isn’t one of you that Mar—Mother didn’t get together in some way?” Christian asked with amazement.

They all glanced at each other, then Victor said, “Maybe DJ and Mabel.”

“Oh!” Marguerite brightened. “How lovely. I liked Mabel and DJ’s such a sweetie.”

Tiny gave Christian a nudge and teased, “And now it will be your turn. She’ll try to find you a lifemate.”

Marguerite scowled at the mortal when she saw the worried look on her son’s face. Then she smiled archly and said, “Actually, Tiny, I was thinking that you would make some nice immortal a good husband.”

Much to her satisfaction, while the mortal’s eyes widened in horror at the very suggestion, Christian seemed to relax a bit. But only a bit, she noted unhap
pily. The last thing she wanted was her own son wary around her.

Sensing her fears, Julius squeezed her gently, his arms tightening briefly around her waist and urging her closer back against him.

“Tell me something,” he interrupted in a loud voice when everyone began to speak at once. The moment silence fell, he asked, “Do any of you wish she hadn’t interfered?”

There was a moment of silence as the couples looked at each other, then they answered in stereo with quiet nos or shakes of the head.

“Well, there you are then.” He glanced to Christian. “You have something to look forward to, Son.” Smiling at the doubtful look on his face, he then glanced toward Marcus and the twins and added, “Actually, you probably all have something to look forward to now that Marguerite’s here to manage you. Enjoy.”

“Welcome to the family,” Thomas said with a laugh as the four men peered at each other with horror.

Chuckling, Julius turned Marguerite away and began to lead her out of the room.

Despite his apparent good humor over what he’d just learned, she glanced at him worriedly, and murmured, “I’m not really a meddler, Julius. And I don’t have any grand intention to start hunting up a lifemate for Christian right away or anything.”

“It’s not meddling to want to see someone happy, Marguerite,” he assured her, slipping his arm around her waist.

“I do want to see him happy,” she said, and then added, “But I also want to get to know him better
myself. And I want to spend time with you as well.”

“And we will.” Pausing in the hallway, he turned her to face him. “We’ll get to know each other all over again, and you can get to know our son too. We have the time, that’s one thing we have plenty of. Time and love.”

“Time and love,” Marguerite agreed as his lips descended to her.

About the Author

LYNSAY SANDS
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of the Argeneau vampire series as well as more than twenty-seven historical novels and anthologies known for their humorous edge.

Visit her official website at
www.lynsaysands.net.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

By Lynsay Sands

V
AMPIRE,
I
NTERRUPTED

V
AMPIRES
A
RE
F
OREVER

T
HE
A
CCIDENTAL
V
AMPIRE

B
ITE
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F
Y
OU
C
AN

A B
ITE TO
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EMEMBER

A Q
UICK
B
ITE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

VAMPIRE, INTERRUPTED
. Copyright © 2008 by Lynsay Sands. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ePub edition January 2008 ISBN 9780061758324

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