Part 24 (1/2)
Nicholas glared at him, then took both of Jo's hands and said, ”Honey, I'm afraid they don't have much choice. If Lucian decides-”
”Of course they have a choice,” she interrupted with disgust. ”He's just one vampire.”
”He's one very old and powerful vampire,” Nicholas said quietly.
”You're all old,” she pointed out dryly. ”You're five hundred and something. Marguerite is seven hundred and something. You're all just fricking ancient.”
”You say that like it's a bad thing,” Thomas said with amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Well, it is a bad thing if you're all so set in your ways and used to Sourpuss Pants over there running things that you' ll just let him slaughter an innocent man,” she snapped. ”Mr. Sourpuss Pants! G.o.d, I love her Nicholas,” Thomas crowed. When he noticed that neither Nicholas nor Inez looked impressed by the words, he added quickly, ”In a totally sister- in-law type fas.h.i.+on, of course.”
Nicholas and Inez hrrumphed together and then Nicholas turned to Jo and said, ”Honey, you don't understand. Lucian is very old. He's also on the Council. He has a lot of power. He-”
”I don't care how old and powerful he is,” Jo interrupted impatiently. ”I love you and I'm not letting him kill you without a fight.”
Jo tugged her hands out of Nicholas's, and then turned a determined glare on the head of the Argeneau clan as she started across the room, saying, ”Nicholas didn' t kill that woman. He has no memory of killing her. We think someone drugged him and set him up to stop him from finding out something Annie had learned about the deaths of Armand's wives. We need to find out what that was.”
She paused in front of Lucian Argeneau, swallowed, and added, ”I love him. I don't know what I' ll do without him. What good is living hundreds of years if you take him from me?
Please don't?”
Lucian peered down his nose at her dispa.s.sionately. ”You were doing very well in your arguments right up until you started into the lovey-dovey c.r.a.p. And the begging at the end was just over the top. ”
Jo stared up into Lucian Argeneau's cold face and felt a fury rise up in her like none she'd ever experienced. The man held the life of the man she loved in his hands. Her whole future rested in his palms and he stood their smugly critiquing her attempt to save both? All her fear and frustration balled into one blast of rage, and before Jo quite knew what she was doing, she was slapping the coldhearted b.a.s.t.a.r.d across the face.
”Jo,” Nicholas barked with alarm and quickly dragged her behind him, placing himself firmly between her and his uncle as he said, ”She's upset.”
”So I see,” Lucian said grimly.
Jo scowled and poked Nicholas in the side. ”Don't apologize for me, especially not to Captain Crabby here who plans on killing you.”
”It's all right, dear,” Marguerite murmured, moving to Jo's side to run her hand soothingly up and down her arm, ”Captain Crabby won't kill Nicholas.”
”Marguerite!” Lucian snapped.
”Well, you won' t,” she said firmly. ”Surely you've read everyone in the room by now and know further inquiry is needed before any decisions can be made about Nicholas's future?”
Lucian scowled at the woman for a moment, but then sighed and admitted, ”Yes.”
Jo moved around in front of Nicholas again to ask uncertainly, ”You're not going to execute him?” ”No,” Lucian said dryly.
”Really?” she asked, almost afraid to believe him.
”Yes really, I have no intention of killing Nicholas.”
”Oh!” With joy exploding through her, Jo impulsively threw herself at the man to hug him in grat.i.tude, saying, ”Maybe you aren' t such a bad uncle after all, Lucian.”
”Yet.”
Jo froze as the word reached her ears, and then pulled back to scowl at him. ”What do you mean by yet?”
For some reason that made his lips twitch with what she suspected was amus.e.m.e.nt. He then glanced to Nicholas and said, ”She's rather tempestuous, isn't she? Impetuous as well. It is good you decided it wasn't safe to keep her with you on the run. She'd have been dead in a week... or would have got you killed.” He paused and then added, ”Although she may have done that anyway since you turned yourself in to save her. We shall have to see.”
Jo's mouth turned down and her eyes narrowed on him unhappily. ”I don't like you.”
Lucian arched one eyebrow. ”That's a shame. I quite like you.”
”You could have fooled me,” Jo muttered with disbelief.
”I often do,” Lucian agreed. ”Fool people, that is.”
”He does,” Leigh a.s.sured her, reentering the room with Lissianna following.
Jo glanced to the woman, wondering what on earth she saw in Lucian Argeneau, but then just shook her head and asked, ”What do you mean you aren't going to execute him yet? Are you or aren't you?”
Lucian turned his gaze to Nicholas. ”I'm not executing you now because I'm not certain of your guilt. I've read the situation in everyone's mind, including your own. There is no memory of your actually killing the woman. In fact, there's a rather suspicious blank s.p.a.ce where that memory should be.”
”I told you,” Jo said triumphantly.
”So you did,” Lucian agreed dryly with a nod in her direction. He then turned back to Nicholas to continue, ”I intend to get to the bottom of this and find out what did happen that day. If you killed her and have somehow blocked it from your memory, you' ll be executed. If not...” He shrugged and then said, ”Jo probably will eventually get you killed with her impetuousness anyway.”
Jo felt herself stiffen at the words, but then noticed a suspicious gleam in his eyes that made her think he was goading her and she merely muttered, ”Ha ha.” ”Ha ha, indeed,” Lucian said dryly, and then turned to Mortimer. ”Now, let's get Dee and Ernie ready for transport so that you can prepare Nicholas's cell.”
”Cell?” Jo asked indignantly. ”You're going to lock him up?”
”Yes,” he said calmly. ”And I'm going to have you locked up as well.”
”What?” Now Nicholas looked furious. His eyes were frigid silver as he stepped up to his uncle, fists clenched and growled, ”Locking me up is one thing, Uncle, but Jo hasn' t done anything to deserve being treated like a criminal.”
”She's already plotting ways to help you escape in case I can't get to the bottom of this,” he said quietly.
Nicholas turned to Jo with surprise and she felt herself flush guiltily. She actually had started thinking about ways to get him out of there. It seemed she was still incredibly readable.
”Maybe she is,” Nicholas acknowledged reluctantly as he turned back to his uncle. ”But, still, she hasn't done anything wrong yet. You can' t lock her up for something she might try to do.
Besides, I' ll talk to her. I' ll-”
”Locking her up with you will keep her from getting herself or anyone else killed with her amateurish efforts to break you out,” Lucian interrupted firmly.
”Amateurish?” Jo squawked. ”I got him out, didn' t I. I picked the d.a.m.ned lock and set him free.”
”Very impressive,” Lucian a.s.sured her and then turned to Mortimer to say, ”Make sure they're only given plastic utensils and don't allow them anything small enough to use to pick the lock this time.”
”c.r.a.p,” Jo muttered irritably, wis.h.i.+ng she'd stopped to think before speaking. Her eyes narrowed on Lucian as she thought she saw his mouth twitch, and then he turned to Nicholas and continued.
”I will have Ernie and Dee transported to the Council for judgment. Mortimer will remove the cot from one of the cells and have a double bed moved in to replace it.” He turned to Jo and Nicholas and said, ”We shall give you candlelight and wine and roses and put a curtain on the cell so that the two of you can entertain each other safely and in privacy while I look into the matter of Annie and the mortal.”
”Wouldn't it be easier just to keep them locked in one of the rooms in the house?” Sam asked with a frown. ”It would be much more comfortable and-”
”And only mean four men would have to stand guard at the hall and balcony doors,” Lucian interrupted dryly, and then shook his head. ”We are already shorthanded. They go in the cells.”