Jean-Luc followed her. "You succeeded wonderfully."
"On what?" She glanced back. "Staying alive? It was very peaceful today."
"That's good. But I was referring to what your daughter said. You look very pretty."
Heather waved a hand in dismissal. "Bethany turns everything into a romance. Even her stuffed animals are married to each other. She has me perform the ceremony. Today I married a male Chihuahua to a lady gorilla."
Fidelia chuckled as she settled on the couch with her purse. "That dog is barking up the wrong tree."
Jean-Luc rested his sword next to the wingback chair. "My friend Roman always says that with love, anything is possible."
"Sí, like double homicide." Fidelia patted her purse.
Heather snorted. "Or child custody battles."
Jean-Luc gave her a wry look. "Have you lost all faith in love?"
She looked away, her cheeks pink. "No. There's always hope. Shall we get started?"
"Very well." He placed Lui's sword and cane on the coffee table in front of Fidelia.
She took the cane into her lap. Closing her eyes, she ran her fingers up and down the polished wood. Heather sat quietly beside her. Jean-Luc settled in the wingback chair and waited.
"It is a dark place," Fidelia whispered.
That was hardly surprising. All vampires needed a dark place for their daily death-sleep.
"A cellar," Fidelia continued. "Made of stone. No windows." She shook her head. "It's too dark. I can't see anything."
"Can you tell how far away it is?" Jean-Luc asked.
"Not far, but not too close. Not in town, I think." Fidelia inhaled sharply. "He senses me." Her eyes opened wide, and she shoved the cane onto the table. "This was a mistake. I - I think he may be psychic."
Lui would have a vampire's psychic abilities, but that wasn't something Jean-Luc could admit to.
Fidelia gave him a worried look. "He sensed me. I could feel it. He was cold, so cold." She shuddered.
"It's all right." Heather rubbed the older woman's back. "It's over now."
Fidelia shook her head. "I was trying to trace his location. I think he was doing the same to me."
Jean-Luc winced. Zut, he should have taken Fidelia somewhere else to do this.
Heather's face paled. "He's hunting us."
"Heather, I must ask you again to move to my place," Jean-Luc said. "It is only a matter of time before Lui figures out who you are and where you live."
"We'll just have to find him before he finds us. If we knew more about him, it might help." Her eyes narrowed. "Who is he exactly?"
Jean-Luc sat back. "I wish I knew. If I knew his real name, I would have hunted him down and killed him many years ago."
"You would...commit murder?"
"I would do anything to protect those I love."
Fidelia nodded approvingly. "You are good man, Juan."
He glanced at Heather, wondering if she agreed. She looked puzzled.
"You said many years ago," she murmured. "How old are you?"
Merde. There was no way to answer this.
"I'm twenty-six," she announced. "And you?"
He shifted in his chair. "I am older than you."
"How much?"
"I was twenty-eight when..." He rubbed his forehead. "I was three when my mother died..."
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." Her eyes warmed with sympathy. "Emotional wounds take the longest to heal."
"Yes." He heard a car pulling up in the driveway. He stood, grabbing his sword. "We have company."
Heather jumped to her feet. "It couldn't be Louie, could it? Not this fast."
"I'll be ready for him." Fidelia dug in her purse.
"I don't think it's Lui." Jean-Luc doubted his arch nemesis used cars very often. Even so, he strode into the foyer with his sword. He heard a car door slam outside, then heavy footsteps pound up the steps to the front porch.
Heather arrived at the front door just as a fist knocked hard enough to shake the door's panes of leaded glass. Jean-Luc stayed close by her side.
"I can see him!" a male voice shouted. "You've got that boyfriend spending the night again, don't you?"
"Oh no, it's Cody," Heather groaned. "Thelma must have seen you arrive, and she called his mother."
Jean-Luc peered through the door window. The man on the porch was large and flushed with alcohol-rich blood.
"I can see you, you ass**le!" Cody yelled. "You want to screw my ex, go ahead, but lay one finger on my daughter and I'll - "
"Stop it!" Heather hissed as she unlocked the door.
"You shouldn't let him in," Jean-Luc whispered.
"Oh please, let him in," Fidelia drawled. She stood by the stairs, waving her Glock in the air. "Make my day."
"Fidelia, put the gun away," Heather ordered. She opened the door. "How dare you - "
Cody barged into the foyer and glowered at Jean-Luc. "Who the hell are you?"
Jean-Luc glared back. "I do not answer to you."
"Jean - " Heather started, but her ex interrupted.
"John? So you're bringing your johns home?" Cody turned to Jean-Luc. "You keep leaving your car parked out front. Now everyone in town knows you're screwing my wife!"
"Ex-wife." Jean-Luc narrowed his eyes. "You are the fool who let her go."
"Enough." Heather stepped between them. "Cody, lower your voice before Bethany hears you. You're drunk, and you have no right to spy on me or pass judgment."
He sneered at her. "I do, too. My daughter's living here, and I can sue for full custody now that everyone knows you're a slut."
"I am not. And I will never let you take her from me."
Cody snorted. "Watch me."
Two hundred years ago, Jean-Luc would have simply skewered the bastard and tossed his body into a river, but the modern world tended to frown upon that solution. He assaulted the man with a psychic wave. You are a cockroach.
In his inebriated state, Cody had no resistance at all to vampire mind control. He fell to the floor and scurried around the foyer on all fours.
With a squeal, Heather jumped back. "Cody, what is your problem?"
"I am a cockroach," he muttered in a squeaky voice.
"Hmm, about time you figured that one out," Fidelia stepped back as he brushed against her long skirt.
Cody attempted to go up the stairs, but tipped over and landed on his back. He squirmed, arms and legs flailing.
"Cut it out, Cody," Heather demanded. "Get out of here before you scare Bethany."
"What's going on?" Emma descended the stairs, looking askance at Cody's wriggling body.
Fidelia chuckled. "Let's get a can of bug spray."
"Raid!" Cody flipped onto all fours and scuttled out the front door.
You will return to normal at sunrise, Jean-Luc ordered.
"Yes, Master." Cody tumbled down the porch stairs.
"Good Lord, the man's gone crazy." Heather shut the door and locked it.
"That was interesting." Emma gave Jean-Luc a pointed look. She'd probably heard his psychic commands.
He wondered briefly if Lui had heard him, but he doubted he'd said enough for Lui to trace.
"Is Bethany all right?" Heather rushed up the stairs.
"Ooh wee, I need a drink." Fidelia waddled toward the kitchen, still holding her Glock. "I need a beer, that's what I need. You want a beer, Juan, Emma?"
"No thank you." He wandered back into the living room and rested his sword against the wingback chair.
Emma leaned against the entrance, smiling. "A cockroach?"
He smiled back. "The man deserved it."
She nodded. "I'll go back upstairs." She paused, then added, "I think you've made quite an impression on Bethany. The toy mum who lives in the dollhouse has a new boyfriend named John. He's a G.I. Joe doll who looks like he could beat the crap out of the Ken living in the closet."
"Really?" Jean-Luc's heart squeezed in his chest. Could he actually be welcomed into this family? He'd always wanted to be part of a family. His father had died when he was six, three years after his mother had passed away in childbirth. Roman and Angus were the closest he'd ever come to having real brothers.