Vampires Are Forever by Lynsay Sands Page B

skin.
     
    “Inez?” Thomas asked, his voice sounding worried and uncertain.
     
    She immediately whirled from the mirror to glare at him. “You bit me!”
     
    He opened his mouth, but rather than say anything, snapped it closed looking for all the world like a lost puppy. The man was a ravening vampire, but honest to God he was standing there looking at a complete loss as if he didn’t know what to say or do.
     
    For some reason that infuriated her. Probably because some part of her wanted to give him a hug and tell him everything would be all right. A foolish response. That was what he should be doing to her right then, she thought with irritation. She immediately burst into a rant, hardly even aware of what she was saying as she waved a finger under his nose and began to back him out of the bathroom.
     
    His cell phone began to ring again as he backed into the hall, and Thomas reached for it almost with relief.
     
    “That will be Bastien,” he said over her words, his own definitely relief soaked. “He’ll know what to do.”
     
    Inez stopped her rant and stared at him with amazement. “What to do? What to do? You bit me!” she snapped furiously, and then slammed the door in his face and locked it.
     
    Three
    Thomas ignored the ringing phone in his hand and stared at the wooden door Inez had just slammed in his face. It was as blank and featureless as the wall he’d run up against in her mind. He’d tried to slip into her thoughts to erase them once he’d fed enough from her, but much to his amazement, he couldn’t.
     
    He’d redoubled his efforts, but had come up against a solid wall in her mind. The graffiti on it read “Bugger off! No Entry here.” He couldn’t read Inez Urso.
     
    The phone stopped ringing, only to start up again a moment later and Thomas glanced down at it with a sigh. Spotting the caller ID stating it was Bastien, he flipped it open and lifted it to his ear.
     
    “Thomas?” Bastien asked.
     
    “Yeah.”
     
    “Did you feed from Inez?”
     
    “Yeah.”
     
    “Good, good. Are you on the way to the airport?”
     
    “No.”
     
    There was a moment of silence. “Why?”
     
    “We have a problem,” he muttered.
     
    “What kind of problem?” Bastien sounded wary.
     
    “I can’t wipe her mind.”
     
    “What?” Bastien asked with disbelief.
     
    A crash sounded in the bathroom as something was knocked to the floor. It made Thomas back away so Inez wouldn’t overhear his conversation. “I can’t get into her thoughts to wipe the memory of the bite from her mind.”
     
    There was another pause and then Bastien clucked and snapped, “Dammit, Thomas! Inez is one of my best employees.”
     
    He pulled the phone away from his ear to peer at it with disbelief, and then slapped it back to his head. “What the hell has that got to do with anything?”
     
    “Well, if you had to find your lifemate, couldn’t it have been someone else’s employee. I’m going to lose her now. She’ll want to be with you and come to Canada and—” Thomas heard the sound of material rustling and knew Bastien had pressed the phone to his chest while he spoke to someone else. Etienne, he supposed, and guessed he was explaining things to the other man.
     
    The whole family would know by sunset, Thomas realized and rolled his eyes.
     
    “Never mind,” the older immortal said apologetically. “I’m just tired and cranky. Congratulations.”
     
    “Congratulations?” Thomas echoed with disbelief.
     
    “Yes, congratulations, Thomas. You’ve just met your lifemate.”
     
    “I’ve just bit my lifemate,” Thomas snapped. “And she’s now locked in the bathroom, probably fashioning a cross and a stake out of the soap bars and anything else she can find in there.”
     
    “Oh crap.”
     
    “Yes, oh crap.” Thomas snarled. “Bite her you said. Feed off of Inez so we don’t have to worry about you being tempted on the plane. Brilliant, Bastien.”
     
    “Well, hell,