or imagining my fears. You think you know what I really wanted last night based on a video, but you weren’t inside my head. And because you didn’t pour the drink down my throat, you think that absolves you of any responsibility. I’ve done a lot of bad shit in my life, but I still have a sliver of a conscience. Do you?”
Unperturbed, Houdini reached for the phone and dragged it toward him. “I’ll inform the others that you’re on a special errand. Be back in two hours.” He lifted the receiver. “And don’t ever threaten me again. Not unless you mean it.”
Chapter 16
“I find the evening hours dreadfully boring.” From her wicker chair, Lenore drank white wine in the dark sunroom. “Remember when we had Vampire parties from dusk until dawn? Those truly were the days.”
Christian had just finished a security check throughout Lenore’s estate. Every window, every door, and every possible way in. He gave her a notepad. “I made a handy list of all your weaknesses.”
“I have none,” she said with a wink. “Come sit with me.”
Christian branched away and began testing the windows—anything to avoid mindless chatter. Lenore had changed into a white nightgown that left nothing to the imagination. Her dark nipples were staring at him through the semisheer fabric like two beady eyes.
“I’m inviting you to join me.”
He drifted past her, still checking the windows. “Are you afflicted in some way? This isn’t a social affair. I have a job to do. If you want a companion, you should call in your manservant.”
“Wilson?” She snorted. “He’s loyal, but that old geezer wouldn’t know how to hold a conversation any more than he knows how to hold in his farts.” She sighed. “Why is there no better word for it? Passing wind seems too refined for such a vulgar act.”
“Still pondering life’s great mysteries, I see.” Christian reached the last window and then admired the lush plants that filled her sunroom. “There’s always toot.”
Lenore snickered and almost spilled her wine. “Do you remember that time we went to Chicago? I think it was 1928. We were trapped in an elevator with that dreadful man who smelled like an outhouse.” She wrinkled her nose as she recalled the memory. “I never did like elevators. Not then or now. Are you like that, Chrissy? I find that the more I’m surrounded by innovation, the more I want to escape it.”
He backed up against the house wall and looked through the windows that surrounded them. “If you’re fearing for your life, you might consider moving to a room with four walls.”
“Nonsense. I refuse to alter my lifestyle because of a moron.” Her chair faced right, giving him a profile view of her long legs. The slit up her gown revealed every inch of them from toe to thigh.
Lenore studied the tiny bubbles that danced inside her drink. “Lenore isn’t my real name, you know. Sometimes the only way to reinvent ourselves is to start over. I wish Vampires had taken on the custom of renaming their younglings. A Mage’s immortality begins with their first spark, when they’re given a new name. Vampire elders never adopted the same custom. They want to know where you came from.” She shifted in her chair to look at him. “Do you know why? I do.”
“I couldn’t care less.”
“But you should care. The ancients knew the power in knowledge. Most younglings have a family. Parents, siblings, cousins, sometimes a spouse and children. Contrary to what most people believe, a person’s true weakness is love. Vampires didn’t have the luxury of breaking the rules or fleeing their makers. The elders knew how to locate their family, and that gave makers more control over their progeny. No one wants to put their loved ones in danger. But you see, that same weakness also makes it easy for your enemies to have power over you.” She sipped her wine and set the flute on a round glass table. “I find it amusing that you—a trained guard—don’t know how to guard your own safety. Anyone you love will always be your weakness.”
Christian focused on a moth flitting overhead in hopes that Lenore would drop the subject. She was only verbalizing what he’d always known as truth. He’d seen love ruin men. It made them vulnerable and easy to control. His own misguided feelings for Lenore had been his ruin. Christian didn’t live in the land of denial, but his heart and his mind weren’t always on the