and pondered what that might mean. Would the saboteur return to finish the job? It might not be a bad thing. She could be the bait. The saboteur might not realize she'd been turned. And she was one of them now, so she would be stronger, faster, and safe from being controlled. Or would she?
Jackie didn't know. She'd heard tales of Marguerite's marriage to Jean Claude Argeneau and had heard that he had been able to control her mind and read her thoughts. Perhaps she wasn't as safe as she hoped.
Frowning, Jackie bit her lip, then asked, "My being one of you doesn't necessarily mean I'm safe from being controlled, does it?"
Marguerite took Jackie's hands in her own and patted them soothingly. "You can't be read and controlled as easily as you could as a human, but yes, until you become stronger and better able to control your thoughts and mind, you're very vulnerable. Even once you learn to use the new skills you'll have, you'll still be vulnerable to older immortals. The really old ones."
"Like you were with your husband," Jackie murmured with a frown and Marguerite stiffened. For a moment, her face was a picture of conflict, then she sat back with a sigh.
"Not quite as bad as that," she said quietly. "My husband liked being able to control me, so he did his best to keep me from meeting others of our kind that might teach me how to protect myself from his abilities. I won't let that happen with you. I'll teach you all I know, Jackie. What it took several hundred years for me to learn, you will know from the start."
"Thank you, Marguerite," Jackie murmured and squeezed her hand.
Marguerite squeezed back, then stood abruptly. "I'd best go let the men back in. The curiosity is probably killing them. Besides, they can help."
"Hold'em, hold'em, hold'em," Dante chanted encouragingly, watching her open mouth closely as Tomasso continued to wave a glass of blood under her nose.
Jackie clenched her fingers, digging them into her palms with determination as she concentrated on fighting the automatic response her body had to the scent of blood. Her teeth wanted to slide out in search of the nourishment her nose could smell, but she forced them back, keeping them in place for what seemed an eternity as Dante and Tomasso shouted encouragement and Marcus watched his wrist watch.
The three men had spent all evening trying to train her to control her teeth. In the meantime, Vincent, Christian, and Marguerite were all helping Tiny with the case she was supposed to be working on. The other four had gone out to interview the people who had worked on the play in New York. Jackie had tried to insist that it was her place to be doing that, but had quickly had it pointed out that they couldn't risk her going out in public until she was able to control her teeth. It could be bad if her fangs decided to pop out while she was talking to one of the humans.
Recognizing the truth behind that, Jackie had given in. She knew Tiny could handle the job and she was sure the presence of the others wouldn't hurt things. She also recognized that they were right about her teeth showing.
"Five minutes!" Marcus announced suddenly, drawing Jackie from her thoughts. "You did it!"
"That-a-girl!" Dante cheered and scooped her from her chair to swing her around the kitchen.
Jackie squealed with surprise, then gasped as Dante passed her to Tomasso, who did the same thing.
"We need to celebrate," Dante announced and Jackie glanced over just in time to see him exchange a glance with his twin, then nod toward the door. She glanced back toward Tomasso and caught his wide, wicked grin just before he whirled toward the door leading out onto the back patio.
"No!" Jackie shrieked and began to struggle, but it was too late; before she'd finished speaking the word, Dante had thrown the back door open. The siren went off even as Tomasso started through the door. Not that it stopped him. She couldn't hear his laughter over the alarm, but she felt his chest vibrating against her side as he carried her to the pool, then she was sailing through the air.
The water was cold as it closed around her, but it also had the added benefit of briefly muffling the alarms. Jackie let herself sink to the bottom, then pushed against the concrete floor of the pool, catapulting herself back to