TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,14

about settling in. I'll call you when Mrs. Houlihan has finished making--"

He stopped speaking as a sudden shriek sounded from the living room.

Chapter Three

Bastien cursed under his breath and hurried out of the guestroom. He was very aware, as he ran back up the hall, that Terri was on his heels. He'd rather she wasn't; the Lord alone knew what they were about to find. Well, actually, with Vincent in the penthouse it was an easy guess. He might have tried to bite Mrs. Houlihan again and failed to control her mind, but that was doubtful. Vincent was as old as Bastien, and found it easy to manipulate the minds of his victims. Which meant that Mrs. Houlihan had probably walked in on him biting Kate's coworker.

That was exactly what had happened, Bastien saw as he skidded into the living room. Vincent must have been serious when he'd said he was hungry. The man was still bent over the back of the couch, his teeth fastened on C.K.'s neck. He hadn't stopped feeding at Mrs. Houlihan's interruption, but had merely speared the housekeeper with hard eyes. No doubt he was trying to control the woman's thoughts as he fed, but he hadn't succeeded by the time Bastien arrived on the scene.

Terri was on Bastien's heels, and he felt alarm course through him at the thought of her witnessing this, but even as she flew into the room behind him, Vincent retracted his teeth and straightened.

Just beginning to relax, Bastien noted the horrified stare of his housekeeper and followed her gaze to Chris Keyes's neck. He immediately grimaced upon spotting the two red dots there, one with a teardrop of blood sliding down the skin beneath. Bastien gave Vincent a look that made his cousin glance down. Sighting the problem, Vinny nonchalantly reached down and turned his dazed victim's head enough to hide the mark from Terri's view.

Fortunately, she didn't appear to have noticed. Her focus was on the housekeeper. "It's okay," she said soothingly, moving to the woman's side. "Mrs. Houlihan, is it?"

The housekeeper wasn't in the mood to be soothed. She jerked away from Terri's gentle hold as if the younger woman were tainted.

"It's not all right," she snapped, then turned on Bastien in fury. "Mr. Argeneau, sir, you've been a good employer. You have. And this has been an easy job, and I'll not deny it. You're hardly here, there's no cooking involved and little more than dusting. I spend most days watching my soap operas. But now you've brought these... these... monsters here." She included everyone in her sweeping look. "I'm no one's dinner. I quit."

"Mrs. Houlihan." Bastien moved to follow as the woman whirled to storm out of the room, pausing when Terri caught his arm.

"Perhaps you should let her go," Terri suggested quietly. "The woman's obviously high-strung. I mean, she can't really believe Vincent is a vampire. That's just silly. I'm thinking she's just upset that she'll actu¬ally have to start working."

"I'm sure that's it," Vincent agreed, but his inno¬cent expression was unable to fool Bastien for a mo-ment. His cousin was silently laughing his head off at the situation. He'd always had a slightly twisted sense of humor.

"Yes, I'm sure it is," Bastien agreed, just for sim¬plicity's sake "But I still need to talk to her."

He needed to clear the woman's memory. Keeping her on was impossible now, so long as Vincent and the others were around, but he had to at least wipe her memory before she went blabbing about what she had seen.

Bastien strode out into the entry and paused in shock. It was empty. He'd expected to find Mrs. Houlihan collecting her coat from the closet or some¬thing, but she was gone. The elevator doors were closed and the room empty. The only exit was the el¬evator or the archway he'd just come through. She couldn't have left so quickly. What about her things? All her clothes in her room? Her coat?

Turning on his heel, he strode back into the living room and straight to the wall unit holding the moni-tor with a view of the interior of the elevator. It was still on, and right there, live and in black-and-white, was his very upset housekeeper. She was riding down to the main floor with arms folded defensively across her chest and one foot tapping as she anxiously watched the lit floor numbers mark her journey downward.

The woman had left, just like that. She'd lived here for some ten years