It was actually a diaper bag. Diaper bags have all kinds of little compartments and pockets that are good for organizing crap, Tracy had said when asked about it. They even have pockets that will keep blood cool if I have to bring you some.
“So?” Lisette asked as the minutes stretched and Ethan continued to rummage through the bag.
“So,” he responded, “it belatedly occurs to me that I don’t know what half of this shit is for.”
She groaned. “You’ve never had to patch up a Second?”
He shook his head. “I’ve only had three. The first retired without ever having suffered a major injury. The second bled to death before I could reach him. And Ed is tough as nails. Any time he’s injured he just stoically sews himself up.”
“You don’t help him?”
He glanced up at her, his expression sheepish. “I’m a little squeamish around needles.”
She stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“You slice and dice and decapitate vampires every night.”
“And you’ll notice that I don’t try to sew them back together again afterward.” He set the bag aside and rose.
It appeared she was back to square one. “What should I do?”
He took in the patient once more and pursed his lips. “I think you’re going to have to call in the big guns.”
“I told you, Seth doesn’t like him. If he—”
“Not Seth. Seth isn’t the big guns. Seth is the fucking hydrogen bomb.”
“Ethan.”
“Bastien. I meant Bastien.”
She blinked. “Bastien is the big guns?”
“Yeah,” he said with a distinct Duh inflection. “The man raised and commanded an army of psychotic vampires. Not one or two or ten. An army of them. He actually lived with the crazy bastards and kept them in line. Mostly. Can you imagine the kind of balls that must have taken?”
She didn’t have to. She had peeked into Bastien’s thoughts enough to know just how much power and authority he had wielded. Even though Bastien was young for an immortal—roughly her own age—he really could be deemed the big guns.
“You’re right. But what’s to stop Seth from seeing this in Bastien’s thoughts?”
“I don’t think Seth spends much time in Bastien’s head these days. One, Seth is too busy worrying about Ami. And two, Melanie is keeping Bastien in line, so Seth no longer has to.”
“Hmm.” Retrieving her cell phone, Lisette dialed Bastien’s number.
“What?” he answered, his deep voice curt and unwelcoming.
“Bastien, it’s Lisette.”
“Oh.”
Awkward silence.
Yeah. Bastien wasn’t exactly a people person.
“Are you busy?” she asked hesitantly. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how rarely she had spoken with him since Seth had brought him into the fold.
“Not really. Why?”
“I have a . . . situation that I could use your help with.”
“Okay.”
Ethan’s eyebrows rose.
She gave Bastien her address, then ended the call.
“I didn’t think it would be that easy,” Ethan said.
“I didn’t either.”
When the British immortal arrived, Lisette met him at the front door and led him down to her bedroom.
Bastien nodded to Ethan, then stared down at Zach. After a few moments, he looked around. “Where’s the shovel?”
Ethan coughed to cover a laugh.
“I didn’t kill him!” Lisette nearly shouted.
Bastien shifted his gaze to Ethan.
Ethan held up his hands. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t kill him.”
“He isn’t dead,” Lisette snapped. “And I’m not into rough sex!”
Bastien stared at her. “Ooookay.”
She frowned. “Isn’t that what you thought had happened? That I had killed him during sex?”
“No. I just assumed he had pissed you off.”
“Oh.” Her face heated with a blush.
Bastien’s lips twitched.
And Ethan was enjoying this way too much, damn him.
She counted to ten. “Why would the two of you think I would call you over here to bury him? It’s not like I don’t have the strength to lift him and do it myself.”
Ethan shrugged. “You’re a girl.”
Lisette glared at them both. “And, what, you think I don’t want to get my pretty little hands dirty?”
No response.
“You do know I kill vampires for a living, right?”
Bastien pointed at Ethan. “He said it, not me.”
“But you were thinking it.”
He scowled. “Are you reading my thoughts again, telepath?”
“I didn’t have to. It was all over your face. Besides, I stopped peeking into your head a long time ago because all you ever think about is Melanie naked and your vampire friends.”