Vampire Most Wanted(90)

            Marcus didn’t comment, but his heart was sinking. He’d discovered last night, while his head was under Divine’s skirt, that her hair was not naturally the color she presently wore. Her hair was dyed.

            “And then there’s Dee,” Mirabeau added.

            “Dee?” Marcus asked. “The mortal victim and kind of co-conspirator to one of Leonius’s sons?”

            Mirabeau nodded. “She described a woman connected to Leonius named Basha, an ice blonde . . . who was his mother,” she finished apologetically.

            Marcus was so startled by that one that not only did he stab at the next apple with enough enthusiasm to break the stick, but he missed the apple entirely and broke the stick in his own hand. Cursing, he dropped the apple and jumped back, holding his injured hand by the wrist.

            “Okay. No problem,” Tiny said soothingly, at his side at once. The big man took his injured hand, quickly removed the stick, and wrapped a dish towel around the wound, then turned to open the small bar-sized fridge and retrieved a bag of blood for him.

            Marcus slapped the bag to his mouth the moment Tiny handed it over, and then he just stood there, his head swimming. Divine was Basha . . . Leonius’s mother?

            “Wait a minute,” he muttered, tearing the bag from his mouth. Fortunately, the damned thing had already emptied or it would have made one hell of a mess. “Divine can’t be this Basha the mother of Leonius. It’s not possible. She’s immortal. He’s no-fanger. The child gets their blood from their mother, whether they are mortal, immortal, or no-fanger. An immortal woman can’t have a no-fanger child.”

            Tiny’s eyebrows rose and then he glanced to Mirabeau in question.

            “He’s right,” Mirabeau confirmed at once. “And while I did find a son in Divine’s thoughts, his name is Damian not Leonius, but—”

            “So she can’t be this Basha who is Leonius’s mother,” Marcus said with relief.

            Mirabeau shook her head. “But I read it in her mind. She is Basha Argeneau.”

            “So?” Marcus asked with irritation. “The other Basha could be Basha Smith or even Livius or something. They could both just have the same first name. I’m sure you’re not the only Mirabeau in the world and I’m certainly not the only Marcus.”

            Mirabeau remained silent for a minute, and then shook her head. “I don’t know. She looks an awful lot like the woman on the security footage and she thinks she’s rogue or wanted for some reason.”

            Tiny peered from one of them to the other and then settled his gaze on Marcus. “I don’t know either, but I think you’d better find out and do it quickly, before Lucian gets here.”

            Marcus sighed and ran his good hand through his hair with frustration. “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

            “Like Mirabeau said, you have to spend time with her and gain her trust,” Tiny said simply.

            “If only it was as simple as you make it sound,” Marcus muttered.

            “It is,” Tiny assured him. “If you do what I say . . . and we have to have a quick chat with Jackie, Vincent, and Madge before Divine comes out.”





            Seventeen

            Divine had meant to be quick about her shower and she would have been if she could have shut off her brain. Sadly, the moment she was standing under the shower, her mind returned to that morning and what had happened with Marcus. The man was definitely her life mate. Or he could have been, she thought unhappily. She suspected he wouldn’t want her for a life mate if he knew who she was, and Divine couldn’t help thinking how ironic it was that after more than twenty-seven hundred years she met her life mate and he was the enemy.