Vampires Are Foreve(58)

“Why don’t I remember coming back to the hotel and going to bed last night?” she asked herself silently. The answer she was afraid of was that she didn’t remember because someone had taken those memories away…and the only people she knew who could do that were immortals, but who and why? The fact that she’d landed back here in her own bed in their hotel with Thomas lying beside her worried Inez. If she’d found Marguerite, the woman could have controlled her, but why? Why would any immortal want to control her and put her in her bed with Thomas? Except maybe Thomas. He’d been suffering under the effects of the Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate last night. Had he…?

Inez killed the thought before it was fully formed, but she was terrified that the truth was that Thomas could read and control her after all. Maybe they weren’t lifemates at all.

Nine





“Is Inez all right? She sounded upset.”

Thomas forced his eyes away from the bathroom door and turned his attention to the phone in his hand. Pressing it more firmly to his ear, he said, “I think she realizes she’s been controlled.”

“That usually only happens if they don’t put in a replacement memory,” Bastien said slowly.

Thomas grunted acknowledgment. “I wonder why they wouldn’t have?”

“Maybe they wanted her to know.”

Thomas stiffened at the suggestion. “Why would they want that?”

A long silence passed as they both considered what might be behind Inez being controlled, but it seemed obvious neither of them could come up with a reason.

“We won’t be able to solve this,” Bastien acknowledged unhappily.

“No,” Thomas agreed. “At least not until we find Aunt Marguerite.”

“Speaking of which,” Bastien murmured. “I know I was supposed to wait for you to call me, and I have been waiting most patiently. But when it got so late, I thought maybe—”

Thomas cursed as his eyes hit the bedside clock and he saw that it was well after ten A.M. He’d slept longer than he’d intended.

“Thomas?”

“I slept in,” he admitted unhappily as he sat up. His gaze slid to the bathroom door as he heard the shower come on, and then he assured him, “I’ll call Herb right now and head out as soon as he has coordinates for me.”

Hanging up, he quickly punched in Herb’s number. The immortal had always kept odd hours, working well into the morning at times if he got into his programming. Fortunately, this was one of those days and he didn’t have to apologize for waking him.

After hanging up, Thomas stood and paced around the room as he waited for Herb to call back with coordinates. With nothing else to distract him, his mind immediately turned to Inez in the shower. She would be naked and wet in there, warm water spraying down over her body as she ran the soap over herself. He’d like to do that for her. Actually, he’d rather build up a lather between his own hands and then run them over her soft skin, across her breasts, along her sides, over her behind, between her legs…Thomas managed to get himself quite worked up with his imaginings and was on the verge of rushing into the bathroom to turn them into reality when the phone rang.

Shaking the seductive thoughts aside, he hurried to the phone to answer it.

Herb gave him the new coordinates at once and then asked, “Are you heading out right away?”

“No,” Thomas admitted slowly, a little startled by the question. “I have to shower first and dress. It probably won’t be for another ten minutes. Why?”

Herb hesitated and then said, “Because I want to call and check the coordinates again when you leave.”

“Again?” Thomas asked, his eyebrows rising. “Why? She should be sleeping now and staying in one place, that’s why we left it until morning.”

“I know, but I checked these coordinates on a street map of Amsterdam that lists buildings in the area and it’s not a hotel, it’s a strip of cafés.”

“That’s not right.” Thomas dropped back on the bed with dismay. “Aunt Marguerite isn’t a day person. Why would she be out at this hour?”

“You said she was over here in Europe on a case, maybe that’s forced her to work during the day,” Herb suggested.

“I suppose,” Thomas said with a frown. “I don’t know much about being a private detective, but they might be checking records and so on and those offices would hardly be open at night—. Could you double check the coordinates, Herb?”

“I did,” he assured him. “I actually triple checked them before calling you.”