“Oh,” Thomas said unhappily.
“I know, it doesn’t feel right,” Herb muttered. “But if they are having to work during the day…You said her partner was mortal. They may have stopped to feed him.”
“Yeah, that’s possible,” Thomas agreed.
“Right. Call me just before you leave and I’ll track it again to double check. That way, if she isn’t there when you reach the coordinates, you can just move on to the next set I come up with.”
“Right. Thank you, Herb. I appreciate all your help with this,” Thomas said, but he was still frowning as he hung up. Something wasn’t right.
His gaze slid to the closed bathroom door with new concern as his wonder about Inez being controlled and having her memory erased collided with the game of hide-and-seek they were playing with Marguerite. Why hadn’t his aunt contacted her family? She had to still have her phone on her to be moving around constantly. Had Inez found her at that park? Was Marguerite the one who had erased her memory? What the hell was going on?
Standing, Thomas crossed the room to the door, tapped lightly, and when he got no reply, eased it open.
“Inez?” he called, stepping into the room. His gaze slid to the small shower room at the end of the bathroom, and shower room was the proper term. Showers here were not enclosed little cubes like those back home, they were small ceramic-tiled rooms with a floor with a drain in the center. The showerheads were huge, dropping water down like a rain cloud. Thomas had always liked showers here. Now he peered at the closed beveled glass shower door, his eyes swimming over the flesh-colored blur that was Inez.#p#分页标题#e#
“Inez,” he repeated, moving to stand in front of the door when he realized she hadn’t heard him over the water.
She heard him this time. He saw her whirl to face him and saw the shape of her blur change as her hands instinctively covered the important bits. Thomas smiled faintly, imagining the startled, alarmed look on her face. A day would come when she wasn’t so self-conscious around him in the nude. He would see to that. She had a beautiful body, short but shapely and would probably keep most of that shape after her turning, thank God. He’d never been attracted to stick-thin anorexic types and couldn’t understand men who were. A woman was supposed to have curves and a little meat on them that could offer comfort to a man. At least, that was his opinion.
“Thomas?” Inez said uncertainly. He knew she wasn’t questioning whether it was him or not. Who else would be in their suite? What she was asking was what he was doing in here.
“Inez, can you tell me what happened last night?” he asked, and then added solemnly, “It’s important.
Another moment of silence followed and then she said, “You collapsed when we got back to the hotel room. I removed the knife from your back, went through a couple towels putting pressure on the wound until you stopped bleeding, then fetched a couple bags of blood, but couldn’t figure out how to feed them to you. I didn’t want to turn you on your back to lay on your wound, but couldn’t feed you the way you were, and then Herb called with new coordinates.”
“You didn’t tell him what had happened,” Thomas pointed out.
“No. I didn’t know if you’d be in trouble for flashing your teeth in public and then giving away your strength and speed,” she admitted.
Thomas grimaced at the knowledge that she’d seen him flash his fangs, but said, “Thank you.”
“Anyway, he had new coordinates and so I put the two bags of blood beside you to find when you woke up and went out to the new spot. It was in front of a night club and I knew there was no way I could search it by myself, so it was a relief when he called again with new coordinates. Bastien called right after him, and I just told him we were still tracing Marguerite’s cell and headed out. I walked a couple blocks farther on to a park.”
“And then?” Thomas prompted when she fell silent.
“And then I woke up naked in bed with you beside me,” Inez said.
Thomas frowned at the tone of her voice. She sounded uncertain and even frightened. He understood why when she spoke again.
“You didn’t control me and wipe my memory, did you Thomas?”
“No,” he said firmly, wishing she could see his face and see the truth there. “I already told you I can’t either read or control you.”
There was a moment of silence and then she asked, “So we really are lifemates, then?”
Thomas stiffened, his eyes straining to see through the beveled glass. “You know about that?”