Marguerite's efforts were more successful. Lucian immediately tore his attention from Jo. His flashing eyes shot to Nicholas's aunt and he growled, "I shall always be your brother-in-law, Marguerite. We have been family for seven hundred years and will remain family no matter who you are married to."
Jo was just releasing a sigh of relief that she was free of the man's efforts to read her thoughts when his eyes suddenly shot back to her and the ruffling started up all over again.
"Think of a nursery rhyme," Thomas whispered beside her. "Recite it out loud if you have to, but concentrate on the words as if they were the most important thing in the world."
Jo nodded and began to recite, "There once was a girl from Nantucket—"
"Oh, for God's sake," Nicholas snapped, and was suddenly pushing past her to stand at the front of the group who had been trying to hide him.
"Nicholas," Jo cried with a combination of alarm and fury. She quickly shifted around to stand in front of him, placing herself between him and his uncle.
"Jo, honey, the very fact that you all were trying not to let him read you simply would have made him more determined to find out what you were hiding," he pointed out grimly, and then shook his head and added, "And 'There once was a girl from Nantucket'? That's the only rhyme you could think of?"
"I work in a bar," she pointed out dryly. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to hear the version of Little Bo Peep I learned there."
"Yes, well, we shall have to… er…" Nicholas frowned. "Have you considered a career change? Perhaps a bar isn't the best—"
"Watch it, nephew," Lucian growled.
"Aunt Leigh owns and runs a bar," Thomas explained under his breath, moving a little closer.
Jo couldn't help but notice that he wasn't the only one. Marguerite, Sam, and Jeanne Louise had all squeezed protectively closer, and the others in the room were slowly gravitating toward them. While she hadn't actually seen any of them move, they were closer than they had been. Encouraged by this show of solidarity, she raised her eyebrows at Nicholas in question. "So, what do we do now?"
"There's very little we can do now," Nicholas said quietly.
Jo gawked at him with amazement. "Excuse me? Please tell me you are not thinking you will just hand yourself over to this asshole dictator to be sliced and diced or shaked and baked or whatever it is you guys call it."
"Asshole dictator?" Thomas echoed, amazed amusement on his face.
"Well he is," she muttered, casting a resentful glance to the man who stood across the room, stone-faced as he listened. "And you can't let him shake and bake Nicholas."
Thomas rolled his eyes. "It's staked and baked, Jo. We aren't pork chops."
"Whatever," she said with complete disinterest and then turned to Nicholas. "The point is, you should have stayed right where you were and let us handle this. Now we're going to have to tie up your uncle and put him in one of the cells or something until we sort out everything and can prove your innocence."
The dead silence that followed her words was an exclamation point to the shocked horror suddenly on the faces surrounding her. Even Nicholas was peering at her as if she were quite mad.
Scowling, Jo glanced from face to face and asked, "What? Surely you agree with me? I know none of you are now so sure Nicholas killed that girl. I think most of you even agree with me that he probably didn't. But even if you just have some doubts that Nicholas is guilty, you can't just let Bossy Boy over there execute him."
"Bossy Boy?" Thomas echoed with disbelief.
Nicholas glared at him, then took both of Jo's hands and said, "Honey, I'm afraid they don't have much choice. If Lucian decides—"
"Of course they have a choice," she interrupted with disgust. "He's just one vampire."
"He's one very old and powerful vampire," Nicholas said quietly.
"You're all old," she pointed out dryly. "You're five hundred and something. Marguerite is seven hundred and something. You're all just fricking ancient ."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Thomas said with amusement.
"Well, it is a bad thing if you're all so set in your ways and used to Sourpuss Pants over there running things that you'll just let him slaughter an innocent man," she snapped.
"Mr. Sourpuss Pants! God, I love her Nicholas," Thomas crowed. When he noticed that neither Nicholas nor Inez looked impressed by the words, he added quickly, "In a totally sister-in-law type fashion, of course."
Nicholas and Inez hrrumphed together and then Nicholas turned to Jo and said, "Honey, you don't understand. Lucian is very old. He's also on the Council. He has a lot of power. He—"