Page 63 of Lucien

Probably-Danny hesitated, his eyes searching Jamie’s face for something, but eventually he nodded hesitantly. “All right. But we’ve got one more with us.” He turned his head and called out behind him. “Jay!”

Jamie craned his head around the door until he spotted him—a little guy standing by a black compact car parked out on the street. “Human or vampire?” Jamie asked.

“Oh, he’s one of us,” Danny said. “But don’t worry. He’s a total doll.”

As the newcomer walked up, Jamie thought the phrase might have been used literally. The petite vampire—Jay, apparently—was slender, barely topping five feet five, with a button nose and Cupid’s bow lips. Pretty and delicate, like a porcelain doll come to life.

Jay smiled timidly and waved when he got to the door. “Hello, I’m Jay. Are you Luc? You’re a lot less scary than I thought you’d be.”

That had Roman rolling his eyes, while Danny gave a choked laugh.

“No, sweetie. This isn’t Luc. This is—” Danny paused, looking to Jamie, raising a dark brow in question.

“I’m Jamie. Luc’s mate.” Jamie figured it was better to get it all out in the open. No secrets between old frenemies, as the saying probably went somewhere.

Danny’s big eyes widened slightly, and Roman’s perma-glare deepened. “Oh. Oh man,” Danny breathed. “So he’s told you all of it.”

“I’ve told him all ofwhat,” Luc’s growly voice rang out from behind Jamie, causing Jamie to jump about a foot in the air, which was not helping his cool-guy image in front of these new vampires one bit. He held a hand to his racing heart, turning to glare at his vampire.

What the actualhell? Had Luc snuck in through the back door?

Then a lot of things happened at once. Jamie found himself behind Luc’s back, his vampire using his own body like a furious, living shield once again. From the sound of it, Roman had done the same to Danny, because the lovely vampire was making a lot of grumbled complaints about “high-handed, overprotective, bossy mates.”

And then the two ex-friends were getting all growly and yelling at each other.

“What thefuckare you doing here?”

“Eyes off Danny or I’ll rip them out of your head.”

“Youbrought him here, you broody fucking fusspot.”

“Because you contactedus.”

“I contactedSoren—”

“Hey!” Oh boy. Danny could get real loud when he wanted to. “Can you two alpha males shut the hell up for two seconds so we can get inside and discuss all this like the rational huma—um, rationalbeingswe are?”

That shut the other two hulking vampires up for a minute. Long enough for Jamie to realize Luc was doing that vibrating-with-anger thing again. That was probably something Jamie should nip in the bud sooner rather than later, unless these three newcomers wanted a real show once they got inside.

“It’s okay, monster,” Jamie soothed, running his hands along Luc’s broad back. “They’ve been real nice to me so far. I’m not in any danger. You can chill, I promise.”

Slowly—so slowly Jamie feared at first his calming technique wasn’t working—Luc’s body released its tension, the vibrating stuttering to a stop under Jamie’s hands.

He peered out from behind his vampire’s head to see that Roman and Danny were staring at them, wearing matching shocked expressions on their faces.

“You actually calmed him.” There was a strange note in Roman’s deep voice. Disbelief? Jealousy?

Luc growled softly, and Jamie started petting him again, making comforting little shushing sounds as he did so.

An awkward silence reigned after that, tension thick enough to chew on.

Then Jay’s melodic voice rang out as he gave another little wave, this time directed at Luc. “Soyou’reLuc. Yes, I see. You’re just as scary as I thought you’d be.”

So this was what the phrase “you could cut the tension with a knife” felt like in real life. Jamie was not a fan.

Although, itwaskind of funny, these two big, bad vampires glaring across the room at each other. Luc sat on the couch next to Jamie, tense as all hell. He wasn’t vibrating with angry energy anymore, so that was a plus, but he wasn’t exactlyrelaxedeither. Roman was sprawled in the facing armchair, legs spread like in some kind of dominance display, with Danny standing at his side, a placating hand on his arm, as if to stop him from leaping up and tackling his ex-friend.

Jay, on the other hand, was wandering around the room, examining Jamie’s and Monique’s various knickknacks on the living room shelves. Excessive machismo didn’t seem to be an issue for the little guy, at least.

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