Page 54 of Lucien

That wasn’t going to happen—not on Jamie’s watch—but he wanted them gone. He didn’t know how much longer Luc’s weird, silent patience was going to last, but he had a feeling it was a matter of seconds rather than minutes.

Jamie knew in his gut that Luc in his current state was a ticking time bomb.

“What the fuck do we care for your word,human?”

Dang, Foxy could really make the wordhumansound like some kind of hateful slur.

Jamie stood his ground. “It’s all you’re getting.Leave. Unless you want to see for real if you can take him. Or alternatively”—he shot them a salacious wink—“if you want to see us fuck on this table. We were just getting started on something really interesting when you two barged in.”

Fox made a choking noise in his throat. “Disgusting.”

Jamie wasn’t sure if he was grossed out by the thought of humans and vampires doing it, or two men doing it, or just Jamie and Luc in particular doing it, but in any case, he was being super fucking rude again.

Then the twins did a freaky thing where they just stared at each other, not speaking but clearly communicating something twin eyeball to twin eyeball.

Finally, Fox turned from Dane and faced them. “Just so you know, we’re not done here. We’ll be back. And if there’s even a single suspicious death in Tucson—in all of Southern Arizona, for that matter—we won’t be playing nice anymore.”

Jamie scoffed. “I didn’t think you were that nice to begin with.”

Fox gave him the finger, and then Jamie watched from behind Luc’s back as they walked out of the kitchen, slamming the front door on the way.

The lack of manners was really something else.

Jamie turned his focus on the vibrating vampire in front of him. Luc was reminding Jamie of their first meeting. Luc frozen, like he was so afraid of what he might do that complete stillness was the only way to keep himself contained.

He used his hands to gently turn Luc around until they were facing each other.

“Luc?” he asked softly, searching his vampire’s face.

Jamie wasn’t sure exactly how he could tell. Luc looked the same on the surface—black eyes, bared fangs—but Jamie knew, somewhere deep in his gut, he wasn’t dealing with the man right now.

The monster was in charge.

Jamie watched Luc—or Luc’s monster, perhaps—pace the living room.

“Need to kill. Need tohurt.”

The change in his voice was subtle enough. A rougher edge to his already growly timbre. But definitely…different. The monster speaking rather than the man.

Jamie stayed where he was, seated on the couch. Luc’s monster didn’t seem to want him closer at the moment, flinching anytime Jamie got too near. “I’m sorry, monster. I just promised Tweedledum and Tweedledick you wouldn’t do that.”

Luc growled at him for what had to be the thousandth time in under an hour, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly at his sides. But Jamie wasn’t scared of the big brute, even with the dramatic posturing.

He knew in his bones Luc would never hurt him.

His monster was just having a bit of a temper tantrum was all.

Still, it would be nice to have a little clarification. “What has you so upset, monster? Them threatening you? The territory dispute?”

Luc turned on his heel for another round of pacing and grunted in a way that Jamie assumed meant no.

“Okay…” Jamie tapped a finger on his chin in thought. “The shock of them coming into my house without warning, maybe?”

Luc let out another drawn-out growl before speaking with visible effort. “Mortal,” he grunted. “Fragile. Precious.”

Ah. They were getting somewhere.

“You were worried aboutme?” Jamie clarified. “That those two might hurt me?”

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