Single White Vampire (Argeneau #3)(37)

Kate turned an apologetic gaze on Lucern. "Sorry. Just call and have them deliver it to my name. Okay?"

Lucern nodded slowly, his eyes feasting on her. She blushed under his perusal, then said, "I'll try not to be out late. Chris will look after you until I get back. Anything you want, he's the man to go to, okay?"

Lucern nodded again, his tongue stuck on the roof of his mouth.

"Chris." She turned her attention to her coworker. "Make him watch some TV. Maybe he can update the way he speaks by watching it."

The other editor laughed. "Katie, dear, if watching television hasn't changed his speech before now, one night is hardly going to do it."

"He doesn't have a TV," she explained dryly. "At least, I didn't see one." She turned a curious gaze to Lucern. "Do you have one?"

He shook his head. Television, in his opinion, rotted the brain.

"I didn't think so," she said with satisfaction. She instructed her friend "Make him watch it. I'll see you guys later."

Both men were silent until the door closed behind Kate. Lucern sank back onto the couch.

"Why did you stand?" Chris asked curiously.

"A lady had entered the room," Lucern answered absently. His vision was still full of Kate the cowgirl. He usually preferred women in more feminine dress, but there had been nothing masculine about Kate in that outfit.

"You're kidding about the TV, right?" Chris asked. "Do you really not have one?"

"No. Never have."

"Man!" Chris picked up the remote control off the table. Lucern recognized it; he had one for his stereo system at home. This was to the television. The editor clicked it and grinned. "You're in for a treat, Luc. You're gonna love television."

Lucern grimaced. He very much doubted that he would love television. He was more a theater type of guy. Old habits died hard.



Chapter Eight



Lucern loved television. He didn't know why he had allowed prejudice to prevent him from at least trying it before now. TV was a marvelous invention. It was like a mini-stage with little players. And what players! In the last three hours he had watched a movie by some guy named Monty Python… or had that been the character?

Anyway, they'd watched that first. When it ended, Chris had looked through a television guide and cried, "Yeah! A Black Adder marathon!" And they'd been watching that ever since. It was a grand show! Marvelous and amusing. Lucern hadn't laughed so hard in years.

"They have history all mixed up, but it is quite amusing," he announced, reaching for a fresh beer from the six-pack on the coffee table.

Chris burst out laughing, then stopped abruptly, his eyes going wide. "Oh, shoot! Kate's going to kill me!"

Lucern arched his eyebrows. "Why?"

"Because I was supposed to make you watch modern American television, to help with your speech." He pondered for a minute before shrugging. "What the hell. It's kind of late in the game to change your speech, anyway."

Lucern nodded absently. The mention of Kate made him remember her accusations of earlier. She had said he spoke in old-fashioned ways. Lucern supposed he did; it was hard to change speech patterns. He'd been born in Switzerland in 1390. His parents had moved around a lot in those days, but that was where he'd been conceived and born. They had subsequently moved back to England, and he had learned to speak using the King's English. Despite all the countries he had lived in since, and all the languages he had learned and spoken, he still did and probably always would bear a slight accent and lean toward speaking the way he'd been taught.

What else had she said? He recalled something about an angel. That he looked like an angel wannabe? What did that mean exactly? Her voice had been too snarly for it to be a compliment. His gaze shifted from the TV screen to Chris. "Who, or what, is an angel wannabe?"

Chris turned a blank expression on him. "Huh?"

"Kate said I looked like an angel wannabe," Lucern reminded him. Understanding immediately lit the young editor's face. "Oh, yeah. Well, you know. Angel. Buffy and Angel? Vampire slayer and vamp? Oh, that's right. You don't watch TV, so you wouldn't know," he said finally. "Well, Angel is this vampire, see. And he is, or was, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's boyfriend. But he has his own show now."

"Vampire slayer?" Lucern asked with dismay. Did they still have those? Dear God, he had thought that craze had died out a century or so ago. Life had been pretty tense for a bit. He and his family had had to be terribly cautious—or more so than usual. They had always had to be cautious. Their natural proclivities had made them a target many times over the centuries. Many had been burned at stakes as witches during the Inquisition, and when Stoker had come out with his damned book, vampire slayers had popped up everywhere. It had been a damned nuisance. And scary, too. His family had only really begun to relax since the advent of blood banks, which had lessened both vampires hunting and being hunted. Now it seemed to be a false security. There were still slayers out there.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment, though he meant to warn his family. He would mention it to Bastien when his brother called back.

Lucern moved on to the other accusation Kate had made. "What did Kate mean by my being named after a dairy product?"