Single White Vampire (Argeneau #3)(80)

Lucern tried to remove his teeth in the elevator, but Kate managed to convince him to put them back in. She then removed her own, cleared her throat and said, "Luc, I really should have mentioned this before, but—"

"I a uh oco oin uh uh awe."

"What?" Chris gaped at him, then glanced at Kate. "What did he say?"

"He said, 'I am the focal point of the ball,'" she answered distractedly. Then she asked Lucern. "How did you know?"

Lucern spat his teeth out before answering, "Jodi told me."

"Oh." Kate bit her lip and surveyed his face, trying to figure out why he wasn't angry. "It wasn't my idea," she informed him quietly.

"It really wasn't," Chris said. "This was Chuck's brainchild. Kate tried to talk him out of it."

When Lucern merely nodded and didn't say anything else, Kate frowned. "You aren't angry?"

He shrugged. "I was a tad annoyed at first. But it's only a couple of hours out of my life. I have a lot of hours to fill, Kate. This whole conference is barely a heartbeat of time for me."

Chris looked perplexed. Kate wasn't perplexed as to Luc's meaning—he had lived hundreds of years, and would no doubt live hundreds more; these few days were barely a grain of sand on the beach of his life—but what she did wonder about was whether his words held a secret meaning for her. She was one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who had passed through his life in those hundreds of years. Was the relationship they were enjoying just as unimportant to him as this conference? Was she just another grain of sand?

The idea bothered her, yet it made perfect sense. What else could she be? In another twenty-four hours she would be back at home in New York, and he would be back in Toronto. Life would go on as it always had. Eventually, she would meet some nice man, settle down and have a couple of kids, grow old. And Lucern would be still young, sexy, and taking some other woman to the heights of ecstasy. The idea really bothered her.

Taking a deep breath to try to dispel the ache in her heart, Kate put her teeth back in her mouth and followed Chris out of the elevator.

"There you are!" Allison greeted as they arrived. She stood just inside the ballroom doors with Lady Barrow and Chuck. "You're just in time. One or two people have arrived, but that's all."

"Good. It would be shameful to be late for my own party," Lucern said dryly. He gave the publisher a glance that made the man shift uncomfortably.

"Yes, well," Chuck muttered, but Lucern had already turned to greet Lady Barrow.

Luc smiled at the woman in her lovely crimson gown, took her hand and bowed low over it. "Lady Barrow," he said, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. "You look and smell good enough to eat."

Lady Barrow gave a good-natured laugh at this, but Kate tensed. She distinctly recalled him almost biting the woman. She also recalled that she had yet to replace Luc's emergency blood supply. As far as she knew, he needed more than the blood he'd gotten from her this morning while they made love. She'd meant to make a quick trip to the blood bank at some point today, but it had slipped her mind. And now Luc must be starving. And no doubt in pain from lack of blood.

Still, he didn't look to be in bad shape. She peered at Luc as he laughed and talked to Allison and Lady Barrow. He was a touch pale, but not gray as he had been. And there were no pained lines on his face.

Kate considered the matter as she reminded Lucern to put his teeth back in, and they took their positions at the door to greet the ball attendees. She concluded that they would have to leave the ball early and rob the blood bank again. She hated to do it. Blood banks were always short of blood. But Lucern was as needy as any patient, and she could hardly let him suffer.

They were at the door for an hour before Allison announced it was time to circulate. Kate stayed close to Lucern, afraid that he might—out of desperation—bite one of the guests. She might not have worried so much if women didn't keep coming up, asking to have their picture taken with him doing just that. She could only imagine the torture he must be suffering, pretending to bite their necks. It was rather like asking a dieting woman to hold a forkful of cheesecake in her mouth all night and not chew.

Aside from that, though, everything went fine. Well… except for the damned teeth she had supplied. It was terribly difficult to speak coherently with them in and Lucern's dropped into his wineglass at least three times as he tried to drink. The fourth time he dropped them, Kate caught Lucern's arm and dragged him to a stage across the ballroom. Slipping backstage, she led him through the first door she came to, flicked on the lights and closed the door behind them.

Lucern peered around. The room was a dressing room, and he raised his eyebrows. "What—"

"Give me your teeth," Kate interrupted, holding out her hand.

Lucern didn't bother to hide his relief as he popped them out. When he handed them over, Kate walked back to the dressing table and tossed both his fake fangs and hers into a garbage can. "You can use your real teeth. We'll just tell everyone that a nice fan saw the trouble you were having and offered you a spare pair."

She turned, giving a start when she found him directly behind her. She hadn't heard him follow. Managing a smile despite her suddenly tripping heart, she said, "We should probably wait a few minutes before going back. I'm not sure how long it usually takes to put in teeth like Chris has, but I imagine the glue needs a few moments to dry."