Single White Vampire (Argeneau #3)(89)
She stood in the near total darkness, feeling the yawning black pit at her back, aware of every single creak the house made for approximately thirty seconds before her cowardice urged her to find the light switch. She flicked it on, and the dark was immediately chased away. Kate released a relieved breath. That was better. She was just standing at the top steps to a basement.
Her thoughts stopped as she glanced nervously down the stairs. The end of a shiny mahogany box could be seen from where she stood.
"It's not a coffin," Kate told herself firmly. Moving down another step, she tried to see more of the box. "It's some kind of hope chest. Oh, I hope it's not a coffin."
She had to go almost all the way down the stairs to see all of it, though she knew long before that it was indeed a coffin. A sense of betrayal overwhelmed her. Lucern had said he wasn't dead and didn't sleep in coffins. Or had she just assumed he didn't sleep in coffins? He had said he wasn't dead, though. But if he wasn't dead, what was the coffin for? Maybe he just hadn't wanted to upset her, so he had lied about the dead part.
He'd been right. She was upset.
"Oh, dear God," she breathed. "Sleeping with a man six hundred years older than me I can deal with, but a dead guy?" Her eyes widened with horror. "Does that make me a necrophiliac?"
She pondered briefly, then shook her head. "No. Lucern isn't dead. He had a heartbeat. I heard his heartbeat when I rested my head on his chest. And his skin wasn't cold. Well, cool but not cold," she pointed out. There might not be anyone to hear, but she felt better convincing herself. Until she heard her voice say, "Mind you, his heartbeat also stopped at one point."
Kate groaned at the reminder of the night Luc was staked. Then she muttered, "Surely dead guys can't get the wonderful erections Luc did. There would be no blood flow."
She'd become quite happy with that reasoning when her voice betrayed her again. "Of course, there's always rigor mortis to consider.
"Just open it," Kate muttered to herself in disgust. She had slowly eased her way to the side of the coffin, arguing with herself as a distraction. She continued to talk to distract herself as she reached out to open it. "There's probably a logical explanation for all this. Luc probably stores things in it. Things like a cello, or maybe shoes, or… a body." That last possibility came out as a squeak as she finally lifted the coffin lid… and saw the man lying inside. Then his eyes blinked open, he grabbed the sides of the coffin and started to sit up. That was when the lights went out. Kate began to shriek.
Lucern sat up, his eyes popping open. He thought he'd heard a woman scream. When the sound came again, he catapulted out of bed and rushed for the door. That shriek had been one of terror. He couldn't imagine what was happening downstairs. It sounded like someone was being attacked. He charged down the hall, then the stairs, and peered into the living room where one of the cleaning crew stood frozen. The woman was pale, her eyes wide with fear.
"What is it? Why did you scream?" he demanded.
Apparently unable to speak, the woman merely shook her head. Turning away, Lucern continued up the hall. Despite the woman's frightened appearance, there hadn't appeared to be anything wrong with her. Besides, the screaming had seemed to come from the back of the house rather than the front. Another shriek pierced the silence as he rushed for the kitchen, proving he had guessed right. But this time he could tell that it hadn't just come from the back, it had come from the basement.
Cursing, Lucern crashed through the kitchen door. He had specifically told the cleaning company that his basement and upstairs were to be left alone. No one should be in the basement.
"Jesus, how many of you people are here?" Lucern snapped when he spotted the woman frozen by the basement door. She was staring at it as if it might explode at any moment.
"Two of us, sir," the woman answered, then immediately cried, "I just turned out the light. That's all I did. The door was cracked open and the light was on—I just turned it out. I didn't know anyone was down there."
Lucern ignored her and dragged the door open, then flicked on the switch. The screaming did not stop, though it was growing hoarse. Lucern was halfway down the stairs when he heard Etienne saying, "It's okay. It's just me. Really, it's okay."
When Luc reached the bottom step, he saw his brother standing to the side of the stairs, hands held up placatingly.
"Etienne?" He barked his question and Luc's brother half turned, relief on his face. "Luc, thank God. I didn't mean to scare her this bad. I mean, I heard her muttering about rigor mortis and coffins, and knew she was going to open the lid, so I closed my eyes to give her a little spook, but I didn't think…"
Lucern wasn't really hearing his brother. His gaze, his entire attention, was focused on the woman he could now see standing in his basement. Kate. His Kate. Her gaze was locked with his, and while she had at first been pale and trembling, she was regaining her color—along with a spark in her eye that he hoped was passion and happiness at seeing him.
"Kate," he breathed. Smiling, he held out his arms as she rushed to him, ready to welcome her into his embrace and his life. But Kate didn't exactly rush into his arms. She more or less shoved past him, snarling, "You said you didn't sleep in coffins." She started to stomp up the stairs.