A Bite to Remember Page 0,2

made her angrier. It put her on the offensive. Before he could say a word, she spat out the facts from the file she'd studied on the plane.

"You were born in 1592 to Victor and Marion Argeneau, both vampires梠r immortals as you prefer to be called. Marion was good friends with her sister-in-law Marguerite Argeneau and you were, in fact, born two months behind Marguerite's son Bastien. The two of you spent a good deal of time together growing up and are as close as brothers. Your mother died in 1695, burnt at the stake while pregnant with what would have been your sibling. Your father has been reclusive since then, spending his time acting as an enforcer for the council. You see very little of him.

"You decided to become an actor when you met Shakespeare at ten. You've traveled the world, staying no more than ten years in each place before moving across the globe and starting again. You've been in California eight years, ten years in England before that, and before that, Russia, Spain, and France. You have shares in Argeneau Enterprises, but also own V.A. Inc., which has fingers in several pies. One of those pies is your own production company, which presently isn't producing anything because a series of events you think are sabotage has forced you to shut down any and all productions."

Jackie fell silent and took great satisfaction in the expression on Vincent Argeneau's face. He looked staggered. It served him right. She was only here as a favor to Bastien. She had other cases she'd rather be working, but did this guy consider that? No, he slams the door in her face, then has the nerve to protest to Bastien about her being mortal and a girl. Jackie was used to people judging her on her sex and size. It annoyed her sometimes, but she could deal with it. However, she'd be damned if she was going to put up with prejudice against her species. She was human and proud of it. Some of these night feeders were too darned smug in her opinion. They slept all day, drank bagged blood at night, then acted all superior because they couldn't catch the common cold and had perfect health.

That thought reminded Jackie of a point she'd left out.

"You inherited your father's genetic disposition, which won't allow you to feed off bagged blood like the rest of your kind. On a strict diet of bagged blood, you'd starve to death. You're forced to hunt your meals and feed off living donors." She arched her eyebrows and added, "Tiny and I aren't on the menu. If you bite either of us, we're on the next plane back to New York. Understood?"

Jackie didn't wait for a response. Deciding she'd spent long enough on the doorstep, she moved past him into the house, aware that Tiny stayed directly on her heels.

"Your security here is nonexistent," Jackie announced, glancing into each room she passed on her way up the hall. "Your front gate was wide open. We drove straight in. Anyone can."

"My home security isn't in question." Vincent Argeneau sounded irritated, she noted, but otherwise, appeared recovered from his shock at her bulletlike recitation of his life to date.

"It should be," Jackie informed him, then pointed out, "Now that you've closed down your productions, your saboteur has lost his original target. He'll be looking for another, and your home is the first place that comes to my mind."

Jackie glanced back as she reached the end of the hall and wasn't terribly surprised to see him peering worriedly toward the front door. She hadn't heard the lock click into place when he'd closed it a moment ago. He moved back to lock it now and she smiled to herself as she pushed through the door into the kitchen.

Tiny waited just inside the room as Jackie walked around, opening and closing cupboards while she waited for Vincent to catch up. She was peering into his empty refrigerator when he hurried into the room.

"You have a lot of glass in this house," she commented. "French doors, sliding glass doors and windows deluxe. Do you, at least, have a functioning security system on those?"

His hesitation was answer enough.

"What are you looking for?" Vincent asked instead of admitting he didn't have an alarm system.

Jackie shrugged. "If Tiny and I are going to be staying here, I need to know what we need. As expected, you have nothing in the way of food in this