Argeneau 12.5, Valentine Vampire (from Bitten by Cupid Anthology) Page 0,2

in New York, but she wanted a more traditional hairdo for the wedding. Besides, she didn’t feel her hair went well with the peach gown she is to wear, so I took her to my hairdresser this morning to work her magic for the wedding.”

“Hmm,” Tiny murmured, his gaze sliding to the women in the room, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t seen a peach gown.

“She’s helping Elvi get dressed,” Marguerite explained, gesturing to a closed door at the opposite side of the room. “You’ll meet her soon enough, and when you do…” Marguerite hesitated, then sighed, and said, “Our Mirabeau is prickly. She has a lot of defenses. She lost her entire family to the greed and betrayal of a favorite uncle back during the Massacres of St. Bartholomew and finds it hard to trust and love. She’s erected a lot of protective walls. You will need to be patient.”

Tiny stared at Marguerite blankly. She seriously believed he would be a life mate to this Mirabeau. The idea was both exciting and scary as hell. His life would change forever. God. A life mate. It would mean his days as a bachelor were over…and he’d probably have to turn, become an immortal like Jackie had. He’d have to drink blood and…

“Breathe,” Marguerite said softly, soothingly. “Do not panic. I may yet be wrong. Why do you not just wait and see? Meet Mirabeau, take care of the task Lucian has set the two of you, and allow nature to take its course.”

Tiny felt his body inhale deeply, then blow out the air taken in, seeming to breathe out the stress and worry suddenly plaguing him along with it. His eyes narrowed on Marguerite. “You’re controlling me,” he said, his voice an accusing rumble.

“Just enough to calm you down,” she said un-apologetically, then beamed at him. “I have great hopes for you and Mirabeau. And if all works out as I hope, I need never worry about losing you to age and time. You will be a member of my family forever.”

Tiny’s eyebrows rose slightly at the words, and he peered down at the top of her head, his hands automatically rising to pat her back as she suddenly hugged him. He said, “I take it Mirabeau is one of your strays then?”

“She has become like a member of our family over time,” Marguerite corrected solemnly as she stepped back. “Thanks to her uncle, she had none of her own.”

Tiny felt amused affection curve his lips. “So you adopted her into yours as you’re wont to do with strays…” Marguerite grimaced at his use of the term strays, but before she could comment, he added solemnly, “But I’m not a stray, Marguerite. I have family…And I am very fond of them. I’m not sure I’d be willing to give them up.”

Worry flickered briefly over Marguerite’s face, but then she smiled. “All will work out. It always does.”

“Always?”

“When you live as long as we do, it usually does,” she assured him with a chuckle, and gave him a gentle push. “Go on. Check and see how the men are doing. The ceremony will be starting soon, and I’m sure Bastien is making himself and everyone else crazy trying to ride herd on all the details. He’s had to arrange, cancel, and rearrange this wedding so many times, I don’t think any of us thought it would ever happen.”

Tiny smiled faintly at the words but merely nodded and turned to head up the hall. His smile died, however, once he’d turned the corner and was out of Marguerite’s sight. His mind immediately played back their conversation as he tried to grasp the fact that she thought he would be a life mate to this Mirabeau gal he was supposed to be working with for the next couple of days. The idea both fascinated and scared the hell out of him. It also absorbed his complete attention so that he practically sleepwalked through the multiple wedding of various members of the Argeneau clan. It was almost a shock when Decker Argeneau Pimms suddenly tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Our turn to sign,” as he nodded toward the front of the church and the open door behind it, where Lucian Argeneau stood gesturing them forward.

The registry room behind the podium where they were to sign as witnesses to the unions was tiny, far too small for everyone to have fit in at once, so they’d decided to do the witnessing in