flattening influence of the helmet, but it looked a perfectly natural dark brown, almost black to him. Although there appeared to be a fleck of lighter color at the ends in some places. He couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What does it normally look like?”
“She normally dyes it a combination of red and blond on the end halves of the top strands so that it looks like her head’s on fire,” Lucian informed him dryly, and then turned to Eshe and added, “You did a piss-poor job of dying it. There’s still some color at the ends.”
Eshe rolled her eyes with exasperation and began to slide into Armand’s side of the booth, forcing him to shift over to make room for her. “God, you’re never happy, Lucian. Honestly! It’s not like I had time to make a hair appointment and get it done properly. I had to do it myself and I am not a hairdresser. This is the best I could do in the time you allotted me.” She set her helmet on the table in front of her and rested her chin on her hands on top of it as she grinned at Lucian. “So it’s all your fault if you aren’t happy with it.”
“Couldn’t you at least have come out in your car instead of that damned motorcycle?” Lucian said irritably.
“Oh yes, because a red Ferrari would be so much less conspicuous down here in hicksville,” Eshe said dryly, and then glanced to Armand and murmured, “No offense.”
“None taken,” he assured her, and then cleared his throat and forced himself to turn away when he realized he was grinning at her like an idiot.
“Ferrari?” Lucian asked with surprise. “What happened to the convertible?”
“I sold it,” she said with a shrug. “The Ferrari was prettier and I only have the one parking space at the apartment for both the bike and car, so the convertible had to go.”
“A Ferrari?” Lucian looked horrified. “It was bad enough when you had the Mustang convertible, but a Ferrari with all the power it has under the bonnet? You’re a speed demon. You’ll kill yourself with it. You had better be following the speed limits.”
Armand stared at his brother with fascination. Lucian had never been much of a talker, mostly grunting and glaring at everyone, but Eshe appeared to exasperate him into speaking. He’d never thought he’d see the day. His thoughts were distracted when Eshe said dryly, “Of course…Daddy.”
Armand’s eyes widened, but she wasn’t done. Smile widening as Lucian grew grimmer, she commented, “I hope Leigh pops some babies for you soon, Lucian. Maybe you’ll stop daddying the rest of us.”
“Daddying?” Armand asked doubtfully. He could think of a lot of words to describe Lucian, bossy and bullying among them, but daddy just wasn’t on that list.
“Yes, daddying,” Eshe said with a friendly smile his way. “He’s forever telling everyone what to do and where to go and so on. He’s like a big old grumpy daddy.”
“Your father—” Lucian began, but she cut him off.
“My dad asked you to look out for me and my brothers and sisters should anything happen to him and you’re just trying to live up to that promise, yada yada,” she said in a bored voice that suggested she’d heard that argument a thousand times at least. “That argument carried some weight back when I was a kid, Lucian, but jeez, more than a millennium later it means nothing. You’re only a hundred years older than me for cripes sake. Get over it already. I’m sure my father didn’t mean for you to play guardian forever.”
“You’re only a hundred years younger than Lucian?” Armand asked with surprise. “You seem a lot younger.”
“Why thank you!” She turned and beamed a smile on him that had Armand almost sighing, and then she stuck out her hand, “Hello, I’m Eshe d’Aureus and you’re Armand Argeneau.”
“Yes.” He took her hand and shook it, smiling at how small and soft it felt in his own. “So why aren’t you as grumpy as Lucian? I always thought it was his age.”
Eshe snorted at the suggestion. “Not hardly. Father Time over there just likes to carry the weight of the world—not to mention passing time—on his shoulders like a vampiric Atlas. Me? I enjoy life to the best of my abilities and leave Lucian and others like him to be the grump masters.”
“There are others like Lucian?” Armand asked with doubt.
Eshe raised her eyebrows. “Not traveled much in Europe? Because there are a