Page 26 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)
Abril froze when the men who had just entered the kitchen turned as one to stare at her. She hadn’t thought her question of
what an immortal was would be a problem, but the silence and the expressions the men wore were suggesting the question was
unwelcome. As she waited for one of them to respond, she found her gaze ranging over the group.
Like Roberts and Crispin, the five newcomers were all handsome. They were also all aged somewhere in the mid to late twenties.
Each man was dressed in black, whether that was black jeans and T-shirt, or black leather pants and T-shirt. Three of them
even had similar features to Crispin. In fact, the only way that any of them differed was that their hair color ranged from
platinum blond to almost black and the length of their hair ranged from short to shoulder length.
They look like a bloody boy band, she thought. She could imagine teen girls throwing themselves at them, begging for autographs and squealing happily over being in their presence.
A short bark of laughter from one of the men caused a sudden shifting amongst all of them. Most of which consisted of them
all turning away as if to hide their expressions. It was followed by choking sounds, and throat-clearing coughs, along with
shaking shoulders that suggested they were laughing at her. Although she couldn’t imagine why asking what an immortal was
would cause such amusement.
Wondering if her head injury had made her misinterpret things, or perhaps her hair was standing up in all directions, Abril
shifted her gaze to Crispin in question. But he seemed just as confused as she was, and merely stepped closer to her in support.
The moment he did, she asked in almost a whisper, “Who are these men? Are they also homicide detectives?”
She suspected they couldn’t be. At least, she found it hard to believe that London needed seven homicide detectives. Especially
since Crispin had said that there were not enough homicides in London to keep him and Roberts busy.
“These are... coworkers,” Crispin said, and Abril raised her eyebrows because she’d just decided they couldn’t be homicide
detectives, so what kind of coworkers were they? However, he misunderstood what her questioning look meant and quickly pointed
to the ice blond saying, “Abril, this is Lucian Argeneau, the big boss.”
Lucian was the one with the cup of coffee.
He had similar features to Crispin and the same beautiful silver-blue eyes, but his hair was ice blond.
Before Abril could ask if Lucian was related to him, and if when he said “the big boss” he meant this Lucian was the chief of police or something, he’d moved on. “The man next to him is Anders.”
Anders was a handsome, dark-skinned man with a body a swimsuit model would kill for. He had slim hips, a narrow waist, and
then a chest and shoulders that were twice as wide and muscular.
“This is Bricker,” Crispin continued, waving toward a leaner dark-haired man with green eyes tinged with silver who didn’t
look anything like the other men.
“Decker,” he said gesturing to a man with dark hair and who did have similar features to Crispin.
“And Cassius,” Crispin finished, pointing to the last man who didn’t just have similar features to Crispin, but could have
been a twin except that his hair was blond rather than dark like Crispin’s.
“They are brothers.” The speaker was Lucian, the tall icy blond with the air of authority who appeared so arrogantly comfortable
in Gina’s kitchen. Before she could ponder long on the fact that his comment was almost like he’d read her thoughts, he added,
“Decker is a cousin, and all three are my nephews.”
Abril’s eyes were widening at the nepotism of the local police force, when Lucian continued by asking, “Can you describe your
attacker?”
Abril suspected he was arrogant in more than acting like he owned the place. She couldn’t have said why she felt that way,
this was only the second time he’d spoken, but she’d always been able to quickly peg people and know how to handle them. She
suspected it had something to do with her childhood, where making a misstep could bring about grievous punishment.
“Your attacker?” Lucian repeated impatiently.
For a fraction of a second, her mouth thinned with irritation at his tone, but she quickly smoothed it out and considered the question.
Her mind went back to her memories of the previous night and the intruder in her bedroom.
She’d been in the middle of a rather spicy dream involving Crispin, the couch in her future office, and the ability she’d had in the dream to remove clothes with just a thought.
Then Crispin had suddenly disappeared, surprising or perhaps disappointing her enough that she’d woken up.
Thinking about it now, she supposed that rather than Crispin’s disappearing from the dream, it must’ve been some small sound
made by the intruder that had woken her. Whatever the case, she’d opened her eyes and seen a dark figure creeping around the
end of her bed. Abril hadn’t even thought, she’d immediately opened her mouth and screamed. But it had been a short, sharp
scream, cut off when the creeper had suddenly lunged at her.
She still wasn’t sure what had happened. Whether she’d been hit or picked up and thrown, but Abril had got a glimpse of eyes
glowing like a cat’s in the dark, and then she’d suddenly found herself hurtling through the air. This was followed by pain
exploding in her head and back as she’d slammed into the wall. She’d lost consciousness then, the image of her attacker’s
glowing eyes the last thing she’d seen before sinking into unconsciousness.
That thought made her frown, and Abril decided she must’ve still been half asleep and caught up in the strands of her dream to think his eyes had glowed.
But putting the matter aside for a moment, she tried to concentrate on what she had seen of his face.
Not much was the answer. She’d got an impression of short hair as black as the clothes he was wearing, but didn’t even really have a vague impression of the face. Except that it been clean-shaven.
“What is it?” Crispin asked, and the question made her shift her attention to him, and then to the men facing them to see
the disappointment on each of their faces.
“She does not remember anything but glowing eyes and short dark hair,” Lucian announced.
His words made Abril stiffen a little. Had she spoken her memory aloud? She didn’t recall doing so, but that was the only
explanation for the blond knowing what she’d just been thinking. Perhaps the shot Dr. Dani had given her was kicking in and
affecting her poor brain.
As soon as she had that thought, Lucian speared Crispin with a look and said, “You need to explain the situation to her.”
“What?” Crispin asked, the word sharp and distressed sounding.
“You heard me. If an immortal is involved, and for some reason has targeted her, she is in a lot of danger. She needs to know
the situation to protect herself properly.”
When Crispin opened his mouth, she suspected to protest further, the man asked, “Are you sure she will remain in your presence,
or that of one of the other men at all times, if she does not understand the danger she faces here?”
Uncertainty crossed Crispin’s face as he turned to peer at her. And then her phone rang.
Abril scowled with irritation at the interruption; Lucian’s words were raising a lot of questions in her.
What were immortals—which had now been mentioned twice—and why would they target her?
And just exactly what danger did she face?
These questions managed to get pushed aside when she saw Boss Lady on her phone’s display.
She immediately stood to leave the room and take the call.
She didn’t want Gina to hear the men and
then have to explain why they were there. She was still hoping to avoid telling her boss about the discovery in her garden
until after she returned. Hopefully the matter would be cleared up by then, and the contractors back to work. If she was lucky,
and Gina extended the length of her vacation, the men might even be done a good portion of the addition before she came back.
That might temper her upset on learning about the skeletons, the police presence, and all the gossip it all was no doubt causing
in the neighborhood.
Abril waited until she was halfway down the hall to her temporary office before hitting Answer on her phone and greeting her
boss.