Vampire
Most Wanted
Argeneau
Vampire Series
Book
20
Lynsay
Sands
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Avon
Date of Publication: 2/18/2014
Book Description:
Take
a road trip with the undead . . . in this latest in the Argeneau series by New
York Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands.
For Basha Argeneau, anything is
better than facing her estranged family. Even hiding out in sweltering southern
California. But when a sexy immortal in black shows up determined to bring her
back to the clan, she'll do anything to keep far, far away from the past she
can't outrun.
Marcus Notte isn't here to play
games—especially not with someone as crazy as the infamous blonde. Asked by
Lucian Argeneau to bring her back for questioning, Marcus is determined to
carry out Lucian's request—no matter how the seductive little mind-reading vamp
feels about it.
Basha doesn't mind fighting fire with
fire, especially with a hot immortal involved. But if he wants to take her
away, he'll have to catch her first . . .
Chapter One
Divine saw her latest customer out, surprised
to note that there was no one outside her door waiting for a reading. It was
the first time that day that there was no line outside her RV. A glance at her
watch explained why-- it was dinnertime. That was the only time she ever had a
lull in customers. Right now the food stalls would have ridiculously long line
as everyone at the fairgrounds converged on them in search of greasy treats to
power the rest of the evening’s rides and fun. Which meant she had a few
minutes to catch her breath and relax a bit.
She’d barely had the thought when she spotted
a couple of women moving purposefully toward her trailer. After a brief
hesitation, Divine quickly flipped the “Back in five minutes!” sign, let her
screen door slide closed and descended the few steps to the ground. Ignoring
the fact that the women were looking alarmed and rushing forward, she slipped
around the side of her RV. Most customers would have stopped then, sagged with
disappointment and waited, probably impatiently, but waited just the same, so
Divine was a little surprised when her arm was grabbed from behind. She was
more surprised, however, by the strength in the hand that latched onto
her…until she turned and noted that it wasn’t one of the women at all, but a
man.
A couple inches taller than her, dark haired
and good-looking, he was built like a line backer. He was also looming over
her, deliberately invading her space in a threatening manner as he growled,
“What the hell did you say to my wife?”
Divine rolled her eyes with exasperation,
wondering how she was supposed to know since she didn’t know who his wife was.
She was about to say as much, but then realized that there was something
familiar about the man and quickly dipped into his thoughts. A heartbeat later
she was relaxing.
“Allen Paulson,” she murmured his name,
getting an almost childish satisfaction when his eyes widened incredulously.
“How do you--?”
“I told your wife that you were having an
affair with your buxom, blonde, twenty year old secretary, Tiffany,” Divine
interrupted sharply, silencing him at once. “I told her that this Tiffany was
pushing for marriage and that you, not wanting to lose her, but unwilling to
give up your wife’s money preferred widowhood to divorce. I told her about your
plans to bring about that widowhood on your upcoming vacation. I believe it was
either her drowning or suffering a fall while camping in Yosemite National
Park?” She tilted her head. “As I recall that trip was scheduled for this week,
wasn’t it?”
When his mouth dropped open and his hold on
her arm eased, Divine added, “I’m guessing by the fact that you’re here rather
than in Yosemite, that she listened to my advice to make an appointment with
her lawyer the next morning to change her will as well as remove you as the
beneficiary on her life insurance.”
His hand dropped away, falling limply by his
side.
“No doubt she also listened to my advice and
hired a private detective. I gather she sent him to get photographic proof of
your infidelity at that cheap little motel you like to take your secretary to
everyday at lunchtime?” She slipped into his thoughts briefly, read the answer
in the chaos there, and smiled with satisfaction. Not only had the wife done
that, she’d then taken the proof straight to a good divorce lawyer. The woman
was now safe and on her way to being single again. After that, though, the
woman had told her dear hubby that the fortune teller at the carnival was the
one who had given her the heads up and put her on this path and it had been the
best twenty bucks she’d ever spent. Which was why Divine now had an irate and
soon to be divorced and destitute husband on her hands.
Divine waited, braced for the man’s anger.
But instead of the explosive rage she expected, he asked in a small, frightened
voice, “How did you know? No one knew. I didn’t tell anyone what I planned. Not
even Tiffany.”
“Did you even bother to read the sign when
you walked your wife to my trailer that day two weeks ago in Pahrump?” she
asked with amusement and then reminded him, “Madame Divine. Let her do a reading
and define your future,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, but that’s just… It’s a scam,” he
protested. “You’re a carnie. You just scam people out of their money for a
laugh.”
“Yes, of course ,” Divine agreed coldly, and
then tilted her head. “So why aren’t you laughing?”
Allen Paulson flinched as if she’d struck
him, and then his awe and dismay gave way to the rage she’d expected earlier.
Divine saw it roll over him, knew he was about to blow his top without the need
to read him, but slipped into his thoughts anyway. It was like cutting through
soft, half melted butter with a ceramic knife. The man was so angry his
thoughts were wide open. Divine wasn’t terribly surprised to read that he’d
brought a gun with him and planned to use it. She waited until he’d pulled the
weapon from inside his jacket and raised it, though, before reacting. In fact,
she let him get so far as to put his finger on the trigger before snapping her
hand out, latching onto his throat and lifting him off the ground. She then
whirled and slammed him against her RV.
When the gun fell from his hand and he moaned
in pain, she released him. The man fell like a rag doll. He landed on his ass
with his legs splayed, a dazed expression on his face, and Divine immediately
dropped to straddle his lap. Gravel ground painfully into her knees, but she
ignored that, caught him by the hair at the nape of his neck, pulled his head
to the side and sank her fangs into his throat.
A little shiver of pleasure slid through
Divine as thick warm blood began to gush from the wound, was collected by her
teeth and passed into her body. It gave her an immediate rush as the nanos in
her body swarmed, eager to collect this new supply of nourishment. The man had
jerked in surprise when her teeth pierced his skin, and he’d raised his hands
to try to push her off, but he never actually got around to exerting any
pressure. Instead, he froze briefly, his mind overwhelmed as hers automatically
began to transmit her own pleasure to him. In the next moment, he was moaning
and tugging at her instead, pulling her closer with one hand, clasping her head
with the other and murmuring encouragingly, “Oh, yeah, baby. Please.”
He was also arching his body under her,
rubbing a sudden hardness against her. Divine usually didn’t cause pain in her
victims, but this one deserved it. She also wasn’t terribly eager to let a man
who had planned to murder his own wife dry hump her there on the carnival
grounds, so she deliberately withdrew the pleasure that she was experiencing
and had unintentionally shared. But she also slipped into his mind to control
his reaction to prevent him from screaming out in horror and pain as his mind
cleared and he became aware of what was happening.
Divine was always careful not to kill her
hosts. Why kill the cow that gave the milk? Besides, killing was wrong, no
matter how despicable the person was, so while she drank more than she normally
would have, she pulled back and freed him at the point when he was weak and
woozy, but long before the man could come close to dying.
Smiling coldly at his horrified expression,
Divine stood, lifting him as she went. Once they were both upright, she
released him, leaving him to lean weakly against the RV rather than have to
touch him anymore.
“Listen carefully Allen Paulson,” she said
grimly. “You will not hurt your wife, or ever again consider harming or killing
anyone for profit or any other reason. If you do, I’ll find out, and then I’ll
find you…” She raised her hand to run one finger lightly over the wound on his
neck. “And then I will finish this meal, cut your head off and leave your cold
dead body somewhere no one will ever find you. Do we understand each other?”
Allen Paulson nodded weakly. The man’s face
was as white as his t-shirt, his eyes almost sunken with horror and he was
sliding slowly along her RV, obviously eager to escape, but afraid to try and
be stopped. Divine scowled. “And if you tell anyone about this, about me,” she emphasized, “I’ll do
worse.”
He began shaking his head frantically and
whispered, “I won’t. I swear.”
She narrowed her eyes, and then her nose
wrinkled as the acrid scent of urine wafted up between them. Glancing down, she
saw the wet spot growing on the front of his trousers and stepped back with
disgust. “Get out of here before I change my
mind and wipe yours.”
Allen Paulson didn’t have a clue what she
meant by that-- she could see it in his expression-- but he didn’t stick around
to ask. He simply nodded wildly and
sidled along the RV for a couple feet before finding the courage to turn his
back to her and run.
“You should have wiped his mind.”
Divine stiffened at those words from behind
her, and then turned slowly. She peered at the tall fair-haired man who had
spoken. He was a greenie, an unskilled laborer and supposedly a local who had
been hired to help out at the carnival while they were in town. The name he
went by was Marco. Divine knew this secondhand, because while she was normally
in on the hiring process, using her “special skills” to help Bob and Madge
Hoskins who owned and ran Hoskins Amusements, this time she hadn’t been here.
Family issues had kept her away and the hiring had been done by the time she’d
caught up to the carnival. Had she been here to help weed out the troublemakers
in the hiring process as she usually did, she never would have allowed Bob and
Madge to hire the man. One, she couldn’t read him, and that was usually a sign
of insanity in a mortal. This leads into the second reason she wouldn’t have
hired him; the man, like herself, was an immortal. She’d sensed that about him
quite quickly. Divine wasn’t sure how she’d known. She didn’t run into a lot of
immortals. In fact, she’d arranged her life so that she wouldn’t. But there had
been a frisson of awareness as she’d first passed him on returning to the
carnival just before noon that day, as if the nanos in her body recognized and
sent signals to those in his. She’d been avoiding him ever since.
But that hadn’t stopped her from finding out
all she could about him. Not that there had been much to learn. He went by
Marco, last name Smith of all things. The women all thought he was a hunk. The
men thought he was practically a God because he was strong and could do the
work of four men, and Bob and Madge were hoping he’d not just help out through
their stay in this town, but travel with them to the next and the next and so on.
For herself, Divine was wary. She had avoided other immortals for a reason and
had been doing so for a very long time. She didn’t like having one around. It
made her anxious and she disliked feeling anxious.
“Don’t you have something to do?” she asked,
moving past the man and toward the back of her RV. The sign she’d turned had
said back in five minutes and that time was up. Besides, she’d snacked on Allen
Paulson and felt better for it. Break time was over.
“You should have wiped his mind,” Marco
repeated, falling into step with her.
“He’ll keep his mouth shut,” Divine muttered,
annoyed, mostly because she knew he was right. The truth was she hadn’t wiped
Allen Paulson’s mind because it was slimy, and she hadn’t wanted to have to
spend any more time inside his mind than necessary. Besides, he deserved to go
through life terrified that she might someday revisit him should he set a foot
wrong.
“And if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut?”
Marco asked as they neared the end of her RV. “What if he goes to the police?”
“If he goes to the police, and if they don’t immediately lock him
up as crazy but instead come to speak to me…” She shrugged. “I’ll wipe his
mind, the officer’s mind and leave this carnival for another.”
“Is that how you landed at Hoskins’
Carnival?” Marco asked as they rounded the end of the vehicle. “You didn’t wipe
someone you should have and had to move on?”
Divine turned on him sharply, an angry retort
on her lips, but just as quickly caught back the words that wanted to spill out
and merely said with forced calm, “You’re an inquisitive fellow, Marco. It’s
not healthy around here. Carnies mind their own business. I suggest you do the
same.”
Turning away from him, she smiled at the two
women who were waiting in front of her door. Others had joined them. In fact,
Divine now had a line up of a half a dozen people and it was growing by the
minute, but she reserved her smile for the first two only and said, “Which of
you would like to go first? Or shall I take you together?”
“Oh, me first,” one of the women said
eagerly. “This was my idea.”
Divine nodded and led the woman inside,
leaving Marco and all thought of him out on her stoop.
“Here, Mister.”
Marcus tore his gaze from the door Madame
Divine had just ushered her client through and peered down at the small boy
tugging at the top of his pant leg and holding out a half eaten ball of cotton
candy on a cardboard cone.
“Here,” the boy repeated, holding it a little
higher. “I don’t feel good. You can have the rest.”
Marcus arched an eyebrow, but took the cotton
candy. He suspected the boy didn’t feel good because he was stuffed full of
cotton candy, something drenched in mustard, powdered elephant ears and—he
considered the last stain on the boy’s shirt consideringly and then decided it
had to be – ice cream. The kid was a walking menu of everything he’d eaten that
day. At least, Marcus hoped it was all the kid had eaten that day. Otherwise
he’d be wondering if Dante and Tomasso hadn’t fathered the little tyke. They
were the only two people he knew, mortal or immortal, who could have eaten like
that as a boy.
“Danny! What are you doing? Get over here and
leave that man alone.”
Marcus glanced at the woman rushing toward
them from the midway and offered a reassuring smile even as he slipped into her
thoughts to ease her mind that he wasn’t a child molester and nothing untoward
was happening. By the time she reached them, she’d slowed to a fast walk, and
was smiling in a relaxed manner.
“I hope he wasn’t bothering you?” she said
apologetically as she took the boy’s hand.
“Not at all,” Marcus assured her.
The young mother smiled again and then nodded
and turned away with the boy, saying, “Come on, honey. Your daddy is waiting
with your sister in the Ferris wheel line. They’ll be worried.”
Marcus watched them go and then turned his
gaze back to Madame Divine’s RV. The door was closed now as were the blinds. He
couldn’t see the woman anymore, except in his mind’s eye and he was definitely
seeing her there. Madame Divine was more than memorable in her gypsy getup. A white
peasant blouse, worn off the shoulders, a crimson under skirt, a bright teal
scarf skirt, an orange sash tied at the waist with gold chains hanging from it
and tinkling merrily, a wide leather belt and a crimson scarf around her head.
Gold hoops had dangled from her ears, a gold chain hung around her neck,
several gold bracelets dangled from her wrist, and knee high black leather
boots with stiletto heels strapped up the front of her legs had finished the
outfit.
The woman looked damned sexy in the getup, so
sexy in fact that when she’d straddled the would-be wife killer, Marcus had
wanted to pull her off the man and onto his own lap. He’d been rather startled
by that urge. Marcus hadn’t been interested in women for a while. Okay, for a
couple millenia. Still, he hadn’t come across a woman like Madame Divine in
quite a while either. The woman was walking sex in her get up, and his body was
waking up and responding to it.
Obviously he had a gypsy fetish, Marcus
thought wryly. It made as much sense as anything else at the moment. Certainly
more sense than his own life presently did. It appeared at the ripe old age of
2548 he was having a midlife crisis of sorts. That was the only explanation for
how he found himself doing a favor for Lucian Argeneau.
Marcus smiled wryly at the thought. Lucian
Argeneau was not only the head of the powerful Argeneau clan, but also oversaw
the Rogue Hunters and led the North American immortal council. Rogue Hunters
were the immortal police force, they hunted down rogue immortals to be
presented to the immortal council who then passed judgment on them and
sentenced them to whatever punishment they saw fit, often death.
As the head of those two organizations,
Lucian could arguably be the most powerful immortal in North America. It was
hard to imagine him needing anyone’s help. But he did. He was searching for a
family member, his niece, Basha Argeneau, who had been thought to be dead for
millennia, but who may now be alive after all…and whom he feared had gone
rogue.
Which is how Marcus had come to find himself
at the carnival, eyeballing the trailer of a woman he couldn’t read and found
incredibly sexy. Not that his not being able to read her bothered him. If this
was Basha Argeneau, she was even older than he was and younger immortals
usually couldn’t read immortals older than themselves. It wasn’t like any of
the other signs of having met a life mate were cropping up, like renewed
interest in food and such. Thank God, because if she had been a possible life mate and was Basha Argeneau…well, that would have been a doomed relationship
from the start. Because Basha Argeneau was considered rogue…and rogues were
executed. The last thing he needed at this point in his life was a rogue life
mate.
“Hey! Marco! Are you going to stand around stuffing
your face all night or help me with the pogo stall?”
Marcus glanced around with surprise to find
Kevin Morrow walking toward him. The twenty-year old carnie was tall and
stick-thin, his face a collection of freckles so thick that from a distance it
looked like a tan. Up close though you saw that his face was definitely
freckled, and it was also presently scrunched up with displeasure, reminding
him that he was only supposed to take a fifteen minute break from helping to
man the food stall.
“I was--”
“Stuffing your face,” the young carnie
interrupted dryly and then turned away, gesturing for him to follow. “Come on.
If you’re hungry you can have a corn dog while you work. It’s probably better
for you than that sugary fluff anyway.”
Marcus blinked and glanced down at the cone
with the half eaten cotton candy the boy had given him several minutes ago. Or
what had been half eaten cotton candy. There was nothing left of the sweet
treat now. Surely he hadn’t eaten it? He hadn’t eaten in more than a millennia.
He didn’t remember eating it. But he did have a sweet taste in his mouth that
was rather pleasant.
“Damn,” he muttered, tossing the cardboard
cone into a garbage bin as he headed after Kevin. He’d eaten it. Couldn’t read
Madame Divine, and was lusting after the woman. Oh, this wasn’t good.
My Review: 5 stars
I know there are going to be all kind of people who hate me after my next sentence, so I'll just get it out there. This is the first Argeneau book I've read. Don't get me wrong, I love the paranormal, I love vampires, I love paranormal romance. I just haven't found the first book in the series. With that being said, this was almost a stand alone in that regard. At least in my opinion because it didn't focus on Lucian Argeneau. Now, this book was interesting to say the least. I liked both of the main characters, Devine/Basha and Marco/Marcus. I enjoyed the story line and the way that Lynsay used the Lore of Atlantis for her Vampires. I loved the many twists and turns, and the romance between Basha and Marcus was also interesting. I really love Lynsay's whole perspective on the finding of a Life Mate and how if affects the people in the mating in all ways. I enjoyed learning why Basha was considered Rogue and what was done to change that, and also who was ultimately responsible. I loved learning a bit of history about Lucian Argeneau, and am really looking forward to going back and finding out what I've been missing. There was just so much that I've missed out on, and am definitely going to have to remedy that. Excellent job Lynsay! Now I know why I see your books everywhere.
About
the Author:
Lynsay Sands is the nationally
bestselling author of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter vampire series, as well as
numerous historicals and anthologies. She’s been writing stories since grade
school and considers herself incredibly lucky to be able to make a career out
of it. Her hope is that readers can get away from their everyday stress through
her stories, and if there’s occasional uncontrollable fits of laughter, that’s
just a big bonus. For more information, go to www.lynsaysands.net.
Author Links:
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