Insatiable

“If I had to guess, that’s why,” Paul said, nodding toward the soundstage.

Fran and Stan, Meena’s bosses, had stepped out in front of the cameras and were giving

Taylor and Stefan some feedback.

“That was fantastic,” Fran, a middle-aged lady with a lot of pendant necklaces and

wildly curling gray hair, was saying. “Stefan, you gave me goose bumps.”

“Thanks,” Stefan said laconically, standing around with his hip bones poking out.

Jon wanted to punch him in the kidneys.

“Right, Aunt Fran?” A skinny girl with very straight black hair and wearing a pencil

skirt stepped out from behind a heavyset man. Shoshona, Jon realized. And the heavyset man

was Meena’s other boss, Sy. “He’s just brilliant.”

Brilliant. About as brilliant as Jack Bauer. The dog, not the one played by Kiefer

Sutherland.

“Thanks,” Stefan said again, pushing some of his dirty-looking hair from his eyes.

“I get a really good feeling from him,” Taylor said in her tinkly little voice. “I think

we’ve got good chemistry. It works for me.”

Oh, God, Jon thought with an inward groan. Why had he even bothered showing up?

This was just torture. To see—actually see, in real life, not on a television screen—his beloved

Taylor in the arms of another? It was too much.

And then the next thing Jon knew, Taylor was coming toward him in her little white

tennis shoes. He sucked in his breath—and his gut, although he didn’t have much of one,

because he’d really been working out this time, not just saying he was going to, since he was

serious about this police exam thing—and said, “Hey, Taylor,” as she walked by, leaving a

faint scent of grapefruit in her wake.

She turned her head and saw him, her heavily glossed lips parting in surprise…then

curling upward in a smile of recognition.

“Oh, hey…” She clearly couldn’t remember his name.

“Jon,” he said quickly. “Jon Harper. Meena Harper’s older brother?”

“Oh, right,” she said, giggling. “I’m so bad with names. How’s it going?”

“Great,” he said. His heart was thumping like a basketball. “I just caught the last bit of

that scene with you and…what’s-his-name. That was some fantastic work.”

“Oh, thanks,” Taylor said, her eyes shining. “His name is Stefan. He’s going to play the

new vampire on the show. I’m so psyched ’cause it’s really going to pull in a younger demo

for the show. Isn’t Stefan fabulous?”

No, Jon thought. You’re fabulous. Not Stefan. That guy sucks.

“So they’re definitely going to cast that guy, huh?” Jon asked. “Because, you know, I did

some acting in high school—”

“Oh, I think so,” Taylor said. “The network wants him. And he’s got the same manager

as Gregory Bane, you know, from Lust ? That guy over there. Dimitri something-or-other.”

She pointed to a man who was standing in one corner, talking to Stan and Fran and Sy

and Shoshona. Dimitri Something-or-Other was huge—physically, just really tall and broadshouldered, a little like Meena’s prince—and in an impeccably tailored suit that had probably

set him back a cool three grand or so. He seemed to have a couple of bodyguards with him.

So he was rich, too.

Another guy Jon was going to have to punch in the kidneys.

“Interesting,” Jon said, pretending not to care. “Hey, what are you doing now? Wanna go

grab a drink?”

“Oh,” Taylor said. “I would, but I have to go meet my trainer. Maybe next time, okay?”

Then she actually stood up on tiptoe, placed a hand on his wrist to balance herself, and

gave him a little kiss—light as the brush of a butterfly wing—on his cheek.

And then she was gone, skipping away to go work off some imaginary fat.

Jon stood there staring after her for a minute or two before he was able to rouse himself

enough from the spell she’d cast over him to go look for his sister. He eventually found her

exactly where Paul had said she’d be, in her office—which, strictly speaking, was actually

more of a cubicle than an office, although it did have a narrow window with a view.

She was typing furiously, pages spread all across her desk and every other available flat

surface in a seemingly random fashion, though Jon knew from experience that if anyone dared

to touch them, she’d scream bloody murder, because there was some kind of order to them;

only his sister knew what it was, however.

“Hey, Meen,” Jon said. Since there weren’t many seats for him to choose from, he

settled onto a stack of scripts piled perilously high on a chair in front of her desk.

“Go away,” she said. She didn’t take her eyes off the screen in front of her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Everything,” she said. “Nothing. Just go away. This place is imploding. Like my life.

You wouldn’t believe the lines Fran and Stan—no way Shoshona was smart enough to write

this—gave me to feed poor Taylor. Not to mention Cheryl. There’s product placement

everywhere . I’ve never even heard of any of this stuff. I don’t think they’re CDI products.

Revenant Wrinkle Cream? Strigoi Sunglasses? There’s even some kind of spa where Victoria

goes to get a total rejuvenating make-over—have you ever heard of the Regenerative Spa for

Youthful Awakening?”

Jon shrugged. “No. But, Meena, what did you expect? They’ve got this new vampire

story line, and CDI thinks the show has a chance of getting some younger viewers. Why

wouldn’t they throw in some product placement? They’re trying to make some money.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I thought that they’d show some integrity. Respect for the

devoted audience this show has had for thirty years. But I’m the idiot, I guess. What are you

doing here, anyway?”

“Oh,” he said. “I’m here for the audition.”

“What audition?” Meena looked at him bewilderedly.

“For the part of the vampire,” Jon said. God, she really was out of it.

“There’s no audition,” she said. “Stefan has the part. They’re just making sure he and

Taylor have chemistry—which basically means that he isn’t shorter than she is.”

“Yeah,” Jon said a little bitterly. “I sort of get that now.”

“Look,” she said, turning back to her computer screen. “I’m really busy. You’d better

go.”

Paul had been right. She really was in a foul mood.

“What is with you?” he asked. “I mean, I get that you’re upset about the new vampire

plot, but you could try being a little nicer to people.”

He thought he heard her mutter something like “I am trying” and something else about a

baby. He had no idea what she was talking about. “What baby?” he asked bewilderedly.

“Just forget it,” she said to the monitor.

But there was no hiding the expression on her face, which he recognized only too well.

And like a bolt from the blue, he knew.

“ That’s why you’ve been acting like such a psycho lately?” he demanded. “You had a

vision about Adam and Leisha’s baby?”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “Of course not. Don’t be stupid.”

“That was the fakest laugh I ever heard,” Jon said, shaking his head. “What did you

see?”

She hesitated, then abruptly gave up.

“Fine,” she said. “Whatever. And I didn’t see anything. It’s just a feeling. And it isn’t

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