The Accidental Vampire (Argeneau #7)

The Accidental Vampire (Argeneau #7) Page 8

"She was serious. The emergency is cheesecake?"

Edward sounded incredulous as he watched Elvi hover indecisively over the cake counter.

"She hasn't eaten in five years," Victor muttered distractedly as he stood at her side, eyeing the cakes with interest.

"Why not?" Harper asked.

"She didn't know she could," he answered absently.

"What?" Alessandro sounded horrified. "Who is your sire, bella? I would talk to him about this. To leave you in such ignorance..."

Elvi ignored him. She had no idea what Alessandro was nattering on about with such outrage. She had no idea what a sire was and couldn't be bothered to sort it out at this point. Didn't he know she needed food?

Elvi had nearly fallen flat on her face in her rush to get out of the car. Only a steadying hand from Victor had kept her upright. Gasping a "thank you" she'd charged for the store, rushing ahead and leaving the men to trail her or not as they liked. It was late enough that the store was nearly empty, which meant lots of carts were all lined up at the front waiting for her.

Elvi had tugged one free and pushed it to the back of the store at a near run, drawing the eye of the few people stacking shelves. They'd glanced her way, and then done a double take when they saw who it was. Elvi had managed a smile for each in passing, knowing that what was startling them was that she was shopping... like a real person.

Elvi had arrived at the counter well ahead of the men, but now as they reached her, she still stood hemming and hawing over her choices. This was a serious issue. Her first food in five years. She hoped it tasted the same.

That thought drew her up short. Blood tasted different to her now. What if food did? While she'd lived, blood had been a tinny, nasty thing, but now it was yummy. What if foods that had seemed so yummy when she was alive, now seemed flat and tasteless in death?

A test was necessary, she decided. She wasn't going to drag home food she couldn't even enjoy, but would be left to stare at in mournful depression. She needed to try something and see what it tasted like, but what?

"Elvi?" Victor sounded concerned as he moved to her side. "Are you all right?"

"I need something," she muttered.

"What do you need?" he asked, and she couldn't help but notice Victor sounded rather cautious, as if he were approaching a possibly rabid animal... or a madwoman.

She was too distracted to care. Besides, he obviously didn't understand. She was a woman who hadn't eaten in five years. Five. That was one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five days. That was five thousand, four hundred and seventy-five meals. Actually, more than that since it would be six years this winter. In just a couple months really. How many meals had it been exactly? Elvi wondered and started to do the math and then pushed it aside as unimportant. She hadn't eaten. She wanted food. She was a woman with a mission.

"Can I help you with something Elvi?"

She glanced to the side and smiled as she recognized the fresh-faced young blonde in the grocery store uniform. Dawn Geoffreys, the granddaughter of a friend.

"Yes, dear," Elvi said brightening. "I need something small to try."

"To try?" Dawn asked with confusion, then her eyes widened with amazement. "You mean like to eat?"

"Yes. These men say I can eat, but I want to try something small first to..." Her voice trailed away as her gaze slid past the girl to the older woman approaching.

"Mrs. Ricci," she said with surprise, and then glanced at her wristwatch. It was the middle of the night. Far past the elderly lady's bedtime, she was sure. Leonora Ricci was in her eighties. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I don't sleep very well anymore, dear," Mrs. Ricci answered serenely. "I'm in bed by nine and up by two and looking for something to do. I've found this is the best time to shop. No one shops at this hour... Usually," she added with a smile and then glanced at the men surrounding Elvi and asked, "I'm guessing these are your beaus?"

"Oh, yes." Elvi blushed, and quickly introduced them.

Mrs. Ricci greeted each pleasantly and then commented, "Little Teddy was telling me about you boys. I hope you treat our Elvi right. None of that love-them-and-leave-them nonsense kids get into nowadays."

When the men quickly murmured assurances of their good intentions, Mrs. Ricci nodded and turned to Elvi. "I heard you say you wanted something small as I came up. Why not a cookie, dear?"

She gestured to the table behind her stacked with clear boxes of freshly baked cookies and Elvi smiled. A cookie. So simple and perfect! Stepping up to the table, she slid her gaze over the selection: Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Fudge, Hermit Cookies, Shortbread, S'Mores, Butterscotch Chocolate Chip-

"White Chocolate Strawberry cookies?" Elvi read the last selection with interest. "These are new. I don't remember those from when I used to eat."

"Oh, yes." Dawn hurried to her side. "They're new. They're really yummy too."

"Perfect." Elvi slit the seal, opened the container and snatched out a cookie, then hesitated almost afraid to try it. Finally, she raised it cautiously to her nose and sniffed delicately. God, it smelled good! She inhaled more deeply.

"Try it," Mrs. Ricci said. "We are all curious now."

Elvi peered back at the cookie and bit her lip, then said, "But what if food doesn't taste the same anymore? What if it's like dust in my mouth? How disappointing would that be?"

"Oh." Dawn's smile faded, and then she turned to the men. "Will it?"

"No, of course not," Victor snapped impatiently. "It will taste just as good as before. Better even. Your taste buds are more sensitive just like everything else. Didn't your sire teach you anything?"

Elvi had lost interest in his words after the bit about taste buds being more sensitive just like everything else. Her hearing was ten times better, as was her physical strength and speed, but her taste buds too?

"Try it, Elvi," Mrs. Ricci urged again.

Elvi took a breath, then lifted the cookie to her lips, closed her eyes, and took a bite. Her eyes immediately shot open with amazed delight. She was just holding the cookie in her mouth, almost afraid to chew, but it was enough for her taste buds. They went wild. The only way to describe it would be an oral orgasm. After five years of a blood-only diet, this sweet, savory explosion in her mouth made every taste bud stand up, then do somersaults across her tongue.

"Good?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"Mmmmmmmm," Elvi answered on a long moan. "Mmm, mmm, mmmmmmmm."

A chuckle drew her eyes to Alessandro. He was grinning at her with delight. Actually, she saw, all the men were smiling at her indulgently... except for Edward.

"If it wouldn't be too much excitement for your senses," Edward said dryly, "perhaps you should try chewing and swallow-"

Elvi shoved the rest of the cookie in his open mouth. She watched him closely as she began to chew her own and reached for another to replace the one Edward was now trying to spit out. Then he paused, his mouth working as his taste buds tasted.

"These are quite good," he said with surprise.

Elvi smiled around the cookie in her own mouth, and then offered the cookie box to Mrs. Ricci.

"Can I try one?" Alessandro asked curiously, and then explained, "I haven't eaten for fifty years, but you seem to enjoy it so much..."

"Fifty years!" Mrs. Ricci repeated with dismay. "Someone needs to feed you, son. You come see me if you get hungry. I live across the street from Elvi and I always have something cooking."

Elvi smiled and held the box out to Alessandro, her eyebrows rising when he, Harper, and even Victor immediately reached in to take a cookie each. Seeing the envious expression on Dawn's face, Elvi held the box out to her as well, bringing a smile to the girl's face.

Having finished the half a cookie he'd got, Edward reached for another and frowned at how few were left. "I think we should get more of these."

"Definitely," Harper said with a smile as he finished his own cookie. "These really are quite good."

"Yes, they are," Mrs. Ricci said and moved to the table to collect a box of her own and put it in her basket. She then wished them good evening before continuing on with her own shopping.

The moment she was gone, the men moved to the table, each grabbing a couple of boxes. Elvi grabbed another cookie from the open pack before setting it in the cart, then moved happily back to the cake counter to survey the selection with greedy eyes. Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, a Chocolate Bomb, Black Forest Cake, Lemon Supreme, Cherry Surprise... They all looked good to her.

"So?" Alessandro followed and peered at the cakes with interest. "What is good here?"

"I can't decide!" Elvi admitted with dismay. She wanted them all, but couldn't possibly eat it all and so thought choosing two or three would be better, but which two or three?

"You said you wanted cheesecake," Victor reminded her. "Cheesecake, ice cream, and chocolate."

"Yes, but that Caramel Crunch looks yummy too, and which chocolate one? The Chocolate Bomb, the Black Forest cake, or the Fudge Surprise? And look at that carrot cake. It's a masterpiece," she crooned.

Victor surveyed the cakes she'd pointed out with a frown, and then shrugged. "Take them all."

"All of them?" she squeaked, torn between hope and horror at the glutinous thought.

"Why not? You have five years to make up for."

"Victor's right, and we will help you eat them," Harper announced. Stepping forward, he picked up the cheesecake and handed it to Alessandro, then picked up the Chocolate Bomb and Black Forest cake. Victor then picked up the Fudge Surprise and Caramel Crunch.

Elvi surveyed the cakes that were left, then bit her lip and quickly picked up the Cherry Supreme too.

"I like cherries," she said apologetically.

"Ice cream?" Victor asked.

"Oh, yes." Turning, she carefully set her cakes in the cart, and then led the way to the frozen section, pausing abruptly as she passed an end aisle of Mexican food; tacos, seasoning and so on. Elvi absolutely loved Mexican food. She had been cooking it and around it for five years without being able to take even a lick. She stared at the end aisle, her mind in a veritable swoon. She could make tacos, or chimichangas, or, ohhhhhh, fajitas. She'd need steak... or maybe chicken. And tomatoes and onions and cheese and-

"I believe we'll be needing another cart," Edward murmured and turned away to go find one. Elvi hardly noticed his leaving, she was adjusting the grocery list in her head.

"I don't think there is enough room for everything," Alessandro announced with a frown as Edward opened the trunk of the BMW.

"We can put some in the backseat with us, and maybe the front seat too," Elvi suggested, lifting bags out of the first of their three carts. She knew she'd gone a little overboard with the groceries, but really the men hadn't been any help at all, encouraging her as if they were on the Devil's payroll, sent to tempt her into committing the third of the seven deadly sins: gluttony.

Anytime Elvi had debated over two items, they'd simply taken both from her and put them in the cart. And then they'd picked up an item or two themselves, things that caught their eye or interest. Dawn had rung them through her till, her eyes wide the whole time, and Elvi knew this story would be broadcast all over town by breakfast.

As would the fact that when the total had come up, Elvi had reached for her purse only to find that she'd rushed out of the house so quickly, she hadn't brought it with her. Guessing at the problem from her dismayed grasping at the thin air where her purse should have been, four men's hands had suddenly appeared before her, each holding a credit card.

Victor had ended up doing the honors, glaring at the others until they put away their own cards and wallets.

"It's bigger than it looks," Harper said as they fit the last bag into the trunk. "Perhaps I should look into getting one of these."

Elvi didn't comment, but did wonder what these men did. Two owned cars that probably cost more than her house and another was casually considering getting one. Come to think of it, the roadster Alessandro had stepped out of hadn't been cheap either. It seemed Mabel had only picked the wealthier vampires for her.

Elvi's glance caught on a car pulling into the parking lot, and stared, sure she recognized it as it parked under the lights. When the driver opened the door and got out, she caught her breath, and hissed, "Duck!"

Much to her relief, the men paid heed and ducked next to her behind Edward's BMW. All but Victor, Elvi realized when she glanced to her side.

Looking down at where they crouched on the ground, Victor asked, "Is there a problem?"

"No." She grabbed his arm and dragged him down with them. "Just someone I'd rather avoid."

"That wouldn't be Father O'Flaherty, would it?" Victor asked dryly.

Elvi was surprised that he knew who the man was, but said, "He's really a dear old thing, but he hasn't taken my turning as well as the others. It's understandable, I guess."

"Is it?" Victor asked grimly.

"Well, he's a minister and I'm a vampire," she said simply.

Victor muttered something under his breath and straightened.

"Hey," Elvi hissed and stood upright to catch at his arm, then paused when she saw that Father O'Flaherty was entering the grocery store. "Oh... I guess we can go."

Elvi spent the ride home trying to figure out what she would eat first. It was a difficult decision, but didn't feel as urgent as her need to get to the grocery store had been. She and the men had eaten six boxes of the cookies as they'd gone through the grocery store. Now Elvi was feeling almost uncomfortably full, both her head and stomach aching. It was just her brain that still wanted more.

"Dear God! What did you do? Buy out the grocery store?" Mabel exclaimed, entering the kitchen from the deck with DJ on her heels as Elvi entered from the garage with the men in tow. All of them were loaded down with grocery bags.

"I couldn't make up my mind," Elvi said with embarrassment as the men began to set down their burdens.

"We'll get the rest," Victor announced and led the men back out through the garage.

"There's more?" Mabel asked with dismay. "Elvi, where are we going to put all this? We only have two refrigerators."

"It's not all perishable," Elvi assured her, grabbing up a bag with ice cream and moving to the freezer. "The rest is mostly boxes and cans. We just brought the cold stuff in first so it wouldn't go bad."

Mabel was shaking her head, but bent to pick up a bag and help.

"I hope you don't intend to eat all of this at once," she said with concern as she began to empty the bag she'd picked up. "You'll make yourself sick."

"No, of course not," Elvi assured her, and was pretty sure it was true. She wanted to eat something, but she really was quite full. She supposed after five years with nothing in it, her stomach had shrunk to the size of a pea and she'd stretched it out with the cookies. Did she really want to stretch it further?

Yes, came the resounding answer in her head. Just a little further. Something small. But what? she wondered as the men returned with the rest of the groceries.

Elvi tried not to feel guilty at the excess of food as they continued unpacking. Instead she concentrated on what she should eat. Where should she start? Cheesecake? Chocolate? Ice cream? Soft tacos? Spaghetti? Steak? Pepperoni? Knackwurst? Everything was sounding good to her.

"Perhaps a selection of the cheese and crackers," Alessandro murmured, his expression sympathetic as he watched her peer at the groceries with confusion. "That and the nice glass of wine by the fire."

"Cheese," Elvi murmured with relief. That was close to cheesecake, but better for her, wasn't it? But not too healthy... And crackers were supposed to be good for settling the stomach.

"Good idea, Alessandro," she said with a smile.

With Mabel and the men helping, it was no time before the bags were empty and the cupboards and refrigerators bursting with food.

"Elvi, you and the men pour yourselves some wine and take it out to sit by the fire," Mabel suggested once they were done. "I'll fix up some cheese and crackers and bring them out."

"I can help," Elvi protested.

"You can help most by going out and sitting with the men and leaving me some room to work," Mabel said firmly, her expression pointed. It was only then that Elvi recalled that she was supposed to be getting to know these men and possibly picking a mate. She'd been so wrapped up in food for the last little bit, she'd quite forgotten that embarrassing little tidbit.

"Here." DJ moved to the wine rack, selected three bottles, and handed them to the men, then fetched wineglasses and a corkscrew as if he'd lived in the house for a week already. Passing out the various items, he waved them to the door. "Go sit by the fire and get acquainted. I'll help Mabel with the tray."

"I don't need any help," Mabel growled.

Ignoring her, DJ began to herd them toward the door. "Go on."

An odd smile tugging at his lips, Victor took Elvi's arm and steered her to the door. "Shout if you need help."

DJ just grinned as he watched them leave.

"This is nice," Harper commented moments later as they were finally settled around the metal fire pit in the backyard. The fire had been dying out by the time they'd collected chairs from the garage and set them up around the fire. Harper and Alessandro had brought it back to flaming life while Edward, Elvi, and Victor had tended to opening the wine and pouring the glasses.

"Yes," Elvi murmured, staring at the fire through the red wine in her glass.

Mabel and DJ came out moments later with a tray piled with every one of the six cheeses Elvi and the men had picked at the grocery store and at least as many types of crackers piled on a tray. There were also small paper plates for each of them. The group tried the various offerings, commenting on what was good and what was not and various other things.

When the tray was empty, Mabel picked it up and stood.

"I'll get that, Mabel. Sit down," Elvi said as she turned away.

"That's okay. I'm heading off to bed anyway," Mabel said. "You should probably too, soon."

Elvi frowned and glanced at her watch. It was after five A.M. The sun would soon be up, she realized with some surprise, and then acknowledged that she shouldn't be. The restaurant didn't close until two A.M. because of the bar, and then there'd been the house tour, the collecting of cars, and the hour at the grocery store before they'd settled around the fire. The time had seemed to fly by.

Sighing with regret that the first interesting night she'd had in a long time was coming to a close, Elvi collected her wineglass and moved to the fire to dampen it down.

"I'll get that," DJ offered, urging her out of the way.

"Thank you," Elvi murmured, then glanced at the other men to offer a goodnight before slipping away to follow Mabel.

"Well?" the other woman asked as she entered the kitchen.

"They seem nice," she admitted wryly, then laughed and said, "but what did you do, pick the wealthiest and best-looking only?"

"Only the best for my Elvi," Mabel proclaimed.

"What would I do without you?" Elvi asked with a laugh and gave her a hug. "Now, go to bed. It's well past your bedtime."

Nodding, Mabel started out of the room, then paused suddenly and turned back. "I didn't get the chance to tell you..."

"What?" Elvi prompted as she opened the dishwasher and bent to place her wineglass inside.

"'When we were at the restaurant, that Argeneau fellow touched my cross," Mabel said quietly. "And nothing happened."

"He did?" she asked with amazement. She hadn't dared enter a church or touch anything religious since her turning for fear of bursting into flames or some such thing like in the movies.

Mabel nodded. "You might want to ask him about that tomorrow."

"Yes," Elvi murmured as Mabel continued out of the room.

Closing the dishwasher door, she made her way upstairs. It was late, or early as the case may be, and she knew she should go to bed, but instead found herself wandering through her room to the attached sunroom. Leaving the lights out, she moved to the window and peered down at the half-circle of men around the dying flames. Their voices drifted up to her through the night as Elvi stood watching them. One of them might be a mate for her, she thought with disbelief, and still wasn't sure she was ready for another relationship. It had hurt so much to lose her husband and daughter...

On the bright side, she supposed she wouldn't have to worry about being widowed again with any of these men. They, like her, were already dead.

Grimacing, Elvi moved to sit on the wicker couch. Drawing her feet up under her, she closed her eyes and savored the best day she'd had in five years.

She could eat.

She would no longer feel like an outsider at social functions. If nothing else happened this week, Elvi would be grateful for that.

A tap at the sunroom door made her start and Elvi glanced over sharply to see Victor standing outside the glass door. Her heart immediately started hammering in her chest and she could actually feel her hands growing sweaty. Squeezing those hands closed, she forced herself to take a deep breath. This reaction to the man was beyond disturbing. She'd like to blame it on some chemical reaction to special pheromones put out by a male vampire, but she didn't seem to have this reaction to the other male vampires now in her home. Elvi almost wished she did. She was too damned old to be acting like a love-struck teenager. Unfortunately, while she was sixty-two years old, she looked twenty-five and he made her feel about sixteen.

Shaking her head at herself, Elvi stood and moved to open the door. She managed what she hoped was a politely enquiring expression and waited for him to speak, afraid that if she opened her mouth it would just be to blurt out something stupid.

"You forgot your ankle bracelet." He held out one hand, opening it to reveal the belled anklet cradled in his fingers. Elvi had taken it off by the fire when the constant jangle had finally got to her. She'd set it on the ground beside her chair and apparently left it there.

"Thank you," she murmured, blushing when she saw the way her fingers were trembling as she took it from him.

As she slid the anklet into her pocket, Victor raised his other hand, revealing two wineglasses and a half-bottle of wine. He had the bottle by the neck and the two delicate goblets by the stems, all caught in the fingers of one hand. "This is all that's left. It seems a shame to waste it. It should be just enough for two glasses, I think."

Elvi almost said no and closed the door to avoid the discomfort she felt in his presence, but there were so many questions she wanted to ask... besides, as uncomfortable as she was with her attraction to him, it also made her want to be near him. Relieving him of the two goblets, she moved aside for him to enter.

"This is nice," he murmured, peering around the sun-room.

Elvi followed his gaze over the wicker furniture in the dark. The only light came from the open door to her room, but she expected his eyesight was as sharp as her own. This soft glow was more than enough to see by. She supposed it was how he'd known she was up here.

"How are you feeling?" Victor asked, settling on the couch and holding out a hand for the glasses.

"A little woozy," Elvi admitted quietly as she handed them over. "I haven't had a drop to drink in five years, and it went straight to my head. In fact, I suppose I really shouldn't have any more."

"One more should be all right," he said quietly, pouring the wine. He handed her a glass, picked up the other, and sat back to peer at her.

The silence that filled the room as they sipped their wine seemed to dance along Elvi's nerves. She was terribly aware of his nearness and the delicious male scent of him. She didn't know what aftershave he wore, but she'd like to buy some and sprinkle it in her coffin so she could bury her face in the satin pillow and breathe it in all night long while she slept.

"It seems obvious that you haven't been trained properly in what you can and can't do. Why is that?"

Victor's sudden question sent Elvi's ponderings of his aftershave flying and she stiffened as she took in his words. It was obvious she hadn't been trained? There was training for vampires? Like a vampire boot camp or something?

"What do you mean?" she asked finally, and then sat up a little straighter as she realized he was saying she appeared as ignorant as she felt. "What gave me away?"

Victor arched an eyebrow. "For one, you thought you couldn't eat food."

"Oh, yes." Elvi flushed. She supposed that was an obvious giveaway, but really, how was she supposed to know what she could and couldn't do? None of the vampires ever ate or drank anything but blood in the movies and television shows. At least not the ones she and Mabel had seen when Elvi had first turned and they'd done all their research.

"And," Victor added solemnly, drawing her attention back to him, "you obviously don't realize it is against our laws to bite mortals."

Elvi stiffened with alarm. "What? We have laws?"

Victor nodded solemnly.

Elvi sat still, her mind whirling. Laws suggested some form of organization. It also seemed to suggest there were more of their kind than she'd thought. Questions began to whirl through her mind, but were pushed aside in favor of this business of breaking a vampire law. Elvi hadn't ever in her life broken a law. She'd never even so much as jaywalked. It didn't sit well that she'd unknowingly broken one.

"I didn't realize it was against our laws," she said quickly. "In fact, I didn't know there were laws. I wasn't even sure there were others like me."

"I was afraid of that," Victor said, then cursed under his breath.

"You said 'laws'. Plural," she murmured. "What other laws are there?"

Victor opened his mouth, and then shook his head. "There's no sense telling you now. You've been drinking for the first time in years and I'd probably just have to repeat them in the evening when you wake up."

Elvi opened her mouth to protest, but he assured her, "I'll tell you all about them after you've slept."

When she settled back in her seat with resignation, he smiled faintly and added, "Speaking of which, I should probably let you get to bed."

Victor stood and moved to the door. Elvi followed, her gaze dropping of its own accord to his behind. She managed to force it back up as he stepped through the door onto the top step and turned back to say, "Before I go, though, I do need the answer to one question."

"Yes?" she asked curiously.

"Who was your sire?"

Elvi frowned. "What exactly is a sire?" she asked with bewilderment. "Both you and Alessandro have mentioned that word and I haven't a clue what it means."

"It means the one who made you," he explained. "The one who turned you into an immortal."

"Oh," Elvi smiled faintly. She had a feeling she'd heard the phrase before this, probably when she and Mabel had been researching vampires right after their return from Mexico, but as it didn't apply to her, she'd let it slip her mind.

Realizing he was waiting for an answer, Elvi shook her head. "I didn't have a sire."

Victor stared at her nonplussed. "You had to have a sire... unless..." He paused, then asked doubtfully, "You weren't born an immortal?"

Elvi laughed at the idea. "No, of course not. Five years ago I had gray hair and wrinkles," she assured him. "But no one sired me."

"Someone had to," he insisted.

Elvi peered past him at the lightening sky, her mind automatically going back to the period around her own death. It was a time she didn't like to think about, and in truth was a terrible blur. All she remembered clearly was that she'd bitten Mabel and nearly killed her while out of her head.

"Mabel and I went to Mexico," she said finally. "We were in a car accident and I woke up several days later like this." Elvi forced a smiled, shifting uncomfortably when he stared at her with incomprehension. "I guess you could say I'm an accidental vampire."

Forcing a smile, she murmured good night and pulled the door closed before he could say anything more. Elvi didn't like to think about that time in her life and liked even less to talk about it.

Slipping the lock closed, she turned and entered her bedroom, grimacing at the sight of the coffin waiting there. She had a bit of a headache, and her tummy was uncomfortably full, but she was relaxed for the first time in years, thanks to the wine, and she was feeling a little less like a freak with so many of her kind around, yet had to sleep in that blasted thing.

Muttering under her breath, Elvi ignored the dark wooden casket and moved into the bathroom. She wanted a bath before bed, but it was late enough that she'd have to make do with a quick wash. Afraid of collapsing into the semi death that daylight was supposed to bring vampires, Elvi had never risked being out of her coffin after dawn. She wasn't taking the chance tonight either. But tomorrow she would ask Victor what else she could and couldn't do.

Frowning as she rinsed the soap from her face, Elvi realized it hadn't even occurred to her that she could ask her questions of any of the men in her home, that all of them would know the answers. She simply automatically thought to ask Victor. She wasn't sure if that was representative of a comfort level with him she hadn't reached with the others yet, or a simple preference in dealing with him, but suspected it was both. That knowledge was enough to make her suddenly reluctant to ask her questions of him, but it was becoming woefully obvious that despite being a vampire for five years, she was terribly ignorant of what she could and couldn't do. Who knew there were laws and so on? No, she had to ask her questions, and if she was going to ask anyone, it would be Victor.

She'd ask him about coffins first and then move on to things like the ability to slip into others minds. The conversation she'd overheard between Alessandro and Harper had her curious. Could she read minds and control others as Alessandro had suggested Edward may have done with Mabel?

Mabel had insisted Elvi try to read minds and so on when she'd first changed. After all, Dracula could apparently do it, but Elvi hadn't been able to manage the task and had decided that only he, as the king of vampires, could do it. But if Edward could do it too, maybe she just hadn't tried long enough.

Mabel had also wanted to go to Transylvania and find Dracula, though she'd been sure the name would be different. Mabel had really been into the vampire thing, but then she wasn't the one who'd been turned. She'd wanted to be, at first asking Elvi to turn her as well so they could both be vampires. However, no matter how many times Elvi had bitten her, or how much blood she took, the other woman hadn't turned. Elvi had finally insisted they stop trying when she'd nearly killed her by taking too much blood.

She was glad she'd given it up when two years ago, Mabel had confessed she was really rather glad it hadn't worked. After seeing all that Elvi had lost-food, wine, enjoying the garden in daylight, trips to the beach, barbecues with friends, and so on, she thought perhaps it wasn't such a great deal.

Aside from all those things, Elvi had found herself faced with a myriad of legal problems as well since the change. ID for instance. Passports, driver's licenses, and health cards had to be renewed every so often. All of them had expired within two years of her change. As for replacing them? Forget about it.

According to all her ED she was sixty-two. She didn't look sixty-two. It would have been a problem. Fortunately, she no longer needed a health card, but traveling was out of the question without a passport.

Her driver's license had also lapsed, but Elvi hadn't bothered to renew it even though she could have done so here in town where they knew her and wouldn't question her being sixty-two but looking twenty-five. Renewing it hadn't seemed worth the trouble, however. She could pretty much walk everywhere in Port Henry, but if she needed the car to collect groceries or something, Teddy and Barney wouldn't have given her a hard time. Other than that, she simply didn't drive. The risk was too great should she be pulled over by an out-of-town officer. There was no way she could pass for the sixty-two on her driver's license.

In effect, she was pretty much trapped here in Port Henry. But now that Victor and the others were here she wondered how they dealt with such issues. She had no idea how old they were, but each of them spoke with a certain formality that suggested they were older even than herself.

Except for DJ, she thought, and smiled to herself as she recalled the way he'd been flirting with Mabel all evening. Elvi's friend had obviously found it all rather upsetting and put on her short-tempered, irritated old lady act, but Elvi knew under all the embarrassment the woman was flattered. Mabel was showing her age, but still attractive, and she wondered if DJ might really like her.

Spotting the pink tinge to the sky outside the bathroom window, Elvi rushed through the last of her ablutions. She then scampered into her room and climbed into her coffin with a grimace, wondering when Victor and the others had moved their caskets in. They'd all arrived in cars so must have had them shipped down, she reasoned, as she pulled the lid of her own casket shut.