"That was four years ago. She's happy now," Mabel snapped, then turned to Elvi and
said, "Tell him."
"Actually, she's right Mike. I really have no desire to die."
Mike glanced to his wife who moved to his side and whispered furiously. When he
sighed and turned back to face them, Karen took a step toward the booth and said,
"I'm sorry, Elvi. You know we love you, but he's our son."
"Owen?" Elvi stood on her tiptoes to get a better look at them as she asked, "What on
earth does Owen have to do with this?"
Her obvious confusion just seemed to infuriate the woman. Propping her hands on her
hips, Karen yelled, "You know what he has to do with this, you… you vamp!"
The way Karen had said vamp seemed to suggest it was synonymous with hussy, but
Elvi merely said, "No, actually, I don't know."
"You bit him!" Karen exclaimed as if it were obvious.
Elvi's eyes widened incredulously at the venom in those words, but rather than admit
she hadn't bit him, she said, "You brought him there to be bit."
Karen's shoulders sagged unhappily. "It was his birthday, it's what he wanted. Besides,
I didn't want him to go through with it in the first place." She glared at her husband. "I
told you we shouldn't allow him to do it, but oh no, you wouldn't listen to me. I was
being a silly woman. Now we have a vampire for a son when if you'd just listened to
me, just this once—"
"What!" Elvi interrupted with disbelief. "A vampire?"
"Now, now," Brunswick interrupted, stepping out of the gathered crowd to make his
presence known. Someone had obviously gone running to fetch him when the
disturbance broke out. Now he moved between the Knights and the booth, while
Edward, Harper, and Alessandro began to slip along the edge of the crowd to surround
the couple.
"I'm sure Elvi didn't mean to do it," Teddy said soothingly. "It was all just an accident.
She's been biting the boys in this town for five years and nothing's gone wrong. How
was she to know this time the bite would take?"
"I don't care if it was an accident. I want my baby back," Karen cried. "Mike, do
something!"
When Mike looked uncertain, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Don't tell me you
would rather our son was a vampire?"
"Well, hell," he muttered. "It's not like its hurt Elvi any, and she needs a husband.
Better someone from here than—"
"'Jesus Christ, the woman is the same age as my mother!" Karen interrupted with
disgust. "She's sixty‐two years old."
Mike's eyes slid to Elvi where she was peering around Victor's arm. He pursed his lips.
"She looks damn fine for sixty‐two. And Owen could look just as good forever. Just
think, Karen, you won't have to worry about him getting hurt in football anymore."
Karen wasn't impressed. "Michael Knight if you don't kill this woman and let our son go
back to being just a boy you're going to find yourself in divorce court and I will take the
house, the boat, the cottage, the—"
"All right, all right," he said with defeat, and then turned to Elvi and the others and said
apologetically, "I'm sorry. I tried, but you can see what I have to deal with here. The
woman just isn't reasonable when it comes to her boy."
"Now, Mike…" Brunswick took another step, blocking Elvi's view. "What is killing Elvi
going to solve?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Teddy! Don't you know anything?" Karen said with
exasperation. Rushing forward, she caught his arm and managed to tug him a couple of
steps to the side so that Elvi could see again as she explained, "The only way to turn
Owen back is to kill the vampire who turned him. So, we have to kill Elvi. We don't
want to do it. We'll probably end up with horrible neighbors with her gone and Mabel
off in Toronto with DJ, but I want my son back, dammit!"
"You'd rather have your husband in jail for killing Elvi than have your son be a
vampire?" Mabel asked with disbelief.
"Jail?" Mike said with alarm.
"You won't go to jail," Karen assured him quickly. "You can't be charged with killing
her, because she's already dead. You're just putting her to rest. Go on honey, get it
over with. Sorry, Elvi," she added in an apologetic mutter.
Mike gave a long‐suffering sigh, offered an apologetic glance, raised the crossbow, and
said, "I'd prefer it if you moved Victor, but I'll shoot you to get to her if I have to."
Taking the men by surprise, Elvi managed to squeeze between them and throw herself
in front of Victor as she blurted, "I didn't bite Owen."