Harper announced, proving he too had read the man's thoughts. He then glanced
toward the door, his eyebrows rising. "Isn't that… what's his name?" Harper frowned.
"Damn… Alessandro something."
"Cipriano," Victor muttered, having leaned to the side to see that yet another immortal
had entered the restaurant and now joined the conversation between Edward and
Brunswick. Like the rest of them, Alessandro had dressed more casually for this
meeting. While he wore a billowing white shirt, it was tucked into tight blue jeans.
"Cipriano's all right," DJ commented. "Only one more to go, then. Maybe once he's
here, we can finally meet this Elvi."
"There are six of us altogether, then?" Harper asked with interest.
"Five. I'm just Victor's driver on this trip," DJ corrected, then added, "although there
was a sixth, but he was just a wannabe and skedaddled pretty quick when Victor
showed his fangs."
Harper chuckled, and then something at the door caught his attention again.
"The last has arrived," he announced, eyes narrowing. "He's not one of us, but there's
something…" He paused, frowning, and then said, "There's something wrong. He's
difficult to read, his thoughts are chaotic."
Victor leaned out to peer at the final man. The fellow looked normal enough with
brown hair, average looks, and wearing a corduroy jacket over a casual top and dress
pants, but when Victor slipped into his mind, he found a miasma of rage and
disconnected thoughts. His name was Jason Lerner and Victor had just managed to
find his way to Lerner's true intentions in being there when Harper said, "He's quite
mad. He's here to stake Elvi, not see if she is his lifemate."
"That was his intention," Victor murmured, sifting through the thoughts swirling in the
man's head. "But Brunswick has just introduced Edward and Alessandro as immortals
and he's thinking they'll do for a target."
"Shit," DJ muttered, rising up in his seat, desperate to see now.
"I don't think Edward or Alessandro have bothered to try to read him," Harper
murmured. "Can you control the man, Victor? I can't, but you're older, maybe—"
Harper's voice died as Victor suddenly leapt to his feet and started for the door.
Chapter Three
The mortal, Jason Lerner, had just slipped his hand into the inside breast pocket of his
jacket when Victor reached the small group and caught him by the wrist.
"Say!" Brunswick protested. "Argeneau, what—?" His question broke off when Victor
forced the man's arm sideways, bringing his hand and the stake it held out from
beneath the jacket.
"He's not the sort of suitor your Elvi was hoping for. He's a vampire hunter." Victor
removed the stake from the man's hand, slid it into his own back pocket, and then
glanced to Harper and DJ as they joined them. "We'll take him outside and deal with
him."
"Now, just a minute," Brunswick protested. "I'm the law here. I'll—"
"What can you do?" Victor interrupted politely. He could have just slipped into the
officer's mind and taken control, but with the entire restaurant watching and listening,
persuasion was the better option here.
"I can arrest him," Brunswick answered promptly.
"On what charge? I stopped him before he attacked anyone," Victor pointed out. "And,
as far as I know, stakes aren't considered concealed weapons, so you can't charge him
with carrying one."
Brunswick frowned. "No, but I can arrest him for being a public nuisance."
"And he shall be back on the streets by morning and hunting your Elvi."
Brunswick's mouth tightened, but he asked, "What can you do?"
"We can wipe his mind."
The officer shifted, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "You won't hurt him?"
"It won't hurt at all. He'll simply forget all about Elvi and this town and vampires,"
Victor assured him, though, strictly speaking, it wasn't true. Lerner's madness meant
they would have to use the three‐on‐one procedure and there would undoubtedly be
damage to his brain. But having been inside his mind, Victor had no problem with that.
Elvi wasn't the first target of Lerner's madness. This mortal had killed women for
various imagined reasons. He was a sick individual who had somehow slipped through
the cracks and been left to kill various women in his wanderings across the country. If
the procedure left him in a fugue state with half his mind destroyed, all women would
be safer for it.
"Well, all right," Brunswick said at last. "But just you."
Victor shook his head. "I'll need two of the men. It takes three."