The Accidental Vampire(21)

recognize another immortal. It was usually instinctual with their kind. Although, unless

taught, they wouldn't recognize the signals their mind and body were sending.

Aware her hands had gone still and hearing her swallow thickly by his ear, he turned to

peer at her. Her eyes must have been hazel as a mortal, now the green shone with

silver and the brown around the outside glowed gold. She was biting one corner of her

lip, a sharp fang poking out as she peered at his still bleeding ear. He wasn't terribly

surprised. She was pale and obviously hadn't fed enough. The blood would be

tempting to her. He waited curiously to see what she would do.

"Oh." Elvi gave her head a sudden shake and stepped back, one hand coming up to

cover her mouth and the fangs he'd glimpsed pushing past her lips. Turning away, she

threw the blood‐soaked cotton out as if it were on fire. "I'm sure it will heal quickly.

Though you might want to let a doctor take a look at it tomorrow."

"There's no need for a doctor," Victor murmured, watching her closely. "Our kind heal

quickly and well."

Elvi stilled and turned slowly back.

"Our kind?" she asked uncertainly, still shielding her mouth with one hand.

"Immortals," he said quietly, then used the term Brunswick and Mabel had repeated

several times. "Vampires."

Elvi sucked in a breath. "You—You're… one too?"

When Victor nodded, her hand fell to her side and she dropped into the opposite chair.

She was silent for the longest time, simply staring at him, seemingly at a loss. It was

long enough that her teeth withdrew back into their resting place before she finally

said, "When I first got back from Mexico, Mabel and I tried to find others, but…"

Elvi paused and raised one shaky hand to push the hair back from her face.

"You need to feed," he said mildly.

Nodding reluctantly, she stood and moved to the small refrigerator behind the desk to

retrieve a bag of blood. Avoiding his gaze, she grabbed scissors off the desk, clipped off

a corner of the bag, and poured half of the blood into a glass on her desk.

Elvi started to raise the glass to her lips at once, then paused and, apparently

remembering her manners, held it uncertainly out to Victor. When he shook his head,

she lifted it to her lips, and then turned self‐consciously away as she drank it. The

action seemed one of habit more than anything and Victor watched her curiously. Elvi

drank the glass quickly as if knocking back a shot of whiskey. She then poured another

glass.

"I thought Owen was to be your meal this night," he commented. "You'll be too full to

feed from him."

A small laugh slipped from her lips as she sipped the second glass. "Not likely. I'm

pretty sure he's going to chicken out like the rest of them do."

"Chicken out?" Victor asked with interest.

Elvi nodded as she licked her upper lip, then explained, "Most of them do and it's really

all just a big bother, but…" She shrugged and lifted the glass to her lips.

"If so, then why not forsake this Birthday Bite business?" he asked.

She lowered the glass and peered at him curiously. "You know about that?"

"Your Captain Brunswick was explaining it to me," he admitted.

Something in his tone must have revealed that he wasn't impressed with the whole

deal. She nodded and peered down into the glass, then explained, "It all started as a

joke. A group of teenagers came in one night. One of the cockier ones was teasing me,

trying to get me to bite him. He even went so far as to slice his palm with a pocket

knife and hold it out."

Elvi shook her head at the memory. "I wanted to take a switch to his behind. But, of

course, I couldn't do that. Instead, I just laughed and said I didn't bite babies." She

grimaced. "Foolishly I added, ' Come back when you're a man'."

Elvi sighed and shrugged. "Two months later he returned. It was his eighteenth

birthday. " I'm a man now, Elvi," he says. 'Legal. I want my bite."

Her mouth tightened. "I tried to laugh it off, but he wasn't having any of it. He and his

friends were causing such a fuss, Mabel finally said, ' He's of age, if he wants it, bite

him. It just means one less bag of blood we have to come up with'."

"So you bit him," Victor murmured.

She nodded. "Much to his friends' disappointment, I made him come to the back office

for it. I wasn't biting him in front of everyone like some freak show. Besides, I—"

"Besides?" Victor prompted when she fell silent.

Elvi shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she murmured, then continued, "a couple

weeks later they returned. It was his friend's eighteenth birthday. I could tell at once