not going to be around much longer and—"
"'Don't say that!" Elvi exclaimed with horror.
"Oh, Elvi." Mabel shook her head sadly. "We've both lost our husbands and several
friends the last few years. Three of our set have died in the last six months alone. Who
knows how much longer I have here? I don't want to die knowing that you'll be left
here alone."
Elvi sat back and stared at her, hating what she was saying, but knowing she was right.
Their friends and loved ones were starting to drop like flies and each loss made her
feel sad, angry, and just plain guilty because death was something she no longer had to
consider.
"This is for the best. If we find you a vampire mate, you'll have someone to help you
through… everything," Mabel ended lamely rather than mention her own death again.
Elvi was silent. Part of her was tempted by the thought of having someone there for
her, someone she didn't have to fear losing. But the other part of her…
"I don't think I'm ready to start dating again," she admitted unhappily.
"It's not dating exactly," Mabel assured her, and when Elvi peered at her with open
disbelief, she continued, "Look, tons of men responded to the ad. I sorted through
them, wrote back and forth and picked the ones I thought might be for real. I didn't do
too badly either. It turns out we only had to send two packing. The rest of them are
real vampires like you. They're all presentable and seem nice enough… well, except
that longhaired one Pedro's iguana bit," she added with dislike. "He's a troublemaker
that one. That's probably why the lizard jumped on him. Animals sense these things."
Elvi blinked. She'd been so stunned by what Owen had revealed, she hadn't put two
and two together and connected her wounded vampire with Mabel and Teddy's plans.
Of course, she realized, he wasn't just stopping on his way through town, he was here
to meet her… because of the single's ad… because he thought she was advertising for a
man.
"Oh God," she muttered with humiliation.
"No, it will be all right," Mabel assured her quickly as Elvi hunched forward in her chair
and covered her flushed face with her hands. "Look, Teddy and I have taken care of
everything. All you have to do is spend the week with them at the house and see if you
click with one of them. Simple."
Elvi let her hands drop. "They think I'm some desperate old woman who puts ads in
the paper."
"Old," Mabel snorted. "If I looked as good as you do, I wouldn't mind being sixty‐two.
Besides, they answered the ad. And you didn't put it in. So who's desperate here?"
Elvi muttered, "Oh God. This is so embarrassing."
"It isn't," Mabel insisted. "And it doesn't have to be dating. It will be whatever you
want."
When Elvi just shook her head unhappily, Mabel added, "At the very least, you might
make friends that you don't have to worry about up and croaking on you. And if we're
lucky, they should know other female vamps you can hang out with."
Elvi stopped to ponder that. Perhaps this wasn't as bad as she'd first thought. After all,
she'd get to ask all those questions she had. It would be nice not to be so ignorant
about what she now was.
"Four out of six, huh?" Elvi asked. "Owen said five were here."
"Oh." Mabel made a face. "The fifth one is a friend of the vampire Pedro's iguana bit."
She shook her head. "How immature is that? Needing to bring a friend."
"Oh, I don't know, probably about as mature as a friend having to put an ad in a paper
to find you a date," Elvi said dryly.
Mabel stuck out her tongue, then stood and considered her briefly. "You look tired."
"I shouldn't be. You let me sleep late."
"But?" Mabel prompted.
"But I'm weary," Elvi admitted, though she suspected it was a weariness of the soul.
The moment she thought that, she felt more depressed. She was a vampire. Dead.
Soulless. Spotting the concern on Mabel's face, she forced a smile. "I'm fine."
"You haven't been drinking as much blood as you used to," Mabel pointed out
unhappily. "Maybe you're ailing."
"I don't think vampires ail, Mabel."
Mabel nodded, but still looked concerned. "Listen, why don't you just go home and
relax? I'll take care of grilling the men."
Elvi's eyebrows rose. "After all the trouble you went to, you're letting me off the
hook?"
"Not exactly. I just think it might be better to let you meet them more naturally at the
house as you ran into them rather than serve you up to them like a roast pig on a