"Why lie?" Victor asked with a frown.
DJ shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe they're waiting to see what happens with the
council."
Victor grimaced. At the rate he'd been working, or not working as the case may be,
they'd have a long wait to see what happened with the council. Raising his eyebrows in
question, he asked, "What about Harper?"
DJ pursed his lips. "I don't know. I haven't had the chance to ask him yet, but I suspect
he can't read her either… which just proves my point. Have you ever heard of three or
four immortals not being able to read someone?" He didn't give Victor a chance to
answer, but went on: "It has to be something in the water here. Or the ground or
something. It makes the whole damned town unreadable."
Victor blinked in surprise at the suggestion and at the man's pleasure in thinking that
Mabel might not be his lifemate, that he simply couldn't read her because the town
was unreadable. But then he recalled the hard time the woman had been giving DJ and
supposed it might almost be a relief to the man to think he didn't have to woo her
around to his side. He was almost sorry to disabuse him of the possibility, but he did
anyway, announcing, "I read Teddy Brunswick the first night we were here."
"Oh." DJ looked disappointed, and then brightened and said, "Maybe it just affects the
women. Maybe the men are all still wide open, but the women are blocked."
Victor was horrified at this possibility. If so, it might mean Elvi wasn't his lifemate after
all and that all these hopes that had reawakened the last few days might be just empty
wishes.
He froze on the sidewalk, his mind in sudden turmoil. It might mean Elvi wasn't his
lifemate after all? When had he decided she might be his lifemate? Sure, he was eating
again, and okay, so he'd nearly had a heart attack when she'd fainted at the breakfast
table that night, and, yes, he'd found it thoroughly enjoyable having her perched in his
lap in the car, burrowing into him as if he were the only safe port in a storm. He'd also
been secretly pleased when the sales manager had recognized that they were a
couple. And he wouldn't deny that he was lusting after her, the first woman he'd
lusted after for over three hundred years, but… a lifemate?
He could still feel her in his arms and taste her on his tongue and he wanted to feel
and taste a lot more.
Crap, Victor thought with dismay. He wanted her for a lifemate. And while he hadn't
tried, so had no idea if he could read her or not, DJ was suggesting that even if he
couldn't, it might just be some town‐wide anomaly. The women here might just be
unreadable, period. That wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all.
"Victor?"
DJ's voice startled him from his thoughts and Victor glanced around at the dark street.
They were at the corner of Elvi's road. The streets were now empty, not another
female resident in sight and he suddenly needed another Port Henry female.
"Mabel," he muttered and started to walk again, moving quickly now.
"What about Mabel? Where are you going?" DJ asked anxiously, hurrying to keep up.
"To find Mabel," Victor said abruptly as he reached the gate to Casey Cottage and
tugged it open.
"She's gone to bed," DJ said, following him to the front door of the house.
"Good," he snapped. "Then she'll be easy to find."
"Victor!" he cried with alarm.
When the man rushed after him and tried to catch his arm to stop him, Victor waved
him away as if he were an irritating gnat. "I'm sorting this out right now."
"But—"
"There are no buts," he argued. "If the women in this town are unreadable, I want to
know it. It affects everything. Unreadables are almost impossible to wipe and this
whole damned town needs wiping. And what the hell are we going to do if we can't
wipe them? What will the council do?" While it wasn't really his main concern at the
moment, it was a concern, and would do to explain his sudden determination.
"What will the council do?" DJ asked with dismay.
"I don't know," Victor admitted as he opened the front door of Casey Cottage and led
the way inside. "But it won't be good. We can't have a whole town full of people
knowing about us. The chance of one of them talking is astronomical. The council
won't stand for it."
"Damn," DJ breathed, trailing him up the winding staircase to the second floor.
Stopping at Mabel's door, Victor raised a hand to knock, and then decided against it. If
the woman was sleeping, he could slip into her mind and see if he could read it
without ever disturbing her. If not, he'd claim he'd thought it was Elvi's room. Nodding