The Accidental Vampire(57)

"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