The Accidental Vampire(74)

from asking someone to a high school dance, someone else asked her and she ended

up marrying him. Forty years later I still regret it, but my life is almost over. You have a

hell of a lot longer to regret it than me."

Elvi recalled Victor's saying Teddy loved her and had for a long time. She suspected she

was the girl he hadn't asked to the dance, and wanted to say something to make it

better for him, but there wasn't really anything to say.

"Now, do me a favor and get out of the car before Tall‐boy tries to beat my brains in.

I'd hate to have to deal with the paperwork of arresting him tonight."

Elvi glanced out to see Victor stomping up the sidewalk toward them. Sighing, she

opened the car door, and then leaned over to give Teddy a kiss on the cheek before

sliding out of the car.

"Where—" Victor began the moment she started up the sidewalk, but Elvi interrupted

him quickly.

"Sorry I took so long. I should have let you know where I was going before I took off,

but I suddenly remembered something I had to tell Mabel," she lied cheerfully, moving

past him on the sidewalk and heading for the door to the house.

Scowling, Victor turned to follow her. "You—"

"Gosh, all that running around did me in and I'm famished. Do you want a bag of

blood? Or maybe a steak or something? I could start the barbecue."

Aware that he was following her, Elvi kept up a lively chatter as she led him to the

kitchen and began to poke around the refrigerator. Mostly to keep him from asking

questions or saying something they might both regret. She wasn't ready to answer

questions. She needed to think. She needed time to adjust to all this.

It was all well and good for Teddy to tell her not to let fear stop her, but Elvi wasn't

jumping into anything either. She'd only known Victor a couple of days. It was too soon

to love him. She wasn't committing herself to anything until she was ready.

The men returned while they were eating and regaled them with their thoughts on the

play. For the most part, they seemed to have enjoyed themselves despite its being an

obviously amateur event. They'd also enjoyed the company and praised her for having

" quite civil and entertaining" neighbors. Elvi suspected this was high praise from these

men.

"We were talking about building another fire on the way back," Harper announced as

he claimed a seat at the table and snatched a bit of salad from Elvi's plate. "But it's

started to rain."

Elvi glanced toward the window to see that this was true and wondered to herself how

she was going to entertain these men. She was considering suggesting another game

of poker when Victor spoke up.

"I haven't quite finished telling Elvi all our laws yet. We're going to take coffee up to

the sunroom and finish it."

Elvi shrugged when the men glanced her way. Victor was telling the truth. She'd only

learned one more law today and was sure there must be more than that. It would

probably be good to learn them all so she didn't inadvertently break one.

"There are movies in the cupboard in the living room if you want to watch something,"

she suggested as Victor picked up his empty plate and carried it to the kitchen. "I'm

sure we won't be long."

She was being optimistic, Elvi knew, but really, there couldn't be that many laws and if

they would just stop getting distracted, they might get through them quickly, Elvi

thought as she carried her own plate out and collected two cups for the coffee.

The men were silent at first, but by the time she'd poured the coffee and started to

lead Victor out of the room, they'd begun to discuss their options when it came to

entertainment.

Elvi led Victor up to the sunroom, and moved to open a couple of windows to allow the

cool night breeze in as Victor settled in one of the wicker chairs. Once done, she

settled on the wicker sofa adjacent to him and raised her eyebrows expectantly. "So,

no biting, only one child every hundred years, and… ?"

"And you can only turn one mortal in a lifetime," Victor said. "Those are the top three."

"You can only turn one?" Elvi asked with surprise.

"I told you, it's all to keep the population down."

"Yes," she murmured.

"Most immortals save that turn for their lifemate."

"Yes, I guess they would," Elvi said, but was frowning. "Then who turned me and why

would they waste their one turning, turning me?"

"DJ and I were wondering about that," Victor admitted, then set his coffee cup down

and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Elvi, would you tell me exactly

what you remember about your turning? Maybe we can sort it out from that."