"Elvi? Is that you? What are you doing in the bushes?"
Cursing under her breath, Elvi stepped out and crossed to where Teddy stood by his police car. Trying not to sound embarrassed at getting caught lurking, she said, "Hi Teddy."
She tried to decide how to explain her behavior. The truth was, she'd rushed down to the deck and around the house to see what the man called Victor was up to. She'd come around the corner to find him already half a block up the road, headed for Main Street.
Elvi had started to take a step forward to follow, but the blonde and the Italian had come out of the house and she'd ducked into the bushes to avoid being seen. Unfortunately, that was when Teddy had come out heading for the driveway and his car. Of course, he'd spotted her.
"I was, just checking for... er... aphid damage," she answered lamely.
"Oh" He looked uncertain, and then glanced toward the house when the door opened and Edward, the blonde with the British accent, came out.
Elvi shifted as he approached. She really had no wish to meet him yet.
"Well," she said cheerfully, taking a step back. "I have to check the plants at the side of the house. See you later, Teddy."
Turning abruptly, she hurried around the side of the garage, and then stopped. The street was empty. There was no sign of any of the men anymore. It seemed she wouldn't be following anyone.
"Damn," Elvi muttered as she continued on around the house to the entrance to the lower sun porch and passed through the room to reach the back deck again A glance toward the driveway showed Teddy and Edward pulling out onto the street.
"Oh, there you are!" Mabel stepped out of the kitchen and smiled. "I wondered where you'd got to. Are you feeling any better?"
"Yes," she lied. The truth was she had a bit of a headache, probably caused by frustration, she thought on a sigh.
Mabel nodded, then glanced upward, taking in the starry night. Her gaze then swung to the yard beyond the large deck and she commented, "I was thinking of having a fire."
"The guests would probably enjoy that," Elvi murmured.
"They're all out, I think," Mabel announced. "Getting their cars."
Elvi was sure the bearded friend of Victor's was still in the house, but didn't say anything and simply followed Mabel to the woodpile to help collect wood.
"Why don't you go get us some drinks while I get the fire started?" Mabel suggested once they'd moved a small pile over to the fire pit.
Elvi turned away and headed to the house. Mabel was better at starting fires anyway. She had finished pouring the drinks and was just trying to open the kitchen door without spilling them when an arm reached past her and pushed the screen door open.
"'Allow me."
Elvi paused and turned to glance at the man who'd helped her, the bearded friend of Victor's.
"DJ," he introduced himself with a grin. "And you're Elvi."
.. She nodded, unable to resist smiling in return despite tie blush that rose up on her cheeks. The man's grin was infectious. "What is DJ short for?"
"Dieudonne Jules," he answered promptly.
"Dieudonne?" She echoed thinking it a beautiful name. "You're the friend, not one of the...er..."
"Suitors," he supplied gently.
She pulled a face, but nodded.
"Alas, yes, this is true. I'm just here to support a friend," he said, then sniffed delicately and glanced down at the glasses she held.
"Wine?"
"For Mabel," she explained.
"It smells good."
"Yes." She inhaled the scent and sighed with regret that she couldn't have it. "It's the house wine."
"House wine?" he queried.
"We make it ourselves," she explained.
"Really?" His eyebrows rose and he asked, "Am I allowed to have a glass?"
Elvi stared, caught by surprise. She'd thought he was a vampire too, but it seemed he was just a mortal, supporting his vampire friend like Mabel.
She'd barely had that thought, when Elvi recalled that he'd been heading off to grab a bag of blood when Victor had left for the car. Thoroughly confused, she opened her mouth to ask what exactly he was when the door to the garage opened and Victor entered.
Elvi's gaze slid first to his ear and neck, noting the bandage was gone and the wound completely healed, and then her attention slid to the rest of him. She hadn't paid much attention to his looks earlier; she'd been too upset by the iguana attack, and then startled by his being a vampire. Now she took him in properly, and felt herself inhale deeply. The man was gorgeous. Tall, with wide muscular shoulders and sexy as hell with that longish hair and the tight dark jeans and T-shirt he was wearing.
His most striking feature, however, was his eyes, a startling silver blue color she'd never seen before. They were beautiful, big and framed by long lashes. Women would kill to have his eyes.
"Breathe," DJ whispered by her ear as he took the glasses from her suddenly shaking hands.
Elvi flushed and forced herself to look away from Victor. Reminded of DJ, she forced herself to concentrate on him and asked, "You want wine?"
He'd said as much, of course, but she was asking again just to be certain she wasn't misunderstanding anything.
"If it wouldn't be a bother," he said with a nod.
"I'll have one too, if you're offering," Victor announced, moving around the counter to join them.
Elvi blinked, but noticed that DJ also appeared surprised by the request as he glanced at his friend.
Victor shrugged at his amazement. "It smells good."
Elvi wasn't surprised he could smell it from across the room. Her own senses had become extremely strong after the turn. She was confused, however, by the request.
"Elvi?" Mabel opened the screen door. Her gaze slid suspiciously from DJ to Victor as she stepped inside, and she said, "You were taking so long I started to worry."
"I'm fine," Elvi assured her, then turned to glance from one man to the other and repeated carefully, "You want wine?"
When both men nodded, she exchanged a glance with Mabel. The other woman moved closer to her side and both of them crossed their arms over their chests as they eyed the pair.
"So, what's the joke?" Mabel asked grimly.
When the men raised their eyebrows in question, Elvi shifted impatiently and said, "Vampires don't consume anything but blood. You aren't real vampires. So what's this about? You thought it would be fun to-"
Her words died abruptly when DJ suddenly opened his mouth. His teeth looked perfectly normal... until his canines slid out and down, becoming long, pointy fangs.
"Oh," she breathed.
"We prefer the term immortals to vampires," Victor announced as DJ retracted his teeth. "And we can eat and drink things other than blood, though many of us stop out of boredom after several hundred years."
"We can eat?" Elvi echoed faintly. It was really the only thing he'd said that stuck in her head. "I can eat?"
"You didn't know?" DJ asked, his teeth now back in place.
"Dracula never ate," Mabel pointed out, confusion and concern on her face as she peered at Elvi.
"Dracula is a fictional character," Victor said dryly.
"Elvi, are you all right?" Mabel asked worriedly, touching her arm.
Elvi was silent, her head bowed. When she lifted it, she had to blink to see through the tears blurring her eyes. "I can eat."
"Yes, honey, it would seem so." Mabel patted her shoulder.
Elvi closed her eyes, her head spinning. She hadn't eaten a thing in five years and that more than anything else had set her apart from others. It was only after her turning that she'd realized how much people relied on food for social occasions. Birthdays, weddings, showers... they were celebrated with feasts, or cakes, or some form of food. Friends even met over coffee or drinks. Every meeting between people somehow revolved around food or drink and that had left her always on the outside. Unable to do either, or so she'd thought, her presence at such functions had often left the others feeling uncomfortable and guilty as they ate or drank in front of her.
That was the emotional side of it. The other side was that Elvi loved food. She always had. She loved the smell, the look, the texture, the taste. She loved to cook and she loved to eat. Going without the last five years had been like some sort of torture. Needless torture if what these two men said was true. She could eat.
That thought screamed through her head like a banshee, drowning out every other thought in her head with its howling. Elvi suddenly turned to the refrigerator and dragged the door open, only to stare at the contents with dismay.
"Oh, Mabel," she moaned unhappily.
"What?" the woman moved to her side, but seemed to understand the moment her eyes moved over the refrigerator contents. Voice apologetic, she said, "I'm on that diet Dr. Wilburs put me on."
Elvi just stood shaking her head mournfully. Her mind was shrieking cheesecake and the refrigerator held nothing but green things; lettuce, celery, spinach, broccoli. She so wasn't having something green and healthy as her first food in five years.
"I need to go to the grocery store," she decided, slamming the fridge door closed.
"What?" Mabel asked with surprise. "The grocery store is closed at this hour."
"Not A&P," she said, pushing through the trio to hurry around the counter. "It's open twenty-four hours." Stopping at the door to the garage, she whirled around and asked, "Where are the car keys?"
"Just a minute, I'll go with you," Mabel said abruptly. "I just have to find my shoes and purse and-"
"What about the fire?" Elvi asked. She really didn't want to have to wait while Mabel got ready. The woman would insist on changing, and freshening her lipstick, then she wouldn't remember where she'd left her purse and so on, and by the time she was ready to go, Elvi could have been and returned and eaten half a cheesecake.
"Oh, damn. I forgot about the fire," Mabel muttered. "I can't leave it unattended."
"That's okay," Elvi assured her. "I can drive myself. I won't be long."
"You won't be driving your car. The garage door is blocked by my car," Victor announced, moving toward her. "I'll take you. DJ can stay here and help Mabel with the fire."
"I don't need any damned help with the fire," Mabel said with irritation.
"I'm sure you don't," DJ said soothingly, then grinned and added, "but I bet between the two of us, we can make it burn hotter."
Silence fell briefly in the room. Mabel appeared too stunned by the suggestive comment to respond. Victor appeared a bit surprised himself. As for Elvi, while she was a little startled by it as well, the thought of food was on her mind and crowding out every thing else. She wasn't going to get into whatever was going on between DJ and Mabel, and she wasn't going to argue about Victor driving her to the store either.
"Let's go," Elvi said abruptly and charged out of the house. She felt absolutely no guilt at abandoning Mabel to DJ's tender mercies. It was Mabel who five years ago had pointed out that vampires don't eat and insisted Elvi not even try because she didn't want to "hold her head when she vomited it back up." At that moment, she was blaming Mabel for five years of missed cheesecake, ice cream, and chocolate.
"Cheesecake, ice cream, chocolate," she muttered, charging through the garage and to the side door.
"Is that your grocery list?" Victor asked, sounding amused as he followed her out onto the sidewalk that ran around the garage to the driveway.
"Part of it," Elvi acknowledged, scurrying around to the driveway, only to come to an abrupt halt. The car she supposed must be his was there, a big, silver BMW. But two more cars were presently pulling into the driveway. The Italian and the German were back and blocking in his car.
Victor took one look at Elvi's face and moved past her to the driver's door of the car behind his.
"Harper, don't turn off the engine," he said, pulling the driver's door open. "This is an emergency. We need to get this lady to A&P, but you're blocking my car and I don't think she can wait for you to move it. Will you drive us?"
"Of course." Harper smiled at Elvi through the window and redid the seat belt he'd just undone.
"Thanks." Slamming the door closed, Victor waved Elvi forward and moved to open the back door.
"I'm coming too," the Italian announced as he got out of his own car. She didn't care. They could all come if they wished... so long as they didn't slow her down. The very idea of something sweet and silky filling her mouth, coating her taste buds and sliding down her throat to her barren stomach, was threatening to make her drool like a baby.
"What kind of emergency is it?" the Italian asked, slipping into the back seat on the passenger's side even as Elvi climbed in through the opposite door.
"Cheesecake," she answered abruptly, squeezing up against the man to make room as Victor followed her into the back seat.
"Comfy?" Harper asked dryly, peering at them in the rearview mirror from where he sat alone in the front.
Elvi grimaced, but didn't complain or suggest anyone move to the front so Harper wasn't left alone like a chauffeur. She just wanted to get moving.
Harper shrugged and shifted the car into gear, started to reverse, then stopped abruptly as another car pulled in behind them, cutting them off.
"Edward," Victor muttered craning his neck to peer out the back window. He gestured to the man through the window and yelled, "Get out of the way!"
Rather than do as instructed, the man got out of his car.
"Where is everyone going?" he asked politely, eyes sharpening as he peered into the backseat and saw Elvi there.
"We have to get to the A&P," Harper told him. "Move your car so we can get out."
Edward hesitated, and then said. "Wouldn't it be easier just to take my car? It's got larger seats."
"Fine!" Elvi said with exasperation. It would probably be just as quick as waiting for him to get back in the car and back out anyway, she thought. Elvi would have crawled right over Victor to get out of the claustrophobic vehicle if he weren't already heaving a sigh and opening the door. She waited impatiently for him to get out, scrambled out behind him and hurried after him to the vehicle blocking Harper's.
It was a BMW like Victor's but black. It was also huge and definitely had more seating room. Elvi crawled in, meeting the Italian again as he too climbed into the backseat. Larger though it was, it was still cramped once Vincent climbed in and pulled the door closed. These men were big. She still felt a little like a sardine in a can.
Sensing that Alessandro was peering at her, she turned a questioning gaze his way.
"Deja vu, eh?" he said with a grin, pulling his door closed.
Despite her impatience to get to the grocery store, Elvi found herself grinning in response.
"I am Alessandro Cipriano," he introduced himself, holding out his hand. Once she'd shook it, he gestured to the blond now climbing into the front passenger seat, "And this is Harpernus Stoyan."
"Call me Harper." The man turned to offer his hand as well, in a quick shake, then reached for his seat belt.
"And I am Edward Kenric," their driver announced as he finished with his own seat belt and shifted into reverse.
"I suppose Victor introduced himself properly while you were tending his injury," Harper said, shifting to sit sideways in his seat so he could see her.
"No." Elvi glanced sideways at the man whose lap she was nearly seated on. Dear Lord, all of these men were big. She'd think it was a result of being vampires, but she hadn't suddenly shot up to six feet tall, and gained bigger boobs, so supposed it was purely the result of their gene pool.
"Victor Argeneau," Harper introduced him properly.
Elvi and Victor exchanged a nod.
"And you are, I hope, Elvi Black?" Harper said.
"Yes." She blushed, suddenly recalling that all these men were here to court her. She wanted to blurt that she hadn't posted the ad, but feared they might not believe her.
"Where are we going?" Edward asked.
"Turn left," Elvi instructed, realizing that he'd backed up and turned around and was now paused at the mouth of the driveway unsure which way to go. "We're going to A&P."
"A&P," Edward murmured as he came to a halt at the red light on the corner. "What is the emergency exactly?"
"Cheesecake," Alessandro answered, then shrugged when the British man turned sharp eyes on him. "It's what she said when I asked."
"Turn right here," Elvi muttered with embarrassment. The light was still red, but there was no traffic coming from the sides.
Edward shifted back to face the road and turned as instructed.
"It's straight up this road several blocks," she said. "It's on the left side. I'll warn you when we get close."
Elvi then sat back and tried not to tap her fingers on her knee as Edward Kenric drove up the street at a ridiculously slow speed.
"The speed limit here is fifty kilometers an hour," she informed him when she couldn't stand it any longer.
Kenric cut his eyes to hers in the rearview mirror. He didn't spit out the sharp words she sensed he wanted to, but did pick up speed... a little. Elvi could have wept with frustration. She was sure he was only going thirty. She could have run there faster than this... carrying one of the men.
Aware that the silence in the car wasn't only her own, Elvi glanced curiously around at the men. All of them but Edward seemed to be staring at her, though even Edward kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
She shifted uncomfortably, then sighed and said, "I didn't put the ad in the paper. Mabel did. I didn't even know what she was up to until tonight."
"We know," Harper informed her gently. "We found that out tonight at the restaurant."
"Oh." She shifted. They were still staring at her, but she hadn't a clue what to say to make them stop... short of telling them to, and that seemed rude when they were all rushing to get her to the A&P and cheesecake. Well, all but Edward. He seemed to be a Sunday driver. Why the damned man hadn't just moved his stupid car and let Harper drive, she didn't know. Obviously a control freak, she decided. Good-looking, but he had issues. And he wasn't too bright either. A smart man wouldn't stand between a woman and cheesecake.
A choking sound drew her eyes to the back of Edward's head with alarm. If he had some sort of seizure and delayed her getting to the grocery store... Honestly!
A chuckle from the Italian made her glance his way and she frowned slightly. "What?"
"Nothing," he said quickly, and then asked, "What do you think of me so far?"
"I don't know you," Elvi said, bewildered by the question.
"No, of course not," he murmured, but watched her almost expectantly.
Shaking her head, Elvi glanced out the front window again to see how far away they were, but now that the man had asked the question, she couldn't seem to help but think about it. What did she think of him?
He seemed all right so far from what she could tell. He was certainly good-looking, and those eyes of his! She'd never seen golden brown eyes before. They were almost as beautiful as Victor's.
Her gaze slid to Harper. He was a handsome man too with his golden hair and silver-green eyes. All four of the men in the car were attractive, but of the four of them she would have said Victor appealed to her the most. She couldn't say why and didn't care to ponder the matter. Besides, they'd reached the grocery store... finally.
And Edward was driving past, she realized with horror. Sitting forward, she shrieked, "Here!" Then cried out in surprise as Edward stomped on the brakes and sent everyone slamming backward in their seats.
There was a moment of startled silence in the car, and then Edward turned slowly in his seat and cast a cold glare her way. "Ms. Black. In the future, you might try to avoid screeching in the driver's ear whilst giving directions. It can be quite alarming."
"Sorry," she said meekly. The man could be quite scary when he chose to be.
"She gets the point, Edward. Just pull in here." Victor's voice was harsh and commanding and Edward responded to it, though not before she saw annoyance flicker across his face.
Releasing the breath she'd been holding once he'd stopped glaring at her, Elvi took a cautious breath and offered Victor a grateful smile, then turned to glance questioningly at Alessandro when he tapped her arm.
"You like me, no?" he asked with a grin when she met his gaze.
Elvi stared at him in confusion, and then followed his gaze when he glanced down, realizing only then that when Edward had slammed on the brakes, she'd grabbed the man's knee and was still clutching it for dear life.
A surprised squeak slipped from her lips, and she immediately released his knee, only to realize she was clutching Victor's with her other hand as well. Reclaiming that straying hand too, she crossed her arms over her chest and stared straight ahead at the A&P sign like it was a beacon in the dark.
"Cheesecake, chocolate, ice cream," she muttered under her breath. Nothing else would matter once she had those.
