“I was,” Victor agreed mildly. “But the moment I realized you were my life mate, I knew I could not do it.”
“You were a rogue?” Sherry breathed, staring at Elvi with disbelief. The woman was so nice, so kind, so . . . nice. It was hard to imagine she was ever a rogue anything.
“I wasn’t rogue,” Elvi assured her. “Well, I suppose I was, but only because my friends made me one.”
“Your friends?” she asked curiously.
“Yes. Teddy and Hazel. My best friends,” Elvi said dryly. “Not on purpose. How were they to know advertising in the personals section of the newspaper to find me a male vampire might get me hunted down and executed?”
Sherry’s eyes widened incredulously. “They put an ad in the personals?”
“They did,” she assured her. “And, without warning me ahead of time, mind you.”
“Oh my,” Sherry said with amusement.
“Mmm.” Elvi smiled faintly. “It’s funny now, but it was not funny then. I was mortified.”
“I can imagine,” Sherry said sympathetically. “I hate setups too. Stephanie is just the latest in a long line of people who have tried to set me up with someone over the years. It’s like people can’t stand to see a woman on her own or something. But the setups never work. They are always a disaster.”
“Over the years?” Elvi asked curiously. “Have you never been in a serious relationship?”
“Yes. I was engaged once,” she admitted.
“But you didn’t marry?”
“It just didn’t work out. These things happen. It’s better this way,” Sherry said with a shrug, and then asked. “What made Teddy and Hazel decide to put an ad in the personals?”
“Oh.” Elvi smiled faintly. “It was really very sweet. Teddy and Hazel were my best friends from childhood on. They were getting old, though. All our friends were, and they were starting to pass on around us. Teddy and Hazel started to worry about dying themselves and leaving me alone, so they decided they had to find me a vampire who could keep me company once they were gone.”
“Oh, that is sweet,” Sherry said.
“I know,” Elvi said on a little sigh. “Teddy and Hazel have always been the most amazing friends.”
“Teddy.” Sherry smiled faintly. “It’s such a rare name and yet there are two of them here in Port Henry. Katricia’s Teddy and your Teddy.”
“No. There’s only the one,” Elvi assured her. “Katricia’s Teddy is my friend Teddy.”
“But he’s not old,” Sherry protested with amazement. “Why would he be worried about . . .” Her voice trailed away as understanding set in.
“Yes. He was mortal before Katricia turned him as her life mate. He was sixty-four when they met last Christmas,” Elvi told her.
“Wow,” Sherry breathed, thinking of the good-looking, dark-haired, silver-eyed man at the house. Like everyone else, he seemed no more than twenty-four or twenty-five. He was also gorgeous, and looked damned fine in the police uniform. “He looks good for sixty-four.”
“Sixty-five now,” Elvi said with amusement.
“Oh.” Sherry nodded and then glanced at her sharply. “He was your best friend and was mortal?” When Elvi nodded, she asked, “Does that mean you were?”
“Mortal? Yes,” Elvi admitted. “So was my other friend, Hazel. She’s immortal now too, though.”
“So Katricia was born a vamp—immortal.” Sherry corrected herself quickly when she noted the way Victor and Basil winced as she started to say vampire. Stephanie had said older immortals didn’t like the term, and it appeared she was right. “So Katricia was an immortal and Teddy a mortal. Victor was born immortal and you were mortal. Hazel was mortal . . .”
When she hesitated, Elvi said, “Yes, D.J. was immortal.”
Sherry nodded. “What about Drina and Harper? Which of them was mortal?”
“Neither,” Basil announced. “Both were born immortal.”
“Oh,” she said with surprise. “So a life mate can be an immortal too?”