The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,101

went in to pay, and when I came out, she was gone."

"She probably just went to use the bathroom or something," Teddy said soothingly as the tension in the room ratcheted upward. Standing, he moved to the desk and pulled out a phone book. "Which gas sta on was it? Esso or the Pioneer by Wal-Mart?"

"Neither," Anders answered. "The other one. I don't remember the name."

Teddy turned to peer at him blankly. "What other one? We don't have another one."

"The one up by the highway," Anders said. "It doesn't matter anyway, I did check the bathroom. Teddy let the phone book lower to the desk. "Why the hell would you go all the way out there? The other two are half the distance."

Anders mu ered something Russian under his breath and turned away again. "I'm going back out to look for her."

"The hell you are." Drina caught his arm and pulled him back around. "What's going on, Anders? Where were you taking her?"

"I can't tell you," he said grimly.

"Why not?" Mirabeau demanded, joining them.

"Because Lucian said not to."

Drina blinked in surprise at those words, then narrowed her eyes. "You were taking her to Toronto."

He didn't confirm that, but he didn't deny it either, and she knew she was right.

"Why didn't Lucian want Drina to know that?" Harper asked, crossing to join them as well with Tiny on his heels.

"Because she would have felt she had to come too, and he wants her to stay here with you," Anders said dryly.

Drina felt Harper peering at her but was too busy worrying over what Anders had said and what it would mean for Stephanie. Being in Toronto, closer to Lucian, and without anyone who cared about her. Drina knew Stephanie's sister, Dani, was somewhere down in the States right now, playing bait, and Mirabeau and herself were here in Port Henry. The kid would have been on her own.

"Well, she couldn't have gone far without a coat. She was probably in the bathroom while you were in the store and in the store while you checked the bathroom. It's not like she'd walk back, Anders," Teddy said, picking up the phone. "It's too damned far and cold for that. She's probably standing around in the gas station waiting for you to come back."

"No, she ran away," Drina murmured, and Mirabeau nodded solemnly.

"What?" Anders frowned. "Why the hell would she run away?"

"Because she likes it here, and you were taking her back to Toronto, where she was miserable," she said dryly.

"She didn't know that. I hadn't told her yet. I was going to after I got on the highway."

"You didn't have to tell her," Mirabeau assured him. "She would have read it from your mind."

Anders didn't laugh at the sugges on. His mouth ghtened, and he said, "I made sure I didn't even think about it. There was nothing to read."

His words told Drina that he knew about Stephanie's special abili es, or at least knew part of it. He knew she could read his thoughts even though he was old and not a new life mate, but didn't know it wasn't restricted to surface memories. Which meant Lucian knew. She saw Anders's eyes narrow on her and sighed as she realized how he'd known. He was reading her thoughts even now and had probably read them before, both from her and Mirabeau.

"It doesn't ma er," Drina said wearily, moving past him to get to the closet and retrieve the bomber jacket.

Anders turned toward the door again. "I'll go back out and look for her again."

"Wait for us," Mirabeau said, reaching past Drina to grab her own coat and Tiny's. "You can drop Tiny and me at Casey Cottage. Our SUV is still there. We can help search too."

Drina had started to shrug into Stephanie's bomber, but paused and glanced to Harper uncertainly when she realized she'd just assumed he'd be willing to search for the girl and hadn't asked. "I'm sorry. Would you mind if we - ?"

"No, of course not," he said solemnly. "Hand me my coat."

Sighing with relief, she passed his coat over, then grabbed her boots and moved back into the dining room to don them. Teddy was hanging up the phone as she entered. When she glanced his way in question, he shook his head, and then sat down at the desk and opened the phone book again.

"I'm going to make a few calls," he announced. "Get the clerks at Tim Hortons and the corner store and anywhere