The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,105

use the phone again?"

"Well, yeah, sure, but - " He fell silent as she turned sideways to pick up the phone on the counter behind them. Then he bent to squint at the screen again. Shaking his head, he glanced to Harper, and said, "There's no way she can see the license plate, let alone read it."

"She has very good eyes," Harper said solemnly, as Drina punched in Teddy's number.

"Man, that's not good eyes, that's whacked, superscary sci-fi eyes," Jason assured him, and then frowned, and said, "You look familiar. Are you - " He stopped suddenly and slapped himself in the forehead. "You're that vamp guy who rents a room next door to my buddy Owen's place."

Drina saw Harper wince and bit back a smile, but then Jason turned to her, his eyes widening farther.

"Oh, whoa, that means you're probably one of the vamp chicks staying there. Aren't you?"

"Owen is the son of Elvi's neighbor," Harper explained to her, then in answer to the question said, "Yes."

"Damn," Jason mu ered, not even sparing Harper a glance. He then added mournfully, "I shoulda known. You're too hot to be human."

Drina just shook her head and turned her back to him. She was human, and she definitely was not too hot to be anything. In fact, she didn't consider herself hot at all. She was really rather average. But she was immortal, and for some reason mortals tended to find them a rac ve. Beth had a theory about it. Since she drew a lot more a en on from mortal men now that she was immortal, Beth suspected it was another li le trick of the nanos, making their bodies create and release extrastrong pheromones to attract prey.

Drina had no idea if it was true or not and didn't much care.

Teddy's voice sounded in her ear, and Drina forced her mind to the task at hand. She quickly relayed what they'd found, giving him a description of the car and the license-plate number. He made her repeat all the informa on, promised to pass it on to the others, and then quickly ended the call. She suspected he was eager to get moving on it. This was the first lead they'd had a er hours of frustra ng, resultless searching.

"Thank you, Jason," Drina said sincerely as she turned back from the phone. "We appreciate your help."

"No problem," he said, but she couldn't help no cing that he was looking at her differently. Earlier, he'd been friendly and open. She'd been able to tell that he was a racted to her, but he'd been more natural. Now, however, he was looking at her like she was some exo c creature who had unexpectedly flown into his workplace . . . a sexually a rac ve exo c creature. Drina added the last thought as she noted the way his eyes had dilated and kept dropping downward over her body.

"Right," Harper said dryly, taking Drina's arm and urging her back around the counter. "We'd best go help look for the car."

There were two islands with two pumps each, and Harper had parked on the outside of the second island, farthest from the store itself. They had just passed the first island and were approaching the second when Jason suddenly yelled at them from the store door, "Hey, you forgot to pay!"

They both stopped at once, and Drina was chuckling at Harper's irritated mu er as they turned back, when Jason yelled, "Look out!"

Drina ins nc vely started to glance around, but Harper was already pushing her to the side. Staggering, she grabbed at the gas pump to keep her feet and glanced back to see Harper throwing himself forward and to the ground, his hand outstretched as if he were a baseball player trying to catch a ground ball. The only thing missing was the baseball glove . . . and the ball, she thought as she saw the flaming bo le land in his open palm.

Harper immediately closed his eyes and briefly lowered his forehead to the cold pavement as if in thanks, then li ed his head and pulled the burning bit of cloth out of the top. He crushed it between his palm and the ground to put it out, then started to rise, holding the bottle like it was a venomous snake.

"Are you all right?" Drina asked, hurrying to his side, her eyes scanning the direc on the bo le had come from. There was nothing to see,