The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,56
see, there's Victor and Elvi, DJ and Mabel, Alessandro and Leonora, Edward and Dawn, Mirabeau and Tiny . . . That's five."
"You forgot - "
"Oh wait, you're right, I forgot Lucian and Leigh. They were s ll brand-spanking-new life mates when they came down here that first time," Teddy said with a nod. "So it is six. And you two are seven."
"I meant Jenny and I," Harper said firmly, unable to leave the woman out.
"Hmm." Teddy was silent as they traveled along the side of the garage toward the deck, but then said,
"Well, here's the thing. You two weren't like the others."
Harper looked startled by the words, and it was Drina who asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, sure enough Harper seemed eager, but Jenny was another ke le of fish. She treated Harper like she did poor old Bobby Jarrod when they were in high school. The boy was crazy for her," he explained.
"Over the moon, and they even dated for a while, but she kept him at arm's length, treated him real cool." He shook his head with distaste. "Everyone knew she was just using him for free ckets to the movies. He was an usher at the Cineplex in London," he explained.
Drina glanced to Harper to see how he was taking this, but his head was bowed, and she couldn't see his expression.
"The biggest favor she did for Bobby was tossing him over for that idiot Randy Matheson when he showed her some interest." Teddy shook his head. "Now there was a troublemaker. She always went a er troublemakers. And Randy's name fit him to a T, let me tell you. Never seen a more randy teenager. I caught those two parking on back roads all around the county until she tossed him over for some London fellow with a rich daddy and an allowance big enough he could afford to rent himself a motel room rather than grope in cars. I wasn't sorry about that at all. Chasing off bare-arsed teenagers just gets old pre y quick."
They'd crossed the deck and reached the door of the house by then, and Teddy paused to turn back to Harper, saying, "I never would have told you all that had Jenny lived, and I didn't say it when she died because I knew you were hur ng, but now that you're happily se led with Drina here, and enjoying that new-life-mate glow like the others, I have to tell you I think you made a lucky escape there. I don't know all the ins and outs of this life-mate business, but while Jenny might have been a possible life mate for you and agreed to the turn, I don't think her heart was in it. I kind of got the feeling she just saw you as another Bobby Jarrod."
Turning away, Teddy opened the screen door and raised a hand to knock but paused as Mirabeau opened the door from inside.
"Beau," Teddy greeted, stepping inside.
Mirabeau smiled, then glanced past Teddy to Drina and Harper and waved them in. "Come on you two. It's cold out."
Forcing a smile, Drina stepped inside, wishing she could drag Harper somewhere to talk and find out what he was thinking. But there didn't appear to be much of a chance at the moment. She would have to figure out a way to get him alone and talk to him later.
"Decided to come out of hiding now that Drina and Stephanie have gone to bed, did you?"
Harper s ffened at that gree ng from Anders as he stepped off the stairs and turned the corner into the dining room. The hunter sat at the table, a deck of cards spread out before him in what appeared to be a complicated version of solitaire. Harper frowned at the man, not apprecia ng that one of the few mes the Russian chose to speak more than a word or two was to call him out on his behavior.
"I wasn't hiding," he lied, turning to walk along the L-shaped counter separa ng the kitchen from the dining room. Moving to the refrigerator, he opened it, his eyes sliding from the bags of blood to the available food inside.
"Right," Anders said dryly. "You just like four-hour showers."
Harper scowled into the refrigerator, and then grabbed both a bag of blood and a bowl of some sort of le over. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was hungry. He'd heat it up and see what it tasted like. The dinner he'd