The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,57

had with Drina was the first me he'd eaten in a while. He hadn't a clue what he would like, so everything was an experiment just now.

"Your avoiding her hurt Drina," Anders growled.

Harper set the bowl on the counter with a sigh and lowered his head. He shouldn't be surprised that his fleeing the minute they'd got their coat and boots off, and then not returning downstairs would hurt her, he supposed, but he hadn't been thinking of her. He'd been thinking of -

"A dead woman," Anders said grimly, reminding him that his thoughts were easily read at the moment.

"She was my life mate," Harper said quietly.

"Was being the opera ve word. She died. Fate had other plans for you. Now you have Drina. It's a damned lucky turn of events for you. Some never find a second life mate, and those who do usually have to wait centuries. And Drina's already immortal, another bit of luck since you've already used your one allowed turn. It would be foolish to throw this good fortune away."

Harper stared out the back window of the house, frustra on coursing through him. Everything Anders said was true, but he couldn't seem to rid himself of the clawing guilt. He'd managed to forget it for a while in Toronto, but the closer they'd go en to Port Henry, the more he'd felt like a philandering husband returning from an elicit rendezvous with his secretary.

Harper closed his eyes. Jenny was dead and in the grave because she'd been willing to turn and be his life mate, and he was off laughing and playing with another woman. He felt like he was dancing on her grave.

But that wasn't even the worst of it. The thing that really ate at him was that he couldn't even remember what Jenny had looked like anymore. That wasn't because of Drina's arrival. He hadn't been able to recall her face for a while now. Her image had faded from his mind almost before she'd been in the ground. It was wrong. Shameful. She'd died to be with him and deserved better than that.

"And what does Drina deserve?" Anders asked, obviously still in his thoughts. Harper turned and scowled at the usually uncommunicative man. "What do you care?"

"I don't," Anders said with a shrug, moving cards around on the table. "If you want to throw away a good thing when fate is kind enough to give it to you, go for it."

"Thank you," Harper said dryly, turning back to the counter.

"But I'll tell you this," Anders said in a conversa onal tone. "If it had turned out that Drina could have been a life mate to either you or me . . . you'd be dead. I'd have killed to claim her. Most immortals would. So I'm thinking you're either a fool or seriously fucked up. Either way, she's be er off without you."

Harper whipped around to gape at him, but Anders didn't even glance up from his cards and con nued ma er-of-factly playing his game as he added, "I'm doub ng she'll see it that way, though. This'll eat at her, distract her from what she's supposed to be doing, and a distracted hunter usually ends up a dead hunter."

Anders paused to glance to Harper, and added, "That's all right, though. You'll have two life mates'

deaths on your hands and can completely submerge yourself in guilt and misery, right?"

"Gin," Stephanie said triumphantly, laying her cards on the table.

Drina tore her gaze from the ceiling and reached for a card from the deck.

"Hello. I said gin," Stephanie said dryly, making Drina pause and blink at her in confusion. Heaving a heavy sigh, the teenager shook her head. "You aren't even paying attention, Dree."

"Sorry," Drina mu ered, and then a small smile tugged at her lips, and she set her cards down, saying,

"Beth calls me that."

"Dree?" Stephanie asked, collec ng the cards and beginning to shuffle them again. "She's your partner, right?"

Drina nodded, suddenly wishing Beth were there. She could use some advice at the moment.

"Harper's avoiding you," Stephanie murmured sadly as she began to deal cards.

"It would seem so," Drina said on a sigh, her eyes sliding to the ceiling again. He'd been avoiding her ever since their return the night before. He'd escaped to his room to shower and change the moment they'd go en their coats and boots off and hadn't le it un l she and Stephanie had re red for the night. She'd heard him come