by Lynsay Sands
“If you’d at least told me what was happening, Elvi, I could have kept an eye out for anyone skulking around,” Mike added.
Elvi peered at the angry male faces surrounding her for a moment and then stood up and pushed her way through them, muttering, “I have some pies in the oven I need to check on.”
“Well done, gentlemen,” Harper murmured as they watched her make her way into the house, her posture defeated. “Attacking the victim is always very effective.”
Victor glanced at the German sharply, and then let his head drop back to the ground with a sigh as he realized that was exactly what he’d done. Worse yet, he hadn’t just attacked her, he’d blamed her. He hadn’t meant to, but the whole thing had terrified the hell out of him. When he’d realized that Elvi was trapped in the burning shed it had been Marion all over again. Victor hadn’t been there to witness his first wife’s death, but he’d heard about it and had nightmares ever since. He couldn’t lose Elvi to fire too. He couldn’t lose her at all. She had become the most important thing in his life. He wouldn’t lose her now.
“Well, hell!” Brunswick ran an agitated hand through his thinning hair. “I suppose we owe her an apology.”
“I’d say so,” Harper agreed.
“Well, come on then, Argeneau,” he said, turning away. “We may as well get it over with before she gets herself upset enough to start crying or some other female thing. I hate a crying woman. Elvi isn’t usually like that, but she’s been through a lot lately and…” Brunswick paused and turned back as he realized no one had followed him. Victor still lay on the ground and the rest of the men were staring at him silently.
“What is it? Can’t you get up?” Brunswick returned to join the circle of men.
“Not at the moment, no,” Victor admitted calmly.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” He dropped to his haunches at his side. “Where are you hurt? Let me have a look.”
“I don’t think so,” Victor said dryly.
“I think the birdbath, she landed on his…” Alessandro glanced to Harper and Edward for help. “How you say? Bowls?”
“The birdbath landed on his groin,” Edward said with exasperation.
“Oh.” Brunswick pulled back, obviously no more willing to look at the wound than Victor was to have him look.
“Si.” Alessandro nodded. “I hear something pop when she hit. I think he be very sorely hurt.”
“Thank you, Alessandro,” Victor said dryly.
“What do we do?” Mike Knight asked.
“We wait,” Harper said with a shrug. “It will heal itself. It just takes time. He probably won’t feel much like moving until it does, though.”
“And he’ll need to feed,” Edward murmured.
“It’s a good thing I brought more blood, then,” Brunswick commented.
The immortals merely exchanged glances and then turned to peer toward the firemen. They had finished spraying down the shed and were now putting away their equipment.
“Mike,” Harper said suddenly. “I think you should take Teddy over to examine the shed for evidence.”
Mike glanced at him with surprise. “I…Yes,” he said suddenly, his face going slack. Turning he walked to the shed and stood facing it. When Harper then turned his gaze on Brunswick, the police captain followed. The two men stood silent and still, staring at the burnt shed in silence.
“I shall fetch your dinner,” Edward said, turning to head for the firemen.
“I’ll help.” Alessandro hurried after him.
“Thanks,” Victor breathed, closing his eyes.
Elvi scowled out her sunroom window at the men still congregated in her backyard. She’d come inside, switched the cooked pies in the oven for three uncooked ones, then come upstairs to shower. A glance out the bathroom window while she waited for the water temperature to warm up had shown Teddy and Mike standing staring at the shed while the rest of the men, including the firemen, stood in a circle around Victor. One of the firemen had been kneeling beside him, checking him over, Elvi supposed.
She’d actually worried for an instant that he’d been more seriously injured than she’d realized, but had refused to go find out just to get yelled at again. Instead, she’d got into the shower to wash away the smoke and soot, telling herself he was fine.
But he was still out there, lying on the ground. Though, Elvi noted, the firemen were now gone and Teddy and Mike had rejoined the smaller circle of men. As she watched, Victor sat up slowly, and then accepted the hand DJ held out to help him rise. He got cautiously to his feet, and stayed bent over for a minute, but she didn’t see blood anywhere to suggest he’d had anything but the wind knocked out of him as she’d first supposed.
Sighing, she turned away from the window and passed through her room to the hall. Mabel had been left alone a long time. She should check to be sure she was all right.
Mabel was in the process of trying to get up when Elvi entered her room.
“No, no, no,” she said at once, rushing forward. “You shouldn’t get up.”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Mabel announced with exasperation, waving her away as she stood.
“I’ll help y—” Elvi froze as Mabel straightened and she got a good look at her. She’d only seen Mabel twice since the turning started. When they’d first arrived back from the Night Club, and then this morning on her way downstairs. Last night, Mabel had been thrashing so violently, Elvi hadn’t paid attention to anything but helping to keep her from hurting herself, then of course, she’d been bitten. This morning, she’d merely peered in from the door and Mabel had been sleeping with her head turned away, the sheets tangled around her body and partially concealing her head.
She wasn’t concealed now and Elvi just stood and gaped at the change. Mabel didn’t look a day over twenty-two. Her face was peaches-and-cream perfection, her eyes were pure gold, her figure slender and lithe, and her hair a halo of shiny, glossy golden waves around her face.
Elvi shook her head in wonder. Mabel didn’t look like she had when she was younger, she looked better. Unfortunately, the blonde had suffered a terrible case of acne as a teen and her complexion had forever after been pockmarked because of it. She’d also been too thin and flat-chested until she hit her mid-forties when she’d taken on a good forty pounds. Mabel was neither too thin now, nor overweight. The turning had removed at least twenty pounds, redistributing what it left behind to give her a healthy, curvy shape. She was gorgeous and had the added confidence of age to add to that beauty. It made Elvi wonder what the woman’s life might have been like had she looked like this back then.
“You look almost as poleaxed as Teddy was when he saw me. Is it that bad?” Mabel asked warily, noting her expression.
Elvi managed to close her mouth, but then she just shook her head, took her by the arm, and led her over to stand in front of the full-length mirror at the foot of the bed.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Mabel breathed, staring at her reflection with stunned golden eyes.
Elvi grinned at her flummoxed expression, and then laughed as Mabel began to poke herself in various places as if to see if her new body was real. When she then opened her mouth and began to prod around in search of her canines, Elvi moved to the refrigerator to fetch a bag of blood. All she had to do was carry it back to her. The moment Mabel spotted the blood, her teeth began to shift and Mabel covered her mouth with dismay then whirled back to the mirror to look at them.
“Come on,” Elvi said after letting her examine herself for a few more minutes. “You should get back in bed and feed.”
“I don’t want to get back in bed,” Mabel said impatiently, but she did take the bag of blood. “Do I just…”
“Just open your mouth and pop it to your teeth,” Elvi instructed, then watched her do it and smiled. “See? Easy. Now, at least sit on the bed while you feed.”
Mabel followed reluctantly and sat on the bed as Elvi retrieved several more bags of blood from the refrigerator. The sma
ll mini fridge had originally been in DJ and Victor’s room, but the men had moved it over last night.
While Mabel fed, Elvi regaled her with all that had happened since she and the men had left the house the day before. She told her about their trip to the club and Victor’s coldness, then arriving back to find DJ in a state and her mid-turn.
Mabel flushed guiltily and interrupted her then to admit she remembered biting her the night before. When she started to apologize for it, Elvi waved it away.
“I bit you in Mexico. We’re even,” she said lightly, and then went on to tell her about Victor’s sudden about-face last night, and, finally, the incident in the garden shed.
Mabel listened with eyes that grew wider as Elvi told her how both Teddy and Victor and even Edward had pretty much blamed her for nearly getting killed, as if it were her fault.
“Men!” Mabel snorted with disgust as she removed the last bag, then stood and headed for the bathroom door, saying, “Now, I really have to pee.”
Chuckling, Elvi stood and followed to wait outside the door in case she suddenly became weak or passed out, but when the sound of the toilet flushing was followed by the shower turning on, she reached for the doorknob.
“Mabel, I don’t think you ought to shower yet. What if you pass out or something?” she asked, opening the door.
“I won’t. I feel fine,” Mabel assured her, retrieving a towel and washcloth from the cupboard. “Besides, it’s been almost twenty-four hours. You were up and around after twenty-four hours.”
Elvi glanced at her wristwatch, startled to see that it was late-afternoon. She’d been up here for quite a while.
“What’s wrong?” Mabel asked, catching her expression.
Elvi grimaced. “I’m just wondering what the men are doing.”
“Who cares?” Mabel said with a snort.
“I do,” Elvi admitted. “And you should too. Why hasn’t DJ come up to check on you?”
“He did,” Mabel announced. “He opened the door and stuck his head in while you were telling me about the Night Club. When he saw I was sitting up in bed, fine, and you were with me, he blew me a kiss and backed out.”
“Oh,” Elvi murmured, but began worrying her lip. DJ had been hanging over Mabel ever since he got to Port Henry, more so since the turning, and now he was suddenly downstairs with the men…. It made her suspect that they were up to something.
She pondered what that could be while Mabel showered, and then stiffened where she leaned against the bathroom counter when there was a tap on the bedroom door.
Mabel stuck her head out of the shower to ask with a frown, “Was that the door?”
Elvi nodded.
“DJ wouldn’t knock,” Mabel said the obvious.
Nodding again, Elvi stared out at the bedroom door as if it were a snake, only relaxing when a second knock came, followed by a female voice calling, “Hello?”
“Karen,” she said with relief. “I’ll get it. Shout if you have a problem.”
“I’m done, I’m getting out,” Mabel announced and ducked back into the shower. Elvi heard the water shut off as she left the room.
“There you are,” Karen smiled when Elvi opened the door, and then asked anxiously, “I didn’t wake Mabel, did I? DJ said she was awake and you two were talking when he last checked, so I thought it would be okay to come up.”
“Of course it’s okay, and no you didn’t wake Mabel,” Elvi assured her, stepping aside to let her in. “She’s in the shower.”
“Oh, good. She’s feeling better, then, is she?” Karen asked as she entered.
Elvi nodded and closed the door. “Much.”
“Well, I came looking for Mike when he didn’t come back after the fire and found the men in your dining room having a powwow. They say you’ve been having some trouble?”
“A little,” Elvi admitted with a grimace. “But I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Oh,” Karen hesitated, and then told her, “well, the men said you and Mabel weren’t going to the fair tonight so I thought I’d come up and see if you wanted me to take the pies and—”
“They said what?” Elvi asked sharply.
Eyes wide at Elvi’s tone of voice, Karen said uncertainly, “You aren’t going to the fair?”
“Who said that? Victor?” she asked, her temper rearing its head.
“Well, actually, I think it was Teddy who said it first, but they all seemed to be in agreement.”
“Teddy’s still here too?” she asked with surprise.
“Yes. He and Mike have been here since the fire.”
Elvi let her breath out slowly. She’d known they were up to something.
“I can take the pies for you,” Karen repeated. “I mean, if you’re in danger, maybe it is best if you stay here.”
Elvi frowned. “I forgot about the pies. I still have another dozen to bake I think.”
Karen shook her head. “The men did them. They’re all done and the last three are cooling.”
“Oh.” Elvi stared at the wall, wondering how men could be so wonderful and so annoying at the same time. On the one hand, they’d helped make the pies, and now helped bake them, which was really sweet, but on the other hand, they were plotting to keep her from taking them to the fair to be sold.
“So I’ll take the pies for you?”
“No, that’s okay,” Elvi said. “I’ll take them.”
Karen bit her lip, and then admitted, “I don’t think they’re going to let you out of the house, Elvi. They were plotting how to keep you here when I started upstairs.”
“Oh, they were, were they?” Mabel said and both women turned to find her standing in the bathroom door, still damp from her shower and wrapped in a bath towel. She’d obviously heard everything.
“Mabel?” Karen gasped, staring at her with amazement. “You—You—”
“Not bad for an old broad, huh?” Mabel asked with amusement when Karen couldn’t seem to find the words she was looking for.
Karen sank to sit on the side of the bed and just stared.
“I gather the men didn’t mention that Mabel had turned?” Elvi asked gently.
Karen just shook her head, apparently dumbstruck.
Elvi patted her shoulder, and then glanced to Mabel as the woman crossed the room with determined strides.
“So the men are plotting, are they?” Mabel muttered as she moved to her closet and began to rifle through her clothes. “Well, they’re about to have a fight on their hands. Mabel Allen and Ellen Stone do not lie down for anyone to step on. We—” She paused suddenly, alarm on her face, and then cried, “I don’t have a thing that will fit me anymore!”
“I have clothes you can wear,” Elvi said quickly, and then added, “And I have a plan too; one that doesn’t include the need for confrontation.”
“No confrontation?” Mabel asked, sounding almost disappointed. She always had been a fighter.
“Mabel, there are more of them and they’re bigger than us,” Elvi pointed out. “In a confrontation, they’d win. Brains are better here.”
“Brains.” Mabel nodded. “We’ve got them beat already, then.”
Elvi smiled and turned toward the door. “Come on. Let’s go find you something to wear. You too, Karen. We’re definitely going to need your help.”
“This isn’t going to get me into trouble, is it?” Karen asked as she stood to follow.
“Trouble?” Elvi asked with surprise. “No, of course not. We’re just going to the fair. It’s not like we’re going to do something illegal.”
Nineteen
“I’m sure they didn’t steal your car, Teddy. Elvi said they weren’t going to do anything illegal.”
Victor exchanged a glance with DJ as Karen Knight tried to soothe the outraged police captain. Teddy Brunswick hadn’t taken it at all well when—after DJ had returned from checking on Mabel to announce that the women were gone—they’d all rushed out to the driveway to find his patrol car missing. He’d cursed a blue streak as th
ey’d piled into Victor and Harper’s cars and raced to the park where the fair was being held.
Karen had the unfortunate luck of returning to her car in the parking lot for another box of pies as they pulled in. Spotting her, Teddy had leapt out of Victor’s car and charged over, practically foaming at the mouth.
“They were just going to come to the fair,” Karen went on. “The plan was they were going to sneak out through Elvi’s sunroom and ride over in my car, but there wasn’t enough room, with all the pies in it. I wasn’t sure what to do, but they said to go ahead, they’d find another way to get here.”
“And then they stole my car,” Teddy Brunswick said furiously.
“I’m sure they didn’t. Elvi said they wouldn’t do anything illegal,” Karen repeated anxiously.
“Well, then she lied,” Teddy snapped.
“That’s kind of harsh, Teddy,” Mike said with a frown, slipping a supportive arm around his wife. “Elvi and Mabel aren’t the sort to lie and steal. They probably just borrowed it. They would have brought it back after the fair.”
Seeing that Brunswick was winding up for another rant, Victor interceded. “Where are they now, Karen? I presume they got here, all right? The patrol car is here.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” She smiled at him with relief, apparently grateful to turn away from Teddy. “They’re manning the booth.”
“What booth?” DJ asked fretfully. “Mabel shouldn’t be out of bed.”
“Mabel was supposed to man the pie booth, but there was so much demand at Elvi’s booth, she ended up helping her over there and I took over the pie booth,” Karen explained. “They’re really racking it up too, I can tell you.”
“What and where is Elvi’s booth?” Victor asked patiently.
“It’s the Biting Booth, only it isn’t the—” Karen broke off as Victor turned and headed off into the park, the other men hard on his heels.
“I can’t believe she’s still biting when she knows it’s against our laws,” Harper said with dismay as they hurried through the crowd in search of the Biting Booth. “And Mabel too. Surely you told her it’s not allowed, DJ?”
