The mortal, Jason Lerner, had just slipped his hand into the inside breast pocket of his jacket when Victor reached the small group and caught him by the wrist.
"Say!" Brunswick protested. "Argeneau, what-?" His question broke off when Victor forced the man's arm sideways, bringing his hand and the stake it held out from beneath the jacket.
"He's not the sort of suitor your Elvi was hoping for. He's a vampire hunter." Victor removed the stake from the man's hand, slid it into his own back pocket, and then glanced to Harper and DJ as they joined them. "We'll take him outside and deal with him."
"Now, just a minute," Brunswick protested. "I'm the law here. I'll-"
"What can you do?" Victor interrupted politely. He could have just slipped into the officer's mind and taken control, but with the entire restaurant watching and listening, persuasion was the better option here.
"I can arrest him," Brunswick answered promptly.
"On what charge? I stopped him before he attacked anyone," Victor pointed out. "And, as far as I know, stakes aren't considered concealed weapons, so you can't charge him with carrying one."
Brunswick frowned. "No, but I can arrest him for being a public nuisance."
"And he shall be back on the streets by morning and hunting your Elvi."
Brunswick's mouth tightened, but he asked, "What can you do?"
"We can wipe his mind."
The officer shifted, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "You won't hurt him?"
"It won't hurt at all. He'll simply forget all about Elvi and this town and vampires," Victor assured him, though, strictly speaking, it wasn't true. Lerner's madness meant they would have to use the three-on-one procedure and there would undoubtedly be damage to his brain. But having been inside his mind, Victor had no problem with that.
Elvi wasn't the first target of Lerner's madness. This mortal had killed women for various imagined reasons. He was a sick individual who had somehow slipped through the cracks and been left to kill various women in his wanderings across the country. If the procedure left him in a fugue state with half his mind destroyed, all women would be safer for it.
"Well, all right," Brunswick said at last. "But just you."
Victor shook his head. "I'll need two of the men. It takes three."
"Alessandro and I will assist you," Edward announced, and then added, "I presume one of us was to be the recipient of the stake he was reaching for? That being the case, it seems only right that we assist in handling the man."
Victor nodded reluctantly and turned the mortal to make him exit the restaurant. Lerner had been docile ever since he'd touched his wrist. Victor was able to control his mind and behavior somewhat so long as he was touching him. He continued to be unresisting as they led him outside.
They dealt with Lerner quickly. Edward, Alessandro, and Victor circled him, each touching his arm or face as they invaded his thoughts and wiped them from his mind. Once finished, the man was unconscious. They moved him, leaning Lerner against the building next door, then Victor took out his cell phone and flipped it open to press a quick-dial number. Edward and Alessandro waited patiently as he called Argeneau Enterprises, explained the situation, and arranged to have the man picked up.
"Do we wait here for them to collect him?" Alessandro asked as Victor flipped his phone closed.
Shaking his head, he pocketed the phone. "He isn't going anywhere and they shouldn't be long. Come on."
He led them back inside.
"All taken care of?" DJ asked as the trio reentered the restaurant. The other men still stood by the door.
Victor nodded and asked, "Do we meet Elvi now?"
"Soon," Brunswick said, and then glanced around. "We'll need a bigger table now that you're all here. I'll see what I can arrange."
"And so there are four of us," Harper said as the officer slipped away.
"You mean five," Alessandro corrected.
"DJ is only here because he drove me," Victor explained.
"Ah." Alessandro nodded, and it was Edward who said, "That's still more competition than I expected."
"No competition at all, really," DJ pointed out. "She can't be the lifemate for all of you."
"That's not entirely true," Harper corrected, and when the other immortals turned to him with surprise, he said, "I had a friend back in Germany in Victorian times. He and his cousin met a woman neither of them could read. She could have been a lifemate to either of them."
DJ's eyebrows drew together. "What happened?"
"They both courted her. She chose his cousin." He glanced away briefly before admitting, "My friend was sure he would never meet another who would suit him so well. Unable to bare the thought of watching his cousin enjoy the happiness he might have had, he destroyed himself."
Silence fell in the group as they absorbed this news and then Brunswick returned.
"I've arranged to switch tables with Jenny Harper and her friends. Follow me, boys." Brunswick didn't wait for agreement, but turned and headed off.
"I have never quite gotten used to being called 'boy' by men who look older, but are really far younger than myself," Harper commented.
Victor merely smiled as he started forward.
"Sit down," Brunswick instructed once they'd reached the table.
"Actually," Harper murmured as the rest of the men sat, "I think I'd like to go thank Ms. Harper and her friends for giving up the table for us. If you'll excuse me."
Without waiting for Brunswick's permission, Harper moved away, slipping through the tables to the booth they'd been at earlier.
Brunswick frowned after him, but then turned back to the table and said, "I need to go in the back and see if Mabel and Elvi have arrived. I shouldn't be long."
He started to turn away, but paused, eyes narrowing at something by the entrance. Victor turned to glance that way, eyebrows rising at the sight of an agitated, gray-haired man in the vestments of a priest rushing toward the officer.
"Teddy Brunswick!" The man was flushed and obviously agitated. "Louise Ascot just told me that you've actually brought half a dozen soulless vampires to Port Henry! What are you thinking?"
"Now, Father," Brunswick caught the priest by the shoulders and turned him back the way he'd come. "There's no call getting all upset over this. Everything's fine."
"Fine?" the man exclaimed, drawing to a halt and turning on him with disbelief. "There is nothing fine about this, Theodore Brunswick. Elvi's one thing, she's a good God-fearing woman even if she doesn't have a soul anymore, but bringing in six more of these beasts?"
"Father, this is neither the time nor the place," Brunswick said firmly, urging him to continue walking. "If you want to talk to me about this, drop by my office in the morning. This is Owen's birthday celebration and I won't have you ruining it for him."
"Owen?" The man looked startled. "Oh, please tell me he isn't going to let Elvi bite him? What if he turns into one too? I won't lose another soul of one of my parishioners. There was nothing we could do about Elvi, but Owen's just a boy. He's..."
Victor watched with eyes that were silver ice chips as Brunswick finally urged the man out of the restaurant. There was nothing he hated more than the clergy. It was the church that had condoned his wife's being burnt at the stake. If he could have he would have slaughtered the whole lot of them at the time. But his brother Lucian wouldn't let him. Three hundred years later, Victor's gut still burned at the sight of clergy... any clergy. He hated them all.
"Sorry about that," Brunswick murmured, pausing at the table on his way back. "Father O'Flaherty is excitable, but harmless," he assured them, then nodded and turned away. "I'll be right back."
He rushed off to the back of the restaurant, disappearing through a beaded arch on the right side of the back wall. It presumably led to the kitchens. He'd barely gone when Harper returned and claimed his seat.
"Well," DJ said with feigned good cheer, "maybe now we'll finally get to see this Elvi."
"Thank God," Edward said in bored tones. "Then I can read the woman and leave. I hate small towns."
"If you're so sure she won't be your lifemate, why not just leave now?" Victor suggested, and received a scathing look for his trouble.
"I'm not a fool, Argeneau. I'll wait and read her just to be sure rather than waste this long, dull journey."
Victor shrugged with disinterest. The man annoyed him, but hopefully, he wouldn't have to put up with him for long if he couldn't read Elvi.
"Speaking of fools," Edward murmured, spearing Victor with a gaze. "You don't expect us to believe that you are here looking for a lifemate?"
Victor was aware of the way DJ stiffened beside him, as well as the fact that the other men were now peering at him with new interest. Alessandro's eyebrows were raised in question. Harper's expression, however, held a tinge of concern. He, as well as the other men, knew Victor was one of the enforcers for the council and was no doubt now considering that if he wasn't there to find a lifemate, he must be there on council business.
"Well, Argeneau?" Edward prompted.
Victor turned an irritated glance toward him, but Brunswick's return prevented his putting the immortal in his place for daring to question him.
"How are we doing here?" Brunswick asked as he settled at the table, then without waiting for an answer, said, "The girls are here and Mabel will be out in just a minute."
"Who is Mabel?" Alessandro asked with confusion. "I am here to meet the Elvi, not Mabel."
"Yes, yes," Brunswick said quickly. "But Mabel is the one in charge of this whole week."
"I thought Elvi was the one in charge." Harper was frowning. "She arranged things with me; the e-mails, the invitation, the directions..."
"Si. Me also," Alessandro agreed.
"And I." Edward's eyes narrowed on the police captain. It seemed obvious to Victor he was reading his mind and-judging by his expression-was vaguely surprised by what he was learning. Before Victor could slip into the mortal's thoughts, the beads hanging in the door between the restaurant and kitchen jangled, bringing about another abrupt pause to the noise in the room.
Brunswick glanced over his shoulder, and said, "Oh. There she is. I'll be right back." The man was immediately on his feet and rushing away.
"There is who?" Alessandro asked the table at large. "The Mabel or the Elvi?"
"That woman is not an immortal. If she's Elvi, we can get back in the car and head home now," DJ said, but his eyes slid over the woman with something akin to interest as Captain Brunswick led her to their table.
She was in her early sixties by Victor's guess. A tall, trim woman with gray-blond hair and a face with few lines and attractive features that still carried a great deal of the beauty she must have been when younger.
"Mabel, this is Edward Kenric, Harpernus Stoyan, Alessandro Cipriano, Victor Argeneau, and his friend DJ Benoit," Captain Brunswick introduced as he paused at the table. "Gentlemen, this is Mabel Allen."
Victor eyed the woman curiously. This then was the friend who co-owned the restaurant and bed-and-breakfast with Elvi. Brunswick had said her opinion was important to Elvi, but Victor wasn't there to romance a possible lifemate, so merely nodded in greeting.
The other "suitors" showed more interest by actually voicing their hellos. DJ, however, stood and reached to take the woman's hand, saying, "Enchante."
Victor rolled his eyes. DJ usually only resorted to such displays of charm when attempting to pick up women. Generally, they were much younger and melted like soft butter under his efforts. Mabel wasn't so easily impressed. Rather than smile, her mouth tightened and she quickly tugged her hand free.
She then turned her gimlet gaze on Victor. It seemed pretty obvious he didn't meet muster. The woman's mouth turned down with displeasure as she took in his attire and the state of his hair.
"You need a haircut," she announced, and then turned to include DJ in her displeasure. "Both of you do, and a shave."
The comment made Victor run a hand lightly over his chin. He grimaced at the rasp of whiskers. He'd barely woken up when DJ had arrived to collect him that evening. All he'd managed to do before the apartment buzzer had announced his arrival was to drain two bags of blood. With the younger man pacing his living room and poking curiously at everything, Victor had merely jumped in and out of the shower and thrown on his clothes. He'd forgotten to shave or even brush his hair. It had dried the way it laid when he came out of the shower and no doubt looked unkempt.
Having made her displeasure clear, Mabel Allen then turned her attention to the other three men. They faired much better under her critical eye, though a cynical expression crossed her face as she took in Edward's tux. Still, she didn't comment or criticize any of them, but simply nodded as if to say, "You'll do." It seemed she preferred their clean-cut presentation to his more relaxed, need-a-comb look.
"Sit down, Mabel," Brunswick suggested. "We can ask the questions you made up."
Victor was just getting irritated at the idea of more grilling when the woman shook her head. "Owen's cake is done. Elvi wants to present it now. She's been awake for a while and is hungry."
"Oh. I guess we'd best get it going, then." Brunswick frowned and glanced to a table where a couple and two teenage boys sat. His gaze then moved to the back of the restaurant where another family was just leaving the booth nearest the beaded arch. "Maybe we should move the Knights to the booth nearer the kitchen. Those cakes Elvi makes are huge and we don't want her stumbling and dropping it trying to get through this crowd."
"Good idea," Mabel said and the pair moved off.
"The cake is done and she's hungry?" DJ murmured, his eyes trailing the older woman. "This Elvi can't be that old if she still eats cake. If she's young enough it would explain her mistakes."
"Her sire should have taught her such things," Victor responded, watching Brunswick and Mabel speak to one of the teenagers. They then turned to say something to the parents. The quartet rose and started toward the back of the restaurant.
Mabel and Brunswick were at the back of the small group, following the teenager they'd first greeted. The young man wasn't displaying the same eagerness as the others, walking at a much slower pace that soon left them behind the main party. And, Victor noted, while he was smiling, there was a worried edge to his expression. It seemed obvious the boy was nervous and growing more so with every step.
"Will it hurt?" he asked just as they drew level with the table where Victor and the others sat.
The question caught his attention and he narrowed his eyes as Mabel clucked and chided, "Don't be silly, Owen. Of course it won't hurt. Do you think men would be lining up for this if it hurt?"
That response merely made Victor frown with confusion as he tried to sort out what they were talking about. The boy's next question, however, raised alarm bells in his mind.
"I won't turn into one, will I?"
This time there was no clucking and chiding. Mabel and Brunswick exchanged a glance, but the woman merely said, "Now, what would make you ask a question like that? No one else has, have they?"
"That's not a no," the boy pointed out anxiously.
Brunswick and Mabel exchanged another glance, then the woman said firmly, "Don't be silly, Owen. Do you want to do this or not? Because we can just present the cake and skip the rest of it."
There was a brief pause as he glanced toward the booth where the other teenager and his parents were seating themselves, then said quickly, "No, no. I'll do it. Dan would never let me live it down if I backed out."
DJ leaned close and hissed, "They aren't talking about what I think they're talking about, are they?"
Victor's answer was to catch Brunswick's arm as he passed and pull him to a stop. "What's the boy worried about? What is he afraid will hurt?"
"His Birthday Bite," Brunswick answered and would have continued walking, but Victor held him back.
"Birthday Bite?" he queried sharply.
Impatient to get going, Brunswick quickly explained, "On their eighteenth birthday, the boys come here for a special celebratory dinner on the house. They get cake that Elvi makes for them, and then she bites them." He paused, but when there was a deafening silence from the men at the table, he added, "It's sort of a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood."
"A rite of passage?" DJ asked with disbelief.
"The Indians have their rituals, we have ours," Brunswick said with a shrug, then tugged his arm free. "I have to go."
This time, Victor let him escape. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
A sudden hush in the room made them all glance toward the back of the room. Victor's eyes widened as a curvy redhead stepped through the beads separating the restaurant from the kitchen. If this was Elvi, her picture was misleading. For one thing, in the picture, her hair had looked dark rather than the vibrant red it truly was. The photo also hadn't revealed that she was short, no more than five foot three. And she certainly hadn't been wearing the getup she was in now.
His eyes skated over the long, form-fitting gown, lingering over the naked flesh of her lower legs revealed as she walked, then returned to her face. It was the same face and yet now he was noticing the piquant, elfin quality to it, and that her eyes weren't just large, they were huge, and she had the most adorable little nose he'd ever seen. As for her lips-
Victor gave his head a shake. While her picture hadn't impressed him, the real deal somehow robbed him of breath. He found himself staring with fascination, his eyes following as she moved to the table where the boy, Owen, and his family sat.
The faint chime of bells marked her passage and it took a moment for Victor to realize it came from a chain of charms around her ankle. He then found himself staring at that ankle, noting the delicate curve from lower calf to heel.
It wasn't until DJ sucked in a hearty breath that Victor's gaze rose back to the woman herself and he realized she'd reached the table and squeezed herself onto the end of the bench seat with the two teenagers. She was now leaning toward Owen, whispering something in his ear. When the lad swallowed thickly and gave a nervous nod, she chuckled softly. The whole room was silent, everyone seeming to hold their breath.
"Dear God! She's going to bite him right here in front of everyone," DJ gasped with horror.
"She wouldn't dare," Victor breathed with disbelief, but even as he said the words, she leaned in toward the boy again.
"We have to do something!" DJ hissed. "We can't let everyone in here see this."
Victor didn't answer, he was already on his feet, rushing toward the corner booth.
