"Dracula. I must have been in the bathroom or something when he fed her his blood. I don't remember seeing that," Elvi explained and popped the bag to her teeth.

"What?" This comment so took him aback, that Victor unthinkingly snatched the bag away from her mouth so that she could answer, and then dropped it in surprise when it began to squirt blood everywhere. He started to bend to pick it up, but then stopped, unable to keep from asking with disbelief, "You researched by watching the movie rather than reading the damned book?"

Tsking at the mess he'd made, Elvi grabbed some paper towels from the roll, snapping, "Well, the book was checked out of the library and I wanted to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could. Movies are faster than books."

Victor rolled his eyes and muttered, "Definitely a child of your times. It used to be that university kids read the crib sheets on books they were supposed to read, now they watch the movie."

Holding the wadded-up paper towel, Elvi narrowed her eyes. "You know, Victor, sometimes you sound as pompous as a horse's ass."

"Mabel wasn't the only one brought up on a farm, I see," he said stiffly, then asked politely, "Are horse's asses really pompous?"

"God! Sometimes you're such a... a... man."

"Good of you to notice," Victor responded with a grin and the irritation slowly faded from her face, replaced with a reluctant smile.

Several moments passed with the two of them simply standing there smiling at each other, and then Victor's eyes focused on her forehead as he thought that he should try to read her and find out exactly where he stood. Before he could, Elvi's tongue slipped out to glide along her lips. It was a nervous action, but as seductive and distracting as could be and he found his gaze shifting to her lips instead. She had the most incredible mouth. Full, red lips that begged to be caressed and kissed and he already knew they were as soft as they appeared. He found himself moving slowly forward, his focus locked on her lips and what they would feel and taste like and nothing else.

"Victor?" Elvi said uncertainly."I want to kiss you." It wasn't a request, but an explanation and her answer was a soft puff of air that came out as an "oh."

Taking that as agreement, he closed his lips over hers. They were soft pillows, giving way to his firmer mouth. Victor abruptly slipped his tongue out to urge her lips apart and test her taste.

Sweet, he decided. She'd obviously had chocolate since they last kissed. She must have it stashed somewhere in her room. He liked the taste of chocolate mingled with her, he decided. It was the last almost coherent thought he had, then his brain disengaged, allowing his body's wants and needs to take over the driver's seat.

Elvi stood completely still, almost holding her breath as Victor's mouth pressed gently against hers. She was suffering a definite sense of deja vu. All the feelings and needs he'd brought to roaring life in her body up in her room, needs that had been forced onto the back burner when they were interrupted, now burst back to raging life. When he suddenly pressed forward, urging her head back as his tongue slid out and invaded, she drew in a gasp and dropped the paper towel she'd gathered to clean up the blood on the floor and caught at his upper arms to steady herself.

For one moment, Elvi felt like an invaded country, overwhelmed and unprepared, but then his tongue rasped over her own, drawing a moan from her throat as he reawakened and pulled passions from her she hadn't felt in years. Her body stretched and arched of its own accord, pressing her breasts against his chest and thrusting her pelvis forward until it met a hard resistance that pressed back.

Elvi groaned, her own tongue coming to life in her mouth and greeting his with an eager, lavish welcome.

She felt the counter against her back, but her attention was on his body pressing against her in front and the hunger it invoked. It had been so long since she'd been held and kissed this way. She was like a flower opening to sunlight after years of night. Her body ached to be touched and ached to touch as well.

Elvi let her hands slide up over his shoulders to his neck, one holding him there and urging him to take the kiss even deeper. The other slid up into his hair, nails scraping across the skin of his scalp as the soft locks caressed her fingers.

Victor growled and obliged the silent request. The kiss was suddenly harder, more demanding, and his hands began to move, sliding first around her waist then down to her behind to urge her closer until her body was plastered against his. Then one slid away, to run up over her hip and side, swiveling around in front as he reached her breast.

Passion had pooled between her legs as he ground into her, but Elvi gave a start in his arms at the excitement that immediately shot through her when his hand closed over her breast through the silk of her robe. Her nipples were immediately hard and aching, thrusting themselves eagerly forward for a caress they hadn't experienced in ages.

"Oh, Victor," she breathed as his mouth left hers and slid to her neck, drawing on the tender skin below her ear. He wasn't biting her, but she almost wished he would. Elvi wanted to bite him and could feel the pressure as her teeth shifted.

Crying out, she tilted her head back to avoid temptation, and stared blindly at the lights overhead as the blood rushed through her, hot with excitement. She wanted him; his kisses, his caresses, his body thrusting into hers, her teeth plunging into him, his sinking into her. Elvi's mind whirled with images and desires that scattered like dry leaves in a fall breeze when he suddenly tugged the neckline of her robe aside and dropped his mouth to latch onto a nipple.

Elvi clutched at his shoulders briefly, then began to tug on the back of his T-shirt, pulling the cloth upward until it bunched at his arms and she could touch the bare skin of his back. It wasn't enough. Growling deep in her throat, she caught her fingers in his hair and urged his head back up. Victor came reluctantly, allowing her nipple to slip from his lips and catching the naked breast in his hand as he raised his head to kiss her again.

Their tongues fought now, battling with their desires as she slid her hands under his T-shirt in front and scraped her nails over his flesh. His chest was hard and wide and muscular, a veritable playground, but her hands barely ran over all that masculine muscle before one dropped of its own accord and slid around to clutch at his behind, urging him harder against her until they were grinding through their clothes.

Victor growled at her aggression and suddenly reached down to catch her behind the thighs and lift her up, balancing her against the countertop as he pulled one leg forward around him. Elvi gasped as he suddenly tugged her robe the rest of the way open, then his hand slid between them, caressing her through her silk panties. The only thing she'd donned under the robe.

Crying out, she arched into the touch, aware that her body was weeping, soaking her panties with her need for him. Everything of any importance in the world suddenly seemed focused on that hot spot between her legs that he was stirring to turbulent life. She was aware that her breathing had become a fast, shallow panting, but it halted abruptly when he slid one finger beneath her lace panties and ran it over her bare flesh. Elvi sucked frantically at his tongue as her body bucked to his touch.

Her hand slid between them now too, finding him through his jeans and squeezing. Victor's reaction was almost violent. He thrust himself into that caress, then suddenly forced her hand away, caught his fingers in the delicate lace of her panties, and tugged sharply, ripping them from her body.

Elvi gasped in startled excitement, and then groaned as his hand returned to caressing her. Unobstructed, he cupped her in his hand and pressed the heel of his palm against the core of her, rubbing aggressively, and then slid one finger inside.

Elvi cried out, her hips shifting to meet the caress, and then cried out again as his mouth slid down her throat to her breast, his teeth grazing her nipple before he closed his mouth and began to suckle, his finger slipping away then thrusting into her again.

Elvi was on the edge of exploding from the pleasure. Her body was as tight as a bow string, her mind a confusion of need, sound was thundering in her ears and then-Victor suddenly jumped away from her like a rat abandoning ship.

Without his support, her trembling legs gave out and Elvi fell to her knees on the kitchen floor, a mass of confusion and frustration.

"There you are, Victor."

Elvi heard Edward Kenric's voice through her own panting and immediately understood that the thundering had been his jogging lightly down the stairs. She also understood why Victor was now standing wide-eyed at the end of the counter, a guilty look on his face. They'd nearly been caught misbehaving in the kitchen. Actually, they still might be caught, Elvi realized, when she spotted her torn panties lying on the floor next to the spilled bag of blood a few feet away.

If Edward came around the counter...

"I have a question for you," Kenric continued and much to her horror his voice was moving along the counter toward the end.

Panicking, she scrambled forward on all fours to snatch up her panties.

"Have you-Oh, Elvi."

She'd just stuffed her panties in the pocket of her robe, tied it closed, and snatched up the paper towel she'd dropped earlier when Edward came around the counter to join Victor.

"Hello, Edward." Forcing an innocent smile, Elvi began to swipe at the drying blood on the floor, then paused to snatch up the empty blood bag and toss it up and-she hoped-into the sink, before continuing to clean up the mess on the floor as if that's what she'd been doing all along.

"I didn't realize you were here as well. Can I help you with that?" he asked, moving closer.

"No, no. It's almost done. You go on and talk to Victor. Take him out on the deck if you want privacy," she encouraged. "I'll be done here in just a moment."

"If you're sure," he said politely, then turned to Victor and said, "If you wouldn't mind?"

Victor hesitated, then gave in to the inevitable and led the way out onto the deck.

Elvi sagged where she knelt, feeling as wrung out as a dishcloth. She only allowed herself a moment's respite, however, then quickly finished wiping up the blood on the floor. Once done, she stood and threw out the paper towel, then grabbed the empty blood bag from the sink and tossed it as well before moving to the refrigerator to collect a fresh bag of blood for herself. It was the reason she'd been headed downstairs in the first place, but she'd allowed herself to be distracted.

Her gaze slid to the counter where she'd almost had her first orgasm as a... well... not dead person.

Elvi took her bag with her and fled the kitchen. Now that the passion had passed she was embarrassed and unsure how to act with Victor.

Dear Lord, she barely knew the man and had nearly had sex with him right there on the kitchen counter for anyone to walk in and catch them at it. What was the matter with her?What's wrong with us? Elvi corrected silently as she moved past Mabel's room and heard the sounds coming from inside. She felt a moment's envy and had a brief flash in her mind of her and Victor making love in her... coffin, she ended the thought with a grimace as she recalled she didn't yet have a bed, then pushed the image away with a shake of the head.

For God's sake she-and Mabel-were both sixty-two-year-old women, practically senior citizens, both of whom had lived sedate, conservative lives. They were small-town girls who'd married their childhood sweethearts. She'd had no other lover other than her husband and knew the same was true of Mabel, and yet here they were acting like a couple of tramps.

Elvi managed not to roll her eyes at her own thoughts. She knew it was an old-fashioned term and that her thinking, too, was old-fashioned.

But that was what she was, an old-fashioned, small-town girl who suddenly found herself behaving completely out of character.

Worse yet, while Elvi was aware she should be grateful that Edward had interrupted before things had gone any further, she really wished the annoying man had just stuck to his damned room and not interrupted at all. She'd had a taste of the delights Victor could show her and wanted more.

"Damn," Elvi muttered. She never should have come down for a bag of blood before retiring. And what had happened to the "I'm not ready to date?" feelings that had first attacked her on hearing these men were here. Now she didn't care about dating, she wanted to sleep with one of them. She supposed that was a good thing at least. There was only one she was interested in sleeping with.

A passionate scream drew her gaze back over her shoulder to Mabel's door as she slid into her own room. Elvi wished she could talk to the woman, but, of course, that was impossible right now. It looked like she would just have to wait until DJ left. In the meantime, she'd take a cold shower, change into her nightgown, and probably relive every moment in the kitchen in great detail. Damn, the man could kiss.

Chapter Thirteen.

Elvi woke Monday evening with a smile on her face as she stretched luxuriously in her lovely new bed. Sunday had been a great day. She'd woken late and gone below to find that her bed had been delivered. Not willing to disturb her, they'd made the delivery men put it in the foyer to await her rising.

The moment she made an appearance, they'd moved her coffin out and carried her bed up. When asked what she wanted done with the casket, Elvi had grimaced and muttered, "Burn it." The men had taken her at her word. While Victor and Edward had set up the plain metal frame that came with the bed, Alessandro and Harper had taken axes to her coffin, turning it into tinder.

They'd then built a fire, roasting hotdogs over the flaming remains of her casket. When it began to rain later in the evening, Elvi and the men had moved indoors and turned to a deck of cards for their entertainment. On learning that Elvi had never played poker, they'd decided to teach her and they'd spent an enjoyable evening laughing, talking, and taking all her chips.

Elvi stretched again on her lovely new bed and opened her eyes with a little sigh. While Sunday had been nice for the most part, she'd found it a bit stressful as well-as she worked to avoid being alone with Victor. It had been an act of pure cowardice on her part. She didn't know how she should act around him after the episode in the kitchen and so avoided any situation where she couldn't treat him as anything but one of the "guys."

Now she had another day of doing that ahead of her.

Making a face at the ceiling, Elvi reluctantly pushed the sheets off and climbed out of her lovely new bed. She'd slept like a dream. Too well actually. Elvi had hoped to get up early enough today to spend some time out in daylight for the first time in five years. She'd hoped to look over her garden and enjoy the sun on her face, but could tell from one glance at the window that the sun had already set.

It was her own fault, Elvi supposed; she'd retired to her room early, but stayed up waiting for Mabel and DJ to get home from the restaurant so she could finally talk to the woman. She'd never got the chance on Saturday night. DJ simply hadn't left Mabel's room, from what she could tell. At least he hadn't by the time she'd given up and fallen asleep. Then Sunday the couple had already been up and gone when she got up. Hopefully, she'd get the chance to talk to her today. Elvi could use some advice on how to deal with Victor. She couldn't avoid him indefinitely.

Elvi didn't bother drying her hair when she got out of the shower, instead she simply brushed it back and left it to dry on its own, then quickly dressed in a peasant blouse and festive cotton Mexican skirt and headed below. Normally, she'd be heading to the restaurant tonight, but she wasn't sure at this point what would be expected of her. They had houseguests after all. Once she knew what she was doing, she could change accordingly.

When Elvi first made her way downstairs and glanced around, she thought she was the only one there, then the door to the deck opened and Victor stepped inside.

He paused on first spotting her, then murmured a greeting and moved to the refrigerator. Retrieving a bag of blood, he held it out and asked, "How was the new bed?"

Despite her uncertainty, Elvi felt a smile stretch her mouth. "Marvelous."

"Glad to hear it." His smile pulled into a grin as she took the blood.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"The men all went to a play at the school with your neighbors... Mark and Sharon is it?"

"Mike and Karen," Elvi corrected, not at all surprised the couple had extended an invitation. The Knights were a lovely couple. They were always offering help with things around the house, or inviting her and Mabel places. Elvi wasn't surprised they were generous enough to extend those invitations to include the men. Their generosity and thoughtfulness were part of why they were so popular in town and why their son Owen's birthday celebration had been so well attended.

"And Mabel and DJ are at the restaurant," Victor continued. "She said to tell you you're not expected there tonight. She wanted you to pick one of the men and spend the evening getting to know him."

Elvi blinked. "But you said the guys went to a play."

"Yes. As you weren't up, I made an arbitrary decision for you and told the others tonight you were getting to know me," he announced unapologetically. "I thought that way I could finally tell you our laws and rules."

"Oh." Elvi bit her lip. So much for being able to avoid him.

"Feed," Victor ordered, gesturing to the bag she still held in her hand.

Relieved at the distraction, Elvi allowed her teeth to slip out and popped the bag into her mouth, then avoided Victor's eyes as she tried to sort out what to do. It was her gaze sliding over the fireplace in the living room that did it. It was a very ornate fireplace with ceramic tiles up each side and a carved wooden mantel. There was also a mirror in a beautifully carved frame that belonged above it, but it had been removed and stored in the garage five years ago. Now the empty space gave Elvi an idea.

She waited until she'd finished a second bag of blood, then grabbed her purse and announced, "Well, that's fine, but we'll have to talk while shopping."

"What?" Victor asked with surprise.

"I need to go shopping," Elvi said patiently as she moved toward the garage door.

"Mabel and DJ took the car," Victor announced, bringing her to a halt, and then added, "we'll have to take my car. I had the men move theirs so I could park at the back in case we need it."

Relieved he wasn't arguing, Elvi smiled and continued out of the house.

"So, what are we shopping for this time?" Victor asked as he parked in the local Wal-Mart parking lot several minutes later.

"A mirror," Elvi said. "I haven't been able to use one in five years. It would be nice to be able to see that my hair isn't standing on end, and to do my makeup."They fell silent as they entered the store and sought out the section they needed. Elvi wanted a full-length mirror. Actually, eventually she wanted a proper bathroom mirror too, as well as to have the mirror in the garage put back over the mantel and so on. But for the moment, a full-length mirror seemed the more sensible buy. Reaching the aisle where the mirrors were displayed, Elvi approached slowly, almost afraid at what she would find, but then she steeled herself and forced herself to walk in front of the first one, only to pause with amazement.

She was staring at a woman with long, vibrant red hair that fell around a lovely face in soft waves. Her complexion was perfect, and so was her figure.

Damn, she was a fox, Elvi realized with amazement. She looked like Casey. How had she never noticed that her daughter had taken so much after her?

Movement in the mirror caught her eye and Elvi managed to tear her gaze from herself to focus on Victor as he stepped up behind her so they stood framed in the mirror, a handsome couple. They seemed to compliment each other.

"So," she murmured, forcing her eyes away from him and continuing along the selection of mirrors. "What about these laws?"

Victor frowned at her question. "I don't know if Wal-Mart is quite the right place to be discussing-"

"Why not?" Elvi interrupted with amusement as she peered over the various mirrors offered. "Everyone in town knows about me, and these are laws you're going to tell me, not the facts of life."

"Yes, but what if someone from out of town is shopping here?" he said grimly.

Elvi shrugged. "Then talk quietly. We're alone in this aisle right now. If someone joins us, stop."

Victor hesitated, then she heard him let out a breath before he said, "Very well." Still, he paused for a moment to glance around before saying uncomfortably, "Well, you know the most important one."

"No biting mortals," Elvi recited, amused by his discomfort. She supposed he was used to keeping everything secret and clandestine and thought she was probably lucky she hadn't had to. When Victor remained silent, she murmured, "So far I like the laws. At least that one, it gives me an excuse to put an end to the Birthday Bite celebrations. They've always been more trouble than anything else, but they were expected and I didn't want to disappoint."

She saw Victor's mouth tighten as he moved past her and wondered what she'd said to upset him. Before she could ask, he was stopping at a mirror. He ran one hand down the dark wood frame, his fingers gliding over intricate carving. "This one would suit the house."

"Yes." Elvi paused to examine the mirror. The carving was very similar to the woodwork in her house. It would suit very well indeed.

Victor watched her walk around the standing mirror, and then continued with the lesson. "One of the other more important laws to you as a woman is that you're allowed to have only one child every hundred years."

Elvi froze, her gaze searching out his face in the mirror. "What?"

Victor's reflection grimaced. "I know it seems harsh, but we need to keep the population down. If we didn't, with our life expectancy we'd quickly outnumber our blood source."