The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands Read Free Book Online Page A

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