The Reluctant Vampire

look for the car.”

There were two islands with two pumps each, and Harper had parked on the outside of the second island, farthest from the store itself. They had just passed the first island and were approaching the second when Jason suddenly yelled at them from the store door, “Hey, you forgot to pay!”

They both stopped at once, and Drina was chuckling at Harper’s irritated mutter as they turned back, when Jason yelled, “Look out!”

Drina instinctively started to glance around, but Harper was already pushing her to the side. Staggering, she grabbed at the gas pump to keep her feet and glanced back to see Harper throwing himself forward and to the ground, his hand outstretched as if he were a baseball player trying to catch a ground ball. The only thing missing was the baseball glove. . and the ball, she thought as she saw the flaming bottle land in his open palm.

Harper immediately closed his eyes and briefly lowered his forehead to the cold pavement as if in thanks, then lifted his head and pulled the burning bit of cloth out of the top. He crushed it between his palm and the ground to put it out, then started to rise, holding the bottle like it was a venomous snake.

“Are you all right?” Drina asked, hurrying to his side, her eyes scanning the direction the bottle had come from. There was nothing to see, however. Whoever had thrown it was gone.

Harper nodded as he straightened beside her. “Sorry I pushed you.”

“Don’t apologize,” she said at once. “I didn’t even see it.”

“I spotted it as soon as Jason yelled. It was like a recurring nightmare,” he said dryly.

Drina squeezed his arm sympathetically, and then glanced around as Jason rushed to them.

“Man oh man, that was-Man!” he yelled, reaching them, his eyes round holes of shock and awe as he eyed Harper. “Man, you-That was-It was like, woooooo.” He flew his hand threw the air in an arc as if emulating the bottle’s trajectory. “And you were like waaaaah.” Mouth open, he mimicked Harper diving for the bottle, and then shook his head, and said, “Man, you kick ass. That was freaking amazing!”

Drina bit her lip and glanced from the young mortal to Harper to see him looking slightly embarrassed by the kid’s adoration. Clearing her throat to get Jason’s attention, she asked, “Did you see who threw it?”

Jason shook his head, “No, sorry, no. I just saw this firebird flying at the two of you and shouted and-” His gaze shifted back to Harper. “Wow, man. You could play for the Jays. We’d kick ass every game.”

“Yes, well, here, maybe you could dispose of this.” Harper handed him the bottle of fluid, and when Jason nodded and took it, he reached for his wallet and pulled out three twenties. As he handed them over, he said, “Sorry about forgetting to pay.”

“Oh, no problem,” Jason said at once. “I knew it wasn’t on purpose. We just got distracted with the security video. But, hey, this is too much,” he added, keeping two of the bills and offering the other back. “You only got forty bucks worth.”

“Keep it,” Harper said, urging Drina toward the car. “And thank you again.”

“Yeah, thanks! Hey, you two have a good night. And stay safe, huh?” Jason called as he turned back toward the store, and then Drina heard him mutter, “Man, that was something else. Wow.”

“You have a fan,” she said, as they got in the car.

Harper grimaced as he started the engine, but said, “He’s a good kid. A total geek, but he has the good sense to recognize a goddess when he sees her.”

“A goddess?” Drina asked on a laugh.

Harper nodded and shifted into drive to head out of the gas station. “He was sure your name must be Aphrodite or Venus.”

“Right,” she snorted.

“But he kept your clothes on in his head,” Harper announced, and added wryly, “Which raised him in my estimation. Like I said, a good kid.”

“And he saved us from a great deal of pain,” Drina added, her voice becoming more subdued.

“Pain?” he asked dryly. “Try saved our lives and his own too. If that bottle had landed, the whole damned place probably would have exploded. Those were gas pumps.”

Drina nodded and reached over to squeeze his legs. “He helped, but you did the saving. Nice catch,” she added quietly.

“That was desperation,” Harper said on a sigh as he pulled out onto the road. “I didn’t really notice the bottle, but I saw the flaming, fluttering cloth coming at us like a bird on fire and. .” He shook his head. “It was the last thing I saw in the porch before it became an inferno. That time I didn’t know what it was and wasn’t quick enough to stop it. This time I was.”

Like a recurring nightmare, she recalled his words and squeezed his leg again. But then frowned and glanced out the window, before announcing, “We have a problem. Two, actually.”

“Only two?” Harper asked dryly.

Drina smiled faintly, but said, “Stephanie wasn’t there. The attack was on us. It may not be Leonius.”

“Except that you’re about Stephanie’s height, wearing her coat, and your hair is tucked under a hat so you could easily have been mistaken for her,” he pointed out.

Drina glanced down at the bomber she wore and frowned as she realized he was right. That made her mouth tighten, and she said, “Which means we have a different set of problems.”

“That he doesn’t seem to be that concerned about keeping her alive for breeding since the explosion could have killed her,” Harper guessed.

Drina nodded.

“What’s the other?” he asked.

“Stephanie must have controlled the driver of the car.”

Harper took his foot off the gas, allowing the car to slow as he sought out her eyes. “You think so?”

“What would you do if someone suddenly popped up in the backseat of the car?” she asked quietly.

Harper’s head went back a bit as realization struck him. “The car didn’t slow, stop, or jerk to the side. It just continued smoothly up the road.” He frowned. “I didn’t know she could control mortals already.”

“Neither did I,” Drina said on a sigh. “And she shouldn’t be able to.”

“No,” he agreed, taking one hand from the steering wheel to cover hers on his leg. He was silent, considering this, and then said, “She could make him take her wherever she wanted.”

“Yes,” Drina agreed.

He thought for a minute, and then asked, “Where does her family live?”

“Windsor.” Marguerite had told her a bit about Stephanie in New York-what she’d been through, where her family was from, etc. Marguerite seemed to feel bad for Stephanie, but then so did Drina.

Harper nodded and pulled a U-turn on the empty road, heading back the way they’d come. The highway entrance was just beyond the gas station.

“Do you want to call Teddy before we leave the area?” he asked, as they approached the gas station.

Drina shook her head. “We’ll call from Windsor if we find her there.”

“It’s more than two hours away,” he warned.

Drina bit her lip but shook her head. “Anders will call Lucian, and he’ll have someone in the area head right over. I’d rather Stephanie wasn’t faced with strangers to deal with this.”

Harper nodded and squeezed her hand with understanding. They drove past the gas station and took the on- ramp to the highway.

Chapter Sixteen

“That’s it,” Harper murmured, slowing and pointing to a large two-story redbrick building.

“Don’t stop. I don’t want to scare her off if she’s here,” Drina said quietly. “Drive around the block. We’ll find somewhere to park and walk back.”

Harper eased his foot down on the gas, speeding up a bit to cruise up the road. At the corner, he turned