Read Online To Catch a Vampire by Jennifer Harlow - Free Book Online Page B

her, staring at me. “Kitten, you must have been Helen of Troy in a past life. We almost had a war on our hands.” She pats the now empty seat next to her. “Come. Sit. Oliver, prepare some drinks for me and your lovely wife.”
    Like a good boy, he does as she says, as do I. All eyes follow me to the couch. I slowly sit, delaying the inevitable a second longer. My body remains at a state of readiness just in case she does strike, but I do cross my ankles to keep Gloria and Klaus from getting a cheap look. (Their eyes do glance there.) Oliver starts mixing, but doesn’t take his eyes off me. My protector.
    “So, tell me about yourself Beatrice. It is Beatrice, correct?”
    “Yeah, Um, not much to tell. I was born, now I’m here,” I chuckle nervously.
    “Well, how did you meet our Oliver?” she asks.
    “ I met my husband … um … at the library.” Not a total lie, we did meet in a library. “He was checking out books on … knitting.” Oh yeah, I’m a jerk. Oliver stops pouring vodka, raising an eyebrow.
    “Knitting?” Cigar asks.
    “I have been alive almost five hundred years. I am running short on things to learn,” Oliver says, not missing a beat.
    “Whatever,” Cigar says, sniffing said item. He hasn’t taken a single puff. Gloria takes it out of his hand. She inhales, and blows smoke in his face. O … kay.
    “Was it love at first sight?” Marianna asks.
    “Actually, no. I couldn’t stand him,” I don’t lie. “He was rude, crude, obnoxious, he scared me, and hit on me at the most inappropriate times.” I meet his eyes. Grin Number Three greets me. I smile back, then look away. “But then he showed his real self. He helped me when I really needed a friend, and my opinion changed. We were married a year later in Vegas. It was one of those places with Elvis. I know it’s not official, but it means something to us both.”
    “You don’t have rings,” Cole, the concierge says.
    “I don’t like jewelry,” I say. “I’m allergic to gold and he’s allergic to silver.”
    “The sign of our commitment is in a location we intend only each other to ever view,” Oliver says, staring at me.
    That was for the knitting remark, I know it. Okay, enough about me. “And how did the three of you meet?” I ask the scary Germans.
    “We are brother and sister,” Ingrid answers with her hand still on his thigh. Oh. My. God. Mondo grossness. Eww.
    “Oh,” I say for lack of something better. “And you?” I ask the redhead.
    “Gigi is our consort,” Klaus says harshly.
    “And what about you two?” I ask Gloria.
    Oliver, balancing three glasses, two filled with blood and another with a screwdriver, walks toward us. He hands us our drinks and walks behind me, putting his hand on the back of my neck. Kudos to me, I don’t flinch.
    “I was a dancer at one of Sal’s clubs,” Gloria says.
    “I was big time in Detroit in, you know, waste management. I got the head honcho out there out of some trouble, and he turned me in return. I hooked up with Glo about a year later.”
    So there’s incest, lying, stripping, and the mafia all crammed into one house. I gulp my screwdriver.
    “What about you, kitten? Thinking of joining us, or has this naughty boy never offered?”
    “He offered and I declined. Like Queen said, Who wants to live forever?” Everyone in the room stares at me blankly. Wrong question to pose to this group. I clear my throat. “I may change my mind.”
    “There is no rush,” Oliver says. “We are quite content with how things are.”
    “I just cannot picture it. How do you live?” Marianna asks.
    “Blissfully,” Oliver answers with grin Number One, full fang.
    “Well, you won’t catch me settling down,” Sal says. “Glo here knows the score,” he says, patting her hand. If this bothers her, it doesn’t show. She sips her martini. “I did that whole married, kids crap for over twenty years. I got my balls back from that woman; I ain’t giving them up