Vampire Most Wanted Read Online Free PDF Page B

Divine felt herself stiffening defensively. “I don’t read their futures and I don’t claim to.”
    “Right. You define their future,” he said quietly.
    Divine nodded. It was a fine distinction, but an important one to her. “I read their minds and define their futures. Or sometimes I read the minds of whoever accompanies them to my RV and use what I learn there to define the customer’s future.”
    “Like the husband who planned to kill his wife for the insurance?” Marco asked. Expression becoming considering, he added, “The husband must have accompanied her to your stall when the carnival was in their town for you to know he planned to knock her off for the insurance.”
    Divine nodded.
    “So you use your immortal abilities to help mortals,” he said solemnly.
    Divine felt herself relax. As much as she tried not to let it bother her, the attitudes she often ran into with “townies” about the carnies bothered her. Most people came to the carnivals just to have fun and didn’t make judgments, but there were a large number of people who thought all carnies were scum, con artists, and thieves. That she was a con artist and thief, scamming money off foolish people who believed in fortune-tellers and such nonsense.
    Divine did not—and never claimed to—tell fortunes. She did, however, try to help whoever she was reading, in whatever way she could. It was rare to actually save a life as she had with Allen’s wife, but she liked to think she had contributed to the health and well-being of others. She could quite often smell illness on a mortal. Undiagnosed diabetics had a sweet scent while cancer had the faint but distinct, sickly sweet stench of rot. She could also hear the rasp of lung or bronchial problems, a skipping or irregular heartbeat, a fast or slow pulse rate, etc. There were many health issues she could recognize and diagnose and advise the customer to have checked out.
    Divine also did a quick read of the minds of whoever accompanied each customer, sometimes finding useful information there, like a cheating husband, a troubled friend, a child with a dangerous secret that needed revealing, or abuse they’d been warned to keep quiet. And then too, she could read the customer’s mind and know when they were going to do something stupid, or illegal, or desperate and advise them against it. Often, their shock that she knew what they were thinking or planning was enough to return some sense to them.
    Divine tried to help people in exchange for the money they paid. She did not simply take the money and give some spiel about meeting a tall, dark, handsome stranger and living the good life. She tried to help. She always had.
    “Yes, I use our abilities to try to help mortals,” Divine said finally. “And I get paid for it. I’m not ashamed of that.”
    Marco nodded, but then asked, “So you aren’t hiding or running from something?”
    Divine shifted impatiently at the question. She wanted to say no, but instead asked, “Is that why you joined the carnival? Because you’re running or hiding from something?”
    Marco grimaced and then sat back in his own seat with a smile. “Touché.”
    “You didn’t answer the question,” she pointed out.
    “Neither did you,” he responded at once.
    They were both silent for a moment and then Marco sat forward and asked, “Will you at least tell me your real name?”
    “Madame Divine to strangers and Divine to my friends,” she answered at once and raised her menu again.
    “Is Divine your real name?” he asked suspiciously.
    “Is Marco yours?” she countered, staring blindly at the appetizer section.
    After a pause he asked, “How old are you?”
    Divine slapped the menu down with irritation. “Now that’s just rude.”
    “Yes, it is,” a laughing voice announced, drawing their attention to a cute little blonde who had just stopped at their table. Their waitress, it seemed. With twinkling eyes and a bright smile, she admonished Marco, “You