She had stared at him in surprise when he greeted her by name. She had blushed furiously when he asked if he should tell the audience what she was thinking. She had responded with a vigorous “No!” He had laughed, because she had been thinking he was the handsomest man she had ever seen, and that she wanted to run her fingers over his bare chest. Rane grinned at the memory.
She had waylaid him in the alley after the show, requesting an interview for her newspaper, and he had invited her to have a drink. He had been smitten by her beauty, her sense of humor, and, later, when she learned the truth about what he was, her courage.
Pausing, he stared into the distance. It might have been a mistake to court Savanah, to make her his wife. Though they had never discussed it, he knew that, in some ways, she regretted her decision to become a vampire, just as he knew that she loved him, body and soul, as he would always love her.
He only hoped that whatever decision Abbey made in the future, she would never regret it.
Rane paused when he reached the shack. Was he doing the right thing? Abbey had been living on her own for the last five years. What right did he have, really, to tell her how to live her life? He had raised her the best way he knew how. It was time to trust her. Time to let go.
He was turning away when he felt the other vampire’s presence.
“Something I can do for you, Cordova?” Nick asked.
Rane drew a calming breath. “I want to know what your intentions are toward my daughter.”
Nick didn’t know what he’d been expecting Abbey’s father to say, but this definitely wasn’t it. “My intentions?”
“She’s my only child. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“Neither do I.”
“Are you in love with her?”
Nick raked his fingers through his hair, reluctant to put his feelings for Abbey into words. “I’ve only known her for a few days.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“All right, dammit, I’m in love with her.”
“I was afraid of that.” Rane shoved his hands into his pants’ pockets. “Listen, Abbey might have grown up in a family of vampires, but there’s a lot about our kind that she doesn’t know. I want your word that you won’t take advantage of her ignorance, or use your preternatural powers to seduce her. If you haven’t already.”
Nick shook his head. “Stop worrying, Cordova. We haven’t gone there,” he said, but couldn’t help adding, “Yet.”
“Abbey told me you’re taking her out tonight.”
“You got a problem with that?”
“Plenty of them, but that’s neither here nor there. I’d like you to pick her up at our place.”
“Sure,” Nick said with a wry grin.
Nothing like spending a little time with Mom and Dad.
Chapter Twelve
Pearl stared at the middle-aged hunter, but he refused to meet her gaze. Smart man. She had tried to read his mind earlier, but he had managed to block her. She wondered how he had done that. More importantly, she wondered if she would live to see another night.
She glanced at Edna, who sat on the floor on the other side of the room. Like Pearl, Edna’s hands and feet were bound with silver.
Pearl glared at the hunter. “Who are you? What do you want from us?” She was stalling for time. She knew all too well who he was—a hunter, and a seasoned one, at that.
“I’ll ask the questions here,” he said curtly. “I’ve heard about the two of you.”
“Is that right?” Edna asked.
Pearl scowled at her friend. She loved Edna Mae Turner like a sister but the woman was easily swayed. A smile, a compliment, and she behaved like a silly teenager.
Pearl shifted uncomfortably on the hard floor. “Just what have you heard?”
“They say you’ve developed a cure, a vampire cure. Is it true?”
“Maybe. Why do you want to know?”
“Someone turned my daughter night before last. When she came home, she tried to attack her brother. I have her locked in her room, chained up so she can’t hurt anybody. So, I’m asking you again. Does it work?”
Pearl jerked her chin toward the gun in his hand. She could smell the silver bullets. “Why would I help you?”
“Because you’re dead if you don’t.”
“And dead if we do,” she retorted, anger swamping her fear.
“I’ll let you go. Both of you.”
Pearl snorted. “Why should we believe you?”
“You’ve got the rest of tonight to think it over,” he said. “After that . . .” Shrugging, he left the room.
Pearl’s shoulders slumped when he closed the door.
“We have to give it to him,” Edna said. “We don’t have any other choice.”
“Really? And what if it doesn’t work?”
“What if it does?”
“This is all your fault, dear.”
“My fault?”
“You’re the one who flirted with him. You always were crazy for tall blond men with blue eyes.” Pearl shook her head. “You certainly fluttered your eyelashes at the wrong man this time.”
“He didn’t smell like a hunter,” Edna said. “How was I to know?” Some hunters were born, some chose the occupation on their own. Vampires were able to detect those born to the trade. Hunters and vampires alike had discovered scents to disguise their true natures.
“I wonder what he used to mask his scent. I didn’t recognize the smell.”
“So they found something new. What difference does it make now?” A single, blood-red tear ran down Edna’s cheek. “Damn silver shackles are burning my skin.”
“I know, dear. Mine, too.” Pearl frowned thoughtfully. “Does he look familiar to you?”
Edna shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m sure I would have remembered him.”
“I guess so, but I can’t shake the feeling I’ve seen him somewhere before.”
Edna glanced at the narrow, barred window set high in the wall. It was covered by a thin curtain.
Pearl’s glance followed Edna’s. If the sun found them in the morning, the hunter would never get his cure. “Maybe you should try calling Derek.”
Edna glared at her. “Don’t you think I’ve been doing that?” She had taken Derek’s blood when he was a child; it had formed a link between them. “I don’t think the bond is working anymore.”
“Keep trying,” Pearl said quietly. “He’s our only hope.”
Chapter Thirteen
Abbey was a nervous wreck when she left the cottage and made her way up to the main house. Her father had informed her that Nick was picking her up there instead of at her place. Needless to say, she was not thrilled with the prospect of sitting down with her parents while they gave Nick the third degree—something she was sure was bound to happen.
She hesitated at the front door, took a deep breath, and stepped into the foyer. Her parents were already there, of course, sitting side by side on one of the sofas. Mara and Logan were holding hands on the other couch. At first glance, the vampires looked like anyone else. A closer look revealed that their skin was unblemished and unlined, their hair unusually lustrous and thick, and that they didn’t breathe as deeply or as often as ordinary mortals.
A quick glance around the room showed that Nick had not yet arrived.
Smiling, Savanah rose to embrace her daughter. “How pretty you look!”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Come, sit with us,” Savanah said, taking her by the hand.
Abbey sat on the sofa between her parents. The tension in the room was palpable.
Looking at her father, she said, “Please don’t turn this into an inquisition. It’s just a date.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe you’re doing this. It’s not like I’m a teenager going out with a boy for the first time. And it’s not like I need your permission.”
Savanah patted Abbey’s hand. “I just want to meet him, honey, nothing more.”
Abbey nodded, bu
t her mother’s assurance did nothing to calm her nerves. If her mother just wanted to meet Nick, what were Mara and Logan doing here?
“Has there been any news about Pearl and Edna?” Abbey asked, hoping to get everyone’s mind off Nick and onto something else.
Mara shook her head. “It’s like the earth just swallowed them up. No one I’ve talked to knows anything, which is hard to believe.”
“Maybe they found out they’re being hunted and they’re masking their scent,” Rane suggested. “They did it when they kidnapped Derek years ago. And it was a common practice years before that, during the War.”
The old war between the vampires and the werewolves, Abbey thought. Something else she knew little about. Her Uncle Rafe and his wife had been heavily involved, but they never spoke of it, at least not in Abbey’s hearing.
The conversation came to an end when the doorbell rang. Abbey fidgeted with the hem of her sweater as her father went to open the door.
The sound of Nick’s whiskey-rough voice greeting her dad banished her anxiety. She smiled up at him as her father introduced her mother to Nick, then invited him to sit down.
Appearing completely at ease, Nick winked at her as he dropped into the chair catty-corner to the sofa.
“Nick, please tell us a little about yourself,” Savanah said. “Mara tells us you’re old friends.”
Abbey couldn’t help grimacing at her mother’s emphasis on the word old.
“I’m not sure we’re friends,” Nick said pleasantly, “but we have known each other a long time.”
Abbey glanced at Mara, who avoided her gaze. Frowning, Abbey noticed that Logan seemed to be studying the pattern in the carpet. What was going on? Was there some sort of vampire feud between Nick and her godmother?
“Where are you from, originally?” Savanah asked.
“My father was born in a small town in Italy that no longer exists. He was a soldier, captured in Egypt. I was born a slave.”
“Abbey said the two of you met in New York.”
He nodded. “I’ve made my home there for the last few years.”
“What do you do with your time?” Rane asked.
Nick shrugged. “It depends. When I’m bored, I find a job. Sometimes I travel. Sometimes I hole up somewhere and rest awhile.”
“We should be going,” Abbey said. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed Nick’s hand. “Don’t wait up.”
“Abbey . . .”
Ignoring her father’s voice, she pulled Nick toward the door. “See you later, everybody,” she called over her shoulder. To Nick, she whispered, “Now would be a good time to use some of your vampire power and get us out of here.”
Muttering, “Hang on,” he wrapped his arm around her waist.
Abbey’s stomach roiled as the world spun out of focus. Sight and sound were lost as they careened through time and space.
“Are you all right?” Nick asked when the world stopped spinning.
“Yes. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” Abbey said, blowing a wisp of hair off her brow. “I remember when I was a little girl, I thought it was some kind of magic trick. I was always asking my dad to zap me from one place to another.” She glanced around. “Where are we?”
“Santa Barbara. Would you like to go to dinner?”
“Maybe later.”
“Come on.” Taking her by the hand, Nick strolled down the street.
Abbey had never been to Santa Barbara before. It was a lovely old town located on the Pacific Coast. Aside from several hotels, most of the businesses were surf shops, restaurants, or antique stores.
When she spied a place that made fudge, she pulled Nick inside. After sampling several varieties, she bought half a pound of dark chocolate fudge with marshmallows.
Nick watched indulgently as she took one bite and then another. He shook his head as an expression of pure pleasure crossed her face. He had often wondered what it was about chocolate that modern women found so irresistible.
“Too bad you can’t have a bite,” she remarked as they strolled along the beach. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I have to admit to a certain curiosity. I’ll bet you didn’t know that cocoa originated in the Amazon over four thousand years ago.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “According to legend, the Aztecs believed that their god, Quetzalcoatl, gave them a cocoa tree stolen from paradise.”
“Good for him!”
“Chocolate in those days wasn’t what it is today,” Nick said with a grin. “The Mayans and the Aztecs used cocoa to make a cold, unsweetened drink called xocoatl.”
“Unsweetened?” Abbey shuddered. “I’ve tasted candy bars that were eighty percent cocoa. They were way too bitter for my taste.”
“As I recall, it was the Europeans who first sweetened it by adding sugar and milk.”
“For a man who can’t eat chocolate, you certainly know a lot about it.”
He shrugged. “I’ve done a lot of reading over the years.”
Of course, she thought. Sometimes she forgot how old he was.
“Do you want to sit down for a while?” Nick asked, gesturing at a flat rock big enough for two.
“All right.”
Nick spread his jacket over the rock and they sat side by side. Abbey licked fudge from her fingertips, then dropped the sack into her handbag. “Do you know Edna and Pearl?” she asked.
“I know about them, but we’ve never met. Why?”
“They seem to be missing and my family is concerned.”
“Really? Why?”
“My uncle Rafe turned them during the War and now he considers them family.”
“Family,” Nick mused. “It’s an odd concept for most vampires, you know. We tend to be solitary creatures most of the time, although there are covens here and there.”
“Really?” It was hard to imagine living like that, Abbey thought. The Cordova-DeLongpre clan were a close-knit bunch, even by human standards. “Why haven’t you ever married? You’ve lived such a long time. Why did you choose to remain alone?”
He lifted one brow, his dark eyes glinting with amusement. “Who said I was alone?”
“Silly of me,” she muttered. And realized how true that was. Nick was a gorgeous hunk of male—chiseled features, sensuous lips, dark blue eyes that a woman could get lost in . . . as she was lost.
He slid his arm around her waist and drew her closer. “I won’t lie to you. There have been a lot of women, Abbey, so many I’ve lost count. But none of them were important to me.”
“None of them?” she asked skeptically. “Not even one? In hundreds of years?”
He shook his head. “I cared for some of them. I made love to many of them. But I was never in love with any of them. Not even Mara.”
“Mara!” Abbey stared at him.
“I thought you knew. She turned me.”
Stunned, Abbey stared into the darkness. Mara had turned Nick. Had they been lovers before she turned him?
“It was centuries ago,” Nick said quietly. “Long before you were born.” He stroked her cheek. “It has nothing to do with us, or my feelings for you.”
“Did you . . . ? Were you . . . ?” Abbey shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
But he knew what she was thinking. “Believe me when I say there’s no love lost between us. She turned me against my will and abandoned me soon after.”
“So, she’s your sire. Isn’t that an unbreakable bond?”
He nodded. “A vampire’s sire has power over him or her so long as one of them lives.”
“So, if she ordered you to do something, you would be compelled to do it?”
“Yes. In theory.”
“And in practice?”
“Mara’s very strong, but since she made me, and I’ve survived such a long time, so am I.”
“So you could resist her?”
“Possibly. She also has the ability to find me wherever I might be.”
“Does my father have that power over my mother?”
“Yes. Which is why it’s always nice if you’re turned by someone you care for. Someone who cares for you.”
She nodded absently, her thoughts chasing round and round like a hamster on a wheel. Nick knew Mara, had known her for centuries. No doubt they had been lovers. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the thought of the man she loved being turned by her godmother. If it didn’t hurt so bad, she might have laughed. But there was nothing funny about it. Nick said it had nothing to do with the two of them. Was she wrong to let something that had happened centuries ago bother her?
“You look a little pale,” Nick remarked. “Come on,” he said, taking her by the hand. “I think you need a good stiff drink. And maybe something to eat.”
Lost in thought, Abbey paid little attention to where they were going, but her breath caught in her throat when they arrived. One wall was entirely made of glass, providing a spectacular view of the ocean. Moonlight shimmered on the cresting waves.
The hostess showed them to a booth. Abbey scooted in and Nick slid in beside her, so close his thigh brushed intimately against hers.
When the waitress came, Nick ordered a mojito for Abbey and a glass of red wine for himself.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“No.” She couldn’t think of food now. She was still reeling from what he had told her earlier. “Can I ask you something?”
“Fire away.”
“Have you ever turned anyone?”
“Are you afraid I’ll turn you? If you are, stop worrying. I’ve never made another vampire, willing or not.”
Abbey nodded, still stunned by his revelation about Mara.
“I can see all this talk about Mara has upset you.” Taking her hand in his, he gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Abbey. Would you like me to take you home?”
“Yes. No.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what I want.”