“No, although I think Dad knew, or at least suspected.”
Rane grunted softly. “We never could put anything over on the old man,” he muttered ruefully.
Rafe laughed softly. “I missed you.”
“No more than I missed you.” With tears stinging his eyes, Rane embraced his brother, thinking that he had stayed away from his family all these years for nothing. “They’re all okay? Mom and the old man? The grandparents?”
Rafe nodded.
“And Kathy? You’re still happy with her?”
“Yes. So,” Rafe said, his voice gruff, “what are you going to do about your woman?”
Rane looked at the house across the street. Through the open window, he could see Savanah sitting at the desk in the living room, her back toward him. Sunlight shimmered in her hair. “I don’t know. I’m afraid…”
“She loves you, brother. Any fool can see that.”
“Yeah, but is love enough? She wants to be a Vampire hunter, like her mother before her. I can’t help thinking that if she pursues that line of work, it’s going to drive us apart, sooner or later. I’ve never had any feelings of loyalty to others of our kind. Hell, I’ve killed a few of them myself, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t know, Rafe. I just don’t know.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Rafe said, shrugging. “You love her. She loves you. Can you picture living the rest of your life without her?”
“No.”
“I think that’s your answer.”
Rane clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I think you’re right. If she says yes, I’ll want you to be my best man.”
“I have always been the best man,” Rafe said, grinning. “Now, go see your woman.”
Savanah closed the old photograph album and dropped it back into the bottom desk drawer. Hardly anyone printed pictures these days, preferring to look at them on their computers or satellite screens. One of these days, she intended to electronically convert the photos in her grandmother’s album so she could view them on the computer. Still, there was something very satisfying about being able to hold the album in her hands, to run her fingertips over pictures taken of her mother when she was a little girl.
Pushing away from the desk, Savanah gained her feet, then stood there, at a loss for something to do. She really needed to get those books from Rane, she thought, though she had no idea how she would accomplish that now. Still, she couldn’t very well hunt Vampires if she didn’t know who they were, or where they might be found.
She glanced out the window. There were still a few hours of daylight left. Maybe she’d go out in the back and do a little weeding. She hadn’t gone out there since the night Rane had fought Clive.
After pulling on a pair of old jeans and a short-sleeved sweatshirt, she shoved a stake in her waistband, slid a bottle of holy water into her pocket and then, grabbing her mPod, she marched out the back door, studiously avoiding the far side of the yard where torn-up grass and dark brown stains bore mute evidence of a deadly battle.
With the latest hits playing in the background, she lost herself in the simple task of pulling weeds. The air was warm; perspiration trickled down her back as she moved from one flower bed to another. There was something enormously satisfying in getting her hands dirty.
After an hour, she stood and wiped her hands on her jeans, intending to go inside and make some lemonade.
She had only taken a few steps toward the back door when she realized she wasn’t alone.
Stake in hand, she whirled around, and came face-to-face with Rane. Excitement sprang up within her and with it, the urge to run into his arms and tell him how much she had missed him. And then, as a drop of sweat trickled down her neck, her initial excitement quickly turned to panic. It was broad daylight.
“What are you doing out here?” She looked up at the clear blue sky and then back at Rane, expecting him to go up in flames at any moment. “Are you crazy? Get inside, quick!”
“I’m all right, Savanah.”
“But…” She glanced at the sky again. The last time he had ventured out in the daylight, his clothing had caught fire. “How? I don’t understand.”
“I owe it to Mara. Her ancient blood…” He shrugged. “I can endure the sun’s light for short periods of time now. Within a year or so, it won’t bother me at all.”
“Well, that’s…amazing. Come on in. I’d feel better if we were inside.”
“As you wish.”
He followed her into the kitchen, waited while she dropped the stake on the table and then went to the sink to wash the dirt from her hands.
“Let’s go into the living room, shall we?” Savanah asked, pleased that her voice sounded so calm when she was anything but calm on the inside.
She sat down on the sofa. Rane settled into the chair across from her. She could tell nothing from his expression. Why had he come here?
His gaze moved over her, long and slow, as if to memorize every line and curve. Had he come to tell her goodbye forever? It wouldn’t surprise her, not after the way they had parted the last time. She folded her arms over her breasts, her heart pounding with dread.
“How have you been, Savanah?” he asked quietly.
“I’m okay.” She didn’t have to ask how he was. Judging from the way he looked, and the fact that he could now move about in the sun’s light, he was better than okay. It had been three weeks since she had seen him last, she thought, blinking back her tears, yet it seemed like forever.
“Savanah, I…”
Feeling suddenly cold, she ran her hands up and down her arms. “Just say it and be done with it.”
“Will you marry me?”
“What?”
“Will you marry me?”
She stared at him, speechless. She loved him. She ached for him in all the lost, lonely regions of her heart and soul. But…marriage? She had considered it, of course, wondered what it would be like to be the only mortal in a family of Vampires, but she had never dreamed it was a possibility. She came from a long line of Vampire hunters. He was a Vampire.
“Savanah?”
“I don’t know…I never expected…I thought you came here to tell me good-bye.”
He slid from the chair to kneel before her. “I know it won’t be easy for you,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I’m not the easiest guy in the world to live with. I have a lot of baggage, but I don’t think I can go on without you.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand. “I haven’t taken a life in a long time, although the temptation has always been there, until you gave me your blood. I don’t know what happened. I can’t explain it, but for the first time since I became a Vampire, I feel like I’m really in control. You did that.”
“You don’t have to marry me because you’re grateful, or because you want a lifetime supply of my blood.”
“Savanah, if all I wanted was your blood, I could take it any time I wished.” Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed her palm. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you for years.”
“Oh, Rane…” She slid off the sofa into his lap, her arms twining around his neck. “I love you, too!”
“Then you’ll marry me?”
“Yes, oh, yes!”
“Do you think you’d like to be a magician’s assistant? It might be good for my act to have a pretty woman on stage.”
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be.”
Murmuring her name, he buried his face in the wealth of her hair, his arms holding her close, his throat tight with unshed tears. “I’ll do my best to make you happy.”
“You already make me happy.”
Looking up, he brushed a lock of hair from her face. “So, what do you say we go see my folks?”
“So soon?” she exclaimed.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Nothing? A lone mortal, who was supposed to be a hunter, in a den of Vampires?
“You’ve already met Rafe. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No, but…
”
“Remember when you said my being a Vampire was just a quirk? Well, think of it as a hereditary quirk. My family all suffer from it, but they’re good people.”
Savanah settled in his lap. “So, tell me about them.”
“Well, my grandfather Roshan is somewhere around four hundred years old.”
“Just a baby when compared to Mara,” Savanah muttered.
“I guess you could say that. My grandmother Brenna is a witch.”
“I thought she was a Vampire?”
“She is.”
A witch and a Vampire. Now there was a combination to be reckoned with, Savanah mused.
“You’ll like her,” Rane said. “Grandfather went back in time and saved her from being burned at the stake.”
“You’re kidding? People can’t go back in time.”
Rane shrugged. “Maybe not, but my grandfather did. You’ll have to get one of them to tell you the whole story. My father is a mechanic, or at least he used to be. I don’t know if he’s still working or not. I haven’t seen any of them in years.” Mara had told him that they had all moved to some little town in Oregon about five years ago, and that Kathy’s friend, Susie, and her Were-tiger husband, Cagin, had followed a year later.
“What about your mother?” Savanah asked.
Rane shrugged. “She’s just Mom.”
“And they all like being Vampires?”
“So far.” He brushed a kiss across her lips. “No one will pressure you to accept the Dark Gift, love. That decision will be yours.”
“But you’d like me to?” Her joy at his proposal ebbed as reality again crept in.
“Very much.” He kissed the length of her neck, his mouth warm against her skin.
“Rane, be honest. Do you really think we can make a life together?”
“Don’t you?”
“Maybe for a while, but what happens when I’m old? I don’t mean forty or fifty, but what if, God willing, I live to be a hundred and ten? You’ll still look the way you do now. You’ll want a woman who can keep up with you, one who can make love all night long, and…”
Rane put his hand over her mouth, silencing her. “Stop that.”
She kissed his palm, then drew his hand away. “It’s something we need to think about, no matter how painful it might be.”
“Savanah…”
“Most couples grow old together. We won’t.”
Rane swore softly. “Have you changed your mind about us?”
“No, but…”
“I’m going to Oregon to see my folks. I want you to come with me.”
“We haven’t settled anything.”
“I love you,” Rane said. “You love me. Everything else can be worked out, in time.”
She looked into his eyes, his beautiful dark eyes, and wanted more than anything else in the world to believe him.
“Come home with me,” Rane coaxed softly, “meet my family. We won’t say anything about getting married.”
“All right.”
Drawing her close, he kissed her, long and hard and deep. “We’ll leave tomorrow.”
Chapter Forty
They left at sunset. Savanah stared out the window. The ocean was beautiful in the waning light of the setting sun. Once she thought she saw a whale break the surface. Gradually, the sky grew darker, until it was hard to tell where the sea ended and the horizon began.
With a sigh, she glanced at Rane. He drove with his left arm resting on the open window, his right hand lightly gripping the steering wheel. A breeze ruffled his hair. Just looking at him made her stomach curl with pleasure. They had made love last night. She smiled inwardly, remembering the wonder of it. She didn’t know if it was because they were now unofficially engaged, or because they had been apart for so long, but she had wanted him desperately and she hadn’t been afraid to show it. She didn’t remember ever being so uninhibited, or so vocal. Thinking of it now brought a rush of heat to her cheeks.
Feeling the weight of her gaze, Rane looked over at her and smiled. “You okay?”
“Definitely okay,” she said, recalling how she had insisted on being the aggressor in their lovemaking. She had batted his hands away when he tried to undress her. Determined to have her own way, she had undressed him, slowly and deliberately, then pushed him down on the bed. He had laughed, amused by her provocative behavior, but the laughter had died in his throat when she began a slow striptease. Neither had been laughing when she slithered into bed beside him.
She lifted a hand to her neck, her fingertips exploring the place where he had bitten her. He had taken only a little, but it had enhanced their lovemaking, heightening the pleasure of every kiss, every stroke of his hand.
Rane pulled over about an hour later so Savanah could get a quick bite to eat. She ordered a cup of coffee and a doughnut to go and they were back on the road.
It was a little after ten when they drove over the cattle guard at the town’s entrance. A sign proclaimed that Porterville had been incorporated in 1911 and had a population of five hundred people.
Since neither of them had ever been there before, Rane decided to have a look around. As he drove slowly through the town, Savanah counted two museums, a library, a historical society building, a couple of nice-looking restaurants, a gas station, and an old-fashioned general store. Thick stands of timber grew along the roadside and lined the distant fields.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Savanah remarked.
Rane pulled up in front of a motel, then turned to look at her. “Do you want to spend the night here, or go find my folks’ place?”
“Let’s stay here tonight.”
“Still nervous about meeting them?”
“A little. What if they don’t like me?”
“Savanah…”
“What if they look at me and all they see is dinner, or dessert? Stop that, it’s not funny!”
He tried to say he was sorry, but he couldn’t stop laughing.
Savanah punched him in the arm, realizing, too late, that it was going to hurt her fist more than his arm. The man had muscles of steel.
Rane took a deep breath, glanced at Savanah, and burst out laughing again.
“Anytime you’re through, I’d like to check into the motel and take a bath.”
“Sor—sorry.” He switched off the engine and got out of the car.
She didn’t wait for him to open her door. Grabbing her handbag, she swept into the office.
With a shake of his head, Rane grabbed her overnight bag and followed her inside. She was really something, he thought, and wondered how he had ever survived without her.
Rane squeezed Savanah’s hand. “Just relax. They’re going to love you.”
“Right.” Savanah took a deep breath as they walked up the pathway to his parents’ house. It was a pretty place, white with dark green trim. Tall trees rose behind the house; a riot of colorful flowers surrounded a small fountain. It didn’t look the least bit the way she had expected a Vampire’s home to look. It was like expecting Dracula and finding Mary Poppins.
Savanah looked up at Rane as he knocked on the door. There was a faint tremor in the hand she was holding, and she realized he was just as nervous as she was.
The man who opened the door looked enough like Rane to be his brother. He had the same chiseled features, strong jaw, and thick black hair. The only difference she could see was in their eyes—Rane’s were black, his father’s were dark brown.
Vince Cordova took one look at his son and drew him into his arms. “Welcome home, son.”
All Savanah’s fears melted as she watched the two men embrace; the love and affection between them was almost palpable.
Clearing his throat, Vince held his son at arm’s length. “I can’t believe you’re here. Let me have a look at you. Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?” Vince glanced at Savanah. “This pretty lady must be Savanah.” Releasing his son, Vince held out his hand. “I’m Rane’s father.”
“I’m pleased t
o meet you, Mr. Cordova.”
“Just Vince. Come on inside. I can’t wait to see Cara’s face when she sees the two of you.”
The inside of the house was lovely, all done in shades of green and mauve. A pretty woman with long blond hair sat in a chair beside the fireplace. She looked up from the book she was reading when they entered the room, her blue eyes widening when she saw her son.
“Rane!” The book fell to the floor as she jumped to her feet.
“Hi, Mom.”
She hugged him fiercely, her eyes filling with tears. Tears that Savanah noticed were tinged with red.
“I can’t believe you’re home,” Cara said, wiping her tears with one hand. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming? Oh, it doesn’t matter, I’m so glad you’re here.” Still hugging her son, she looked at Savanah. “Thank you for bringing him home.”
“I didn’t…”
“Oh, yes, you did,” his mother insisted. Releasing Rane, she offered Savanah her hand. “I’m so happy to meet you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Cordova.”
“Cara,” she said, squeezing her hand. “Well, come in and sit down. I want to hear everything.”
The next hour passed quickly as Rane brought his parents up-to-date on what he’d been doing since he left home. Savanah was completely charmed by his parents, both of whom were sympathetic when they learned of her father’s death.
To Savanah’s surprise, Rane’s mother offered her a glass of iced tea and a slice of chocolate cake, neither of which Savanah had expected to find in a Vampire’s house.
“We keep food on hand for the neighbor kids,” Cara explained. “They love to come over after school. Especially the teenage boys. They’re always coming around, asking Vince to fix their cars, or make them go faster.”
Vince grinned at Savanah and shrugged. “They’re good kids.”
Rising, Cara said, “I should call Rafe and tell him you’re home.”
“Don’t forget to call your folks,” Vince reminded her with a smile. “We’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t.”
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