The priest focused his attention on Rane and Savanah. “Marriage is a holy institution ordained by God for the blessing of His children. If you wish to have a happy marriage, one that will last, you have only to put the happiness and welfare of your spouse above your own. It is something easily said and yet not always easy to do. As you look into each other’s eyes, as you repeat your vows, I urge you to remember how you feel this night, and to hold the memory close in times of struggle and sacrifice.
“I will say the words that bind the two of you together, but it takes more than words to bind one soul to another. The true marriage between you must take place within each of your hearts.
“Savanah Gentry, do you promise to love and cherish Rane Cordova, here present, for as long as you shall live?”
Savanah squeezed Rane’s hand. “I do.”
“Rane, do you promise to love and cherish Savanah Gentry, here present, for as long as you both shall live?”
Rane gazed deep into Savanah’s eyes. “I do.”
“Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” He smiled at Rane. “You may kiss your bride.”
Rane gazed at Savanah for stretched seconds, wanting to imprint the beauty of this moment in his mind and heart, to always remember the radiance of her smile, the love and trust shining like a bright blue flame in her eyes.
Drawing her into his arms, he murmured, “I will love you forever,” and then he kissed her.
Savanah leaned into him, her eyelids fluttering down as he deepened the kiss. Heat flowed through her, threatening to melt her very bones, and she clung to him, afraid her legs might give way beneath her. He had kissed her before, and often, but never like this. It was a kiss of love, of possession, branding her heart and mind and soul. She was his now, forever his.
When he took his lips from hers, it took her a moment to regain her equilibrium.
And then the priest was saying, “I give you Mr. and Mrs. Rane Cordova,” and Rane’s family was crowding around them.
Later, back at the house, Rane introduced Savanah to Susie and Cagin, who were close friends of the family, and who were also a Vampire and a Were-tiger, respectively.
It was a gathering unlike anything Savanah had ever attended. She could only wonder what Kyle Bowden thought of it, since as far as she knew, he was still unaware of the fact that he and Savanah were the only two mortals in the house.
Several bottles of vintage red wine stood on a cloth-covered table, alongside a platter of tiny sandwiches and a small cake. Savanah eyed the cake curiously. She had just decided it was simply for decoration, since the majority of the people present couldn’t eat it, when Rane’s mother gathered everyone together to watch the bride and groom cut the cake.
Savanah looked at Rane, a silent question in her eyes.
“As most of you know, Rane is allergic to sugar and flour,” Cara said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye, “so he won’t be eating any cake. But we didn’t want Savanah to miss out on such a delightful tradition. So…” She handed a knife to Rane with a smile. “You’re on.”
Rane cut a narrow slice of cake, speared a piece with a fork, and offered it to Savanah.
Feeling a little self-conscious, she accepted his offering.
“And now, please join me in a toast,” Vince said. “Rafe, if you please.”
Rafe opened a bottle of wine and after everyone had been given a glass, Vince lifted his. “To Rane and Savanah. May they enjoy a long and healthy life together.”
Rane grinned at his father as echoes of “Here, here” rose in the air. “Thanks, Dad.”
Vince set his glass aside and slipped his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Take good care of her, son.”
Rane winked at Savanah. “That’s my plan.”
Vince wrapped his other arm around Savanah. “If he doesn’t treat you right, daughter, you come to me, and I’ll set him straight.”
“I’ll do that,” Savanah said with a smile.
Later, when the initial excitement had worn off and Rane’s family sat in the living room, reminiscing about other weddings, Savanah managed to get Mara alone.
“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” Savanah said, keeping her voice low. “I was wondering…that is, Rane said you might know the name of the Vampire who killed my mother.”
“What makes you think she was killed by one of us?” Mara asked with some asperity.
“My father told me,” Savanah replied, somewhat taken aback by Mara’s sharp tone.
“A young Vampire named Tarkan brought your mother across, but he’s not the one who destroyed her.”
Savanah stared at Mara. “If he didn’t do it, then who did?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Of course,” Savanah said, frowning. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Sometimes ignorance is, indeed, bliss.”
Savanah glanced at Rane, who was standing across the room, talking to his brother, and felt a sudden iciness creep into her heart. What if Rane had lied to her? What if he had killed her mother? She told herself it was impossible, but what if it was true? She could forgive him a lot of things, but not that. Never that.
“Yes,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “I want to know.”
“It was your father who destroyed your mother.”
The words pierced Savanah’s heart like shards of glass. “No.” She shook her head. “No! I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true, nonetheless,” Mara said.
“How could you even think such a thing?”
“I know everything that happens in my world,” Mara said. “Your father destroyed your mother at her request. She begged him to do it, and he could not refuse her.”
“But he said a Vampire killed her.”
Mara lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug. “In his mind, that was true. He believed that the Vampire who turned her was responsible for her death, and in a way, I suppose he was right. But it was your father who…”
“Mara, spare her the gory details,” Rane said, coming to stand beside Savanah. “She’s heard enough.”
“Thank you for telling me,” Savanah said.
With a nod, Mara excused herself.
Savanah blinked back her tears. Now that the first shock was over, it seemed right that her father had taken her mother’s life. Better to die by the hand of one who loved you, she thought, than by the cruel hand of an enemy.
“Oh, Daddy,” she murmured, and felt her heart break for the terrible secret her father had carried for so many years. Knowing what he had done explained the sadness that she had often seen in his eyes, the melancholy moods that had sometimes overwhelmed him, the nights he had sat in the backyard, a bottle of whiskey his only companion.
Rane squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” It was over. The Vampire who had killed her father was dead, destroyed by her own hand; and now that she knew who had destroyed her mother, she could finally put her mother’s memory to rest, as well, and with it, any thought of following in her mother’s footsteps. Her family had been touched by enough killing.
“What do you say we go find a place where we can be alone?” Rane suggested.
“I’d say, ‘Let’s go.’”
They bid farewell to Mara and Kyle, who were returning to Egypt in the morning.
“Do you think they’ll last?” Savanah asked, watching them walk away.
Rane shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so. She’s been alone a long time.”
Savanah nodded, wishing that everyone could be as happy as she was at that moment.
Savanah and Rane bid his grandparents farewell, told Rafe and his wife to stay in touch, thanked his mother and father for their hospitality, and left the house.
A full moon lit their way to Rane’s car. Savanah had packed her things earlier in the day; her suitcases were in the trunk.
She glanced at Rane as he started the car and pulled onto the road. Feeling her g
aze, he looked over at her and smiled, then took her hand in his. “Happy?”
“Very.”
“Did I tell you how beautiful you are?”
“No.”
“Remind me later.”
She winked at him. “Oh, I will.” She rested her hand on his knee and then, slowly and suggestively, stroked her way along his inner thigh.
Grabbing her hand, he raised it to his lips and turned it over, his tongue lightly stroking the sensitive skin of her palm.
The touch of his lips sent frissons of heat stealing through every part of her body. Just like that, she wanted him, needed him. “Can’t you drive any faster?”
Chuckling softly, he goosed it up to seventy. Ten minutes later, they pulled into the hotel parking lot. Rane grabbed Savanah’s overnight bag, swung her into his arms, and strode into the lobby. Holding her close with one hand, he signed the register, then carried her swiftly up the stairs and into their room.
“We could have taken the elevator,” Savanah said, linking her arms around his neck.
“Too slow.” He kissed her then, a long lingering kiss, and then carried her into the bedroom. A look turned the lights on low as he gently lowered her on to the bed. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
“It’s just the dress,” she said. “It makes me feel beautiful.”
“No,” he said, “it’s you who make the dress beautiful.”
At his words, warmth swelled within her heart. “I love you, Rane. No matter what the future holds for us, I’ll always love you.”
He kissed the curve of her throat as his hands finessed the gown from her body until she wore only her lacy bra, panties, and high heels. “That’s a good look for you,” he said, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
“Well, you look a little overdressed for my taste.” Kneeling on the bed, she removed his jacket, tie, and shirt, then skimmed her hands over his shoulders and down his chest, loving the feel of his cool flesh beneath her hands, the way his muscles quivered at her touch.
His belt came next, then his shoes, socks, and trousers.
Rane slid his finger under the edge of her bra and suddenly it was gone.
“I see you haven’t lost your touch for magic,” Savanah remarked with a smile.
“Watch this,” he said, and an instant later her shoes and panties were on the floor.
Laughter bubbled up inside her as she tugged his briefs off and tossed them on top of her cast-off clothing.
“My way’s faster,” Rane said, tucking her beneath him.
“Maybe so.” She licked his chin. “But fast isn’t always best. Sometimes slow and easy is the way to go.”
“Is that how you want it?” he asked, nipping at her earlobe. “Slow and easy?”
“Yes,” she said. “This time.”
“Your way this time.” His hands moved over her, butterfly soft. “Next time, my way.”
Savanah snuggled against her husband, her fingertips playing in the hair at his nape. “I like your way best.”
His way, she thought, had been amazing. It had been like flying through rainbows, drifting through stardust, racing with the moon. She had never known such pleasure. She had often heard the term “two halves made whole” but never, until this night, had she truly known what it meant. There had been moments when she had been Rane, when she had known what he was thinking, feeling, desiring, and she had done her best to please him, and in so doing, found pleasure beyond anything she could have imagined.
Rane nuzzled the side of her neck. “Happy?”
“Oh, yes.” She smiled at him, and then her expression turned serious. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I probably should have asked you about this sooner, or maybe later, but…well, I know this probably isn’t the right time, our being on our honeymoon and all…”
“Just ask me, sweetheart.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “If I decide I’d like to have a baby in a year or two, would you mind?”
“Are you talking about adoption?” he asked, thinking about how his grandparents had adopted his mother. She hadn’t found out they were Vampires until she was a woman grown.
“No, I was thinking of artificial insemination.”
Rane pondered that possibility for a moment. His first reaction was that he didn’t like the idea of Savanah carrying another man’s seed, but when he thought it out, he realized he was being foolish.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” he said, thinking it would be easier to love a child that was a part of Savanah than a child conceived by strangers. “Now that we’ve got that settled, would you think about doing something for me?”
“Something like becoming a Vampire?” she asked.
“Something exactly like that.”
“Yes,” she said, “I’ll think about it.” In fact, in spare moments, she had been thinking of it quite a lot. If she decided to accept the Dark Gift, she wouldn’t want to wait until whatever children she had were grown, the way Rane’s mother had. Savanah blew out a sigh. Rane looked thirty and he would always look thirty; she was twenty-five. If she waited until her children were grown to become a Vampire, she would be forty-five or fifty. No doubt people would think she was Rane’s mother instead of his wife. But it was a decision she didn’t have to make now.
Drawing Rane’s head closer, she brushed a kiss across his lips. “Let’s do it again,” she whispered. “Your way.”
Epilogue
Three years later
“Breathe, Savanah. That’s right, love. Slow, deep breaths.”
She glared up at Rane as another contraction threatened to split her in half. Why had she ever thought natural childbirth was the way to go?
Rane brushed a lock of hair from her brow, then took her hand in his. “Savanah, look at me.”
“I am looking at you.”
His gaze locked with hers, his mind melding with hers, blocking the worst of the pain. “Just keep looking at me,” he said, his voice low and hypnotic. “It’ll be over soon and you’ll be holding our daughter in your arms.”
Rane glanced at the doctor, who nodded at him. “Keep talking to her. The head’s crowning, we’re almost home.”
Rane rubbed his thumb over the back of Savanah’s hand. “You’re doing fine, sweetheart. Just another few minutes…” He continued to murmur to her, telling her that he loved her, until the doctor asked him if he’d like to cut the cord.
Feeling like he was in a dream, Rane looked at his daughter for the first time. She had pale skin, dark blue eyes, and a thatch of thick brown hair.
He cut the cord, which was thicker than he would have thought, hovered over the nurse while she checked the baby’s vital signs. When the nurse took the baby out of the room to clean her up, Rane returned to Savanah’s side. Bending down, he kissed her on the cheek. “She’s beautiful, just like her mother.”
Savanah smiled a sleepy smile.
“Thank you, love.” Never in all his life had Rane expected to be a father. It didn’t matter that the child wasn’t biologically his. From this day forward, he would be her father in every way that counted.
Murmuring, “I love you,” he kissed Savanah’s cheek again, only to realize that she had fallen asleep. He couldn’t blame her for being exhausted. Watching Savanah labor to bring their daughter into the world had given him a new respect for the strength and courage of females everywhere.
Moments later, the nurse returned and placed his daughter in his arms. “She’s adorable,” the nurse said, smiling. “Just ring if you need anything. I’ll be right down the hall.”
Rane stared at the tiny scrap of humanity cradled in his arms. She was small and perfect, from the top of her fuzzy little head to the soles of her adorable little feet.
“Hello, darlin’,” he murmured, and would have sworn that she smiled as she curled one of her fingers around his much-larger one.
Rane glanced at Savanah. She
had given him more than she would ever know. She had restored his faith in himself, given him her love and her trust, literally saved his life. And in addition to all that, she had given him a daughter.
He was marveling at his daughter’s tiny perfect toes when Mara materialized beside him. She looked radiant, as always.
“I’ve been expecting you,” Rane said.
“Oh?”
“Sure. When Rafe and I were old enough to understand, our father told us that you named me and Rafe, and how you took our blood so you’d always know where we were.”
Mara lifted her brows. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No,” Rane said, grinning. “I warned Savanah you might show up.”
“Should I leave?” she asked imperiously.
“Of course not. Don’t you want to hold your new god-child?”
Mara smiled brightly as she took the baby from Rane’s arms. “Have you given her a name yet?”
“No. Savanah wants to name her Barbara Lynn after her mother.”
“And you don’t?”
He shrugged. “She doesn’t look like a Barbara to me.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Mara gazed into the baby’s eyes. “Her name will be Abbey. Abbey Marie.”
Rane repeated the name, and then he nodded. “It fits.”
With a nod, Mara used her thumbnail to make a shallow cut in the pad of the baby’s thumb, and then she licked the single drop of blood that oozed from the tiny cut. “There,” she murmured, licking the wound to seal it. “She’s beautiful, Rane. Cherish her.” Mara glanced at Savanah. “Cherish them both.”
Rane nodded. “Are you okay?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Mara placed the baby in Rane’s arms and then, with a wave of her hand, she was gone.
Rane frowned as she vanished from his sight. There was something Mara wasn’t telling him, but he had no idea what it might be.
With a sigh, Rane pressed a kiss to his daughter’s silky-soft cheek. In a little while, he would take the baby out to show his family, but for now, for these few precious moments, his daughter was his and his alone.
And his life was again filled with magic.
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