Night's Mistress

by Amanda Ashley

  “Sure, honey, if that’s what you want. I’ll be up in a little while.”

  “All right.” She kissed him on the cheek and then left the room, her heart heavy with a load of guilt and remorse.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “Gone? What do you mean, she’s gone?” Lou stared at her sister. “Where would she go?”

  “I don’t know. She missed her last appointment. When I called to see if she was all right, I got a message saying the number had been disconnected. Ramsden went out to the house to check on her, but no one was home, and there was a For Rent sign on the front lawn.”

  Lou drummed her fingertips on the tabletop. “Why would she leave?” she asked, frowning. “And where would she go?”

  Cindy shrugged. “Who knows why vampires do anything? I’m going to order dessert,” she said as their waitress approached the table. “Do you want anything?”

  “Apple pie a là mode and a cup of coffee, black.”

  Cindy ordered the same, then leaned forward, her arms crossed on the table. “Ramsden’s going crazy. He’s called everyone he can think of, but no one knows where Mara’s gone, or why. He was supposed to induce her tomorrow night. He’s got everything ready. Crib, blankets, diapers, even a wet nurse.”

  Lou grunted softly. Something about this whole thing just didn’t add up. Why would Mara take off now, when the baby was due? Had something spooked her? And if so, what? Had Bowden found her? Was he the one she was running from? Or had they taken off together? Maybe telling him where Mara was hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

  Lou raked her fingers through her hair. Maybe it was time to get in touch with Bowden. Digging her cell phone out of her pocket, she punched in his number and got a recording saying the number was no longer in service. Damn.

  “Something wrong?” Cindy asked.

  “Bowden’s phone isn’t working. Why do you suppose he’d cancel his service?”

  “Maybe he lost his cell and got a new one.”

  “Maybe,” Lou said thoughtfully. “Or maybe he found what he was looking for.”

  “You think he found Mara?”

  “I’d say it was a definite possibility.”

  “Oh?”

  “I gave him Ramsden’s address.”

  “Why on earth did you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Lou muttered. “But it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Well, pardon the pun,” Cindy retorted, “but it sure sucks now.”

  Ramsden paced the floor of the delivery room he had painstakingly prepared. There was a hospital bed with tie-down straps for Mara, a crib for the baby, and a wet nurse waiting for his call.

  A string of oaths emerged from his lips as he stared down at the bed. Here it was, the night before he was to induce her, and Mara had gone missing. Had something tipped her off? He went back over the times he had seen her and shook his head. He was certain he had never said or done anything to make her the least bit suspicious of his motives, and yet she had taken off without a word. Why? And what was he going to tell his wife? Janis had been wanting a baby for months, nagging, begging, crying for the child he couldn’t give her. Mara had come along at just the right time. At the height of her powers, no one on Earth, living or Undead, could touch her, but she was helpless now. Helpless and pregnant, like the answer to a prayer.

  In the beginning, he had only been interested in the child. He had intended to do some research on the baby before taking it home, hence the crib, changing table, and other items necessary for looking after a newborn. Who knew what could be learned from a child conceived by a mortal and a vampire that was thousands of years old? He hadn’t decided what to do about Mara, whether to let her live or dispose of her after the baby was born. If he’d decided to let her live, he had planned to tell her that the baby had been born dead and deformed and that he had disposed of it.

  As the months went by, he had grown more and more curious about Mara’s condition, and he began to wonder what had caused her to revert. Had she found a cure for the vampire’s kiss, and if so, what was it? Vampires, especially those newly made, often came to him looking for a cure that didn’t exist. But if he could find one, there was a fortune to be made. One way or the other, he was certain something in Mara’s DNA held the answers.

  Of course, all his plans were useless without Mara.

  Plucking a stuffed teddy bear from the crib, he stared at it a moment, then ripped it in half and threw the pieces across the room. He had never been one to give up without a fight. He wouldn’t start now. He would find Mara. One way or another, he would find her.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Edna Mae Turner pulled a pair of crystal wineglasses from the cupboard. She filled one for herself with O positive and after filling the second glass with AB negative, she handed it to her best friend, Pearl. She had met Pearl Jackson in a maternity ward in a Texas hospital decades ago. They had been friends, both as mortals and vampires, ever since. Shortly after they had been turned, they had bought this house and moved in together. Together, they had learned how to survive as vampires. She grinned inwardly. They were an odd couple. She was short, rather plump, and a trifle vain; Pearl was tall and angular. Edna dyed her hair red; Pearl’s was as white as new-fallen snow. Their taste in furnishings was also disparate. Edna liked chrome and glass, Pearl liked antiques, which made for an interesting mix when they moved in together.

  “To Travis,” Edna said, lifting her glass.

  “To Travis,” Pearl echoed.

  Grimacing, Edna sipped the contents of her glass. She was used to the taste, had, in fact, grown to love it, but sometimes she forgot that she was a vampire and that drinking blood was no longer repulsive.

  “I miss him,” Pearl said, wiping a crimson tear from her eye. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

  Travis Jackson had been Pearl’s grandson. Pearl had brought him across shortly after the Dark Gift had been forced upon her.

  Pearl took another drink. “This is quite good. Have you found a new source?”

  “Indeed, I have.” They had discovered early on that they didn’t like hunting. Instead, they had found a rather unsavory character named Josiah Hogg who sold blood to the vampire community. “Our new supplier’s name is Pritkin. He’s much more pleasant than Hogg ever was. Cheaper, too. And he smells better.”

  Pearl nodded, and took another drink.

  “Do you know who destroyed Travis?” Edna asked, resuming her seat on the sofa.

  “Some hunter based on the West Coast. Lee? Lou . . . ?”

  “Not Lou McDonald!” Edna exclaimed, her eyes wide. “Tell me it wasn’t McDonald.”

  “Yes, dear, that’s the one,” Pearl said, and then murmured, “Oh, my, that’s not good, is it?”

  “No.” Edna took another sip from her glass. “I have some other, equally disturbing news,” she said with a frown. “Or maybe it’s good news. I heard that Mara has lost her powers.”

  Pearl stared at her friend over the rim of her wineglass. “You must have heard wrong, dear. That’s impossible.”

  Edna shrugged. “Well, that’s what I heard.”

  “Was the source reliable?” Pearl asked, her voice rising with excitement. “Maybe she’s found a cure! Do you think she’d share it with us?”

  “I don’t know. I also heard she’s somewhere in California. If we could find her, and ask her . . .”

  “Yes,” Pearl said. “And if she refuses . . .”

  “Maybe we could get some of her blood . . .”

  “And find a cure ourselves!” they finished in unison.

  “Oh, to be human again,” Pearl said wistfully. “To enjoy a lovely glass of iced tea on a warm summer day, or sip a nice cup of hot cocoa in front of the fire . . . chocolate!” she exclaimed. “Oh, Edna, do you remember the taste of chocolate?”

  “Not really,” Edna replied. She had forgotten so many things since becoming Nosferatu. Pearl remained the only constant in her life. She wouldn’t have wished
being a vampire on anyone, but she was forever grateful that Rafe Cordova, that self-righteous bloodsucker, had turned her and Pearl at the same time. She couldn’t imagine what her life would be without her best friend. “Pearl . . . ?”

  “Yes, dear?”

  “I’m not sure I’d want to be mortal again.”

  Pearl stared at her in disbelief. “I don’t believe what I’m hearing.”

  “Think about it, about what we’d be giving up. Do you want to go back to being a weak old lady? How many years would we have left if we were human again? I like feeling good all the time. I like not needing my glasses to read. And what about you? Your arthritis doesn’t bother you anymore, does it? Except for the blood thing, I like being a vampire. And even that’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”

  Pearl sat up straighter, a sudden sparkle in her eyes. “You’re right, of course, dear.”

  “It doesn’t mean we can’t keep looking for a cure for the werewolves,” Edna said brightly. “After all, they’re nothing but a menace to human and Nosferatu alike.”

  “That’s true.”

  “And the weather in California is much nicer than it is here in Texas at this time of the year.”

  “And there’s nothing to keep us here, now that Travis is gone,” Pearl added, warming to the idea.

  “And McDonald is in California,” Edna reminded her. “We could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”

  “Yes,” Pearl said, and then grinned. “Once we were hunters hunting vampires. Now we’re vampires hunting hunters. I find that amusing, don’t you?”

  “Yes, indeed,” Edna said. Draining her glass, she threw it into the fireplace where it shattered against the back wall, the tiny pieces of glass raining down on the flames in a shower of rainbow-hued crystal. “Let’s go pack!”

  After draining her own glass, Pearl tossed it into the fire. “California, here we come!”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Mara looked up from the magazine she had been reading, and frowned. “Kyle, you’re staring at me again.”

  “Am I? I’m sorry, I can’t seem to stop.”

  “Is something wrong?” she asked, laying the magazine aside. It was a silly question, she thought. She was pregnant. She had no friends, no doctor, and, in spite of the books she’d read, no idea how to take care of the infant once it arrived.

  “What could be wrong?” Kyle asked with a wry grin. “You’re expecting a baby any day now and the only help you’ve got is me.”

  She tried to think of something reassuring to say, but nothing came to mind. Hadn’t she just been thinking the same thing? The baby would be here soon, she thought. She had been having contractions for the last couple of days. Braxton Hicks, her doctor had called them. She had gone online and looked up Braxton Hicks. The contractions had been named after an English doctor, John Braxton Hicks, back in 1872. Most of the time, the contractions were uncomfortable, but not painful. According to an article online, if she had more than four contractions in an hour, and if the pain escalated, it was probably time to call the doctor. She hadn’t mentioned the contractions to Kyle. He was worried enough.

  Kyle drummed his fingers on the arm of the sofa. Too worried to sit still any longer, he began to pace the floor. He didn’t know a damn thing about childbirth, and neither did she. What if something went wrong? What if the baby was breach? What if Mara hemorrhaged? He swore softly. There were a hundred things that could go wrong during labor and delivery and he wasn’t equipped to handle any of them. He was an artist, not a damned doctor.

  “Go pack a bag,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To Porterville.” He held up a hand to still her protest. “I know you don’t want to go, but I don’t care. We can’t do this alone. There are just too many things that could go wrong. And since you’re dead set against going to a hospital, Porterville’s the only other option we’ve got.”

  “I don’t want to . . .”

  “Hey! We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way, you pack a bag and we go. The hard way, I stuff you into a bag and we go. It’s your choice.”

  “Kyle . . .”

  “I’m not kidding, sweetie. I can handle McDonald if she shows up. But what about that doctor? He’s a frickin’ vampire. If he comes looking for you, neither one of us stands a chance against him, and you know it.”

  In the end, that was the argument that swayed Mara.

  Forty minutes later, their bags were packed and in the trunk of Kyle’s car and they were on the road to Porterville.

  Rane blew out a sigh of relief when he opened the door and saw Mara standing on the porch. He had been thinking about her, worrying about her, ever since he’d returned from Reno. He glanced at the man beside her, startled to see Kyle Bowden instead of Logan. Rane grunted softly, thinking that Kyle Bowden must have done some mighty fast talking to get back into Mara’s good graces. As a vampire, she hadn’t been really big on forgive and forget.

  “It’s good to see you,” Rane said, opening the door wider. “You, too, Kyle. Come on in. So,” Rane said when the three of them were seated in the living room, “what brings you up this way?”

  “We need your help,” Kyle said. “As you can see, Mara’s pregnant.”

  “I hope you don’t expect me to deliver the baby,” Rane muttered.

  “No,” Kyle said, “but I think her life might be in danger. She’s lost her powers . . .”

  Rane looked at Mara, his senses probing the air around her. “You’re human again,” he murmured. He supposed that explained why Rafe hadn’t been able to find her since they saw her in Nevada, and yet, it didn’t, not really. Mara had shared blood with him and his brother. She had brought his father across. They should have been able to locate her no matter where she went. “How could it have happened? I mean, no one’s ever heard of a vampire reverting. It’s . . .” He shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know what it is.”

  “I don’t know how it happened.” Mara folded her arms over her stomach. “No one knows.”

  Rane swore softly. She had told him she was changing, but this was one change he hadn’t considered. Human again. It was impossible, unthinkable.

  “Hi, Mara, Kyle,” Savanah said, coming into the room.

  “Hello, Savanah,” Mara said, forcing a smile.

  Kyle nodded at Rane’s wife.

  Savanah sat on the arm of Rane’s chair. “Kyle, did I hear you say Mara’s life is in danger?” Savanah asked.

  “We’re not really sure,” Kyle replied, “but Mara says she doesn’t trust her doctor, even though he’s a vampire . . .”

  “Ramsden?” Rane asked.

  Kyle nodded.

  “Pregnant women get a lot of funny ideas as their due date approaches,” Savanah remarked. “Maybe there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Better safe than sorry. Anyway,” Kyle said, looking sheepish, “she’s not just in danger from the doctor. When I couldn’t find her, I hired a vampire hunter . . .”

  “You did what?” Rane exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I know, it was a dumb thing to do, but I didn’t know how else to find her. I told the hunter I didn’t want Mara hurt in any way, I just wanted to know where she was, and it worked. Only now . . .”

  “Who was the hunter?” Rane asked, his voice grim.

  “Lou McDonald.”

  “Damn! She’s as hard as flint, that one. And her sister’s not much better.”

  “Sister?” Kyle muttered, frowning. “She never mentioned a sister.”

  “Cindy Meloni.”

  “There was a Cindy working for Ramsden,” Mara said. “Do you think that’s her?”

  “Could be. The McDonald sisters have made quite a name for themselves in the last few years,” Rane said. “They’ve racked up an impressive body count between them, although I don’t think Meloni does much killing.” Rane scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “You were right to bring Mara here. We’ll take good care of he
r. I’ll call Rafe and the old man and let them know what’s going on.”

  “Hey, I didn’t come here to drop her off,” Kyle said, slipping his arm around Mara’s shoulders. “We’re in this together.” He looked at Mara and smiled. “The three of us.”

  Rane looked at Mara. It was easy to see that Kyle was deeply in love with her. Who could blame him? Vampire or not, she was an incredibly beautiful woman, and softer, sweeter, somehow, now that she was mortal. He was less certain of Mara’s feelings for Kyle. Had she really forgiven the man for the way he had behaved when she’d told him she was a vampire? Of course, now that she was human, Kyle’s feelings on whether she was a vampire or not didn’t really matter.

  “The two of you are welcome to stay here, with us, of course,” Rane said. “We’ve got plenty of room.”

  “Who’s going to deliver the baby?” Savanah asked.

  Mara shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t want to go to a hospital where they might do tests. I don’t know if the baby will be normal or not, human or not . . .”

  “Well, you came to the right place,” Savanah said with a smile. “I’ve taken the Lamaze classes.”

  Rane snorted softly. “Fat lot of good they did.”

  Savanah made a face at him. “Okay, so I didn’t use the technique during the actual birth, but I still know what to do, and I think that, between myself and Cara, we’ve got enough experience to deliver a baby. And there’s a hospital in town if anything goes wrong.”

  Later, while Kyle was getting their bags and Rane was calling his brother and his father, Savanah took Mara upstairs to see Abbey, who was sleeping peacefully in her crib.

  “She’s beautiful,” Mara said.

  “Thank you.”

  “Why did you take the Lamaze classes and then not use what you learned?”

  “It hurt too much. I used Rane instead.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He talked me through it.” Savanah laid her hand on Mara’s arm. “This must be so difficult for you.”