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“Taken my blood? No.”
“It must have been awful for him, being turned so young.” She frowned. “If vampires can’t go out during the day, what did he do about school?”
“We were home-schooled.”
“Oh.”
“I think you might be good for each other. He’s such a sweet boy.”
“A sweet boy?” Sheree shook her head. Sweet was hardly the word she would use to describe Derek. Handsome, yes. Sexy, yes. But sweet?
“I’ve always mothered him,” Mara said. “You know, he’s very fond of you.”
“I like him, too, but . . . Last night, his being a vampire didn’t bother me, but this morning . . .” She shook her head. “I just don’t know.”
“I understand. But enough about vampires,” Mara said. “How would you like to go shopping with me? Whenever Logan and I have a fight, I always go buy something new.” She laughed softly. “It’s a good thing we don’t fight very often. What do you say?”
“I’d love to,” Sheree said. “Just let me go get dressed.”
“You did what?” Derek stared at his mother, who was curled up on the sofa beside Logan.
“I spent the day with Sheree. We agreed to keep an eye on her, didn’t we?”
“You were just supposed to keep an eye on her, not become her new best friend. What did you talk about?”
“You, mostly. She’s a little . . . hmm, I guess you could say, conflicted at the moment.”
Derek groaned. Just what he needed. His mother playing matchmaker.
“I’m sorry you’re so upset, but I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. I kept her safe, and I bought a new Donna Karan gown to wear to Justin’s party tonight.” Turning to Logan, she added, “Wait until you see it. It’s black and slinky. You’re gonna love it.”
“You know I love you in anything. Or nothing,” Logan said with a wicked grin. “So, what excuse did you give for being at her house so early?”
“I told her we had a fight.”
Logan laughed softly, amused by her clever ruse. “Well, since we’re fighting, I think we’d better go to bed and make up. How about it?”
“I’d love to,” Mara said, caressing his cheek, “but it will have to wait. I promised to take Derek to see his father’s grave. You don’t mind, do you?”
“No.” Rising, Logan headed for the door. “I’ll just go grab a bite while you’re gone.”
Derek stared after his stepfather. “He’s upset, isn’t he?”
“No, but he was always jealous of Kyle.”
“What was my father like?”
“He was a good man. Far too good for me.”
“Am I like him?”
“No. You’re more like me. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
Rising, Mara linked her arm with his.
Moments later, they were standing in the small cemetery located behind Mara’s house in the mountains of Northern California.
It was an old cemetery, surrounded by a white wrought-iron fence with an arched gate. A wooden sign, carved with the words Rest Ye in Peace, hung from the top of the gate. A black marble headstone marked Kyle Bowden’s final resting place. The words Taken From Us Too Soon But Never Forgotten were engraved beneath his name along with the dates of his birth and passing.
Derek stood beside his father’s marker, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. Overhead, wispy clouds covered the moon, while a lazy breeze whispered through the leaves of the trees. In the distance, a deer grazed on a patch of moon-silvered grass.
He glanced at his mother. Standing beside him, clad in a long white hooded cloak, she looked like a fallen angel. Dropping to one knee, she placed a dozen long-stemmed pink roses on the grave.
Not red, Derek noted bitterly. Everyone knew red roses meant love.
“Did you ever love him?” he asked.
“I thought I did, but the truth is, there was never anyone for me but Logan, only I was too stubborn to admit it. Your father would still be alive if I hadn’t been such a fool. But I’ll always love Kyle because he gave me you, someone who means more to me than anything else in this world.”
“I wish I could have known him.” How could he ever know who he truly was without knowing the man who had sired him? He had known early on that Logan wasn’t his real father. As a child, it hadn’t seemed important. Why was it bothering him so much now?
“When I was kidnapped, were you sorry you had to give up your humanity to find me?”
“No. I had always planned to ask Logan to turn me when you were grown.”
“Why?”
“I was mortal only twenty years.” She gazed into the distance, and he had the feeling she was looking into the past. “I was a vampire for centuries.”
“So, you don’t miss anything about being human?”
“Only the taste of chocolate.”
Derek shook his head. What was it about women and chocolate?
“Anything else you’d like to know?” Mara asked.
“No. Let’s go home.”
Logan was waiting for them when they returned home. “Everything okay?” he asked, glancing from mother to son.
“Fine,” Derek said. “I need to hunt. How about coming along?”
Logan looked at Mara. With a careless wave of her hand, she said, “Take your time. I’m going up to bed.”
Grunting softly, Logan followed Derek outside. Not trusting his son to drive in his current state of mind, he said, “Let’s take my car.”
Moments later, they were headed down the hill. “Are we really going hunting?” Logan asked, “or is this just an excuse to get out of the house?”
“Both. Tell me about my mother.”
“She’s a remarkable woman.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“She’s spoiled. Stubborn. Powerful. But you know all that, too. What’s bothering you?”
Derek blew out a sigh that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul. “I’m feeling lost and I don’t know why. Something’s happening to me. . . .”
“You mean your craving for steak? Your mother told me.”
“I know it worries her.”
“Of course it does.” Logan pulled onto a deserted side street and shut off the engine. “She loves you.”
“Yeah. Why did she leave you all those years ago?”
