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“I don’t believe it.”
He shrugged. “Well, it’s true just the same.”
Sheree backed up and sat down, hard, on one of the porch steps, her mind reeling. Derek’s mother had lived in the time of the pharaohs. She might look twenty but she was ancient. Sheree shook her head. She had invited the most dangerous vampire in the world into her house.
“You’re not gonna faint on me, are you?” Derek asked. “You look a little pale.”
Sheree looked up at him, surprised to find him so close. But then, vampires were supposed to be able to move faster than the human eye could follow. What other supernatural powers did he possess? Did he sleep in a coffin? Could he change into a bat? Did he cast a reflection in a mirror?
“I don’t sleep in a coffin. I can’t change into a bat. I don’t cast a reflection in a mirror.” He grinned faintly when she realized he was reading her mind. “You’ve seen me dissolve into mist. I can climb tall buildings in a single bound.”
“Can all vampires read minds?”
“As far as I know. Are you all right with that?”
“I don’t know. Do you read all my thoughts?”
“No. Just the good ones.”
She glared at him, not certain if he was kidding or not.
Unable to resist the urge to touch her, Derek took a step forward. When she didn’t recoil, he brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “There’s no future for us,” he said with regret, “no matter what the Queen of the Vampires thinks.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“No? Why not?”
“Because I think I’m falling in love with you. And I think you care for me, whether you want to admit it or not.”
Heaving a sigh, he sat on the step beside her. As always, her nearness soothed him. “Maybe you’re right.” Most of the men in his family had married mortal women. Rafe, Rane, Vince. Hell, Roshan had married a witch. They’d all had problems of one kind or another, sure, but they were all happy now. Maybe it was worth a try.
“You said you’ve been a vampire since you were thirteen,” Sheree said, frowning. “I thought vampires didn’t age.”
“Normally they don’t.”
“And I thought they couldn’t reproduce.”
“They can’t.”
Head tilted, she stared up at him, waiting for an explanation.
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Do you really think we can make this work?”
“We won’t know until we try. So, tell me how you became a vampire.”
“Before she married Logan, Mara had an affair with a mortal. During that same time, for reasons no one knows, she started reverting to being human again. I was conceived somewhere along the way. My father died a short time later and Mara married Logan. For the first thirteen years of my life, I was like anybody else, and then, overnight, my vampire nature kicked in.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“It’s happened before. Vince—one of Mara’s fledglings—was a new vampire when he fell in love with his wife, Cara. She got pregnant and had twins, Rane and Rafe. They grew up like everybody else until they reached puberty. They stopped aging when they turned twenty-five.”
“Is that when you stopped?”
“Yeah.”
“Did they marry and have children?”
“They’re both married. Savannah was artificially inseminated and she and Rane have a daughter. Rafe and Kathy are childless.”
“Must be nice not getting older, but . . . what about their wives?”
“Savannah and Kathy are both vampires now.”
“Oh?”
“It was their idea,” Derek assured her. “No one forced them. Savannah waited until her daughter was grown.”
Sheree contemplated that for a few moments. She couldn’t imagine asking to be turned into a vampire, but if you wanted to spend the rest of your life with one, it was probably the only logical solution, unless you wanted to grow old while your husband stayed forever young.
“You still think we’ve got a chance?” He didn’t have to read her mind to know what she was thinking.
“How old are you, really? I’m afraid to ask.”
“Twenty-five.”
“And you’ll never look any older?”
“No.”
“Does it hurt? Becoming a vampire?”
“I don’t know. For me, it was a natural transition.”
Sheree rubbed her hands up and down her arms as the night grew colder.
“You should go inside,” Derek suggested, rising. “It’s getting late.”
“Will I see you again?”
“Do you still think dating a vampire’s a good idea?”
When she nodded, he lifted her to her feet and drew her into his arms. “If you change your mind, if what I am gets to be too much for you to handle, just tell me. I can’t promise I’ll never hurt you and it scares the hell out of me.”
“We’ll just have to learn to trust each other.”
“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Sheree frowned. “I saw your mother during the day. How is that possible?”
“She’s Mara, Queen of the Vampires,” he said, starting down the steps. “Most of the rules don’t apply to her.”
“Hey! Aren’t you going to kiss me good night?”
She was wrapped in his arms before she had time to blink. His mouth covered hers in a searing kiss that burned every thought from her mind and left her weak and wanting more.
“Tomorrow night,” he said, and it sounded like both threat and promise.
Chapter Eighteen
Pearl stared up at the house on the hill. “What are we doing here?” she whispered. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I just wanted to see where he lives,” Edna whispered back, her voice edged with excitement.
“You idiot! Mara’s in there.”
“Mara!” Edna’s eyes widened. “I was so busy following Derek, I didn’t pay any attention.”
“We need to get out of here, now!”
“Do you realize how many hunters would pay a fortune to know where she lives?” Edna asked.
“All the money in the world won’t do you any good if you’re dead, dear. And I mean really dead!”
“Just one more minute. I’ve been thinking. What if it wasn’t Mara turning human that allowed her to get pregnant, but the werewolf gene itself?”
