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“We’l be in the kitchen,” Delilah said as they slipped into the hal way.
I motioned for Erin to sit next to me. “What’s going on? Why are you here?” Vampires didn’t usual y dil ydal y with smal talk. It was a waste of words.
“I’m worried about Sassy.” Erin gazed at me, her pale brown eyes fading into the mist. They were shifting to gray, as most vampire eyes did over time. She drew her hand across her face and pinched her brow. “Mistress, Sassy, she’s . . . something’s not right.”
“What isn’t right? Can you be more specific?” I had a sinking feeling I already knew the answer but hoped I was wrong.
“Last night someone came to the house. I don’t know who it was, but I know it was another vampire. He brought . . .” She stopped and swal owed, fear clouding her face. “I don’t want to get Sassy in trouble. She’s done so much for me.” As a look of clarity raced through her eyes, I realized that Erin was, indeed, growing and learning.
“Tel me. I know you’re afraid, but you can tel me anything.” I reached out and slowly stroked her face, running my fingers down her cheek. I’d vowed never to sire a child, but here she was, my daughter forever until one of us walked into the sunlight. How could I not care what happened to her? And her behavior would reflect on me.
Erin shuddered at my touch, raising her hand to cover mine. “I know I can. That’s why I came to you. Someone came over last night; a vampire, but I don’t know his name. He brought a girl with him. Sassy told me to go to my room and stay there—that she had some business to attend to. I was angry. Earlier we’d had a fight. I wanted to wear my jeans but she wanted me to wear some designer crap. Anyway . . . she and this guy disappeared with the girl as I pretended to do what she told me to. I know I’m supposed to obey her, but something felt wrong.”
My stomach sank and I had the nasty feeling I knew how this was going to end. “What happened?”
“I fol owed them. They took the girl down to Sassy’s safe room. I was able to watch without being seen. They savaged her, Menol y. I wanted so bad to go join them, to feed, but I forced myself to remember what you taught me about honor and the path we walk. And I don’t think the girl wanted it. They . . . fel on her and . . .” She paled—if vampires can pale—and hung her head, looking sick.
“It was bad. It was real y bad. I’ve never seen Sassy so cruel.”
“What did she do?” I didn’t want to know, and yet I had to.
“She went down on her, then fed from her. Down there. The girl started screaming but fel into a stupor. When Sassy finished, the male vamp took his turn. Neither one of them was looking for just food. And then . . . they drained her. I know she was dead,” Erin whispered, bloody tears trailing from her eyes. “It made me sick. I ran back to my room and kept my mouth shut. I wanted to come right over, but if they knew I was gone, they’d have come after me. Tonight, Sassy went to a party and left me home, so I slipped out.”
I stared at my daughter. What the fuck had I been thinking, leaving her in the care of someone I didn’t real y know? What the hel had I done? I wanted to punch something but stopped. If I put a hole through the wal , Iris would have my ass.
“What has Janet said about these goings-on?” Janet was Sassy’s lifelong companion—a combination older sister/ personal maid. The elder woman was as delightful as Julia Child and as prim as Emily Post. I’d come to love how she looked after Sassy.
“Not much of anything. I don’t think she knows. Janet’s real y sick,” Erin said, staring at the floor.
My stomach lurched. Janet had a brain tumor that was slowly eating away at her life. “Is she . . .
her tumor?”
“Yeah, I think she’s in the last stages. She’s been in bed a lot lately. And she’s scared, Menol y.
Sassy . . . Sassy keeps talking about turning her, and Janet keeps begging her not to.”
“Crap. How long do you think Janet has?” I bit my lip, wanting to cry. Janet didn’t deserve to be harassed at the end of her life, and the old Sassy would never have even thought of turning her best friend.
“A few days at the most, but it could be any time. She’s been asking about you.”
“I’l go as soon as I can—in the next night or so. I promise. Meanwhile, you’re not going back.
You wil sleep here tomorrow, with me. But you must promise to be on your best behavior. And I’l find a safer place for you to live.” I stood up and held out my hands. She took them and smiled at me, bravely. Erin might have been a grown woman when she died, but al vamps revert back into an awkward stage for their first few years after death. In essence, Erin was both a middle-aged woman and a shy teenager.
“Come now. I’m going to take you down to my lair and get you some blood—wait til you taste what Morio makes for me. It’s almost as good as being alive again.” It wasn’t ideal to reference life in a newly minted vamp’s presence. Erin would stil be mourning her loss, but with the flavored blood my sister’s youkai-kitsune husband prepared for me, Erin would get a little taste of her former life back.
“Come.” I led her into the kitchen. Delilah and Camil e looked up. “Erin’s going to be staying with us for the night. She’l sleep in my lair with me. I’m just going to get her a bottle of blood and settle her in, and then I’l be back.”
Camil e flashed us a warm smile. “Erin, it’s so good to see you again.”
Erin stared at her, wistful. “I know. I just wish . . .” Her voice trailed off as I pul ed out a bottle of strawberry shake-flavored blood and led her behind the bookcase, into the secret staircase leading to my lair. I settled her in with the television and the blood, then returned upstairs.
Delilah and Camil e were waiting. “Trouble. I have big trouble.” I told them what Erin had told me.
“Not Sassy!” Delilah’s jaw dropped. “What the hel are we going to do? How can we stop her?”
“Sassy told me some months back she felt her predator rising and was having trouble control ing it. Looks like she wasn’t lying.” I stared at my hands. “In one sense, it’s none of my business. Vampires take out people every day and I don’t do anything. But six months ago she made me promise that when she lost sight of herself, I’d put an end to it. She didn’t want to become like this.”
