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Sassy paused. Then, hesitantly, “Are you sure? I can come get her.”
“No—don’t worry. Erin’s going to play slumber party here. I’l cal you tomorrow night.” Another lie. I was planning on showing up unannounced, without Erin. That ship had sailed and gone. Erin would never spend another night at Sassy’s.
“If you’re sure . . . A strain in Sassy’s voice caught my attention. A tension that hadn’t been there before. I listened to the nuance below it. She was hungry. Sassy was hungry and longing to hunt. I knew the feeling al too wel , but I kept my hunting within strict perimeters. Sassy had crossed the line.
As I murmured good-bye, I wondered again: Did I have the right to put an end to Sassy’s hunting? She was becoming the predator, but did that mean it was my place to play judge, jury, and executioner?
True, she had asked me to end her life if I noticed her slip over the edge. But would she want that now? Would she stil be wil ing to stand there, waiting for the stake? Would she walk into the sun if she realized just how far she’d crossed the line? But the fact remained, from what Erin said, that Sassy was now kidnapping and torturing the innocent. And that was unacceptable.
“Menol y?”
I turned back to find Erin staring at me. “Yes?”
“Sassy and I’ve talked many times about right and wrong . . . good and evil. She didn’t want to be a vampire in the first place. She wasn’t given a choice. She told me more than once that she doesn’t want to wear a black hat, as she put it. She said that as much as she loved me . . .
Here, Erin hung her head and a bloody tear streaked down her face. I reached out and lifted her chin, nodding for her to go on. “She told me that she doesn’t think she has much of a future left.
That it’s too hard for her to control the desire to hunt.”
“I’m sorry, Erin. I’m so sorry.” I knew that my daughter and Sassy had formed a romantic bond, even though I’d encouraged them to wait before sealing their relationship—at least until Erin had spent long enough in the life to know what she wanted.
Erin shrugged. “I am, too. I came out of the closet to my family about being gay and a vampire and they drove me out of their lives a few months ago. I’m alone in this world and stil unsure about myself. Sassy’s al I’ve got.”
“No, no she isn’t.” I put my hands on her shoulders. She was a little tal er than I, but looked so unsure and hesitant. “You have me—I’m your Blood-Mother. You have Tim and Camil e and Delilah. They al care about you, and Tim’s your best friend. We are family. Don’t ever forget it.”
“Tim’s married now. He . . . he belongs in the world of the living, not in our world.” She bit her lip, and I realized just how disconnected she was feeling from everything that had ever meant anything to her.
“Tim and you were best friends,” I said slowly. “Unfortunately, things do change once you cross over the veil and become a vampire, but that doesn’t mean that every relationship you had has to vanish or die with your old life. Tim may have married Jason, but he stil cares about you. He misses you. In fact, he’s waiting for you to adapt enough so that you can be friends again, no matter how the friendship has to evolve.”
She considered my words. “I suppose you’re right. I guess I expected everything to go on the same, just with me being a vampire. I didn’t have time to think it through.”
“Are you sorry you asked me to turn you?” I touched her arm, lightly, praying she wouldn’t say yes. I’d sworn I’d never sire another vampire and had broken my rule only because Grandmother Coyote had warned me that I needed to break through my own fears for the sake of destiny.
Whatever the future held for Erin, I had a feeling it was far more than she dreamed of.
Erin mul ed over my words. I liked that she was no longer so eager to please that she’d blurt out anything she thought might make me happy. She was growing into her fangs.
“No, I’m not sorry. I wasn’t ready to die, and this was the only choice. I think, to be honest, that living with Sassy has been good for me, but I’m ready to move on. She’s making me nervous and I can’t do anything without her approval or she throws a fit.”
It was my turn to bite my lip. Sassy had lost a daughter, many years ago. Had she pinned al her love—both maternal and romantic—onto Erin’s shoulders? She was stil protecting Erin from the monster she was becoming, or she wouldn’t have sent her out of the room before attacking her victim. But had she also kept her from growing independent?
I decided to lighten the mood and held up a deck of cards. “Want to play a game of gin rummy?”
I knew that Sassy and Erin played like fiends, and though the game bored me stiff, I wanted Erin to feel comfortable.
She shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I hate that game. I play because Sassy loves it.”
Laughing, I pitched the cards into the corner. “Fair enough. It’s not one of my favorites, either.
What do you want to do? We have a couple hours til sunrise.”
Erin let out a long sigh. “I’d like to go for a walk with you. Get outside, walk through the woods.
Sassy doesn’t take me out very often, and I miss the sound of the wind in the trees.”
I hunted through my closet and pul ed on a pair of Doc Martens. “Sounds good to me. Come on, let’s go.” And leading her up the stairs, I decided right there and then that I’d keep a tight watch over the next home I found for my daughter.
We returned to the house a half hour before sunrise to find my phone ringing. I snatched it up, afraid it might be Sassy again, as Erin contentedly sprawled in the armchair. We’d walked for about a half hour, then did a mad-dash al -out sprint through the woods, skimming the trunks and undergrowth through the freshly fal en snow. I taught Erin how to scale a tree—Sassy had ignored a good share of Erin’s physical training, much to my dismay—and by the time we got back, she was looking forward to sunrise and sleep. I never liked the drowsy pul , but for Erin, it seemed to hold no dread.
