Page 96 of Ryder’s Storm

“Fuck!” he ground out, disgusted. “That jacket is ruined.”

Normally, Ryder would have barked at Grayson’s insensitive comment, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel any sympathy for Claudia either, and he’d seen that Grayson had merely tried to disarm Claudia, when she’d accidentally shot herself.

Ryder turned with the trembling Scarlet in his arms. When her eyes fell on Claudia’s body, she didn’t scream, didn’t cry, just nodded.

Ryder’s gaze went to Benjamin and Derek. Benjamin was unhurt, but Derek lay on the ground, blood spilling from his chest, and gurgling out of his mouth. He was drowning in his own blood. Nobody in the room moved.

“Claudia…” Derek murmured barely audible. A moment later, his heart stopped beating. He was dead. Accidentally shot by his partner in crime.

“Looks like a murder suicide to me,” Benjamin said.

“Yeah, lover’s quarrel. Claudia shoots Derek, sees what she’s done, and kills herself. Works for me,” Grayson agreed.

Ryder nodded. “Let’s get outta here. I’m sure they’ll be found soon enough.”

On the way back to San Francisco, Ryder cradled Scarlet in his arms, both sitting in the back seat, while Ethan was driving.

“It’s over, baby,” he murmured and kissed her on the forehead.

“I’m glad they’re dead. It will be easier for Dad to never have to lay eyes on her again.”

“You were very brave. I would have reached you in time, even if you hadn’t kicked Claudia. Vampires are faster than humans.”

“I didn’t know that. I just hoped that if she managed to shoot me, my heart would beat long enough for you to turn me. I want you to know that should anything like this ever happen to me, I don’t want to die. You have my permission to—”

He put a finger to her lips. “I will never let you go, Scarlet. Because without your love, I have nothing.”

He kissed her and felt her respond to him, her love and trust filling his heart.

“Get a room, you two. You’re worse than Mom and Dad,” Ethan said and chuckled from the driver’s seat.

44

Two weeks later

The V lounge Scarlet had visited the night she’d first found out about vampires was packed. Scanguards had organized a party to welcome the newest member of their community: Brandon King.

She’d seen her father almost every day since the fateful night when their beautiful Victorian home had gone up in flames. He’d spent the past two weeks in a comfortable suite attached to the medical center at Scanguards’ headquarters in the Mission. While Scarlet had been allowed to talk to her father as often as she wanted, she’d only been allowed into his suite under protection from another vampire.

The worry that Brandon King would try to bite her and drink her blood was the reason she’d not been allowed to hug him. At first, she’d thought the precaution had been overblown, but when she’d noticed her father’s nostrils flare when she’d entered his room for the first time, accompanied by both Gabriel and Maya, she’d realized that he was driven by his vampire instincts.

But he’d made great progress in the past two weeks, accepting his new circumstances, and coming to terms with the fact that Claudia had betrayed him and paid for it with her life. Scarlet hadn’t told him about the gene she’d inherited from her mother. Knowing her father, he would blame himself for her mother’s suicide once he knew the whole truth about what had truly driven her to take her life: being born a satyr who’d never found her intended mate and had instead fallen into depression from which there was no way out. Ryder and she had decided to tell him the truth about Scarlet’s mother when the time was right.

But tonight wasn’t the right time.

Tonight, the extended Scanguards family, many of whom Scarlet had been introduced to in the preceding days, had come to celebrate.

Scarlet wore a short red dress she’d purchased during the past week, together with a whole stack of other clothes, since everything she possessed had been destroyed in the fire. Vanessa and Isabelle had accompanied her and helped her choose a new wardrobe. They treated her like the sisters she’d never had.

Scarlet caught Samson’s eye, and he waved his hand to approach him. The founder and owner of Scanguards looked dashing in his dark suit and white shirt. He was tall and slim, with almost black hair, and hazel eyes. Next to him his wife, Delilah, looked petite. She wore a royal-blue dress, and looked stunning, and far too young to have three adult children. Would she ever get used to the fact that the vampires and their blood-bonded mates didn’t age?

“You look gorgeous tonight,” Delilah said and took Scarlet’s hands into hers.

“And you look stunning, Delilah.” Scarlet smiled and turned her gaze to Samson. “I don’t know how to thank you for what all of you are doing for my father.”

“Your father is a good man,” Samson said. “And he’s adjusting better than expected.”

“It looks like he’s found a new zest for life, after all that happened,” Scarlet replied. “I still can’t fathom how Claudia managed to lie to him for so long.”