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“We’ll get out of your hair,” Connor said, rising from his chair. “We need to hit the road, anyway. Thank you for the refreshment and the conversation.”
“Please don’t feel like you have to go,” Arne said. “This is a minor skirmish in the War of Daughters.”
“No, we’re on a deadline. Sunrise,” he said, nodding toward me.
“Right, right.” Arne looked at me curiously. “I think you’re the first vampire I’ve ever met.” He grinned. “You seem pretty normal.”
“Please excuse my husband,” Marian said, coming back into the room. “The running has finally scrambled his brain.”
“For a vampire, she is pretty normal.” Connor looked at me, his smile so tender and warm, my heart fluttered like wings in my chest.
“Adorable,” Marian murmured, sliding her arm into Arne’s. “Do you need anything for the road?”
“We’re good,” Connor said. “But thank you for the offer.”
They walked us to the door, and we exchanged hugs.
“I like you,” Marian whispered as she embraced me. “And I like you for him,” she said when she pulled back, meeting my gaze. “Take care of each other.”
***
We hit the road again, interstates and farmland eventually turning into coastal cities marked with ironworks and rocky shores,which turned into divided highways through tall and pointed trees.
It was two hours before dawn when Connor pulled off the main highway, taking a silent and dark road that seemed to run parallel to it—probably the old main road Marian had mentioned—to a spur that led to the former Superior Shore Resort & Lodge, according to the peeling sign at the edge of the drive.
The drive was narrower than the road had been, and rutted with potholes. It wove through the property around cabins of assorted sizes, past overgrown lawns and wild-looking shrubs. Connor brought the bike to a stop in front of a stand-alone cabin near what looked like the edge of the property. He turned off the bike, and we pulled off our helmets and sat for a moment in the quiet that embraced us.
Wordlessly, we climbed off the bike. Connor walked into the grass and turned a quiet circle as he took in the grounds, or what he could see of them in the darkness.
The cabin was a neat rectangle of honed logs with a steeply pitched roof. A couple of steps led to a small wooden porch held up by wooden posts, a white rocking chair moving subtly back and forth in the breeze.
When I looked back at Connor, his brow was furrowed.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, still frowning, and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been a few years since I’ve been back, but it’s not as well-kept as it was. The potholes, the grass. Maybe the young guns had a point there.”
“I like it,” I said, and he looked back at me. “It looks real. Lived in and homey.”
“Is ‘homey’ what vampires say when they mean ‘shabby’?”
I grinned at him. “Good to know you think I’m tactful, at least. How does the clan support itself? I mean, they had to buythis land, right? Buy food, at least what they don’t hunt or scavenge?”
“They work,” Connor said. “They pooled money to buy the resort, and everyone puts in for the mortgage. They spend some money on their needs, put some money into the communal pot. Elders are retired, so some of that pot supports them directly. And they don’t live extravagantly, as you’ve seen. Shifters aren’t much into material possessions.”
“Because they have the moon and the woods and the cheese curds?”
“Not necessarily in that order, but yeah. For their security, vampires prefer to live high. To have the protections of wealth. Shifters prefer the opposite. To blend. To go unnoticed.”
We took our bags and walked to the door, and he pointed to the large dark green shutters installed over the windows. They looked like slatted ornamental shutters but for wide hinges that would allow them to close and hooks that would keep them that way. “Sunlight protection.”
“That’s a relief. Does the clan get a lot of vampire visitors?”
He looked back at me, eyes full of meaning. “No.”
He’d put thought into this, I realized. Thought and time to make sure I’d be shielded if I decided to come. Warmth spread through my belly.
Connor flipped up the welcome mat with a booted toe and flicked out the key someone had stowed there. He unlocked the door, held it open for me. “You’re invited in, if you need the invitation.”
