Nightwolf

“I know,” I whine softly as I add extra olive juice to the shaker.

“Wolf will always wait for you,” she goes on. “But why make him? You wanted him to suffer like you did, and he’s suffered enough. I hate to bring this up, because I’m not choosing sides, but he lost your mom too. That was a huge loss for him. And people do strange and stupid things out of grief sometimes, and breaking your heart was one of them. So, please, just forgive the vampire. You’ll never stop belonging to each other, no matter what you do.” She exhales, blowing a loose strand of hair off her face. “And Solon wants harmony in the house again.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, so that’s what it is.”

“Well yeah, and also I just want the both of you to be happy the way you deserve to be.”

I find myself nodding, pouring the drink in a martini glass and giving it to the vampire. I sigh, wiping my hands on my cocktail dress, and turn to Lenore.

“Next time I have the opportunity,” I tell her. Then I lean in closer, though what’s the point in whispering when everyone can hear you if they choose. “Hey, so you know how Solon, after he was originally turned, couldn’t become a father because he was shooting blanks? Like how all vamps created like that do?”

She stares at me for a moment, then blinks. “Uh, yeah?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe since you turned him back after he died, that maybe that doesn’t apply anymore? And that you could have babies?”

Now, I don’t discuss babies with Lenore. Or anyone, really, so I’m expecting her to balk at that question.

Instead her expression softens. “You know, I thought about it but, I mean…we don’t use protection and he’s banging me twice a day, so I think I would have been knocked up by now.”

“That’s a good point,” I tell her.

Her brows come together. “Wait…are you thinking you and Wolf…”

“No,” I say adamantly. “I was just curious.”

“But you’re not having sex right now.”

“No ma’am.”

“But you one hundred percent will be once you forgive him.”

“Oh, yes.”

“So, it’s possible…”

I raise my hand. “It was just a question about you. I’ve never discussed children with Wolf and it’s not on my radar and it’s definitely not on his.”

She smiles with a dreamy look in her eyes. “You do know it would make him so unbelievably happy, don’t you? For him to finally have a family again.”

“Maybe,” I tell her, my chest filling with butterflies at the thought. “And that’s why I don’t even want to think about it or talk about it with him because I’m pretty sure it’s not a possibility. If it hasn’t happened for you yet…”

Her face falls a little. “Yeah. I’ve never thought about it much, to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel. I think I’m too young…and I get that I’ll always be young but you know, mentally. I’m not there.”

“Neither am I,” I tell her. “Okay good. We’re on the same page.”

“And anyway,” she says, smacking me on the arm. “You need to talk to him. Do it tonight. Please. It’s Christmas.”

Then she walks off to find Solon.

“Oh my god, it’s Valtu,” the dirty martini drinking vampire suddenly says.

I glance at her and follow her gaze to the back doors of the club where someone has just come in. I can’t see them but there’s already a crowd of vampires gathered.

“Who is Valtu again?” I ask, trying to remember. There are so many vampires to keep track of, but I’d know if Valtu was a frequent visitor.

The dirty martini girl looks at me like I have two heads. “You don’t know who Valtu is? Dracula!”

Oh shit. Dracula!

“Are you serious?” I ask her.

She nods enthusiastically, her eyes bright.

Dracula is here? The one who inspired Bram Stoker?

The one that Wolf wants to kill?

Uh oh.

I look across at Wolf and I know he already knows. His don’t fuck with me demeanor has morphed into a scary I’m going to kill you motherfucker demeanor.

I look at the martini girl. “I’ll be right back.”

Then I scurry out from behind the bar, heading across Dark Eyes until I see Solon.

“Ah, just the person I wanted to see,” Solon says to me and the crowd parts and that’s when I see he’s got his arm around a tall, very handsome, distinguished looking vampire. Shoulder-length black wavy hair, a broad chin, low-set brows that shelter intense brown eyes, so dark they look black, he looks like the most gorgeous yet deviant Dracula there is.

The man breaks into a smile, and while I find all vampires have an air of mysterious beauty about them, Dracula takes the cake.

But, while I find myself smiling back at him in this weird automatic way, like I’ve been hypnotized, I’m also aware that Wolf is not only in the room, the man I truly love, but that this is Dracula, the vampire who stole Wolf’s girlfriend a long time ago. And though I know Wolf doesn’t really care about that girl, it’s a grudge he’s carried for much longer than I’ve carried mine.