Night's Touch (Children of The Night 2)

He didn’t really care about any of that, though. All he wanted was for the sun to go down so he could see Cara. Only then would he know if the rest of his existence was going to be worth living.

The minute Cara walked into the library, Sarah Beth hurried to meet her. “What is it?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Am I that transparent?” Cara asked.

“Girl, you look like you just lost your best friend.”

“Well, I didn’t,” Cara said, forcing a smile, “since you’re still here.”

“You know what I mean. What’s happened? It’s not your parents?”

Cara shook her head. “No.”

“It’s Vince!” Sarah Beth exclaimed. “Oh, no, don’t tell me you broke up!”

“I really don’t want to talk about it, Bethy.”

“All right,” Sarah Beth said, giving her a quick hug, “but I’m here if you need me.”

Cara nodded. Walking into her office, she wished it was that easy, wished she could pour out her heart to Sarah Beth, tell her everything, but she couldn’t, of course. Who would believe that her parents were vampires, that she had fallen in love with a vampire, or that some crazy witch had raised a zombie? It all sounded like some horrid nightmare, which was exactly what it was, she thought, only she wasn’t dreaming.

Sitting at her desk, she switched on her computer, then sat staring at the blank screen.

She didn’t know how she got through the day, but suddenly it was nine o’clock and time to go home. Whose home, she thought, her own or that of her parents?

She said good-bye to Mary and Sarah Beth, turned out the lights, and went out the back door, only to come to an abrupt halt when she saw Vince standing beside her car. Her first impulse was to run to him. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

“Cara, we need to talk.”

She shook her head. “No. Not now. I need time to think.”

He took a step toward her and she backed away, blinking back the tears that burned her eyes.

“Cara, I know you’re angry…”

“Please, Vince, just go away.”

He stared at her, a muscle throbbing in his jaw. “All right, if that’s what you want.”

She nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat.

With a nod, he turned and vanished from her sight.

Cara stared after him; then, with a shake of her head, she went home.

She met her parents at the door. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“We were just coming to look for you,” her father said.

“Oh. I thought I’d stay here tonight, if that’s okay?”

“You’re always welcome here,” Brenna said, kissing Cara’s cheek. “You know that.”

Moving into the living room, Cara sat on the sofa between her parents. Looking at her father, she asked, “Where’s Frank? I went by his house earlier, but he wasn’t there.”

Roshan slipped his arm around her shoulders. “He’s dead, Princess.”

So much death, she thought, and then felt a bubble of hysterical laughter build inside her. Everyone she had ever cared for was dead in one way or another. She sniffed back her tears. “Where…what have you done with him?”

“I buried him in a corner of the backyard, beneath the old elm tree.”

“The backyard? Why?”

“It was easier than trying to explain what had happened to him.”

“And Anton, what happened to him?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t find him.”

“But…how could he get away from you?”

“I’m not the only one with supernatural powers, you know. Anton’s a warlock, and a pretty powerful one.”

The thought that Anton was still out there somewhere should have frightened her, but she was too numb to care.

“Don’t worry about him now,” Roshan said. “Besides, if he’s got any sense at all, he’s left town.”

“Cara?” Brenna laid her hand on her daughter’s arm. “It’s okay to cry.”

Cara looked at her father, at the love and compassion in her mother’s eyes, and burst into tears.

Vince prowled the deepest, darkest part of the city, his thoughts as bleak as his surroundings. He had been afraid of what she would say, hadn’t been surprised that she didn’t want to see him again, and he still hadn’t been prepared for the pain her words caused him. He told himself that, with time, she would change her mind, but he didn’t believe it. He told himself it was his fault, that he should have told her the truth before they made love, but he was convinced the outcome would have been the same. At least he had known what it was like to have her love for a short time, and yet even that failed to comfort him. Having loved and lost, he couldn’t help thinking it was better not to know what you were missing.

Cara passed the next three weeks in a kind of haze. She ate very little, slept even less, and forced herself to go to work, but her heart was empty, her emotions numb. She saw the concern in the eyes of her parents and Sarah Beth and assured them she was fine.

Every day, she told herself she would move back to her own house, that she would put Vince Cordova out of her mind, that she would forget the horror of that awful Halloween night.

But she couldn’t forget Vince.

One morning in late November, she woke up feeling nauseated. Bending over the toilet, she thought how unfair it was that she should catch the flu now. Didn’t she have enough misery in her life?

She was nauseous for several days, and then it passed.

At the end of November, Cara and Mary gave Sarah Beth a baby shower. Cara couldn’t help feeling an unwanted twinge of jealousy as she sat in Sarah Beth’s living room, watching her best friend ooh and ahh over baby blankets and dresses and tiny little booties. She wondered if Sarah Beth knew how lucky she was. She had a husband who loved her and a baby on the way. Her life was normal, ordinary, unlike Cara’s, which had lately been filled with vampires, witches, and zombies.

Later, after everyone else had gone home, Sarah Beth and Cara sat in the living room, drinking coffee and nibbling on leftover cake.

“Cara, please tell me what’s wrong.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I watched you tonight. You were smiling on the outside, but I saw tears in your eyes. I know you’re unhappy because of Vince but…is that all it is? You can tell me anything, you know that.”