Night's Pleasure (Children of The Night 4)

Tomorrow, she would pay her last respects and then, for the first time in her life, she would be truly alone.

Turning onto her side, she buried her face in the pillow and let the tears flow.

Savanah awoke late after a long and restless night. Her dreams had been dark and unsettling. At first, she had wandered through gray mists and ever-changing shadows, searching for something that was just out of reach, and then she had started running, hurrying through the darkness as if her life depended on it, fleeing from a faceless wraith clad in long black robes. Death, she thought, she had been running from Death.

Sitting up, she clutched the pillow to her chest. Was it Death who had pursued her so relentlessly, she wondered, or Rane?

A glance at her watch told her she didn’t have time to worry about it; her father’s funeral was only two hours away.

Tossing the pillow aside, she wasted several minutes looking for her mother’s books. She wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t find them. For all she knew, Rane had put some sort of Supernatural hex on the volumes. Drat the man’s Supernatural abilities. She could be looking right at the books and not know it.

With a sigh of exasperation, she headed for the door, only to stop short as two thoughts crossed her mind, the first coming hard on the heels of the second. She was wearing her PJs and a robe, and her car was at home. Tapping her foot, she glanced around the room. Spying Rane’s cell phone, she picked it up to call a cab, only then noticing the note beneath the phone.

Savanah, take my car. It’s parked in the garage off the kitchen. The key is in the ignition. I’ll pick it up tonight. R.

Barefooted, she padded into the kitchen. In passing, she noted that the room was empty save for an electric stove and a refrigerator. She wondered why a Vampire would have need of either one, and then remembered he was renting the house, so the appliances had most likely come with the place.

It wasn’t until she was driving home that she realized she had missed a pair of golden opportunities—a rare opportunity to see a Vampire at rest, and the chance to make her first kill.

The sky was gray and there was a hint of rain in the air as Savanah picked her way around the tombstones to her father’s final resting place. Her uncle Arthur trailed at her heels. He had called earlier, asking if he could drive her to the funeral.

The service at the church had been well-attended by those she and her father worked with at the newspaper. Uncle Arthur had given the eulogy.

Savanah blinked back her tears as she stared at the bronze casket covered by a blanket of red and white roses.

She scarcely heard the words that were spoken over the grave, felt numb as she shook hands and received condolences from her friends and coworkers.

She stood at the graveside long after the mourners had left, unable to tear herself away.

“Savanah? Are you ready to go?”

At the sound of her uncle’s voice, Savanah glanced over her shoulder. Arthur Gentry was ten years older than her father and had a net worth of several million dollars. He lived in a swanky penthouse in New York, leased a new car every year, and had a summer home at Hyannisport. From time to time, she had seen his picture online or in the New York papers, always with a beautiful woman on his arm, but rarely the same woman. Savanah had often wondered why her uncle had never married; it seemed he could have his pick of the ladies.

The last time Savanah had seen her uncle had been at her mother’s funeral. When she called to tell him of her father’s passing, she had been surprised when her uncle said he was flying in for the service. Arthur and her father had had a bitter quarrel over thirty years ago, and as far as Savanah knew, they had barely spoken a word to each other since. Her father had never told her what the fight was about, but it hardly mattered now.

“He was a good man,” Arthur remarked quietly. “An honorable man. I’m sorry for the years we spent apart.”

“What did you fight about?”

He hesitated, as though debating whether or not he should tell her, and then said, “Your mother. Come on, let’s go get a drink.”

Savanah followed him to where his rental car, a new Lincoln convertible, was parked, waited while he opened the door for her, then ducked inside. The interior was luxurious, outfitted with every extra imaginable.

“Any place in particular you’d care to go?” Arthur asked.

Savanah gave him directions to the club where Rane had taken her, but when they reached the place where it should have been, it wasn’t there.

“That’s odd,” she remarked. “I was sure this was the address.”

“No matter,” Arthur said, “we’ll find a place.”

A short time later, he pulled into the parking lot of Sid’s Tap Room, handed her out of the car, and followed her inside. Savanah had only been to Sid’s once before. It was a hangout for the older crowd, mostly retired men who wanted to get out of the house for a few hours. There was a pool table in one corner. Pictures of prominent sports figures lined the walls. Arthur ordered a shot and a beer. Savanah asked for a white wine spritzer.

“Why did you and Dad fight over my mother?” Savanah asked.

“Because I was in love with her, too.”

“You were?”

He nodded.

“Is that why you never married?”

“Yeah. I’d been in love with the most wonderful woman in the world. I never found anyone who could take her place, and I wasn’t willing to settle for anything less.” He shook his head. “I begged her to marry me. I could have given her the world, but she didn’t want the world. She wanted Will.”

“But after so long…” Savanah shook her head. “Surely there have been other women you cared for.”

“Two or three, but they couldn’t hold a candle to your mother, and after a while…” He shrugged. “After a while I was too set in my ways to change, and too stubborn to settle for second best.”

Their drinks arrived then. Arthur tossed back the whiskey as if he couldn’t go another minute without it, then stared into the empty shot glass. “I miss her every damn day. My only consolation, and it’s damned little, is that Will made her happy.” He picked up his beer and took a long drink. “At least they’re together now.”

It was late afternoon when Arthur drove Savanah home.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked. “We could order some takeout for dinner.”

“No, thanks, I’ve got a plane to catch.”

“So soon?”