Night's Touch (Children of The Night 2)

“Hi, Vince,” Sarah Beth said, entering the room. “Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable. We’ve got half an hour or so before the movie starts.”

Mindful of the mirror, Vince walked behind the sofa and then sat down, grateful that the mirror was high enough that it didn’t reflect the furniture in front of it. Cara sat beside him. Sarah Beth and her husband made themselves comfortable on the other couch.

“So, Vince,” Dean said, “Beth tells me you’re a mechanic.”

Vince nodded.

“I’ve got an antique T-bird out in the garage that I’ve been wanting to restore.”

“What year is it?”

Dean laughed. “You know, I’m not sure. It belonged to my grandfather.”

“Does it still run?”

“Barely.”

“Well, bring it on by,” Vince said, “and I’ll take a look at it.”

“Great.”

“Don’t get too excited. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to find parts for it.”

“I hope you can’t,” Sarah Beth said. “That old thing’s been taking up space in the garage for three years. If he’d get rid of it, I could park my car in there.”

Dean shook his head. “Women.”

Sarah Beth made a face at him, then punched him in the arm. “Be nice. We have company.” She smiled at Vince and Cara. “So, what movie do you two want to see?”

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Cara said.

“How about you, Vince?” Sarah Beth asked.

“Whatever you guys want is fine with me.”

“No one asked me,” Dean said, “but I’d like to see that new horror flick.”

“Okay by me,” Vince said. “Ladies?”

“It’s not all blood and gore is it?” Sarah Beth asked.

“I don’t think so, honey.”

When Cara and Sarah Beth both agreed, Dean checked his watch. “We’d better go. It starts in fifteen minutes.”

The horror flick turned out to be a love story, of sorts, about a female vampire in love with a werewolf and the problems they had to overcome. It wasn’t filled with blood and gore, as Sarah Beth feared, but Vince was pretty sure Cara would have objected to coming if she had known what it was about.

He watched it with a sense of wry amusement. He didn’t know anything about werewolves, assuming they existed at all, but whoever had written the script didn’t know a thing about vampires.

It was still early when the movie was over. Sarah Beth suggested they go out for coffee and dessert. While Vince was trying to think of a good excuse, Cara came to his rescue.

Slipping her arm through his, she smiled at Sarah Beth. “Not tonight, Bethy.”

“Gonna have your dessert elsewhere?” Sarah Beth asked with a knowing grin.

“Beth,” Dean admonished, “mind your own business.”

Thirty minutes later, Vince and Cara were cuddling on her sofa in front of a cozy fire.

“I guess the movie was a bad choice,” Vince remarked, stroking her cheek.

“Well, it’s certainly not one I would have picked, but it did have a happy ending, of sorts, if you don’t mind being a vampire.”

Vince grunted softly. In the movie, the werewolf had found a cure for his ailment, the vampire had brought him across, and they had walked off into the darkness, apparently to live happily ever after by night.

“Your parents seem pretty happy,” Vince remarked.

“As happy as you can be living as a vampire, I guess,” Cara allowed.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”

She looked up at him, her brow furrowed. “Not bad? Why would anyone want to be a vampire?”

He shrugged. “Maybe they don’t always have a choice.”

“Well, if you were given the choice, what would you do?”

“I’d choose to live.” He didn’t have to think about it; he’d made that choice a year ago. “What about you?” he asked. “What if you had to decide between living as a vampire or dying?”

“I’d rather die,” she said emphatically.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. At least I think I am.” She thought about her mother and father and what she knew of their life together. Vince was right. They seemed perfectly happy the way they were. She had never heard them fight and rarely heard them disagree. It was obvious that they were still madly in love. Her father brought her mother lingerie on Valentine’s Day, flowers on Mother’s Day and jewelry for Christmas. They seemed to share practically everything and, perhaps most important of all, they would be together forever.

She thought about Vince and how few were the years they would have together compared to the hundreds of years her parents could expect to share, and suddenly being a vampire didn’t seem like such a terrible thing, if the one you loved was a vampire, too.

It was a thought that haunted and intrigued her long after she had bid Vince good night.

It was midnight on the night before Halloween. Cara was walking home when, all of a sudden, she was in her parents’ living room. She glanced around, shocked by the changes that had been made. The walls were papered in dark red, the furniture was black leather, the carpet was white.

Thinking she was in the wrong house, she turned toward the door, only the door was gone. She ran around the room, looking for a window, only there were no windows. Tears of fear and frustration filled her eyes when she realized there was no way out. She was running her hands over the walls, vainly searching for an exit, when her father suddenly appeared behind her.

“It’s time,” he said.

She whirled around. “Time?” she asked breathlessly. “Time for what?”

He held out his hand. “To join us. Come.”

She backed away, her heart pounding in terror when she realized there was no place to hide. With a growl, he was upon her, dragging her toward the sofa.

She shoved her hands against his chest, trying to push him away, all the while pleading, “No, please!”

“There’s no use resisting.” He smiled, showing his fangs, and suddenly it was Vince staring down at her.

“No!” She screamed the word as he forced her head back, exposing her throat. Her nails were puny weapons against his much greater strength. There was a sharp stab of pain as he pierced her flesh. Fear was overcome by weakness as the world went from gray to black to nothing at all…

She woke covered in perspiration, her heart pounding, the blankets on the floor and her legs tangled in the sheets.