Night's Mistress (Children of The Night 5)

Logan glared at Kyle. “I want her home in thirty minutes. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

“I’ll bring her home when she’s ready, and not one second before,” Kyle retorted.

“Logan, I’ll be all right.” Standing on her tiptoes, Mara kissed his cheek. “I won’t be long.”

With a last warning look at Kyle, Logan got into his car and pulled away from the curb.

Kyle rubbed a hand over his jaw. “He’s a vampire, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “A very old one.”

“Why don’t we go to the coffee shop across the street?” Kyle suggested. “We can talk there.”

“All right.”

Mara was as nervous as a cat in a thunderstorm as she sat in the booth facing Kyle. She couldn’t stop staring at him, couldn’t keep her heart from beating double-time whenever his gaze met hers. She had never been happier than when they were together, never been more miserable than when they were apart. And now he was here. She took a deep, calming breath. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I’m sorry for the way I behaved when you told me you were a . . .” He glanced around, lowering his voice. “When you told me what you are, but, dammit, you sprang it on me without any warning.” He ran a hand through his hair, making her think he was as nervous as she. “I never told you, but my father was killed by a vampire. I know that doesn’t excuse my behavior, but, maybe . . . maybe it explains why I reacted the way I did.”

“I’m sorry about your father.”

Kyle nodded. “If you’d just given me a little time to get used to the idea instead of taking off . . .”

“It’s all water under the bridge now,” she said, pleased that she sounded so cool and aloof.

“Is that what you think? I came to tell you . . .” He paused when a waitress approached their table. “A cup of coffee, please,” he said.

With a nod, the waitress moved away.

“What did you come to tell me?” Mara asked.

“I want you to . . .” He took a deep breath, then said it all in a rush. “I want you to make me what you are.”

Mara stared at him. “Are you saying that you want to be a vampire?”

“Hell, no,” he exclaimed. “Who wants to be a vampire?”

“But you just said . . .”

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to be together.” He scrubbed his hands over his jaw. “The baby’s mine, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” She glanced up in irritation when the waitress arrived with Kyle’s order.

“Congratulations!” the waitress said, smiling expansively. “Can I get you anything else?”

“Just the check,” Mara said.

The waitress knew how to take a hint. With a muttered “Yes, ma’am,” she dropped the check on the table and hurried away.

Kyle stirred cream into his coffee, his expression thoughtful. “How can you be pregnant? Everybody knows that vampires can’t reproduce.”

Mara took a deep breath and let it out in a long, slow sigh. “I’m not a vampire anymore.”

Kyle stared at her as though she had suddenly grown two heads and a tail. “What?”

She made a vague gesture with her hand. “It’s true. I don’t know how. I don’t know why, but I’ve lost my powers.”

“Are you telling me that you’re mortal again?”

Nodding, she pulled his cup toward her, added sugar, and took a drink. “Now do you believe me?” she asked, pushing the cup away.

Kyle stared at her a moment longer, and then he grinned from ear to ear. “That’s great!”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Don’t you? Mara, think what it means. You’re human again. We can be together now, as equals. I never stopped loving you. Even when I thought I hated you, I couldn’t get you out of my mind.” He reached across the table and took one of her hands in both of his. “Or my heart.” He paused, his brow creasing in a frown. “That guy you were with, you’re not . . . he’s not . . .”

“He’s just a good friend,” she said, and wondered why it sounded like a lie. “I don’t know what I would have done without him these last few months.”

“You could have come to me.”

“Do you really think I would have come back after what you said? The way you looked at me, as if I was some kind of monster?” She wasn’t being entirely fair, and she knew it. To most humans, she had been a monster. There had been times when she had thought of herself that way. But she had expected more from the man who had vowed to love her as long as he lived.

“No, I guess not.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “But that’s all in the past. We’re together now and that’s the only thing that matters.” He smiled at her. “We’re together and we’re going to have a baby. Call me old-fashioned, but I think we should get married.”

“Married!” Now it was her turn to stare.

“Is that such a terrible idea?”

“No, but . . . married?”

“Don’t you think our baby deserves a mother and a father?”

“Yes, but . . .” In all her years of existence, Mara had never once contemplated being a wife. Or a mother. Now both were there, within her grasp.

“I love you,” Kyle said quietly. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, grow old with you.”

Mara frowned at him. What was so great about growing old, together or otherwise? Lovers in movies were always talking about growing old together, as if it was something wonderful, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand their reasoning. Why would anyone want to grow old, get sick, and die?

“Whether you’re human or vampire,” Kyle was saying, “it doesn’t matter to me as long as we’re together.”

“Kyle, I don’t like being human. When this baby is grown, I’m going to ask Logan to bring me over.”

“Why the hell would you want to do that?”

“Because I liked being a vampire. Until this happened, I could scarcely remember what it was like to be mortal.”

Mindful of others in the café, Kyle lowered his voice again. “You liked drinking blood?”

“Yes,” she said, wanting to shock him without knowing why. “I liked that part, too.”