Dad squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll be okay. You have a degree. Start sending out résumés. I’m sure an employer will snap you up in no time.”

“And what will you two do?” I ask.

“We’ll downsize for sure,” Mom says. “Probably rent an apartment nearby so the twins can stay in the same school district. After they graduate, well, we’ll have to move somewhere cheaper.”

“I’ll start sending out résumés too,” Dad says.

I worry my lower lip. My parents are in their fifties now after working more than two decades here. I’m not sure the job market will be that easy for them to get back into.

“We’ll survive,” Mom says with a note of steel in her voice. “Don’t worry about us, okay?”

I nod and sip my coffee, but I know I’ll worry. Worse, I can’t stand for them to sell this wonderful land and house. It means too much to them, to all of us. There must be something I can do.

“I asked the twins to pick up some flowers to give Neli and Boz as a thank-you for everything,” Mom says. “It’s just a token, I know, but how can we ever repay all that they did for us?”

My gut does a slow roll. We owe Neli and Boz so much. I know how I could repay them both—agreeing to be his mate, setting Neli free—but I can’t. It would mean stepping into a supernatural world that scares me. Yet something pulls at me, a need to talk to Neli. I want to understand their world. I hate feeling so conflicted over Boz.

I stand, taking my coffee with me. “I’ll text her to see when’s a good time to stop by and bring the flowers myself.”

“Don’t go yet, Stella,” Dad says. “Let’s just enjoy this quiet morning together.”

My eyes sting with unshed tears over what he’s not saying—it’s one of our last times together here in this house looking out over our vineyard. I don’t think it will take long for a sale. There’s new vintners popping up all the time, and this is prime real estate in Napa Valley. Even if it takes months to sell, it’ll never be enough time.

I take my seat again. “Of course.”

My parents gaze silently out the wide kitchen window to our vineyard. I do too, trying to memorize everything about this moment before we have to say goodbye forever to the land we love.

Neli didn’t answer my texts, so later that day I decide to walk over to deliver a nice bouquet of fresh summer flowers. Her phone’s probably charging after the long flight. If she’s sleeping off jet lag, I’ll just leave them at the front door. There’s a small card attached that we all signed. I cross the road and make my way up the long front walkway to the castle. I know it’s cowardly of me to stop by during the day, when Boz sleeps, but I’m not ready to face him. (I really hope he doesn’t sleep in a coffin like in that movie I saw. Creepy.) The truth is, I’m both attracted to and terrified by the man. The vampire, not man. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that and all his lies. So many damned lies! Oh sure…he works nights because the customers are overseas, I mock inside my head. I know it’s weird to get hung up on that, but he and Neli were so good at lying straight to my face. How will I ever be able to trust either of them?

I’m being silly. I know I am. They can’t very well run around introducing themselves as immortals. Still, the entire thing is just…well, it’s a lot.

My steps falter as a wave of dizziness comes over me.

I bend at the waist, taking a few deep breaths, waiting for the dizziness to pass. Okay, better now. Just focus on Neli, your friend, who’s completely normal, except for the majordomo immortal thing. At least she doesn’t have fangs!

I straighten, feeling slightly insane at my twisted reasoning, but continue on in my mission to thank her (and, from a distance, Boz). I probably won’t be around much after this, anyway, since I’ll be on the job hunt. I need to wrap everything up, even though it kills me to even think of leaving the only home I can remember.

I square my shoulders and cross the moat, taking in the castle with new eyes. It’s real. A medieval castle from Transylvania. My mind conjures Prince Bozhidar in that long-ago time, ruling over the castle and the people on his land. Powerful, commanding, but also fair. Neli said he took care of her when she was a vulnerable child.

She also said I could never have children if I was his mate. What if he didn’t turn me into a vampire? Then could I have children? I could still live in the light and have my family. But wouldn’t that make our children half human, half vampire, never fitting into either world? Why am I even thinking about this? I swear I’m going crazy. This is not normal. None of this is normal.

Tags: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Vampires
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