Night’s Promise (Children of The Night #6)(10)
Author: Amanda Ashley

“LaHood.” Mara hissed out a breath. “From Porterville.”

“You know her?”

“No, but I killed a hunter named LaHood about thirty years ago. She could be his daughter.” Leaning against the counter, Mara crossed her arms. Her family had left Porterville twenty-five years ago. She might have thought it was coincidence that LaHood came from that part of the country, except she had never believed in coincidence.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Derek said. “Forget it. There’s no way anyone could find you after all this time. We’ve all been careful.”

“There’s always a way,” Mara retorted. “I haven’t lived this long by making assumptions.”

The barb stung, but he couldn’t argue with her. He had been damn lucky tonight. If his reflexes had been a shade slower, it might have been his body lying in an alley.

“You’re forgetting one thing,” he said. “They weren’t after you. They were after me.”

And with that parting shot, he went upstairs to bed.

Mara glanced at the arched doorway that led into the kitchen. “You can come in now.”

With a wry grin, Logan sauntered into the room. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Mara smiled, thinking how lucky she was to have him in her life. He’d had doubts about being a father, but she had no complaints. He had been firm with Derek, stern when necessary, but he had never interfered between mother and son.

“You heard what happened?” she asked.

Nodding, he gathered her into his arms. Being a vampire, it was hard not to eavesdrop.

“Why would hunters be looking for any of us after all this time? We’ve kept a low profile since before Derek was born. Our old enemies are no longer a threat. We haven’t made any new ones.” She looked up at him, thinking, as always, that he was the most devastatingly handsome man she had ever known. And she had known many. “Have you nothing to say?”

He shrugged. “Unlike you, I don’t see conspiracies around every corner. Derek was at a vampire club. What better place to look for a vampire? Like you said, we’ve kept a low profile. Hell, I doubt if anyone who would care even knows that Derek exists. I think it was just bad luck that a hunter found him.”

“But you have to admit, destroying my son would be the perfect way for someone to avenge themselves on me.”

“You think the LaHood woman intended to kill Derek to avenge her father’s death?”

“It’s possible.”

“Anything is possible,” he murmured. “A meteor could wipe out life as we know it. A tsunami could sweep us all out to sea.” He lifted a lock of her hair and let it sift through his fingers. “Or I could take you to bed and make love to you until sunrise.”

“I’ll take door number three,” she said, leaning into him.

Logan swung her into his arms, then carried her swiftly up the stairs to their bedroom. He was undressing her when she grabbed his hands, her brow furrowed.

“All of our old enemies aren’t dead,” she said, a hint of red glowing in her eyes.

Logan frowned, and then nodded. “You’re thinking about those two old ladies, aren’t you? The ones who were with Ramsden.”

“Edna and Pearl,” Mara said, her voice edged with malice. “I should have killed those troublesome creatures years ago.”

Chapter Eight

“I told you I could find him,” Edna said, her voice ringing with triumph.

“I know, dear. I never doubted you for a minute.” Pearl kicked off her shoes, then sat back in her chair and picked up the glass of wine on the table beside her. It was a lovely room, done in shades of green and gold. “Who do you think that girl was?”

“I have no idea. His next meal, perhaps?” Edna sank into the other chair. “He certainly turned into a handsome specimen, didn’t he? So tall and dark. Makes me wish I’d been turned at thirty.”

Pearl rolled her eyes. “You always were boy crazy.”

“You don’t think he’s attractive?”

“That’s beside the point, dear.”

“We should have said hello.”

Pearl stared at her friend. “Have you lost your mind? What would you have said? ‘Hi, Derek, you probably don’t remember me, but I helped kidnap you when you were a baby’?”

“Don’t be absurd!”

With a huff of annoyance, Pearl said, “Now that we’ve seen him, I think we should leave town.”

“Leave? Why?”

“Because he’s not here alone, you twit. Mara is here.”

“Mara?” Edna glanced around the hotel room, as if she expected to find the ancient vampire standing behind her. “Are you sure?”

“I caught her scent inside the club. Didn’t you?”

“I wasn’t paying attention to anything but Derek.”

“Boy crazy, like I said,” Pearl remarked with a sigh. “Could you tell if the werewolf gene has kicked in?”

Edna shook her head, her brow furrowed. “No. We need to stay until the full moon.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“How else are we going to find out if he’s both vampire and werewolf?”

“What possible difference can it make?” Pearl asked irritably.

“None, perhaps, but wouldn’t you like to know if he can reproduce? What if it was the werewolf gene that allowed Bowden to impregnate Mara? Derek carries Mara’s blood and the werewolf gene. . . . We could be looking at the beginning of a whole new race of vampires!”

Pearl stared at her friend, her mind racing with possibilities, but, in the end, her fear of Mara made her shake her head. “True, dear, but, like I said, what difference does it make?”

Deflated, Edna sat back, hands folded in her lap. “What are we going to do if we go back home? You were the one who wanted to put some excitement in our lives, remember?”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but the idea of meeting Mara face-to-face is more excitement than I had in mind. We not only kidnapped her son, for goodness’ sake, we fed on her child’s father. Everyone knows she’s never been very big on forgiveness, or are you forgetting what she did to Dr. Ramsden?”

Edna chewed on her thumbnail. Word of the doctor’s death had spread quickly through the vampire community. It had carried Mara’s warning loud and clear: mess with my family and you mess with me. “Perhaps you’re right.”