Alex turned to Dante. “You killed him?”
“With sheer pleasure.”
“You protected me?”
Dante nodded deeply. “All your life, and proudly. Truthfully, you were a very good girl compared to most others in their teens and so forth. I had very little to do. After years of cat and mouse games, it was you that finally led me to the vampire responsible.”
“What? How?” Alex asked.
“The art award you and your students won from the Prime Minister two years ago. I was in the audience when you received it. You didn’t see me but I wanted to be there to represent your mother as well as myself. Everything was fine until they took your picture for the paper and the evening news. Suddenly your face and name were out there, and I knew this would give me the opportunity to draw him out. I trailed you every night for weeks until I saw him.”
“So you made, I dunno, mince meat out of him?” Alex said.
“I wish it had been that easy. He was an assassin, much older than I was and incredibly strong.”
“How did you do it?”
Dante shook his head as if he didn’t really want to say. Yet after a moment he continued. “We fought for hours in an old car yard you had cut through on a short cut after your yoga class. I had stepped in his way and refused to let him follow you. We had beaten each other bloody in a climb to the top level, but I could sense there was no way I could hold out much longer. In a fit, he rushed at me. I got lucky and flipped him and he went over the side and fell several storeys to the pavement, but I still needed to make sure. I quickly pushed an old, rusted car over the edge after him. It landed on the top half of his body. The last thing I saw as I blacked out was his head exploding off his shoulders.”
“What about you?”
“I needed blood and lots of it. Two vampires obviously patrolling for food spotted me. I offered them a reward to take me home. Had they not been impressed with the bloody way I had finished him, I doubt they would’ve accepted.”
The words from Michelle’s story rang in her ears. A fight with an elder. To the death.
Alex did not move. She let Dante’s sobering words wash over her. He had almost died saving her life. Michelle had almost died saving his. All from that same night and all for her. She looked at her mother who in turn looked back, waiting for a response. Margaret had obviously heard the story before, and let Dante continue.
“With the vampire gone, I was sure Maria had played her one and only hand. Her contingency plan had failed and she was still buried deep under Vincent’s mansion. All that remained was finally getting to meet you. As luck would have it, you came to me. Lauren brought you right into my club. You were as bright, beautiful and charming as I had hoped. Thankfully, you took a liking to me as well, but there was no easy way of saying ‘I know the reason you think your mother is insane,’ so I waited.
“When Ryan came into the club and sat with you, I could smell vampires on him. That’s what alerted me to the fact maybe I was wrong and that somehow Maria Drakeman may have tried again to come after you from a different angle. But Ryan wasn’t associated with Drakeman. Turns out, he was just a pathetic excuse for a man and human being. Once you knew what I was, there was no reason to delay what all of us had wanted so badly. I do wish this all had been under better circumstances. I’m sorry.”
Dante ducked his head, looking somehow disheartened. Alex realised he was apologising that her father had been killed because of him. Alex wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She’d missed having a dad, but she had never really known her own father. Was it possible to love a description of someone you didn’t know? Or be angry at someone who felt responsible? Alex moved so fast she even caught him by surprise. She kissed his cheek slowly.
“You have no idea how grateful I am to you and what you have done for me and my mum. How can I ever repay you?”
Finally he smiled. “You’ll never have to. I told you I care about you. Not just because you are this lovely woman’s daughter, but because in your own right, you have a wonderfully kind heart. That’s a rare thing for me to see in this day and age.”
What happened next stunned Alex in the best of ways. With an effortless motion, Alex moved in a lightly brushed Dante’s lips with hers. It was supposed to be a small kiss for many reasons. But she was the one who couldn’t stop. Before she knew it, Alex had both hands at the back of his head, bringing him in. Desire suddenly erupted like a volcano inside her as his lips softly, expertly danced around her mouth. She pressed herself harder into him, demanding more.
Dante pulled away, not sharply, but not slowly either. Alex’s eyes slowly opened and focused on his. He turned to Margaret with an apologetic look, and strangely Alex could see why. Margaret looked like the cat that lost the canary. “That’s enough of that,” she said. Her tone wasn’t light as it had been, not cheery at all. In fact, she sounded pissed off.
“Well…I should be going,”
