Did he dare call Sara? Would she talk to him? Agree to see him again? Or would she hang up the minute she heard his voice?
Damn. Only hours since he had seen her, yet he missed her desperately. He picked up his phone. Put it down. Picked it up again. Took a deep breath and made the call, figuring, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
“Please, Sara,” he murmured. “Please pick up.”
It rang five times before she answered. “Hello?”
“Sara … it’s me. I … I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“I have nothing to say.”
“Then why did you answer my call?”
“I don’t know.”
“Any chance you’re missing me half as much as I’m missing you?”
He heard the soft exhalation of her breath as she sighed.
“Sara?”
“Travis … I guess I can’t call you that now, can I?”
“I wish you would. I don’t feel like Jim Hewitt anymore.”
“How do you feel?”
“Lost. Alone. Trying to figure out what I’ve become. My whole life has been turned upside down. These days, I don’t even know who I am.”
“I’m sorry, Travis.”
He heard the tears in her voice. It made him ache deep inside. “Sara …” Just her name, like a plea. A prayer. He didn’t know what else to say.
“Would you …?” A long pause. “Would you … do you want to come over?”
“More than you can imagine. But … are you sure?”
“Not really,” she replied candidly. And then she sighed again. “I miss you, too.”
And just like that, despair turned to hope.
Travis took a long shower, dressed in his best jeans and a dark blue shirt, and combed his hair, more nervous than he had ever been in his life. He couldn’t help feeling that whatever happened tonight would permanently affect their relationship one way or the other.
He pulled on his boots, took a deep breath, and grabbed his keys. Even though he could move with remarkable speed, he liked driving his Mustang. It was the only thing he had left from his former life.—one of the few things that made him feel human.
Sara didn’t remember ever being so edgy. Her upbringing had been somewhat sheltered. Both her parents had been overly protective of their only daughter, refusing to allow her to date until she was sixteen, insisting she be home before midnight, carefully screening her boyfriends. And then her father had decided she should marry Dil. It was the last straw. She was a grown woman. She didn’t want or need an arranged marriage to a man who would never be more than a good friend. She had been surprised when her father agreed to let her have a year to “find herself,” until she realized he was certain she would fail, and that she would come running back home long before that year was up.
She had been just as sure that she wouldn’t, until last night. Now, finding herself living in a town that might be inhabited by vampires, home didn’t sound so bad.
She almost jumped out of her skin when the doorbell rang. Was she about to open the door to the biggest mistake of her life?
Taking a last glance in the mirror over the mantel, she smoothed her hand over her hair then went to answer the door. “Hi.”
“Hey.” He heard the tension in her voice, saw the apprehension she couldn’t hide in her eyes. “I’ll understand if you’ve changed your mind.”
“What? Oh, no, it’s just … I guess I’m a little nervous.”
“Can’t say as I blame you.”
Her gaze moved over him, making him wonder what she was looking for, what she saw. “Sara?”
“You just look so normal,” she murmured with a shake of her head. “And yet … not.”
Travis knew what she meant. Vampires were subtly different from humans. Their hair tended to be thicker, their skin a little paler, their movements more fluid, they were lighter on their feet. Plus they all carried a hint of otherworldly power, although not every mortal picked up on it. Obviously, Sara did. He didn’t miss the fact that whatever supernatural power prevented vampires from crossing the threshold into her house uninvited was back in full force. He could feel it now, repelling him like an invisible shield.
He shifted from one foot to the other, waiting for her make up her mind.
After what seemed like forever, she stepped back and said, “Come on in.”
“Thank you.” There was a familiar ripple in the air as he stepped inside, closed the door, and followed her into the living room.
Sara took a place on the sofa and gestured for him to take the chair opposite.
She didn’t want him too close, he thought, as he sat down. “Are you doing okay?”
“I don’t know. It’s a lot to take in. I mean, it’s like the world I knew is gone and everything is possible. If there are vampires, why not zombies? Or aliens from outer space? I guess I’m just having trouble absorbing it all.”
“I know how you feel.”
“Probably better than I do.” Her fingers worried the hem of her sweater. “So, it was the vampire that Overstreet interviewed who … who made you? Is that the right term?”
Travis nodded. “Ronan. I wish to hell I’d never heard of him.”
“Is it awful, being what you are?”
“It’s not all bad. Just most of it.”
“What’s the good part?”
“Vampires never get sick. They don’t age. If you’re thirty when you’re turned, you’ll always look thirty. They can think themselves wherever they want to go in the blink of an eye, although I haven’t mastered that yet. They’re incredibly strong and fast.”
She noticed he said they and not we, as if he hadn’t yet fully accepted what he was. “But you can’t be outside during the day?”
“No. And I can’t enjoy a good steak or a bottle of beer. I can’t visit my family or my old friends. I can’t father a child.”
“Have you …?”
