“What are you going to do now?” Winona asked, resuming her place at the table.
What, indeed? she thought. And then she squared her shoulders. “Carl, will you lend me enough money to buy a plane ticket?”
“Are you sure you want to leave?”
She nodded. “I can’t afford to stay, nor do I want to. There are too many bad memories here.” And too many good ones. She would miss Travis dreadfully, but she’d had enough of vampires to last a lifetime. Her lifetime. She was going home. Back to Vermont where people weren’t afraid to go out at night. A place where no one believed in vampires. “Can you drive me to the airport in Langston?”
Overstreet nodded. “Sure. Whenever you’re ready to go.”
Sara stood on the sidewalk in front of her parents’ home. It was a lovely old place, two-stories high, set on half an acre. A wide verandah spanned the front of the house. Ancient maple trees grew on both sides, providing shade in the summer.
Feet dragging, she walked up the winding pathway to the front porch, reluctant to ring the bell. Defeat weighed heavily on her shoulders even though she hadn’t technically failed to succeed. After all, it wasn’t her fault vampires had destroyed her business, her rental house and most of the town.
She smoothed the wrinkles from the dress Winona had been kind enough to lend her. Took a deep breath. And knocked on the door.
It was opened moments later by the Winters’ housekeeper, Gracie. “Miss Sara!” she exclaimed. “Landsakes, child, I’m that surprised to see you. Your folks didn’t say anything about your coming home.”
“I didn’t tell them,” she said.
“Well, it’ll be a nice surprise, won’t it? They just sat down to lunch. Where’s your luggage?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any.” Moving past the housekeeper, Sara took another deep breath, forced a smile she was far from feeling, and walked briskly into the dining room.
Her mother and father glanced up.
“Sara!” Her mother sprang to her feet and hurried forward to give her daughter a hug. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming? Lucy,” she called, “fix a plate for Sara.”
Her father rose more slowly, his brow furrowed. “Is everything all right?” he asked, stepping in to give her a hug.
“I had a bit of a problem,” she said when he released her.
“Well, sit down and tell us all about it,” her mother said.
Sara took her customary place at the table, smiled her thanks as Lucy set a plate and a glass of iced tea in front of her. “I don’t know where to start.”
“The beginning is usually a good place,” her father suggested.
“I was doing really well,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “It was a small town, but the tourist trade helped. But a few days ago a gang of … of ruffians invaded Susandale. They burned the town to the ground, including my shop and the house I was renting. They torched my car.” She lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “So I came home.”
“I’m so sorry,” her mother said. “At least you weren’t hurt.”
Sara nodded.
“The things you lost are easy enough to replace,” her father said.
“Yes.” Sara looked down at her plate. Dresses and shoes, even her wallet and her phone, they were just things with little sentimental value. She could buy dozens of new clothes to replace what the vampires had destroyed. If only it would be as easy to fill the empty place in her heart.
Pleading a headache, Sara excused herself from the table after lunch and went up to her room. She had to admit, she had missed it. Built-in bookcases stood on both sides of an antique four-poster bed. A matching dresser stood against one wall. A large window looked out over the backyard, which was lush and green. A white gazebo stood in one corner of the yard. Her mother’s rose garden took up a good portion of the east side. A number of wrought iron benches were placed here and there inside the garden.
Kicking off her shoes, Sara sat on the edge of her bed, her thoughts on Travis.
Had she made a mistake in leaving him without a word? And yet, what was there to say?
He was a vampire and as much as she cared for him, as much as she already missed him, she just didn’t see how they could possibly have any kind of a lasting future together.
She thought about Shannah and Ronan. They seemed happy, but how long would that relationship have lasted if Ronan hadn’t turned her?
And then there was Olivia Bowman, hiding out in a small town with her children and vampire husband. That was no kind of life, either, always living in fear that hunters would find your husband or that your kids would let the truth about Jason slip. She didn’t understand how Olivia had stayed with Jason, knowing what he was doing to the innocent men, women, and children who passed through Susandale.
Her tears came them, stinging her eyes, burning her throat, as she wept for Travis and what might have been if he had never hunted Ronan.
She dried her eyes with the corner of her bedspread when someone knocked at the door.
“Sara? Honey? It’s Mom. Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
“What is it, hon?” Donna Winters asked, sitting beside her daughter. “I was on my way to my room when I heard you crying.”
“Just feeling sorry for myself, I guess,” Sara said, dabbing at her eyes again.
“You’re not crying because of losing the store, are you?”
“No,” she said, sniffling. “I met a man in Susandale.”
Donna Winters nodded as she handed Sara one of the small white handkerchiefs she always carried. “And you liked him?”
Sara nodded as she wiped her eyes.
“Tell me about him.”
What to say? Sara wondered. The truth was out of the question. “He was just a really nice guy. Easy to talk to. He had a crooked smile and … and he needed me.”
“I see. Does he have a name?”
“Travis.”
