Rane cut a narrow slice of cake, speared a piece with a fork, and offered it to Savanah.
Feeling a little self-conscious, she accepted his offering.
“And now, please join me in a toast,” Vince said. “Rafe, if you please.”
Rafe opened a bottle of wine and after everyone had been given a glass, Vince lifted his. “To Rane and Savanah. May they enjoy a long and healthy life together.”
Rane grinned at his father as echoes of “Here, here” rose in the air. “Thanks, Dad.”
Vince set his glass aside and slipped his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Take good care of her, son.”
Rane winked at Savanah. “That’s my plan.”
Vince wrapped his other arm around Savanah. “If he doesn’t treat you right, daughter, you come to me, and I’ll set him straight.”
“I’ll do that,” Savanah said with a smile.
Later, when the initial excitement had worn off and Rane’s family sat in the living room, reminiscing about other weddings, Savanah managed to get Mara alone.
“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” Savanah said, keeping her voice low. “I was wondering…that is, Rane said you might know the name of the Vampire who killed my mother.”
“What makes you think she was killed by one of us?” Mara asked with some asperity.
“My father told me,” Savanah replied, somewhat taken aback by Mara’s sharp tone.
“A young Vampire named Tarkan brought your mother across, but he’s not the one who destroyed her.”
Savanah stared at Mara. “If he didn’t do it, then who did?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Of course,” Savanah said, frowning. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Sometimes ignorance is, indeed, bliss.”
Savanah glanced at Rane, who was standing across the room, talking to his brother, and felt a sudden iciness creep into her heart. What if Rane had lied to her? What if he had killed her mother? She told herself it was impossible, but what if it was true? She could forgive him a lot of things, but not that. Never that.
“Yes,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “I want to know.”
“It was your father who destroyed your mother.”
The words pierced Savanah’s heart like shards of glass. “No.” She shook her head. “No! I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true, nonetheless,” Mara said.
“How could you even think such a thing?”
“I know everything that happens in my world,” Mara said. “Your father destroyed your mother at her request. She begged him to do it, and he could not refuse her.”
“But he said a Vampire killed her.”
Mara lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug. “In his mind, that was true. He believed that the Vampire who turned her was responsible for her death, and in a way, I suppose he was right. But it was your father who…”
“Mara, spare her the gory details,” Rane said, coming to stand beside Savanah. “She’s heard enough.”
“Thank you for telling me,” Savanah said.
With a nod, Mara excused herself.
Savanah blinked back her tears. Now that the first shock was over, it seemed right that her father had taken her mother’s life. Better to die by the hand of one who loved you, she thought, than by the cruel hand of an enemy.
“Oh, Daddy,” she murmured, and felt her heart break for the terrible secret her father had carried for so many years. Knowing what he had done explained the sadness that she had often seen in his eyes, the melancholy moods that had sometimes overwhelmed him, the nights he had sat in the backyard, a bottle of whiskey his only companion.
Rane squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” It was over. The Vampire who had killed her father was dead, destroyed by her own hand; and now that she knew who had destroyed her mother, she could finally put her mother’s memory to rest, as well, and with it, any thought of following in her mother’s footsteps. Her family had been touched by enough killing.
“What do you say we go find a place where we can be alone?” Rane suggested.
“I’d say, ‘Let’s go.’”
They bid farewell to Mara and Kyle, who were returning to Egypt in the morning.
“Do you think they’ll last?” Savanah asked, watching them walk away.
Rane shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so. She’s been alone a long time.”
Savanah nodded, wishing that everyone could be as happy as she was at that moment.
Savanah and Rane bid his grandparents farewell, told Rafe and his wife to stay in touch, thanked his mother and father for their hospitality, and left the house.
A full moon lit their way to Rane’s car. Savanah had packed her things earlier in the day; her suitcases were in the trunk.
She glanced at Rane as he started the car and pulled onto the road. Feeling her gaze, he looked over at her and smiled, then took her hand in his. “Happy?”
“Very.”
“Did I tell you how beautiful you are?”
“No.”
“Remind me later.”
She winked at him. “Oh, I will.” She rested her hand on his knee and then, slowly and suggestively, stroked her way along his inner thigh.
Grabbing her hand, he raised it to his lips and turned it over, his tongue lightly stroking the sensitive skin of her palm.
The touch of his lips sent frissons of heat stealing through every part of her body. Just like that, she wanted him, needed him. “Can’t you drive any faster?”
Chuckling softly, he goosed it up to seventy. Ten minutes later, they pulled into the hotel parking lot. Rane grabbed Savanah’s overnight bag, swung her into his arms, and strode into the lobby. Holding her close with one hand, he signed the register, then carried her swiftly up the stairs and into their room.
“We could have taken the elevator,” Savanah said, linking her arms around his neck.
“Too slow.” He kissed her then, a long lingering kiss, and then carried her into the bedroom. A look turned the lights on low as he gently lowered her on to the bed. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
“It’s just the dress,” she said. “It makes me feel beautiful.”
“No,” he said, “it’s you who make the dress beautiful.”
At his words, warmth swelled within her heart. “I love you, Rane. No matter what the future holds for us, I’ll always love you.”