Page 63 of How a Vampire Falls

“Now, Mama. You know I’m fine.”

Senna pressed her hands to his back as if to hold him tighter in defiance of his words. “I know how you drop weight like it’s nothing, and I know how you get when you’re on a tough case,andI get to worry about my child whenever I want. Quit forgetting to slake, son.”

His arms around his mother tightened for a moment, and Ryker rested his chin on top of her head. “I’m working on it.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“And don’t you ignore me far too often when your cases have you tied up in knots.”

“Not like I can ignore y’all when all y’all fuss at me constantly.”

Leslie held back a laugh even as her love for him grew. Her boyfriend could get downright Southern around his mama.

Senna said, “The folks who care fuss at you about this one topic, and you know we’re right.”

“Yes, ma’am. And you’ll be happy to hear I found what I needed today on the case that’s been turning me into a waste of a vampire.”

“Good for you, son,” Laurence said. To Leslie, “I guess you know by now how good he is at his job.”

“I think I do,” Leslie said. “He’s not the false humility type.”

Ryker laughed. “I’m really not.”

“His brain for numbers.” Laurence shook his head. “He memorized the first fifty digits of pi when he was eight. And he can do mental math faster than anyone I’ve ever met, human or vampire. And he sees patterns in data that most people miss.”

“In summary,” Ryker said, “Dad is convinced I’m an actual genius.”

Laurence crossed his arms over his broad chest as if to argue the point, but before he could, Senna stepped in.

“Leslie, I hope you’re in the mood for caramel cake. I wanted something sweet waiting for you.”

“That’s extra kind of you,” Leslie said. “Really, putting me up at all is incredibly kind.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Laurence said.

Senna motioned her toward the cake. “I made this just today.”

Made it…? It could have come from a bakery. Apparently Senna was much more than the stereotype of a prosecutor walking up and down a courtroom a laLaw and Order, the only real reference Leslie had. She took a slice of cake and breathed the lovely aroma of caramel and cinnamon before she took a small bite…and delight itself seemed to explode on her tongue.

She let out a groan. “Oh, this is delicious. Thank you, Senna.”

Gold shimmered in Senna’s eyes. “I’m so glad you like it.”

Turned out talking to Ryker’s parents was easy. After about half an hour, Leslie found the music in her own voice emerging, and when she caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror, her eyes flashed with a pastel opalescence.

She had never questioned how her family functioned in their town full of humans and wolves. She had thought every vampire muted herself out of habit, that for every vampire, existing in the fullness of her nature was a rare occurrence. But now she had seen a bar full of vampires displaying their full selves in public. Now here were Laurence, Senna, and Ryker doing the same from the moment Laurence opened the front door. Oh, how she wished she could talk to Mom and Dad about this, but Mom wouldn’t even acknowledge whether or not she’d been to a blood bar.

Senna and Laurence finished taking turns telling a story of their early dating days, and Laurence announced as if concluding a speech, “Well, that’s it. When you’ve found the one for you, you just know.”

Maybe the ease among everyone was the force that loosened her lips. Without pausing to weigh her words, Leslie said, “Is that what the visions are about?”

Ryker’s parents went momentarily still with surprise; then both of them broke out in a smile.

Ryker, on the other hand, remained too still. His wide eyes threw silver sparks. “Thewhat?”

“The glimpses of future us.”

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