Page 88 of Midnight Enchantment

“I made your favorite chocolate mousse cake. I know you’ve forgotten it’s my birthday, and I don’t blame you. But won’t you come down and share it with me?”

Lily nodded. How could she refuse? “I’m sorry,” she said as she followed Ava down the stairs.

“It’s all right, child. I know you’re grieving. It’s been over a week now. What do you say we go home to Savaria? Dominic and Maddy are going to stop there on their way home.” She knew immediately it was the wrong thing to say.

Lily shook her head. The last thing she wanted was to see her brother and his family, to know they had found the kind of happiness she had only dreamed of.

“Never mind,” Ava said. She cut three slices of cake and passed a plate to Mason and one to Lily.

“Happy birthday, Granny,” Lily said. “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

To please her great-grandmother, Lily forced a smile as she ate the cake. She forced herself to participate in the conversation, to pretend she was having a good time, and all the while she was crying inside.

When Mason and Ava went up to bed, Lily went out in the back yard. A full moon hung low in the star-studded sky. Sinking down on one of the patio chairs, she gazed at the heavens. Raedan was gone. She had never spent much time wondering what happened after death, but she wondered now. Some people believed vampires had no soul. She hoped that wasn’t true. How could it be? How could you walk and talk and think and feel without a soul? She had to believe that his spirit still lived, that somehow, some way, she would see him again, if not in this life, then the next.

She was about to go back into the house when a flicker of movement caught her eye. A startled cry erupted from her throat as a dark figure rose out of the earth. Too scared to move, she could only stand there as the specter shook off the dirt and debris that clung to its clothing.

“Liliana.”

“Raedan!” He looked thin, pale, his hair unkempt for the first time since she had known him. Only his eyes were the same. Oddly, his clothes looked none the worse for wear. “Is it really you?”

Before he could answer, she ran toward him, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. “I thought you were dead!”

He caught her in his arms and held her close, his nostrils filling with the scent of her hair, her skin, the warm red tide flowing through her veins. He swore softly as the demon stirred within him. “Liliana, I need to go.”

“No!” Her arms tightened around him.

“Please, love, I need to feed the demon.”

“You’ll come back to me?”

“You know I will.”

He kissed her quickly, then vanished into the darkness, leaving her to wonder if he had ever really been there at all, or if, in her grief, she had only imagined him.

Raedan prowled the night in search of prey. It was late, the streets were empty, but the nightclubs were still open. He entered the first one he saw, his gaze sweeping the occupants, his hunger growing with every passing moment, the demon growling inside him, demanding to be fed. Demanding Lily’s blood.

Raedan summoned a woman sitting alone at the bar, compelled her to follow him outside.

As soon as he had her alone, he sank his fangs into her throat with no thought but to ease the awful pain knifing through him.

If you won’t give me Liliana’s blood, then give me this woman’s, the demon demanded. Knowing he was taking too much, Raedan tried to stop, but the demon was unrelenting. Over a week without feeding had left Raedan too weak to resist and he buried his fangs in the woman’s neck again. Warmth and power flowed through him and with it a sudden sense of guilt at what he was doing. What would Liliana think if she could see him now?

He jerked his head up. The woman was barely breathing, her heartbeat sluggish and unsteady, her face pale, her gaze unfocused.

Muttering an oath, he transported her to the nearest emergency room. Inside, he sat the woman in a chair and called for help and when a nurse appeared, he turned and left. Outside, he dissolved into mist before anyone could come after him.

Lily paced the back yard. How long did it take to find prey? Was he really coming back?

Had he been buried here, in the ground, all this time?

She felt his presence moments before he materialized in front of her. Her gaze ran over him. He looked much better than he had before, more like his old self. It was the blood, she thought. It had restored him, strengthened him. She could feel the latent power within him, strong again. Invincible.

He watched her, his expression impassive. “Are you sure you want me to stay?”

She nodded. “Have you been buried here, in the backyard, the whole time?”

---