Page 48 of Bound By Blood

Stefan took Kaitlyn in his arms as Miranda began to play another tune. “You’ve been crying,” he remarked.

Kaitlyn nodded, unable to speak past the thick lump in her throat.

“You have every right to be angry with me,” he said.

“It’s …” She sniffed back her tears. “It’s not you.”

Stefan glanced over her shoulder to where Drake was standing. “What did he say to upset you?”

“I told him about Zack.”

“What about Zack?”

“He’s a vampire.”

“Why would that upset your father?”

“He isn’t one of us. He’s one of the Others.”

Stefan stared at her. Like all of their kind, he had grown up on tales of the Others, of their bloodthirsty nature, their willingness to kill mortals indiscriminately. They could not reproduce, so they did not have any family ties; instead, they lived singly, friend to neither mortal nor their own kind.

Stefan shook his head. “No wonder your father is upset.”

“I love Zack. I don’t care what he is.”

“I felt the same about Cosmina, but take it from one who has been there. No matter how much you care for Ravenscroft, you are better off with one of your own.”

“You loved Cosmina very much, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“So much that you can’t bear to be with another woman?”

The sadness in Stefan’s eyes deepened. “When I buried her”—he shook his head—”it was like burying my heart. My soul.”

“I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t stay angry with her uncle for siding with her father, not now, when she knew how he felt. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to spare her the kind of pain he had known.

When the song was over, he thanked her for the dance and left the ballroom.

Kaitlyn stared after him. With a sigh, she started toward her mother, who stood in a corner of the room with several other women. She stopped abruptly, suddenly overcome with the feeling that Zack was nearby, searching for her.

Zack stood on the steps of the Fortress. Earlier, he had gone hunting in the town located a few miles away. While there, he had bought a pair of black dress pants, a dark blue silk shirt, and a long black coat. It paid to look sharp when calling on your best girl.

He stared at the large double doors. There were a few drawbacks to being a vampire, one of them being that he couldn’t enter a home without an invitation. With that in mind, he knocked on the door, heard it reverberate inside the building.

A few minutes later, a tall, dark-haired woman opened the door. “Yes?”

“I’m here to see Kaitlyn Sherrad.”

“Is she expecting you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Please wait,” the woman said, and closed the door in his face.

Three minutes passed. Four. Five.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zack muttered. But he hadn’t come this far to turn back now, not until he’d seen Kaitlyn.

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