“Oh, you don’t have to . . .” Sherry let her voice trail away. Drina was already halfway to the table, and Harper and Stephanie were grabbing up the trays to follow. Shrugging, she stood and followed too, leaning into Basil when he slipped his arm around her as he joined her. It really would be easier to work at the table anyway.
Sherry and Basil settled there as Stephanie cut and distributed plates of brownies and Harper passed out the coffee cups. Drina busied herself giving everyone spoons and forks and placing the coffee fixings in the center of the table. She then collected the trays and returned to the kitchen to check on the coffee.
Sherry had opened her notepad and had the pen poised at the first line but hadn’t written anything when Basil suggested, “Maybe start from your earliest memories. Write everyone you can remember when you were a child, put down how long they were in your life, and then continue on until today.”
“Right,” she said, peered at the page, and then wrote down her mother’s name followed by the date she died.
“If she has to list everyone from school friends to teachers, this is going to take a while, huh?” Stephanie commented, slipping a generous slice of brownie onto a plate.
“Why do you think Lucian gave her till morning?” Harper asked dryly.
“I thought you guys slept during the day,” Sherry murmured as she followed her mother’s name with her father’s.
“Some do, some don’t,” Basil murmured, rubbing her shoulders as she wrote her grandparents’ names down. “We all avoid actually going out in daylight, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be up and about. Lucian will probably take a nap when he gets home, so he’s fresh in the morning.”
Sherry merely nodded and continued with her list. The faster she finished, the faster they could go to bed and the more sleep they’d get before Lucian was back to harass them.
“Like you two will do any sleeping,” Stephanie said dryly.
“Steph!” Harper growled.
“What?” the girl asked, and shrugged. “You know it’s true. You two won’t get much sleep either, and Basil and Sherry are newer at this life mate thing than you guys. I doubt they’ll sleep at all other than the brief bouts of unconsciousness.” She carried a plate with a slice of brownie around and set it in front of Basil, then patted Sherry’s arm and suggested, “You should really let Basil turn you. The lack of sleep won’t affect you as much that way. All you have to do is suck up some more blood. Besides, with Leo prowling around out there . . .” She hesitated and then finished sadly, “Well, you just don’t want him to be the one to turn you.”
Sherry raised her gaze from the notepad and glanced around when sudden silence fell over the room. Drina stood in the kitchen doorway, a large, full coffeepot in hand and a stricken look on her face. Harper stood at the head of the table peering down at his feet, his expression a combination of frustration and sadness, and Basil was eyeing Stephanie with pity. As for Stephanie herself, the teenager had returned to her place in front of the pan of brownies, but now simply stared down at the squares, her shoulders slumped.
“Didn’t someone promise me brownies?” Sherry asked with forced cheer. “Here I am slaving away at my list and yet I’m the only one without a brownie.”
“Right.” Stephanie stiffened her shoulders and returned to cutting, muttering, “We can’t have that.”
Sherry swallowed back a sigh and peered at her notepad again, but her vision was a bit blurry, her eyes glazed with tears.
Eleven
Sherry finished brushing her teeth¸ set her toothbrush on the counter next to Basil’s and then turned to the door, only to pause. It was late, after 2 A.M.¸ and Lucian was supposed to come in the morning, so they weren’t likely to get much sleep, and still she was dithering about going to bed. She’d already brushed her teeth three times.
Grimacing, she turned back to the sink and eyed the woman who peered back. A nervous woman in a short, rose-colored lace nightgown that she might as well not be wearing since everything showed through it. Still, it wasn’t like Basil hadn’t seen everything already.
“Seriously?” she whispered to her reflection. “You’ve already had sex with the man multiple times, but now you’re nervous because you’re sharing a room with him?”
Her reflection didn’t respond, and Sherry rolled her eyes and lectured, “All you have to do is open the door, walk out there and climb into bed. Preferably without tripping and breaking your neck or otherwise humiliating yourself.”
“Sherry?”
She turned sharply to the closed door. “Yes?”
“Are you okay?” Basil asked with concern, and then sounded confused as he added, “Who are you talking to?”
Sherry glanced back to her reflection and whispered, “Now see what you’ve done?”
“What did I do?”
Muttering, “Damned immortal hearing,” she opened the door. Basil stood just outside in light blue cotton pajamas and a dark blue robe. He looked so damned debonair . . . like he was used to being in strange bedrooms with women he’d only met days ago.
“Nothing,” Sherry assured him when she realized she hadn’t responded to his comment, and then she admitted with a little chagrin, “I was just talking to myself.”
“Oh.” He looked relieved at this news and smiled, his gaze sliding down over her with pleasure. “You look lovely.”
“Thank you,” she squeaked, and moved past him to hurry to the bed, her only thought to hide herself under the covers. God, she was such a ninny.