the door held a pretty ivy design that made him ponder if this serial killer also knitted doilies. Dante stared at the glowing, orange light of the doorbell before ringing it.
He didn’t expect an answer; at two in the afternoon, most people were at work. However, the squeals of young children sounded from inside. The solid thuds of tiny feet raced toward the door.
“Stay away from that door!” a woman yelled.
The blood drained from his face as the children’s laughter raced past the door and on to somewhere else. Like a car unable to beat a train across the tracks, the past and present collided as those familiar tones caused his brain to misfire. His mind spun as he tried to process what he heard with everything he knew.
He tried to inhale, but his lungs refused to let air into them. A loud ringing started in his ears. Locks clicked, the doorknob turned, and still, he couldn’t breathe as the door swung open to reveal a beautiful woman with chocolate-colored hair and eyes so black they rivaled an onyx.
His breath exploded out of him as the woman’s hand flew to her mouth. Cassidy inhaled a sharp breath and stepped closer to him. From the corner of his eye, he saw her hand stretch toward him, but he barely felt her touch on his arm.
The ghosts from the past hovered around him again, except this time, they turned his flesh to ice. This couldn’t be real. Yet, no matter how many times he blinked, the woman before him didn’t vanish. Instead, her eyes filled with tears as she stepped toward him.
Almost twenty years had passed since he last saw Maya, but she looked the same. In fact, she hadn’t aged a day.
Then the ghosts vanished, the ringing stopped, and unadulterated joy buried his confusion. He stopped letting himself believe Maya was alive years ago, but he had no doubt she was standing across from him.
“Dante,” she breathed.
And then, before he could react, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him until she choked the air from him. Unable to respond at first, he stood there with his hands hanging limply at his sides as her tears wet his neck and shirt. Then, as the familiar feel of her sank in, he crushed her against him.
“How?” he croaked past the lump in his throat. “How is this possible?”
Maya didn’t respond as she sobbed and clung to him. Dante lowered his head to his sister’s, and his tears slid free.
Cassidy’s hand slid off Dante’s arm as she stepped back to give the siblings some privacy. She glanced toward the SUV to discover everyone watching from behind the tinted windows.
She considered retreating to let them have this moment alone, but she suspected Dante would need her before this was all over. His disbelief and joy spread across the bond uniting them, but she also sensed his rising anger.
Two young faces poked around the corner of the door. Their eyes widened as they watched their mom embracing another man. When they looked to her, she saw the questions in their eyes, but she was sure their questions were nothing compared to the thousands Dante must have.
Dante perched on the edge of the baby blue couch as Cassidy settled beside him, and Maya sat on the matching love seat across from them. A bay window with gauzy yellow curtains was at his back. Behind Maya was a paneled wood wall full of pictures he didn’t bother to examine. Beyond that was the doorway to the hall.
Thousands of questions ran through his mind, but he couldn’t settle on one. Maya was alive! Not only that, but she was alive and sitting across from him, looking precisely the same as the day she vanished. She was a vampire, but how and why and what happened were all needed to be answered.
Maya fiddled with her linen pants as she kept her focus on her hands and her foot tapped against the floor. The metal of the locket burned into his flesh as he watched her. It was all lies.
He’d become a vampire to ensure he would have enough time to find her and bury her with his parents. Yet, here she sat in her beautiful home with her expensive clothes and her children. She’d been happy to see him, but he wondered if she was just as unhappy that he’d interrupted her perfect little life. Her perfect little lie.
He’d spent years searching for her, and she’d been…