café she ordered three cups of hot chocolate to go, and upon spying a lost and found box full of mittens and caps, asked if she could take two. The owner said they’d been in there for months, so she was welcome to them.
THE MIDNIGHT BELLS from a church down the block had chimed over an hour ago. Daniel eyed the moon, noting it had fallen in the sky. The bright disk reminded him of the Christmas tale of the wise men following the star. Pray, Laura’s soul had followed the bright this night.
He held her tightly still, and she hadn’t moved in a while. Maybe she had fallen asleep? It was the best option to fight the cravings.
Thinking about cravings… She had been here. He’d felt her presence outside the fence earlier. Had smelled her delicious sugar cookie scent. She’d come looking for him? He was glad she’d not interfered, but sad he’d missed her gorgeous smile.
Until he remembered that kiss onstage. She would have never let it happen if the man hadn’t meant something to her. He couldn’t accept it had been a sweet peck, either. He’d lost her, yet he’d never really had her.
How to possess a bright star when she belonged in the sky, shimmering for the masses to follow?
The smell of hot chocolate stirred his appetite. Giggles from outside the gate surprised him. That Charity and Mary could find some humor on this bleak night heartened him.
In his arms, Laura stirred and lifted her head. She stretched her mouth in a yawn and tugged out of his grasp to sit against the makeshift cardboard walls of her lean-to.
“How do you feel?” he asked on a raspy whisper.
“Oddly…not hungry for blood.” She shifted her tongue in her mouth and tilted her head. “Do I smell hot chocolate?”
He nodded. It was too incredible to believe, but he couldn’t prevent jumping into the excitement of what they may have accomplished tonight. “I think it worked,” he said.
She nodded. “I think so, too. I mean, I feel that it did work. I made it.” With new wonder, Laura looked to the gate. “My girls? Tell them to come here.”
He called them in, and Mary allowed her sister to lunge into her mother’s arms first.
“Did he save you, Mommy?”
All three women looked to him. Daniel could only shrug.
“He did,” Laura said. “I know he did. Thank you, Daniel.”
“Merry Christmas,” he said, but regretted that it meant little.
He slipped out through the gate while the reunited family hugged and sniffled back tears. He wasn’t much for Hallmark moments. He’d saved one woman from a horrible life. But how many more had transformed because they’d not had someone to help them?
He shoved his hands into his pockets and strode down the street, but noticed the car parked across the way. The black Mercedes did not blend into this neighborhood. Seriously?
Hell, he didn’t want to talk to her.
Yes, he did. It was going to hurt, but it was best to exorcise this wicked ache from his heart swiftly.
Daniel beelined toward the car. The back window rolled down to reveal an angel’s face.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Don’t be angry. I had my driver follow you from the concert. I needed to see you tonight. To apologize for the things I said.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. I’m sorry, Daniel.”
“For what you said.” She’d said she loved him. And now she was apologizing? He nodded and looked over the top of the car. His chest tightened and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her again. “That it?”
“Y-yes. Come inside, and let’s talk. What you did for that woman and her daughters was amazing.”
“You must have bought the girls hot chocolate. I noticed they had caps.”
“Is their mother going to be all right?”
“I think so. She made it to the full moon without drinking blood. I think she’s going to be as fine as a homeless mother of two can be on a cold winter’s night.”
“I offered the girls money, but the older one only took a twenty. She’s very proud.”
“I offer their mother money every time I see her. Always refuses. She just needs to find a place to live and get a job.”
“It’ll happen,” Olivia said. “Santa will find them.”
Daniel smirked and shook his head. “Charity thinks Santa only comes to kids who live in houses.”
“Then we’ll have to change her mind, yes?”
“Olivia.” He winced at the rush of emotions that welled in his chest, squeezing his broken heart, and wished he’d been