The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,61
his own emo onal struggles, he hadn't even considered how it might affect her. Oh, certainly, she'd made him consider that if he didn't claim her, he might lose her to some possible alternate life mate, but that had seemed a far-off thing. Harper supposed, in his arrogance, he'd also imagined that he would have a chance to win her back in that distant future if his actions drove her away now. But Anders's words had made him worry about her actually dying, killed as a direct result of her emo onal upheaval and distrac on. The possibility had scared the crap out of him and made him face what was important here. Jenny was dead, and while he felt responsible, there was nothing he could do to bring her back or rewrite what had happened. He had grieved and been wracked by guilt for a year and a half now. How much longer would his conscience demand he suffer for a death he never imagined, let alone intended? Did he really feel he needed to lose Drina, even temporarily, to make up for the loss of Jenny? And did he really want to risk losing her permanently to death just to satisfy that conscience?
The answer had been no, and Harper had finally gone to sleep around dawn having decided he wasn't going to avoid her anymore. It was me to put his guilt aside and embrace his good fortune, because he was definitely one lucky son of a bitch to be given a second chance at the brass ring of happiness with a life mate, especially so soon after receiving it the last time.
Harper wasn't foolish enough to think it would be easy. Deciding not to feel guilty was a first step, but he knew he would have to fight on occasion to keep to that decision. However, he was determined and felt sure he could do it . . . for Drina.
"Hurry up you two. Gawd, you're as slow as snails," Stephanie complained, shi ing restlessly beside the car.
Harper heard Drina sigh with exaspera on at the teen's moodiness and briefly ghtened his arm around her waist in sympathy. He then dug his keys out of his pocket.
"You two get in. I'll get the cooler," Harper said, moving toward the back of the vehicle. It was Drina who'd thought to bring blood along. Which was another reason he felt sure she'd be a good mother. It hadn't even occurred to him that Stephanie needed to feed more o en than they did. As he li ed the cooler out of the trunk, he smiled at the thought of Drina with a li le Drina in her arms. Or a li le Harper, he thought as he closed the trunk and moved around to open the back passenger door and set it on the seat behind his own. Or both even. He grinned as he closed the back door and moved to open the driver's door.
"How am I supposed to feed? I don't have any straws," Stephanie snapped, as he slid behind the steering wheel.
"We'll stop at a drive-thru and buy a couple of drinks. You can use the straws," Harper said calmly, starting the engine.
Stephanie mu ered under her breath, but didn't comment otherwise and Harper shi ed the car into gear, then reached out to place his hand on Drina's leg as he steered them out of the parking lot. Her thigh was as hard as steel at first, telling him Stephanie's behavior had put her on edge as he'd suspected, but some of that tension le under his massaging fingers, and by the me he steered the car into the line at a fast-food drive-thru, she had relaxed considerably.
"What do you want?" Harper asked as he nosed up to the speaker. "Coke?"
"Whatever," Stephanie muttered.
"Coke it is," he said cheerfully, and quickly ordered three.
The moment Harper received and passed over the drinks, Drina passed Stephanie hers along with the straw from a second one. She then set the third drink in the holder for him, and took the lid off her glass to drink from the cup itself.
They were silent for a bit, Harper glancing in the rearview mirror occasionally to see that Stephanie actually was feeding. The fact that she went through three bags one a er the other, stabbing the straws viciously into them and then grimly and steadily sucking back the thick red liquid, told him how badly she'd needed the blood.
They were nearly