Page 63 of Cooper’s Passion

Anita gasped, staring at him wide-eyed. “Oh my God!”

“He stabbed himself, hoping that my mother would reach him in time to save him. She did. She had to turn him into a vampire.”

“So he’s now a witch slash vampire?”

Cooper shook his head. “The powers of a witch can’t live in a vampire’s body.” He opened the closet and pulled an old T-shirt out of it and slipped it over his head. “Wesley is the only one who still has his powers and practices witchcraft. He’s actually very accomplished.”

“And your aunt, Katie?”

“She’s almost completely human.” He motioned to the door. “Let’s go.”

In the kitchen, Cooper grabbed his jacket, snatched his car keys from the table, and took Anita’s hand.

“Are you okay to drive?” Anita asked.

He leaned closer. “Baby, I was well enough to have sex. I’m well enough to drive.”

In the car, Cooper made a call to headquarters to check in and report that he’d seen an unknown vampire lurking in North Beach. None of the other staff on canvassing duty had reported anything of note yet. Nobody had seen Janet or the suspect.

Cooper disconnected the phone and gave Anita a sideways look. “There’s no need for us to go back to HQ tonight. It’s best if we rest for a while. It’s late anyway. You must be tired.”

“Just a little. So much happened tonight. I’m too wound up to sleep right now. Tell me more about your family. You said that Katie is human, but if she’s your father’s sister, I assume she’s much older than she looks.”

“She still has the genes that identify her as a witch. That’s why she ages only incrementally. But even if she were one hundred percent human, she wouldn’t age at all, because she’s blood-bonded to a vampire.”

“Blood-bonded? What does that mean?”

“Luther, her vampire mate and husband, shares his immortality with her.” He glanced at Anita, wondering how much about the blood-bond she was ready to hear.

“Are you saying he turned her into a vampire like your mother did with your father?”

“No, not at all. Katie’s still human, but there’s a ritual that bonds a vampire to his mate. They drink each other’s blood, and through this bond, Katie stays young and won’t age, unless Luther dies.”

For a moment, Anita contemplated his words. “Wow. I never thought there’s such a thing. I mean, in the lore, a vampire always has to turn the human to bestow immortality… But if that’s not the case… If you don’t need to turn somebody… and you can still be with that person…” She looked at him from the side, suddenly silent.

Cooper took her hand and squeezed it, glad that he’d told her that there was a way they could be together, while not putting any pressure on her to make a decision. He pulled Anita’s hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

When he gazed into her eyes, he saw affection shining back at him. There was no fear left in them, no apprehension, no horror. The Anita who looked at him now was the woman who understood him. The woman he wanted to be with.

“Yes, a human can be with a vampire and be very happy. I have friends, other vampire hybrids, who’re bonded to human women. I’ll introduce you to them, if you want to talk to them… you know, to find out what it’s like to live with a vampire hybrid.”

Anita took a deep breath. There was a short pause, before she spoke. “You said to your mother that you loved me.”

Cooper slowed the car and turned into the driveway of Wesley’s house, before looking at her. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. I told you before that I’m falling in love with you. But I don’t want you to feel that you have to make a decision about me, about us…” He pressed the garage door opener and waited for the gate to lift. “I would have chosen a more romantic situation to tell you that I love you, but I had to make sure my mother knew not to hurt you.”

Anita leaned over the divide between their seats and put one hand on his nape, pulling his head to her. “I’m glad you said it. It helped me be less afraid.” She brushed her lips over his in a featherlight touch. “And more hopeful.”

“Hopeful about what?”

“That we might have something… that this is developing past a one-night stand.”

He smiled. “Anita, this was never a one-night stand to begin with. At least not for me. Any man lucky to have you in his bed just once, is a fool if he lets you get away. And I don’t mean that in a stalker kind of way.”

“I get that.”

She pressed her lips to his, and he accepted the invitation and kissed her tenderly, before he severed the kiss. “We’d better go inside.”

He drove into the garage, and the gate lowered behind him. They got out of the car, and Cooper took Anita’s hand as they walked into the corridor from where a staircase led up into the house. At the bottom of the staircase, Anita suddenly stopped and turned to him.

“Something wrong?” he asked and glanced around to ascertain if they were still alone. They were.

“Yesterday, when you brought me here, I’d forgotten my handbag in your car. When I came down to get it, I thought I saw Virginia disappear in front of my eyes. There.” She motioned to the end of the corridor. “Is that a vampire skill? To disappear into thin air?”

Cooper chuckled. “Virginia isn’t a vampire. She’s a Stealth Guardian.”

“A what?”

“A preternatural creature sworn to protect humans from demons. She can make herself and others invisible, and she can walk through walls. That’s probably what you saw.”

He didn’t elaborate why Virginia had walked into the room at the end of the corridor, where a portal was located that allowed her to teleport to other locations in the world within seconds. It wasn’t his secret to share, and the existence of the Stealth Guardian portal had to be kept a secret from outsiders. However, he hoped that Anita would soon become a trusted member of their extended family. Sometime very soon.