Night After Night by Kathryn Smith

Author:Kathryn Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapel and Bishop arrived at four o’clock that morning. With them were their wives, the lovely Prudence and exotic Marika. They also had Chapel’s old friend Father Francis Molyneux and a young man named Marcus Grey with them. The group of them were assembled in Temple’s rooms.

There was something oddly familiar about Marcus Grey. Temple recognized the sound of his voice from his brief time in Cornwall, as Mr. Grey tried to dig his way into his lair, but it wasn’t the man’s voice that perplexed him. There was something in his scent, something in his person that made him seem an old friend.

“He’s descended from Dreux,” Chapel explained, when he caught Temple staring at the young man. “He was in Cornwall looking for answers about certain legends surrounding his ancestor and his ‘friends.’”

Dreux. Half a millennium had passed since his death, but Temple felt the loss all the same. Everything changed the morning Dreux walked out into the dawn, unable to live with what he had become.

Temple nodded. “That explains it.” But before he could speak to the young man, the door to his apartments opened. Saint, Reign, and their wives, Ivy and Olivia, entered. Olivia looked a little pale, and Temple wondered if Reign’s suspicions might be true. He asked Temple not to say anything to the others, but Reign feared his wife might be pregnant. Temple didn’t even know if such a thing were possible let alone what the eventual outcome might be.

A vampire baby. Born, not bitten. Would it be born human? Vampire? Would it age? How awful would it be for it to remain ever an infant? Or would it grow as a normal child? There was no way of knowing, and according to Reign, Olivia was terrified. Temple didn’t blame her. With so much on their minds, the last thing the two of them needed was to face a showdown with the Order of the Silver Palm.

But Olivia didn’t hold his attention for long once he noticed the expectant silence that fell over the room. He turned his head and saw Saint and Marika staring at one another, wonder clearly written on their faces.

Saint took a step toward her, and his wife, Ivy, let him go with a happy smile. Bishop didn’t seem quite so eager to release his spouse, but he let her go all the same, a hopeful expression on his austere face.

Like everyone else, Temple simply watched as the two met for the first time.

They walked toward each other, stopping just within reach. Saint reached out first, tilting his head thoughtfully, his dark eyes glistening with moisture. His fingers touched Marika’s cheek, then her hair, then her cheek again as a smile curved his lips.

“You look so much like your mother,” he said. Temple, not prone to displays of emotion, felt a lump in his throat. He could not imagine what his friend felt at that moment.

A tear trickled down Marika’s smooth cheek as she took Saint’s hand in her own, holding it against her face.

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