The Reluctant Vampire - Lynsay Sands [8]
“Why do you say that?” Drina asked warily.
“Because it isn’t grief that’s making him so miserable over Jenny. It’s guilt. He thinks if he’d never met and tried to turn her, she’d still be alive. It’s eating him up. He doesn’t think he deserves to be happy. He thinks he needs to suffer for her dying. He’ll fight it and avoid you for the next couple of centuries until he feels he’s suffered enough if he finds out you’re life mates . . . unless you creep up on him.”
Drina stared at her blankly, amazed to hear such wisdom from someone so young.
Stephanie suddenly grinned and admitted, “I’m not Yoda or something. I’m just repeating what Marguerite said to you.”
“She did say that, but I wasn’t thinking it,” Drina said with a frown.
“Yeah, you are. It’s nagging at the back of your mind and probably has been since she said it. That and the thought that it just figured you’d finally encounter your life mate, and instead of it being easy like you’d expect finding an immortal life mate should be, it’s going to be even more delicate than it would be were he mortal.” She grimaced. “I know the feeling.”
“Do you?” Drina asked quietly.
“Oh, yeah. Nothing lives up to your expectations,” she muttered, then grimaced and said, “Like, before . . . when I was human, I used to fantasize what it would be like to be, you know, different. Special. I even once or twice fantasized about what it would be like to be a vampire. I thought it would be so cool. Strong, smart . . . no one would pick on you, no one could make you do anything you didn’t want and all that bull.” She sighed and shook her head. “It isn’t like that at all. Sure, I’m stronger, and the kids at school couldn’t pick on me, but I’m not in school, am I? And there seem to be even more problems than when I was human.”
“You’re still human, Steffie,” Drina said quietly, feeling for the kid. Marguerite had told her all about the girl as part of her effort to convince her to accept the assignment. She knew that last summer Stephanie had been a happy, healthy mortal with her whole life ahead of her . . . until she and her older sister, Dani, had been taken from a grocery-store parking lot in cottage country by a group of no-fangers. The girl had been terrorized and turned against her will, and now her whole life had changed. While Lucian and his men had rescued her, she was now Edentate, immortal but without fangs, and she could not return to her previous life. Like Dorothy caught up in a tornado and dropped in Oz, Stephanie had lost her family and friends and been dropped in the middle of an entirely different life not of her choosing. She’d had a rough shake and didn’t deserve what had happened to her. And Drina wasn’t at all surprised this wasn’t what the girl had envisioned when she’d imagined the impossible fantasy of being a vampire.
Realizing that the girl was staring at her oddly, she asked uncertainly, “What?”
“My brothers and sisters always call me Steffie.”
“Oh, sorry,” Drina muttered. Her brother’s name was Stephano and she always called him Steff. She supposed she’d just automatically turned it feminine.
“Your brother’s name is Stephano?” the girl asked with interest. Stifling a yawn, she lay back in the bed. “You’ll have to tell me about him, but tomorrow. I’m really tired now. Sometimes, this reading-thoughts business is exhausting. Good night.”
“Good night,” Drina murmured, as the girl rolled onto her side away from her and settled into her bed. She then hesitated a moment, considering whether she should take the time to change now or just turn off the light so the girl could get to sleep.
“Go ahead. The light doesn’t bother me,” Stephanie mumbled. “Besides, while I know you don’t think you’ll sleep, you’ll stand a better chance of doing so if you’re more comfortable.”
Drina shook her head and stood to grab her suitcase and toss it on the bed. She wasn’t used to having someone reading her mind. She was old enough most people couldn’t.