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Like you were never going to tell me?She bit back the words and instead said, “I wouldn’t think that’d be so hard. Just introduce her to an actual vampire. We’ve got two living right here.” She waved at the cast iron gate at the back of the kitchen that fronted the vestibule to the storm shelter, which doubled as a wine cellar.

Which doubled as a vampire lair.

“People rarely react well to that sort of news.”

“They could compel her to accept the truth without fuss.”

“No. Absolutely not. No compulsion.” He made a slashing motion with the edge of his hand before running it through his short-cropped, dark blond hair. “I want to be honest with her, but I don’t want her exposed if she doesn’t want to be.”

“Ah.” Cassidy chewed on her bottom lip. “So what exactly is it you’re asking?”

“Well. I was hoping you might talk to her with me?”

Her jaw dropped.

“You know, a neutral third party.”

“Oh, I’m hardly neutral.”

“You know what I mean.”

“You want someone to help you sound less like you’ve lost your mind. Right.”

He gave a sheepish shrug. “Will you consider it at least?”

“Does Garrett know you’re planning to tell her?”

“He does, and I’m not asking him for permission.”

“Wow. I guess you really do like her.” Traditionally, no one not born and raised in the Striker household was ever told about the family’s clandestine operations.

“She will be my future. The mother of my kids. I owe her the truth.”

“Who are you, and what have you done with the bastard who was hell-bent on keeping me oblivious?”

“Cass—”

Cassidy held up a hand. “It’s okay, Jackson. If not for you being such an ass, I would have never met Dominique. And he ismylife now,” she added with a pointed look and watched his eyes dart to the sapphire and diamond ring on her finger. It was a gift from Dominique and the only piece of jewelry she wore, as close to a wedding ring as she ever wanted to get. “I really am happy for you, Jack. I mean it. This Ollie sounds like a girl I’d like to meet and—yes—talk to.”

“Thank you, Cassidy.” He splayed a hand over his sternum. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I have all kinds of dirt on you I might want to share.”

The look of mock-innocence made her laugh. “So, when do you want to do this?”

Jackson had a plan. He always did. They discussed the details at length and had finalized their plot to shepherd one Olivia Henning-Toliver into their supernatural reality when a decidedly supernatural sensation stole over Cassidy. Every night it started like this, with a sense of an expanding awareness, like doors opening in her mind. Like quiet energy surging from a deep well. She closed her eyes and welcomed it with a sigh.

“Sunset?” Jackson wondered.

“Sunset,” she confirmed.

Right on cue, a small, furious growl sounded. Brinkley crept into position behind a cabinet corner, his green eyes narrowed on the gate to the wine cellar/storm shelter/vampire lair. The cat considered the vampires invading predators, and he wasn’t having it, no matter how hard Dominique tried to persuade him otherwise.

Cassidy picked up Brinkley by the rising scruff and turned to the kitchen door. “None of that tonight.”

By the time she deposited the unhappy cat in the side yard, Dominique had become fully conscious. With their bond renewed only the night before, their minds functioned like two adjoining puzzle pieces clicking into place. He contemplated the last hour of her memories. The mysterious gift Jackson brought intrigued him. But what really captured his interest was the news of Jackson’s impending fatherhood.

They had never discussed it. There was no point. Offspring between a vampire and a mortal was impossible. While Cassidy accepted this with little sentiment in either direction, Dominique ranked his inability to have a family high on the list of immortality’s shortcomings. He never said so. He never even thought about it, not consciously anyway, but Cassidy sensed it just the same.