“I hated you for a while.” Sarah’s tone was matter-of-fact. “If not for you, Rebecca would still be alive. Or so I told myself.”
Her words came as no surprise. Children always know what grown-ups are thinking. Em had never made me feel that it was my fault that my parents were dead. Of course, she’d known what they were planning—and why. But Sarah was a different story.
“Then I got over it,” Sarah continued quietly. “You will, too. One day you’ll see the twins and you’ll realize that Matthew is right there, staring out at you from an eight-year-old’s eyes.”
“My life doesn’t make sense without Matthew,” I said. “Losing him isn’t the same as losing a sister.”
“He can’t be your whole world, Diana.”
“He already is,” I whispered. “And if he succeeds in breaking free of the de Clermonts, he’s going to need me to be at his side like Ysabeau was for Philippe. I’ll never be able to fill her shoes.”
“Bullshit.” Sarah jammed her hands onto her hips. “And if you think Matthew wants you to be like his mother, you’re crazy.”
“You have a lot to learn about vampires.” Somehow the line didn’t sound as convincing when a witch delivered it.
“Oh. Now I see the problem.” Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “Em said you’d come back to us different— whole. But you’re still trying to be something you’re not.” She pointed an accusatory finger at me.
“You’ve gone all vampire again.”
“Stop it, Sarah.”
“If Matthew had wanted a vampire bride, he could have his pick. Hell, he could have turned you into a vampire last October in Madison,” she said. “You’d willingly given him most of your blood.”
“Matthew wouldn’t change me,” I said.
“I know. He promised me as much the morning before you left.” Sarah looked daggers at me.
“Matthew doesn’t mind that you’re a witch. Why do you?” When I didn’t reply, she grabbed my hand.
“Where are we going?” I asked as my aunt dragged me down the stairs.
“Out.” Sarah stopped in front of the gaggle of vampires standing in the front hall. “Diana needs to remember who she is. You’re coming, too, Gallowglass.”
“Ooo-kaaay,” Gallowglass said uneasily, drawing out the two syllables. “Are we going far?”
“How the hell do I know?” Sarah retorted. “This is my first time in London. We’re going to Diana’s old house—the one she and Matthew shared in 1590.”
“My house is gone—it burned down in the Great Fire,” I said, trying to escape.
“We’re going anyway.”
“Oh, Christ.” Gallowglass threw a set of car keys at Leonard. “Get the car, Lenny. We’re going for a Sunday drive.”
Leonard grinned. “Right.”
“Who is that?” Sarah said, watching as the gangly vampire bolted toward the back of the house.
“He belongs to Andrew,” I explained.
“In other words he belongs to you,” she said with a nod. My jaw dropped. “Oh, yes. I know all about vampires and their crazy ways.” Apparently, Fernando didn’t have the same reluctance as Matthew and Ysabeau did to tell vampire tales.
Leonard pulled up to the front door with a squeal of tires. He was out of the car and had the rear door opened in a blink. “Where to, madame?”
I did a double take. It was the first time Leonard hadn’t stumbled over my name. “Diana’s house, Lenny,” Sarah answered. “Her real house, not this overdecorated dust-bunny sanctuary.”