Page 70 of Never Invite a Vampire to Dinner

“No,” he says quickly. “No, my parents lived, but they were very angry about what I had become. The Volkovs went to church. They did not become vampires. I left the country, and I never saw them again.”

“Oh.”

“It was a different time.”

He says it without emotion, which is how I know how much it matters.

“When did you come to America?”

“Originally in the early 1700s, but I left several times. I came back the last time in nineteen twenty-seven.”

“What brought you back?”

“Prohibition,” he says, and this time his mouth curves. “The best place to be a vampire is somewhere everyone is drinking in secret.”

I laugh.

“So you’ve been in Black Harbor since?”

“No. I moved around, but I like small towns.” He glances at me. “It’s easier to know what matters in a small place.”

I think of the man at the edge of the room at every party in this town, watching and remembering. The man who knew the legend about the widow’s lantern was wrong and who stood waist deep in sea water to save Theo’s dock.

“I like the way you pay attention.”

“Penny.”

“Is that weird?”

“No. It’s why I’m here.”

I stare at him.

“I have been very good at keeping my own company for a very long time. It’s a skill. I’ve practiced it. I have been content.” He touches my cheek with the back of his hand. “But I am not content with you. I don’t want to go back to that room alone.”

My throat closes, and I slide my arms around him, because I can, because he’s here.

“I’ve been making a place for you since October.”

“Have you?”

I nod against his shoulder.

“I thought it was so you wouldn’t have to be alone. I thought I was doing you a favor.”

He runs a hand down my back. “You didn’t owe me anything.”

“I know. I just wanted you. In my kitchen. In my life. So I kept inviting you.”

“And I kept accepting.” He presses his mouth to my hair. “I will keep accepting. For as long as you ask.”

“Good,” I say, and hold him tighter. “Because I’m going to ask a lot.”

I feel him smile.

“I’m counting on it.”

CHAPTER 15