Drake threw back his head and laughed. “No, my love. I merely infused a little preternatural power into the water to warm it for you.”
Elena sighed with amazement. Truly, there was nothing this man couldn’t do.
Holding her against his side, he carried her out to deeper water. Once, she had been frightened to be out so deep, but no more. Nothing could happen to her while Drake was there. Leaning against him, she gazed up at the stars.
“What shall we name our daughter?” she asked after a while.
“I have not given it any thought, but I think you have.”
“I was thinking about naming her after my mother, if it’s all right with you. Unless you’d rather name her after your mother.”
“No. What was your mother’s name?”
“Kaitlyn.”
“A fine old-fashioned name,” Drake said. “I like it.”
“I looked it up. It means ‘pure.’” She smiled up at Drake. “Are you as happy as I am?”
“Never doubt it for a moment.” He brushed a kiss across her brow. “You have given me more happiness than I deserve.”
“Drake! What a thing to say. You deserve to be happy, just like everyone else.”
“I am pleased that you think so, but there are incidents in my past, things you do not know.” He thought of the people he had killed when he was a new vampire. His lack of compassion. Of Luiza. “Events I regret that I can never make right.”
“Shh.” Elena twined her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, or why you think you’re unworthy of happiness. It’s over and done and none of it matters now. Got it?”
“Yes, wife,” he replied solemnly.
“Good. You’re my hero. My knight in shining armor. And I won’t have you thinking otherwise.”
“Tarnished armor,” he said with a wry grin.
“Stop that!”
“I will do my best not to let you down.” How could he do otherwise when she was looking at him like that, as if he were Superman and Albert Schweitzer all rolled into one.
She kissed him then, her lips achingly sweet and filled with love, and in that kiss he found hope. And an encompassing warmth that felt like forgiveness.
Chapter 32
The next day, Elena called the furniture store and asked if it was possible to have their order delivered that night. The salesman said he didn’t think so, but after asking her name, he quickly changed his mind and assured her that it would be there by nightfall. She was grinning when she hung up the phone. Amazing, she thought, the miracles that could be obtained just by mentioning the Sherrad name.
They were arranging the furniture in the nursery later that night when the doorbell rang.
Elena looked at Drake. “Are you expecting someone?”
He shook his head and turned away, but not before she saw the worry in his eyes.
She followed him down the stairs, hanging back a little when he opened the door.
It was Andrei.
“Is something wrong?” Drake asked after inviting his brother inside.
“Liliana has returned to the Fortress,” Andrei replied. “I thought you would want to know.”
Drake lifted one brow. “You came here to tell me that?”
“No.” Andrei nodded at Elena before returning his attention to his brother. “Stefan has left the Coven.”
“Where has he gone?”
Andrei shook his head. “No one seems to know.”
“When did this happen?”
“I am not sure. I have been busy looking after Katiya and making sure your new rules are upheld. Cullin has claimed Marta for his own. She is now living in his apartment. I was not aware that Stefan was missing until Liam informed me last night. The last time anyone remembers seeing Stefan was four nights ago.”
“Perhaps he has gone hunting,” Drake suggested.
Andrei sat on a corner of the coffee table. “He would not leave the Fortress without telling someone. I thought perhaps he had come here.”
“No. I have not seen him.”
“Katiya thinks . . .”
“Thinks what?” Drake asked.
“That with you and me being happily married, and our wives pregnant . . .”
“You told Katiya about Stefan?” Drake asked sharply.
Andrei shrugged. “Not intentionally.”
“What about Stefan?” Elena asked, perching on the arm of the sofa. “Oh!”
Drake looked at her, his eyes narrowed. “Oh, what?”
“He’s the son, isn’t he? The one who got a girl pregnant and the girl and the baby died.”
“Katiya told you that?” Drake asked.
“She didn’t mention his name when she told me. She didn’t know which brother it was.”
“Well, she seems to know now,” Drake muttered. “Dammit!” He paced the floor from one end to the other.
“Do you have any idea where he might go?” Andrei asked.
“He once talked about going to America,” Drake replied.
“America!” Andrei exclaimed. “Do you really think he would go that far?”
“Would that be so bad?” Elena asked, glancing from Drake to Andrei and back again.
“He would have no one to protect him there,” Drake said. “No place to go should he be injured or in need of refuge.”
Elena was contemplating what Drake had said when there was a ripple in the air, like lightning before a storm, and Liliana appeared in front of the hearth. She looked like an ice princess in a long white gown, her blond hair streaming down her back, her pale face like something carved from ivory.
She glared at Drake. “This is all your fault!” she cried. “Had you accepted your responsibility to Katiya and the Coven, Stefan would not have run away.”
“He ran away because he is still grieving for a woman my father refused to allow him to wed,” Drake retorted. “Had my father been less of a tyrant, Stefan would be here now.” Even as he spoke the words, he wondered if Katiya had the truth of it, and that Stefan had left the Fortress because he couldn’t abide being around Katiya and Andrei because they were constant reminders of what he had lost.
“Your father knew what was best for our people, best for the Coven. You have changed our laws, laws that made our people strong. You are nothing like your father,” Liliana said, her voice dripping with malice.
“Well, thank goodness for that,” Elena exclaimed, then clapped her hand over her mouth.