Page 35 of Darius

“Perfect. Come on. I promise we’re going to have fun.”

“I can feel him already from outside,” Mara whispered.

“Is his presence hurting you?” Carina asked quietly.

Mara paused to check and shook her head.

“We’ll get him to give us some aluminum foil for hats,” Carina suggested.

Mara stared at her for a minute, trying to decide whether or not she was joking. When a giggle spilled out of Carina’s mouth, Mara said, “I shouldn’t have shared that.”

“Of course you had to tell me. I would have never thought of trying something like that. Shielding your brain sounds like a great idea. Testing a foil hat was like a scientist testing a hypothesis,” Carina said, defending Mara’s experiment as perfectly logical.

Mara smiled at the sweet woman. She was very glad they’d met. Perhaps tonight wouldn’t be too bad. She relaxed as Carina linked her arm with Mara’s and tugged her toward the door.

“Come on. I’ve never been inside Alaric’s place. What do you think? Dark and gloomy with spiderwebs?” Carina asked.

The door opened to reveal Alaric himself in the doorway. The light behind him made his body glow as if supercharged. “You’ll be pleased to notice I dusted before you arrived, Carina,” he said with a completely blank expression.

Mara shivered. He’d heard Carina. Uh, oh.

“Oops. Sorry, Alaric. I should have known you were on top of the whole cleanliness thing,” Carina said as Mara tugged her closer until the sides of their bodies pressed completely against each other.

“Come in, ladies. I’ve prepared root beer and popcorn for a vampire movie fest. Alessia and Titus have already arrived. You better claim the best seats before they’re taken.”

“Vampire movies?” Mara asked. “The ghoulish ones?” Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. She always got nightmares from scary films.

Alaric winked at her and shook his head. “Not really. The first is animated and includes singing for some reason.”

Mara stared at him for a few seconds, hoping her shock didn’t show on her face. Alaric didn’t frighten her tonight half as much as he usually affected her. And he’d chosen some vampire shows for them? That was really nice. And fun spirited.

“Thank you,” she whispered and pulled Carina past him. They ran to join Alessia, who hugged them both and insisted they join her on the sofa. Mara got to sit in the middle so she could talk to both Alessia and Carina. She couldn’t believe how close she felt to these two women after a short time. They understood her better than anyone in her life.

“Daddy will make you a Mara before they go if you’d like?” Alessia said.

She wasn’t comfortable enough to let down her guard and drink. “Root beer sounds great. I haven’t had that in years.”

Mara helped herself to a handful of popcorn when Alessia passed her a big tub. She popped a few pieces into her mouth and groaned. “This is fresh and yummy. How did Alaric keep the whole bowl warm?”

“Scared the corn into submission,” Carina whispered. The joke made the three ladies giggle.

On the other side of the room, Alaric turned back from where he spoke to their Daddies. “Boo!” A few of the kernels on the bottom puffed up, jostling the contents of each of their popcorn containers and releasing a burst of delicious popcorn aroma. They looked at each other and roared with laughter.

“Oops!” Carina said. “But that’s totally handy. Thanks, Alaric.”

Marcus leaned over the back of the couch to kiss the top of Carina’s head. “No terrorizing Alaric. Be good.”

“Yes, Daddy. Are you leaving now?”

Mara could hear the concern in her friend’s voice. Tears pricked at her eyes as she looked at Darius. Immediately, he knelt in front of her and cupped her face.

“I’ll be fine. Marcus and Titus will too. We’re simply going to gather some information. Remember big, bad vampire.” His eyes glowed red as he bared his fangs.

She didn’t cringe backward in fear. Her Daddy would never hurt her. The reminder that he was more than human dispelled her worry. He’d survived for hundreds of years. No bank official would win over him.

“Big, bad vampire,” she repeated and grinned.

The music started distracting Mara and her friends. Darius drifted away, but Mara kept looking to see when they disappeared. The show had drawn her in completely a few minutes later. She checked, and only Alaric remained.