The next two weeks passed quickly. Cara saw Vince every night after work and sometimes during her break, and the more she saw him, the more she loved him. He was kind, patient, and fun to be with. And their lovemaking... each time seemed better than the last. Sometimes they made slow, sweet love in her bed, sometimes on the floor of the living room in front of the fire, sometimes in the bathtub, and once in the kitchen on the table.

The Monday night her parents had come to visit, they had hinted several times that she should move back home, but Cara refused to consider it. Now that she'd had a taste of living on her own, there was no way she was moving back in with Mom and Dad.

She continued buying odds and ends for her house-a full-length mirror for the bathroom door, a lacy fern in an earthenware pot, a painting for over the fireplace, a new lamp for the living room.

Frank had fully recovered. There were still times when she felt a twinge of resentment when she looked in her rearview mirror and saw his Lexus trailing a short distance behind her, but for the most part, she found his presence vastly reassuring.

Now it was Monday night and she and Vince were going to Sarah Beth's house for dinner and then to a movie. She was surprised at how excited she was to be going to Bethy's for dinner, or maybe it was Vince who had unleashed the butterflies in her stomach. Or maybe it was just the fact that it was the first time she and Vince would be going to visit one of her friends as a couple.

"Whatever," she muttered as she finished applying her makeup, put on her shoes, and went into the living room to wait for Vince.

She was looking out the window, wondering where he was, when the phone rang. Lifting the receiver, she said "hello."

"Hey, darlin'."

"Vince, where are you?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm running late. I had to go into the city to buy some parts and I got hung up in traffic.

Why don't you go on to dinner and I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure? Maybe we should just go next week."

"No, that wouldn't be fair to Sarah Beth. You go on and I'll get there as soon as I can."

"All right. Hurry."

Vince hung up, stung by the disappointment he heard in Cara's voice, but there was no help for it. It was still daylight; there was no way he could leave the garage until the sun went down.

After closing and locking the security door, he went upstairs to take a shower and get dressed. Cat trailed after him. Vince knew it was his imagination, but he would have sworn Cat's eyes were filled with accusation.

"I know," Vince said irritably. "I've got to end it. And I will, but she wants me to be with her on Halloween. It's her favorite holiday, you know. When it's over, I'll either tell her the truth or I'll just leave a note and get out of her life forever, okay?"

Cat stared up at him through unblinking yellow eyes.

"I promise, all right?"

With a twitch of his tail, Cat jumped up on the bed and began his daily ablutions.

Muttering an oath, Vince went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Cara had just finished helping Sarah Beth clear the dining room table when she heard the doorbell and then the sound of Vince's voice as he introduced himself to Sarah Beth's husband, Dean.

Smiling, she hurried into the living room. "You made it!"

He kissed her on the cheek. "Sorry I'm late."

"Would you care for something to drink?" Dean asked. "A coke, a beer?"

Vince shook his head. "Nothing, thanks." He glanced around the room, noting the large beveled mirror over the fireplace. Two dark green sofas faced each other in front of the hearth. A rectangular glass-topped coffee table stood between the sofas. A floor-to-ceiling shelf held a hodgepodge of books, knickknacks, and framed photographs.

"Hi, Vince," Sarah Beth said, entering the room. "Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable. We've got half an hour or so before the movie starts."

Mindful of the mirror, Vince walked behind the sofa and then sat down, grateful that the mirror was high enough that it didn't reflect the furniture in front of it. Cara sat beside him. Sarah Beth and her husband made themselves comfortable on the other couch.

"So, Vince," Dean said, "Beth tells me you're a mechanic."

Vince nodded.

"I've got an antique T-bird out in the garage that I've been wanting to restore."

"What year is it?"

Dean laughed. "You know, I'm not sure. It belonged to my grandfather."

"Does it still run?"

"Barely."

"Well, bring it on by," Vince said, "and I'll take a look at it."

"Great."

"Don't get too excited. I can't guarantee I'll be able to find parts for it."

"I hope you can't," Sarah Beth said. "That old thing's been taking up space in the garage for three years.

If he'd get rid of it, I could park my car in there."

Dean shook his head. "Women."

Sarah Beth made a face at him, then punched him in the arm. "Be nice. We have company." She smiled at Vince and Cara. "So, what movie do you two want to see?"

"It doesn't matter to me," Cara said.

"How about you, Vince?" Sarah Beth asked.

"Whatever you guys want is fine with me."

"No one asked me," Dean said, "but I'd like to see that new horror flick."

"Okay by me," Vince said. "Ladies?"

"It's not all blood and gore is it?" Sarah Beth asked.

"I don't think so, honey."

When Cara and Sarah Beth bom agreed, Dean checked his watch. "We'd better go. It starts in fifteen minutes."

The horror flick turned out to be a love story, of sorts, about a female vampire in love with a werewolf and the problems they had to overcome. It wasn't filled with blood and gore, as Sarah Beth feared, but Vince was pretty sure Cara would have objected to coming if she had known what it was about.

He watched it with a sense of wry amusement. He didn't know anything about werewolves, assuming they existed at all, but whoever had written the script didn't know a thing about vampires.

It was still early when the movie was over. Sarah Beth suggested they go out for coffee and dessert.

While Vince was trying to think of a good excuse, Cara came to his rescue.

Slipping her arm through his, she smiled at Sarah Beth. "Not tonight, Bethy."

"Gonna have your dessert elsewhere?" Sarah Beth asked with a knowing grin.

"Beth," Dean admonished, "mind your own business."

Thirty minutes later, Vince and Cara were cuddling on her sofa in front of a cozy fire.

"I guess the movie was a bad choice," Vince remarked, stroking her cheek.

"Well, it's certainly not one I would have picked, but it did have a happy ending, of sorts, if you don't mind being a vampire."

Vince grunted softly. In the movie, the werewolf had found a cure for his ailment, the vampire had brought him across, and they had walked off into the darkness, apparently to live happily ever after by night.

"Your parents seem pretty happy," Vince remarked.

"As happy as you can be living as a vampire, I guess," Cara allowed.

"Maybe it's not as bad as you think."

She looked up at him, her brow furrowed. "Not bad? Why would anyone want to be a vampire?"

He shrugged. "Maybe they don't always have a choice."

"Well, if you were given the choice, what would you do?"

"I'd choose to live." He didn't have to think about it; he'd made that choice a year ago. "What about you?" he asked. "What if you had to decide between living as a vampire or dying?"

"I'd rather die," she said emphatically.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. At least I think I am." She thought about her mother and father and what she knew of their life together. Vince was right. They seemed perfectly happy the way they were. She had never heard them fight and rarely heard them disagree. It was obvious that they were still madly in love. Her father brought her mother lingerie on Valentine's Day, flowers on Mother's Day and jewelry for Christmas.

They seemed to share practically everything and, perhaps most important of all, they would be together forever.

She thought about Vince and how few were the years they would have together compared to the hundreds of years her parents could expect to share, and suddenly being a vampire didn't seem like such a terrible thing, if the one you loved was a vampire, too.

It was a thought that haunted and intrigued her long after she had bid Vince good night.

It was midnight on the night before Halloween. Cara was walking home when, all of a sudden, she was in her parents' living room. She glanced around, shocked by the changes that had been made. The walls were papered in dark red, the furniture was black leather, the carpet was white.

Thinking she was in the wrong house, she turned toward the door, only the door was gone. She ran around the room, looking for a window, only there were no windows. Tears of fear and frustration filled her eyes when she realized there was no way out. She was running her hands over the walls, vainly searching for an exit, when her father suddenly appeared behind her.

"It's time," he said.

She whirled around. "Time?" she asked breathlessly. "Time for what?"

He held out his hand. "To join us. Come."

She backed away, her heart pounding in terror when she realized there was no place to hide. With a growl, he was upon her, dragging her toward the sofa.

She shoved her hands against his chest, trying to push him away, all the while pleading, "No, please!"

"There's no use resisting." He smiled, showing his fangs, and suddenly it was Vince staring down at her.

"No!" She screamed the word as he forced her head back, exposing her throat. Her nails were puny weapons against his much greater strength. There was a sharp stab of pain as he pierced her flesh. Fear was overcome by weakness as the world went from gray to black to nothing at all...

She woke covered in perspiration, her heart pounding, the blankets on the floor and her legs tangled in the sheets.

She was trembling and she couldn't stop. It had seemed so real. Afraid of what she might find, she lifted her hand and touched her neck and then, to make sure, she went into the bathroom and turned on the light. She turned her head from side to side, but she didn't see any telltale bite marks.

She breathed a sigh of relief. A nightmare. Of course, it had only been a nightmare. It wasn't surprising, she thought, considering the movie she had seen earlier that night and what she had recently discovered about her parents.

Cara was getting ready to go to work the next day when Vince called, "just to say hello."

They had been chatting for a few minutes when he said, "All right, darlin', tell me what's wrong."

"What makes you think there's anything wrong?" she asked.

"I can hear it in your voice. Are you mad at me because I missed dinner last night?"

"Of course not. Don't be silly."

"Then what is it?"

She hesitated a moment, then said, "It's nothing, really. Just a bad dream that I had."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I don't know. It was nothing, really, but, well, in my dream, I went to visit my parents. I was in their house and suddenly it didn't look like their house anymore. The walls were red and all the doors and windows were gone. I was looking for a way out when my father suddenly appeared behind me and told me it was time, and when I asked time for what, he smiled a horrible smile and I saw his fangs. 'Time to join us,' he said, and he dragged me toward the sofa and then... this is so silly."

"Go on. What happened next?"

A nervous laugh escaped her throat. "All of a sudden it wasn't my father bending over me."

Vince held his breath as he waited for her to go on. Somehow, he wasn't surprised when she said, "It was you."