Luther chuckled. “I can see that.” He brushed his hand through Katie’s hair, loving the feel of it. “Is that why you don’t want children, or were you just pulling their leg?”

“Oh, no, I meant it. And they know it, too.” She sighed. “I love them to death, but I don’t think I was meant to be a mother. I don’t have the patience that Yvette exhibits. I don’t think I’m selfless enough to be a mother and put my own wishes behind that of a child. I didn’t have the best childhood, you know. I feel that I want to live my own life, now that I can make choices for myself. Not everybody should be a parent.”

She turned away and laid the envelope on the table, then started to clear the dishes.

“Let me help you,” he offered.

“Thanks.” She opened the dishwasher and placed the three plates in it. “Yvette wanted children all her life. Haven didn’t at first.” She looked up and gave him a sad smile. “He was too afraid of losing a child…”

Her words struck him as odd, making curiosity well up in him. “Why’s that?” He handed her the empty baking tray, and Katie put it in the sink.

“I was kidnapped when I was a baby. Long story.” She closed the dishwasher.

“Oh God.” Hadn’t Katie been through enough? Instinctively he reached for her hand and pulled it to his cheek. He pressed a kiss to her palm.

“Haven searched for me for over twenty years. He was eleven when a vampire took me. He became a vampire slayer because of it.” A sad smile crossed Katie’s face. “When he finally found me, he did the unthinkable. He sacrificed his human life so that Wes and I could live.”

“What happened?”

“A bad witch. She tried to harness our witch power by performing a ritual with the three of us. You see, my brothers and I were meant to be the Power of Three, the most powerful trio of witches the world has ever seen. But that witch wanted the power for herself. And the ritual would have left one of us dead. There was only one way to vanquish the power permanently so the witch could never claim it for herself.”

He understood immediately. “The power of a witch can never inhabit a vampire’s body.”

“Yes. I didn’t know the plan Haven and Wes had hatched. Had I known, God, I don’t think I could have stood by and let it happen. Haven stabbed himself.” She shook her head. “He didn’t tell Yvette either what he’d planned.”

Luther squeezed Katie’s hand. “He must have had a lot of trust in her.”

Katie smiled. “Yeah, he did. They’d only known each other for a few days, but everybody could see that despite his lifelong hatred for vampires, he loved her, and she loved him. Although Yvette knew she should hate him for the things he’d done to her kind, she couldn’t help follow her heart. Sometimes a heart makes its own choice and doesn’t care what the head thinks. She turned Haven as he lay dying. They blood-bonded the next night.” Katie sighed. “Anyway… I shouldn’t bore you with family stories.”

She turned abruptly, took the envelope from the kitchen table and walked through to the living room.

Luther followed. “Katie.”

She looked over her shoulder. “What?”

“You didn’t bore me.” He caught up with her.

She motioned to the couch and sat down in one corner. Luther joined her, pulling her onto his lap, before he leaned back into the cushions, one arm wrapped around Katie, the other resting on her thigh.

“I don’t have a family,” he said hesitantly. “And it’s nice to be reminded what it’s like to have people who care about you. Scanguards was my family once.”

“Is that why you came back? To remind yourself of what it was like to be part of Scanguards?”

He sighed and dropped his head back against the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. He didn’t want to answer the question, but something inside him pushed him to do it nevertheless. “I came back to atone for what I’d done to them. For how I wronged them.”

“So you do feel remorse.”

Luther closed his eyes. “From the moment I found out that it wasn’t their fault, I’ve done nothing but regret my actions. If I could only turn back time, but I can’t.” He opened his eyes and found Katie looking at him. “I erroneously believed that Amaury and Samson let my wife die. I was wrong. They offered to turn her when it was clear that she was dying in childbirth. But she refused.” He’d gone half insane when he’d found out the truth. “And I failed her as a husband.”