As Twilight Falls

“What?” Hands clenched, Ravenwood took a menacing step forward, his eyes blazing red. “Why the hell did you do that?”

Knowing the other vampire would be able to feel it, Saintcrow gathered his power around him. “If you attack me, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

Ravenwood backed up a step. He might have been a new vampire, but he wasn’t a fool.

“There’s a little bar on the corner of Ninth Street,” Saintcrow said. “Meet me out back tomorrow after midnight and I’ll answer any questions you have about your new lifestyle.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Remember what I said about a new lair. It’ll be dawn soon.”

With a curt nod, Ravenwood took off.

Saintcrow stood there a moment, considering what Ravenwood had said about Lilith. One way or another, she had to be stopped.

It hadn’t taken her long to sire a new vampire. Had she made more? And if so, why? And what about the others? Had they stayed in Wyoming? Were they all out kicking up their heels, preying on unwary humans, making fledglings, and abandoning them without telling them what they needed to know to survive?

Shoving his hands in his pants pockets, Saintcrow headed back toward the Andrewses’ house. Fledglings were notoriously unpredictable, he thought as he turned the corner onto Kadie’s street. Had he made a mistake in warning the other vampire?

And then there was Kadie’s father. Saintcrow shook his head. Of all the luck, falling in love with the daughter of a hunter. Once again, it occurred to him that fate was likely having a good laugh at his expense.

He was a block from Kadie’s house when he heard muted footsteps easing up behind him. Damn! Either Andrews had lied to him or the man was ignorant of the fact that he wasn’t the only hunter in town.

The hunter’s heartbeat increased as his footsteps drew nearer. Saintcrow could smell his excitement. The blood rushing through the hunter’s veins teased Saintcrow’s hunger and only the fact that this was Kadie’s town kept him from grabbing the man and taking him down. He rarely took a life these days, but turnabout was fair play.

Instead, he let the hunter creep up on him, then grabbed the guy by the throat and shoved him against a cinderblock wall. “You lookin’ for me?”

The man glared at him but said nothing. He was of medium height with sloping shoulders and a barrel chest.

Most vampire hunters were born with an extra gene passed from father to son that gave them the ability to recognize vampires. It was, Saintcrow thought, nature’s way of keeping a balance between good and evil.

Saintcrow relieved him of three wooden stakes, which he broke in half and tossed into the bushes alongside the wall before emptying a vial of holy water. When that was done, he captured the man’s gaze with his.

Looking deep into his eyes, he said, “You won’t hunt any more vampires. From now on, the thought of doing violence, the sight of any blood but your own, will make you violently ill. If anyone questions you, you won’t remember me or this conversation. You understand?”

The hunter nodded.

“What’s your name?”

“Brian Kirk.”

“All right, Kirk,” Saintcrow said, giving him a push. “Get the hell out of here.”

With a nod, the hunter hurried back the way he’d come. Saintcrow stared after the man, thinking he probably hadn’t seen the last of the hunters in this town.

Chapter 29

Saintcrow arrived at Kadie’s house just after dinner. After exchanging pleasantries with the doctor and his wife, Saintcrow asked Kadie if she’d like to go for a drive.

“I’d love to,” she said. “Just let me grab a jacket.”

When she left the room, Ralph Andrews said, “I trust you won’t be out too long.”

“I’ll have her home before dawn,” Saintcrow promised with a wry grin. “You can count on that.”

“I’m ready,” Kadie said as she came back into the room. “Dad, stop worrying about me. I’m a big girl now, remember?”

“I’m your father,” he said. “It’s my job to worry.”

Kadie hugged her mother, gave her father a kiss on the cheek; then, holding Saintcrow’s hand, they left the house.

“What is it with you and fast cars?” she said as he held open the door to the sleek, metallic blue Porsche.

He shrugged. “What can I say? Fast cars, fast women.”

She stuck her tongue out at him when he slid behind the wheel. “Where are we going?”

“Just somewhere we can be alone.”

“Any particular reason why we need to be alone?” Kadie asked, settling herself in the seat.

“I can think of one or two.”

“I’m sure you can,” she replied primly.

Saintcrow chuckled. “Don’t go all schoolgirl innocent on me now.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“All the stories about vampires say they can’t be seen in a mirror, and that garlic repels them, and holy water burns them. Is that true?”

“It depends on the vampire. We’re solid. We can be seen in a mirror. Garlic stinks but it doesn’t repel us. Holy water won’t burn me, although it burns new vampires. Fire . . . that’s something else.”

“What about silver crosses?”

He shook his head as he made a left turn and headed for the beach. “They no longer have any power to thwart me.” Silver didn’t affect him, save for weapons that were made out of it. Though they wouldn’t kill him, wounds inflicted by solid silver took longer to heal and were infinitely more painful.

“Wooden stakes?”

He slid a glance in her direction. “I’m not sure I like the tone of this conversation.”

“I’m just curious.”

“A wooden stake through the heart will destroy most vampires.”

“Most?”

“You’ll be happy to know that I’m impervious.” As he had told her father, the only way to destroy him now was to take his head. Even fire wouldn’t destroy him, although it took decades of agony spent deep in the earth to recover.

“What about other vampires?”

“A stake to the heart will destroy most of them. We grow stronger and harder to kill as we grow older. Anything else you want to know?”

Kadie shook her head, thoughts of vampires receding as she stared out at the ocean, beautiful and peaceful under the light of the moon.