As Twilight Falls

Feeling only marginally better, he drove back to Kadie’s house. The two cars that had been parked in the driveway earlier were gone. The lights were out. Opening his senses, he knew Kadie’s parents were asleep. Kadie was awake. And worried.

He sat there a moment, the engine purring softly while he debated the wisdom of stealing a few minutes with her under her father’s roof.

He had just decided it was a really bad idea when the curtains at her window parted and he saw her staring down at him.

She gestured for him to wait for her. A few moments later, she ran down the porch steps and slid into the car.

“You’ve got to get out of town!” she said. “My father knows you killed his friend. He asked me all kinds of questions tonight. . . .”

Saintcrow pressed his fingers to her lips. “Hey, slow down.”

She pulled his hand away from her mouth and pressed it to her breast. “This is serious!” She took a deep breath. “Don’t you understand? No matter how this turns out, someone I love is going to get hurt.”

Saintcrow nodded. She was right. He didn’t want to kill her father or the others, but after nine hundred years, he had a strong sense of survival. If threatened, he would do whatever was necessary. But, worse than the thought of killing Kadie’s father was the very real fear that she might be caught in the cross fire. And that was one risk he refused to take.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Nothing’s going to happen.”

“There’s a little dance club off the highway,” Kadie said. “Wait for me there tomorrow night. I’ll meet you after my dad goes out. And then we can go to England, as we planned.” She hated the thought of leaving Kathy again so soon, but she would call her every day.

Saintcrow nodded. “Be careful.”

“You, too.”

She leaned forward for his kiss, her eyelids fluttering down as his hand curled around her nape. He kissed her deeply, his fingers tunneling up into her hair.

She was breathless when he drew away.

“You’d better go.” He glanced at the house. “Your father’s waking up.”

“All right. Until tomorrow night.”

He watched her run up the stairs. She turned and waved, and then closed the door.

With his preternatural senses, he tracked her movements through the house, waved when she peeked out the window.

“I love you, Kadie mine,” he murmured.

He put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb.

He didn’t look back.

The next day seemed twice as long as usual. In the morning, her father asked her again if she knew where Saintcrow spent the day. She was grateful that she could honestly say she didn’t.

She and her mother went to the hospital to visit Kathy shortly after lunch. Kadie smiled and hugged her sister, wondering how she was going to go off to England and leave Kathy behind. Her sister seemed to be growing weaker every day. There were faint shadows under her eyes, hollows in her cheeks.

“Do you have an appointment, Kadie?” her mother asked when they stepped out into the hall so a nurse could draw Kathy’s blood. “You keep looking at your watch.”

“No,” Kadie replied quickly. “I was just checking the time. Kathy’s favorite teen heartthrob is going to be on one of the talk shows this afternoon.”

The day passed quietly. Kadie hugged her sister good-bye, wondering again how she could even think of leaving her.

Kadie forced herself to relax on the drive home. It wouldn’t do to arouse her father’s suspicion. She was in the kitchen helping her mother prepare dinner when he came home from work.

Conversation at the dinner table seemed strained to Kadie. Her parents exchanged several looks that she couldn’t interpret.

“Another wonderful meal,” her father said, pushing away from the table. “You outdid yourself, Caro. Kadie, could I see you for a few minutes?”

“Can’t it wait until I help Mom clear the table?”

“It’s all right,” her mother said. “Go along, dear.”

Filled with apprehension, Kadie followed her father into his study.

“Where is he?” her father asked. “He’s usually here by now.”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“But he’s coming over later?”

Kadie shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“And you wouldn’t tell me if you did,” he said, and there was no mistaking the disappointment in his voice.

If things had been strained at the dinner table, they were more so when she followed her father into the living room. Her mother switched on the TV and Kadie tried to lose herself in what was on the screen, but it was impossible.

At nine o’clock, the two men Kadie had seen last night arrived, along with another man.

“Kadie, Carolyn, I’d like you to meet Rob, Gordon, and Harry. They’re associates of mine. Rob and Gordon and I are going out for a while. We have a little business to attend to.”

“Nothing serious, I hope,” Carolyn said.

“Nothing to worry about. Just something I couldn’t take care of this afternoon. Harry will be staying here. He’s going to spend the night.”

“Oh?” Carolyn Andrews frowned at her husband.

“It’s not a problem, is it?” Ralph asked.

“No, of course not,” Carolyn replied, as if having a strange man stay the night was an everyday occurrence.

At ten thirty, Kadie excused herself and went into the kitchen on the pretense of getting a glass of water. Plucking her mother’s car keys from the hook beside the back door, she tucked them into the pocket of her jeans. Returning to the living room, she said, “I think I’m going to bed, Mom. It was nice to meet you, sir.”

Harry nodded, but said nothing.

In her room, Kadie changed into a pair of black jeans and a dark shirt, then stood by the door, listening. A short time later, she heard her mother show their guest to the spare room and bid him good night.

Kadie waited half an hour before opening her window and shinnying down the tree outside her bedroom.

Grateful that her mother had left her car in the driveway, Kadie slid behind the wheel. She backed slowly out of the driveway, keeping the lights off until she reached the end of the block.

Since there was little traffic at that time of night, it took less than twenty minutes to reach the club.

Inside, she sat at the bar to wait for Saintcrow. Excitement fluttered in her stomach every time the door opened, followed by a sharp stab of disappointment when Saintcrow failed to arrive.