As Twilight Falls

“Do your parents know where you are?”

“No! I left them a note saying I was going back to work and that I’d call them in a few weeks.”

“So, where do we go from here?”

“I guess that’s up to you. If you want me to stay, I will. If you don’t . . .” She clenched her hands in her lap, her eyes searching his as she waited for his answer.

“Kadie.” He pulled her gently into his arms. “Stay as long as you wish.”

Her eyelids fluttered down as he lowered his head to claim her lips with his. His kiss, velvety soft and featherlight, put all her doubts to flight.

They talked far into the night, making plans, dreaming dreams. He made love to her tenderly, vowing he would always love her, never leave her again.

She fell asleep in his arms.

It was after three A.M. when Saintcrow left the house, drawn outside by Lilith’s scent. She had been anxious to leave this place, so why did she keep returning?

A thought took him to Blair House. He found her on the sofa in the front parlor, her head bent over the neck of a burly young man with coffee-colored skin and long black hair. If she was surprised to see Saintcrow, she hid it well.

He stood in the doorway while she finished feeding. When she was done, she delicately wiped her mouth on the young man’s shirt.

“What are you doing here, Lilith? Besides satisfying your rapacious thirst?”

She shrugged.

“I met a fledgling of yours. Ravenwood?”

“How is he?” She eased the man out of her arms and he fell limply to the floor.

“Lucky to be alive.” As was the man she had just preyed upon, Saintcrow thought. “Next time you turn someone, you might stick around long enough to show him the ropes, you know, tell him what to expect, how to survive.”

“He made me angry.”

“How long are you planning to stay here?”

She shrugged again. “Does it matter?”

“Not if you behave yourself.”

She rose in a long, sinuous movement that reminded him of a snake uncoiling.

Saintcrow lifted one brow when she swayed toward him. “Did you ever think about what it would be like if we got together?”

He snorted. “I’d as soon bed a pit viper.”

Her eyes blazed red. “I can’t believe that puny mortal is more to your liking,” she retorted, her voice thick with scorn. “But then, I never understood why you protected the humans that came here. They’re nothing. Less than nothing.”

“I don’t want any more deaths in my town.” He jerked his chin toward the man on the floor. “And that includes him.”

She glared at Saintcrow, mute.

“I mean it, Lilith. The mortals have a saying. It’s my way or the highway. Don’t forget it.”

Kadie woke in bed, alone, late the next morning, with no memory of how she had gotten there. She knew a moment of disappointment because Saintcrow had left before dawn, then shrugged it off. It was, she thought, something she would have to get used to if she intended to spend the rest of her life with a vampire.

The ringing of her phone brought her back to the present. Glancing at the display, she hesitated to answer it, but there was no point in worrying her mother any more than she had to.

Forcing a note of cheerfulness into her voice, she said, “Hi, Mom.”

“Kadie. Where are you?”

“Dad. Is Mom okay?”

“She’s fine.”

“Why are you using her phone?”

“Because I knew you wouldn’t answer if you thought it was me. Where are you?”

“Daddy, please just leave us alone.”

“So, you’re with him.”

“I love him, and nothing you say will change that. Please accept it. He’s not a monster. He doesn’t kill people when he . . . when he drinks from them. He’s treated me with nothing but kindness.”

“He’s got you under his spell, Kadie. Can’t you see that? You’ve got to listen to me and come home, if not for your sake, then for your mother’s. She’s worried about you.”

“You told her about Rylan?”

“Of course not.”

Kadie drummed her fingertips on the edge of the night table. “You didn’t have to tell her, did you? She already knew.”

“Kadie, I’m asking you one last time to come home. I can’t be responsible for what happens if you don’t.”

With that ominous declaration, her father ended the call.

Feeling sick to her stomach, Kadie dressed and drove into town. She was surprised to see a black van parked up on the hill in front of Blair House. Had Lilith returned without Saintcrow knowing?

That seemed doubtful.

Another car she didn’t recognize was parked in front of the restaurant. A good sign, she thought, remembering Donna’s hopes of finding a way to make a living in Morgan Creek. It was a pretty place, what with the mountains and the trees. But, as Rosemary said, the future hinged on whether the vampires returned. She wondered if Saintcrow could cast some kind of spell that would keep the vampires out, the way he had once kept the humans in.

Kadie parked the car and went into the restaurant.

Rosemary smiled at her from behind the counter.

Three men stood at the cash register, waiting for Donna to ring up their bill. They all wore long, dark coats and shuttered expressions.

Shirley was in the kitchen.

Kadie took a seat at the counter.

“What’ll you have?” Rosemary asked. “Shirley made an apple pie last night.”

“Sounds good,” Kadie said.

“Coffee?”

“Please.”

Kadie glanced at the three men. They didn’t look like tourists. She felt a shiver run down her spine when one of them looked up and caught her staring. She quickly looked away.

“What’s wrong, Kadie?” Rosemary asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Nothing. I . . . I . . .” She bit down on her lower lip. She was just being paranoid, she thought. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that the three men were hunters, and that they had come to Morgan Creek to destroy Saintcrow.

In the back of her mind, she heard her father saying he wouldn’t be responsible for what happened if she didn’t come home. Had he sent those men here? If so, how had he found her? And even as she asked the question, she knew the answer. He had traced her cell phone to this location.

Was her father here, too? Maybe up at Blair House, looking for vampires to kill?