As Twilight Falls

Saintcrow grabbed the man by the collar of his coat and tossed him against the wall. The hunter crumpled to the floor, a thin trickle of blood leaking from his forehead.

The other two came through the door together, only to meet the same fate as the first man, although one of them managed to drive a stake into Saintcrow’s left shoulder before his head hit the wall.

Grimacing, Saintcrow jerked the wood from his shoulder and threw it down the stairs.

Kadie glanced at the three fallen hunters. “What now?”

“I’m going to wipe this place and everything that happened here from their minds. And then I’m going to make the mere idea of hunting vampires so repellent to them that the very thought of it will make them violently ill.”

“You can do that?”

He nodded. “Why don’t you go downstairs and wait for me? I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

“But . . .”

“Get out of here, Kadie.”

With a huff of exasperation, she tossed the tapestry at him, then flounced down the staircase.

Saintcrow grinned as he listened to her angry footsteps.

After rehanging the tapestry, he knelt beside the first hunter. The sooner he sent these idiots on their way, the sooner he could spend time with his woman.

Kadie was playing solitaire at the kitchen table when Saintcrow strolled into the room. He looked extremely satisfied with himself.

“Are they gone?” she asked coolly.

“Yeah. They won’t be staking any more vampires.”

Kadie nodded. “That’s good.” She placed a red nine on a black ten, then dropped the rest of the cards on the table as she put a disquieting thought into words. “I think my father figured out where I was and sent those men here.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re not upset?”

“No, why should I be?”

“They killed Lilith. If I hadn’t come back here, they wouldn’t have found you. You could have been killed, too.”

He lifted one brow.

“Well, excuse me for worrying!”

Laughing, Saintcrow dragged her chair away from the table, then drew her into his arms. “Kadie, my love, stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself, and you, too. As for Lilith . . .” He shrugged. The world was better off without her.

He was about to suggest they take a walk when his nostrils flared. A moment later, there was a knock at the front door.

Kadie looked up at Saintcrow. “Are you expecting someone?”

“No, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he’s here.”

“Who’s here?”

“Lilith’s fledgling. Micah Ravenwood.”

Saintcrow gave Kadie’s hand a squeeze, then went to greet his guest.

Kadie trailed at Saintcrow’s heels. She hung back a little when he opened the door. He didn’t invite the other vampire into the house.

Lilith’s fledgling stood almost as tall as Saintcrow. He was a good-looking man with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and dusky skin. Kadie guessed he was probably in his mid-twenties.

“What the devil are you doing here?” Saintcrow demanded.

“I’m not sure. I felt something strange when I woke tonight.” Ravenwood shook his head. “I don’t know what it was, or how to describe it . . .”

“Lilith was destroyed this afternoon,” Saintcrow said. “What you felt on waking was the breaking of the blood bond between you.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means your sire is dead and you’re on your own. Ideally, she should have stayed with you the first few months until you were comfortable with your new lifestyle.”

“So, what do I do now?”

Saintcrow shrugged. “Anything you want. Just don’t do it here.”

“Where is she? I mean, did you bury her or do old vampires just go up in smoke?”

“I buried her. The town cemetery is just a few miles down the road.”

“Would you mind if I”—he cleared his throat—“if I stopped by there on my way out of town?”

“Suit yourself.”

“Well, so long, then.”

“The women in town are off-limits,” Saintcrow said. “Remember that.”

With a wave of his hand, Ravenwood ambled down the stairs and drove off in a black Chevy truck.

With a shake of his head, Saintcrow shut the door. He couldn’t imagine why Ravenwood wanted to visit Lilith’s grave, unless it was to make sure she was dead.

Kadie had returned to the living room. Saintcrow found her curled up in a corner of the sofa. She held a throw pillow to her breast. She looked up when he entered the room.

“You told Ravenwood he knew Lilith was dead because of the blood bond they shared,” Kadie said, her brow furrowed in thought. “How does that work?”

“I’m not sure how it works, only that it does.”

“So, when a vampire turns someone, it forms a bond?”

He nodded. “It’s similar to the bond between us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve tasted your blood, Kadie. I’ll always be able to find you.”

“Does it work both ways?”

“Uh-huh. It’s how you knew I was here.”

He could see the wheels turning in her mind as she considered that.

“So, it wasn’t just a lucky guess, or intuition.”

“No.”

“And it works, no matter how far apart we are?”

“Pretty much.” He sat beside her, his arm curling around her shoulders. “So, here we are, alone at last.”

She smiled up at him. “So we are.”

His fingertips skated up and down her arm, an innocent caress, in and of itself, and yet her body responded to his touch like a flower opening to the sun.

“Our hotel suite is still waiting for us in England,” he said, “if you’d still like to go.”

“Oh, I would.” The sooner, the better, she thought, all things considered. And then she frowned. “Are there hunters all over the world?”

“Yeah, pretty much, although the good ole USA seems to have more than its share.”

“Why is that?”

“Until recently, there weren’t a lot of vampires here. Most of the vampires tended to live in Romania and the surrounding countries. Many of my kind hate change. Moving means locating a new lair, learning a new language. But in the last hundred years, as it grew more and more dangerous in Transylvania and Bulgaria, vampires started leaving in droves. A good many of them came here.”